Kutch Kharwa Fishing Community Mandvi Gujarat

The Kharwa community of the Kutch coast, based at Mandvi, Mundra, and the Rann of Kutch saltwater inlet settlements, maintain a distinctive maritime culture combining deep-sea fishing in the Arabian Sea with traditional wooden dhow boat building, salt pan working, and trading knowledge of the Gulf of Kutch tidal calendar that has historically connected Kutch to East Africa, Arabia, and the Persian Gulf trade network. The Kharwa operate traditional wooden motorised boats for shark, barracuda, and kingfish fishing in the outer Gulf of Kutch and the northern Arabian Sea, maintaining night-navigation knowledge of the shallow Rann shelf and seasonal knowledge of the Kutch wind calendar that marks the safe and dangerous seasons. The Mandvi dhow-building yard, one of the last active traditional wooden dhow construction sites in India, produces large cargo and fishing vessels using the centuries-old Kharwa boat-building technique of carvel planking with teak frames, using no metal fasteners in the traditional construction. Kharwa women maintain the traditional coastal salt-water pearl millet (bajri) and chilli cultivation on the Rann margin during the monsoon season when fishing is suspended.