The reservoirs of Dholavira

The road to Dholavira cuts across a dazzling white landscape of salty mudflats. It is close to noon in early April, and the mercury is already past 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The desert monotones are interrupted only by the striking attire worn by the women of the nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoral communities that continue to inhabit this land: the Ahir, Rabari, Jat, Meghwal and others. When I ask the driver of my hired car to stop for a photo, they receive me with curious stares and giggles.

This is the Rann of Kutch, an area about the size of Nagaland that is almost entirely within Gujarat, along the frontier with Pakistan. Once an extension of the Arabian Sea, the rann ('salt marsh') has long been closed off by centuries of siltation. During the monsoon, large parts of the Rann fill up with brackish water, enough for many locals to harvest shrimp. Some of these fishermen abandon their boats on the drying mudflats, presenting a surreal scene to dry-season visitors. Heat mirages abound, making distant objects hover strangely above the land. Further to the east, in the Little Rann of Kutch, is a wildlife sanctuary that protects the Asiatic wild ass, a shy and handsome animal that can sprint at speeds of up to 70 kilometres per hour. Now reduced to about 2800 in number, the wild ass depends on the few bets, or grassy islands, nourished by monsoon rains. The sanctuary also contains a large number of local and migratory birds, especially flamingos, in its many wetlands.