Madras Ramblings: The Thar desert on a winter morning

Sunday, March 8, 2015

The Thar desert on a winter morning

12th/13th January 2015

Read about the Great Indian Bustards here.

As we trundled along the flat and straight roads into the desert, visibility was just beyond our noses, and it seemed that only mad hatters and Madrasis were out. Even the Cinkara stopped and stared in surprise!

As we stared at the khejri-tree filled landscape, something moved in the morning light. "Desert fox" said Nabeel excitedly. And there it was, a diminutive little thing with a distinctive white tipped bushy tail. Vulpes vulpes pusilla

The shy fox, got us animated, and I almost forget the cold. We were still in our vehicle, and relatively warm.

We got out at Sudasari, and the wind made a mockery of my layers of warm clothing, the monkey cap and gloves I wore, and reminded me that I was meant to be in nice balmy Madras and not in this dreadful cold, looking like a cross between an eskimo and a penguin!

Even more ridiculous were the locals, wrapped in a shawl and walking around as if it was a nice pleasant morning.

The Graceful Prinia looked anything but graceful, as the wind ruffled its feathers, and (according to me at any rate) it had a miserable look on its face!

The Eurasian collared doves wore their usual mournful look

All over the desert were these bushes - kair - Capparis decidua - once a year, they produce these berries, which are pickled and eaten through the year. Kair/sangri - my culinary discoveries on this Rajasthan trip.

The doves took flight and left the Trumpeter Finches, with their yellow beaks for us to see! My numbed and gloved fingers tried to work the binoculars to focus on them. Thankfully, they hung around long enough for my inefficient focusing, and for Sekar to take these pictures. It was a lovely sight, some of them with the distinct pinkish hue.

The absent sun was higher in the sky presumably, the wind abated a bit, and the walking had warmed me into a better humour.

And then this Bengal fox, which casually crossed the track behind us, improved my mood even further. He had a cocky and casual air about him, quite unlike the desert fox which seemed to skulk around. The bushy black-tipped tail is characteristic of Vulpes bengalensis.

He sat and stared at us for a while, scratching himself. We were obviously not interesting enough as he ambled away in a bored fashion, probably looking for his next meal.

Up on a dune, starkly visible against the sand was a southern grey shrike!

It flew and perched on the scrub for us all to see. We didn't see his "larder" of insects, though.

And sudden;y, there loomed two healthy and green Khejri trees. Prosopsis cinerarea. The state tree of Rajasthan (and the national tree of the UAE I subsequently discovered!), Their greenness was a possible indication that there was a water vein below.

On closer examination, we found that they had pods. Those red legumes are what we were eating as "sangri" at dinner times - I quite loved it actually.

I guess they are like our coconut tree. Every part is used. But, excessive cutting of the tree branches for fodder is leading the the death of khejri trees in Rajasthan. Later on, on the highways, we came across these trees with all their branches completely lopped off.

Bui - Aerva javanica - is the cotton of the desert, used to stuff pillows and mattresses, and grows widely in the desert in arid conditions.

We saw the arid scrublands of the fringes of the desert and we saw the sand dunes as well.

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Unfortunately, there was cloud cover in the evening, and we missed the sight of the setting sun adding colours and hues to the sand dunes. They were still beautiful, in their vastness, and the endless and infinitely different patterns that the winds created on the dunes. The sand is soft, and powdery, quite different from the feel of the beach sand that I am used to.