Lone great white pelican a visual treat 

Lone great white pelican a visual treat 

Context

Mingled with the thousands of winged guests is the lone great white pelican (Pelecanusonocrotalus) at Asia’s largest freshwater lake, Kolleru Lake, offering a rare visual treat to bird watchers

Great White Pelican

• The feathered guest has been found spending the days with the grey pelicans and painted storks at the Atapaka Bird Sanctuary in the Kolleru Lake in Krishna district, earning its prey in the water body
• Physically, the white pelican which is also known as rosy pelican is almost double the size of the grey pelican
• According to sanctuary officials, the single bird has been avoiding staying on the iron bunds erected in the sanctuary and hides behind the local bushes when visitors approach it on the boat

Expert view

1. Gracious, an authority on the Kolleru Lake said,

• The sighting of the white pelican is very rare in the Kolleru Lake. We have documented the white pelican in 2008 and 2013. In 2013, a pair of white pelicans was sighted at the sanctuary which is very rare in the wetlands in South India

Great White Pelican

Kollerulake

Kolleru forms the largest shallow fresh water lake in Asia

• The lake is fed directly by water from the seasonal Budameru and Tammileru streams, and is connected to the Krishna and Godavari systems by over 68 inflowing drains and channels
• Kolleru Lake is located between the delta of Godavari and Krishna Rivers and functions as a natural flood balancing reservoir between these two deltas
• The lake supports about 63 species of fishes, fresh water turtles and other amphibians, apart from being a habitat for many migratory birds that forms Kolleru Bird Sanctuary
• The lake was notified as a wildlife sanctuary in November 1999 under India’s Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and designated a wetland of international importance in November 2002 under the international Ramsar Convention