A flat land on the edge of the desert
The joy of Tal Chhapar is in light, space and behaviour, and it rewards patience more than any park we know. Its future depends on the people who live beside it.
The name: the small town of Chhapar beside it gives the sanctuary its name.
A saline hollow: in a good monsoon, rainwater once spread across the ground in sheets, bringing a flush of grass, and the grass brought the animals.
- Location
- Between Ratangarh and Sujangarh, Churu
- Area
- About 719 hectares
- Last crane shoot
- 1962
- Sanctuary from
- 1966 or 1971, records differ
- Status
- Important Bird Area
- Its size: a little over seven square kilometres, with more land protected around it over the years. On a clear morning you can see almost from one side to the other.
- A royal shooting reserve: the Maharajas of Bikaner kept it for blackbuck and the demoiselle cranes that wintered here.
- Protection: the area was protected through the 1960s, first as a reserve and then as a sanctuary.
- Decline: by the late twentieth century it was overgrazed and the blackbuck had declined.
- Revival: credited above all to forest staff, including the range forest officer Surat Singh Poonia, remembered for bringing it back by the late 1990s.
- Today: an Important Bird Area and a Key Biodiversity Area, and one of the best places in India to see blackbuck in large numbers.
- A working countryside: camels, cattle, sheep and goats graze outside the fences, and village ponds and fields are often as rich in birds as the grassland.
- Dawn and dusk: women walk to the wells, boys take goats out, and in the evening bring them home through golden dust.
- Not a tiger park: no big cats, no forest and no crowds of jeeps. You drive slowly, stop often and watch.
The blackbuck of Tal Chhapar
Found only here: the blackbuck lives only in the Indian subcontinent, and Tal Chhapar holds one of its strongest populations.
Hundreds at once: in the early morning they graze, rest or run in loose groups across the grass.
Only mature males are black: young males and females are a warm fawn brown, and a dominant male can take several years to reach his full dark coat.
- Species
- Blackbuck, an Indian antelope
- Herd size
- A few thousand, counts vary
- Favourite grass
- Mothiya, Cyperus rotundus
- Best hours
- The first two after dawn
- The rut: males hold small territories and display with heads raised and horns laid back along their bodies.
- Sparring: rival males lock horns and push, sometimes for minutes.
- The leap: the most famous sight here, a bounding, high-stepping run that seems to carry the animal off the ground for an impossible time.
- Mothiya: the soft sedge grows thickly after the rains, and when it is green the herds are at their best.
- Fawns: born in the season after the monsoon, seen with their mothers.
- The Bishnoi connection: the community has protected blackbuck for centuries as part of its faith, and in many villages they graze in fields without fear.
- Read more: the blackbuck of Tal Chhapar and Bishnoi villages.
Harriers, eagles and the great migration
On the Central Asian flyway: the great migration route between Central Asia and India, and one of western India's most important raptor stopovers.
- Harriers are the stars: Montagu's and marsh harriers are common on passage, with fewer pallid and hen harriers.
- The roost: many birds share a communal roost in the grass. At dusk they drop out of the sky one after another to settle for the night.
- Studied for years: researchers have watched the roost, one of the best places anywhere to see these birds together.
The eagles of winter
Tawny eagle: resident, often hunting the spiny-tailed lizards in their burrows.
- Winter visitors: steppe eagles and the globally threatened eastern imperial eagle.
- Others: the short-toed snake eagle is fairly common, and spotted eagles are seen.
- Where to look: on scattered trees or on the ground, where they pass for a stump until they turn their heads.
Telling the harriers apart
Male Montagu's: grey, with black wingtips and a thin black bar across the upper wing.
Male pallid: paler, almost ghostly, with a narrow black wedge at each wingtip.
- Marsh harriers: males are patched brown, grey and black, and brown females often have a creamy head.
- Ringtails: young birds and females of Montagu's and pallid are hard even for experts, so don't worry if your naturalist hesitates.
- Watch the flight: low and buoyant, quartering the grass, and you'll soon pick them out at a distance.
Falcons and vultures
The laggar: a dark-moustached desert falcon now in decline, one of Tal Chhapar's special birds.
- Lesser kestrels: pass through on migration.
- Vultures: huge, dark cinereous vultures come in winter, and red-headed vultures are seen.
- A loss: white-rumped vultures once bred here, until the vulture crash of the early 1990s.
Demoiselle cranes and geese
Demoiselles: the smallest and most elegant cranes rest and feed here from September to March, sometimes in thousands.
- Bar-headed geese: they fly over the Himalaya on migration and graze here in flocks of a hundred or more.
- The famous gathering: read about the demoiselle cranes of Khichan.
Larks, coursers and rollers
Larks: huge winter flocks rise and settle across the grass, and crested larks call from the tracks.
- Cream-coloured courser: sandy, running, stopping and running again.
- Eurasian rollers: blue and chestnut, on every wire and bush in August and September.
- Always around: little green bee-eaters and black ibises.
