Desert Safari @ Little Rann of Kutch

When we think of Desert, we think of endless land with no water. India's largest wildlife sanctuary known as Little Rann of Kutch is a unique seasonal land. During monsoon, it is submerged in water by an interesting reverse flow of water from the sea into the land, but after that it turns into endless mass of dry land.

The main attraction of this sanctuary is Wild Ass. Now don't laugh at why would someone be interested in Asses of all animals. These endangered species are only found in this sactuary now. It is a very unique animal in the sense that its face looks like an ass, but the body is a mix of Zebra and a Horse. It has speed and built of a horse, but at the same time elegance of a Zebra.

Other attaction are the migratory birds. During the monsoon months, the huge wetland attracts thousands of lesser flamingos and 9 other types of Migratory birds. While Greater flamingos prefer the Great Rann of Kutch, the lesser flamingos prefer its smaller version :). This is also their breeding site, so after the monsoon months, is the best period to sight the hoard of flamingos. We also sighted Common Cranes and Pelicans among other birds.

Our Safari started from the nicely created and well maintained resort of the Desert Coursers located at Jainabad, 10km off the road from Dasada. It has nicely made A.C. rooms for night stay (called koobas). A nice dining area and open space for kids to play around and for campfire.

We had opted only for the Safari, so once we reached around 3:00 PM we waited in the dining area. Some of us had tea while others enjoyed excellent chaas.

We started off on a military grade vehicle that can seat around 12-14 people comfortably. The sactuary is around 30 KM away from this base location.

As we entered the sanctury, we first sighted the Commom cranes lazing around elegantly.




Next, we headed to the large lake formed during monsoons. We were delighted by the sight of the thousands of lesser flamingos standing in the lake. We parked the vehicle at a distance and started to walk towards the lake. Just then a couple of other cars came very close to the lake and the entire group of flamingos just flew in the air. The sight was just awesome.

There was also a group of Pelicans on the other side of the lake. We could not reach close as they also flew and went to the far side of the lake. We headed to see the Wild ass next.

The driver was quite knowledgeable and knew where to take us. We spotted some asses and went as close as possible. They were quite supportive :) and gave us some good poses. They were looking quite amusedly at us :).

It was just time for Sunset and we places ourselves at a strategic location to see the gorgeous sunset in the desert. It was just the vast expanse of land meeting the sky and nothing in between.

It was time to head back to the base camp. Their jeep also dropped us to Dasada for our onward journey. The entire trip in the open jeep speeding at more than 60 km/hour was just awesome.

Click here for detailed travel information on Safari.

© Paras Doshi, 2009.