Satsaida Bet is a massive island located in the Gulf of Kachchh in Gujarat. The island is a fascinating biome, enthralling biologists and travelers alike with its diverse life forms and scenes of bountiful biodiversity. At first light, Satsaida Bet seems to belong entirely to the tide, and mudskippers flick across wet sediment; crabs vanish into burrows and coastal birds search the shallows as seawater drains through a maze of creeks. Then another sign appears on the exposed mud: the fresh pugmarks of a golden jackal. For a terrestrial carnivore, an isolated mangrove island appears an unlikely home. Yet repeated sightings during our field surveys in the Gulf of Kachchh suggest that these animals are not occasional visitors. They are regularly using a landscape shaped by salt water, tidal rhythms, fishing activity and limited contact with the mainland. Our team encountered golden jackals, Canis aureus, mainly during early morning. Fresh tracks recorded after high tide showed movement through the intertidal zone and among mangrove stands. No pack was observed, but the recurrence of animals and pugmarks indicates continuous habitat use. The jackals also seemed familiar with approaching boat engines, suggesting repeated exposure rather than a first encounter with people. These...

The facility was inaugurated by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat and is expected to train more than 10,000 students annually through specialised programmes focused on renewable energy technologies and...

Bhuj (Gujarat), Oct 4 (SocialNews.XYZ) Adani Skills and Education (ASE), the skilling and capability-building arm of the Adani Group, on Sunday inaugurated a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Green Energy at Kachchh University in Bhuj, aiming to create a skilled workforce for India's rapidly expanding renewable energy sector. The facility was inaugurated by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat and is expected to train more than 10,000 students annually through specialised programmes focused on renewable energy technologies and industrial automation. The initiative comes at a time when demand for skilled manpower in the clean energy sector is rising sharply.

Sarpanch Miya Hussain is with children, teaching them about the changing landscape of the Rann of Kachchh and the Banni grasslands. The world's largest solar plant is under construction in the Rann of Kachchh, adjacent to the Banni grasslands, and is expected to threaten the ecology of the wetlands and the paths of migratory birds. Banni was declared a “protected forest” in May 1955 and was also listed as a UNESCO ecological hotspot as Asia’s largest tropical grassland. Spread across 2,500-3,847 square kilometres, Banni’s climate and resilient ecology attract multiple species of migratory birds and account for 45% of Gujarat’s grazing land, particularly for the buffalo milk in this region, popular for its fat content above 7%. Dairy is critical as agriculture fails in the salt-encrusted region along the Indo-Pak border. NOT A WASTELAND For a nation that lost one-third of its fertile land after Partition, not much protection was offered to lands like forests, floodplains, marshes, and grasslands. Mostly unprotected, these open spaces are easy to encroach upon for illegal mining and unplanned development in the race to meet targets for green energy. For example, Rajasthan cleared 50,000 native Khejri trees for a solar power plant. Water demand at...

Madhapar is on the outskirts of Bhuj in Gujarat’s Kachchh district. Imagine a village with 17 bank branches, where residents collectively hold fixed deposits worth around Rs 7,000 crore. This is not a description of a wealthy urban neighbourhood. It is Madhapar, a village on the outskirts of Bhuj in Gujarat’s Kachchh district. Madhapar has frequently been described as Asia’s richest village, based on the enormous value of fixed deposits held by its residents.

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AHMEDABAD: Gujarat’s Gulf of Kachchh is emerging as a year-round habitat for dolphins, with a recent scientific survey recording 64 sightings involving 193 individual dolphins between October 2023 and February 2025. The study by the Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (GEER) Foundation found dolphins to be the most frequently sighted marine mammals in the surveyed waters of the southern Gulf of Kachchh. The survey recorded dolphins across reef edges, tidal channels, island margins and shallow coastal waters, underlining the ecological importance of Gujarat’s marine ecosystem and its protected coastal habitats. The study, titled “Status Survey of Dugong and Other Marine Mammals, and Ecological Assessment of Seagrass Habitats around Narara and Adjacent Islands, Gulf of Kachchh”, was conducted in and around the Marine National Park and Marine Sanctuary, the country’s first marine protected area. “We are committed to protecting our natural heritage, and the latest scientific study by the GEER Foundation further strengthens our resolve to conserve marine biodiversity,” said Arjun Modhwadia, Minister for Forests and Environment. He said the boat-based survey covered reef edges, tidal channels, island margins and shallow coastal waters, recording 177 verified marine megafauna sightings involving 342 individuals. “Dolphins accounted for 36.2% of all recorded sightings, making...

Prosopis juliflora was planted to green the desert in Kachchh. Its biochar, now part of carbon offtake deals, is only helping more invasive trees grow.

DEV BHOOMI DWARKA, GUJARAT: A proposed bauxite and marl mining project in Gujarat’s Devbhumi Dwarka district has received a recommendation for environmental clearance (EC) despite being located close to two nationally significant marine protected areas—the Marine Wildlife Sanctuary and the Marine National Park in the Gulf of Kachchh. The proposed mining operation at the Mevasa Block covers an area of more than…

Scientists have discovered a new species of long-necked dinosaur in western India that possessed a unique, horn-like tail crest. The dinosaur, named Ceratocaudia antiqua, was identified by a team of r...

Paleontologists in India have unearthed a partial skeleton of a diminutive, previously unknown neosauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic rocks of Gujarat’s Kachchh Basin.

Paleontologists in India have unearthed a partial skeleton of a diminutive, previously unknown neosauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic rocks of Gujarat’s Kachchh Basin.

In this study, we report a partial skeleton of a small (ca. 7 m) sauropod dinosaur from the ?upper Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) to Bajocian strata of the Kaladongar Formation (Khadir Uplift), Kac...

In this study, we report a partial skeleton of a small (ca. 7 m) sauropod dinosaur from the ?upper Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) to Bajocian strata of the Kaladongar Formation (Khadir Uplift), Kac...

In this study, we report a partial skeleton of a small (ca. 7 m) sauropod dinosaur from the ?upper Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) to Bajocian strata of the Kaladongar Formation (Khadir Uplift), Kac...

The rakhals in arid Kachchh are under increased pressure from urban development, endangering traditional ecological knowledge and biodiversity.

GANDHIDHAM : Deendayal Port Authority (DPA), Kandla, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kachchh University in