Indian Wild Ass population rise by 26% in Gujarat: Census

Hindu Business Line: Ahmedabad: Wednesday, 9 October 2024.
Included in the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, the wild ass has faced significant conservation challenges

In the last five years, there has been a 26 percent jump in the Indian Wild Ass population in Gujarat. The population of these wild animals have reached 7672, the state government stated on Monday.
Over 15,500 square kilometres of the area was covered for the 10th Wild Ass Population Estimation 2024. The previous recorded count of Wild Ass in Gujarat was 6,082. The Indian wild ass (Equus hemionus khur) was classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its 2008 report due to its limited population, and it is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Included in the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, the wild ass has faced significant conservation challenges.
These animals are primarily found in six districts of Gujarat. According to the latest survey, the highest number of wild asses, 2,705, resides in Surendranagar district. Additionally, the survey recorded 1,993 wild asses in Kutch district, 1,615 in Patan, 710 in Banaskantha, 642 in Morbi, and 7 in Ahmedabad district. Their population was just 720 in 1976.
The Indian Wild Ass possess remarkable characteristics, such as its ability to survive in the extreme conditions of Gujarat’s Wild Ass Sanctuary, where temperatures often soar between 45 and 50 degrees Celsius. The primary food source for these animals is the grass that grows on the islands in the desert. Known for their strength, wild asses can run at speeds of 50 to 70 kilometres per hour in the desert.
In addition to wild asses, various other wildlife species were also counted during the survey, including Asian antelope, Indian gazelle, Blackbuck, Wild Boar, Indian Jackal, and Indian Desert Fox. The survey recorded the highest populations of 2,734 Asian antelope, 915 wild boars, 222 Indian hares, 214 Indian gazelle, and 153 Indian Jackal.

Survey recognises rights of less than 500 salt workers in Little Rann of Kutch

Hindustan Times: Ahmadabad: Friday, 2nd August 2024.
The survey recognised only those Agariyas who were lease holders in 1976 when the sanctuary was declared. At that time, there were less than 500

Thousands of traditional salt workers Agariyas are at risk of facing eviction due to a survey and settlement report that recognises the rights of only 497 individuals in the Wild Ass Sanctuary located in the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.
Gujarat produces more than 70% of the country’s salt production, with about 30% originating from the Little Rann of Kutch. Annually, from September to October, traditional salt workers from over 107 villages in Surendranagar, Morbi, Patan, and Kutch districts migrate to the Little Rann to produce salt, sustaining their families through this labour-intensive process.
The Little Rann of Kutch was declared a sanctuary in 1973, and the survey and settlement processes began in 1997. Recent restrictions on salt production have left Agariya families fearing for their future.
Pankti Jog, an RTI activist working with Agariyas for nearly two decades, sought the Survey and Settlement Report for the Wild Ass Sanctuary through an RTI request.
According to Jog, the report, prepared from 1997 to 2018, has been used to limit their access to the sanctuary for salt-making purposes.
However, according to officials aware of the report, it was not the final report. Jog argued before the RTI Commission that actions were already being taken based on the current report. “After which they recently shared it with me,” Jog said.
The Littel Ran of Kutch remained unsurveyed since independence and hence was allotted single survey number ‘Zero’. The total area of the Wild Ass Sanctuary according to the notifications of 1973 and 1978 is 4952.81 sq km or 4,95,281 hectares.
AM Soundarva, senior surveyor of the Wild Ass Sanctuary, provided insight into the current situation. He confirmed that their report has been submitted to the government, who will make the final decision.
Regarding the Agariyas’ rights, Soundarva said, “The survey recognised only those Agariyas who were lease holders in 1976 when the sanctuary was declared. At that time, there were less than 500. Today, their families, extended families, and relatives are also engaged in salt production in the sanctuary, but their lease rights cannot be recognised.”
Soundarva said that the government has in the past attempted to address this issue. “In 2016, the government gave them an opportunity to come forward and claim their rights. Only those with documentary evidence were considered.”
The population of Wild Ass was around 700 when the sanctuary was declared, and they have steadily risen to over 6,000 today.
The Little Ran of Kutch has dual characteristics that of a wetland and a desert. From June to September, the entire desert gets submerged in rainwater as well as seawater, halting all salt-making activities here. Fishing activity is carried out during these four months.
Harinesh Pandya, managing trustee of Agariya Heet-Rakshak Samiti, an NGO working in the Little Ran of Kutch having about 6,000 Agariyas as its members, decried the report as unjust, saying that “no survey of the Little Rann was ever conducted before or after independence. The land records do not reflect the Agariyas’ traditional rights.”
Pandya noted that some pre-independence claims have been recognised while post-independence leases are deemed invalid. Traditional Agariyas, who have harvested salt for generations, do not require leases under the 1948 ‘Salt Expert Committee’ decision, according to Pandya.
He said that the Gujarat government, in its affidavit to the high court, has in the past acknowledged the presence of 59,600 Agariyas in the Rann. Additionally, the Rural Labor Commissioner’s office has documented 7,600 Agariya families engaged in salt production, he added.
Government agencies provide various services to these families during the salt season, including water, education, health, safety kits, and nutrition. Approximately 4,800 families have received solar water pump systems at subsidised rates, Pandya said.
“Despite occupying only 6% of the sanctuary’s 495,000 hectares, Agariyas seek only seasonal usage rights, not ownership, ensuring the land remains under the sanctuary’s jurisdiction,” said Jog.
However, in recent years, the Forest Department has restricted their access, citing their absence from the survey report, according to Jog.
“Last season, stringent security measures were enforced to prevent Agariyas from entering the Rann, prompting widespread protests and eventual intervention by public representatives,” she added.
Pandya called for a reevaluation of the survey and settlement report, urging the government to consider the traditional rights of the Agariyas. “Generations of Agariyas have been producing salt without any formal documentation. The government’s demand for such documents is both impractical and unjust,” he said.
The Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch has proposed that local panchayats and gram sabhas verify and acknowledge the rights of traditional Agariyas, ensuring that their claims are validated based on community knowledge and historical presence rather than formal land records. This approach, they argue, would provide a fair and just resolution, allowing Agariyas to continue their traditional occupation without the fear of losing their means of survival.
Last year, in a boost for the Agariyas, the state government had come out with a notification that allowed salt pan workers holding leases up to 10 acres to continue their age-old tradition of salt production in the Little Rann of Kutch.

