Mokarsagar Wetland Complex

Mokarsagar - long known by its older name Gosabara - is not one lake but a mosaic of shallow lagoons, reed beds and seasonal marshes spread across the flat coastal plain of Porbandar district, in Gujarat's Saurashtra region.

• The conservation committee that works here counts thirteen named waterbodies inside the complex, among them Medha creek, Kuchhadi, Subhashnagar, Zavar, Vanana, Dharampur, Gosabara, Bhadarbara, Bardasagar, Mokarsagar itself and Amipur, along with a pair of groundwater-recharge reservoirs, all ringed by villages such as Chhaya, Odedar, Ratanpar, Gosa, Bhad, Tukda and Mokar.
• Until the 1970s much of this was intertidal mudflat, where seawater pushed inland near the village of Gosa and mixed with monsoon runoff; tidal regulators and earthen bunds were built to keep the salt water out and hold the runoff longer.
• What survives is an unusual amalgam of three wetland types at once - coastal brackish lagoons, seasonal freshwater marshes, and human-made storage and recharge reservoirs - still fed by both the sea and the rain. Its reputation rests on birds.
• In March 2017 the Bombay Natural History Society announced roughly 96 sq km of the Gosabara-Mokarsagar wetlands as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area, formalising a 2016 assessment that also placed the site on the world Key Biodiversity Area register, where the mapped polygon measures about 155 sq km; the local conservation committee describes a wider complex of over 200 sq km, so published areas vary with where the boundary is drawn.
• More than 180 resident and migratory bird species have been recorded here, and waterbird counts have topped 100,000 individuals on five separate occasions - one Asian Waterbird Census across the Porbandar wetlands returned more than 1.9 lakh birds.
• As far back as 2001 a national survey by the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology rated Gosabara-Mokarsagar among India's fifty most important inland wetlands, and the conservation committee has since argued, criterion by criterion, that it deserves Ramsar listing.
• Winter is when the water comes alive.
• Greater and lesser flamingos work the far shallows, great white and Dalmatian pelicans cruise the deeper channels, and common and demoiselle cranes gather in clamorous crowds; birders at one December gathering here watched thousands of demoiselles in a single morning.
• Painted storks and river terns are residents, Eurasian spoonbills sweep the shallows with the flat tips of their bills, and ibises, grey herons and egrets, garganey and other dabbling ducks, coots, gulls, black-winged stilts, black-tailed godwits, redshanks, stints and sandpipers fill out the list, with a steady turnover of raptors overhead.
• Grey-headed swamphens step out of the rushes beside the embankment roads, lotus softens the water's edge, and the drier margins hold jungle cat, golden jackal, Indian fox, nilgai, Indian hare and mongoose.
• Plan a dawn or late-afternoon visit between November and February, and treat the wetland as open country rather than a park.
• It sprawls, so no single distance describes it: the Subhashnagar and Chhaya Rann sections sit within Porbandar city itself, Kuchhadi lies about 13 km out on the Dwarka highway side, and Medha creek is some 40 km away.
• Most birders leave the highway at the Multipurpose Cyclone Centre at Tukda Gosa, about 20 km south of Porbandar, onto a narrow straight road that cuts through the marshes; some six kilometres along, a small roadside temple marks the turn onto an embankment track that divides the wetland in two.
• Surfaces are rough and low-slung cars struggle, so a high-clearance vehicle and a Porbandar-based naturalist are worth the money.
• There is no ticket counter, no marked trail network and no visitor centre - carry binoculars, water, a sun hat, and every scrap of your litter back out.
• The state government announced plans in 2023 to develop Mokarsagar for ecotourism, so check locally before you set out, because access and facilities may change.
• The wetland lies wholly inside Porbandar district and is listed here as a day trip off the Dwarka coastal run, roughly 100 km to the north.
• Nothing is sold at the wetland itself, so eat in Porbandar and carry supplies for the morning.
• The town runs on Gujarati and Kathiyawadi thali kitchens and farsan counters, and the reliable approach is to choose a place that describes itself as pure-vegetarian and then confirm with the kitchen before you order, rather than assuming that any one street or stretch of road is entirely vegetarian.
• A packed vegetarian breakfast - ask your hotel kitchen to confirm it is fully vegetarian - plus some fruit and two litres of water per person will comfortably see you through a long session on the bunds, where there are no shops at all.