Assan Barrage is a small dam located around 40km from Dehradun. The dam is 287.5m long and has water all year round as it is fed water from the Asan river. This dam is responsible for creating of the Asan reservoir or also know as Dhalipur lake. This lake is a good location to view a number of water birds and migratory birds that arrive here in the winter months. The best time to visit between October and December as this attracts a lot of migratory birds to the lake.
My winter visit to Rajaji NP in terms of seeing much wildlife was very dry. It was not much of an exciting trip. I had done few safaris in Jhilmil Jheel conservation zone in the month of November and had then covered Chilla and Ranipur zones in the month of December. Even though, this particular trip to the national park was not all that great but we were still able to capture some wildlife. We did come across fresh paw prints of various animals such as tiger and sloth bear but to no luck, we were unable to spot them. Anyhow here a selection of images taken from the various safaris I done on those two visits.
Here I was able to capture the preening activity of jungle babblers, taken right from my apartment in Dehradun. Birds preen mainly to remove dust, parasites and also to straighthen their feathers to help in flight. These birds are quite commonly seen in private gardens and woodlands.
These squirrels are found commonly all across India. Surprisingly all these images were shot within a ten minute time frame. It was great observing these squirrels displaying certain behaviours and all were shot from the balcony of my apartment here in Dehradun.
On visiting Delhi, I had a day free so decided to visit the National zoological park for some wildlife photography. The zoological park is a 176 acre zoo in New Delhi and is located in Mathura Road. The zoo houses a number of birds and mammals. Here are some of my best shots from the day.
Lodhi Gardens is also a great place for nature and bird photography. One can spot a number of birds such as woodpeckers, hoopoes, owls, baya weavers and much more however I was only able to photograph a small number of birds and common wildlife such as squirrels. The equipment I used was the Canon 7D and Canon 70-300mm L f/4-5.6 telephoto lens. Here is a small showcase of images I shot that day.
Jhilmil Jheel conservation area is part of Rajaji National Park and a good spot for sighting Elephants, Leopards, Sloth Bear and Swamp Deer. This is located near Haridwar and is 9349.23 acres. It is also the only Terai marshland where Uttarakhands only surviving herd of Swamp Deer live.
Here is a selection of images captured during my trips to Ranipur, Chilla range and also Ghori range of Rajaji national park. I had reasoanbly good sighting of animals when I visited the park in the months of May and June. Due to the heat even the animals are not easily seen and are in areas of shade. If planning a trip here in May or June then this is the time when there will be alot of traffic on the roads due to Char Dham Yatra and Rajaji is close to both Haridwar and Rishikesh which attracts alot of pilgrims every year.
Chilla is the most popular zone of Rajaji national park and it is in this zone that I have been able to capture a number of raptors. However the Crested Serpent Eagle is quite occassionally seen compared to the other raptors. The Chilla range has diverse habitat which include Sal forests, grasslands, dry forests, riverine forests, teak plantatations, semi-arid Bhabhar, mixed-moist and semi-moist jungles and due to this it supports a large range of wildlife.
Rajaji National Park is one of the leading wildlife parks in the state of Uttarakhand and it borders with Jim Corbett National Park. This reserve was upgraded to a tiger reserve only recently in 2015 and then in 2016, it became the third reserve to be selected for relocation of tigers. Due to its accessibilty, one can arrive here by rail, road or air and this is bringing in more visitors each year. The reserve has a diverse range of wildlife from mammals of all sizes, birds and reptiles.
