Demoiselle Crane Winter Feeding — Khichan India
The village of Khichan in Rajasthan hosts the world's most extraordinary human-crane relationship — the local Jain community has been feeding migratory demoiselle cranes (Grus virgo) since the 1970s, and the feeding ground now attracts up to 30,000 cranes daily from October through February. At the 7am morning feeding, the cranes arrive in continuous streams from every direction to the grain-spread courtyard, the sound of their collective bugling carrying across the desert for 3 kilometres and the density at peak feeding producing a carpet of grey-and-black birds covering every square metre of the feeding ground. The cranes' relationship with the Khichan community — entirely predicated on the community's voluntary religious commitment to the cranes' welfare — has transformed a Thar Desert village into one of the world's most remarkable human-wildlife relationships, and the dawn arrival of the cranes into the feeding ground is one of India's most moving natural spectacles.
About this spectacle
At dawn in the small Thar Desert village of Khichan, tens of thousands of demoiselle cranes descend on a grain-spread courtyard in one of the natural world's most astonishing mass arrivals. From October through February, up to 30,000 cranes stream in continuous V-formations from every compass point, their collective bugling audible across the flat desert for three kilometres. The feeding ground becomes a dense, living carpet of grey-and-black bodies — elegant, long-necked birds jostling and calling at extraordinary density. The spectacle is entirely the result of the local Jain community's decades-long voluntary commitment to feeding these migratory visitors. Visitors can watch from the periphery as wave after wave of cranes land, fill every square metre of ground, and eventually rise again in swirling clouds. The 7am morning feeding session is the centrepiece. Sound, movement, and sheer numbers combine to produce an overwhelming sensory experience unlike any birdwatching encounter in India.
When to go
Oct — Feb
Getting there
Nearest airport: JDH. Nearest city: Jodhpur.
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