Thousands of baby flamingos have died in Turkey's Lake Tuz in the past two weeks

 

ISTANBUL: Thousands of baby flamingos have died in Turkey's Lake Tuz in the past two weeks from a drought that environmentalists say was the result of climate change and agricultural irrigation methods.

Drone footage of the large saline lake in Turkey's central Konya province showed dead flamingos lying partially buried in the dried mud. Lake Tuz is home to a colony of flamingos where up to 10,000 flaminglets hatch each year.

Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said around 1,000 birds were thought to have died, but denied that agriculture was the culprit.

"With less water and a higher concentration ratio in the water, we observed deaths of flaminglets that could not fly," he said.

"I want to emphasize that there is no direct or indirect connection between this incident and the wells in the area or agricultural irrigation." Pakdemirli said "necessary steps" had been taken, without elaborating.

In 2000, Lake Tuz was declared a Specially Protected Area, a designation that aims to protect biological diversity, natural and cultural resources.

Environmentalists blame agricultural practices along with climate change for the drought, which caused demand for water in the area to exceed supply by 30 percent last year, according to a report published by the Turkish environmental foundation TEMA.

In 2020, the annual water reserve in the central province of the nearby Konya basin was 4.5 billion cubic meters, while consumption reached 6.5 billion cubic meters, TEMA found.

Ecologist and wildlife photographer Fahri Tunc said that water supplies from a canal that feeds Lake Tuz are being redirected for agriculture.