BHIGWAN
Bhigwan, which in Hindi means watery forest. Though
you don’t see any forest here, it is a large low lying submerged area, fed by
the Mula-Mutha Rivers, which later meets the Bhima
River, which itself later meets the Krishna
River and finally emptying to the Bay
of Bengal.
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| Bhima River |
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| Ujani Dam and Kumbhargaon Location |
The Bhima River on which the Ujani Dam has been
built rises from Bhimashankar hills in the Western Ghats, also known as the Sahyadri hill range. The
Upper Bhima River basin is subdivided into three zones namely northern, middle
and southern, the main stem of the river is in the middle zone where the Bhima
Dam is built, The Ujani Dam commissioned in June 1980 is an earth cum concrete
masonry dam, which has created a multipurpose reservoir. The Dam is around 160
Kms from Pune, on Pune Solapur Highway. Due to this dam, there is a reservoir
which formed upstream between Bhigwan and Indapur, on the Pune-Solapur Highway
around 105 km from Pune. As
a result of reservoir submergence, realignment of railway line (of the Daund Solapur section) to a
length of 33.251 km (20.661 mi), realignment of National Highway No. 9 between Pune and Solapur sector over a
length of 23.4 km (14.5 mi), and the State Highway between Tembhurni and Karmala to the extent
of 15.35 km (9.54 mi) was involved. You can still see the alignment
and electric poles when the water levels are low.
It was in 2014, that I for the first time learnt about
Bhigwan as a birding spot, primarily for Pink Flamingo or Greater Flamingo
(Phoenicopterus roseus). In the local language, they are called ‘Agni Pankh’
Literally meaning ‘Fire Wing’. Which incidentally corresponds to the Spanish /
Portuguese meaning, ‘Flame coloured’.
Getting to Bhigwan
I was given a mobile number of a person who organizes
boat rides at Bhigwan to speak to. I got in touch with Sandeep Nagare and he
gave the directions from Pune. The place Kumbhargaon is approx 110 Km from Pune
towards Solapur. After you cross Bhigwan village, you proceed another 5 Km,
where you see a group of shops along an exit to the service lane, as you go
another 1 km, as the road climbs up, just before the crest, you see a road
going left. From the highway, you drive along the village metaled road for
about 6-7 km, keeping left on the first fork, right on the next and again left
on the third, after which the road curves to the right. Finally, at the last
fork you will see a board showing the way to birding site. The road was dusty
and potholed. We reached in about two and a half hour, though we missed the
first boat ride at sunrise.
Kumbhargaon
We were at a quaint little fishing village on the
banks of Bhima River, with views of the river providing a picturesque background
along the drive from the highway. The spot had a shady parking space for
vehicles besides the house of Mr Sandeep Nagare. Since we had time till the
next boat ride, we got talking to Mr Sandeep and he alluded to the setup that
he was running there. It emerged he was a true nature enthusiast and entrepreneur
who had seen the opportunity present itself with bird enthusiasts coming there
for birding and organized the village boys to assist in birding. He had trained
these boys in identifying the birds and himself had made a booklet with local
names of the birds. All these boys were from local fishing families and had a
connect with conservation of the water body for their day to day livelihood. He
had about 5-6 boats and 2 boys were dedicated to each boat, as it involved 1-2
hrs of rowing. The house had provision for meals and some rooms for home stay.
Then and Now
I again visited the place on 19 Feb 17. When I spoke
to Sandeep, he mentioned, that since I had come last, there have been changes
and he immediately sent me a google drop pin to assist me in navigating. The highway
from Pune are better now, with three toll booths en route. The road from the
highway to Kumbhargaon too is in a better state now. The biggest change was at
the house of Sandeep and the boating site.
His house was the same with certain improvements in
outer façade. He has now about nine rooms without attached toilets and three
rooms with attached toilets available for avid photographers to stay overnight.
In fact he seemed disappointed that though I had come late (around 1530), would
not be staying for the night. He has also expanded his business with around 30
boats with adequate number of trained guides under him. He has also started a facility
for tent stay (around (9 tents) on the river front. The rates for rooms vary
from INR 700-1000, less food, which is at a nominal rate per person per meal.
In all this what strikes you is the neatness of the
area that is maintained by the locals around the place. Even the guides who
take you around are proficient in birding and aware of the light angles & best
position for photography and accordingly steers the boat in position for you. I
had Umesh as my guide, who incidentally had been with me earlier too in 2014.
He himself is into photography, with a self-owned basic camera, which he
intends to upgrade at some point of time.
I personally had a good time birding and was able to
see and click the following birds, some of the photos of these are also below:
-
Asian Open Billed Stork
Black Headed Ibis
Black Winged Stilt
Brown Headed Gull
Bar Headed Gulls
Common Greenshank
Egret
Glossy Ibis
Godwit
Greater Flamingo
Grey Heron
Grey Headed Wagtail
Indian Cormorant
Indian Spot Billed Duck
Northern Shovler
Osprey
Pallas Gull
Painted Stork
Pipit
River Tern
Ruddy Shelduck
Small Pratincole
Spoonbill
Sparrow
Tern
White Wagtail
White Throated Kingfisher
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| Open Billed Stork (Anastomus oscitans) |
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| Black-headed ibis or Oriental white ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) |
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| School of fishes swim past Glossy Ibis and Spoonbill (in background) |
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| Greater Flamingo |
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| Grey heron (Ardea cinerea) |
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| Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) |
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| Painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala) |
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| Indian river Tern (Sterna aurantia) |
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|
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| Pallas's gull or great black-headed gull (Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus) |
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| Brown-headed gull (Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus) |
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