Chitrangudi Bird Sanctuary

Chitrangudi Bird Sanctuary, known locally as Chitrangudi Kanmoli, is a small protected area of under half a square kilometre at Chitrangudi village in Ramanathapuram district, next to the Kanjirankulam Bird Sanctuary. It was declared in 1989 and has been a Ramsar site since 2021. The sanctuary lies inside the 15-metre embankments of a crescent-shaped community irrigation tank fed by an aqueduct from the Gundar river; in a normal year it holds water for three to five months.

Migratory herons nest in the babul trees that dominate the tank, where a babul plantation dates from 1979, though invasive Prosopis is spreading. Breeding birds arrive between October and February, including spot-billed pelicans, Asian openbill storks, grey and purple herons, pond herons and little and great egrets. Tamarind, neem, fig and palmyra trees grow on the bund. The sanctuary is open all year and lies 4 km from Mudukulathur and 45 km from Ramanathapuram.