Keoladeo suffers julie flora overgrowth

Jaipur, Feb 5 (UNI) Bharatpur's famous Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, reeling under water shortage for long, is now facing another problem-- an overgrowth of prosopis julie flora (Vilayati babool).

The bird faeces, consisting of seeds of julie flora, being spread over the entire park, are believed to have led the rapid growth of the flora in the sanctuary.

A dense overgrowth of this flora has left little space for anything else even eating into the water bodies of the sanctuary.

The water bodies, earlier spread over an area of 11 square km, has now been reduced to merely 8.5 sq km due to the flora overgrowth.

The woodland covering an area of 13 square km and grassland spread over an area of 5 km have also been reduced.

The 29-square-km park, which has been a winter site for migratory Siberian crane and other birds from the Central Asia, has not seen these birds for quite a few years now.

The density of prosopis juile flora has been effecting the growth of trees like Ber, Piloo, Hins, Karonda and Jaamun.

According to official sources, park authorities have prepared a major plan to arrest the growth of prosopis julie flora.

UNI