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Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary

Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary and estuary situated in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is the second largest stretch of mangrove forests in India with 24 mangrove tree species and more than 120 bird species. It is home to the critically endangered white-backed vulture and the long billed vulture.

Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary is 18 km from the port city of Kakinada, on the Kakinada-Yanam state highway, nestling on the deltaic branches of Gouthami and Godavari Rivers at Kakinada Bay.

The sanctuary is a part of the Godavari estuary and has extensive mangrove and dry deciduous tropical forest.

About half of the area is the backwater, which includes a sand pit of 18 km length. The rivers Coringa and Gaderu and their deltaic branches intersect the region, along with other water channels. This forms about 335.7 square km of marsh vegetation.

The average temperature of the region is 17 °C to 40 °C. Average Rainfall is greater than 1,000 mm

The sanctuary possesses a wide variety of birds, because of the feed available in the backwaters of the mangrove forest. During low tide, some of the areas are exposed (elevated mud flats) having small fishes, shrimps and mollusks. These attract avifauna for feeding. Some critically endangered species like the white-backed vulture and the long billed vulture are present in the sanctuary. The painted stork, Oriental white ibis, ferruginous pochard found in the sanctuary are near threatened species, and spot-billed pelican is a vulnerable species. Significant populations of waders and mangrove birds are also present. Altogether, more than 120 species of birds have been reported and among them some of the commonly found birds in the sanctuary are: little egret, cattle egret, pied kingfisher, small blue kingfisher, black-capped kingfisher, pond heron, reef heron, grey heron, night heron, little stint, sandpiper, redshank, red-wattled lapwing, crow pheasant, flamingos, sea gulls, purple heron, brahmini kite, openbill stork, and little cormorant.

Apart from the avian fauna, the sanctuary has a fair population of golden jackal, sea turtle and fishing cat, and a healthy breeding population of smooth-coated otter. The sanctuary has an 18-km long sand pit where olive ridley sea turtles nest from January to March every year. Efforts to reintroduce the saltwater crocodile into the sanctuary during the 1970s met with failure and the species has not been present within the sanctuary for over 30 years

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