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Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the places of Andhra Pradesh where Asian Waterbird Census will be conducted
About Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary
- It is a wildlife sanctuary and estuary situated near Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.
- It is the second largest stretch of mangrove forests in India with 24 mangrove tree species and more than 120 bird species.
- It is home to the critically endangered white-backed vulture and the long billed vulture.
- The sanctuary is a part of the Godavari estuary and has extensive mangrove and dry deciduous tropical forest
- About half of the area is the backwater, which includes a sand pit of 18 km length.
- The rivers Coringa and Gaderu and their deltaic branches intersect the region, along with other water channels. This forms about 335.7 square km of marsh vegetation
- Flora:The Sanctuary in the estuary of river Godavari supports rich mangrove vegetation with species like Rhizophora, Avicennia, Sonneratia, Aegiceros.
- Fauna: Otter, Fishing Cat, Jackal, Marine Turtle and Estuarine Crocodile. Most common birds are Sea Gulls, Storks, Herons, Snipes, Ducks and Flamingos. It is home for the rare, endangered Smooth Indian Otter, Fishing Cat, Estuarine Crocodile
The white-backed vulture It is an Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards and hawks. It is closely related to the European griffon vulture, G. fulvus. Sometimes it is called African white-backed vulture to distinguish it from the Oriental white-backed vulture — nowadays usually called white-rumped vulture — to which it was formerly believed to be closely related. It has been listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Long billed vulture IT is an Old World vulture native to India, Pakistan and Nepal. It breeds mainly on hilly crags in central and peninsular India. It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2002, as the population severely declined. |