rajkot: once billed as the biggest grassland tract of asia, the banni area of kutch spread over 840 sq km is barren. there is not a blade of grass in that vast expanse, overlooking the great rann of kutch. the banni area, severely hit by two successive droughts and an earthquake, looks desolate as the large segment of cattle-breeders has migrated with the cattle, to other parts of kutch and nearby towns of saurashtra and gujarat. the reports reaching here say that 70 per cent of the cattle-breeders have left the banni villages, as their plight, in the earthquake aftermath has become pitiable. with the large-scale migration from the banni area, the scenario on the kutch-pakistan border has dramatically changed as banni is nearer to the indo-pak border. the area had a glorious past. milk and ghee were flowing like river waters in this once-rich-grassland. but, in sharp contrast, today, milk is elusive and the people relied on milk powder. the cattle-breeders live in around 40 hamlets, with their population put at 40,000. thus each hamlet has about a thousand cattle-breeders. every second or the third year drought visits kutch and the worst-hit spot is the banni, always. so the cattle-breeders, known as 'maldharis' migrate elsewhere. migration has become a way of life for them. even as they were struggling to subsist came the quake. apart from the lack of fodder, chronic shortage of water and lack of tele-communications, adds to their woes. their 'exodus' has created a law and order problem, too. with the hamlets bereft of people, and the terrain barren, the problem of protecting their houses and belongings becomes a challenge. the problem gets aggravated as some 'outsiders' in search of employment create havoc. the banni grasslands touch five talukas; bhuj, khavda, bhachau, anjar and nakhatrana. oldtimers say that before the 1816 earthquake, the indus flowed through the banni and the farmers reaped a rich harvest of red rice, sindhi chookha. this special variety of rice was the staple diet of the people of the area and it was recommended even by the medical practitioners for 'light diet' for the ailing people. it is said that half of kutch lives outside the geographical boundaries of kutch. when it was a separate, part c state from 1948 to 1956, the union government had mooted a proposal to set up a mechanised farm on suratgarh pattern with the help from the soviet union. sardar datar singh, the then secretary of the planning commission, made several visits to banni and had formulated a plan, too. however, with the reorganisation of the states in 1956, kutch lost its statehood and the proposal was shelved.