‘Less than 10% of agariyas given user rights in LRK’

Times of India: Gandhinagar: Tuesday, 6 August 2024.
The Agariya Hitrakshak Samiti, which has been supporting the cause of salt pan workers known as ‘agariyas’, said that the state forest and environment department has granted user rights to only 497 agariyas.
This number is less than 10% of the salt pan workers who operate in the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK), which is notified as a wild ass sanctuary.
It has asked the state govt to reconsider the forest department’s survey and settlement report, stating that the livelihood of several thousand salt pan workers will be affected if they are not granted user rights at the LRK.
“We have made a representation to inform the govt that the activities of the salt pan workers do not disturb the wild asses in the sanctuary,” Agariya Hitrakshak Samiti (AHS) convener Harinesh Pandya said.
He added that the salt pan workers work only for a few months and are only seeking user rights, while the ownership of the area remains with the forest department. tnn

Salting away concerns, Gujarat hits 7-year production peak

Times of India: Ahmedabad: Friday, 14 June 2024.
Salt manufacturers in Gujarat are finally feeling relieved as salt production has hit a 7-year high. The Indian Salt Manufacturers’ Association (ISMA) estimates that 337.56 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of salt were produced in 2023-24, about 10% more than the 308.01 lakh MT produced in 2022-23. With no unexpected rain during the peak season, salt producers are happy about the increased production. However, they are still worried about the decreasing amount of salt produced per acre.
At its peak in 2005-06, salt production surpassed 400 lakh MT and later remained between 350 lakh MT and 400 lakh MT. However, changes in weather patterns have affected the yield. ISMA estimates indicate that the per-acre yield of salt has reduced to 55 tonnes from 60 to 65 tonnes a decade ago, triggered by climate change.

Bharat Raval, president of ISMA, explained, “In the past decade, the average rainfall in the state has increased to 900mm during the season, compared to 700mm in the previous decade. Additionally, the monsoon pattern has completely changed due to climate change, often causing the shortening of the salt production season or washing away of stocked salt. As a result, salt production has declined over the past decade and has significantly decreased from its peak levels, though it is now slowly rising.”
He added, “In the past decade, the area for salt harvest has also increased, but production has not grown at the same rate.” Gujarat and Rajasthan account for about 90% of India’s total salt production. About 30% of this salt is exported, while the rest is used in India for edible and industrial purposes. Lower production is expected to raise the price of salt, both edible and industrial. “The demand for salt in the chlor-alkali industry grows between 6.5% and 8% yearly, while salt production barely grows at half that rate. This is why prices have been high over the past few years. However, we expect some price relief this year,” said a senior ISMA official.

Machchhu dam release flooded fields, complain salt pan farmers: Written by Parimal A Dabhi

Indian Express: Ahmedabad: Saturday, 25 May 2024.

