Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary

Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in the Great Rann of Kutch, Kutch district, Gujarat, India, it was declared a sanctuary in February 1986.

It is one of the largest seasonal saline wetlands having an average water depth between 0.5 to 1.5 metres. By October–November each year, rain water dries up and the entire area turns into saline desert. The sanctuary supports wide variety of water birds and mammalian wildlife.

It encompasses 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 Kala Dungar hill. It is the only area where flamingoes congregate to breed regularly.

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

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 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 the "India Bridge" several hundred square kilometers of Rann is pure white like snow with heavy deposit of salt crystals. The marshy Rann here becomes pure white and flat till the eye can see, till the horizon after the rain water has dried up, in the winters every year.

Since the Rann is flat like a sheet of paper in the afternoons with bright sunshine a shimmering mirage forms which is like an illusionary lake that fills the dry Rann till the eye can see.

Buried nearby to where the flamingoes breed is the ancient excavated city of Dholavira from the Harappan civilization, attracting archeologists from all over the world.

...
Wikipedia