A Chowkdi, invigorating tea and four roads to abundance: A birding trip to Nal Sarovar.
Nal Sarovar is a large freshwater lake of about 120 sq kms, located 64 kms west of Ahmedabad and is during winter, home to more than 250 species of birds, many of them water birds that migrate long distances from the frigid northern parts of Asia and can be viewed at close quarters in the many boats that used to ply on the lake. It was declared as a bird sanctuary in 1969 and was included as a Ramsar site in 2012. I had been wanting to visit Nal Sarovar since long but it was only recently that I managed to do so as part of a meticulously planned trip by Nature India under the able leadership of Adesh Shivkar. Nal Sarovar had always been a tourist hotspot as it is proximate to Ahmedabad, with delightful boating on the expansive lake and outlets that serve delectable Kathiawadi cuisine. Serious birding has been a latter development, fuelled by the growing numbers of birders and by the proliferation of numerous professional guides who take their work most seriously. I was a ta...