Karim Manakh stacked up the salt on one side of his 10-acre pan and wound up his day on April 27. Later in the night, he stepped out of his makeshift hut near the salt pan to attend nature’s call when he found his legs in deep water. “I immediately asked my wife and my children to move to higher ground. But we could not stop the water from ruining our salt pans. Eventually, some of the workers among us deployed excavators to create bunds so that the flooding water could be stopped from further damaging the salt pans,” the 45-year-old says.
However, the water had already destroyed his toil for over six months. “My earnings for the entire monsoon have been washed away by the flooding water,” said a visibly upset Manakh.
A resident of Nava Anjiyasar village 2-3 kilometers away from the salt pans where he barely stays for a month, Manakh is into shrimp fishing when he is not farming salt.
Manakh was among the many salt cultivators from Gulabadi, Ankodiya and Haripar areas of Maliya taluka in Morbi who allegedly suffered losses after the irrigation department released waters from Machchhu III and Machchhu II flooding their pans on April 26 and May 12. The water was released after taking due permission for repairing the floodgates.
Rajkot irrigation circle’s Morbi division Executive Engineer Preksha Goswami said that five of the 20 floodgates installed in 1989 had weakened and needed to be replaced. These floodgates are 41 feet high and 27 feet wide each. Machchhu-II dam has 38 gates. Among them, 18 are in the old spillway and 20 are in the new spillway.
Before releasing the water, the authorities had issued alerts in April, which were marked to officials from the irrigation, revenue, roads and building, as well as police departments. The same were also marked to the Morbi district collectorate, chief officer of Maliya (Miyana) Nagarpalika and a voluntary group supporting small salt pan workers named Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM). These were directed to ensure that residents did not venture into the riverbed during the release of water, for safety reasons.
At the time of the release, the reservoir level of Machchhu II dam was 53 metres against its full reservoir level (FRL) of 57.30 metres, while that of the Machchhu III dam was at FRL of 28.70 metres, a senior official from the state irrigation department said.
Notably, Machchhu II dam had breached in 1979, flooding the Morbi town and a few dozen villages downstream of Morbi and Maliya talukas.
Vishal Patel, deputy engineer in charge of Machchhu II, had earlier told The Indian Express that the water was meant to fill up 12 check dams downstream, besides village ponds, by channeling water in the irrigation canal of Machchhu III. However, a bund downstream of the river, appears to have blocked the water, causing it to overflow, AHRM president Harinesh Pandya told The Indian Express, estimating that around 120 farmers have been affected. “The authorities released more water than the carrying capacity of the riverbed… The bund was later removed by the authorities by JCB machines and hence, more flooding could be avoided. But the administration should have known about this bund before releasing water in such huge quantities,” he said.
Maliya mamlatdar, K V Saniya, said no flooding was reported on May 12 after the removal of the bund. “Some salt cultivators had created a bund on the riverbed for crossing. Hence, the flow got obstructed,” says Saniya, according to whose estimates, three-four salt pans near the riverbed were flooded on April 26.
Maliya, which is part of the Little Rann of Kutch, employs nearly 1,600 salt pan workers. Smaller, traditional cultivators work on 10-acre farms, while the commercial-sized farms range from 500 to 9,000 acres.
In a typical season, Manakh gets Rs 9,000 as monthly salary and 25 per cent of the cost of the cultivated salt from the primary cultivator for whom he works as a share-cropper.
Chothabhai Bhimani (58), a traditional salt cultivator who owns salt farms in Maliya, says, “I got a call from my workers at the salt pan about the flooding by Machchhu III waters on April 28 midnight. My entire plot got submerged. We had to employ four to five pumps to dewater our plot for which I spent around Rs 20,000 on the diesel.”
By May 12, when the Machchhu II gates were opened, a more vigilant Bhimani had hired excavators for Rs 1,400 an hour. “We had to spend around Rs 50,000 to stop the flooding water from further damaging our salt pans (as a precautionary measure). The loss of salt crop is in addition to that,” Bhimani says.
While environmentalists say the situation could have been avoided, had the authorities properly planned the water storage in the two dams and its release, various salt pan workers’ associations have written to the Morbi district collector demanding a survey of the damages and compensation.
Devabhai Ahir, president of Shree Maliya Miyana Taluka Ten Acre Mitha Utpadak Association, an association of small and traditional salt cultivators, said many small salt cultivators have lost their earnings for the entire season due to the flooding. “We are definitely going to survey. If the government scheme regarding (compensation under) disaster allows, then I will send a proposal to my immediate superior,” Morbi District Collector K B Jhaveri said.
Meanwhile, activists also allege that the precious Narmada water that had filled up the dam was wasted into the sea at peak summer. “When the dam was to be repaired, it should have been planned when there is minimum water in it. Machchhu dam does not have rain water; you fill it with Narmada water. So much water, ultimately, was released into the sea while washing away the salt pans,” AHRM state coordinator Pankti Jog said.
Environmentalist Rohit Prajapati says, “They (irrigation department) got feedback in December (about repairing the dam). They could have regulated the water in Machchhu dams from December onwards. They absolutely failed there. For salt pan workers, it was a flash flood… It was illogical to fill the dam (Machchhu II) up to 53 metre when it was to be repaired. That water should have been put to use; instead, it was wasted,” he said.
Machchhu-II dam is an important source of drinking water for Morbi and Jamnagar. Executive Engineer Goswami had earlier told this paper that drinking water supply would not be affected as the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL) would continue discharging 150 cusecs of water into Machchhu-II dam to meet drinking water requirement.
When asked about the salt pan workers’ complaint that they suffered losses due to the release of water from the two dams, Goswami said, “No such issue has come up.”
She added, “The water was released after informing them (salt cultivators). It is not that the water was released without informing them… I have to provide drinking water and water for irrigation as well. For this, I have to keep the dam filled up to its (reservoir) level. Also, the water we got from SSNNL in the dam has been lifted under SAUNI Yojana.”

Uncertain weather makes that pinch of salt dearer: Ravleen Kaur

Mongabay: India: Sunday, 31 March 2024.

• Gujarat produces 80% of India’s salt. Most of it is produced in coastal areas which are impacted by unpredictable rainfall and cyclones.
• As production in coastal salt works has reduced, and demand for edible and industrial salt as well as exports has increased, prices have gone up. Salt manufacturers, however, say that there is no scarcity as new areas are coming under salt production.
• Long-standing salt producers say that an active government authority should regulate the salt industry as it is an essential commodity.
• The Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute is actively pursuing several technological solutions, to deal with a shortened salt production season impacted by erratic weather.

Ashadi Beej, the Kutchi new year, marks the beginning of monsoon in the Kachchh region of Gujarat. The festival, which falls at the end of June, also signals a break from salt production, one of the primary livelihoods in the region. This break ends at the end of August or in September, marked by the occasion of Janamashtmi, celebrated as the birthday of the Hindu god, Krishna. This is when the new salt production season begins. This was the norm till about five years ago.
But unpredictable weather, over the past five years, has disrupted this schedule, said Shamji Kangad, owner of Neelkanth Salt and Supply Private Ltd, which operates marine salt works in the Kachchh and Bharuch districts of Gujarat.
The salt production is mainly done by people who belong to the Agariya community, the salt farmers of Kachchh. “All Agariyas go back to their villages on Ashadi Beej. But lately, the monsoon has been delayed, sometimes even by up to a month. The rain that usually ends around September earlier, now extends up to November sometimes. We are still adjusting to this shift,” said Kangad.
Cyclones, Tauktae in May 2021 and Biparjoy in June 2023, also terminated the salt production season early. “Although the cyclone warning is only for ten days, it ends up disrupting the production cycle for 30 days as the salt pans have to be emptied and then repair work has to be taken up. By then, the monsoon starts. So, we lose the peak summer season when maximum solar evaporation happens,” said Kangad. “These two cyclones resulted in a 25% loss of production,” said Chetan Kamdar, owner of the Bhavnagar Salt and Industrial Works Pvt. Ltd. in the Bhavnagar district of the state.
“The season has reduced from nine months to six months, bringing down salt production to 60-70% in the coastal belt,” claimed Bachchu Bhai Ahir, President of the Gandhidham-based Kutch Small Scale Salt Manufacturers Association. “But there is no scarcity. Many new areas are coming under salt production and the overall production from Gujarat will remain the same,” Ahir added.

