Desert Coursers, Zainabad

Zainabad, a sleepy little village, some 105 kms from Ahmedabad is home to the royal family of the Maliks. Yesterday, we had the privilege of meeting Prince Dhanraj Shabbir Malik over some afternoon tea and lemonade. The princely state of Zainabad was established by his great-grandfather Zain Khan in the 1890’s. Today, Mr. Malik runs Desert Coursers, a resort in this area, barely 6km away from the Little Rann of Kutch.

Mr. Dhanraj Malik

An expert on the land that his family once commanded, he still looks after 7 villages in the regions surrounding Zainabad. Running schools, medical facilities and orphanages as well as managing his own resort keep him busy throughout the year. The peak tourist season from October to March sees a huge influx of visitors, both foreign and Indian to the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK), hoping to catch a glimpse of the Wild Ass and over 316 varieties of birds that call the Little Rann Santuary, home. Some of these birds migrate to Kutch, during this season, from far away lands like Iran!

His resort and its facilities are featured in the Lonely Planet and he has personally been an advisor to the BBC on many documentaries and studies on the LRK. Gracious, polite and genial, he went out of his way to make us feel comfortable when we landed up at his estate at around 2.30pm. After fascinating us with some facts and stories on this geograhical marvel - the salinity of this denuded land is six times that of sea water!, the silt and sand carried by five rivers into te sea is spread over this region, and when the water completely evaporates it leaves behind a thick layer of salt, giving the Rann its characteristic white color - he helped us chart out a route to take the Blackhawk safely to the Rann and back.

High-tea on the Rann!

We set out for Jinjunwada, a village 16km away from Zainabad, with Mr.Malik’s trusted man friday - Yunus - as our guide for this expedition. We passed a small, delapidated fort and some huge, stone boulders that once upon a time, served as markers for the ships that docked here. This region is now a mish-mash of desert, wetlands, deltas and marginal, agricultural land and does not show any visible signs of being on the coastline, ever!

Sights along the way

We passed some enormous mounds of salt, and some trucks transporting this to the refineries. These little, white pyramids, like buoys dotted our route onto the vast, flat plains called the Little Rann of Kutch. Drinking in the awe-inspiring emptiness and silence of this place, we treaded carefully into the actual Rann. After a few metres we had to halt and park the Ceida to avoid sinking into the still-soft and moist soil. 

Us on the Rann!

We spent a couple of hours soaking in this place, our main objective for visiting Gujarat, and soon it was time to head back to Zainabad. Back at the Malik Estate, we enjoyed the cool breeze, seated under a thatched gazebo along their private lake. A few of his dogs - Om (a Saluki), Scooby (an adorable, black Cocker Spaniel) and an unnamed Dalmation (Spotty? Dalmia? ) - and his son’s pony, Pyari joined us as we chatted with the man, over some more tea and biscuits. The Saluki breed from Egypt, named after the Arabian city of Saluki, is believed to be one of the oldest and purest species of dogs to inhabit the planet!

Clock-wise from top, Om the Saluki, Pyari the horse, Dalmia the dalmation, and the Scooby the Cocker-Spaniel

After helping us figuring out our travel and stay plans from Zainabad to Mehsana (our initial plan was to halt at Mt.Abu, but we ditched that to avoid any unnecessary driving at night), we bid adieu to Mr. Malik, his father and his two beautiful children, who study at Ahmedabad and drop-in on weekends. 

We hoped that the Rann would live upto our expectations, and the place delivered much more than what we had pictured in our minds. More than that, learning more about the Rann’s difficult living and driving conditions from a Rann veteran himself, enriched our experience and made it a memorable one for life!