Goa, India

5th-18th December 2004

Velim Lake

If you are considering taking a trip down to Velim Lake, my advice would be 'don't bother'! It used to be a good site for seeing vultures, but since all the Indian species have been practically driven to extinction by the veterinary use of diclofenac, vulture sightings in Goa are quite rare and only really likely to get rarer over the next few years. When we were in Goa there were still a few sporadic sightings of vultures being reported, so we decided to make the 2 hour trip just on the off-chance of getting lucky. It was pretty much a waste of time that could have been spent a lot more productively elsewhere.

Actually, 'lake' appeared to be a bit of a misnomer. There was only very small patch of water that I could see. The rest of it was overgrown, so you don't even get to look at much in the way of waterfowl.