The vastness of the open land was astonishing for a city dweller like me. I could see the horizon all around me, which looked like the sky embracing the earth far away. The dust kicked up by the dry wind tasted salty! I struggled to keep the dust at bay by covering my face with whatever I had. The wind was relentless….
Earth was caked under the hot sun and cracked in an intricate pattern. The vastness of the land and this intricate pattern is what I noticed first upon my arrival at this unique place known as the Little Rann Of Kutch.
Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) is a salt marsh located in Kutch district of Gujarat, India. This spreads nearly 5,000 square kilometres and is the only place on earth where the endangered Indian Wild Ass (Equus hemionus khur) still lives.
The flight from Bangalore landed at Ahmedabad in the morning hours. Ahmedabad is the nearest Airport at a distance of approx. 100 km. It takes roughly two hours to cover the distance from Ahmedabad to LRK.
My brother picked me and my wife from the airport and we headed straight to LRK. We managed to leave behind the city before it woke up from the night’s sleep!
The car managed to keep a steady speed as the condition of the road was excellent. Our travel took more than two hours due to the frequent pit stops. We reached our resort around noon.
No sooner did we finish our lunch it was time to explore the land and the denizens of the land. We set out in an open Mahindra THAR vehicle, which gave us ample visibility all around.
If the local men in their traditional dress looked interesting, their fragile looking cattle breed, with enormous horns, looked amusing to me. Those horns really stand out on those animals.
As we left the town and then the villages behind, we entered the salt pans. It was salt and mounts of salt everywhere. I have even noticed that many of the potholes on the roads were filled by the unprocessed salt, the same way mud or sand is used to fill the potholes elsewhere in the country! No exaggeration please!!
The tar road gave way to mud road, which ended up into the open wilderness. The vehicle kept going at a steady speed in a direction which, except the driver, only the lord almighty had any clue about.
Such is the vastness of the open land that it is impossible for an outsider to keep the track of direction. I was told by the driver that the locals manage it with the help of the sun’s position.
We drove around, may be, few kilometres. Though we were in the land of the Wild Ass, not even one was seen so far. Our first Wild Ass sighting was of a lone individual male, may be a bachelor boy enjoying the solitary nomadic way of life.
He was more than happy to pose! Moving ahead for another kilometre or so brought us to meet a family of Common Crane.
The mom, dad, and the two kids moved on without bothering to pose for a family picture!
This area is well known for a sizeable population of Desert Fox. One wish I had in my mind while planning the trip was to see and photograph at least one fox.
The driver was very keen to try to spot one for us. We went around for an hour or so without any luck in spotting the Fox. But we had the luck to see many other residents of this arid land.
As we were circling back the driver spotted the distinctive shape of a trotting fox at a distance. Elated, we carefully started closing in a diagonal approach, rather than a direct approach. A direct approach could alarm the elusive fox and it may bolt. Our patience did pay off as we saw it fairly close as it went about marking the territory and searching for food.
High-fivers and thumbs-ups marked the celebration! The sun has already travelled all the way to the horizon! The temperature dropped few notches, making it comfortable for us. The wild Asses were also returning to their resting place in big groups. One of them seemed like a hygiene freak, o taking a bath before retiring for the day! A bath is a bath, even if it is a dust bath!
The sun against the back drop of the wild asses The sun against the back drop of the wild asses looked so pleasing:
While all of them didn’t care much about the setting sun, these two were fascinated by the beautiful setting sun and stopped as if to watch the sun set!
Back at the resort we had lovely Gujrati food for dinner. Sleep didn’t take too long to embrace the tired but happy souls.
Next day after a cup of hot tea we went near a huge water body to shoot the Sunrise. The cold breeze on my face made me shiver. I stood by the water, my eyes glued to the eastern horizon, hoping to see a beautiful sunrise. The hues from the sun slowly seeped into the sky, water and everywhere around me, staining and dyeing everything in red and orange.
A fireball! As the sun emerged from the horizon the sky slowly changed from being drab to a pale yellow to a captivating red…. As the warmth of the sun engulfed, the chill in the air slowly gave way.
Having captured the beautiful sunrise we decided to explore more. The first one to welcome us for the day was a Wild ass.
A flock of Rosy Pelicans were engrossed in preening and getting ready to start their day.
The cracked floor crunching under the wheels of our vehicle, other than the cacophony of the birds, was the only sound we could hear for miles. We carried on for some more distance when we noticed that the topography started changing from open land to scrub, mostly consisting of thorny bushes. These bushes, during the rainy season, get submerged as the entire land completely gets submerged and transforms into a sea for a few months. These scrubs are ideal hiding places for the Short Eared Owl. We were more than keen to spot one. We didn’t leave behind a single scrub while looking around for the elusive raptor. Such is its camouflage that it took a while for us to see it sitting on the ground just a few meters away from us!
We circled back to the waterbody. The water now looked pink from a distance. As we got closer it turned out to be Flamingos; Greater as well as Lesser Flamingos, in huge numbers. They have literally painted the water pink with their flamboyant plumage!
That was the end of our trip to Little Rann Of Kutch. We came all the way to this place with some expectations. We were certainly awestruck by the rugged beauty of this unique place and the magnificent wildlife it has. If the vastness of the land overwhelms, the magnificence of the fauna in it takes away the breath.
That’s Rann of Kutch…..!
The park is home to Wild Ass, Chinkara, Blackbuck, Nilgai, Wild boar, Indian wolf, Jackals, Hyena, Fox, Jungle cat and numerous other smaller mammals. Birds found here include Steppe, Imperial, and Short-toed eagles, Montagu’s and Pallid Harriers, Houbara bustard, Flamingos, Pelicans, Storks, Cranes, Larks and other dry-land birds such as Sand grouse, Coursers, Plovers, Chats, Warblers, Babblers and Shrikes. The best birding is in the winter months from October to March. This is the time when Demoiselle & Common cranes, and lesser flamingos are seen in incredibly large numbers.
How to Reach LRK
By Road
Dhrangadhra (18kms) from Little Rann of Kutch is well connected to other important places in the State by the State Transport Buses as well as other private luxury coaches.
By Rail
Nearest Railway Station is Ahmedabad (130 kms) from Dhrangadhra, has connectivity to all the major cities in India.
By Air
The nearest airports are Ahmedabad (130 kms), Rajkot (145kms) and Bhuj (200 kms) from Dhrangadhra.
