Context-The annual Flamingo Festival is to be held in January at Pulicat lake.
The Flamingo Festival, 2020:
- The three-day Flamingo festival is an annual event held at Pulicat lake and Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary.
- It is held to promote tourism in Pulicat and Tamil Nadu.
- 9,000 to 12,000 Migratory birds from Siberia visit Pulicat during the winter season for breeding.
- More than 40,000 flamingos can be seen in action this year at the Pulicat lake.
- Birds like Black-tailed godwit and Kentish plover, which are rare visitors, have also arrived at the lake this time.
- The lake supports a rich biodiversity and high biomass of fishes, prawns, crustaceans, coelenterates and planktons.
- About 75 bird species visit the sanctuary, of which 30 bird species are migratory.
- The other feeding migrants that can be spotted are pelicans, painted storks, open-billed storks, grey herons, cormorants, white ibises, spoonbills, egrets, reef herons, and spot billed ducks.
Nellapattu Bird Sanctuary:
- Biggest habitat for birds.
- It is an important breeding site for spot-billed pelicans (Pelecanus philippensis).
- Nelapattu has two major plant communities, Barringtonia swamp forests and southern dry evergreen scrub.
- It is located 20 km north of the Pulicat Lake on the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border.
Pulicat Lake:
- Pulicat Lake is the second largest brackish water lake or lagoon in India after Chilika Lake.
- It is located on border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu situated on the Coromandel Coast in South India.
- Pulicat Lake is the second largest brackish water lake after Chilika lake(Odisha) in India
- Lake located on border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with about 96% in Andhra Pradesh and 4% in Tamil Nadu