Talk:Thar Desert

Removed Text
'''I've removed the following text because it was a story, was incredibly long for what the content was covering, and possibly a copyvio. If anyone feels I made a mistake, please add the content back with an explanation on this talk page. --Targetter 07:59, 31 July 2006 (UTC)'''

Pale sands of Sanghar

A "different kind" of desert, there are even lakes amidst dunes

By Salman Rashid

I first went wandering about Thar Desert back in 1980. I had seen bits of the Thar Desert in Punjab some years before that and both deserts disappointed me. There were no real wind-sculpted sand dunes like I had seen in pictures of the Sahara, Gobi or Takla Makan deserts. As time went by, I got to know Thar much better. This included what was in those days called the Tharparkar district in the south and Khairpur in the north of Sindh. The one blank on my map was the desert part of Sanghar district. This tantalised because someone told me that the eastern-most part of the district that trod on the Indian border had a "different kind" of desert.

About that same time (1980) I read a rather drab little report in Dawn about the desert lakes of Sanghar and made a mental note that this was something to see, a lazim. But years went by, twenty-four years in fact, before I actually got to see one of those fabled lakes. It was in the summer of 2004 and working on an assignment for a Hyderabad-based NGO, I was being driven into the desert when I asked about the lakes.

"What lake?" my friend asked with a lop-sided smile. "How can there be lakes in the desert?"

Then, barely half an hour out of the little village of Hathungo (near Khipro in Sanghar district), just as we went around a sand dune, we came in full view of a blue, blue sheet of water. It was unbelievable. From Cholistan in Punjab I knew of the ponds they called tobas that, being filled up after the rains, were used as reservoirs for the drier months by both man and beast. But I had never seen such a lake smack in the midst of sand dunes. The scene was replete with a few sheep grazing nearby and a village with those circular huts and pointed wattle roofs that typify Thari villages.

I asked my friend if the desert where we were heading was also of a different quality. Once again he joked about without coming to the point. And sure enough, as we neared our destination, this being village Rablahu, the quality of the dunes did indeed take on the same texture as I had seen in pictures of the Sahara. Only while the latter has reddish sand, this was rather pale. "It's not for nothing that we call this part of our Thar 'Achhro' or white," my friend explained.

The month was June and we had arrived shortly after midday. With the sun blazing directly overhead burning out every colour to half tones, I did not even bother to take any photographs - not even for the record. But I resolved to return to Achhro Thar at some more appropriate time of year. And so it was that my friend Pervez Akhtar and I were picked up from Karachi by Abubaker, the Sheikh of Badin, as I once used to call him. Himself a writer of travel tales, Abubaker now works for an NGO in Karachi and when work takes him travelling he produces yet more travelogues for the Sindhi press. For this outing Abubaker had brought his friend Majeed Mangrio along.

Overnight in Khipro, it was learned that the fancy pick-up truck Abubaker had brought was without a four-wheel drive. That was that, I thought. The White Desert would not be seen on this outing. But the following morning we drove out to Hathungo and after wasting some time about the village, hired a beat up old Suzuki jeep which was refitted with a noisy diesel engine. The young driver was a gabby smart-alec who seemed to know everything about everything. He made it a point to add his own two bits worth to whatever was said in the jeep.

Just outside Hathungo, we paused at the large lake I had seen in the summer of 2004. A solitary boatman was paddling about in the far distance hauling in his nets with the fish. On the near side a herd of cows browsed in the sparse vegetation and directly across them sat a little village amid rolling sand dunes and acacia and neem trees. In my memory from two years ago, this village comprised entirely of mud-and-wattle huts, the chaunras, with their pointed roofs. That was perhaps how I had wanted to see it and adjusted the mental image accordingly for now I saw that there were few chaunras. Most had trabeate roofs while one or two houses were washed a brilliant white to contrast against the sand and the blue sky.

The next stop was a salt lake that was called Pani Wari Dhund - water lake. I observed that was a silly name for all lakes are by necessity water or they wouldn't be lakes at all. Abubaker thought the reason for the name was probably that this one was miles from any other body of water. And being in the desert where little water was at hand, some poetic Thari of yore gave it that name. Salt lay in glittering white islands on the lake and in equally dazzling piles along the southern shore of the lake. A team of labourers was trundling salt-laden wheelbarrows from the little islands to large piles on the shore.

I wanted to know if this salt was put to industrial or domestic use but without smart-alec putting words in the mouths of the labourers failed to learn anything at all. He had to be told, in no uncertain terms, to shut up when he was not being addressed. That had good effect, I must concede.

In lower Thar, one is rarely far from some signs of human habitation. But here, we were travelling in an utterly lonely country. Even the ravens, vultures and mynas that one meets with in other parts of the desert were missing and the only bird I saw was the Indian grey shrike. Surely the sparse vegetation concealed some of the smaller ones.

About two hours out of Hathungo, we passed by the village of Rablahu that I had visited back in 2004. I asked the driver to swing in so that we could do some photos. But Majeed said these being all Hindus were averse to being photographed. In this part of Thar, for some curious reason, its not the Muslims but the Hindus who go totally paranoid when they see a camera. Even as Pervez and I photographed the village from what we thought was a safe distance, I espied a man hurrying in our direction. He caught up with us before we finished and Majeed ended up doing a song and dance.

