The Rann of Kutch

The Rann of Kutch, an area of 18,000 sq km, lies almost entirely within Gujarat along the border with Pakistan. The Little Rann of Kutch extends northeast from the Gulf of Kutch over 5,100 sq km. Once an extension of the Arabian Sea, the Rann ("salt marsh") has been closed off by centuries of silting. During Alexander's time it was a navigable lake, but is now an extensive mudflat, inundated during the monsoons, salty and cracked otherwise. Settlement is limited to low, isolated hills.*

   

When I visited the Rann in April, 2006, the highs were already soaring past 110 F. The best way to see it, as I did, is in a 4WD stocked with lots of water. Dotting the parched landscape are desolate desert-like encampments, where a family or two combine forces to eke out a living by mining salt from the saline ground water, the biggest local industry. Legend has it that when a salt worker dies and is cremated, the soles of his feet survive – a lifetime of salt pan labor bakes them so hard that even fire cannot fully burn them.* Tata lorries transport their salt to small trading villages along a railway line. In the dry season, such villages host veritable hillocks of salt as far as the eye can see, where it's packed and sent out on trains.

 

Kutch is also home to numerous tribal groups, whose attire often adds a dash of color to the otherwise dull desert monotones. Many, such as the Rabari, are still nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists (these photos only show women, children, and older men with the camels; the younger men were out tending their sheep and would converge in the evening at a designated place, where the women would setup the tents and cook).

 

In the monsoon season, parts of the Rann fill up with seasonal brackish water and some locals harvest shrimp in it. They abandon their boats afterwards in the barren salty mudflats, creating a rather surreal scene for the spring/summer-time visitor. Heat mirages abound, making distant objects hover strangely above the land. The Little Rann is also a wildlife sanctuary that protects the Asiatic wild ass, a shy and handsome animal that can sprint at 70 km/h. Reduced to about 2,800 in number, they depend on the few grassy islands, or bets, nourished by monsoon rains. The sanctuary also contains a large number of local and migratory birds, especially flamingos, at its many wetlands. A memorable experience was to go wading knee-deep into the warm waters of a salt marsh with thousands of flamingos around.

Comments

[Ruchira Paul]

Namit:
I really envy your travel experiences. I love to travel and have done a fair amount, but more on a touristy level. The types of adventure you describe are few and far between on my travel log. In fact, one of the things that I most regret is that while living in India, I did not take the opportunity to travel within India as extensively as I had once hoped.

Also, I sometimes regret that I didn't have the opportunity to go to some unusual places of interest when I was younger. I am now much more concerned about clean bathrooms, air conditioning and comfort - things I wouldn't have cared about in my youth. So my travel plans have to be curtailed and limited to rather timid levels. It is a shame.

So I am now reconciled to the fact that while I will continue to travel fairly often to fairly interesting places, it won't be to the "off the beaten path" destinations of my youthful fantasies. I will have to sate that appetite by watching TV and reading blogs like yours.

I once made a painting of a Rabari woman (I gave her blue clothing because the black was looking very dull on the canvas) standing in front of a painted doorway of her mud house. Although I painted it with considerable care, the end result was "wooden" and kitschy, calendar like. May be I will put it up on my blog by linking it to your post.

[Shunya]

Ruchira:
If you set your heart to it, I'm sure you too can get to all kinds of far flung places—it’s not really hard and never too late. As far as India is concerned, I am happy to report that the clean bathroom and travel comfort situation has come a long way in the last ten years or so. It can be even better if one is willing to fork out a little more cash. There are so many awesome places there—chances are that long after the travel is done, memories of discomfort will be the last thing on your mind.