Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary:
(Continued from Part II of this post series)
This photo of Keoladeo National Park is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Though the name Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary lingers on, the national park has now been named "Keoladeo National Park (KNP.)" This did initially confuse me as I was looking for a signage with the old name.
KNP is about 25 kms from Fatehpur Sikri. The road is good and we reached the park in time, about 2 hours before the scheduled closure. My son joined the ticket queue while I looked around and made inquiries. The sanctuary gate is about 1.5 kms away from the ticketing gate. Private vehicles are not allowed beyond the ticketing gate. There is a Rajasthan Tourism Hotel just outside the sanctuary gate and the guests may drive down to the Lodge.
As our party was tired because of the Fatehpur Sikri tour, walking down to the sanctuary was ruled out. There was a cycle rental but they had run out of bicycles. The only other option was to hire rickshaws at ₹150 per hour and the minimum estimated time for a quick visit was 2 hours. As there were six of us, we had to hire 3 rickshaws as each is designed to seat no more than 2 persons. A few guides were available and if we hired one, naturally yet another rickshaw will be needed for this person. As we did not have much time at our disposal, we hired just three rickshaws and pushed off without further haggling. Other tourists too were doing the same.
The road was bad and the rickshaw-pullers did have a haggard look and they kept pulling the rickshaw instead of pedalling. Two of the elder pullers were talkative while the third, a young lad, was the quiet type. On the way the rickshaw pullers did stop a few times even before the park entrance and pointed out to some local looking birds. One of them described them as migrants from Bangladesh, while the other said it was a local bird. The first one nodded in agreement and added that the bird had settled down in this area a long time ago. They also showed us a few peacocks roaming around a Hanuman Temple close to the road.
Though there was no mention of this mode of transport at the entrance, on our way we did see a battery powered car carrying a few passengers. Upon inquiry, the rickshaw pullers said that it was meant only for VIP visitors. Later, we also saw a vehicle inside the park belonging to some government official. Power does have its perquisites! One or two private cars too were seen on the road to the park entrance. We were told that they belonged to guests staying at the Rajasthan Tourism Bungalow and will not be allowed to enter the park.
A little before the main entrance lies a museum named after famous ornithologist Dr Salim Ali. The rickshaw pullers stopped there and encouraged us to spend some time at the museum. They particularly talked about a statue of a bird that is studded with Swarovski crystals worth several million rupees. The museum was good, but there was no staff around to greet and brief the visitors and we exited rather quickly apparently to the chagrin of the rickshaw pullers.
It was almost 45 minutes by the time we entered the Park. Once inside, the change in the landscape was noticeable. We were in the wetlands for which this park is known. We, along with other rickshaws riding visitors, did stop over every 50 meters or so to look at a bird or other wild animals like deer, jackals, bulls et al. At our fourth or fifth stop and just as we were starting to feel that the pains we had taken to visit the park were worthwhile, one of the rickshaw pullers informed us that the first hour of hire was about to be over. He also cautioned us that if we go farther, we might cross the two hour mark indicated by us and will have to shell out another ₹150 per rickshaw. I think that similar caution was sounded by other rickshaw pullers too, because most of the rickshaws turned back from that point. Another consideration was that the sun was also about to set and the gates were to be closed at sunset.
On the way back the rickshaw pullers seemed to undergo a sudden transformation! They lost their perpetually tired look and started pedalling vigorously instead of pulling the rickshaw. We reached the main entrance in much less than an hour! Had they displayed the same energy on their way to the park, we would easily have got another quarter of an hour to spend in the wetlands.
.
As we started back for Agra, we requested the driver to stop over for a cup of tea. His reply got us much worried. He said that it would be advisable to stop only after we had crossed back into the state of UP. The reason given by him was as follows. The taxi was registered in UP and had an All India Permit. Yet, according to the information given by the driver, we were technically required to pay a fee of close to ₹1000 for entering Rajasthan state. As it had not been paid, we were liable to pay 10 times by way of fine if challenged by a policeman. We cursed him for not giving this information to us earlier. However we were into UP pretty soon and could breathe easy and enjoy our tea.
The lessons learnt are as follows:
(Continued from Part II of this post series)
This photo of Keoladeo National Park is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Though the name Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary lingers on, the national park has now been named "Keoladeo National Park (KNP.)" This did initially confuse me as I was looking for a signage with the old name.
KNP is about 25 kms from Fatehpur Sikri. The road is good and we reached the park in time, about 2 hours before the scheduled closure. My son joined the ticket queue while I looked around and made inquiries. The sanctuary gate is about 1.5 kms away from the ticketing gate. Private vehicles are not allowed beyond the ticketing gate. There is a Rajasthan Tourism Hotel just outside the sanctuary gate and the guests may drive down to the Lodge.
