Babul se Namak
From Bujh you take police permission. Permission takes a full day. you need your ID card and a passport photo and a letter. yes the most important if you are applying for a group - everyone from the group has to go to the police station and show their faces.
next day you start early morning towards a 2-3.5 hours journey. Dying to see the salt desert you start noticing small clean interesting villages and beautiful ghagrawali ladies with matka on their head and a herd of camel following them. The men are in their colourful turban and a big Lathies. Anybody will get tempted to photograph them and unconsciously you will remove your camera - and through the lens you will see the ladies covering their faces and signaling via finger movement - "you want photo give us money". which will remind you of Kenya if you want to photograph a maasai you have to shell money - actually in kenya technically you are not suppose to photograph the maasai.... why not why will you have the licence to photograph them - are they free objects or landscape?
ok we continue with our journey... the landscape changing slowly - we start seeing the land is becoming flat - plain. we start seeing small small green shrubs/tress all over spread to the ground and then you recognise it they are babul shrubs/trees (Acacia nilotica (gum arabic tree, Babul/Kikar, Egyptian thorn, Sant tree, Al-sant or prickly acacia; called thorn mimosa or prickly acacia in Australia; lekkerruikpeul or scented thorn in South Africa) is a species of Acacia native to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent)
Obviously the British got it from S.Africa to make the desert little green. I have heard they did it in Australia too. so when i pass by my eyes are cooled by the green look. These plants are invasive species for desert region. which means it is of significant concern. This is a kind of plant which depends on ground water and it sucks as much water as it can, so it isnt at all an ideal plant for desert area and it grows fast and spreads as much it can.
the usage of this plants: the locals say you can brush your teeth and the camels can eat it as it is filled with thorn and they like it. it is of some medicine value which i have no idea and the local dont know about it. so basically it is a environment problem and that too in the cost of beautification.
anyways so went ahead and reached the entry of the salt desert after 2.5 hours or almost 3 hours- which is called 'India Bridge'. so we all geared up to see the salt desert. got down of the tempo walked towards the bridge, we see a security army guy walking up and down. he asked us for the papers we confidently showed him and he said good, your permission was till here, you can spend 5 min here and return back. we all looked at him and thought he was joking as he might have got bored of himself. but he was serious -and we all argued and it was of no use- then we asked him what are these papers we are actually holding - he said they are police permission to come till here and to cross the briedge and go to the desert you need an army permission go back to bhuj and get it.....
The Rann of Kutch is quite a sensitive area, due to its proximity to the Pakistani border.
the few images i took from the entry:
From Bujh you take police permission. Permission takes a full day. you need your ID card and a passport photo and a letter. yes the most important if you are applying for a group - everyone from the group has to go to the police station and show their faces.
next day you start early morning towards a 2-3.5 hours journey. Dying to see the salt desert you start noticing small clean interesting villages and beautiful ghagrawali ladies with matka on their head and a herd of camel following them. The men are in their colourful turban and a big Lathies. Anybody will get tempted to photograph them and unconsciously you will remove your camera - and through the lens you will see the ladies covering their faces and signaling via finger movement - "you want photo give us money". which will remind you of Kenya if you want to photograph a maasai you have to shell money - actually in kenya technically you are not suppose to photograph the maasai.... why not why will you have the licence to photograph them - are they free objects or landscape?
ok we continue with our journey... the landscape changing slowly - we start seeing the land is becoming flat - plain. we start seeing small small green shrubs/tress all over spread to the ground and then you recognise it they are babul shrubs/trees (Acacia nilotica (gum arabic tree, Babul/Kikar, Egyptian thorn, Sant tree, Al-sant or prickly acacia; called thorn mimosa or prickly acacia in Australia; lekkerruikpeul or scented thorn in South Africa) is a species of Acacia native to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent)
Obviously the British got it from S.Africa to make the desert little green. I have heard they did it in Australia too. so when i pass by my eyes are cooled by the green look. These plants are invasive species for desert region. which means it is of significant concern. This is a kind of plant which depends on ground water and it sucks as much water as it can, so it isnt at all an ideal plant for desert area and it grows fast and spreads as much it can.
the usage of this plants: the locals say you can brush your teeth and the camels can eat it as it is filled with thorn and they like it. it is of some medicine value which i have no idea and the local dont know about it. so basically it is a environment problem and that too in the cost of beautification.
anyways so went ahead and reached the entry of the salt desert after 2.5 hours or almost 3 hours- which is called 'India Bridge'. so we all geared up to see the salt desert. got down of the tempo walked towards the bridge, we see a security army guy walking up and down. he asked us for the papers we confidently showed him and he said good, your permission was till here, you can spend 5 min here and return back. we all looked at him and thought he was joking as he might have got bored of himself. but he was serious -and we all argued and it was of no use- then we asked him what are these papers we are actually holding - he said they are police permission to come till here and to cross the briedge and go to the desert you need an army permission go back to bhuj and get it.....
The Rann of Kutch is quite a sensitive area, due to its proximity to the Pakistani border.
the few images i took from the entry:
