Most day trips from Agra are to more monuments. This one is to a marsh. Keoladeo National Park, at Bharatpur in Rajasthan, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the best-known bird reserves in Asia, and it lies on the same road west out of Agra that passes Fatehpur Sikri. After two days of marble and crowds, it is a change of subject.
In this article
A Wetland That Was Built
Keoladeo is not a natural lake. It is a shallow depression that the rulers of Bharatpur turned into a wetland with a system of earth embankments and sluices, and then used as a duck-shooting reserve. Stone tablets inside the park still record the bags taken by visiting viceroys and princes.
Shooting ended in the twentieth century. The reserve became a national park in 1982 and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1985; it is also a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The name comes from the old Shiva temple, Keoladeo, that stands inside it. Many people still call it by its earlier name, the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary.
What You See
Well over three hundred species of bird have been recorded in the park. Some live here all year, among them the sarus crane, the tall grey crane with a red head that is usually seen in pairs. After the monsoon, painted storks, herons, egrets, cormorants and spoonbills nest together in the trees standing in the water. In winter, ducks, geese and other migrants arrive from Central Asia and further north.
The park was once famous as a wintering ground for the Siberian crane. Those birds have not been seen here since the early 2000s, and anyone promising you one is mistaken.
It is not only birds. Nilgai, spotted deer, sambar, jackals and wild boar are common, and rock pythons sun themselves near their burrows on cold mornings.
Getting Around Without a Car
Private vehicles are stopped a short way inside the gate. Beyond that point you walk, hire a bicycle, or take a cycle rickshaw along the raised road that runs through the middle of the wetland.
The rickshaw is the usual choice and a good one. The authorised pullers have worked the park for years, many have been trained to identify birds, and they tend to spot things well before you do. Rates are set by the park and displayed at the entrance; agree the length of the ride before you set off. Registered naturalist guides can also be hired at the gate.
When to Go
Winter is the main season: the migrants are in, the weather is comfortable, and early mornings are misty and full of activity. The weeks after the monsoon are the time for the nesting colonies. High summer is hot, much of the water dries out, and there is far less to see.
The wetland depends on the monsoon and on water released into it, so conditions differ from year to year. If birds are the reason for your trip, ask about water levels before you commit a day. Our guide to Agra's seasons covers the weather for the rest of the region.
Planning the Day From Agra
Bharatpur is west of Agra, a little beyond Fatehpur Sikri on the road to Jaipur. The best hours in the park are the first of the morning and the last of the afternoon, so a day trip means an early start. Bharatpur also has a railway station on a main line, though a car gives you more control over the timing.
Two combinations work. Leave Agra before dawn, spend the morning in the park and stop at Fatehpur Sikri on the way back. Or, if you are travelling on to Jaipur, take both on the way, as many Golden Triangle itineraries do. For getting to Agra in the first place, see Delhi to Agra by train, car and expressway.
Practical Notes
Entry fees, rickshaw rates and opening times are set by the park authorities and the Rajasthan Forest Department and change; check the official source before you go. Bring binoculars if you have them, water, a hat, and a warm layer for winter mornings, which are colder on an open rickshaw than you expect.
Keep to the paths, keep your voice down, and do not feed anything. If you are back in Agra by evening, Tajnuma serves pure vegetarian Mughlai food on Fatehabad Road until midnight.
