Far from the maddening crowds to the calmness and serenity of the Nagar Van( City Forest) !

As Joshi family woke up on the auspicious RakshaBandan on August 26, a duck along with a train of her tiny 20 cute ducklings wandered into the backyard of highly populated Sector 22, Chandigarh residence. The family was at loggerheads at how these ducklings appeared in their backyard as there was no wetland, the natural habitat for the ducks.

Knob-billed Duck with her ducklings 

The rituals of RakshaBandan took a backseat for a while as the Joshi family's immediate concern was the safety and welfare of the duck and her ducklings. Staying calm , the family tried calling up various NGOs but to their dismay, they could not get through till they got in touch with Ms Dimple Bedi Kamra, a renowned bid and animal lover and rescuer who readily agreed to do her bit. It was indeed a huge challenge to gather the flock and relocate it. However, Ms Kamra's deft handling based on her skills, expertise and experience eventually yielded the results. The ducklings and their mother were put into a box, ready to be shipped to safety . These were the Knob-billed Ducks.

According to Mr Vikram Jit Singh in his column in Times of India, Chandigarh Edition, "This species prefers to lay eggs in a large natural hollow of an ancient tree in a wetland or by its shores. However, on occasion, the female duck lays eggs in tree hollows away from wetlands either due to lack of suitable trees or wetland disturbance or other reasons. This species has been photo-documented laying eggs in old, big houses or abandoned factories with large spaces in the roof. Old vulture nests, hollows in old fort walls and earth cliffs are also used for nesting by Comb ducks infrequently. The Joshi residence shares a boundary with a creche, which nurtures a thick, undisturbed grove of ancient trees. The Comb duck is most likely to have nested in one of the creche's trees. After the ducklings were born, the wandering mother duck in a vain, desperate search for a wetland led her brood into the Joshi residence. The problem is that when Comb ducks nest so far away from wetlands and amid dense urbanisation, the brood gets marooned and faces threats from dogs, cats, vehicle hits and human abductors. The ducklings, along with the mother, have to be caught and translocated to a suitable wetland."

The bird along with her ducklings were shipped to the recently established Nagar Van (City Forest) where they were released into one of the wet bodies. Interacting with me along with my fellow birders, Mr J.K.Ranjan, the Officer in Charge of the Nagar Van said that the bird and her ducklings are indeed enjoying the calmness and serenity of the Nagar Van. They are indeed the star attraction of the Van. In the same water body we could also see a family of spot-billed ducklings.

The Nagar Van has a rich natural biodiversity where one could see a large species of birds such as Kingfishers, Water Birds, Parakeets, Drongos, Cuckoos, Peacocks, Doves, Shikra , hornbills ( including the Pied ones). The Chandigarh Forest Department has set-up a hide for bird photographers to enable them take some good photographs of birds that sit on the perches around the water and food arrangements for the birds. A large number of butterflies including the beauty, Helen Butterfly were seen fluttering around while various kinds of beetles and insects were spotted. There was greenry all around with thick forest area. If one is lucky one could also see Sambar and other species of deer. However, one needs to watch his or her steps as the area does have snakes including the Cobra and the Russel Viper.

Nagar Van is indeed a laudable initiative of the Chandigarh Forest Department to give the residents of Chandigarh, the City Beautiful a gift of nature.