Migrant birds hit by agro chemicals

by M. Nelson Piyaratne, Kataragama Group Cor.

Migrant birds will face an acute shortage of food due to the excessive use of agro chemicals in the surrounding agricultural lands of the Bundala National Park as these chemicals kill aquatic insects, the park warden Karunasena Vithana told a media conference.

Karunasena said that according to "Ramsar" conference this is the only wetland national park in the world.

The Park warden said that the park is surrounded from three sides by agricultural lands cultivated with paddy and vegetables and the chemicals used in them get mixed with water in the canals that flow into the Bundala lagoon and get deposited in the lagoon bed killing sea shells and insects that these birds depend on.

Vithana said that there is a marked drop in the number of annual visitors such as flamingoes, black sickled beaked cranes and several species of migrant birds.

The Park warden said if this situation persists there would be a sharp drop in the number of tourists visiting this bird sanctuary.