The
Keoladeo
National park, a World
Heritage Site which was previously the private duck shooting preserve of the Maharaja
of Bharatpur,
designated as bird sanctuary on 13 March 1956 and a National Park on 10th March 1982 was included in the World Heritage
List in 1985. It was also notified as Ramsar Site in
October 1981.
Keoladeo National
Park consists of an area of 2873 hectare (28.73 sq.kms). It has flat
patchwork marshes in the Gangetic plain
, artificially created in 1850. Normally, water is fed into the marshes
twice a year from inundations of the Gambhir and Banganga rivers, which are impounded on arable land by
means of a artificial dam called Ajan
Bund, to the south of the park. For most of the year, the area of wetland is
only 1,000ha.In a semi-arid biotype, the park is the only area with much
vegetation, hence the term ‘Ghana’
meaning ‘thicket’ is also used for it.
The park was the last
known wintering ground in India
of the western population of Siberian crane Grus
leucogeranus. During the winter of 1984-85, a
decade-high total of 41 birds had visited the Park. However, the numbers have
been steadily decreasing and in the winter of 1993 and 1994, none were
observed. In 1996, four birds wintered in the Park, and in 1997 two adults and
young birds were seen. Thereafter, a pair was observed in the year 2001- 02,
after which there have been no sightings so far. The park’s location in the Gangetic Plain makes it an unrivalled breeding site for
herons, storks and cormorants and an important wintering ground for large
number of migrant ducks. The most common waterfowl are gadwall, shoveler, teals, tufted duck, painted stork, white
spoonbill, darter warblers, babblers, bee –eater. Several other threatened
avifauna species are also found, including Dalmatian pelican, spot–billed
pelican, lesser and greater adjutants, Baer’s pochard,
cinereous vulture.
In addition to birds,
both migratory and resident, the Park has a population of primates, small
carnivores like Bengal Fox, Jackal, etc and ungulates like blackbuck, Chital
etc.
Migratory Birds
A total of 375 species of
birds including Siberian cranes visited the Park in the early days, out of
which 111 were migratory species and 264 were resident species.
Decrease in number of birds
One of the most important
reasons for the decrease in the number of migratory birds visiting Keoladeo
National Park is the
shortage of water in the park. The main sources of water to the park are a
temporary reservoir, viz, the Ajan
dam that gets water from the River Gambhir. The
construction of Panchana dam across the river Gambhir has added to the misery.
Other major management
related problems also mar the situation. Keoladeo National Park has a dynamic and fragile
ecosystem. The source of water, its quantity and quality are major factors
affecting the wetland of the Park. Water scenario is the most crucial factor
for the survival of wetland. Water from the Ajan Dam
is supplied by the irrigation department to the park and to nearby agricultural
fields. The time of releases of water to the park is vital for growth of
aquatic plants, breeding of heronry species and the overall seasonality of
factor in survival of wetlands. The years 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004 were
drought years. With harnessing of river Gambhir at Panchana dam in district Karauli,
the water supply to Ajan dam has been further
curtailed. Availability of water to the park is an issue of concern.
The Annual Requirement of
water to maintain the wetland character of the Keoladeo National Park is about 14 million cubic
feet water. As per the report of Water Resource Department of Government of Rajasthan, the Park has a maximum storage
capacity of about 550 million cubic feet of water. A study conducted by Late
Dr. Salim Ali and Dr.V.S. Vijayan, estimated the
requirement of annual water supply in the range of 14 million cubic
meter, i.e, about
493 million cubic feet of water, balance requirement is met by rainfall over the National Park.
The water problem in the
Park began after the drought
in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004 caused water scarcity in the Park.
The construction of the Panchana dam across the river
Gambhir during the years 2003-04 had compounded the
water problem in the park. As the
capacity of the Panchana dam, initially designed in
the year 1979, for storing 610 million cubic feet of water was raised to store
2100 million cubic feet of water. This has led to a situation, where very little
water flows down stream of the dam.
The Park has suffered in
the last couple of years due to disrupted coupling of ‘Ajan-Keoladeo’
connections. The past years have been years of drought and therefore the
required quantity of water from the Ajan dam could
not be made available to Park. During the year 2006, the monsoons also failed
causing lot of damage.
