Visit to Keoladeo National Park, Bhartpur

To extend the research work more in a positive direction and give a new horizon to practical exposure a one day educational trip was organised to Keoladeo national park, Bharatpur by CUBE, Jaipur, Department of Biotechnology with Department of Zoology. Dr. Pradeep Bhatnagar, Dr. Sreemoyee Chatterjee and Dr. Lopamudra Guha accompanied the group of students on 20th January, 2018. The trip started with the introduction about the national park .The sanctuary was named after a Keoladeo (Shiva) temple within its boundaries. This sanctuary was declared a national park on 10 March 1982. The park is full of wide diversity of flora and fauna and speaks about the beauty inhabitated by our country. The 29 km² (11 sq miles) reserve is locally known as Ghana, and is a mosaic of dry grasslands, woodlands, woodland swamps and wetlands. These diverse habitats are home to 366 bird species, 379 floral species, 50 species of fish, 13 species of snakes, 5 species of lizards, 7 amphibian species, 7 turtle species, and a variety of other invertebrates.  Every year thousands of migratory waterfowl visit the park for wintering and breeding. The flora includes famous meswak tere which is major ingredient of the ayurvedic toothpaste. The other diversity of flora include Capparis decidua, baboon, lemon grass which attracts Indian bird Treron phoenicoptera (yellow footed green pigeon). One third of the Keoladeo National Park habitat is wetland systems with varying types of microhabitats having trees, mounds, dykes and open water with or without submerged or emergent plants. The bird species include the adorable oriental magpie robbin, common teal, parakeet were observed where males bear moustaches and light red coloured ring on neck which make them different from female parakeet. The other include gadwall, shoveler, oriental ibis, sarus crane with its spectacular courtship dance , babblers , crested serpent eagle , spotted eagle , purple hyreon , whistling duck , bar headed geese, intermediate egret. Mammalian species include nilgai, chameleon, soft shelled turtle, and chital deer. Such a wide variety of diversity soothes eyes of one observing it. The world is big and we all want to have a look at it too before it gets dark and we got an opportunity to have a glimpse of that fascinating world with a big bag full of knowledge.