Rajasthan birding - Keoladeo Ghana National Park (Bharatpur)

Rajasthan trip report here...

With spare days now on hand and Raja not available in Jaipur, we dashed off to Keoladeo Ghana National Park or more commonly called the Bharatpur bird sanctuary to spend our remaining days of the trip that turned out to be an excellent decision with us being there at the right time. Bharatpur, is as small area but is an excellent avifauna sanctuary that hosts thousands of birds, especially during the winter season and people flock here for many reasons – photography, bird watching, cycling around the whole park or just walking and spending quality time listening to the birds and nothing else.

Rajasthan Birding - Jorbeed, Chhapar

Rajasthan trip report here...

Early next day, we were off to one of the most anticipated places on our list – a dumping yard! Yes. Jorbeed is a carcass dumping yard where carcass is treated and dumped and where you get to see a huge diversity of birdlife. This small patch of land is probably where you will see the highes congregation of vultures of many kinds, all in one place. Diclonofenac literally had wiped out the vulutre population from India, but awareness and banning of the drug has seen the population of vulutres recover slowly, but the threat remains large as few species of vultures are still classified as critically endangered.

Rajasthan birding - RTR & DNP

Rajasthan – this name brings to anyone’s mind thoughts about desert, camels, oasis, sand dunes and people in colorful attire; while there’s much more to Rajasthan than just these. Sample these – huge forts, palaces, a hill station, wildlife parks, bird sanctuaries and mouth-watering taste of food. Desert National Park (DNP), Ranthambore Tiger Reserve (RTR), Sariska Tiger Reserve, Keoladeo Ghana National Park or the Bharatpur bird sanctuary, Tal Chappar (TC) wildlife sanctuary are some of the prominent wildlife habitats that host the critically endangered but magnificent Great Indian Bustard (GIB) to a good population of Tigers, Blackbucks, Caracals, Bustards, Cranes and a whole lot of more that can only be seen by exploring the vast state.

Ever since my friend Raja Bandi moved to Rajasthan, there was an open invite for me to visit and me along with Kannan and Harish sir ensured the invite was used judiciously by touring Rajasthan and exploring the wildlife for a good two weeks. Also, should I say, I shopped till I dropped ensuring my baggage over ran its limitation on our return journey 😊. We did this circuit ex-Jaipur by hiring a local cab, a Qualis with a jugaad AC set-up to beat the heat of the desert land.

Jaipur - Ranthambore - Jaipur - Jaisalmer - Desert National Park (Khuri/Sudasari) - Kuldhara - Phalodi(Khichan) - Bikaner - Tal Chaapar - Sujangarh - Jaipur - Bharatpur - Jaipur for a good two weeks enduring the hot days and the chilly nights, particularly harsh were the three nights we stayed at the Desert National Park.