As our party was tired because of the Fatehpur Sikri tour, walking down to the sanctuary was ruled out. There was a cycle rental but they had run out of bicycles. The only other option was to hire rickshaws at ₹150 per hour and the minimum estimated time for a quick visit was 2 hours. As there were six of us, we had to hire 3 rickshaws as each is designed to seat no more than 2 persons. A few guides were available and if we hired one, naturally yet another rickshaw will be needed for this person. As we did not have much time at our disposal, we hired just three rickshaws and pushed off without further haggling. Other tourists too were doing the same.
The road was bad and the rickshaw-pullers did have a haggard look and they kept pulling the rickshaw instead of pedalling. Two of the elder pullers were talkative while the third, a young lad, was the quiet type. On the way the rickshaw pullers did stop a few times even before the park entrance and pointed out to some local looking birds. One of them described them as migrants from Bangladesh, while the other said it was a local bird. The first one nodded in agreement and added that the bird had settled down in this area a long time ago. They also showed us a few peacocks roaming around a Hanuman Temple close to the road.
Though there was no mention of this mode of transport at the entrance, on our way we did see a battery powered car carrying a few passengers. Upon inquiry, the rickshaw pullers said that it was meant only for VIP visitors. Later, we also saw a vehicle inside the park belonging to some government official. Power does have its perquisites! One or two private cars too were seen on the road to the park entrance. We were told that they belonged to guests staying at the Rajasthan Tourism Bungalow and will not be allowed to enter the park.
A little before the main entrance lies a museum named after famous ornithologist Dr Salim Ali. The rickshaw pullers stopped there and encouraged us to spend some time at the museum. They particularly talked about a statue of a bird that is studded with Swarovski crystals worth several million rupees. The museum was good, but there was no staff around to greet and brief the visitors and we exited rather quickly apparently to the chagrin of the rickshaw pullers.
It was almost 45 minutes by the time we entered the Park. Once inside, the change in the landscape was noticeable. We were in the wetlands for which this park is known. We, along with other rickshaws riding visitors, did stop over every 50 meters or so to look at a bird or other wild animals like deer, jackals, bulls et al. At our fourth or fifth stop and just as we were starting to feel that the pains we had taken to visit the park were worthwhile, one of the rickshaw pullers informed us that the first hour of hire was about to be over. He also cautioned us that if we go farther, we might cross the two hour mark indicated by us and will have to shell out another ₹150 per rickshaw. I think that similar caution was sounded by other rickshaw pullers too, because most of the rickshaws turned back from that point. Another consideration was that the sun was also about to set and the gates were to be closed at sunset.
On the way back the rickshaw pullers seemed to undergo a sudden transformation! They lost their perpetually tired look and started pedalling vigorously instead of pulling the rickshaw. We reached the main entrance in much less than an hour! Had they displayed the same energy on their way to the park, we would easily have got another quarter of an hour to spend in the wetlands.
.
As we started back for Agra, we requested the driver to stop over for a cup of tea. His reply got us much worried. He said that it would be advisable to stop only after we had crossed back into the state of UP. The reason given by him was as follows. The taxi was registered in UP and had an All India Permit. Yet, according to the information given by the driver, we were technically required to pay a fee of close to ₹1000 for entering Rajasthan state. As it had not been paid, we were liable to pay 10 times by way of fine if challenged by a policeman. We cursed him for not giving this information to us earlier. However we were into UP pretty soon and could breathe easy and enjoy our tea.
The lessons learnt are as follows:
- If you plan to visit Keoladeo National Park, spare one whole day for it and stay at the Rajasthan tourism Bungalow. The Bungalow, as mentioned earlier, is just outside the main entrance to the Park.
- If your taxi does not have a Rajasthan state registration, do pay the requisite entry fee. It does not apply to private cars.
- If you not staying in the Govt Tourist Bungalow, arrive early so as to be able to spend 5 to 6 hours at the park.
- If you can walk 7 to 8 kilometers, walking is the best option. Next best will be to rent a bicycle. Keep the rickshaw as the last option. The ride is not comfortable and 6 hours will set you back by ₹900 per rickshaw.
- Do carry good binoculars. Licensed rickshawpullers and guides are supposed to have binoculars and the rental / guide fee includes use of binoculars. The ones we hired were not licensed but were still operating taking advantage of huge demand.
Government will do well to arrange battery cars for visitors. This would make things easy for everyone.
Back to the hotel, we had dinner and went to bed early so we could get up early for our visit to the Taj Mahal. An account of that will form the fourth and the last post in this series.
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