Camel in the desert

 Salute to Ranchhodas Pagi

 

Original watercolor painting by Kieran Gonsalves (c) 2026, inspired by the incredible story of a humble camel herdman during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars

In no-man's land where one wrong step could mean instant death, India’s greatest weapon during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak was not state of the art reconnaissance, or night vision binoculars, but the eyes of a Rabari herder from Banaskantha, Gujarat trained to read footprints in the sand.

On the Gujarat border, in the vast and unforgiving Rann of Kutch, lived Ranchhodas Pagi (also spelled Ranchhod Pagi or Ranchordas Pagi), a humble camel herder. His name Pagi comes from pag, meaning foot, because he could estimate the direction, of travel, approximate number of people, and timing just by reading footprints in the sand. 

 

What sounded like a fairy tale would soon change the course of the war. During the 1965 Indo-Pak war, Pakistani troops captured India’s Vidhkot police post. The Indian Army had no clue where the enemy was hiding. Called in for help, Pagi studied camel prints on the sand and calmly declared: the camels carried heavy supplies, not riders, and the enemy force numbered around thousand or so. His assessment proved uncannily accurate, leading to a successful Indian ambush. 

 

From then on, Pagi became the army’s unofficial eyes in the desert.
 

His greatest contribution came in the 1971 war. India planned to capture Nagarparkar, but the route was riddled with landmines. At nearly 70 years old, Pagi led a massive Indian convoy through the minefields at night, reading subtle changes in the sand to avoid death. After 12 relentless hours, Indian tanks appeared where Pakistan never expected them. The enemy was caught sleeping. The post fell with minimal resistance.

He received medals such as the Sangram Medal, Police Medal and Samar Seva Star and a BSF border post was named after him in Banaskantha.

Ranchhodas Pagi’s story is now part of Gujarat's educational curriculum and he appears in cultural media including the film Bhuj: The Pride of India.

Ranchhodas Pagi died in 2013 at the age of 112. Satellites and drones now guard borders, but once, when technology failed, a barefoot old man became India’s greatest surveillance system.

Salute to Ranchhodas Pagi, who showed a nation the path to victory by reading footprints in the sand.