After China and the U.S., India is the world’s third-largest producer of salt. Four states, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, parts of Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan, fulfill most of India’s salt needs. Of the total salt production from these states, more than 80% comes from Gujarat.
Increasing climate variations in recent years have shortened the salt production season and are forcing this large but unorganised sector to increase production in a limited time period. “Salt is not produced in factory sheds. Most of the production happens near the coast, so global warming is affecting industry worldwide. In India, average production has come down from 30 million tonnes (MT) from 2016 to 27-28 MT to 2022. In China, it also came down from 69 to 53 MT since 2012, and despite being the biggest producer of salt, China imports from India,” said Bharat Rawal, president of the Indian Salt Manufacturers Association (ISMA), Ahmedabad.
The situation is similar in Tamil Nadu as well. Unseasonal floods in the state in December 2023 washed off four lakh (400,000) tonnes of salt in Thoothukudi (formerly Tuticorin). “It rained more than 90 cm in 24 hours on December 17-18. Silt deposited on the entire salt works. To remove silt itself will take more than six months and then more time to prepare the salt pans again and recrystallise,” said Arulraj Solomon C., of the Thoothukudi Small Scale Salt Manufacturers Association, at a conference on salt and marine chemicals, in February this year.
Essential conditions for an essential commodity
Sea salt constitutes about 82% of the total salt production in the country and Gujarat significantly contributes to the total production. The state produced 25 MT of sea salt in the year 2023 of the country’s total production of 30.8 MT.
The salt is mainly made on the many salt works along the 1600 km long coastline of the state as well as in sub-soil brine reserves in a few areas. After monsoon, seawater from creeks is lifted via bulk pumps and routed through a series of hardened flat beds (sometimes up to 90 pans), where it gradually evaporates in the sun, increasing the brine’s concentration from 3 to 4 degrees on the Baumé scale (a measure to calculate salt concentration) to 25 degrees Baumé. At this stage, it is shifted to the final pan, known as the crystalliser, where it solidifies. This raw salt, called “karkach”, is sold as it is or further cleaned up. Salt for edible purposes needs to be cleaned of mud, while that for industrial purposes needs to get rid of calcium and magnesium.
Normally, about 10% salt is lost in washing. During winters, since evaporation is low, salt is collected once a month, but in summers, it is collected every 20 days, said Kangad.

According to scientists at Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), an institute under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of the Government, ideal weather conditions for salt production include an average temperature range of 20 to 45 degrees Celsius, rainfall not exceeding 600 mm in a total spell of 100 days, relative humidity of 50 to 70%, wind velocity of 3 to 15 kms per hour, wind direction from North-East to South-West and North-West to South-West that aids evaporation of brine.
“Dry weather, along with clay soil (that reduces brine seepage), unlike the sandy beaches of eastern India and flat land because of the two Gulfs, Kachchh and Cambay that provided enough space for solar evaporation, made Gujarat ideal for salt production. Except soil, everything is changing now,” said Rawal of ISMA.
Citing weather data from the local airport, salt manufacturer Kamdar, said that the average rainfall from 2019 to 2023 in Bhavnagar has consistently been around 1000 mm, which is against the normal rainfall of 600 mm in the Bhavnagar district. “The number of rainy days has gone up from 30 to 78 in the last few years, and this year, it was 100 days of rainfall. In Kachchh, annual rainfall has been above 600 mm as compared to the normal 450 mm since the last four years, with this year being the highest at 730 mm,” said Kamdar. “In a normal season, I get a production of four lakh (400,000) tonnes per annum, but there has been no normal season for at least two years. Unseasonal rain at the time of salt harvest dilutes the brine in the crystalliser as well as the salt concentration in seawater. High winds during cyclones cause washing area sheds and other machinery to break down,” he said.

Scientists attribute unseasonal rain to increasing sea-surface temperature. “As temperature rises, there is more evaporation of seawater, resulting in highly saturated air mass over salt works in coastal areas. This increases humidity, which in turn lowers the evaporation of salt,” said Bhoomi R. Andharia, Senior Scientist at the Salt and Marine Water Division of CSMCRI.
According to a 2023 study, the Arabian Sea has “experienced dramatic surface (1.2–1.4 °C) and subsurface (1.4 °C) warmings in recent years compared to earlier decades. This enhanced warming is likely enhancing the convective activity over the Arabian Sea, which favours the formation and intensification of tropical cyclones in recent decades.” Another study says that there has been a 52% increase in the number of cyclonic storms over the Arabian Sea from 2001 to 2019 compared to 1982 to 2000.

Low pressure and high velocity wind events are regular in this belt but no massive damage on the scale of Tauktae and Biparjoy ever took place before this, said Kamdar. Another salt manufacturer, Kangad, however, said that the 1998 Gujarat cyclone saw huge damage and 23 workers at his marine salt works were swept away in the cyclone. “That was due to unpreparedness. The warning systems were not in place then,” he said.
A 2013 study on rainfall noted that over a span of 30 years between 1983 and 2013, the average rainfall in the Saurashtra and Kachchh regions of the state, which have the maximum salt works in the state, has almost doubled from 378 mm to 674 mm.
Demand and supply
Salt is produced for edible, export and industrial (for the chlor-alkali industry to produce caustic soda, chlorine and soda ash) purposes. Demand has been rising in all three spheres. “Till 2004, we were only exporting to neighbouring countries with whom India had a treaty for supply, such as Nepal. But from 2012 to now, exports have gone up from 3.4 MT to above 100 MT. Even China sources salt from India for its industrial needs,” said Rawal.
Exports have gone up because of advanced loading infrastructure, said Kangad. “Earlier, the demurrage cost us more than the price of salt. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for sanitisers and other cleaning agents that need salt as raw material has also increased. With refined salt becoming popular, the consumption of edible salt has also gone up,” said Kangad. According to ISMA’s Rawal, if 6% of the edible salt was refined earlier (apart from being iodised), now 50% of it is being refined. Refining accounts for 20% of washing losses.

