Keoladea Ghana National Park

Keoladeo Ghana is a very small national park only 29 km2 in size, which lies on the outskirts of the city of Bharatpur in eastern Rajasthan. From the park it is only 55 km to Agra and the Taj Mahal to the east and around 180 km to India’s capital city, Dehli, to the north west.

Despite its very limited size the park is of such great importance to the birdlife, that it has been included on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. Keoladeo Ghana is considered to be one of the world’s best bird reserves, where you can see an impressive number of different species in a single day. Around 230 species of birds live here permanently, but when you include the migratory birds for which this park is extremely important, the total number of species recorded here rises to at least 370. It is in particular the stork, herons, wild fowl and waders that dominate the picture here, but you can also see many eagles and plenty of colourful smaller birds. Most of the parks visitors are taken around the park in a Rickshaw that is driven by a local guide, as the road into the park may only be used if you have a special permit.

The vegetation here is a mosaic of, meadows, forest, grasslands dotted with medium sized trees and shrubs, artificially managed wetlands, and open water.  The latter two cover around one third of the park, more during the monsoon between July and September, and somewhat less during the hot, dry months from April to June.

Keoladeo Ghana is also home to a population of Nilgai antelope, Axis deer, wild boar and macaque monkeys. There are no large predators, only smaller species such as otters, mongooses, jackals and a number of species of wild cat (fishing-, leopard- and jungle cat). There are plenty of fish in the waters here, and you can also see frogs, monitor lizards and turtles, and it is often easy to see pythons basking in the sun near the water.

Highlights:

• World famous bird reserve, where you can enjoy bird watching from a Rickshaw along with its driver/guide
• Wetlands with an unusually rich avifauna, and an important rest stop for migratory birds
• Good populations of fish, reptiles and amphibians and a number of large mammals in this small park

High Season: October to May