rajpur

i looked up suddenly and realized i was passing by a palace of broken windows! intrigued, i decided to check out a few of the lanes leading off from the main road, little nooks n crannies, just to see what else i could be missing...

and i found an old truck in front of an old building, both rottin in peace, overgrown

a lonely garden

a blue door ajar

a throne dethroned

a cot upturned

and a building into which the colour of the sky had leached

getting to rajpur

so it got greener

(have cropped the big dump that was in the foreground)

n more solemn

(n colourful)

n i was in rajpur village

before the dog was up

up rajpur road

n up rajpur road i went, past many magnificent trees;

(n past many places where trees once stood)

past many overgrown, forgotten dwellings

up the beautiful road.

n though it's beautiful to behold n drive up n cycle down...

its an absolute killer to cycle up !

n u get glimpses of beautiful hills on the left (east), in the gaps between the buildings that line the road. n it was in one such gap that the rising sun saw me toiling up the road.

n ya, i do so envy the ppl who live there..!

thru town

quite an early start:

started from the hostel before sunrise (05:30 ish).

discovered a short-cut thru the narrow lanes, impassable at any other time of the day !

the town was just coming to life, waking up to another day.

n ya, the town is full of beautiful old building, some neglected, derelict, overgrown and crumbling, others camouflaged and hidden, lost in the mundane hubbub, the quotidian living.

the first market, with the pavements on both sides covered in newsprint. n the street warms up with the days first traffic jams.

super-pretty..! n i left the town n the narrow streets behind,

coming onto rajpur road.

just another sunday

...and i headed out.

so over the next few days 'll post more pics of the sunday trip.

chhamb 2

keshopur chhamb community reserve,

distt. gurdaspur, punjab

some more pics of the place

to lure ppl there this winter..!!

these two are in the summer; just habitat pics.

immense potential !!

chhamb

so there's this chhamb... it's always been there but the point to be stressed is that it still exists ! n i never knew about it.
i must've passed by it (i obviously did ) all the time, for 10 odd years to and from my residential schools until i came away. n all the while it was there. just a 10 mins drive from the town (gurdaspur, punjab, india). 10 minutes along one of the many similar looking, unassuming lanes that pass between the frowning-looking-down buildings cluttered together to look-down at the traffic passin on the road. n then it must've bn so much better (the chhamb - the wetland): more area, more birds... but lemme not go down that way now and lets get on with the awareness-spreading intentions (coz with awareness comes appreciation)of mine..

so.. there's this chhhamb (a wetland, in punjabi) i think everyone should know about...

Kesopur Community Reserve is one of the many wetlands of Punjab (India); and yet it is unique. It is the first Community Reserve in India. So what does that imply? Firstly that it has Protected Area status and secondly -and very importantly- that the land is owned by the panchayats of the five villages!

the location, i quote..

“The larger area of the wetland lies on Miani village side and is approachable from Dinanagar, 12 km from the main road between Pathankot and Gurdaspur.

Another approach is from the Magar mudian village side, which is 6 km from Gurdaspur town. The entire wetland is in two marshes, the major one being Miani, Dalla, Keshopur ans Matwa as contiguous wetlands and Magarmudian as another portion.” ..from "Birds of Keshopur Wetland" by the Divisional Forest Officer and ENVIS Centre, Punjab State Council for Science and Technology.

in short, it lies just off national highway 15 (NH15), close to Gurdaspur (6km).

with an area of around 850 acres, it is said to get about 40,000 migratory birds in the winters, though a scientific census is yet to be done. The area is divided up into plots by mud bunds for fish, water chestnut and lotus cultivation and thus has water for most of the year. It has ben declared protected since 2006 and the people are aware of the implications.

It is an excellent site for bird-watching and photography in the winters. but even otherwise, it's an absolutely fab place! Below is my bird list from about 3 hours of birding this February. But i'm sure there's much more to be explored and the place holds great pomise. i'm surely goin back this winter. Certainly a place worth visiting !!

11-02-2008 0930 - 1230 hrs

SPECIES REMARKS

1 GADWALL

2 EURASIAN WIGEON

3 SPOT-BILLED DUCK

4 COMMON TEAL

5 GARGENY

6 NORTHERN PINTAIL

7 NORTHERN SHOVELER

8 RED-CRESTED POCHARD

9 COMMON POCHARD

10 FERRUGINOUS POCHARD

11 TUFTED DUCK

12 BLACK-WINGED STILT

13 RED-WATTLED LAPWING

14 WHITE-TAILED LAPWING

15 RIVER TERN

16 PIED KINGFISHER

17 WHITE-BREASTED KINGFISHER

18 LITTE GREBE

19 GREATER CORMORANT BREEDING

20 MEDIAN CORMORANT

21 LESSER CORMORANT

22 POND HERON

23 GREY HERON

24 PURPLE HERON

25 PURPLE SWAMPHEN

26 COMMON MOORHEN

27 COMMON COOT

28 EURASIAN MARSH HARRIER

29 BOOTED EAGLE

30 GREATER COUCAL

31 GREEN BEE-EATER

32 GREAT EGRET

33 INTERMEDIATE EGRET

34 LITTLE EGRET

RUDDY HELDUCK FLYBY

SPOTTED REDSHANK ?

SNIPE ?

GULLS ?

SANDPIPERS ?

WADERS ?