Areas of the Vedanthangal Lake Bird Sanctuary located in the Chengalpattu District and Madurantakam taluk of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The sanctuary is about 75 kms from Chennai.

Year the area was notified as a sanctuary. Locals have understood the importance of the area as early as 18th century. Bird droppings in massive amounts have always acted as fertilizers for their fields.

Number of bird species, including 26 rare species, that use the sanctuary as their breeding ground. Some easily found birds include cormorants, darters, grebes, large egrets, little egrets, moorhens, night herons, paddy birds, painted storks, pintails, pond herons, sandpipers, shovellers, terns, white ibises and many more. The migratory birds include garganeys and teals from Canada; snake birds and glossy ibises from Sri Lanka; grey pelicans from Australia; grey herons and open billed stork from Bangladesh; painted storks from Siberia; spoonbills from Myanmar and the spot-billed duck.

Estimated number of birds that come to the sanctuary each year to nest. It is one of the largest heronries (a breeding colony of herons, typically in a group of trees) in India.

Around 30 hectares of Vedanthangal lake and 5 km of revenue land around the lake is notified as Vedanthangal Birds Sanctuary.

Percentage of the area of the sanctuary that is sought to be opened-up for commercial use, including setting-up of industries, including the expansion of the Sun Pharma plant that is located a few kilometres away. State Board for Wildlife has cleared forest department’s proposal to redraw the boundary of the sanctuary. The proposal has been forwarded to National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) for approval.

Hours after the #savevedanthangal Twitter storm over the reported denotification of protected land on the periphery of Vedanthangal Lake to be used for commercial purposes, the TN govt transfers Environment and Forests Secy.