As per the 2022-23 annual report of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the total land under salt in the country is 6.57 lakh (657,000) acres. However, more land has recently been leased for salt production in the Greater Rann of Kutch, also called the White Rann, due to its extensive salt deposits. Of seven new salt works in this region, two companies are directly exporting natural salt extracted from these deposits, while the rest are using the same technique of pumping brine and evaporating it in solar ponds. “If the season is good, there will easily be a production of 30-40 million tonnes from Gujarat this year. So even as the coastal salt production is going down, there is no reason to worry,” said Kangad.
There is a surge in prices of both edible and industrial salt. Market prices of a kilogram of edible salt have gone up from Rs. 15 to Rs. 25 per kgsince 2016, said a wholesale grocery dealer in Nangal, Punjab. “From Rs. 600 to Rs. 700 per tonne in 2016, the salt price has gone up to Rs. 900 to Rs. 1000 per tonne now,” said Ahir. In the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) belt, where salt is made from subsoil brine, rates doubled from Rs. 300 to Rs. 610 per tonne from 2021 to 2023, informed Hingor Rabari, a salt trader in Kharagoda in Surendranagar district. “More refineries are also coming up here. Seeing good profit, more people are getting into raw salt production in the LRK region,” said Rabari.
“We have seen days when salt production cost us Rs. 500 and it was sold at Rs. 300. Agariyas had to throw their salt and were committing suicides. But now that the rates have gone up, the chlor-alkali industry is panicking about prices even though salt is just Rs. 3000 out of their Rs. 20,000 per tonne cost of production,” said Kangad.
Adapting to climate impacts
To increase production during the limited salt season, Andharia at CMSRI and her team are working on technological solutions such as reverse pumping brine from the crystalliser to the condenser as a damage control measure against rainfall. The team is also exploring evaporation-enhancing techniques such as mechanical turbulation, heat exchange with the help of solar panels and using chemical dyes that increase brine temperature and aid evaporation. “Crystalliser area is usually 1/10th of the total salt works. That needs to be increased now depending on the total rainfall. The rain makes the soil loose and percolation in the crystaliser leads to loss of salt. Mechanised operations also cannot take place as the soft soil can’t take the load of heavy machinery. Hardening of beds with a geo-polymer sheet helps. It will also aid in quality improvement as no mud will mix with salt, thereby reducing washing losses,” said Andharia.

According to Rawal, the government needs to take ownership of this essential commodity. “There was a Salt Commissioner’s Office, but it is also on the verge of being shut down. There is no active regulatory body to oversee production, supply, and even areas under salt production as of today. There is a crisis in the making if the government disowns its responsibility,” he said. “Secondly, salt needs to be categorised as an agricultural commodity and not a mined mineral as it is farmed just like crops. In pre-partition India, salt was sourced from rock deposits in Sind and from the hills of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. Since then, salt continues to be counted as a mineral even though only 0.5% of it now comes from the hills,” said Rawal.

Agariya Farmers in Gujarat Demand Seasonal Land Rights, Minimum Support Price for Salt: Aditi Patil

Land Conflict Watch: National: Sunday, 3 March 2024.
Land Conflict Summary:
Each year, around 12,000 Agariya families migrate to the Little Rann of Kutch for a period of eight months (from September to AprilMay) for salt farming. The Agariyas are a nomadic and denotified tribe. In 1948, the Government of India had declared that smallscale salt farmers, who have less than 10 acres or four hectares of land, do not require lease to make salt. But after Little Rann of Kutch was declared a sanctuary in 1973 and technically became a forest, the forest department allegedly started harassing the Agariyas for using its land to make salt. The salt farmers claim they have been farming salt on this land for generations.
They have demanded customary seasonal user rights to farm salt in Little Rann of Kutch under the Forest Rights Act. They have submitted applications to local government bodies but have not heard anything yet.
The average land use by each salt farmer is about four or five acres and they claim that they do not use more than three per cent of the total land of the sanctuary. In 2013, the Gujarat government issued a resolution saying that the government has initiated the process to create Forest Right Committees in the area for this purpose. No action has been taken so far by the committees. About 5,000 square kilometres of Little Rann of Kutch has never been surveyed, so there is a lot of confusion about the ownership of this land. The Agariyas have also demanded minimum support price for the salt produced by them on par with agricultural farmers.
"Our demand will neither require conversion of any land into revenue land, nor will it divert any land from the protected forest area. Ours is a […] reasonable demand, leaving no reason for the government to deny it," a member of the Agariya community told the media.
In February 2021, the Agariya farmers boycotted the local body elections as a mark of protest, contending that their produce has drastically reduced due to excess water from the Narmada river being released into their salt pans. Despite writing to the local officials and being promised compensation, there has been no follow up, they claim.
Being largely left out of the benefits of most welfare schemes in the state is rooted in the basic lack of either clauses to deter exploitation in leaseholder agreements or interdepartmental coordination and longterm policy in the state.

Little Rann Of Kutch: A Haven For Wildlife Enthusiasts

Outlook Traveller: National: Tuesday, 20 Feb 2024.
Trudging along the edge of the Little Rann of Kutch in September is horrendous work. The claylike mud clings to one's boots in ever enlarging balls that make each step heavier and all the more energy-sapping in the humid morning. And I was doing this for pleasure, or at least that was what I kept telling myself. I had come to stay in the old darbargarh in Dhrangadhra, along with a BBC crew, and we hoped to see flamingos.
But today I was trying to keep up with German geologist and photographer Gertrude Denzau as she tracked ghudkhar, as the Asiatic Wild Ass (Equus hemionus khur) is locally known. I had driven the 50 odd kilometres from Dhrangadhra to Zainabad where Gertrude was staying with the redoubtable Shabir Malik at his wonderful family home on the eastern edge of the Rann. Shabir is one of the many great amateur birdwatchers in Gujarat who will put most professional ornithologists to shame. He has the relaxed acceptance of someone at home in his environment, someone who has an instinctive rather than a learned knowledge.
A few years earlier, Shabir had established a fine camp near his home that he named after one of the great birds of this area the Desert Courser. An apt name for both Shabir and his son Dhanraj, who now runs the camp. But this was the off season and we were staying in the traditionally built wooden home on the eastern edge of the Little Rann.
Zainabad was originally part of the small state of Dasada, which was in turn created under the Sultans of Ahmedabad. When the British were encouraging the numerous, and nominally independent, princely states in the area to sign treaties with the Govt of India in Calcutta, Dasada was overlooked. The then ruler felt slighted and left out, and sought an alliance with the Govt of India. He wanted a treaty of his own, and by so doing lost his independence.
Wild Ass Sanctuary

