Keoladeo Ghana - Bharatpur Update - Oct 2010
Keoladeo Ghana National Park & World Heritage Site- Bharatpur
I returned to Bharatpur for a short visit. My last visit was on Jan 2010 and due to no release of water from the dam, Bharatpur was dry in the later half of 2009 and first half of 2010. As a result the park was deserted by the migratory birds. Even the resident birds started dying.
With the reports of “park is filled with water”, I made a quick dash to bharatpur.
The visitor entry fees has been doubled from Rs. 25 to Rs. 50. Rickshaw charges have been increased from Rs. 50 per hour to Rs. 70 per hour.
As I move in, on the left and right, I see roads closed. There are many areas that has been closed to public. The road near the temple where people used to go for watching pythons is closed. The Park authorities has decided to do that as a tiger has come and taken residence in the park. This tiger is presumed to have come from Ranthambhore. Though there is no connectivity between Ranthambhore and Keoladeo Ghana, the tiger has managed to evade “arrest”/caged and reached bharatpur. A couple of forest guards have claimed to have seen it. No such luck for others. There is enough prey base in the park in the form of Nilgai, deer, sambars, feral cattle etc for the tiger to prey on. Though the general public is not allowed to get in, I saw the forest department gypsy carrying presumably family members into the park after the gates closed at 6 pm and also I saw the same people returning at 6.50 am in the morning. One can easily guess, that they were on a tiger safari after and before park timings into the areas where general public is not allowed.
Infact, my rickshaw puller was banned for 7 days as he was 2 mins late. And this happened right after the official gypsy carrying the “tourists” /relatives into the park (on 22nd Oct).
The number of birds in the park is very less. There were 7 painted storks nesting on the left. The rickshaw puller said that was the number of painted storks. Later I saw about 10 painted storks. There were a couple of open billed storks, 3-4 grey herons and a few purple herons. I saw a group of lesser whistling teals (about 20), cormorants about 20-30. There may be more in other parts of the park. Parakeets, partridge, a couple of kingfishers, one lesser spotted eagle, asian koel, one Indian moorehen near the entry of the park ie. about half a kilometer away from water, and a few peafowls, bulbuls, shrike etc. In short, the number of birds and the number of species present in bharatpur as on Oct 2010, doesn't merit a visit there. You will find more birds in your local swamp/wetland, than in bharatpur.
There are local people inside the park collecting wood, cutting grass etc. The number of cattle grazing has increased. Earlier, one used to find the feral cattle. Now the regular milch cows are also sent to the park for grazing.
The temperature was much higher than that in Delhi. One needs to switch on the Air conditioner in the hotels. Given the high temperature in bharatpur, the water is drying up fast. Migratory birds like ducks and geese etc may give the park a skip this year, if the water doesn’t remain. I am not sure whether the water level will dry up before January or not. Definitely, February will have no water, if there are no rains. I hope the migratory birds don’t skip this park. Else, with continued neglect by the authorities and the local people in supplying water from the dam, Keoladeo Ghana may soon be a lost cause forever.
Images to follow later…
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
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Originally Posted by Sabyasachi Patra
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