Indian Adventure 6

Earlier this year, Simon from WILDFOOT enjoyed an adventure across India. He recorded updates throughout his journey for you to read on the WILDFOOT blog. In this update, Simon travels from Bera to Jodhpur and spots some bar-headed geese.

Part 6

Today, I travel from Bera to Jodhpur by road. We already know that northwest India offers rich and diverse birding and wildlife, and we stop en route to see some bar-headed geese, demoiselle crane and blackbuck, which are an endemic breed only found in certain parts of Rajasthan.

The demoiselle cranes are smaller than the common crane, with a height of 90cm compared to a huge 120cm with the other species. Demoiselles are migratory visitors to India and enjoy the north-west region particularly for the arid and stony habitats. We found a group of around 500 on a manmade wetland area 40 minutes outside Jodhpur, which made for great photographs.

The blackbucks are very timid creatures but manage to creep to around 100 metres of us before they become jittery. There are around 12 in total, including four males.

I know little about this endemic species, but tomorrow night I’m lucky enough to be visiting Mr Harsh Vardhan. He had a tremendous influence on the Indian birding and wildlife conservation movement in the 1970s, and his advice to the government had a major influence on the creation of the original National Parks, including Ranthambore.

Harsh is positively known in conservation circles and his name has come up everywhere we have travelled up to this point. I am looking forward to meeting him, especially as he is the father of my travelling companion and WILDFOOT’s wildlife specialist partner in India, Manoj Vardhan.

In the next instalment of Simon’s adventure, he travels from Jodhpur to Jaipur by train. If you would like to find out more about starting your own Indian wildlife adventure, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the WILDFOOT team today.