To be continued…
Fencing was also visible at gaps.
He explained that, these fences were used as marking for land mines at the time when bunkers were in use, after the purpose was over, the area was cleared of from land mines and fencing was left. Now, only few patches of fencing could be seen and rest have been buried inside sands of Thar desert.
We moved ahead of the bunker position towards the inhabited part of the Thar Desert.
We took a complete circle to reach to the point, from where we can get complete view of the village.
The name of village is Ranao and it is the last village of Indian territory.
The villager, told me that before 1971 war, the actual location of the village was the point where we were standing, which means that the entire village has been relocated to the new place which is not far from the current location.
He went further in his story.
Village Ranao was once located at the top of sand dunes which was at some height. The water sources were however located at the lower part of sand dunes i.e current location of village Ranao.
During 1971 war, anticipating firing from Pakistani soldiers during mounting tension at international border, Indian soldiers rushed to this village and asked everyone to move downwards for safety.
The population of village was not much at that time and it was in 100s only. So, all villagers left their belongings, and moved to safer place, which was down the sand dune area.
After the end of war, discussion was held between Indian Army and villagers and it was decided to re-build the village at the ground only rather than at top of sand dunes. It would serve two purpose, first, villagers would be safe in case there is war again and there might not be need to shift villagers. Second, water resources were available on ground and it would be convenient for villagers to build houses near water resources both in terms of new construction and drinking. Thus, Indian army helped financially and physically, in re-construction of this village.
At present, Ranao has access to school, community center, dispensary, mobile network, internet facility, etc. Another interesting story i will post later about the usage of internet by Rano village.
While we were standing on the sand dunes, we noticed small white particles on the ground sand.
We picked up few from the sand and found it to be tiny “Shells”.
Shells in Desert…!!!!
Yes,
Those “Shells” were similar in color and shape, to that found near sea shore and were nearly 1 cm in length, similar to below image:
I inquired him, about the presence of these shells in the desert and his response was similar to my expectations.
I had read in few journals, publications and science related websites that, the desert which we see today, were vast sea, oceans at one point of time or we can say millions year back. The traces of being an ocean once once upon a time, can be seen if we deep dive into the layers of desert sand but still there are few places where the traces are available, without going deep inside and one such place is Ranao.
I have been to many places/spots of the Thar desert, but this was my first occasion, when I had witnessed the traces of history, which dates back to the period, when the earth was in the phase of transition or modern formation.
This part of desert is less known and it is very remote, so the traces of the ancient earth can be seen here.