Bharatpur – The Paradise of Birds

I went for a wedding to Delhi and after it was over, I had three days in hand. I looked out to where I could spend the three days till my son joined me from his hostel on the fourth day. I surfed the Internet and found that I had a really nice place to visit and that was the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. My friend Rohit who is a nature lover and a friend to almost all birds also joined in. I spoke to my sister, a tourist guide to make arrangements and bingo, we were on in almost a couple of hours. Talk of quick plans and quick decisions.

Immediately after breakfast, we left in the morning and took a car to reach the place. I don’t like air-conditioned cars as I feel claustrophobic. So with the hot Delhi air blowing into our faces and with Rohit cribbing about not having the air conditioner on, we went to Mathura via Faridabad. The ride was good but as we reached Bharatpur away from NH 2, the ride started getting bumpy. Wonder how tourists would want to come here with so many potholes, but then I got the answer. The sheer feel of the place leaves no comments and the bumpy ride is soon forgotten. We were full as on the way we had had a meal packet with us. We thanked our stars and thanked my mother silently for having packed those ‘idlis’ for us. We had it and thus didn’t waste time on halting for lunch.

Enter Bharatpur – Definitely not like the usual tourist spots hustling and bustling with sellers and vendors marketing their articles. NO. But surely a tourist’s delight. The modern technology of Rohit’s GPS helped us and after sufficient asking around, we found ourselves in the sanctuary.

We entered the Bird Sanctuary after a good breakfast early morning. The sound of the bird twittering, and the lovely expanse of greenery already set us in the mood to feel the feel of the sanctuary. The park is totally eco friendly with zero vehicles plying inside. There are only rickshaws which pull you around the park.

Shyam the rickshaw puller was a friendly guy and he seemed to be an encyclopedia of birds. He knew his way around the park well and soon we struck a good friendship with him. Basically the Bharatpur people were simple souls with a large heart and had everything in them to make us feel good about the place. Though the place is very sleepy and idle, yet the surroundings spring you back into action.

Bharatpur with its beautiful birds and a natural reserve set us in the mood of being in fairyland. The flora and the fauna here with the indigenous birds make it a nature lover’s paradise. We were able to spot the Nilgai and the sambar but the Chital and the boar had to be given a miss. Maybe they were busy with their siesta and had no time to meet common people like us. !!! We saw some of the best collection of species of birds here and I didn’t know the name of many. But Shyam, the effervescent pot of knowledge gave us the names in Hindi and some in his funny accented English. We saw some teals and mallards. Shyam went on to say how  the sanctuary was created around 2 centuries back when there was a natural depression during the time Maharaja Suraj Mal constructed the Ajan Bund. We told him to tell us more about the flora and fauna. Instead he told us how the local Gujjars and the Government had a spat and so grazing was not allowed here.

The sanctuary with its bird species enthralled us. We saw the world famous Cranes from Siberia.  Then we saw the eagles swooping down and also the cormorants, and larks flying in the silhouette of the sky. We also saw some jacanas near the ponds. With the pond having lovely turtles and also snails along the banks, we were a little scared to see the huge pythons, and were amused at the frogs shuttling by. Lagoons, marshes and water snakes near them, enhanced the entire “sanctuary” feel.

We had a lovely boat safari after this and as we sat on the boat we saw the ambience around us and also spotted birds. Rohit never left the camera down. He just went on capturing all the beauty around.

Then we went to a temple nearby. With beautiful architecture, and lovely surroundings and a magnificent pond attached to it, the temple set our minds calm and the serene atmosphere just was mesmerizing. There was this pujari there who made us throw balls of flour into the pond. Suddenly we saw why he did it. Lovely huge turtles came to eat up the flour. I captured it on the camera and made a quick mental note of it to be able to write in my travelogue. When we offered money to the pujari he just asked us to make arrangements for the flour and did not want the money. I was happy that I hired a ranger cycle there and also carried my binoculars along. All this proved useful while on this trip.

After a quick tour around Bharatpur palace and the Government Museum, we returned early to the hotel as the manager of the hotel had said dinner would stop by 9 in the evening. Tired, relaxed, exhausted, exhilarated we retired for the night with dreams of flying in the sky with the birds in Bharatpur Sanctuary.

At 1 in the night I woke up and started writing this. Only then did I feel my job was done. Bharatpur – A World Heritage site is a sure spot to visit for an interested traveler.