Thol Lake Thol Bird Sanctuary | |
---|---|
Location | Thol village near Kalol, Gujarat |
Coordinates | 23°22.50′N72°37.50′E / 23.37500°N 72.62500°E Coordinates: 23°22.50′N72°37.50′E / 23.37500°N 72.62500°E |
Lake type | Lentic |
Catchment area | 15,500 hectares (38,000 acres) |
Basin countries | India |
Surface area | 699 hectares (1,730 acres) |
Water volume | 84 million cubic metres (3.0×10 9 cu ft) |
Frozen | |
Official name | Thol Lake Wildlife Sanctuary |
Designated | 5 April 2021 |
Reference no. | 2458 [1] |
Thol Lake is an artificial lake near Thol village in Kadi in Mehsana District in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was constructed as an irrigation tank in 1912. It is a fresh water lake surrounded by marshes. It was declared the Thol Bird Sanctuary in 1988; it is a habitat to 150 species of birds, about 60% are waterbirds. Many migratory birds nest and breed in the lake and its periphery. The two most prominent species of birds recorded in the sanctuary are flamingoes and sarus crane (Grus antigone). [2] [3] The sanctuary is also proposed to be declared an Eco-Sensitive Zone, conforming to the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (29 of 1986), for which draft notification has been prepared. [4]
The lake drains a catchment area of 15,500 hectares (38,000 acres). [2] It is in a semi-arid zone of the Mehsana district with dominance of dry deciduous vegetation. [5]
The climate in the area consists of three seasons: winter, summer and monsoon. The average annual rainfall in the catchment of the lake is 600 millimetres (24 in) with a minimum of 100 millimetres (3.9 in) and maximum of 800 millimetres (31 in). The maximum and minimum temperatures recorded in the area are 43 °C (109 °F) and 8 °C (46 °F). [5]
The lake is situated near Thol village 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Kalol and 40 kilometres (25 mi) north-west of Ahmedabad, 75 kilometres (47 mi) from Mehsana in Mehsana District. [2]
The lake was initially built in 1912 as a tank by the Gaekwad regime to provide irrigation facilities to farmers. This established the user rights of the lake water. The operation and management of the lake is under the dual control of the Forest and Irrigation departments of the Government of Gujarat. [2]
The lake has a storage capacity of 84 million cubic metres (3.0×10 9 cu ft). Its water spread area is 699 hectares (1,730 acres). [2] Lake's shore length is 5.62 kilometres (3.49 mi) and water depth is shallow. [5]
Thol Wildlife Sanctuary, a shallow water reservoir, situated 25 km (15 mi) northwest of Ahmedabad and most popular birding place near Ahmedabad after Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary which is about 50 km (30 mi) from Thol Wildlife Sanctuary. Geographically Thol Wildlife Sanctuary falls in Mehsana district of North Gujarat. Kadi, a taluka headquarters of the district, is just 22 km (14 mi) away from the Sanctuary. Thol Wildlife Sanctuary is a man-made (made by Sayajirao Gayakvad, Ruler of Baroda) irrigation tank built in 1912 with water storage capacity of 84,000,000 m3 (68,000 ac·ft) and command area of 1450 ha (5.6 mi2) and catchment area of 153 km2 (59 mi2). The wetland is predominated by the open water habitat, which is surrounded by cropland, fallow land and scrub land. Due to its popularity amongst the bird fraternity the area was notified as Sanctuary in November 1988 under Sec. 18 of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. [6] The best time to visit the place is November to February.
Apart from trees in the peripheral area of the lake, vegetation reported in this wetland consists of emergent and floating aquatic plants of Acacia nilotica , A. leucoploea , Zizyphus , Azadirachta indica , Ficus sp., Salvadora sp., Prosopis chilensis , and Capparis sp. [2] According to the Normal Biological Spectrum (NBS) study of the sanctuary, drought resistant vegetation in the category of Bio-geographiczone – IV consisting of thorny shrubs and trees are found, and also reported are mixed flora of aquatic and marshy plants. [5]
Thol Lake, as a bird sanctuary, an inland wetland and a protected area, is known as a very good habitat for waterfowl during the monsoon season, extending through the winter. According to IBA reports there are 150 species of birds in the sanctuary of which nearly 60% (90 species) are stated to be waterbirds which are mostly wintering birds. The most prominent of these species is the flamingos. [2] At one time 5-6 thousand flamingos were reported here. [7] Sarus cranes (Grus antigone), the tallest of the flying birds, nest here in large numbers. [2]
The rich bird life of Thol Wildlife Sanctuary encompasses native as well as migratory birds. Many winter visitors like great white pelicans, flamingos, a variety of waterfowl including mallards and large numbers of geese, sarus cranes and many other waders are common site at sanctuary.
