The Keoladeo National Park, which was made a World Heritage Site in the year of 1985, is situated in Rajasthan. Huge flocks of breeding birds are found over here and this has made the Keoladeo National park quite popular. This is also a very important wintering location for the Palaearctic migratory birds, especially the waterfowls.
Keoladeo National Park, which is also known as “The Bird Paradise”, was developed in the 19th century and was made a duck shooting reserve. The development of Keoladeo National Park was carried out in natural depression wetland. Even though it was initially developed with the purpose of making it a duck shooting reserve, in the year of 1982 the hunting was stopped and prohibited and since then it has been declared as a national park. There is a water reservoir outside the park that guarantees a regulated water supply. The park has a very interesting system of arrangements of dykes and sluices. This arrangement offers uneven water depth which is useful for different bird species.
Keoladeo National Park is located in the middle of migratory flyway of Central Asia. Due to this location and presence of good amount of water one could see huge flocks of different species of birds like ducks, geese, coots, waders and pelicans coming into this area each year. The Keoladeo National Park is perhaps the only wintering site of the endangered bird Siberian Crane’s central population. The park serves as a wintering area for many other endangered species like the Imperial eagle and Greater spotted Eagle. In breeding season one can enjoy the magnificent heronry that is formed by 15 species of birds like herons, cormorants, spoonbills, storks and ibis. During this time there are more than 20,000 birds nest that are present in a well-flooded are.
The Keoladeo National Park, which was once used as duck hunting reserve by the Maharajas, has now become a very popular tourist attraction. One must pay a visit to this place to enjoy the splendid beauty of different species of birds.