Nelapattu

నెలపట్టు Nelapattu
—  village  —
Coordinates
Country	India
State	Andhra Pradesh
Time zone	IST (UTC+05:30)

Nelapattu (Telugu: నేలపట్టు) is small village in Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is within 10 km to the town of Sullurpeta. It is best known for the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary.

The bird sanctuary is the breeding ground for birds which migrate seasonally from far off places like Antarctica, U.S.A, and China to name a few [1] . This bird sanctuary is particularly famous for Pelicans [2].

This bird sanctuary is also habitat for fresh water flooded forest tree species. Fresh water flooded trees / forest are found only at Nelapattu in India. The fresh water flooded forest tree at Nelapattu is Barringtonia Acutangula (Hijal). This tree also grows in uplands but the tree species available at Nelapattu is suitable to grow in flooded conditions lasting for 5 to 7 months at a stretch. The saplings can survive total submergence during the long duration of flooding.

There are vast areas of fresh water flooded forests in Amazon River, Mekong River and Meghna River (Bangladesh) basins. In these flooded forests, the flora & fauna is richer than tropical ever green forests and many tree species grow more than 20 meters in height. These forests are inundated / submerged by river flood water up to ten meters depth for 5 to 7 months duration at a stretch. The portion of forest under the water, remain verdant similar to the portion above the water level.

Many trees with commercial value yielding fruits, seeds, timber, fodder, herbs, biodiesel, etc are native to flooded forests. In flooded forests, the fish growth is also very encouraging as they feed on tree seeds, fruits, vegetation, etc.

Fresh water flooded forests / trees can be cultivated in India for rain water harvesting and to utilize the area of manmade reservoirs for growing forest / plantations to compensate the forest / agriculture land submergence by irrigation or hydro power projects. Nelapattu is ideal place to grow fresh water flooded forest on experimental basis.

See also

• Birding in Chennai

References

[1] [2]

“Fresh water flooded forests” http://www.scribd.com/doc/58789361/Rain-Water-Harvesting-by-Freshwater-Flooded-Forests