Kadbanwadi Grassland Bhigwan: Fox, Chinkara, Harriers

Almost everyone who comes to Bhigwan gets in a boat. They photograph flamingos and painted storks on the Ujani backwaters, have lunch, and drive home.

Forty minutes away there is dry, open, apparently empty grassland, and hardly anybody goes. Kadbanwadi is the other half of Bhigwan, and it holds animals you will not see anywhere on the water.

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Grassland is not wasteland

India’s grasslands are officially classified as wasteland in a great deal of revenue land records, and that single administrative word has done enormous damage.

Land classed as waste gets planted with trees, converted to agriculture, built on or fenced for industry. What is actually being removed is a distinct ecosystem with its own species — animals that cannot live in forest and have nowhere else to go.

Kadbanwadi is a community-managed grazing commons. It survives because local people use it for livestock, and that grazing keeps it open. It is a working landscape, not a reserve, and that is worth understanding before you visit.

The Indian Fox

The Indian Fox (Vulpes bengalensis) is a grassland specialist and endemic to the subcontinent. It is not the same animal as the jackal people usually assume they are seeing.

Size: small and slight, noticeably smaller than a jackal.
Colour: grey, with rufous tinges on the legs and muzzle.
Tail: long and bushy with a distinct black tip — the quickest identification feature.
Behaviour: mainly crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk.

They live in pairs that stay together over years, and dig extensive dens with multiple entrances. They eat insects, rodents, reptiles, birds, and a surprising amount of fruit.

The black tail tip is the thing to look for. A jackal’s tail has no black tip and the animal is larger, longer-legged and more heavily built.

The Chinkara

The Indian Gazelle, or Chinkara (Gazella bennettii), is the other grassland mammal worth the trip.

It is small and light — around 20 to 25 kg — sandy-fawn with a pale belly, and both sexes carry ringed horns, though the male’s are longer and heavier.

What makes it remarkable is water. Chinkara can survive for long periods without drinking, extracting what they need from vegetation and dew. In a landscape that dries to dust for months of the year, that is the adaptation that lets them stay.

They are alert, they see a long way across open ground, and they will move off before you are close. Expect distant views and be pleased with them.

The birds you will not see on the water

The grassland bird list is entirely different from the wetland one, and several of these are species most visitors to Bhigwan never encounter.

Harriers are the headline. Montagu’s, Pallid and Marsh Harriers all winter here, quartering low over the grass at dawn and dusk. Harriers roost communally on the ground in grassland — one of the reasons these sites matter internationally — and Kadbanwadi is a known roost.

Sandgrouse — Chestnut-bellied and Painted — come to drink at fixed times, usually in the first hours after sunrise. Males carry water back to chicks in specially adapted belly feathers that hold it like a sponge.

How to actually see any of this

Grassland does not give itself up the way a wetland does. On the water, birds are on open water and visible. Here, everything is the colour of dry grass and most of it saw you first.

Go at dawn. Not shortly after — at first light. Foxes, harriers and sandgrouse are all most active then and most of it is over within two hours.
Stay in the vehicle and use it as a hide. Everything here tolerates a vehicle far better than a person on foot.
Scan, do not drive. Stop, get the binoculars up and work the ground methodically. Driving around is the least effective thing you can do.
Take a local guide. They know where the den is, where the harriers roost and which waterhole the sandgrouse use. Without that you are searching an enormous area at random.
Watch the skyline. An alert chinkara or a sitting harrier often shows as a shape breaking the horizon before you resolve the animal.

Photography here is harder

Longer lens than you need for the boat. Nothing lets you close. 500mm and up is not excessive.
Beanbag on the window. You will be shooting from the vehicle, often at distance, in low light.
Expose for the animal, not the grass. Bright dry grass fools meters and leaves a fox underexposed.
Get low if you can do it safely. Ground-level perspective through grass transforms a distant record shot.
Accept the record shot. A distant, honest photograph of an Indian Fox is worth more than no photograph, and you may not get closer.

Practical notes

Where: Kadbanwadi, in the Indapur area of Pune district, near Bhigwan.
Season: November to February for harriers and wintering birds. Mammals are present year-round.
Timing: dawn. If you can only do one session here, make it the morning.
Combining: most people do the backwaters at first light and the grassland afterwards. Consider reversing that, or giving the grassland its own morning.
Respect the commons. This is grazing land people depend on. Do not drive across it, block paths, or disturb livestock.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Kadbanwadi grassland?

Near Bhigwan, in the Indapur area of Pune district, Maharashtra. It is a community grazing commons rather than a protected reserve.

What animals can I see there?

Indian Fox, Chinkara, harriers, sandgrouse, larks, francolins, Desert Wheatear and other dry-country species.

How do I tell an Indian Fox from a jackal?

The fox is much smaller and greyer, with a bushy tail ending in a distinct black tip. Jackals are larger with no black tail tip.

Do Chinkara need to drink?

They can go long periods without drinking, obtaining moisture from vegetation and dew.

When is the best time to visit?

November to February, at dawn. Harriers and wintering birds are present and the light is good.

Do I need a guide?

Strongly recommended. Grassland species are hard to find without local knowledge of dens, roosts and drinking spots.