Bundala migratory birds perch on difficult branch

M.Nelson Piyaratne - Kataragama Group

Migratory birds to the Bundala National Park will face an acute shortage of food due to the excessive use of agrochemicals in surrounding agricultural lands which results in killing aquatic insects, park warden Karunasena Vithana said. Karunasena said that according to "Ramsa" conference, this is the only wetland national park in the world.

The warden said the park is surrounded from three sides by lands cultivated with paddy and vegetable and the chemicals used in them get mixed with water of the canals that flowed into the Bundala lagoon and be deposited in the lagoon bed killing sea shells and insects that are the food of these birds.

Vitharana said migratory birds such as flamingos, black sickled beaked cranes have decreased notably.