Thiruvananthapuram: Asia's finest Aviary back in Forest Department plans

THIRUVANNATHAPURAM: The Forest Department has dusted off an earlier plan to create one of Asia’s finest Aviary within the Kottoor Elephant Rescue Centre which spreads over 40 acres along the foot of the Agasthyarkoodam hills. The Forest Department will soon invite architects to design an aviary which blends with the leafy ambience of the elephant centre. The Aviary was first mooted in 2012, when K B Ganesh Kumar was forest minister.

Sources said that the Department has now zeroed in on three aviary models: the Birds of Eden, Western Cape in South Africa; Flying High Bird Sanctuary, Apple Tree Creek, Australia; and Jurong Bird Park, Singapore. The Birds of Eden has been chosen because it is the largest free flight aviary in the world. All the three aviaries are almost similar in topography to the Kottoor centre. For instance, all the three have a backwater running through them just like in Kottoor and are set within a tropical ambience.

“At this initial stage we can only say that there are certain basic requirements,” a top Social Forestry official said. “The architecture of the aviary should merge with the forest, there should be species-specific aviaries and the birds should have enough free space to fly about,” he added. The centre already has a backwater that passes through it. “The architects should find a way to incorporate the backwaters in their aviary design,” the official said.

However, Avian experts are uncertain about the kind of attraction the proposed aviary holds for birds. “Except for the birds endemic to the area, and the migratory birds that make their annual visits, it is not clear how new species could be attracted,” said author and birdwatcher C Rahim.  “Water birds like cormorants and snake birds require large paddy fields or water bodies within five kilometres of the aviary to source food, and as for egrets they require marshes,” he said.