‘Reed’ it right: bulrush beds make it cushy for whole avian families

The Clamorous reed warbler is as loud as they come, but in the urban environment, it is outshouted. Weed clearing in urban habitats brings down its home, the bulrushes. Bulrushes in wetlands are not encroachments, but ‘legal homes’ to birds in the crake and rail family and warblers, so government line agencies ought to tread on them thoughtfully

If there is an unabashedly explicit and comprehensively explanatory name under the sun, it is “Clamorous reed warbler”. It encapsulates the species’ social behaviour (trying to shout down everything it finds within earshot) and habitat preference (reeds, specifically bulrushes). Even its binomial name, Acrocephalus stentoreus underlines its boundless capacity for stentorian cries.

In habitats within Chennai limits, its shouting matches might be on a lower key, its competition being aided by “foreign powers”.  Motor vehicles “talk” over the Clamorous reed warbler, the steady hum of running engines drowning its throaty, grating, loud calls. Infrastructure works bring their own din. The Clamorous reed warbler might also find its ranks dwindling in urban habitats with loss of reed beds made up by bulrushes.  In many parts of the Indian subcontinent, resident populations of the Clamorous reed warbler can be found. In some parts, it is a mix of resident and migratory populations.

If one wants to find the Clamorous reed warbler live up to its name and clamour hard for attention and be heard loud and clear, one has to head to landscapes untouched by development, essentially patches with an overpowering pastoral character. One such patch this writer can recommend lies in Kancheepuram district. To underline how far from Chennai one has to stray to listen to this bird in its unfettered voice at this patch, it is a lake around 60 kilometres from Pallikaranai marsh in Kancheepuram district on a link road between Enathur (near the doorway of the tempe city Kancheepuram) and Rajakulam (where NH48 has a run). This lake has been christened Sitimabakkam lake by some locals, and Enathur lake by others. This lake’s buffer zone is pockmarked with patches of water. These patches sport shocks of bulrushes where this bird’s clamour rises to the skies, uninterrupted by ambient sounds. Being found in good numbers at this patch, the Clamour reed warbler fills the space with its calls, somewhat like a symphony orchestra filling a hall, only that the sounds are grating and raucous.

Beds of bulrushes support waterbirds in the crake and rail family and warblers such as Pallas’s grasshopper warbler and the Clamorous reed warbler.  

Returning to Chennai, de-silting and weed removal works in these habitats, particularly carried out in anticipation of the north-east monsoon disturb, unsettle and even obliterate bulrushes. These works are carried out by the Water Resources Department and in instances where lakes are managed by it, Greater Chennai Corporation. Given their mandate and responsibilities, these line agencies would be focussed on ensuring free flow of water, more than anything else. They need to be schooled that everything coming across as weeds need not be weeds; they could be important cogs in the wheel driving ecological balance. 

At least in Pallikaranai and Perumbakkam and similar urban habitats that are subject to frequent improvements, the forest department, which has stakes in them, should educate WRD that earth movers need to be wielded with the finesse of a doctor using a scalpel. While removing water hyacinth (which needs to go, considering how they interfere with water flow), care should be taken to retain bulrushes. In some instances, bulrushes might have to be sacrificed, but there would also be instances where they could be protected. They should be protected in those circumstances.