The Wild Ass Sanctuary was created in 1973 and covers a huge 4,953 sq km, most of which is not effectively protected. The Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary to the northwest covers another 7,505 sq km of the Great Rann, but they are divided by the NH-15 which connects Rajasthan with the port of Kandla. Both these huge areas are difficult to manage and have numerous illegal small-scale salt extraction projects employing over 50,000 people in the Little Rann alone. Salt extraction is a great threat to the area and poisons the soil with effluents and pollutes the air.
The Rann is a saline wilderness punctuated by beyts or bhets -- high grounds which become islands during the monsoon and refuges for the ass and other animals. The highest of the 74 bhets in the Little Rann is Bhet-Mardak, the summit of which reaches an impressive 55m above MSL, and is located in the heart of the sanctuary. Only 51 of the bhets have any vegetation, much of which is Prosopis juliflora, while the remaining 23 are more or less barren, and only one, Nanda Bhet, has any human habitation.
In some areas of the Rann where the surface is not disturbed, it has a permanent crust. But this is increasingly rare as vehicles drive all over the area in the dry season and extraction tanks are created. Prior to the 1819 earthquake, an eastern distributary of the Indus emptied into the Rann and the area was a shallow sea with the bhets being permanent islands. The vast amount of salt is an accumulation of discharge from the rivers of Rajasthan, including the Banas and the Rupen which now disappear in the northeastern corner of the Rann, both of which previously had a much higher flow, and the high tides of the Gulf of Kutch.
Now the sea gets pushed through a narrow neck near Surajbari by the monsoon winds and mixes with the runoff of the rivers.
Little Rann Provides 25 Per Cent of India's Salt

The meeting of these waters sustains a thick seafood cocktail of small fish, prawns and other crustaceans that are nourished by the mix of salt water blown in by the wind and the monsoon runoff. And it is this rich feed that, in some years, attracts many thousands of flamingos to the southern edge of the Little Rann. The salt flats are transformed into great marsh swamps which make travel next to impossible. But as the area dries up by the end of October, the salt crystals begin to glitter in the winter sun and the extraction process begins again. Almost 25 per cent of India's salt comes from the Little Rann.
Tracking rutting Wild Ass at any time of year is difficult in the dry season the asses have been recorded galloping at up to 60kmph. Gertrude and I staggered in as dignified a way as we could, trying to approach a small group who were safe on a slightly raised bit of land where they were not going to get stuck. Around them the monsoon rains had spurred the growth of mixed grass and herbaceous species that the ass grazed upon. And it is in the August-September period that both foaling and mating occurs. The gestation period is approximately 13 months and the mares come into heat every two years. Gertrude was collecting material for what became a magnificent book on all the Wild Ass species of the world.
Wild Ass Population Restricted to Little Rann
Over the last decade the numbers of the Wild Ass have increased and they have begun to reclaim some of their old range. They were once found as far as the Indus, and Akbar hunted them on the banks of the Sutlej, but now they are restricted to the Little Rann and a few neighbouring patches.
One of the greatest threats to the Rann is the spread of Prosopis juliflora. Originally introduced as a fuelwood species by the old rulers of Radhanpur and Morvi, it grows rampant through the drought-prone areas of western India. An absurd situation arose in the Rann a few years ago where the Wildlife Department was trying to eradicate the weed and another part of the same department was planting it in neat rows.
Besides Nilgai, other mammals found in the Rann of Kutch are chinkara, wolves and caracal
Besides Nilgai, other mammals found in the Rann of Kutch are chinkara, wolves and caracal Wikimedia Commons
Wetlands For Many Animals
Not all the rain gets mixed with the brackish water. Along the eastern edge of the Rann, tanks and natural depressions fill up with rainwater and become important wetlands for waterfowl and many animals. Nilgai, chinkara, wolves and caracal are among the other mammal species one can see while travelling over the Rann. In October, demoiselle cranes and many other species arrive from central Asia, and the Houbara Bustard struts along the edge of the Rann while nilgai shimmer in a mirage.
Back in Dhrangadhra, I joined Valmik Thapar and a crew from the BBC Natural History Unit where they were filming a sequence for the series Land of the Tiger. We drove the 20 odd kilometres to Kuda following the alignment of an old narrow gauge railway line built to bring salt from the Rann to depots in Dhrangadhra. There were tracks we could follow in our jeep and then we had to walk over cracked mud into which our footsteps sank a few centimetres. We managed to get within about 500m of a large flock of flamingos feeding on the rich cocktail of fish and prawn.
Every Monsoon A Celebration
The Rann never gets very much rain, but every monsoon here is a celebration. A good monsoon just about brings a blush to the dormant grass. When we visited, the rains were bountiful and both the ass and flamingos made the most of it. A few years later I was in another part of Kutch looking for wolves in the grasslands west of Bhuj. It was the wettest monsoon in a long time, and after years of drought the Rann and its creatures were celebrating once again.

Salt Workers Fight for Livelihood in Wild Ass Sanctuary

Vibes of India: Ahmedabad: Sunday, 18 Feb 2024.

A dispute has arisen between 53 salt pan workers and the Gujarat Forest Department regarding access to the Wild Ass Sanctuary in Little Rann of Kutch. The workers, claiming to be traditional “agariyas” (salt cultivators), allege they were stopped from cultivating salt within the sanctuary’s boundaries, despite possessing “agariya pothi” cards issued in 2008.
However, the Forest Department, represented by Deputy Conservator Dhavalkumar Gadhavi, counters this claim. In an affidavit submitted to the Gujarat High Court, Gadhavi states that salt cultivation within the sanctuary requires specific permission and an “agariya card” issued only to individuals listed in the sanctuary’s official Survey Settlement Report. The petitioners’ names are absent from this report, rendering their cards invalid for sanctuary access.
The petitioners argue that traditional agariyas possess an inherent right to cultivate salt on up to 10 acres without permits, citing a 1948 recommendation by the Union government’s Salt Expert Committee. The Forest Department refutes this claim, citing a 2023 communication that restricts access solely to those listed in the Survey Settlement Report.
Adding complexity to the situation, the petitioners highlight that the survey to determine land rights predating the sanctuary’s creation remains incomplete since 1997, despite the sanctuary’s establishment in 1978. This, they argue, throws their traditional rights into question.

