A mobile ad hoc network is an infrastructure less network, where nodes are free to move independently in any direction. The nodes have limited battery power; hence we require energy efficient route discovery technique to enhance their lifetime and network performance. In this paper, an energy-efficient route discovery technique CERD has been proposed that greatly reduces the number of route-requests flooded into the network and also gives priority to the route-request packets sent from the routers that has communicated with the destination very recently, in single or multi-hop paths. This not only enhances the lifetime of nodes but also decreases the delay in tracking the destination.