Sultanpur National Park

Sultanpur is a national park and animal sanctuary in addition to being a Ramsar site since 2021, despite its tiny size (1.42-sq-km). The park’s focal point is a jheel (lake), which is encircled by a 4-km-long circumferential walking path. Four machans, or watchtowers, along the route provide unobstructed views of the lake and distant birds.

Sultanpur is a “Important Bird Area,” much like Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s directive was the reason it initially obtained protection. In 1971, the lake was designated as a sanctuary, and in 1991, it became a national park.

One of the more well-known protected areas in Haryana is Sultanpur National Park. The park, which is only a few metres from a national highway, is home to a wide variety of birds and animals. Pictured is Anirban Mukherjee from 500px/Getty Images.
Cover: Sultanpur National Park is home to 15 different raptor species, both resident and migratory. These include the peregrine falcon, red-necked falcon, marsh harrier, booted eagle, imperial eagle, and booted eagle. 

Sultanpur is so near to the highway that you can hear the traffic even in the centre of the national park, and it is less than an hour from Gurgaon/Gurugram in Haryana. Tens of thousands of birds from more than 320 species, many of which are ducks that spend the winter in the park, use the park’s small lake as a refuge, which is crucial to the environment. More than 50 painted stork breeding couples use this area as a significant nesting colony. The boughs of the acacia trees that protrude from man-made islands in the lake are laden with stork nests and lean young.

EXPLORE
Follow a 4-km convoluted path that circles the lake and travels through marsh, semi-arid scrub, and riparian vegetation as you approach the park. As you travel, climb the watchtowers to get a better view of the storks flying over. You may see agricultural fields extending beyond the park’s limits if you turn away from the lake. The variety of bird species in and around the park is facilitated by this mosaic of topographies, including raptors like the imperial eagle and Eurasian marsh harrier, raptors of the grasslands like wheateaters and larks, and waterbirds like egrets, ducks, greater flamingos, sandpipers, lapwings, jacanas, swamphens, and even the occasional sarus crane.

The Indian subcontinent is home to the biggest antelope species in Asia, the nilgai. Adult males are the aforementioned blue-grey colour (left), whereas females are tan. Images of Bhavya Iyer
We come across a lot of stray cattle as we go along the route, and a big male nilgai splashes into the river to munch on floating foliage as he strolls through the herd of cattle. When the nilgai gets tired of our stares, he sloshes into the lake in search of one of the islands where a female nilgai is waiting for him. We cautiously manoeuvre around a huge bull to observe the nilgai for a bit. The ruminant startles a European coot and a few common moorhens, who paddle away from his route.
Sultanpur and its plethora of bird activity are a godsend to us because we are nature-starved and trapped in the city due to the epidemic. Gadwall, coot, northern shoveler, northern pintail, and spot-billed duck mixed flocks glide gently by. Watch them from the sizable hide on the lake’s edge that is well-suited for observing animals while remaining inconspicuous. On weekday mornings, there aren’t many people around, but if you sit still, the birds will get very near. All of the painted stork chicks make a loud noise every time an adult returns to the nest, drowning out any nearby sounds, even traffic. The ducks frightenedly move in closer proximity to one another as an imperial eagle soars regally overhead one of the acacia trees. A black drongo perches on a tan female nilgai’s rump. A nesting tiny grebe wriggles as she settles into her nest as avocets gracefully navigate the water. This little national park is like its own little planet.