Little Runn of Kutch: of Resident Birds and Galloping Ass…

MY NIECE WAS getting married at Vadodara in July and we found ourselves only 200 km from a dream wildlife destination we normally would not have thought of visiting—the Little Rann of Kutch, the Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary. Although the monsoons had commenced, our travel agent was anything but dis-couraging. He advised that it may still be worthwhile to attempt visiting the Sanctuary. However, at times, if rains flooded the Rann, tourists may not be able to reach the Wild ass habitat and remain confined to their hotel rooms. However, my wife, daughter and I decided to give our luck a chance. There were limited options for stay and therefore it was not difficult to zero in on the Malik family-owned resort ‘Rann Riders’.

After an overnight stay in the city once ruled by Gaikwads, we set off on our mission at 0700 hrs in the morning, expecting to be at the destination Dasada village, by 1200 hrs.
The journey commenced on a positive note, as I refreshed my Gujarati with taxi driver Pravin bhai, which I had learnt when I was posted at Vadodara during 1985–1989.

Pravin Bhai’s boss Thomas, had clearly confirmed that he had adequately briefed the driver about the route of the journey and that the driver would take us on a route that would pass by close to Ahmedabad and then reach village Dasada in Surendranagar district. It drizzled all through, adding to our anxiety about getting to see the Wild ass. Time passed, we took two breaks. The driver continued to assure us that we would reach our destination by the scheduled time.

When it was already close to noon our driver became uncertain about the route and constantly asked for directions to Dassa from villagers travelling on the narrow potholed road.

We heard folks telling him that ‘it is close by’. However, what aroused our suspicion was that we had been told by the owners of Rann Riders that Dasada village was on a National Highway but here we were right in the interior of some village. My wife Rekha phoned the young Mujahid Malik who oversaw Rann Riders’s business. He inquired where exactly we were. We told him of our location and to our horror, we discovered that we were far away from our destination—as far as 200 km away! We were near ‘Dassa’ village close to Bhavnagar city and not ‘Dasada’ in Surendranagar district. We sank into our seats in utter desperation. Pravin Bhai, however, was unapologetic and insisted that he was taking us to the destination that he was told.

Without brooking any further argu-ment, we decided to take the new route as advised by Mujahid—now being still five hours away. Pravin soon turned ‘magnanimous’ and declared that he was going to skip his lunch to get us to Dasada within another 4 hours.

So he drove through villages, arterial roads and reached Rann Riders by 1630 hrs. We saw so much more of lush green Gujarat countryside—we would have otherwise missed, thanks to Pravin and his confusing Dassa with Dasada. Mathematically, we learnt that the difference between ‘da’and ‘sa’ is about 200 km, 4 hrs+ and an additional Rs 1000/-!

Established in 1972, the Wild Ass Wildlife Sanctuary is spread over 4,954 sqkm and is the largest wildlife sanctuary in India. It is home to the Indian Wild ass (Equus hemionus khur), which is a sub-species of the Onager (Equus hemionus), native to Southern Asia. The Indian Wild ass’s coat is usually sandy and varies from reddish grey to pale chestnut in colour. It has a dark mane, which turns into a dark brown stripe along the back. They are high on the IUCN conservation list—Endangered. They mainly feed on grass, leaves, prosopis pods and assorted fruits and saline vegetation. In bursts of speed, it can run at about 70-80 km per hour. Stallions live either solitarily or in groups of 2-3, while family herds are large.

Little is known about how the Indian Wild ass disappeared gradually to reach its lowest level of around 850 in 1961. One of the reasons could be a disease known as ‘surra’ caused by ‘Trypa-nosoma evansi’. However, subsequent conservation efforts have paid off and recent census has revealed that their population has increased to an encouraging figure of around 4000 now. With increased numbers in the wild, some of them now even stray into farmers’ fields in villages bordering Rajasthan. In long-term interest of survival of their gene pool, conservationists feel that it may be prudent to relocate some of the Wild ass out of Rann of Kutch, to the Thar Desert of Rajasthan.
Apart from rains the next day, there were no signs of anything else coming between the Wild ass and us. We were eager to reach the National Park, 30 km away, as soon as it opened. So we did. The resort’s star driver Shamat was at the wheel and three of us were in the rear of an open safari jeep. An hour into the bumpy ride, we reached the periphery of the Little Rann of Kutch Wild Ass Sanctuary. While Shamat negotiated the terrain, we could see that Rann had received a large amount of rain the previous night, flooding it completely.

We could see that it had brought a herd of Wild ass to a stretch of highland that we were on. At a distance with the help of a tele-lens, Wild ass were clearly visible and also a lone Blue bull (Neel Gai), which stood tall amongst the stocky ‘Khurs’. Herd members were busy grazing on young grass shoots, which had sprung with the arrival of the monsoons. The frolicking young mem-bers were busy chasing each other. When they spotted our safari jeep, they melted into safety of bushes around. Shamat told us that it would take considerable time for the flooded Rann to absorb the rain water. During the monsoons, the Rann gets flooded for at least a month. Then, the only places for the ass to graze are a few bushy elevated plateaus called ‘bets’ like the one we were on. There are about 70-plus such islands in Rann of Kutch. Herds get completely cut off from the rest of their kind but get a supply of freshly-sprouting grass shoots.

