Herons, egrets and ibises have queued up on the parapet, watching life go by as small waves lap on the embankment wall of the lake at Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary, located in Ariyalur district, 50 kilometres from Tiruchi.
They do not seem to mind the photographer preparing to shoot them on camera. Across the narrow road running through the property, there are more birds, perched on a dead tree trunk, looking on with apparent interest, as a farmer tries to get his tractor going.
The sanctuary, one of the largest inland wetlands of Tamil Nadu, was recently declared a Ramsar site, along with the Longwood Shola reserve forest in The Nilgiris.
