A Grazing Patch And A Cricket Pitch

Haven for Blackbuck and Harriers

Working to document harrier migration across India between 2015 and 2018 with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru, M. B. Prashanth and T. Ganesh offer Sanctuary readers an insight into how we can preserve and protect grasslands, perhaps the fastest-vanishing ecosystems in India.

In our search for harriers (Montagu’s and Pallid) across India, we discovered Tal Chhapar in the arid northwestern area of Rajasthan. The tal at Chhapar is part of the grassland-savannah biotope that is increasingly threatened countrywide, but well known as a blackbuck haven.

Our first glimpse revealed the tal to be two small patches of brackish land that is unproductive to the bajra and kejri-dominated agricultural practices of western Rajasthan. By late monsoon, as we arrived at Chhapar, we were greeted by undulating, pale sand dunes interspersed with flushed kejri, and standing millet fields. The mellow shades of brown made for an interesting contrast against the yellow and red costumes that are historically worn by the people here. By winter, the millet fields are bare post-harvest, the kejris all pruned to their last foliage for fodder. In the harsh but welcome summers, the state tree of Rajasthan, Roheda Tecomella undulata, are in bloom, adding a vibrant orange and yellow to the red-brown of the sand dunes. Come monsoon, the golden-brown hues of the tall and dense grass give way to emerald hues of the cropland.

FROM BARREN LAND TO GRASSLAND

As we walked along the main road leading from Chhapar town toward the sanctuary’s entrance, we passed a rustic, palatial red building, the home of the erstwhile Maharaja of Bikaner, who led hunting parties to shoot blackbuck. It is now being run as a school. Fascinated by all we saw we wondered what triggered the transformation of the saline barren land attal in Chhapar into such an incredible grassland haven.