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If you are feeling cramped and claustrophobic –
both mentally and physically – then this is the place for you.
A place where horizons stretch to infinity, where water and sky merge
in a shimmer of gauzy blue and where the desolate call of the curlew
may be the only voice you hear. And apart from this there is much of
religious, economic and ornithological significance to be appreciated
too.
Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan
is India’s largest saline lake, 190 sq. km in extent at full
capacity, and lies some 60 km west of Jaipur, just outside
prosaically named Salt Lake City. This vast body of glacial saline
is on average just 0.6 cm deep and never more than 3 m even just
after the monsoon. It stretches in length for 22.5 km, its width
varying between around 3 and 11 km. It is fed by several seasonal
fresh water streams, two of the major ones being the rivers Mendha
and Rupangarh.
Civilization here goes
back a long, long time and legends abound. According to one
reference in the epic Mahabharata, Raja Yayati, Emperor of
Bharatvarsh (India) and a descendant of Lord Brahma the Creator,
Married Devyani, daughter of Shukarcharya (the guru of demons) who
lived by the lake. A temple and a tank near Salt Lake City honours
Devyani even today.
According to another
legend, the lake was gifted to the people of the area some 2,500
years ago by the Goddess Shakambhari. A small glimmering white
temple in her honour stands under a rocky outcrop jutting into the
lake. The locals will insist that you visit her temple before doing
anything else.
Archaeological
excavations at Naliasar, 4 km south of Salt Lake City have yielded
terra-cotta figurines and evidence of well planned settlements going
back to the Kushan and Gupta periods.
Sambhar quite literally
means salt, and salt has been extracted from here for over a thousand
years by the various administrators of the area . Over time, these
have included the Scindhias, Rajputs, Marathas, Moghuls and the
rulers of Jaipur and Jodhpur who jointly owned the lake, and who in
1870 leased it to the British who built the solid square Circuit
House where we were fortunate enough to stay.
After independence, the
lake was taken over by the government and is now managed by Sambhar
Salts Limited, a joint venture of Hindustan Salts and the Government
of Rajasthan.
The vast, roughly
elliptically shaped lake has been divided into two sections by a 5 km
long stone dam. The eastern section contains the reservoirs for salt
extraction, canals and salt pans. Water from the vast shimmering
western section is pumped to the other side via sluice gates when it
reaches a degree of salinity considered optimal for salt extraction.
The waters here are
glacially still, edged with a glittering frost of salt. Files
abound, drawn by the blue-green algae in the water and queue up in
order to crawl into your mouth and ears. There is a sharp briny tang
in the air taking you straight back to coastal fishmarkets. The only
thing missing being the hushing lisp of the sea as it fans out on the
beach.
An indigenously developed
rail trolley system – the lines were laid by the British –
takes you across the dam and to various far flung points in the salt
works. In the old days they used quaint mini-steam engines to pull
the trolley cars. Today these have been replaced by decidedly
unromantic mini-diesel locomotives.
But what really drew us
to Sambhar was the lure of flamingos. These tall, dainty birds with
their ballerina tutus and major-general profiles, are attracted here
in their thousands (as many as 500,000 in 1982-83) by the delicious
spirulina algae that flourishes when the water reaches a medium
degree of salinity. After the Rann of Kutch, where they breed,
Sambhar is said to be the most important habitat for flamingos in the
country. Pelicans too, apparently love the lake and flock here in
large battalions.
It is for this reason
that Sambhar was designated a Wetland of International Importance
under the Ramsar Convention though, admittedly, this appears to be
more a titular honour than one according it any real protection. The
post-monsoon months are considered the best time to see flamingos,
especially during the floods.
We drove across the vast
lake bed throwing up talcum-fine clouds of dust towards the dark
watermark as far as the jeep could go without bogging down. And then
continued on foot as far as we could go without bogging down
ourselves. The delicate pink and white feathers of the birds lay
scattered along with their dropping all over the dark clay amidst a
welter of footprints. We scanned the horizon.
A vast pale-pink
concourse of birds, perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 strong, shifted and
murmured in the glassy water and dark mud. Occasionally a large
group would fly low over the water and settle at another spot,
touching down with the lightest of flouncing skipping steps. We
watched them for a while, hopping they would come a little closer,
but they kept their distance.
There were many other
species to be appreciated too. A flock of 40 odd black storks stood
in a mournful group at the edge of another part of the lake and
sandpipers, redshanks and blackwinged stilts scuttled and strode
purposefully about in the mud nearly everywhere. Small flocks of
coots and shovelers floated somnolently in the water. But all the
birds here are wary and will not allow close access.
Actually, Sambhar’s
ferocious brine is too saline for many species and we found more
birds in the freshwater pounds in the surrounding areas. The
Naliasar pond just 4 km south of Salt Lake City, was crammed with
waterfowl – shovelers, common teals, pintails, wigeons, common
pochards, tufted pochards, gadwalls, greylag and barheaded geese and
even a squadron of busty shelduck that flew swiftly overhead.
Another small tank near a
village played host to a pair of graceful great crested grebes clad
in their modest non breeding attire of grey, black and white. Here,
kingfishers waited in ambush and the egrets and pond herons quarreled
over the best fishing spots.
A little ringed plover
trundled up and down along the edges of a roadside pond, while
godwits, redshanks and sandpipers probed the ooze with their skewer
bills.
And what a wonderful
place for walks into the sunset ! You can watch the vast waters turn
from a shimmering platinum to molten gold as the sun rides down, and
then to soft shades of peach and orange before the mauves and the
purples of dusk take over. The moon rises, butter gold and freckled
in the east casting a pale tremulous reflection in the water.
And soon this wilderness
has turned to midnight blue and silver with the salt shimmering
eerily along the lake borders. The contented baritone murmur of
shovelers, still feeding, is punctuated by the sudden desolate call
of the curlew that bespeaks of a heart-twisting loneliness. And you
can only look up into a velvet black sky crammed to the brim with it
diamond treasure of galaxies.
INFORMATION
For Jaipur-based
visitors, Sambhar Lake is within range for a day trip. Take National
Highway (NH) 8 to Dudu and then head north to Sambhar.
Alternatively, take NH 8 to Malhan and then ask for Phulera which is
just short of Sambhar. For those wishing to stay overnight hotel
accommodation is available at Salt Lake City (built for the staff of
the salt works), from where jeeps can also be hired.
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