Birdless Bharatpur

“Where are the birds that you promised I would see?” asked my 10-year old niece. Equipped with her camera, binoculars, and my stories of how thousands of migratory birds come to the Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur each year from Siberia, Central Asia, Mongolia, and Egypt to be in the relative warmth of northern India, she was looking forward to a fun holiday.

But, she was disappointed. Let down not by the birds, but by human callousness that caused these wondrous birds to leave the park, leaving behind their unhatched eggs to be devoured by the crows!

This winter I went to Bharatpur with a few avid birders and photographers, hoping to re-live our experience from the winter of 2012-13 when we saw colonies of resident Painted Storks teaching their young to fish and fly.  They seem to have kept the visitors to the park intrigued, and made the chests of the rickshaw pullers and guides swell with pride as they repeated the popular adage, “You may not see a tiger at Ranthambore, but you will always see Painted Storks in Bharatpur.”

Bharatpur 2012-13: A Birders' Paradise

The Painted Storks were there in the thousands, but, though fewer in number, there were also innumerable Black-headed Ibis, Pelicans, Spoonbills, Sarus Cranes, Cormorants, Pintails, Common Coots, Black-crowned Night Herons, Comb Ducks, Darter Birds, Egrets, and so many more. Bharatpur is a birders' haven, known for both its resident birds that nest during the winter, and the migratory water birds and land birds that come here from afar.

We also saw a whole lot of sunbathing turtles, a monitor lizard, and a cobra!

Bharatpur 2014-15: Birdless

But the winter of 2014-15 has not been kind to these visitors. The delay in releasing the Chambal water, which is the lifeline of the Park, robbed the birds of their food, the fish from the lake. Thousands of birds abandoned their eggs and chicks, and left the park in the middle of the breeding season. Another reason cited by the locals were the heavy machines allowed inside the Park to create mud platforms near the bird colonies. These platforms were for the tourists to click better photographs, but instead scared the birds away.

With this, not just the colony of Painted Storks at Bharatpur, considered the largest in Asia, but most of the Park became deserted.

The few stray birds that we spotted were Siberian Rubythroats, Kingfishers, Moorhens, that occasional Heron, and a solitary Painted Stork. Disillusioned by the dismal show, my birder friends were lured by the guide to go up to a sewage dump outside the park for their first spotting of the Greater Painted Snipe. They were lured, and rewarded, in stench and a great spotting.

For me, steering clear of the sewage, and spotting this python made my day, though in no way did it compensate for the missing birds!

Should you go to Bharatpur after reading this article? Not in the winter of 2014-15 for sure. The birds are not coming back! But, do try next year - guides at the Park are confident that the birds will come to nest as they have been for at least the last 200 years!

Getting there: Bharatpur is a 3-hour drive from Delhi via the Yamuna Expressway. If you leave early, you will find clear roads and can reach in time to visit the Park soon after lunch.

Where to stay: I stayed at The Birders’ Inn during both my visits. It’s comfortable, with good food, hot water, and heating in the rooms. Brownie point - it is very close to the Park.

Best time to visit : October to February (that's when you will see the maximum number of migratory birds)

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