Kanjirankulam Bird Sanctuary is a protected area near Mudukulathur Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu. India, declared in 1989. Kanjirankulam Bird Sanctuary is located within the village of Kanjirankulam, Ramanathapuram district, southern Tamil Nadu, India. KBS has an estimated area divided between Keela (lower) Kanjirankulam (66.66 hectares) and in Mela (upper) Kanjirankulam (30.231 hectares). The wetland performs three main ecosystem services to the fringe population in particular including hydrological regulation of floods and droughts, carbon sequestration and climate regulation, and storm protection. Normal annual rainfall is 827 mm with high rainfall along the coast decreasing inland. The relative humidity is between 79 and 84%. Excess water that is stored during rainy season within the bunds is later utilized for agriculture purposes. The sanctuary acts as a store space for an efficient flood control, flood storage mechanism.

Salient Features

• Supports more than 2000 hectares of agricultural land
• Important for the irrigation of the surrounding paddy field, banana plantation and coconut groves on which more than 1000 families are dependent
• Listed as international bird and biodiversity area with iba site code : in-tn-24, by bird life international and is part of central asian bird migratory flyway

CRITERIA

Criterion 2:A wetland should be considered internationally important if it supports vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered species or threatened ecological communities.
Criterion 3:A wetland should be considered internationally important if it supports populations of plant and/or animal species important for maintaining the biological diversity of a particular bio geographic region.
Criterion 6:A wetland should be considered internationally important if it regularly supports 1% of the individuals in a population of one species or subspecies of waterbird.
Criterion 7:A wetland should be considered internationally important if it supports a significant proportion of indigenous fish subspecies, species or families, life-history stages, species interactions and/or populations that are representative of wetland benefits and/or values and thereby contributes to global biological diversity.
Criterion 8:A wetland should be considered internationally important if it is an important source of food for fishes, spawning ground, nursery and/or migration path on which fish stocks, either within the wetland or elsewhere, depend.

RAMSAR Certificate