The Little Rann of Kutch - a "must" for bird-watcher's

The Little Rann of Kutch (or, LRK for short), in spite of its name, is not really in the district of Kutch, as generally understood. It lies to the south-west of Ahmedabad, much closer to the city of Dhrangadhra than to Bhuj, which lies much farther to the west, and which is taken to be the main city of Kutch. The greater Rann (which is close to Bhuj) and the Little Rann are more than 200 kms distant from one another and are located on either sides of the Gulf of Kutch. The LRK is about 130 kms from Ahmedabad and approachable via the towns of Viramgam and Dasada. There are a number of lodges and resorts around that area. Both the LRK and GRK are subject to incursion of salt water during the Monsoons as they are only about 10 to 12 metres above the mean sea level, and are centres for the production of salt by the simple process of evaporation.

Indian wild ass

Common Cranes in flight The terrain is completely flat in both places, with only the occasional low hillocks standing out against the horizon. But the greater Rann (near Bhuj) is more of grassland while the Little Rann has more of thorny bushes and trees and seveal medium to large water bodies. In consequence,there are more of both bushland birds and waders and other water birds in LRK; following them naturally come many of the raptors. Also to be seen in the LRK are fair numbers of Indian wild ass.

Flamingoes So, overall, a 2-3 days trip to the LRK would be well worth the while for a bird-watcher who would get a fill of a wide range of species to observe and photograph.

Dholavira - A Indus Valley Civilization site in India

The Indus Valley Civilization (or IVC for short) that grew up in the valley of the Indus River about five thousand years back, is well-known. Not so well-known is the fact that almost contemporaneously, sites similar to the well-known sites of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro also grew up in parts of Western India. One such site is Dholavira near the town of Bhuj in Gujarat. It is at some distnace of about 220 kilometres to the north of Bhuj and it takes about four hours to drive up each way.

The drive is quite pleasant especially in the morning in cold weather. The remarkable thing to be seen at Dholavira is the rain-water harvesting system with channels running down from the hillock down to the terraced water reservoirs at the bottom of the hillock, as may be seen in this picture. The Local museum of artefacts recovered during the archaeological excvations at Dholavira is also inetresting.