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A deserving gift for Keoladeo birds

JAIPUR: Call it a victory gift from the Centre to the newly formed Congress Government in Rajasthan if you wish, but the birds deserved it. In a path breaking gesture, the Planning Commission has sanctioned Rs.20 crore to the Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur for ensuring adequate water supply during the nesting and breeding season to this World Heritage site. The Planning Commission has acted on a proposal put forth about two years back by the previous Government after a series of droughts plagued the wetland threatening its very status among the world’s best marshes and unusual breeding ground for a large number of birds.

The money is for working on the existing Govardhan drain in the neighbourhood of the 29 sq km sanctuary, once known for the annual visit of the rare Siberian Cranes, to channelize the flood waters of the Yamuna. The total project, worth Rs.65 crore, includes construction of a 20 km pipeline besides carrying out repairs along the 26-km long existing canal, built some time back and now in a state of disrepair. “This is victory for the birds. The Planning Commission gesture means a lot to the Park which was facing the threat of losing its Heritage Site status,” R.N. Mehrotra, Chief Wildlife Warden, who was in Keoladeo Park when the good news came from the Centre on Thursday, said talking to The Hindu on phone from there. “The good tidings have come when the Park is witnessing plenty of nesting and breeding after gap of a few years,” he said.

However, environmentalists who have been working on strategies to save the park from “extinction” are not fully happy. “I am happy about the release of Rs.20 crores for Keoladeo Park but it could have been the full amount of Rs.65 crore had the previous Government in the State not written to the Centre seeking diversion of the fund meant for the Park project to the Chhabra power plant to serve the political interest of the previous Chief Minister,” Harsh Vardhan, noted environmentalist and crusader for Keoladeo, said.

A Planning Commission team had visited the Keoladeo Park in August to study the proposal from the Forest Department. While their visit enlivened the hopes of park lovers, the threat of losing the Heritage Status loomed large after a visit by a team from the UNESCO. Then the proposal got into procedural delays, which led the State Govt. volunteering to announce Rs.12.50 crore from its side to start work.

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