In Flamingo City in the Rann, named by the late Salim Ali, around 45,000 flamingoes arrived from central Asia in March to breed. A month later, all but the ones that cannot fly have left. With no food around, the young ones are unlikely to survive.

Conditions that favour the breeding of flamingoes no longer exist here. For breeding, the flamingo needs brackish water, which provides the `brain shrimps' on which the bird feeds, and clay, with which the bird makes its nest. But the Rann has gone dry.

Experts say that it isn't the 50 degrees Centigrade that has driven the adult birds away. It is the lack of food, they say.

Unlike other species of birds, the flamingo does not have a fixed breeding season. They arrive here only when conditions are ideal, breed, and return home. The birds do not arrive when the monsoon is heavy, for the rain water dilutes the sea water, and the shrimps do notsurvive. Neither do they arrive when there is a drought.

Normally, they arrive immediately after monsoon and start nesting in July-September. They lay egg in the thousands of raised mud nets and leave with the young ones in February. This year they arrived late because of the late monsoon. But the sudden heat has dried up the Rann and cut short their breeding season.

Says local ornithologist Navin Bapa: ``The BNHS or some organisation should ring the remaining birds to be able to trace their path if they survive.''