Turtles in the swamp were one of the highlights of my trip to Bharatpur. Soon after returning from Bharatpur, I wrote an article on Harmony Magazine about life in the park. Here is an excerpt on turtles.
“The large water body makes an ideal habitat for flap-shell turtles that gently swim just below the water surface. I kept seeing a dark and dome-like thing moving slowly in the water for two full days, never getting a chance for a face-to-face encounter with the owners of these shells.
It is only after three days that I found an easy way to get a good look at them, thanks to the generosity of Seetaram Baba. Baba lives at the Hanuman Temple in a corner of the park, located next to a deeper part of the marsh. He has been feeding the turtles for many years now and has become such good friend with them, they respond instantaneously when he calls them. One of the evenings when I was there, Baba took a vessel full of dough and took us to the waters. As we watched standing on the steps leading to the pond, he started calling them “aa.. aa.. aa..”. In just a few seconds, I saw something move slowly in the water. A small snout and two tiny eyes popped up next to the steps. It was soon followed by another one and another one, all of them coming out in a characteristically turtle-like sluggishness. They fed on the wheat balls slowly and cautiously, coming out of the water only for a short while to take a gulp before disappearing again. They looked gentle and harmless, but Baba told me that they can collectively tear apart any animal that makes the mistake of getting into the water.”
I have been trying to get a good photograph of common kingfisher for many years now. They are relatively friendly birds and do not have the tendency to fly away and find a perch hundred kilometers away from the nearest photographer. But despite the name, they are not exactly very common. And when sighted, they are usually found sitting in a location not easily accessible. They like to sit on low-hanging branches right above the water or on small plants that spring up in the middle of shallow waters.
I managed to find a friendly fellow willing to pose for me when I was in Bharatpur last month. This one was sitting on a branch next to a culvert, hardly a meter’s distance from the edge of the road. It was his favourite perch – he used to sit there every single day and meditate on the fish that swam in the waters below. Since he was always there and was right next to the road frequented by tourists coming to the park, he had become a mini-celebrity. Celebrities tend to get used to the camera, and he was no exception. He let me come as close as the minimum focusing distance of my lens and allowed me to fill his big, beautiful and colourful image in the frame. It is a pity he was sitting in poor light under the shadow of thick branches right above him, while the waters behind him reflected the white skies. But I shall not complain much. Here he is –
I normally do not shoot butterflies, but tend to have a go at them once in a while. While in Bharatpur, I saw ‘Common Gulls’ in such large numbers that I could not do without photographing them. And one day when I was walking along a paths next to the marshes in search of the Sarus Cranes, I saw this congregation of ‘Plain Tigers’ sitting on a small plant. This place was on a track frequented by cycle-rickshaws. The butterflies would fly away each time a rickshaw passed by, but would soon return to hangout at the same place. My friend and I must have spent about fifteen minutes or more lying down on the ground trying to get a good image. None of the images I captured that day satisfied me and did not justify the beautiful gathering that we saw. On the other hand, lying down on the ground and obstructing the path of the rickshaws, we attracted the attention of all tourists passing by, as much as these butterflies attracted us!
Common Gull Butterfly
Plain tiger butterfly