With 2004 being a good monsoon year I eagerly planned a December 2004 visit to Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, India – which is a world-class park for migratory waterfowl and known as a winter sanctuary for the endangered Siberian Crane. However, this year’s visit was a disappointment! Out of 5 trips to Bharatpur this was the driest yet – and this was a wet monsoon year! However, what I found out was that much of the park is dependant upon irrigation from a nearby reservoir and with this year’s politics the farmers won all the water and the wildlife reserve lost it all.

Once again – even in a dry year Keoladeo has much to offer (as I hope my pictures show) – but this is no longer the world class park I am familiar with and unless a water solution is found I fear that Keoladeo is destined to be a “has been” – which would be a terrible loss.

Pictures taken with the Canon EOS 10D, 500mm f/4, 100-400IS, 50mm macro or 15mm fisheye – with various combinations of 1.4x, 2x and 550EX flash.