Soor Sarovar Bird Sanctuary

This guide to Soor Sarovar Bird Sanctuary in Agra follows the sloth bears once forced into the roadside "dancing bear" trade by the nomadic Kalandar people, a practice reaching back to the Mughal courts, and the 1999 rescue effort that began working with Kalandar families to end it. Some of the men now caring for the bears on these grounds are sons of the very handlers who once owned them. Look across Keetham Lake in winter for the migratory cranes and pelicans that arrive from as far as Siberia.