Last year it was dry Nalsarovar which had forced thousands of winged visitors to make Vadla their alternative home, and this year with the lake still brimming with five feet of water, the birds have once again flocked to Vadla.
Gujarat forest department has now begun efforts to declare the area a conservation reserve. The department has begun holding talks with the panchayat and local people about the benefits of conservation reserve.
Situated about 22km from Nalsarovar and 90km from Ahmedabad, the lake is at the extreme end of the village. It hosts thousands of winged visitors, right from October to April. A senior forest department official said that the conservation reserve category will help boost bird conservation locally as the forest department will aid in managing the ecosystem.
Unlike Nalsarovar where tourists hire boats for bird spotting, here the tourists can sit on the banks and watch birds with a pair of binoculars. The officials said that for the last five years, the village is being seen as an alternative to Nalsarovar, the only Ramsar site in Gujarat. This year, Vadla with a population of 2,500 people, is playing host to over 20,000 flamingos, demoiselle cranes, Brahminy ducks and other exotic bird species.
“The conditions in Vadla are favourable for the birds,” said Brijesh Chaudhary, deputy conservator of forests, Nalsarovar. He said the birds will soon be in Nalsarovar as the conditions get favourable here too.
A senior official from Gandhinagar said, “The water level in Nalsarovar is 5.1 feet which is 1.6 feet higher than the level which is conducive for the migratory birds and hence these birds are now heading toward Vadla. We are told that there are not less than 20k winged visitors at Vadla and the majority of these are cranes.”
In 2019, the drying up of Nalsarovar had come as a blessing in disguise for Vadla where shallow water spread over nearly 2 sq km land had served as an alternate home for the winged visitors. The water at Vadla is available as a check-dam has been constructed to store excess Narmada waters released for irrigation in Surendranagar district.