Most people come to Bharatpur, not to visit the town but to go to the adjoining Keoladeo Ghana National Park, one of India’s premier wildlife sanctuaries and a World Heritage Site. Created by the Maharaja of Bharatpur in the 19th century by diverting water from an irrigation canal, Keoladeo was founded as a shooting preserve, but given the status of a bird sanctuary in 1956. Upgraded to a national park in 1982, the area today ranks as one of the best waterbird preserves in the world and is a beautiful tree-shaded wonderland of water-bodies and marshes.