jaipur the keoladeo national park knp a world heritage site in bharatpur is once again struggling to stay afloat due to deficit rainfall in the region with the park running short of water about 300 openbill storks have abandoned nesting in knp to migrate to the yamuna and the chambal river habitat the situation is grave as the goverdhan drain is parched and the park is not getting water from pachna dam due to deficit rainfall in karauli tooaccording to ajit uchol deputy cwlw bharatpur the situation that the park is facing is grave rainfall has been deficit in this belt and the park has not got any water this monsoon as a result the openbill storks that nest in july have abandoned the park and reportedly flown off to the yamuna and chambal rivers for better possibility of food availability we are making do with barely 18 mcft water and that too from the chambal dholpurbharatpur drinking water project primarily a phed project that is meant to cater to the drinking water requirements of the people of bharatpursevere water shortage has been a recurring problem at knp endangering one of the countrys wellknown wildlife sanctuaries for the maintenance of the wetland ecosystem in knp ideally about 550 million cubic feet water is required between july to october because this is the breeding season of most of the birdsthe ministry of environment and forests had undertaken a rs 65crore project to supply water to the knp from the goverdhan drain this was enabled by laying pipelines from the santruk village to the knp at a distance of about 171 km water resource augmentation was also carried out within the national park area the government in the past had also tried catering to the parks water requirements with water was made available from the panchana dam but both water sources have got no water for the park this year recently the forest officials have written to the government to for an additional requirement of minimum 50 more mcft water a proposal that is still pending with the government and the possibility of water supply seems bleak our attempt is to somehow fill block b d with chambal drinking water as the major nesting happens in these blocks of the park at the moment only few cormorants are nesting in the park said ucholincidentally it was just last monsoon after a span of two decades that six out of the seven sluice gates of the panchana dam had to be opened as water level in the dam touched the danger mark of 257metre when the full capacity of the dam is 25862 meter according to ornithologists as much as 8 to 10 sq km area of the total 29 sq km area of the park should remain submerged up to 3 to 4 feet to kickstart postmonsoon cycle of its aquatic ecology