Till the last Holocene transgression, the Saurashtra peninsula was a separate island. It was cut off by the “Nul” and was part of the Arabian Sea connecting the Gulf of Cambay with the Gulf of Kutch. Over the centuries, sediments from river waters of Banas, Luni, Saraswati and Rupen filled up this shallow lagoon, turning most of the areas of the Rann into a huge mud flatland. Till very recently, one branch of the Indus River flowed past the N S edge of the Rann until 1817, when an earthquake altered its course. Recently some Harappan relics were discovered near Nanda Bait, indicating the existence of an ancient port.

During the monsoon, most of this arid region gets inundated by flood waters and innumerable seasonal streams and rivers. It becomes a vast marshland and plays host to tens of thousands of cranes, pelicans and other varieties of water birds. This is one of the rare areas where there are Flamingo Cities, where Flamingo breed.

Apart from being a very important wetland for rare migratory birds, this area abounds in a variety of wildlife, most important species being the Asiatic wild ass. This is the last habitat in the world for this endangered species. Besides the wild ass, there are other endangered migratory species, like the hubara or Macqueen’s bustard, desert fox, desert wolf, chinkara gazelle and a host of other shore birds. The sanctuary covers around 5,000 sq.km in the Little Rann of Kutch. Besides the handsome chestnut-brown wild ass, you can also see other wildlife like Chinkara gazelle, blue bull antelope, Indian and desert foxes, and desert birds.