The Where
Ballavpur wildlife sanctuary spans around 200 hectares with tourist entrance behind Vishwabharati campus (Shantiniketan), West Bengal. There is an open parking space in front.
Throughout the alleys around you will find arrows pointing to a general direction with popular “Deer Park” inscribed across.
The When
The ticket window houses one counter with one cashier issuing the entry tickets. With another woman serving as ticket checker, the security pretty much ends here.
The park is closed to tourists on Wednesdays. The allowed timing ranges between 10 AM to 4 PM with an exorbitant entrance fee of 50 INR.
The Why
Ok really, why did I even come here?
This place is the absolute chunk of disappointment when it comes to nature enthusiasts.
An urban lake with greater human footprint has more biodiversity unfortunately.
You will be greeted with a positive sign of how large the park is and where you can (potentially) visit with no clear callout on the limited accessibility.
This is supplemented by a patch of medicine plant garden and away from with the real entrance. There were also two severely disgruntled employees tending to the same.
To compensate for the mammoth proportion of lacklustre, it displays on the entrance four distinct charts with national flora/fauna of each region of India. Ironically scanning the QR code took me to Wikipedia page of list of national species and not to a government website.
The What
Deer. Aan IUCN classified least concern readily available herbivore called Spotted Deer.
Behind a fence, there is a stable where these deers flock to eat and often move away into the inaccessible part. Typical of animals where they look at you while facing back.
Walking forward, I did encounter the first watch tower. Climbing the thirty odd steps, the only real visibility was an algae covered pond in front with no discernible characteristic.
As the road ahead abruptly shuts off on North, North-West and South-West, I could manage to sneak into the second watch tower through the Northern barbed wires. Away from regular tourists, there is an additional blockage on base of this watch tower, possibly citing the reason that there are large cracks appearing on the top of the tower.
The place is dotted with numerous benches but they were largely empty.
There is a new watchtower being constructed just opposite the deer enclosure, possibly to experience them from a height.
The How
This is a walk of hardly one kilo-meter between the exit which also serves as the entrance.
Tip Offs
- There is a souvenoir shop beside entrance (which was closed)
- There is also one food stall beside that which serves tea and dry food.
- Great place for a brisk walk
Recommendations
Don’t come here.
Even if you have massive amount of time here where there are relatively not much to do (like my situation), you should definitely skip this one.
Nothing to show,
Sayantan