Stories Through my lens Clearly.: The Desert Sojourn Part 1

Its been a while since I've been here or for that matter anywhere. The mailer from Darter was just the trigger needed to kick up the wanderlust again and the preps began. With the Office sorted out and the tickets booked, I was looking forward to a splendid couple of days out in the land of the Romantic mystique!!

A last minute development added a small element of drama to my travel plans, however doing little to impact the overall schedule. I had decided to travel to Tal Chapar by train from Delhi. Boarded the Salasar Express headed to Bhagat Ki Kothi.

It was a beautiful morning belying the recent smog filled mornings. Nice crisp and cold morning. The train departed about 20 minutes late, which seemed in line with the routine. I settled in with a nice cuppa tea and was stunned to see the filth and garbage along the tracks. What was unbelievable was that the people who lived in the midst didn't seem bothered one bit. People were packed in like Sardines in double storeyed tenements.

Once out of Delhi, the scenery became much better and easy on the eye.

The downside being very poor choice of catering onboard the train, travelling along with expensive equipment meant that getting down at stations to get food was ruled out. Thank Goodness for some foresight and the packed sandwiches.

Pretty soon it was 30 minutes past 1 in the afternoon and time to get off the train. Was met by Shreeram at the station and soon we were off to the Forest Department Guest house, where we were scheduled to stay over the next three days. Lovely accommodation to say the least, considering that we were literally in the middle of nowhere.

Soon enough the other members of the group made their way into the guest house and we were all set to move out into the grassland soon after lunch.

Tal Chapar literally translates to the plains of Chapar village, is a sanctuary located in the Churu district of Northwestern Rajasthan in the Shekhawati region of India. It is known for blackbucks and is also home to a variety of birds. The sanctuary is on the fringe of the Great Indian Desert and situated on road from Ratangarh to Sujangarh. It is a flat saline depression locally known as a "tal" that has a unique ecosystem in the heart of the Thar Desert. Tal Chapar has an open grassland with scattered Acacia and Prosopis trees which give it an appearance of a typical savanna.

The geology of the zone is obscured by the wind blown over-burden. Some small hillocks and exposed rocks of slate and quartzite are found in the western side of the sanctuary. The area between hillocks and the sanctuary constitutes the watershed area of the sanctuary. The whole sanctuary used to be flooded by water during the heavy rains but with salt mining going on in the watershed, hardly any rain falling on the hillocks reaches the sanctuary.

In the Tal Chhapar Sanctuary, a special type of grass is found. This grass is called Mothiya locally. The word "Mothiya" comes come from the word "Moti" or from the Hindi word for pearl. The shape of the seed of this grass is like very fine round shaped pearls. Mothiya has a very sweet taste. People enjoy eating it, but it is found in very small quantities. Production is only a few kilograms every season. Mothiya is also food for blackbucks and birds.

Over the next couple of days, we were out on the grassland and here is a glimpse of what we saw....

The highlight of the trip being a battle between two Nilgai Bulls. A rare sight even for the locals, we were treated to a front row view of this battle.