Foxes, cats and the life of the grass
Desert fox: small and pale, with big ears, often seen near its dens at dawn and dusk. The red fox is also recorded.
Desert cat: a spotted wild cat of the Thar, shy and mostly nocturnal.
At the edges: jungle cats and golden jackals hunt.
- Desert hares: they sit very still until you almost drive over them.
- Chinkara: the Indian gazelle is occasionally seen.
- Spiny-tailed lizard: it basks outside its burrow as the sun warms up and dives underground when an eagle passes.
- The plants: khejri trees, ber bushes and ker, the leafless desert caper whose berries go into ker sangri.
- Green and gold: soft green after the monsoon, a sea of pale gold by February, and both are beautiful.
- Planning a birding trip: our birding experiences page, with ideas for families too.
What the grassland is up against
Prosopis juliflora: a thorny tree from the Americas that spreads fast and has invaded large parts of the grassland. Where it grows, grass and blackbuck disappear.
Slow work: clearing it is expensive and laborious.
Salt pans: on land that was once part of the sanctuary.
- Blocked channels: that once brought rainwater from the hills to the east.
- Grazing and dogs: livestock grazing, and village dogs that chase and kill fawns.
- Other dangers: road traffic, poaching and the illegal trade in wild cats.
- Visiting helps: paying fees, hiring local guides and staying nearby show the grassland is worth protecting.
- How to behave: permitted tracks only, keep your distance, never let a driver chase blackbuck, and take your rubbish away. See responsible travel.
- The bustard's absence: the great Indian bustard was recorded here as recently as 2009, but has since gone, surviving mainly in the Desert National Park.
- What is at stake: read about the great Indian bustard.
When to come
- Green season
- Late August to October
- Golden season
- November to February
- Harrier peak
- From late September
- Hot season
- March to July
- Summer highs
- Can approach 48°C
Late August to October, the green season
Green grass: the mothiya grows thick and the blackbuck are in fine condition.
- Birds: rollers in August and September, and the harrier passage peaks from late September.
- Midday: warm and humid, so go out at dawn and late afternoon.
November to February, the golden season
Winter visitors: eagles, vultures, cranes, geese and huge flocks of larks.
- Cold mornings: sometimes close to freezing, with clear, beautiful light.
- The best time: for most visitors, and for photographers.
March to July, the hot season
The migrants leave: in March, and the heat builds quickly.
- Still here: the blackbuck, and very early mornings can reward you.
- Our advice: not for most travellers.
Where it fits
- The wider season: our guides to Rajasthan in October and Rajasthan in January.
How to see Tal Chhapar well
First light at the gate: the blackbuck are most active in the first two hours, the light is softest and the raptors are hunting.
Back in the late afternoon: in migration season the harriers come in to roost around sunset, and the last light on the grass is unforgettable.
- A local naturalist: they know where the foxes den and which trees the eagles favour.
- Stop and switch off: use a vehicle on the tracks, but stop often. Animals here accept slow vehicles, not noise.
- Optics: binoculars for everyone, a long lens if you photograph, and a beanbag on the window frame.
- Dress: muted colours, a hat and water, and a warm jacket for winter dawns.
- Rules and fees: check them locally before your visit, because they change.
Photographing the grassland
Side light: the low sun at dawn and dusk lights the blackbuck from the side and turns the grass to copper.
Eye level: the land is flat, so you can often shoot from a vehicle window at the animals' height.
The golden hours: the first after sunrise and the last before sunset.
- Mid-morning: hard light and heat haze soften every distant shot, so rest as the animals do.
- Lenses: about 400mm upwards for birds, but some of the finest pictures are wide, a herd under a vast sky or a lone buck on the horizon.
- Technique: keep low and still, let the animals come to you, and steady a heavy lens on a beanbag.
- Dust: change lenses inside the vehicle and keep a blower brush handy.
- Animal first: never ask a driver to push closer, block a running buck or flush a harrier from its roost. A disturbed animal makes a worse picture anyway.
- Read more: our photography tips and the photography journey.
Where to stay
Churu
- An hour and a half away: Churu is about 85 kilometres off.
- The rhythm: stay in a restored merchant's mansion, see the havelis and dunes in the afternoon, and leave for the grassland in the dark.
Bikaner
- Palace hotels: Bikaner, a little over two hours away, has Laxmi Niwas Palace and Narendra Bhawan.
- On the drive: many guests visit on the way between Bikaner and Shekhawati, arriving at dawn and continuing after breakfast.
Simple stays nearby
- For dawn and dusk: keen birders and photographers can stay at one of the simple guesthouses and lodges near Chhapar.
- Basic but priceless: the hours they give you are worth it. We'll recommend one that suits you.
Getting to Tal Chhapar
Where: on the road between Ratangarh and Sujangarh, beside Chhapar town.
By rail: Chhapar has a small station on the line through Churu, but nearly all our guests come by car.
