|
|
Wildlife in Rajasthan |
|
 Keoladeo
Ghana Bird Sanctuary
Location:
Bharatpur, Rajasthan.
Coverage Area :
232 sq. Kms.
Main Attractions:
Spoon Bills
Best Time To Visit :
The Keoladeo National Park is open throughout the year. August-October
is the breeding season, so the birds are best left alone then. The best
season for visiting this place is between October to February when the
migratory birds come to visit this park from all over the globe.
Keoladeo Ghana National Park, one of the most spectacular bird
sanctuaries in India, nesting indigenous water- birds as well as migratory
water birds and water side birds. It is also inhabited by sambar, chital,
nilgai and boar. More than 300 species of birds are found in this small
park of 29 sq. km. of which 11 sq. km. are marshes and the rest scrubland
and grassland. Keoladeo, the name derives from an ancient Hindu temple,
devoted to Lord Shiva, which stands at the centre of the park. 'Ghana'
means dense, referring to the thick forest, which used to cover the area.
While many of India's parks have been developed from the hunting preserves
of princely India, Keoladeo Ghana is perhaps the only case where the
habitat has been created by a maharaja. In earlier times, Bharatpur town
used to be flooded regularly every monsoon. In 1760, an earthern dam (Ajan
Dam) was constructed, to save the town, from this annual vagary of nature.
The depression created by extraction of soil for the dam was cleared and
this became the Keoladeo lake. At the beginning of this century, this lake
was developed, and was divided into several portions. A system of small
dams, dykes, sluice gates, etc., was created to control water level in
different sections. This became the hunting preserve of the Bharatpur
royalty, and one of the best duck - shooting wetlands in the world.
Hunting was prohibited by mid-60s. The area was declared a national park
on 10 March 1982, and accepted as a World Heritage Site in December 1985.
Fauna :
Over 350 species of birds find a refuge in the 29 sq km of shallow lakes
and woodland, which makes up the park. A third of them are migrants, many
of whom spend their winters in Bharatpur, before returning to their
breeding grounds, as far away as Siberia and Central Asia. Migratory birds
at Keoladeo include, as large a bird as Dalmatian pelican, which is
slightly less than two meters, and as small a bird as Siberian disky leaf
warbler, which is the size of a finger.
Other migrants include several species of cranes, pelicans, geese, ducks,
eagles, hawks, shanks, stints, wagtails, warblers, wheatears, flycatchers,
buntings, larks and pipits, etc. But of all the migrants, the most sought
after is the Siberian Crane or the great white crane, which migrates to
this site every year, covering a distance of more than half the globe.
These birds, numbering only a few hundred, are on the verge of extinction.
It is birds from the western race of the species, that visit Keoladeo,
migrating from the Ob river basin region, in the Aral mountains, in
Siberia via Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are only two wintering places,
left for this extremely rare species.One is in Feredunkenar in Iran, and
the other is Keoladeo Ghana. The journey to Bharatpur takes them 6,400 kms
from their breeding grounds, in Siberia. They arrive in December and stay
till early March. Unlike Indian cranes, the Siberian crane is entirely
vegetarian. It feeds on underground aquatic roots and tubers in loose
flocks of five or six.
More
information about Rajasthan
¦¦
Wildlife in
Rajasthan
¦¦ Travel
Packages (Vacations) of Rajasthan
¦¦ Hotels
in Rajasthan
¦¦ Shopping
in Rajasthan ¦¦
Monuments / Fort /
Historical Palace in Rajasthan
¦¦
Temples / Pilgrimages /
Places of Worship in Rajasthan
¦¦ Fair
and Festivals in Rajasthan
¦¦ Museums
in Rajasthan
¦¦
|
|
|
Tourist States |
|
|
|
Online
Booking
|
|
|