According to the IUCN categorization, the birds reported in the area are: greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) of least concern species; Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus), greater spotted eagle (Clanga clanga), sarus crane (Antigone antigone), and Indian skimmer (Rynchops albicollis) of the vulnerable species; and the white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and Indian vulture (Gyps indicus) of the critically endangered species. [2]
Some of the important fauna reported in the area surrounding the lake are: bluebull (Boselaphus tragocamelus), golden jackal (Canis aureus) and blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra). [2]
The brolga, formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithologist John Gould in his Birds of Australia.
Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary, consisting primarily of a 120.82-square-kilometre (46.65 sq mi) lake and ambient marshes, is situated about 64 km to the west of Ahmedabad near Sanand Village, in the Gujarat state of India. Mainly inhabited by migratory birds in winter and spring, it is the largest wetland bird sanctuary in Gujarat, and one of the largest in India. It was declared a bird sanctuary in April 1969.
Rann of Kutch Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Badin District, Sindh, Pakistan.
Kadi is a town and a municipality in Mehsana district in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Tràm Chim National Park is a national park in the Plain of Reeds in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. The park was created to restore a degraded wetland, in order to protect several rare birds, especially the sarus crane --a species listed on the IUCN Red List. It is also a designated wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
The Ratapani Tiger Reserve, located in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, in Vindhya Range in central India, is one of the finest teak forests in the state and is less than 50 kilometres (31 mi) away from the capital Bhopal.
Okhla Bird Sanctuary officially known as Shaheed Chander Shekhar Azad Sanctuary is a bird sanctuary at the Okhla barrage over Yamuna River. It is situated in Noida, Gautam Buddh Nagar district, on Delhi-Uttar Pradesh state border and known as a haven for over 300 bird species, especially waterbirds. In 1990, an area of 3.5 square kilometres (1.4 sq mi) on the river Yamuna was designated a bird sanctuary by the Government of Uttar Pradesh under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The site is located at the point where the river enters Uttar Pradesh. The most prominent feature of the sanctuary is the large lake created by damming the river, which lies between Okhla village to the west and Gautam Budh Nagar to the east. The Okhla Bird Sanctuary (OBS) is roughly 4 square kilometres in size and is situated at the entrance of NOIDA in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated at a point where river Yamuna enters in the state of Uttar Pradesh leaving the territory of Delhi. It is one among fifteen bird sanctuaries in the state.
The Central Asian Flyway (CAF), Central Asian-Indian Flyway, or Central Asian-South Asian Flyway is a flyway covering a large continental area of Eurasia between the Arctic Ocean and the Indian Ocean and the associated island chains. The CAF comprises several important migration routes of waterbirds, most of which extend from the northernmost breeding grounds in Siberia to the southernmost non-breeding wintering grounds in West Asia, India, the Maldives and the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanctuary is a biosphere reserve in Myanmar, covering 814.99 km2 (314.67 sq mi). It ranges in elevation from 105–1,400 m (344–4,593 ft) encompassing the surroundings of Indawgyi Lake in Mohnyin Township, Kachin State. It was gazetted in 2004, is recognized as an Important Bird Area and as one of the ASEAN Heritage Parks. An area of 478.84 km2 (184.88 sq mi) comprising the lake and the surrounding lowland is a Ramsar site since February 2016.
Inlay Lake Wetland Sanctuary is a protected area in Myanmar's Shan State, covering an area of 533.73 km2 (206.07 sq mi) surrounding Inle Lake. It ranges in elevation from 830 to 1,270 m, stretching over Nyaungshwe, Pinlaung and Pekon Townships. It was gazetted in 1985 to protect habitats for migratory birds. In 2003, it was designated as one of the ASEAN Heritage Parks, and in 2015 as the first Biosphere Reserve in the country.
