Okha, the legendary scape of Krishna's empire of Dwarka

The morning rays of the sun glint across the weaving ocean surface, motes dancing in tune with the liquidity of music. Exposed sandbanks beckon you to walk towards mysteries exposed under receding tides. For this is Okha, the legendary scape of Krishna’s empire of Dwarka, historical port of repute. Legends speak of old Gods fishing from the rocks on the shore and one of them cast his golden net with such force that it encircled the sun. Thinking that he had ensnared a great glowing fish, he hauled it almost to shore before realizing his error and setting it free. The sun was so enamored by the beauty of the coast line thereabouts that since then it has followed the same path every morning sailing into the sky.

After tucking into a colonially decadent repast, courtesy Mohan bhai and the European guest house, the desire to explore is kindled. Mohan bhai’s rickshaw is a waiting to escort us onwards to the jetty. Winding through lanes flanked by warehouses, where stevedores are busy unloading varieties of exciting oceanic bounties, shrimps, prawns, large and larger scaled lobsters, there pinchers still weaving feebly through the air, crabs of iridescent blue, green and mottled grey and an ostentatious variety of fish, building blocks slabs of ice and the staccato of nails hammered into wood planks of packing crates; all in an atmosphere of slick, salt, industriousness and spray.

The only jarring element is in this otherwise pristine serious of activities is a veneer of black soot which seems to cloyingly cling to every surface, a grim reminder of the destructive abilities of humanity’s penchant for wanton environmental degradation for the sake of apparent urban luxury maintenance. This blot in paradise is coal dust blow tither at the whims of the winds sooting every surface with the silky black of carbon offal, off times settling on pools and eddies within coral formations wreaking ecological damage whose ramifications are felt through the visible extinction of a variety of exotic species within the coral ecosystem whose dire implications upon the food chain are yet to be calculated. The source of this Russian dice roulette lies at the singular port where tons of the ubiquitous carbon substance is unloaded to service the industrial conglomerates of Mithapur. As the vast ocean acts as a purifying lung, the overall pollution situation is still not as detrimental as it sounds.

Spear heading a drive to spread awareness amongst the local populace regarding their ecological heritage is the panchjanya pariavaran trust, trust initiated by Hembha Vadher of bet. Legends state panchajanya as the conch whose tenor tones shattered the battle field of Kurukshetra, once was abundantly found all along this coast line. This trust aims to proactively effect conservation, awareness through various activities for the rich marine ecosystem in the Gulf of Kutch. A permanent camp site at Hanuman point, overlooking the placid Balapar bay on the island of bet, the center offers a base from where research and studies of the delicate filigreed marine coral ecosystem can take place. For amateurs, enthusiasts and voyeurs of the off beat, there is on offer a rustic campsite on the beach, bathing, sailing, a pin-pointingly brilliant night sky, migratory birds and their nesting sites and the enigmatically wondrous world of corals, teaming with an intensity of liquid ballet of life. The Okha jetty jostles with pilgrims bound for the Krishna temple at bet. Ferries criss-cross over the cacophony of cymbals, bells, chants and the chug-a-chug of motor engines with oranges and yellows dominating the textile colour spectrum. Through the colour of human festivity we are rescued by Ghanshyam Vadher, Hem bha’s son and a person with a passionate knowledge febrile undersea ecosystem that surrounds bet.

After paying due respect to the lord of the temple amidst much conch blowing we are whisked off away from the quaint hamlet to serene strands of beach and set free to gingerly navigate the most grotesquely marvelous floor scape of coral at low tide, a world of flowey plants, green tinged, the lights playing symphonic shafts of blue, sand basted and water worn rock formation of city states in the neather sea, anemones, urchins, crustaceans and coelentetra with their cilia undulating to a poseidonic music of the speheres, octopii tinting the algaed blue with the most subtle of the phoenecian purple as fish dart through this language of surreality on mission of their own devising. Corals and limestone engravings of the most multi tudinous hues and forms; crystalline configurations woven on iridescent beds of stone, patterned with gardens of vivid lichens and moss with wraithlike water navigating through gateways, nooks and psychedelic crannies. Flora and fauna in use as yet unimagined; seven tones of music textured through a pearly pink, a nacreous delicate blue, a lambent saffron, an emerald of the tropics, a deathly white and a ghostly amethyst and lastly the silver glinting off fish as they leap across the moon.

Dolphins frolic in play as the sun attempts to set on this seeming alien landscape, it setting rays initiating visual variations in this most amazing exposition of nature’s masterpiece.