I was in Bharatpur on 25th January and am posting to give an idea of what Bharatpur is like without water. This was my first visit and although some of the information I will give will not be new to more experienced birders who go to India regularly it might help independant birders like myself who aren't expert but who prefer to not pay the high prices of guided tours!
Bharatpur without water can only be compared to Minsmere without any water on the scrapes or meres and and just a couple of canals and dipping ponds, it is that bad. That said we saw 78spp of bird including Indian Courser and Orange Headed Ground Thrush. I have visited India on two previous occasions so was relatively au fait with a lot of the common birds. We arrived at the gates at 6.30am to take as much advantage of the one day we had as we broke away from a tour. As other threads have mentioned there are other places better than Bharatpur that had water but as it is a Mecca for birdwatchers and we wanted to go. Also it was only 55km from Agra and the other options were 90km+. We the hired a registered guide which was an experience I would like to give some advice which I hope is useful:
1) Agree the rate per hour at the start (currently 70/-RS or 85p an hour)
2) Agree the number of hours before you start including any lunch break
3) Tell the guide exactly what you want to see, do not trust that he will show you everything.
4) You will have to pay for the guide's rickshaw as well as your own.
As the cost is low by our standards it may seem churlish to argue over a such low amounts but if people get away with it the cost will inflate over time. Also, why pay for poor service irrespective of local incomes etc? I say this because we spent 45 minutes having tea with our guide in the park hotel, then 45 minutes at lunch (a scam is to buy the guide lunch, he got a beer but no lunch). We broke off at 11.40am at precisely the point where he could've shown us Indian Courser and the took us back 4 hours later. Spent 30 minutes chasing after a guide with a tour party that wasn't registered as being able to guide in the park forcing the other party to be delayed. Took us to his village and tried for another tea break at his house on the basis that Brown Bush Chat could only be seen there and not in the park (untrue). He told our driver to come back at 5pm without discussing it with us. Basically our guide (his name was Sato) did everything to string the day out in an underhand way, after I questioned why we returned to the spot we had left off he was evasive and after some firm words became compliant with my requests. He then tried to charge 850/-Rs when we had been with him for 10 hours of which 2 had been inactive or we did not have his undivided attention. He got 700/-RS (10 hours) which was a pity as he wasn't that bad and I would've paid him what he asked if he hadn't so blatently tried to scam as much money as he could.
Anyway, hope this helps
Yes it helps-we have to be carefull with people like that and i know it isnt the money but the princple of it-i hope you dont mind a question-can we on our own go there and see birds without a guide-are there rules that we must have a quide-i would like to know-i may be going to India sometimes in July(may be) and was thinking of a one day trip there.Thanks for your report but could you let us know what birds were seen by you so that at least i would know what to expect.Thank you very much for your report and Regards.
My wife and I were also at Bharutpur, 18th-21st this year ,being booked into the Ashok hotel inside the reserve an experience in itself, staff doing their best in a rundown hotel.
We had guide problems similar to Montagu, our guide "Baney Singh" seemed to be recommended , we experienced treks throughout the reserve chasing shadows , he rarely looked through his binoculars , never carried a fieldguide book , was constantly on his mobile phone or had his hands in pockets as if out on a stroll,he also insisted that he was to accompany us on our onward trip to Chambal as our guide!!! No way matey!!!we went on a day tour to Bund Barathur with him and he was not interested in anything, he wanted to walk us from the dam area across the areas where birds were feeding which would he said get us nearer to them, the birds would have moved further away.....again talked constantly on his mobile....he stalled getting us back when we informed him we were dispensing with his services and telephoning the travel company hoping that we wopuld not be able to contact them. Our trip was all booked through an Indian travel company months beforehand, they came to our rescue and changed guide and driver immediately and we cannot fault their services
www.indianmoments.com
We ended up seeing more birds throughout the reserve whilst walking on our own in one afternoon than with this man.
We encountered another guide telling a group of non birding American women that Plain Prinia were Chiffchaff !!!!!.
The site as a whole .....well its dying [ we last visited in 1996 ] we wished we had stayed away this time, we saw 80 species of bird there which in all was not that bad considering conditions.In 96 we saw 50+ in the first hour. Invasive shrubs with sharp thorns are overrunning the place apparently because there was no monsoon this year! Will there be water there again? policy seems to direct that water that is in the canals is directed to the farmers.
Also the reserve seems to be turning into some sort of theme park Indian Nationals now also have mobile phones and move through with them tuned to radio stations ! a no noise rule is not enforced there is a constant noise from deisel pumps raising water so the cattle that infringe on the reserve can drink. Groups of people travel along the main roadway shouting and what few birds are in the locality disappear into the interior, If nothing is done this reserve will very soon become part of local farmland, Dr Salim Ali's work all in vain, we doubt we will return again.
Two other points, certain guides are not adverse to finding birds by forceful methods ...on looking for roosting Nightjars, two proceeded to stir up the leaf litter with sticks....We also heard from other birders that one guide was seen to grab the tail of a Python that was going into a hole, so that his clients would not miss it !
Sorry Bharutpur we are going elsewhere next visit to India,it will take a very big improvement of the sites management to lure us back, our four days was too long, a half day would have sufficed .Bharutpur was our biggest disapointment. We know that you cannot manage the weather but if the place is not also managed correctly it will die very soon.
Two guides that we would recommend and, this is personal choice.... Mr RC Gupta and Dalveer Singh who is on contract until the end of March at Chambal Safari Lodge. The rest it seems are taking the p***.
Re Dr Manjeet Singh's question....You DO NOT need a guide to go into the park although the guides outside will tell you otherwise , your best bet is to hire a bicycle at the entrance there are long trails that would be too long to walk.Also some of the rickshaw drivers know more than guides, but they cannot get to the far reaches of the reserve.
We hope to have a full trip report that we will post here before too long.
ColD