Pichavaram Mangrove Forest & Backwaters
If you’re looking for excitement beyond that weekend dash to Pondicherry, try stepping out a little further to Chidambaram. And if you thought Chidambaram was all about temples, try this. About a stone’s throw away are the mangrove swamps of Pichavaram, great for boating, mangrove watching, bird watching, with a picturesque island thrown in. Another world Pichavaram is all green and blue and white as we set off in the boat. Ahead are the mangroves in shades of emerald, reflected in blue water against an even blue sky. On the sand bar, thousands of gulls in a long stretch of white, glintsilver against the sun as they take off en masse…
Pichavaram the second largest Mangrove forest in the world, near the temple town of Chidambaram, is one of the unique Eco-tourism spots in South India. The backwaters, inter connected by the Vellar and Coleroon river systems, offer abundant scope for water sports, rowing, Kayak and canoeing. The Pichavaram forest not only offers waterscape and back water cruises, but combines another very rare occurrence - the mangrove forest trees permanently rooted in a few feet of water.
The Pichavaram mangroves are considered among the healthiest mangrove occurrence in the world. Pichavaram consists of a number of islands interspersing a vast expanse of water covered with green trees. The area is about 2800 acres and is separated from the sea by a sand bar which is a patch of extraordinary loveliness. The Pichavaram mangroves attract an appreciable bird population of residents, local migrants and true migrants. At the mangroves, so far, 177 species of birds belonging to 15 orders and 41 families have been recorded. The season for birds is from September to April every year. Peak population of birds could be seen from November to January. This is due to high productive nature (in terms of prey organisms) of the ecosystem and coincidence of the time of arrival of true migrants from foreign countries and local migrants from their breeding grounds across India. The availability of different habitat types such as channels, creeks, gullies, mud flats and sand flats and adjacent sea shore offers ideal habitat for difference species of birds.
Contact Detail:
Veerabagupathy
Puthalam village
Kanyakumari District
Tel No: 04652 221337
+91 8220099080
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