The Guests who are welcome now!!

‘We don’t do it for money'. 

Everyone must be accustomed or rather tired listening to this cliché from bird guides across the country. But coming from this young lad of not more than 20 years, I was forced to believe.

We are at Kumbhargaon bird sanctuary, one that is created and maintained by local group called Agnipankh (Flamingo in Marathi) without any visible support from the government. Enjoying early morning’s crisp and cool air, we are going in our motorised boat with Shailesh, our bird guide for the trip. 

 The ride: our humble but sturdy boat

‘Aren’t the bird scared of the sound of boat?’ I asked apprehensively. 

He paused for effect and informed that all boats will switch off and run on manual near the habitats. His knowledge about birds was satisfactory given the fact that it was all self-acquired with no professional training. But his belief and conviction was more than adequate to overcome occasional lapses. 

Kumbhargaon was a usual story: large reservoir which attracts birds of all region, size and types. Locals eat many of them and gradually the population started going downhill. One local lad got inspired, in turn inspired others and forms a group to save birds and promote the area. This brought some sense and later-on much needed business opportunity for locals. Being very close to large cities and National highway did help. Approx ten years hard work has started bearing fruits (in the form of birds and tourists both). Now this small hamlet is on the map of bird watchers and occasional passer-bys. Accommodation, in the season, is hard to find and cars are difficult to park, but nobody’s complaining.

The attractions: many birds can be seen in their habitats

'Sandeep Nagre' runs a tight ship here and controls the flow. Humble to the core, he’s helpful and honest. You can ask him beforehand about availability of certain birds and he’ll reply honestly. His own home turned home-stay serves basic food, clean loo facility and modest stay options. Occasional attempts to control the flow by government have so far been thwarted by him. 

‘He has contacts, many influential people knows him and are his client’ our bird guide conveys.

‘So the locals/poachers do not kill the birds now?’ I asked thinking that old habits die hard. 

‘It was difficult to control at first, but our group is bigger now-Hamari bahut chalti hai idhar (We have a lot of influence here)’ he adds with a touch of swag.

Indeed it is big, they have 35-40 active bird guides in their group, stationed at different regions of this large reservoir.

All the bird guides keeps freshly caught fishes in their boat. They use them to attract many birds towards the boat and in-turn gives the occupants opportunity to take selfies with birds.

Suddenly the fate smiled on us and I noticed a large Pink/Black figure floating downwards and looking to perch. I asked Shailesh, whether it was a flamingo. He suddenly became excited and started shouting:

'Flamingo Basla Re',  in Marathi, meaning: flamingo has perched.

 The loan flamingo: messenger of a great season ahead

All the boats started rushing towards the same region, where the flamingo finally landed. The atmosphere had the same feeling of first rain for a farmer. After-all the entire tourist season depends on this guest from land afar. It’s great to witness all these birds but wonderful to witness people celebrating their arrival.

It was hard to decide what moved us the most, the serenity of the place or the effort of this local group or the main attraction: the birds.

The pair of gulls: for the romantic at heart

It is an incredible phenomenon that 'one migration is helping stop another migration'.