Return of Flamingos-"Combination of Dance and Shadow Puppetry"

- May 19, 2016

Return of Pink Flamingos

Little Rann of Kutch (LRK), Gujarat State of India is the breeding place for Flamingos every year.

In a slightly uncommon occurrence, thousands of eggs have been deserted by flamingos in one of the six breeding colonies in the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK)-according to the sources February 10, 2015http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/.

Bird watchers and experts, accredit the drying up of water at the site of breeding. "Flamingos normally stay with their chicks till they grow up and rear the chicks with great care for a period of a one-and-a-half month. The practice of abandoning their eggs and chicks is done only in extraordinary conditions".

Flamingos are found mostly along the coastal areas of Gujarat like Porbandar and Jamnagar. The Greater Flamingoes' favorite destination is The Great Rann of Kutch, which is also known as Flamingo City.

Ameenpur Lake in Hyderabad is known for flamingo habitats. It is due to the verge of lake drying up due to rising temperatures affecting the migration of birds, including flamingos this year.

Again, the flamingos require salt covered damp mud to build nests. Further, the place where the nest is built has to be remote and inaccessible to human and predatory intervention. Nevertheless, there should be sufficient food available for flamingos. LRK is one of the largest and most popular breeding grounds for the Lesser Flamingos in the world.

According to the Field Biologist Nita Shah, who is working on habitat occupancy and distribution of flamingos, did not find a single bird on the island-in one of her interviews with the print media opined that - “the birds are not there and we don't know if they will come or not. I am afraid it is too late for nesting this year," Shah, who visited the isolated island on December 10, told The Indian Express.

The Shah's research project is funded by Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India, a training and research institute functioning under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest.

"Flamingos breed in ideal conditions only. The level of water should be ideal and the availability of food should also be in the right amounts. While they can also breed once in three years, the reason for their not arriving this season is a matter of research," Shah added.

Well, I did a ground level work on the migrating bird Pink Flamingos. A good friend of mine and well known Kuchipudi and Vilasini Traditional dancer-Ms. Pujita who is the founder of "Feet On Earth-Dance Studio" located at Sainikpuri, Hyderabad, India was assigned a small project to depict a 3-minutes dance piece on Pink Flamingos. This she is doing with a goodwill to support her friend abroad who is doing her/ his research on "Flamingos".

In the month of February this year, She approached me and asked if I could help her out in making shadow puppets and this would be a trial work of puppet and dance combination.

I readily agreed to her and my team members-Kodapa Gajanand, Boyini Prakash and Anirudh who is doing his Internship with Sphoorthi Theatre worked on the subject and made Flamingos, Village, Lake and so on. The story relates to a Patron King Lakophulani who was a great admirer and loved nature, birds, and animals. Flamingos were his favourites. In order to not to disturb the ecosystem, he generated the awareness of healthy nature and importance of flora and fauna among his subject. These flamingos use to visit Rann of Kutch every year for breeding. Due to change in climatic condition, the disturbance caused in the ecosystem, increased salt in saline water and polluted water, scarcity of food and so on, has reduced the number of flamingos visiting India every year. This is worrying, common people, bird watchers, forest officials, ornithologists and so on.

Today was the shooting day. Well, it was nice to catch up with Pujita and her Colleague Nenita -a Bharatanatyam dancer . The final piece will be ready after editing , music addition and so on.