Originally a duck shooting reserve for royalty, Keoladeo was declared a bird sanctuary in 1956 and in 1985 it won UNESCO's World Heritage Site status. It is also a Ramsar Site, making it a wetland of global importance. But of what use were all these developments?
Since 2001, when the graceful and endangered Siberian Cranes failed to arrive at Bharatpur, warnings have been repeatedly raised and ignored. This year, ornithologists say that breeding activity has been extremely low. Spoonbills and cormorants have not even built nests. Even more worrisome, resident birds are abandoning the sanctuary for greener pastures. Droughts are normally part of the cycle of nature, but the impact has been magnified by gross apathy from the authorities. The Rajasthan Government has literally watched as an area that was perfect for birds - shallow, marshy jheels and roosting and nesting trees - turned into a cracked and parched hell.
The poor rainfall of 2004 has led to immense biological stress on insects, fish and snakes and other forms of life including flowers, frogs and tubers on which the birds survive. All this has impacted the birds. The park normally receives water from the Ajan bund, which is fed by the Ghambir and Banganga rivers. This year, farmers in the area led an agitation asking for the water to be channelled to their fields rather than the birds. The birds lost out.
Park authorities responded by feebly attempting to extract water using old and rickety pumps. In a repeat of a story that is commonplace across India, the Central Government did sanction money to replace the pumps, but bureaucracy and red tape reared their heads to ensure that the job remained unfinished.
Worse, the wall built to keep cattle from entering has been brought down in several places, allowing over 5,000 feral cattle to continue to devastate this tiny sanctuary. Bikram Grewal, author, publisher and avid birdwatcher comments in dismay that Keoladeo should be re-christened as a cattle sanctuary.
Bharatpur has survived droughts successfully in the past, but never has the situation reached such depths. One by-product of this disaster is that hundreds of rickshaw pullers and guides are facing penury. According to a recent report in the Pioneer, the last two months have seen the filing of a Public Interest Litigation, agitation by several NGOs and dharnas by concerned people asking the Government to release water, all in vain. The gravity of the situation requires the pooling in of much more support as there is even talk of stripping the park of its World Heritage status.
Please take a few minutes to understand and then lend your name to the Sanctuary campaign asking the Rajasthan Government to release the required amount of water within the Keoladeo National Park, thereby securing the future of its inhabitants. You can take the first step by writing a polite letter along the lines suggested and posting it to the parties concerned.
Â
