Recently, the number of birds in Tram Chim National Park, a wonderful area with typical landscapes, unique wetland ecosystems, and rare species of flora and fauna, has decreased significantly, especially, many rare species such as the red-crowned crane have not returned.
Tram Chim National Park with an area of about 7,600ha was established in 1999 and is located in Tam Nong District, Dong Thap Province, Vietnam. It was designed primarily to protect the typical submerged inland ecosystems that develop in Ha Tien; the Plains of reeds and Umin area. According to scientists, Tram Chim's natural environment has historically been a perfect habitat for many species of birds, including tanchow. However, at present, the natural ecological environment is deteriorating due to the imbalance of the ecosystem by changing the grassland flooded with nature into aquaculture land and constructing factories directly in the buffer zone. It deteriorated badly and many birds gradually disappeared.
From 1980 to 1998, the number of red-crowned cranes returned was over 1000, in 2017 there were shockingly only 9 birds, in 2018 and 2019 it was 11. However, from 2020 until now, the red-crowned cranes have not returned.
One of the main reason for this sad deterioration is ecosystem change, over-exploitation of tourism, especially, the sale of tickets for people to go fishing very deep in the garden also makes fish, turtles, snakes disappear daily. Various types of birds are also afraid of the new situation, hence not choosing this once-called-home their to-go place anymore.
While being a natural conservation, Tram Chim National Park is fully surrounded by residential areas with a population of over 50,000, most of whom are dependent on the pressure of life and the natural resources of the wetlands in the national park. People in this area are looking for ways to eradicate aquatic life. Due to climate change and changes in wetland ecosystems, birds are no longer a food source and individual bird populations are declining year-on-year. Without control, the biodiversity of this national park will be completely lost within 10 - 15 years.