Environmental Pollution Indicators

As an Environmental Scientist, I have been studying pollution indicators for several years. Any living organism can act as an indicator of Environmental conditions in any area. For example a recent news about a coastal area in Tamil Nadu indicates that it's environmental condition is deterioriating. Several birds migrate to this important and Environmentally critical Coastal area for breeding. Sandpiper, Spoon bills, Seagulls, and Pelicans are some of the birds. However this year most of the migratory birds did not show up here indicated that the area has been degraded environmentally.

Even though industries pledged (almost a year back) to eliminate effluent discharge into coastal areas (“Zero Liquid Discharge”), the birds did not show up due to Environmental degradation and they acted as Environmental Indicators.
I came across beautiful birds pictures by Capt.Balakrishnan in the following flickr site:

Beautiful Birds by Captain Balakrishnan

It is time to take proper action to revive these critical coastal area's Environment or else we could see the birds only on websites (such as Capt.BalaKrishnan's flickr site) and enjoy.

These birds are indicating that if proper actions are not taken, further more environmental degradation is going to occur.

Makesh Karuppiah, Ph.D
Environmental Scientist