Workers want to illegally cultivate salt in Wild Ass Sanctuary, forest official tells Gujarat HC: Written by Sohini Ghosh

Indian Express: Ahmedabad: Thursday, 15 Feb 2024.
The petitioners, meanwhile, have claimed that they are traditional agariyas (salt pan cultivators) hailing from Santalpur in Patan's Little Rann of Kutch. They have been cultivating salt there and were issued agariya pothi a card identifying them as salt pan cultivators in 2008.

Responding to a petition moved by 53 salt pan workers alleging that they have been stopped from undertaking cultivation work on land that is a part of the Wild Ass Sanctuary in Little Rann of Kutch, the state government has told the Gujarat High Court that the petitioners want to enter the sanctuary for illegal salt cultivation.
In an affidavit submitted before the HC on February 13, Dhavalkumar Gadhavi, the Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF) at Wild Ass Sanctuary at Surendranagar’s Dhrangadhra, noted that to cultivate salt in the Wild Ass Sanctuary, prior permission has to be obtained by availing the ‘agariya card’, which is issued only to individuals or entities or cooperative societies whose name appears in the Survey Settlement Report issued by the sanctuary’s settlement officer.
It added that the names of the petitioners are not reflected in the Survey Settlement Report of 2008 and they also do not possess agariya cards, which is issued by the forest department, and only those salt workers who have such cards can enter the sanctuary for salt cultivation.
The petitioners, meanwhile, have claimed that they are traditional agariyas (salt pan cultivators) hailing from Santalpur in Patan’s Little Rann of Kutch. They have been cultivating salt there and were issued agariya pothi a card identifying them as salt pan cultivators in 2008.
However, the affidavit noted that agariya pothi is merely an “identification card” required to avail welfare schemes and it would not be valid for any other legal purpose. It added that the document is issued to any person involved in any work related to salt industry “without distinguishing” whether the document-holder is a salt farmer/cultivator or any other labourer working in the industry.
The petitioners have claimed that traditional agariyas do not require license or lease to cultivate up to 10 acre of land for production of salt by virtue of recommendation of the Salt Expert Committee constituted by the Union government in 1948.
However, the DCF’s affidavit stated that by way of a communication dated May 24, 2023 issued by the principal chief conservator of forests (Wildlife) “it was instructed that only individuals whose name appears in the Survey Settlement Report… should be issued the agariya card and be allowed to enter the sanctuary area for salt farming”.
The petitioners have challenged this communication on the ground that the survey and settlement of rights of those using the land much prior to declaration of the area as part of the Wild Ass Sanctuary has not been finalised till date. This, even though the survey and settlement to determine the rights of those who have been using the land for non-forest activity started in 1997 and the Little Rann of Kutch was declared as a wild ass sanctuary in 1978, they added.

Narmada water destroying salt pans in Little Rann of Kutch, say agariyas: Written by Gopal B Kateshiya

Indian Express: Rajkot: Thursday, 8 Feb 2024.
On the floor of the Assembly, the state government conceded on Tuesday that some Narmada water does make its way to the Little Rann of Kutch and that it will take appropriate action.

Agariyas try to contain flow of Narmada water in
Little Rann of Kutchnear Tikar in Halvad. (Express Photo)

Agariyas (salt pan workers) cultivating salt in the Little Rann of Kutch bordering Halvad in Morbi district have alleged that Narmada water flowing from canals of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL) is flooding their salt pans, threatening to destroy salt that will soon be ready for harvest.
On the floor of the Assembly, the state government conceded on Tuesday that some Narmada water does make its way to the Little Rann of Kutch and that it will take appropriate action.
In a written reply to a question asked by Congress MLA Dinesh Thakor, Minister of State for Salt Industries, Jagdish Panchal, said: “Water is not directly flowed to from Narmada canal to Little Rann of Kutch. But in emergency, escapes of canal are operated and water is discharged in streams, rivulets and rivers. Some of these streams, rivulets and rivers tail into the Little Rann of Kutch hence, water some time does end up in Little Rann of Kutch.”
Volume of such water is low as compared to those of other rivers, he added.
Thakor went on to ask if it was true that as of December 31, 2023, salt cultivated by agariyas was being washed away by fresh water being released from canals of Narmada dam project. In reply to his another question on what the government has done in the last two years to prevent loss of salt this way, Panchal said the state government will “in accordance of law, take appropriate action”.
Agariyas said their salt pans abutting Ajitgadh, Mangadh, Tikar, Jogad and Kidi villages, among others, have been flooded by Narmada water streaming down from SSNNL’s Maliya branch canal to Little Rann of Kutch through local rivers and rivulets. Suresh Raghavji, an Agariya from Tikar, said that Narmada water started flooding Little Rann of Kutch around a month ago. “The damage is on a very large scale,” he added.
Manhar Devji from Tikar said that Narmada water threatens to destroy salt cultivated in around 500 salt pans each in Little Rann of Kutch tracts bordering villages like Tikar, Ajitgadh, Mangadh, Jogad and Kidi, which will soon be ready for harvest. “Water is submerging our patas, each having 50 to 60 tonne of salt,” he said, requesting the government to stop flow of Narmada water at the earliest. “Otherwise, this water will submerge average 500 salt pans in these villages,” Manhar told mediapersons.
While managing director of SSNNL, Mukesh Puri, could not be reached for comments, sources in SSNNL said that Narmada water, being channelled to Saurashtra and north Gujarat for irrigation purpose, making its way to Little Rann of Kutch has been an issue for the past three to four years.
“But it is not that SSNNL discharges Narmada water into Little Rann of Kutch on purpose. We are neither discharging additional water nor wasting the precious water that is pumped to our canals by consuming lots of electricity. The main reason is return flow, the surface and sub-surface excess water that drains from farmers field after irrigating crops through flooding method,” said a senior SSNNL functionary.
Maliya branch canal, which offtakes from Saurashtra branch canal of SSNNL in Surendranagar, runs parallel to the eastern border of Little Rann of Kutch and tails in Malia taluka of Morbi after passing through Lakhtdar, Dasada and Dhrangadhra in Surendranagar and Halvad and Malia in Morbi.
“This problem is not limited to Morbi only. Around four lakh hectare of Narmada dam’s command area falls on the border of Little Rann of Kutch and SSNNL is duty-bound to provide farmers of these areas irrigation water when they demand it. However, many a time, farmers operate canal gates on their own and that exacerbates water flowing to Little Rann of Kutch,” the official said. Instead of the more common method of flooding salt pans with seawater, agariyas cultivating salt in Little Rann of Kutch fill their pans with salty groundwater by pumping it out with oil engines and motor pumps. The cultivation season starts in October-November and harvest begins in April.
Sources said that flow in Maliya branch canal has already decreased by around two-third. “From the peak of around 1,000 cusec (cubic feet per second) in November-December, the discharge has decreased now to average 300-350 cusec. This means less water will be flowing to farmers’ fields,” said a source.
Harinesh Pandya, president of NGO Agariya Hit Rakshak Manch said the state will have to find a long-term solution. “Narmada dam project is worth Rs 90,000 crore and still, so much water is going waste in Surendranagar and Morbi even as farmers of Kutch are waiting for their share. This waste has to stop, not to protect the livelihood of agariyas and farmers but to also prevent damage that freshwater can do to desert ecology,” he added.
Pandya said Narmada water has flooded an Little Rann of Kutch tract around 40 km long and seven km across Surendranagar and Morbi. “There is similar flooding at Santalpur in Patan and Rapar in Kutch but there have been no complaints, as the forest department has prevented agariyas from cultivating salt in those areas this year.”

