Anantapur: Forest department to develop Veerapuram as tourist destination

Anantapur (Veerapuram): The forest department is developing Veerapuram as a tourist resort. It is looking for a 4-acre government land for developing tourist facilities including building guest houses and setting up a museum.

The tourists and bird watchers can stay overnight and spend a day in bird watching. Not only the painted storks but a variety of birds throughout the year make a beeline to the trees and are unofficially known to be bird sanctuaries. The department is planning to develop Veerapuram as a tourism destination in every possible way. The nests of Siberian birds are being protected from monkeys which are coming to the bird sanctuary and disturbing the birds. Measures have been taken to keep at bay the monkeys in the vicinity of Veerapuram.

However, due to funds paucity the department is taking up gradual development. If the Tourism department or the state government sanctions funds much can be done to develop Veerapuram as a birds sanctuary, feels department officials.

Water trenches and fish feed supply points for these migratory birds are arranged during the season minimising their search for food. "These birds are our guests and so we do not want the birds to suffer searching for food," says Obulappa, a local citizen of Veerapuram village, who had been watching the birds visit every year for over a decade.

There are different types of trees at Veerapuram village and hence enough nest building space is available for birds.

Apart from the green vegetation, there are many small herbs, shrubs and wild grass all over the village. Painted storks are colonial tree nesting birds, nesting on different trees with often 70 to 100 nests per tree.

The villagers are very friendly with birds and have made an unwritten law not to do any harm and at the same time protect the storks from other predators and from outsiders.