Bharatpur may lose heritage status

The Keoladeo National Park, that houses the world-famous sanctuary, may lose its world heritage status owning to falling water levels and disappearing migratory birds, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jan 14, 2008, 01:14:11 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Keoladeo National Park, that houses the world-famous Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary in Rajasthan, may lose its world heritage status owning to falling water levels and disappearing migratory birds.

“I am afraid that the present situation may lead to Keoladeo National Park being put on the danger list of Unesco’s World Heritage Site, which may possibly lead to the withdrawal of the World Heritage Site status itself”, Tourism Minister Ambika Soni said in a letter to the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje.

Several members of Parliament and environmentalists had expressed concern over shortage of water in the park leading to a fall in number of migratory birds arriving this winter. They had also pointed out that many of the local birds have also started avoiding the park because it has become nearly arid.

Fayaz Khudsar, an environmentalist, said there is not enough water to sustain wildlife in the park.

In two years’ time, the park will turn into a woodland with marshy area getting converted into arid zone with growth of ‘vilayati kikar’,” he said.

The tourism minister has asked the Rajasthan chief minister to intervene personally to ensure that effective steps are taken to revive the park.

“The continued status of Keoladeo National Park as a World Heritage Site is an important issue for which action will be required from all concerned agencies,” she said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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