Adverse impact on saltpans, biodiversity, wild ass as Narmada waters flood Kutch Rann : By Pankti Jog

Counterview: Ahmedabad: Wednesday, 7 Feb 2024.

If you visit Kharaghoda, Zinzuwada or Halvad Rann, or even Santalpur Rann areas in the Little Rann of Kutch these days, you will be surprised to see Narmada waters are flowing in the Rann areas, which are otherwise supposed to be a dry desert for eight months of a year.
The Narmada waters are continuously flowing in these areas for the last two plus months, spreading to up to as far as 40 km inside, inundating widespread areas of the Rann.
From where are the waters released and how are they reaching the Rann?
The Rann is triangular shaped, spread over approximately 5,000 sq km area, and lies between Surendranagar (Patadi, Dhangadhra block), Morbi (Halvad, Maliya block), Patan (Santalpur block) and Kutch (Rapar block) districts.
Many rivers like Rupen, Banas and small-big streams in these districts meet the Rann, and during the rainy season, they carry rainwater into the Rann. Waters also come in from the Surajbari creek, turning the Rann into a brackish water lake for 3-4 months. However, by September, the waters dry up, and flow back into the creek, and cracked mud-flats emerge, making into into a mud desert for the rest of the period.
The Narmada waters are released in large quantity in these rivers and streams for the purpose of irrigation, but they reach the Rann areas, thus get wasted. This happens mostly December onwards.
Impact on salt farms
Gujarat produces 76% of India’s total salt production, and the Rann contributes 31% of it. Large scale water released from the Narmada canal during the salt season makes severe impact on the salt farming inside the Rann. Salt farms are inundated, and the density of the brine reduces when the Narmada waters get mixed with the brine in the salt farms.
Sometimes bunds constructed by saltpan farmers are washed away by these waters. The salt farmers', or Agariyas', access to their well and farm (Agar) gets restricted, thereby affecting salt production.
Worse, once the Rann is flooded with Narmada waters, water tankers and mobile health vans cannot reach the Agariyas, depriving them of health service and drinking water supply.
In fact, floods in Rann due to Narmada waters are a recurring incident and this has been going on for the past several years.
In 2017, the sudden release of waters in Banas river led to huge floods and the Agariyas had to immediately rush back to their villages from salt farms. One pregnant Agariya women died as she got labour pain and could not reached hospital on time.
“Narmada waters are released in large quantity in rivers and streams for irrigation, but they reach the Rann areas, thus get wasted.”
In 2021, Kharagodha and Zinzuwada were flooded with Narmada waters, and 159 salt farms were destroyed. A committee headed by the director (civil) Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam (SSNNL) visited the Rann and met Agariyas for analyzing the situation and filed a report. Damage assessment was done but no compensation was given.
Impact on wild life and biodiversity
The Rann is the Wild Ass Sanctuary, and such frequent floods with Narmada waters are bound to affect the rare species' habitat, apart having adverse impact on the biodiversity of the Rann.
The wild ass requires a dry desert environment, and it can't reside in wetlands. It walks, wanders and runs in the dry mudflats of the wild ass sanctuary. More than 6,000 wild asses are conserved here.
Inundation of the desert during winter and summer restricts the movement of the wild ass, which may have long-term impact on its habitation and growth. Additionally, the Rann has many species like spiders which make rare nets in the mud-flat cracks, and reptiles stay in underground holes. All of this may also get affected.
One wonders:

• What is the reason for releasing Narmada waters in Banas and Rupen rivers?
• Has the SSNNL estimated the water requirements of the farmers on the periphery of the Rann in order to release reasonable amount of water?
• What is the planning by the SSNNL for storing extra waters that are not used by farmers?
• Who is responsible for such a huge loss of Narmada waters?
• Who will give compensation for the livelihood loss of the Agariyas?