“Nearly every one enjoys birds: the beauty of their forms and colouring, the vivacity of their movements, the buoyancy of their flight and the sweetness of their songs. It is precisely on this account that as a pursuit for the out-of-doors, bird watching stands as a class by itself.”
—Salim Ali, The Book of Indian Birds
February 17, 2008: At the crack of dawn one crisp spring day a group of 24 bird lovers from the India International Centre Nature Group congregate at the Centre. Their destination is the Okhla Bird Park, located on the east side of Afzal Ganj and just behind the Kalindi Kunj on the Delhi side.
As they arrive at the site, they are greeted with a huge expanse of water and birds of every shape and colour. The group is led by Anand Arya, a keen bird watcher and photographer. One of the birds he points to is the Little Cormorant, a glistening black duck-like water bird with a longish stiff tail, and a slender, compressed bill sharply hooked at the tip. This bird is an expert diver and lives largely on fish. The group also encounters the Little Egrets, Flamingos, Purple Moorhens, Gulls, Spoonbills, Shovellers and Grey Herons, among others.
The IIC group was absolutely mesmerised by the birds.(In fact, one of the group members from the IIC even wrote a poem on the birds, which is given below-Ed.) Said Anita Saran, who came along with her husband Shyam, a retired IFS officer, “It was a pleasant surprise to see such a huge expanse of water and view so many birds in the heart of the city. One was immediately transported to a quiet and peaceful environment. The only jarring note was the mounds of garbage in places.”
'The Okhla Wildlife Park'
Poem
by
Rachna Joshi
Ducks and cormorants and flamingoes
in the Yamuna,
boatmen on the river,
With binoculars we focus on the
White spots.
Sandwiches and tea
and lots of bonhomie
Tree lined ave, grass on the sidewalk
and children running around.
The lady doctors and the teachers,
the editors and the journalists
all congregate on the weekend.
Kavita Charanji is a free lance writer and journalist, and a member of the Nature Group, IIC.