Shashwat Mohapatra

In December, my family was planning to go somewhere for Christmas holidays. I suggested Ahmedabad. We could visit the Wild Ass sanctuary at Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) or and the Thol bird sanctuary. The Wild Ass sanctuary is famous for the endangered Indian wild ass, also known as Ghudkar or Khur in the local language.

I got a chance to visit this sanctuary in 2014, when I had gone on my school trip to Ahmedabad. As it was the breeding season, we could spot herds of Wild Ass. These animals fascinated me so much that I wanted to revisit LRK.

We went to the Wild Ass sanctuary on the first day of the year i.e. 1st January, 2016. We drove down to the sanctuary. We left our hotel at about 7 a.m. I was aware of two gates-Bajana and Dhrangadhra. During the last trip, we had entered through Dhrangadhra. This is a very good gate for sightings and Bajana is in the outskirts.

I wanted to explore Bajana too, so we took that as our entry point, this time.

LRK is around 100 kms from Ahmedabad. The roads were very good but our driver was so slow that we took 2 hours to reach Bajana gate.At last we entered the sanctuary. We drove in and there stood a Nilgai (Blue bull).

I asked our driver to stop but he moved on and the Nilgai ran away so I could not take any shots.

The roads are very rugged. You can get lost in the desert as there are no sign boards. You can only see barren land with a few wild shrubs and trees and tall grasses here and there. You just have to keep driving, keeping your eyes open for sightings.

Landscape of the sanctuary

Fight for food

A little ahead, we spotted a family of Wild boars. I managed to take some pics of the family.

We could see something standing far off. When I saw it from the binoculars, I realised they were Common Cranes and on the other side you had Demoiselle Cranes. They were enjoying their sun bath and having their breakfast.

We got down for a clearer view. They were standing too far in pairs. I took some pics and when we were coming back towards our car we saw a huge Indian Black Eagle. I, my dad and my mom were amazed on seeing it. My brother was fast asleep because it was very hot and humid.

We were told at the information desk, that we would get good sightings at the lake. So started searching for one. We drove on and we saw a small water body. When we were almost there, I spotted a Wild Ass waiting for me to click snaps. I took some snaps as it stood there for a long time. There were some other birds too. As I was wondering about their names, I saw a very rare and mysterious bird which was the Desert Wheatear. This was priceless for me. I immediately took some snaps.

In the water body there was also a flock of Greylag geese and some sandpipers. I had no interest in the sandpipers but the Greylag Goose was another bonus. When I began to click pics they flew away but my dad was lucky enough to get some snaps.

We were not able to find the main water body so we decided to go back. We reached a
place where we saw some locals. When my dad ask them about the water body, they said it is actually a water tank. And one of them led us there.

On the way we saw some Juvenile Common Cranes standing in the middle of the road. I took some snaps , but our pathetic driver went a little ahead and they flew off. We reached closer to the water tank and saw a group of Wild Ass. Some were basking in the sun and some were grazing.

They were very happy to pose for us. We took some pics and reached the water tank. We saw a mother Common Crane with a juvenile Common Crane. We captured some photos. I saw a huge Nilgai hiding behind the tall grasses. We turned back and focused on his movements. He was busy eating, so he didn’t see us. But at last he set his eyes on us. He stood there for a while and after a few moments vanished into the tall grasses.