Our first day’s shoot was disap-pointing, as it was cloudy and from moving vehicle on a bouncy terrain, the pictures were out of focus and under-exposed. We returned to the resort and had a chance encounter with the resort owner, Akbar Khan, a jovial gentleman in his late fifties. He was a proud descendant of the Malik family, whose ancestors came to present Dasada village in 1404. We talked for a while but perhaps he was in a hurry to attend to his other engagements. So he made excuses and headed towards his car along with his wife. Sensing my interest in his family history, he called Aziz Malik, one of his relatives on his mobile. Aziz soon joined us and proudly narrated the Malik family history.

In 1404, Dada Nasiruddin com-menced his Haj pilgrimage along with 60 others from Multan, now in Pakistan. They halted at Patan in Gujarat for some religious discourse. They later camped at Vajasar Lake near what is presently known as village Dasada. Their group hunted Blue bull there. This area fell within the jurisdiction of Rulers of Patdi, Rana Vaigad. Locals learnt about this sacrilege of killing of the venerated animal through a shepherd, which infuriated them. They confronted the migrants. The ensuing fight took a heavy toll on the travellers and their size was reduced from 60 to 2. The only survivors were the son of Dada Nasiruddin, aged 6 years (Bakhtiaruddin) and his gover-ness, Champa Ma in her mid-twenties. Champa Ma along with young Malik, got shelter at village Panchaser with the local Rebari tribe, where they remained for about 4 years. In due course, Champa Ma learnt that Ahmad Shah-I was ruling at Patan. In 1408 she managed to put young Baktiaruddin, the only survivor of the Malik family into his safe custody. In 1411, Ahmad Shah-I gave young Baktiaruddin 24 villages and present-day Dasada was born. Later on young Malik was recruited in Ahmad Shah’s army as a soldier. He excelled in martial arts and rose in hierarchy thanks to his battle prowess.

Baktiaruddin died in war in Eder, now in Sabarkantha district (Gujarat). His son Elam Khan Barahazari was Brigadier in Mohamad Begada’s Army (Son of Ahmad Shah-I). The story was so engrossing that we did not realise that the scheduled lunch time was about to end.

A quick but sumptuous lunch and we were again prepared for post-lunch Rann exploration. However, sudden rains did not allow us to proceed. Malik’s son Mujahid, who manages the resort business, said he had not seen such heavy rains in last 10 years.

However, on the premises, there were still plenty of subjects for photography – resident noisy Cattle egrets(Babulcus ibis coromandus), chirpy Jungle babbler (Turdoides striata), Purple sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) and Red-wattled lapwing(Vanellus indicus). The Cattle egret in yellow breeding plumage—it adding charms to an otherwise normal looking bird, was captivating.

The tiny Purple sunbird would jump from one branch to the other with its long tongue jetting out of the beak and collecting nectar from deep inside the flowers. Amongst all the birds, the one which stole the show was the resident peacock, which we named ‘Rann Raja’. It majestically moved around in the resort campus frequenting the dining hall every day.

What surprised us that it did not peck at food on any of the tables during its half-hour stay. Its articulated gait and mannerism was that of an ace fashion model. Walking the ramp, pausing and posing in front of the camera and then walking away glancing sideways was a treat to watch.

The next day, although the sky was overcast, it had stopped raining. Passing through the Jijuwada salt pans and peacock country, we were in Wild ass territory again, virtually at the same place where the previous day we had run into a large herd of ass. On a closer scrutiny we felt perhaps it was the same group. They were conscious of our presence, occasionally looking up and sideways to check what we were up to. With the slightest hint of movement even far away, they would race away to the next hide-out in a jiffy. There were large grazing grounds studded by shrubs. No other animal was in sight, although Shamat had seen chinkara, hyena, common fox, Desert cat and wolf, deep in the desert in winters. Shooting was however, better this time in the limited window that weather permitted. In high ISO shoot, image quality was sacrificed but overall it was worth it. Now it had started drizzling occasionally and it was an inkling enough that for this visit, our rendezvous with Wild ass was over. Saluting the gutsy ass who were surviving year after year on the scantiest of resources, we made our way out of a soggy Rann.

Had it not been for Shamat, the ace guide at the wheel, we would have missed our appointment with the race, which locals say has traces of Arabian blood. They have survived here for hundreds of years and harmonized with one of the toughest terrains in the world—sparse grasslands and shrubs in arid zone, inaccessible fresh water pools, inhospitable brackish desert and the extremes of temperatures. Although this time the desert had not allowed us a glimpse into its bountiful variety of other fauna, I hope the Little Rann would share more of its stunning secrets, in the next winter season.

—Text & photography by D. D. Misra

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