KOCHI: Nature is paradoxes personified. While rain sustains life an abundance of it wrecks havoc. But at times, it plays out in subtle manifestations. A recent survey has thrown open such an incongruity. The bird enthusiasts in the state are grinning from ear to ear after a study revealed a steady growth in the population of the purple swamphen (formerly known as purple moorhen) in the state. But wait! The farmers are frowning, and rightly so. The birds are notorious for raiding crops.
According to the surveys conducted by the Centre for Wildlife Studies, College of Forestry, Kerala Agricultural University, the number of population of the species has made a drastic jump in the state over the last years.
As per the data compiled after the protracted bird count, the bird population has increased to 6,104 during the 2014 survey from the mere 48 spotted during 1989 survey. The number could be anywhere between 7,000 to 8,000 in 2016, said P O Nameer, professor (Wildlife) and head Centre for Wildlife Studies, CoF, Kerala Agriculture University (KAU).
It has been noticed that the paddy cultivation pattern in the state has influenced the bird in a big way as they have moved to cultivated areas of late.
The healthy wetland ecosystem has turned out to be an effective breeding ground for them. Moorhen, a resident bird in the country, is largely herbivores and granivores (seed predators). However, it’s diet comprises small insects and fishes in the wetland system, said Mani Chellappan, an agricultural ornithologist, KAU.
Though the birdwatchers were excited by the increased sighting of the swamphen in the sprawling wetlands, the paddy farmers in the central Kerala are on a slippery ground as flocks of moorhen have been marauding their paddy fields, with birds feeding on the succulent part of stem of the paddy saplings, besides nesting on the paddy field.
The movement of a flock of birds are also leading to the repositioning of the paddy saplings, said farmers.
Though the KAU has developed automatic firecracker units, which would go off at preset regular intervals to scare the birds away, upsetting the quietness of the its habitats, the measure has hardly pays off as the birds have became acquainted to the sound of the cracker, said farmers.
Kochu Muhammed, Kole Karshaka Samithy president, Thrissur, said paddy fields close to water bodies infested with weeds or bushlands are more prone to the attack of moorhens.
Worried over the raiding of large swaths of paddy field, farmers are now using nylon threads to draw crisscross over the field to snare the birds. Since the bird is a protected species in India and included in the Schedule 4 of the Wildlife Protection Act, the farmers are cautious about harming them.