When you hunt for WHS there are sites you pick up along the road, but that you didn't really plan for. Keoladeo and nearby Fatipur Sikri to a lesser extent were such sites for me.

The principal town of the area, Agra, featured high on my travel bucked list for India: As every other tourist to India, I wanted to see the Taj Mahal. With this fix point set it followed that I should also visit the sites of the area, including a national park renown for birds.

Now, I am not much of a birder, rather the opposite. And India tends to be highly settled with very little original nature left. In this case even more so, as the wetland that forms the national park is an artificial creation by the English to attract birds for... hunting. So what to make of this national park?

The hunting is over, but the birds still stop here during their migration to and from the Himalayas. And plenty of birds there were. All trees were lined with them. Add to this that the national park was covered in fog, so my visit had a mystic quality to it. Personally, I enjoyed Keoladeo more than the Taj. But dont' listen to me.

As a final, sad note, I have to state that the park is in danger. The water feeding the wetland is scarce and it may dry up. In addition, on my walk I found several protected areas that were subject to logging activities.

Getting There

I stayed in Agra and visited both Keoladeo and Fatipur Sikri as a day trip. In the morning I took a bus to Bharatpur for Keoladeo. In Keoladeo I managed everything on foot. Alternative would have been to take a rikscha, but I think visiting on foot was nice.

After my visit, I caught another bus back to Agra. I got off at the junction for Fatepur Sikri and walked to the site.

While You Are There

While Agra is a miserable place, the area has four WHS, the most popular being the Taj Mahal. From Agra you can travel to Jaipur or Delhi by train.