Each wild ass in Little Rann of Kutch is set to cost the Gujarat government's coffers a minimum of Rs 7 lakh. This is the price the state government will be unwillingly paying for protecting the wild ass from the Narmada canal, proposed to pass through a 25 kilometre stretch of their sanctuary dividing Little Rann of Kutch from the Greater Rann of Kutch. In all, 19 engineering structures will be constructed along the canal, which will carry Narmada waters from mainland Gujarat via the sanctuary into a serpentine 360 km-long Kutch branch canal to irrigate 1.13 lakh hectares in the southern part of the district."It will cost us heavily to ensure that that the wild ass sanctuary doesn't get affected,' a top state bureaucrat remarked. There are nearly 3,800 wild asses in the Little Rann and the cost of building "safe passages', would at least cost Rs 260 crore, the bureaucrat told TOI. The National Wildlife Board cleared the project in February. It is lying with the Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee to allow the Gujarat government to kick-start the project. Not all wild asses go across the Little Rann to the Greater Rann. "Less than one-third of the total wild asses in the sanctuary cross over,' a senior forest official said, "Yet, one can't take risks. The Narmada canal will have to be suitably protected by fencing both sides, and animal bridges would be built to allow the wild asses to cross without any difficulty'. Gujarat Environmental Education and Research (GEER) Foundation studied the movement of the wild asses and identified the places where safe passages for the animal could be built. It recommended at least 10 animal bridges, each 20 to 50 metres wide, and four 100 metre-wide siphons, providing flat surface to animal. It wanted at two metres high fences on both sides of the canal. "The structures would have to be such that they look to be part of the wild ass sanctuary,' a senior official said. The protection would also mean providing safe passage to chinkara, wolf, desert cat, desert fox and different types of lizards found in the sanctuary.