Advertisement
Published: November 23rd 2018
Edit Blog Post
After tea and biscuits at 715am, we start off to see the birds at the lake. It would be nice to report a good night’s sleep, but the beds were rock hard and the imam was ranting till past 1am. One of the other guests, an Indian expat living in New Zealand, tells us that the new mosque was built with Wahhabi money from Saudi Arabia, as are most new mosques in India. They bring a more fundamental form of Islam than Indian Muslims practise, and this can cause conflict both with local Muslims and with the Hindus. So it can become another source of tension between the communities. She said that over the last few years since the Wahhabis moved in, the number of little Hindu shrines has much increased in the village, as a seeming reaction to this.
As we approach the lake, or what is left of it by this time of year, several months after the monsoon rains ended, we see cranes calling loudly to each other. Some take flight as we approach, some do not. Then we see a large flock of pelicans, chattering loudly to each other. A few take off, other follow; they
fly a few dozen yards and then settle again. The other then take off and join them, and so the cycle is repeated. Both the cranes and pelicans are migratory, some coming from Russia and heading south for the winter.
We see blue bull and wild ass. Then at the lake, we see thousands of flamingos, both lesser and greater flamingos. The greater ones are bigger, not surprisingly, and feed lower down in the water, while the lesser ones feed at the upper level of the water, allowing the two types to co-exist on the same body of water. Dhanraj says that in August the flock extended solidly for 11km across the lake, and probably numbered over 40,000, whereas now it is down to maybe 4,000. When the lake dries completely by the end of December, all the birds will have gone off in search of other bodies of water in the region. These are not migratory birds, so they will return to their home when the monsoon rains fill the lake again. Dhanraj is getting very excited as he has spotted a black and white shelduck through his binoculars. We find this mildly amusing as there are dozens
of them to be seen in the summer at Barnes Waterside behind our house. Maybe we have seen this very duck in SW13.
We enjoy the bird watching and then set off back to rendezvous with the film crew. This is a group from Auckland University making a nature film about the Rann and the creatures there. We have been co-opted as they need some tourists to film watching the blue bull. We get miked up and are given the outline of our dialogue, with Dhanraj telling us about the blue bull and us asking questions about them and the mesquite, which are the thorny bushes that carry seeds that feed the blue bull and various other creatures when the grass is scarce. It is quite an amusing diversion for half an hour or so, as the sun climbs into the sky.
Back to the camp, and the heat is now pretty sapping. Some lunch and then it is time for an afternoon of idleness. Some irritating visitors check in who do not endear themselves to the rest of us by immediately flying a drone and whipping up clouds of dust. Maybe they sense the silent disapproval as
the thing does not appear again.
Scroll down for more photos
Advertisement
Tot: 0.458s; Tpl: 0.028s; cc: 24; qc: 103; dbt: 0.2589s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Keep Smiling
Mike Fossey
Wow!
Wow No. 1: I've seen pelicans and flamingoes in India but never in such huge numbers, nor so close. I usually travel Jan-Mar, but it looks like I'll need to reschedule to Oct-Dec if I want to see these at the Little Rann of Kutch. Wow No. 2: Film stars, eh? Pity you'll have to go to NZ to see it! P.S. You may want to revise the 'Flock of flamingoes' caption. :0)