Bharatpur - Birdlife Extravaganza!!

Remember those 'Jungle Book' fantasties? Or the 'Just So' stories that were read to you as a child?

Well here it comes to life. One of the best places to see Indian wildlife on the subcontinent. The sheer profusion of animal life is staggering. You may see white ibis, jackals, wild boar, nilgai, cranes, mongeese, flamingoes, otters, pythons, hyenas and Indian black buck. One of the best places to get close to nature in the world.

The park was set up as the private hunting reserve for the Maharajah of Bharatpur who would have parties which shot over 4,000 birds at one shoot. Nowadays tourists are ferried around by guides and the only shooting done is with a camera. 

The park is seasonal and the best time to visit is between October and March when migratory birds come as far away as Siberia to enjoy the warmth of India. During the monsoon (May-Sep) the park fills up again with water and tourists are ferried around in boats and can get very close to the nesting birds and animals

The gates to the park are walkable along the road but when you enter the park you need a guide to show you around. The best best is to hire one of the cycle-rickshaw guides that hang around the hotels (we were there just before the monsoon, in the low season, and there was a nasty scrap amongst the guides for our custom). 

Admittance to the park is about 100 rupees and you can travel around the raised roadway to view the swamps, lakes and watermeadow's. But don't stray too far, while we were there a sign said a panther (leopard) had been spotted in the park which gave our visit an extra edge.

The best advice I can give you is to head straight to Bharatpur after Delhi.

It's small town atmosphere and relaxed ways are a tonic after the capital. It is situated between the titans of Indian tourist - Jaipur and Agra and are easily visited from both. A lot of tourists that we met used Bharatpur as a base to visit these towns by bus. The bus connections are excellent and you can even visit the Ghost city of Fatehpur Sikri by local bus on bird sanctuary road.

All in all, Bharatpur makes a mellow base to visit some of the greatest sights in northern India.