The Chari-Dhand wetland conservation reserve is located on the edge of arid Banni grasslands and the marshy salt flats of the Rann of Kutch in Kutch District, Gujarat State in India. It is currently legally protected under the status as a Protected or Reserve Forest in India. Chari means salt affected and Dhand means shallow wetland, Dhand is a Sindhi word for a shallow saucer shaped depression. This is a seasonal desert wetland and only gets swampy during a good monsoon, receiving water from the north flowing rivers as well as from the huge catchment areas of many surrounding big hills. It is spread over an area of 80 km2. It is in Nakhtrana Taluka, 80 km south west to the city of Bhuj, about 7 or 8 km from Fulary village and 30 km from Nakhtrana town. It is home to nearly two lakh birds with migratory and endangered species of birds flocking into the area in thousands during monsoon and winters.
Kutch Bustard Sanctuary or Kachchh Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary, also known as Lala–Parjan Sanctuary, is located near Jakhau village in Taluka Abdasa, Gujarat, India. This sanctuary is one of the two great Indian bustard sanctuaries in Gujarat; the other one is in Jamnagar. It was declared as a sanctuary in July 1992, specifically for the conservation of the great Indian bustard, the heaviest flying bird belonging to the avian family of Otididae. However, the sanctuary presently legally covers a protected area of about 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi) of area (202.86 hectares of fenced land only and is the smallest sanctuary in the country. Several suggestions have been made to vastly increase the size of this sanctuary as it is a breeding ground of the endangered great Indian bustard. The reason is that its ecological zone is much larger on account of anthropogenic and cattle population pressure that are considered as a ‘biotic threat’ to this omnivorous species.
The Kanwar Taal or Kabar Taal Lake or Kabartal Wetland located in Begusarai district of Bihar, India, is Asia's largest freshwater oxbow lake. It is approximately six times the size of the Bharatpur Sanctuary. In November 2020, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) declared it the first Ramsar site in Bihar.
The Jagdishpur Reservoir is a reservoir in Jahadi Village Development Committee, Kapilvastu District, Nepal. With a surface area of 225 ha, it is the largest reservoir in the country and an important wetland site. It is situated at an altitude of 197 m (646 ft). The maximum water depth varies between 2 m (6.6 ft) in the dry season and 7 m (23 ft) in the monsoon season.
Najafgarh Lake, Najafgarh Marsh or Najafgarh Jheel, fed by Sahibi River, used to be a vast lake in the south west of Delhi in India near the town of Najafgarh from which it takes its name. It was connected to the river Yamuna by a natural shallow nullah or drain called the Najafgarh nullah. However, after the 1960s the Flood Control Department of Delhi kept widening the Najafgarh drain in the pretext of saving Delhi from floods and eventually quickly drained the once huge and ecologically rich Najafgarh lake completely. Rainwater accumulating in the Najafgarh lake or jheel basin had been recorded to have occupied more than 300 square kilometres (120 sq mi) in many years before its unfortunate draining.
Stung Sen is a protected multiple use management area and wildlife sanctuary in the Kampong Thom Province of Cambodia. It is located near the south-eastern tip of the Tonlé Sap, one of three wildlife sanctuaries around the lake, including Boeng Tonlé Chhmar and Prek Toal.
The sarus crane is a large nonmigratory crane found in parts of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Australia. The tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to 1.8 m, they are a conspicuous species of open wetlands in South Asia, seasonally flooded Dipterocarpus forests in Southeast Asia, and Eucalyptus-dominated woodlands and grasslands in Australia.
Basai wetland, located in Basai village in Gurgaon tehsil in Gurgaon district in Haryana, India, is a flora and fauna rich water body. It is recognised as one of India's Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas and is of global conservation significance as it supports populations of several endangered, vulnerable, and threatened bird species. Basai wetlandis recognised globally as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by the BirdLife International housing 20,000 birds of over 280 species including migratory birds and endangered birds, has not yet been declared a protected wetland by the Government of Haryana.
The Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary is a 4.537-square-kilometre (1.752 sq mi) protected area located in the Ariyalur District of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The sanctuary is about 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Thanjavur. This freshwater lake is fed by Pullambadi, Kattalal canal and attracts thousands of birds every year. This lake was declared as a sanctuary in 1999 by the Government of Tamil Nadu. About 200 birds are species recorded from this sanctuary. Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary is one of the Important Bird Areas (IBA's) of Tamil Nadu.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thol Lake . |