Jun 16, 2010 10:40 AM
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Today’s Times of India carried a shocking photographs of Sultanpur – dried lakes, dead fish, dead cows, cows eating fish(!) and empty trees. Two winters back I had taken my then 5-year old son to see ‘lot of foreign birdies’ to Sultanpur. It was a nice cold day and the trip till Gurgaon was quite good and uneventful. From then on it was all asking directions and fighting potholes. You can’t call them potholes because they could have swallowed a good sized pot ‘whole’. Fearing for my car’s axle and my spinal discs, I drove in first and second gears only for around 9-10 kms. That was the pathetic state of infrastructure welcoming visitors to this fantastic place. Then there was no welcoming infrastructure at Sultanpur itself – other than a resort adjoining it, where the menu was thin and prices were fat.
However, all this was forgotten when we entered the Sultanpur National Park. The raucous sounds of thousands of birds ‘speaking’ at the same time was to be heard to be believed. There were narrow mud-bunds built between the lakes for going deeper into the park. On both sides were 5-6 ft high scaly grass plants, which hid a variety of small animals and big blue-bulls or ‘neelgais’. Observation towers were built at different places, but were in a state of disrepair.
The middle of the lake was the place where thousands of birds fought for place among the trees and covered the sky when they took off in flight. My son was fascinated and I could see the wonder in his eyes and in his shouts. When we turned to go back we saw our way blocked by a group of neelgais, who calmly looked on while I clicked away. My wife was terrified but the group crossed the road and disappeared into the tall grass.
I feel happy that my family could visit this place while it was still there and feel very very sad that(may be – fingers crossed) my kid and many others like him can’t have the pleasure of visiting this place again. Call it calculated(to build more skyscrapers) or apathy, Sultanpur will now never be the place it was. I have uploaded some photographs which I took then – just for nostalgic purposes.
