The Little Rann of Kutch has been declared a wild ass sanctuary since 1973, where conservation efforts resisting encroachment are often in tension with the right of the Agariyas to return annually to build salt pans. Over the past fifty years, the wild ass population in the Rann has grown twenty-fold allowing the Agariyas to argue that their presence was not a threat to the survival of the wild ass. Since 2023, Agariya farmers have been handed out official permits to enter the sanctuary annually to harvest salt.
The reduction of noise and pollution as a result of the daytime switch from diesel to solar has also allowed flamingos to return to their annual migratory path through the Little Rann. In pursuit of “development,” a newly constructed 30-kilometer road called the Road to Heaven reduces travel times to the archaeological site of Dholavira by 8 hours, bringing tourists and commerce to these isolated communities. Some wonder whether the flamingos will be forced to abandon the Rann once again.
Salt, Wind, and Fire
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Gujarat is the third largest salt producer in the world. Every year, when the monsoon recedes, thousands of Agariya farmers travel to the Little Rann of Kutch, an expanse of desert with annually replenished subsoil brine. They set up temporary shelters from September to May, from which they return to their villages periodically to replenish food and other supplies. In the Rann, they manually build large, shallow vats to hold the underground water that is pumped up and left to evaporate. The pans are raked for several months until the salt crystals are “ripe” for harvesting. According to the International Finance Corporation, the farmers earn an average of about two dollars or one hundredth of the market price for a tonne of harvested salt.
In 2021, worsening heat waves in the Rann of Kutch made life in the desert increasingly untenable as temperatures crossed 122°F. Potable water was too hot to drink, and their food spoiled without refrigeration. With customary ingenuity and contextual knowledge, SEWA members buried water tanks under the soil to keep the water cool, and shipped in watermelons to provide temporizing calories and hydration.
The impact of climate change is already being felt by the poor. through loss of wages. Rising temperatures make work unbearable. Unseasonal rains disrupt farming cycles. By 2023, SEWA had collaborated with the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center and Blue Marble to create a first-of-its-kind extreme heat microinsurance product that provided cash transfers to daily wage workers when high temperature thresholds were reached. In 2024, SEWA collaborated with Harvard researchers to measure the impact of various heat exposures on the health and livelihoods of its members across several indoor and outdoor trades. This summer, hundreds of microsensors across their homes and workplaces will alert them to rising temperatures, determining thresholds for modifying work times or working conditions.
Temperature Change in Gujarat since 1875
Karthik Garish (Visualization)
Hiteshree Das (Design)