Click to play videoJaipur: A few months ago in Barmer district, all one could see was sand dunes in Kawas and Malwa villages. But then unprecedented floods hit the villages in August. Now, due to the high gypsum content in the soil and the water, which has not receded, it is a perfect setting for migratory birds to settle down for the winter.
“At night we hear strange sounds of water creatures, these are birds and fishes we have never seen before,” a farmer in Kawas, Guman Singh says.
Though, demoiselle cranes have a long history of wintering in the Thar belt, it is waders, pintails and coots that many of these villagers are seeing for the first time.
It is said that the birds are being driven to this region because of another year of severe water scarcity in the world famous Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.
Environmentalists say the situation in Bharatpur is precarious. “It’s all dry, so what you see in Keoladeo are just some land and arboreal birds and those, too, are very few in numbers,” an environmentalist in Jaipur, Harsh Vardhan says.
The state government blames the Centre for the sorry state of affairs in Bharatpur, repeating its demand for release of funds for a Rs 109-crore water project for the region.
So, while there are birds chirruping around the lakes in Barmer after the floods, in Keoladeo National Park, which is Rajasthan's traditional bird habitat, the winged guests have not kept their date with this season.
Birds don't vote and so are hardly a concern for the politicians. But at least some birds of Bharatpur seem to have found a place to stay this winter.
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