396
12.3 Ecological Importance of Kaliveli Wetland
This watershed is an ancient representation of what was created 1500 years ago.
Indeed, between the sixth and the tenth century of our era, a system of tanks was
prepared in Tamil Nadu to supply the water to local population (D’Souza et al.
2007). The watershed landscape is largely agricultural and composed of a complex
network of 238 tanks and their channels (Woistencroft et al. 1987; Gopinath and
Srinivas 2004; Ramanujam and Anbarasan 2007; Bhalla and Prasadm 2009). These
tanks not only to supply of water for irrigation and domestic purposes as they renew
the ground water table during the monsoon period, although serve many other purposes to local populations such as cattle grazing ground, timber wood, roof thatch
with the growing reeds and fishing. In addition, as the tanks are inter-connected with
each other by a means of channels, all the superfluous water can flow from one tank
to another, preventing the floods and the water loss during the rainy season.
In the Kaliveli catchment area, the water level fluctuates due to the precipitation,
with the highest level during the end of the northeast monsoon. However, in case of
little rainfall, it dried out fully during the summer season (Woistencroft et al. 1987).
These regions have a wide variety of sedges and grasses, interspersed with barren
sandy areas and muddy margins. Filling of the lake with the fresh water in November
results in germination of numerous aquatic plants. Enteromorpha intestinalis is particularly common, among other algal species in the brackish areas. There are extensive reed beds and sedges in the less saline areas. A few straggly mangrove bushes
are all that remain of what must once have been a large mangrove forest (Pieter
1987). The wetlands are situated amidst an agricultural land and an arid thorn scrub
and it is broadly divided in three distinct zones.
12.3.1 Kaliveli Flood Plains
The water catchment area for this Kaliveli wetland (12°5′–12°3′–12°9′N and
79°47′–79°51′–79°53′E) is about 740.89 km
2
the south end is begin with the
Auroville plateau, Marakkanam to the north and Tindivanam and beyond to the
north west. Lowe-Mc Connell (1987) and Keddy (2000) delineated that it is floodplain. The aerial view of this water body is looks like petal shaped, there are several
reservoirs present in the catchment area. All the tanks gets fill up with abundant
precipitation of southwest monsoon and attains the highest level at the end of northeast monsoon. But, it totally dried out during the summer seasons.
12.3.2 Uppukali Creek
It is a narrow channel (12°9′N – 70°53′ E and 12°12′N – 79°56′ E) which connecting the floodplain into the Yedayanthittu estuary. Due to its estuarine links, the
nature of this region is divergent from that of Kaliveli flood plain. There is stable
K. Silambarasan and A. Sundaramanickam
12.3 Ecological Importance of Kaliveli Wetland
This watershed is an ancient representation of what was created 1500 years ago.
Indeed, between the sixth and the tenth century of our era, a system of tanks was
prepared in Tamil Nadu to supply the water to local population (D’Souza et al.
2007). The watershed landscape is largely agricultural and composed of a complex
network of 238 tanks and their channels (Woistencroft et al. 1987; Gopinath and
Srinivas 2004; Ramanujam and Anbarasan 2007; Bhalla and Prasadm 2009). These
tanks not only to supply of water for irrigation and domestic purposes as they renew
the ground water table during the monsoon period, although serve many other purposes to local populations such as cattle grazing ground, timber wood, roof thatch
with the growing reeds and fishing. In addition, as the tanks are inter-connected with
each other by a means of channels, all the superfluous water can flow from one tank
to another, preventing the floods and the water loss during the rainy season.
In the Kaliveli catchment area, the water level fluctuates due to the precipitation,
with the highest level during the end of the northeast monsoon. However, in case of
little rainfall, it dried out fully during the summer season (Woistencroft et al. 1987).
These regions have a wide variety of sedges and grasses, interspersed with barren
sandy areas and muddy margins. Filling of the lake with the fresh water in November
results in germination of numerous aquatic plants. Enteromorpha intestinalis is particularly common, among other algal species in the brackish areas. There are extensive reed beds and sedges in the less saline areas. A few straggly mangrove bushes
are all that remain of what must once have been a large mangrove forest (Pieter
1987). The wetlands are situated amidst an agricultural land and an arid thorn scrub
and it is broadly divided in three distinct zones.
12.3.1 Kaliveli Flood Plains
The water catchment area for this Kaliveli wetland (12°5′–12°3′–12°9′N and
79°47′–79°51′–79°53′E) is about 740.89 km
2
the south end is begin with the
Auroville plateau, Marakkanam to the north and Tindivanam and beyond to the
north west. Lowe-Mc Connell (1987) and Keddy (2000) delineated that it is floodplain. The aerial view of this water body is looks like petal shaped, there are several
reservoirs present in the catchment area. All the tanks gets fill up with abundant
precipitation of southwest monsoon and attains the highest level at the end of northeast monsoon. But, it totally dried out during the summer seasons.
12.3.2 Uppukali Creek
It is a narrow channel (12°9′N – 70°53′ E and 12°12′N – 79°56′ E) which connecting the floodplain into the Yedayanthittu estuary. Due to its estuarine links, the
nature of this region is divergent from that of Kaliveli flood plain. There is stable
K. Silambarasan and A. Sundaramanickam