December 23, 2023

Saturday, 11:30 PM

Parklane Hotel,  

Mandi Mohalla, 

City Mysore, 

District Mysore, 

Karnataka, India

I spent the first half of today writing and recording voiceover for today’s daily vlog (Kali Tiger Reserve) and also for the ATR Destinations videos to be uploaded in the next couple of days. 

In the afternoon, Hitesh, a friend of mine who lives here, came over to meet and we decided to visit the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, also called the “Pakshi Kashi of Karnataka”, which is a bird sanctuary in the Mandya District of Karnataka. The Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, the largest in the State of Karnataka, is in 40 acres and comprises six islets on the banks of the river Kaveri river, and is a Ramsar site since February 2022, which means it is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention (Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat), an international convention for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands that concluded on February 2, 1971 in Ramsar, Islamic Republic of Iran, under the auspices of UNESCO.

For much of the evening we were at the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, clicking the pelicans and other colourful birds that are found in large numbers here — some migratory, others resident. It was the golden hours, so we managed some wonderful backlit pictures of the pelicans. 

As per the original plan, we had to leave for Mudumalai Tiger Reserve today, but since we decided to visit the bird sanctuary, we had to drop the plan of leaving today. With some difficulty, we managed to extend our stay here at the Parklane Hotel. Now, we’ll be leaving for Mudumalai tomorrow.