Harsh and inhospitable though the land is, there are numerous small villages and settlements on the fringes of the Rann. Most of the people who live here are Sindhi- and Kutchi-speaking Muslims, who belong to over three dozen caste-like groups. The vast majority of the denizens of this region, Muslims and Dalits, live below the officially recognised poverty line. The government has done little, if at all, for their economic development. Most of them continue to lead a virtually hand-to-mouth existence. The Great Rann of Kutch, stretching over much of the northern part of Gujarat’s remote Kutch district and spilling over across the border in Pakistan’s Sindh province, is a fragile desert ecological zone. It consists of flat sandy and stony plains that stretch as far as the horizon, interspersed with small rocky hillocks, dotted, in some parts, with thorny, ankle-length bushes. Large parts of the area do not boast of any vegetation at