- From Jaipur
- About 210 km, four to five hours
- From Bikaner
- About 130 km, over two hours
- From Churu
- About 85 km
- From Mandawa
- Two and a half to three hours
- Nearest airport
- Jaipur
- From Shekhawati: the painted towns such as Mandawa are the usual starting point.
- Our journeys: the birding journey and big cats and birds, which combine it with Bharatpur and Ranthambore.
- Compare the parks: our wildlife safaris page.
A dawn at Tal Chhapar, the way we plan it
The single dawn
At five: leave Churu with coffee and a packed breakfast.
- First light: two to three hours with the blackbuck, eagles and foxes.
- Then: breakfast in the vehicle as the sun climbs, and on to Bikaner for lunch.
Dawn and dusk
- Stay a night nearby: morning in the grassland, rest through midday.
- Late afternoon: the harrier roost in season and sunset over the grass, then a second dawn before you leave.
The birder's three days
The whole sanctuary: plus its surroundings, the salt flats and village ponds.
- Patient work: time at a fox den or a harrier roost.
- Going west: add the demoiselle cranes of Khichan, near Phalodi.
Combining Tal Chhapar with the rest of Rajasthan
Shekhawati first: two or three nights among the painted havelis of Mandawa, Fatehpur and Churu, then the grassland at dawn on your way west.
The contrast: from crowded merchant lanes to an empty horizon, one of the great changes of a Rajasthan journey.
- Bikaner: Bikaner has Junagarh fort, its haveli lanes and its camel farm, with the road on to Jaisalmer and the Thar.
- South-west: Nagaur, with its fort and great cattle fair, then Marwar and Jodhpur.
- Salasar Balaji: close by, one of Rajasthan's most important Hanuman shrines, drawing pilgrims from all over northern India.
- Sujangarh: a town with merchant havelis of its own.
- The birders' circuit: Tal Chhapar's grassland, the wetlands of Bharatpur and the cranes of Khichan, three very different habitats in one journey.
What most visitors to Tal Chhapar miss
A state emblem elsewhere: the blackbuck is the state animal of Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
Built for speed: a running blackbuck can reach about 80 kilometres an hour, which is why the leap looks effortless.
A recovery story: thanks to protection in places like this, the species is now listed as Least Concern worldwide.
- Blackbuck
- Antilope cervicapra
- Top speed
- Up to about 80 km/h
- Steppe eagle
- Endangered
- Eastern imperial eagle
- Vulnerable
- Churu record
- 50.8°C, June 2019
- Threatened raptors: the steppe eagle is listed as Endangered, the eastern imperial eagle as Vulnerable and the laggar falcon as Near Threatened.
- Long-distance harriers: Montagu's harriers breed in Europe and Central Asia and winter in India and Africa.
- Why the vultures vanished: the crash was caused by diclofenac, a veterinary painkiller in cattle carcasses. India banned it for veterinary use in 2006.
- The cranes' journey: demoiselle cranes breed on the steppes of Central Asia and Mongolia and cross the Himalaya to winter here.
- Extreme weather: nearby Churu recorded 50.8°C in June 2019, one of the highest temperatures ever measured in India, and its winter nights can drop below freezing.
- Salasar's great fairs: the Hanuman temple fills on the full moons of Chaitra and Ashvin, in spring and autumn.
Before you go to Tal Chhapar
Book the naturalist ahead: in migration season the best local guides are in demand.
- Allow
- A dawn, or a dawn and a dusk
- Leave
- Before first light
- Bring
- Binoculars, warm layer, water
- Good for
- Birders, photographers, families
- Pack breakfast the night before: your hotel kitchen needs notice for a five o'clock start.
- Check the season: harriers and rollers from late August, eagles and cranes in winter, very little after March.
- Plan the drive on: Bikaner, Nagaur or the painted towns are all within an easy half day.
Who will love Tal Chhapar, and who may not
Birders: the harrier roost, the winter eagles and the cranes make it one of the great raptor sites of western India.
Photographers: animals in the open, flat ground and clean side light at both ends of the day.
- Families: children love the leaping bucks and the lizards diving into their burrows, and a single dawn is short enough to hold their attention.
- Road travellers: anyone driving between Shekhawati and Bikaner who can spare one early morning.
- Not for you if: you want tigers, forest or a luxury lodge. There are no big cats, and the stays nearby are simple.
- Not in summer: from April the heat is severe and most of the birds have gone.
- Our compromise: sleep in a Churu haveli or a Bikaner palace and give the grassland one perfect dawn.
What our naturalists ask of guests
No chasing: never ask a driver to chase blackbuck or leave the track. It stresses the animals and damages the grass.
Keep your voice low: sound carries a long way over open ground.
- Feed nothing: including the village dogs at the edges, which kill blackbuck fawns.
- Leave no plastic: animals eat it.
- Be patient: a fox at its den or a harrier dropping on prey comes to those who wait.
- Salasar fair days: allow extra time on the roads.
- Before you go: read our ethical animal encounters guide.
