"Kanwar jheel" as called by local people or "Kanwar Lake Bird Sanctuary" as named in government documents, is about fifty kilometers only from my hometown Dalsinghsarai. Still I never got a chance to visit it before. This lake is also very near to the village of my relative. So when I visited them this time I could get few hours to have a quick visit to the lake as well.
The Kanwar Lake is located in the Bengusarai district of Bihar. It is 30 Kilometers from Begusarai and 7 Kilometers from nearest railway station DSKS Nagar Garhpura in Samastipur- Khagaria railway. As information available in mu sources, it is the largest freshwater oxbow lake in Asia and is thrice the size of Bharatpur Sanctuary. 60 migratory birds from Central Asia migrate to the lake in winter. About 106 species of resident birds have been recorded. It is a must visit for the bird watchers and nature lovers. There is famous Jaimanglagadh temple in the midst of the sanctuary. Unfortunately wetland area is shrinking, being captured by locals and dying due to pesticides. In last thirty years it shrink-ed to one third.
When we reached Kanwar lake, it was late afternoon. Our car reached up to temple crossing the narrow lanes. There was no clear information on lake entrance so we took help of google map satellite view to reach to the water body. We passed through slum to reach the lake where number of fishermen were coming back from lake. One fisherman offered us the boat ride in lake in two hundred rupees only. He gave enough time taking us to the far ends of wetland or lake and talked about lake, birds, flower and fauna around. It was not a planed visit and we did not have DSLR camera so we could not take pictures of birds but we enjoyed the beauty of lake and nature around. It was a mesmerized feeling altogether. Hope we can conserve it for next generation as well.
More information and pictures are well captured in below links:
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