A trip to Pulicat Lake to see the Flamingos becomes a learning trip about why Wetlands are important to the environment.
This is about my trip to Pulicat Lake very recently, so the memories of the journey are more vivid.
We woke up early in the morning, 4 am to be precise and packed water and a picnic breakfast for the trip. We were going to the Andhra Pradesh side of the lake I was told. On the way to Pulicat Lake, I looked out of the window and saw the road. There were not many people on the streets, it was quiet and peaceful. Unlike during the day when the sound of the autos whizzing by and people loudly talking with each other and the crowd of vehicles waiting for their turn to cross the road, honking and shouting. I actually preferred the early morning, even though it means waking up very early, one feels fresher and alert.
This two hour drive made us see many things on the way to Pulicat Lake. We saw lots of local shops and big industries and factories. It was a very pleasant ride to Pulicat. I had learned some facts about Pulicat Lake’s history from my parents and from Google too. It seems that the Dutch and the Portuguese were the first to land in Pulicat Lake and trade with India. The Dutch had built many things near the lake like Old Dutch cemeteries and markets and forts. They even started living there. I was also told that it was the second largest brackish water in India, after the Chilika Lake in Odisha. (Brackish water - it means not so salty as the sea water.)
Wait a second!
I forgot to tell you the main reason why we went to Pulicat Lake: I was told that every year, the Flamingos from Siberia and Mongolia travel to India and stay in Pulicat Lake for 6 months. I had never seen Flamingos before, so the thought of seeing a very magnificent and unique bird made me even more excited about going to the lake.
Pulicat Lake did not look like a lake to me.
We were driving along a straight road. And instead of land and houses in the left and right of the road, there were huge amounts of water stretching up to acres and acres of space. You would have been able to fit a thousand football fields in there and still have space to put more! The water around us was almost like an illusion. It was still yet having that calming sea water sound. It was as though the water was actually solid land, but had that rippling effect like the surface of the planet Jupiter. I was so amazed by this vast land, and put my hand and head out of the car window, instantly a cool and soft wind blew against my face. The sound of the water flowing and those ducks and cranes cawing and screeching made me feel so happy I was here.
As we were riding we saw many birds around us, but not the flamingos. If they weren’t there, then I would be totally disappointed. We saw a small bird fluttering near the water and walking just like a flamingo, so my mom got very excited and shouted with joy. She yelled to stop the car. We all hopped out and looked at the mystery bird. But it was not a Flamingo. We were all very disappointed. The flamingo was supposed to be fully pink in colour but this bird only had pink in some spots. Later while driving, I came across a picture of the bird we had seen, its name was the painted stork. Even if it wasn’t a flamingo I was still happy to see it.
As we were later on in the lake we came across a bridge with two fishermen under it. I had never seen a fisherman catching fish up close, so we stopped the car again and looked at the closest fisherman near us. He was standing very still like a flamingo which was going to catch a fish and after a few minutes he flung his net at the water.
The net landed with a splash and was pulled back by the fisherman. He emptied the fish from the net and put it in another net, probably for storing the fish he caught.
I recognized one of the fish as a swordfish because of its pointed and needle-like snout. I watched him on and on, catching fish and putting them in the net until I was hypnotised. What skill he had, that fisherman! The fish then get back to their routine, just swimming around and enjoying. Then the fisherman throws his net again and catches them and waits again for the fish to get back to normal mode. He went on and on for a long time. I did not want leave this place at all until my mom urged me back to the car.
We then went to the Satish Dhawan space centre hoping to see a museum, but we weren’t allowed today. But we did take some pictures near the models of the satellites launched there. I had heard that the Space centre we visited was where the Chandrayan-2 had been launched to the moon, which really surprised me. I could not believe that I was standing in such an important place! Maybe I will watch the next missile launch from here very soon.
Apocalypse for Pulicat Lake?
There is a vast variety of birds and sea creatures in this Lake. I heard that a company had been planning to build a port at Pulicat Lake. It seemed like a nice idea but there was a catch. If they did build a port, the local birds and the migrant birds such as the flamingos would all be shooed away.
If I were a flamingo travelling all the way from Siberia to Southern India would I like to be welcomed at Pulicat with a giant port in front of me? With humans poking around my perching places, I would truly find this lake unpleasant and fly away somewhere else. Do we actually want to do this? Do we have to treat a bird which has come all the way from some other country like this? No we need not.
Human life can also get affected by this. I read that building a port might upset the delicate structure of the whole lake. There is a very thin strip of land separating the lake from the sea and preventing the sea from washing the human homes and Flora and Fauna away. Fish will get scared away when they see the construction of the port which will affect the job of the fishermen and the fishing birds.
As for the flamingos, we didn’t get to see them. We had arrived late and the flamingos had gone into hiding because of the hot sun. We had visited the lake just for the Flamingos but then the purpose had changed. I had not only enjoyed the trip but had also learnt a lot from it. We are going again, this time earlier to catch the pink birds!
Here’s a little anecdote on saving Pulicat Lake
I had originally saved this as a word document called Pulicat Lake. Whenever I press Ctrl+S, the taskbar gave a message – “Word is saving Pulicat Lake”. When Microsoft word itself is saving Pulicat Lake, shouldn’t we?
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