Keoladeo (Bharatpur)

Made a bird sanctuary in 1971 and a national park in 1982, Keoladeo was until the middle of the 20th century the royal shooting ground of the maharajas of Bharatpur, where mass duck shoots were staged and recorded on commemorative plaques marking the most productive days — one of them with over 4,000 birds shot in a single day. Turned afterwards into a protected refuge, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985 and was for decades the only known wintering ground in India of the Siberian crane, a species whose western population is now all but extinct.