Hey mouthshutians, my friend Ashish Jaiswal(the photographer) and all of us had a great time at velavadar clicking lovely photographs, chasing both four footers and the winged varieties sitting on the edge of seats of our Tavera, excitedly screaming everytime we thought we spotted something worth clicking. Had an enormous appetite and ate all that we had packed hurriedly in our baskets wishing it wasn't so inadequately less. Unfortunately, being new to bird watching none of us knew the names of most of our hosts. After dusk we stayed back in one of those tourist bungalows operated by the Gujarat Government. Next day we started our drive back to Vadodara. More information has been posted or taken directly from wikipedia. The photographs have been loaded on my album. Hope you like them ..... romaa
BlackbuckNational Park at Velavadar is situated in the Bhavnagar District of Gujarat state, India.
Established in 1976 in the Bhal region of Saurashtra, the park is located around 72 km from Bhavnagar. Hugging the coasts of the Gulf of Khambhat on the south, it is spread over an area of 34.08 km², which was primarily a "vidi" (grassland). Flat land, dry grasses and herds of antelopes have always attracted visitors to this park which has a unique grassland ecosystem running a successful conservation program of the Blackbuck, the Wolf and the Lesser Florican (a bustard) among others. The fauna population of the park mainly includes Blackbucks, Wolves, Houbara bustard and Lesser Floricans, with foxes, jackals and Jungle Cats as the main carnivores species. Other species include wild pigs, hares and rodents, typical of the savannah type grasslands and thorn scrubs.
Among the avifauna family, Sandgrouse and larks are seen in fair numbers.
Though the park is open throughout the year, the period between monsoon and winter ,The best time to visit Velavadar National Park is from December to March as many species of migratory birds which includes three species of Harriers, Lesser Florican, Eagles, Waders and many other water birds arrive to spend winter.
The closest railway station is at the town of Dhala, which is about 50 km from the park. The historical town of Vallabhipur is about 30 km away.
The park has a bungalow operated by the Government Forest department where a stay can be arranged by prior booking.
