Bharatpur (Rajasthan), July 22 - There is an air of despair among bird watchers and officials at the Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary here. The rains have played truant so far and the swamps are dry. Without aquatic life, that is food for the migratory birds, many of the winged visitors may not show up this winter, which is bad news for tourism.

Last year's monsoon was good for the region, with more than 800 mm of rainfall recorded. But this year so far there has been only 96 mm of rainfall in the district.

Hotels outside the sanctuary are running almost empty now.

V. Bansal, who owns a hotel near the sanctuary, told IANS: 'The sanctuary urgently needs water; otherwise the birds would lose interest, and this would naturally affect tourism. Thousands of bird watchers from all over the world come to Bharatpur.'

Girish of Hotel Pratap Palace said: 'We hope in the days to come the monsoon will smile on Bharatpur.'

Anoop K.R., the official in charge of the bird sanctuary, told IANS: 'The situation is grim, but we have seven bore-wells to provide water to the birds that are already here. However, natural water is essential.'

According to Anoop, the birds nesting right now in the sanctuary are the Openbill Stork, egrets, Grey Heron, Black-necked stork and darters or snake birds.

Bird watcher Kushal said the Openbill Storks have returned to the sanctuary after a couple of years and are there in large numbers. But he fears if there is no water 'they could go away somewhere else'.

Chowkidars and watchmen said because of the lack of water in the wetlands, frogs and tortoises had disappeared. 'But some rains in the coming days would bring them all back,' he said sounding hopeful.

Bird lover K.P. Singh told IANS: 'Though there are half a dozen projects in the pipeline to bring in water, work has not begun on any of them.'

Water is to be brought to the sanctuary from the Yamuna or Chambal river.

'The nearby Panchna and Ajan dams cannot meet the water requirements of the big sanctuary.