As the sun rose, a bright orange ball on the eastern horizon, the calls of a thousand cranes filled the air – krr, krr, krr, garroo, garroo, garroo... Thousands more birds, in typical V-shaped skeins silhouetted against the morning sky, circled and slowed as they dropped lower and lower. Hundreds landed among grass and sparse trees away to my right. The others circled suspiciously directly overhead. I was the only watcher here on the flat, bare concrete roof of Sheva Ram's house overlooking the chugga garh. This place, a 'feeding house', was established some 50 years ago here in Khichan to help ease the plight of Demoiselle Cranes on their annual migration from the plains and steppes of Eurasia and Mongolia. As the minutes ticked by, numbers continually increased and soon the protected piece of sandy
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