Water Scarcity
The major reasons
attributed for the water scarcity in the Park are increase in the storage
capacity of Panchana dam from 610 cubic feet to 2100
million cubic feet thereby allowing very little flow of water downstream. Added
to this are failure of monsoon, breach in the canal and river system, leakage
of water through the damaged sluice gates, transmission losses like seepage,
evaporation and percolation and illegal lifting of water from the channels by
farmers.
The major effects of
water scarcity can
be seen in various forms. Over the years, the habitat quality has degraded
significantly. Invasion of weed species has outpaced the reclamation efforts
resulting in invasion of Prosopis in all the
ecosystems of the Park. Increase in anthropogenic pressures resulting in
people-park conflicts.
The other major
management problem being faced in the Park is the invasive species growth. Prosopis juliflora, an
obnoxious weed has invaded the entire park and this has adversely affected the
habitat of woodland, grassland and lakes.
Further, the presence of
feral, i.e. undomesticated cattle also poses a management problem to the park.
Feral cattle generate biotic pressure over the feeding ground of herbivores and
these also become a cause of spreading/transmission of certain cattle diseases
to the animals.
To mitigate the water
problem in the Park, the state government has taken some long term and short
term measures. Deep bore wells have been dug up at important points. To meet the annual water requirement of the
park of about 550 million cubic feet, two strategies have been worked out.
Firstly, the State Government
has completed the Chiksana canal project which would
provide about 200 million cubic feet of water to the Park. This project has
been completed at an estimated cost of Rs. 41 lakhs. The second step is regarding Govardhan
drain Project. The total project cost
proposed by the State Government is Rs. 65.00 crores. The Project envisages channelisation
of water from Govardhan drain and is expected to meet
water deficit in the park during July-September months. The park will get water
through diversion and lifting of floodwater of Yamuna River. The project also envisages
diversion of water during monsoon through underground pipes with lifting
arrangements over a length of 16 km from the off-take point of Govardhan drain near Santruk
village. This project proposal has been submitted to Planning Commission by the
State Government.
An expert team from
Planning Commission along with representative from the Ministry visited Bharatpur. The team had recommended release from Anja Bund and Bees Mora to meet 50% of the water
requirement of Keoladeo National Park, channelise surplus floodwater from Govardhan drain to meet the water deficit, cost of the
project may be met through Additional Central Assistance to be released by the
Planning Commission and Cost for operation and maintenance for the remaining 4
years be shared equally 50% each by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and
the Government of Rajasthan.
Chambal- Dholpur-
Bharatpur Water Supply Project
This is basically a
Public Health Engineering (PHE) drinking water project for people of Bharatpur. As per the conditions laid down by the Indian
Board of Wildlife certain quantity of water is to be made available to the
Park.
Under this project the Chambal water will be brought to this park through an 8-
km, long pipeline after pumping at two stations. This water will be capable of
providing enough
fishes to the piscivorous birds
resulting in the formation of breeding
colonies during lean monsoon periods as
well. This project would provide about 310 million cubic feet water to the Park
every year for the first four years and 62.5 million cubic feet of water every
year four years.
The Government has released Rs 212.30 lakhs from 2002 to 2009 to
mitigate water problems under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Integrated
Development of Wildlife Habitats”. In
addition to this, all technical support is being provided by the Government.
Additional efforts have
been taken to Restore the world heritage status. An
externally aided project has been undertaken titled “World Heritage
Bio-diversity Programme for India: Building
Partnerships to Support UNESCO’s World Heritage programme’.
The project is an outcome of a planning grant received from the UNESCO &
United Nation Foundation (UNF) and was developed under the guidance of Project
Steering Committee.
The total period of the
project is 10 years with two phases, viz, Phase-I
four years and Phase –II of six years. The project is to be undertaken in four
world Heritage Sites of India, Kaziranga
National Park, Manas National
Park, Nanda
Devi National
Park, and Keoladeo National
Park.
The main focus of the
Project is on strengthening capacity for effective management; site level
Management policies and Governance; enhancing the role of local communities in conservation of
biodiversity; enhancing habitat connectivity; restoration of lost attributes;
enhancing habitat connectivity; restoration of lost attributes and research
& monitoring and identification of potential World Heritage Bio-diversity sites.
Missions of the UNESCO-
World Heritage Centre, Pairs and IUCN, had visited the Manas
National Park & Heritage Site, Assam
in February 2008, and another had visited the Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur,
Rajasthan to look into the conservation programmes of the Heritage Sites.
RTS/VN
SS-40/SF-40/11.02.2010