Deepor Beel, Large Freshwater Lake In the Outskirts of Guwahati
Deepor Beel, also spelt Dipor Bil is located about 10 Km from Guwahati city in the outskirts. Beel in Assamese or Bengali means wetland. It is a permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the river Brahmaputra, to the south of the main river. It is the only wetland in Assam designated as a site of importance for “conservation and sustainable use” under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in November 2002. (The international treaty is named after Ramsar in Iran, where it was signed in 1971.) It is considered one of the largest beel in the Brahmaputra valley of lower Assam. It is also claimed that Deepor Beel was an important dockyard of the Ahom’s and Mughals.
While traveling to Guwahati airport on Guwahati Goalpara road you will start to see Deepor Beel on the left hand side. One need to take a left turn towards Rani forest area on the Jhalukbari Khanapara bypass road. Deepor beel also sometime spelt as Dipor Bil has an area of about 41 sq Km and an area of about 4.14 sq Km has been declared as a bird sanctuary by the government of Assam. It hosts a variety of flora and fauna. Deepor Beel hosts over 200 species of birds, including about 70 species of migratory birds. It is visited by the Asiatic elephants from the Rani and Garbhanga reserve forests.
The Assam forest department has developed a small portion for staff office where people also can visit. There is no entry fees. Visit timings: 9 AM to 5 PM. It is indeed a beautiful place with chirping of various bird and occasional cracking sound when a train passes by. During winter you would be able to walk on the lake shore and enjoy watching the small ripples of water caressing the shore. I was happy to see boats there and for sure boating would be a very exhilarating experience here. There is a watch tower but I felt the height of the watch tower is not high enough to give a clean view of the surrounding. If you would like have tea or some snacks, there are some shops outside the entrance. Overall this a beautiful and peaceful place. I would recommend a visit here in your itinerary of places to visit in and around Guwahati.
Watch the full video of my visit to Deepor Beel below. Do subscribe to the channel Travelingbeats and give your feedback through comments.
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