The Tamil Nadu Forest Department has formed eco-development committees in five villages around Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary to protect the water channels feeding the bird habitat while creating local self-employment opportunities through interest-free loans.
The committees have been established in Valayaputtur, Vallaputtur, Mettukudisai, Vinayaganallur and Pasumbur. Water from the Valayaputtur lake reaches the Vedanthangal tank through five channels passing through these villages, making local management of the channels important to water storage at the sanctuary, officials said.
The move follows an incident a few years ago in which some villagers from Valayaputtur blocked the flow of water from the nearby lake with sandbags. According to T Ritto Cyriac, zoo director and chief conservator of forests, the obstruction reduced the quantity of water reaching the Vedanthangal tank and affected its storage levels.
The department is now seeking to involve residents directly in protecting the sanctuary. Each eco-development committee will maintain a corpus from which members can receive interest-free small loans to increase their monthly earnings. The stated objective is to connect household income with conservation responsibilities around the sanctuary’s water system.
Residents may use the loans to start small businesses such as tea shops or roadside tiffin stalls, or to purchase milch cattle for milk sales, said Kulal Yogesh Vilas, wildlife warden. The committees are intended to make local residents participants in conservation rather than treating them only as users or potential threats to the surrounding ecosystem.
Each committee will have a president, secretary and treasurer. Bank accounts are being opened for every member, according to Yogesh. The committees will begin functioning in their respective villages after this process is completed.
The arrangement places village-level livelihood support alongside the protection of a water-dependent bird sanctuary. The department’s account identifies the five feeder channels and the Valayaputtur lake as part of the system that sustains water storage at Vedanthangal, while the proposed corpus is intended to provide a financial incentive for residents to support that system.
Officials have described the approach as beneficial to both villagers and birds. Its immediate implementation depends on completing the bank-account process and operationalising the committees in all five villages.
