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It is one of the largest seasonal saline wetlands having an average water depth between 0.5 and 1.5 metres. By October–November each year, rain water dries up and the entire area turns into saline desert. The sanctuary supports a wide variety of water birds and mammalian wildlife.
It encloses a true saline desert where thousands of greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) nest in the world-famous ‘Flamingo City’ located in the mud flats of the Rann, about 10 km from Nir outpost on the Kala Dungar hill, where flamingoes used to congregate during their breeding season in the past.
As per a television series, National Security by Rajya Sabha TV, the flamingo city is now a dead patch of land and flamingos do not come to breed here any longer.[2]
The northern boundary of this sanctuary forms the international border between India and Pakistan and is heavily patrolled by the Border Security Force in India with much of this sanctuary being closed to civilians after crossing the India Bridge at Kala dungar (Black hill), Khavda. Tourists and researchers can only enter here with special permission from the BSF.
In the area controlled and patrolled by the Border Security Force (BSF) after crossing the "India Bridge", several hundred square kilometers of Rann appear like pure white snow with heavy deposits of salt crystals. The marshy Rann here becomes white and flat as far as the eye can see, after the rain water has dried up during winter.
Excavated city of Dholavira from the Harappan civilization
Buried nearby to the breeding field of the flamingoes, is the ancient excavated city of Dholavira from the Harappan civilization, attracting archeologists from all over the world.
This sanctuary has some other ancient attractions as well. Embedded in the Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks on Khadir, Kuvar and Pachchham bet islands in the Greater Rann, are plenty of fossilsofvertebrates, invertebrates and plants. Fossils of dinosaurs, crocodiles (of the 'Dinosaurian period') and whales (dating from the Tertiary period) have been recorded to have been recovered from here. Fossilized trees and forests are found here in the rocks belonging to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossils of invertebrates here include those of sea urchins, ammonites and such others.
J. P. Dutta's Bollywood film Refugee is shot on location in the Great Rann of Kutch and other locations in the Kutch districtofGujarat, India. This film is inspired by the famous story by Keki N. Daruwalla and set in the Great Rann of Kutch. It is titled "LOVE ACROSS THE SALT DESERT"[3] which is included as one of the short stories in the School Standard XII syllabus English text book of NCERT in India.[4]
"Rann of Kutch seasonal salt marsh". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund. This text was originally published in the book Terrestrial ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a conservation assessment from Island Press. Also see: World Wildlife Fund, ed. (2001). "Rann of Kutch seasonal salt marsh". WildWorld Ecoregion Profile. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2010-03-08.
