Students rally in aid of Bharatpur sanctuary

Nearly 5,000 students, wild life conservationists and concerned citizens today joined a rally and mass prayer for saving Keoladeo National Park, the unique water birds sanctuary at Bharatpur, from extinction in want of water.

Nearly 5,000 students, wild life conservationists and concerned citizens today joined a rally and mass prayer here on Thursday for saving Keoladeo National Park, the unique water birds sanctuary at Bharatpur, from extinction in want of water.

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The rally converged at 150-year-old Albert Hall in Ram Niwas Garden this morning where noted Sanskrit scholar and chairman of 'Protect Keoladeo National Park Committee' Pandit Akhilesh Kumar Sharma led a Vedic prayer invoking god for peace to nature and every living organism.

Any delay in release of water to the sanctuary from Panchana dam would be proved catastrophic for the unique habitat of thousdands of birds species, said Krishna Kumar, the honorary secretary of Keoladeo Natural History Society.

The Panchana dam had stopped natural flow of river Gambhiri to the park and the state government was buckling under pressure from farmers' lobby for reserving the entire water in the dam for agriculture by not (not) releasing 500 million cufic feet water needed for the park despite the fact that the reservoir was full to the brim this year, he said.

Raising their hands rallyists, carrying placards and banners, demanded release of water from Panchana dam to the park for saving the fragile eco-system in the sanctuary threatened by drying up of the shallow lake spread in 11 km area recognised by UNICEF as a World Heritage Site.

The rally and the prayer were organised by Tourism and Wildlife Society of India (TWSI) whose general secretary Harsh Vardhan hoped that good sense would prevail upon the state government and the water from the dam would be released soon.