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Keoladeo National Park
Within
the golden triangle of tourism (Delhi -Agra - Jaipur)
lies a formerly Jat princely State of Bharatpur.It
is the
Eastern most town of Rajasthan. Keoladeo
Ghana was created by one of the Maharajas of
Bharatpur.
In fact,
he got inspired by a visit to Britain
where he was invited for duck shooting by
his royal hosts and
after
arriving here he created his own reserve for the same purpose
so that he can in turn play host to the royal
guests and
Indian notables. As a result the existing marshland was
deepened and extended to attract water fowls and
later the
tracks and dykes were constructed to make the area more
accessible. Viceroy Lord Curzon inaugurated the first official
duck shoot on December 1, 1902 in the company of
Commanding-in-Chief, Lord Kitchner. The party shot
540 birds. The Viceroy and Governor General of India Lord
Linlithgow was the top scorer who downed no less than 4273
birds in a day on November 12, 1938 (3044 birds were killed in
the morning and 1229 in the afternoon) the world record of duck
shooting . The last duck shooting took place in 1964-1965 but
Maharaja himself retained his personal shooting right until 1972.
Thanks to the Late Dr. Salim Ali and timely action of
forest department of Rajasthan that the duck shooting forest was
declared as Keoladeo Ghana Bird Sanctuary in March, 1956 .
Subsequently
in August, 1981 under section 35 of the wildlife protection act
,1972 it was declared national park, the Keoladeo
National Park (KNP) a magnificent marsh,
heaven for the birds. It is named
"Keolaadeo" after the
name of a
temple of lord Shiva in the heart of the park.
It was declared "World Heritage Site" by UNESCO
in 1985.The estimated number of visitors have reached over
100,000 annually.
50 species of fishes , 5 species of amphibians, 8 species of lizards, 13 species of snakes,7 species of turtles, 375 species of birds and 27 species of mammals have been reported from the park . A total of 35 species belonging to 19 genera of 7 families of butterflies have also been reported.
The
Cycle rickshaw and Tonga are available at barrier and main gate.
Electric van of the park is also available for visiting the park.
The local administration of the park on request, arrange a
movie "The birds of Indian Mansoon"
to the
visitors.
No part of this website may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system form or by any means copying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the management team. Website inaugurated by hon'ble chief minister of rajasthan. All right reserved 2000-2001 |
