A sanctuary in the city

Travelling to Sultanpur National Park, via mobile

Dry, overgrown grass skirting the narrow, muddy pathway. Green trees dotting the horizon like a walled city’s wall. A pitch blue sky. And it is so clear—no cloud, no bird.

Which can be a disappointment. For this is the famous bird sanctuary of Gurugram’s Sultanpur National Park, tucked outside the city, in the wilds. And one comes here to see birds.

But no complaints. In these times of coronavirus pandemic, when one is obliged to limit one’s movements, and stay within sanitised walls, it is so pleasant to be out in the open again. Especially with no risk of getting contaminated with any virus. Because, yes: the bird sanctuary is on Google Earth. As the phone screen flies (like a bird!) over the National Capital Region, and comes to settle over the typed destination, the park—from a bird’s eye view—does symbolise the spirit of a true sanctuary. Its green cover is like an island stranded in the middle of an otherwise arid brownish sea, which is mostly the rest of our Gurugram district. Truth be told, it’s not much fun to hang out in the Millennium City via this particular mobile app. It hasn’t scanned the metropolis extensively, and most places you see on the phone screen tend to get heavily distorted due to pixilation if you zoom into the details of stored pictures.

But the bird sanctuary is an exception. It has been marked by the app users at select places with blue dots, clicking on which takes you into high-quality portraits of the said spots. The aforementioned track, for instance, transports the viewer (traveller?) into a scenery as detailed as possible, while you are still slumped down on your drawing room floor. You are able to minutely observe a variety of elements—down to the branches of the surrounding trees.

According to a Haryana government website, every winter 90 migratory bird species land in Sultanpur in search of feeding grounds. Some birds come in summer, too.

The fun of navigating the park through Google Earth lies in the randomness of these blue dots. There is no info shown on what those dots might contain. You click on one and there is an equal chance of jumping into delight or disappointment.

One such click drops you straight on a paved pathway snaking through a grassy lawn, peopled with what appears to be cement ducks and birds — it has a kind of aesthetics that certainly might excite those who want things tamed, not wild.

But then you push back to the original screen and click randomly on another blue dot and now you are with a handful of folks, along a sand-covered path in the middle of nowhere—so far from all the anxieties of the world.

These are panoramic photos, not videos, taken by folks whose credits are mentioned at the corner of the screen. Since the wideangled pictures cannot be contained within the screen in one go, the viewer is obliged to scroll about to reach the far-flung places in the picture, getting an illusion of movement. Strangely, not even one of these pictures gave a glimpse of any bird, though. And yet no complaints, the experience does offer a kind of escape.

One of the dots takes you to arguably the most beautiful spot in the bird sanctuary. A man is standing alone by a vast pond. The sky is bright and sunny, but the distant views are somewhat misty. The picture must have been taken in winters, for the man is wearing a warm jacket. He is gazing at the lake. The scene has the profound minuteness of a haiku poem. One day you ought to visit this place for real. Though it’s exciting on the mobile.