ISTANBUL, July 15 – Hundreds of child flamingos have died at Turkey’s Lake Tuz up to now two weeks from a drought that environmentalists mentioned was the results of local weather change and agricultural irrigation strategies.
Drone footage of the massive saline lake in Turkey’s central province of Konya confirmed useless flaminglets mendacity partially buried in dried mud. Lake Tuz is residence to a flamingo colony the place as much as 10,000 flaminglets are born yearly.
Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Bekir Pakdemirli mentioned round 1,000 birds have been thought to have died however denied that agriculture was guilty.
“With much less water and elevated focus ratio within the water, we noticed deaths of flaminglets that have been unable to fly,” he mentioned.
“I wish to stress that there isn’t a direct or oblique connection between this incident and the wells within the space or the agricultural irrigation.”
Pakdemirli mentioned “the mandatory measures” had been taken, with out elaborating.
In 2000, Lake Tuz was declared a specifically protected space, a designation that goals to guard organic range, pure and cultural sources.
Environmentalists blame farming practices together with local weather change for the drought, which noticed demand for water within the space outstrip provide by 30 % final yr, in line with a report printed by Turkish environmental basis TEMA.
In 2020, the annual water reserve in central province of Konya’s shut basin was 4.5 billion cubic meters, whereas the consumption reached 6.5 billion cubic meters, TEMA discovered.
Environmentalist and wildlife photographer Fahri Tunc mentioned water provides from a canal which feeds Lake Tuz have been being redirected for farming.
“That is the irrigation canal that comes from Konya. It must ship water to Lake Tuz. As you’ll be able to see, the water is just not coming via. It stopped,” environmentalist and wildlife photographer Fahri Tunc mentioned.
Tunc mentioned solely 5,000 eggs had hatched within the colony this yr and many of the chicks had died for lack of water on the partially dried lake.
“It’s a sin we’re all committing,” Tunc mentioned.
President of the Turkish NGO the Nature Affiliation Dicle Tuba Kilic mentioned the one technique to forestall mass flamingo deaths is to vary the agricultural irrigation strategies in area.
Lake Tuz (Salt Lake) is likely one of the largest hypersaline lakes on the planet.
