Chennai, Dec 27 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu forest department has decided to approach the state Industries department and a private company to hand over part of their unsurveyed salt-pans and swamp areas measuring about 28,000 hectares to develop the Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary into one of the world's best flamingoes and waders habitats in the world.

The Tamil Nadu forest department and the Bombay Natural History teams on Saturday conducted a joint inspection of the Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary and found a heavy presence of flamingos in the area. The team which included Tamil Nadu Chief Wildlife warden Shekhar Kumar Neeraj said that they counted around 10,000 flamingos near the Chemplast salt-pans, which is west of the Great Vedaranyam swamp.

The wildlife officials, according to a statement from the state forest department were enthused by the presence of two chicks of the flamingoes among the birds and this was an indicator of the bird's nesting and breeding in the area.

Shekar Kumar Neeraj while speaking to IANS said, "The presence of chicks in one of the congregations of the flamingoes is a clear indicator that the birds and nesting and breeding in a closer area and mostly it could be in the Trincomalee or Mannar area of Sri Lanka."

He said that steps would be taken to put the Point Calimire Wildlife and Bird sanctuary on the global ecotourism map by adding high-quality facilities and conservation tools.

Painted Storks, pelicans, red beaked Caspian tern, wood sandpiper, seagulls, stilt, and redshank were some of the other species of birds spotted by the team of Forest department and Bombay Natural History Society.

Forest department officials said that some of these migratory birds reached the sanctuary from Russia and the Arctic regions.