Abubaker said if we had been in his pick-up truck, the man would never have bothered for he would have known us to be important people. But this lousy Suzuki gave us away as nothing more than bumbling boys from some college or the other. Boys indeed: middle-aged, bald and out of shape. It's what you ride in, he insisted and promised that the four-wheel drive will be fixed and the next time we come out to Achhro Thar it will be as important personages.

Another half an hour later, driving over some dramatic looking dunes we saw the houses of Ranahu in the distance. This is where we were heading. Some years ago Majeed had worked in this village and was well-connected. He said the hospital had "four rooms with attached baths" and because there were few in patients and also because he was good friends with Anop Singh, the medical technician who was in charge, we could stay there. This was for the future because this time around we were out for just the day.

Ranahu is a village of Sodha Rajputs and Anop who belongs to the village is of the same clan. Long ago, in 325 CBE, when Alexander was in the vicinity of what we now call Rahim Yar Khan, he met with a warlike tribe that his historians called the Sogdii. Now, the people of Sogdiana in Central Asia were also known to the Greeks by this same name and one could not be faulted for wondering what a Central Asiatic tribe was doing in south Punjab. Scholars, however, told us that the Punjabi Sogdii were in fact Sodhas.

Throughout the long and creative course of history we hear of this powerful tribe ruling in various parts of southern Punjab and Sindh. The last we hear of them in our part of the subcontinent is from the early years of the 19th century. The Talpurs, having taken over the reins of government from the Kalhoras, began to extend their sway and on the western edge of the Thar Desert near Naukot came upon them. The Sodhas were evidently on the wane for the Talpurs prevailed and that was the end of the rule of the former.

From being kings over the land of Sindh, the Sodhas are today reduced to isolated pockets in the desert where they assert their past power by telling strangers not to photograph their village, leave alone the women. But here we were not strangers for Majeed knew practically everyone in the village.

After the customary tea and biscuits we took off for the village well. In lower Thar, as the men drive the camels to pull out the bucket from the deep wells, there are always several women at hand to fill up their pitchers. In some isolated villages I had even seen women running the whole show. But here this chore was taken over entirely by men and young boys. Indeed, in the day we spent at Ranahu, I did not so much as catch a glimpse of any woman at all. Not even a girl child. The Sodhas do observe strict purdah.

It was the dunes of Achhro Thar that had brought us out this far and so we took a walk to the east side of the village. Here, swept by the wind into sculpted, rippled shapes with razor-sharp crests the dunes rolled away in all directions just the way one sees them in photos of the Takla Makan. As we hurried with our photos, Pervez the best photographer among us lamented that we were not staying overnight to catch the evening and early morning sun.

We left Ranahu in time to catch the sunset with some trees in the foreground. Later, as we were driving back to Hathungo, Abubaker kept muttering, "Something's got to give. Something must go wrong now for how else can we call this an adventure." Then there began his tales of breakdowns in the desert that set me virtually on edge. I too had tales to tell, but I refrained superstitiously fearing that too many disaster stories would somehow bring something untoward upon us. Abubaker's prayers were answered. Suddenly something began rattling under the jeep.

We stopped; the driver got under and told us a road spring had snapped. But not to worry, he said, and he would bring us into Hathungo all right. Shortly afterwards as the jeep was negotiating a dune, it got stuck. We got out and discovered that the rear wheels were digging in, which meant the four-wheel drive was not working anymore. Once again smart-alec got under and announced that the rear axle was broken. Hathungo was still thirty kilometres away!

He fiddled about a bit and said he would drive with the front wheels and that we would have to push every time we negotiated a slope. I don't know how it was done, but we did carry on. At some point he said we ought to stop by a village and he would change the axle. This, he said, would take thirty minutes which I read as two hours. The axle evidently was something he carried around in his breast pocket. The common vote however was that instead of wasting time we take the risk and try to reach Hathungo.

And so we carried on with Abubaker still nattering on about the accident not having been drastic enough to make an adventure. When the lights of Hathungo were seen for the first time, I said to Abubaker now was the time for the jeep to fall to pieces for all I cared and we could still walk to our pick-up truck waiting in the village.

MIssing text
there seems to be some text missing in the first para. Also a source is not cited. All the trees, herbs and animals are in latin!!! what do i do. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dimmarulz (talk • contribs) 02:10, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Origin of word Thar
Origin of Thar desert is not clear. If we do linguistic analysis it can probably help. I tried to find word Thar in Hindi language and local Rajasthani language. Hindi language does not have word 'Thar'(थार). Rajasthani language has a word 'Thara' (थारा) means yours. It seems not connected. Rajasthani language has a word "Thal" (थाल) used for a large flat shallow dish. 'Thal' (थाल) is also used for 'basin of a river'. Similar word may be 'Tal' which means a flat hard land within sandy areas. In this area "R" and "L" are frequently interchangable. It seems that 'Thar' is developed from 'Thal' (थाल)- 'basin of a river'.

Can its origin be traced in other languages like like persian ? burdak 04:47, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Wrong picture?
00850008.JPG appears to be the Qatari desert since the original uploader added it to Qatar. Pretzelpaws 22:12, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
 * The image is illustrative and we can keep it here till we get a good image from Thar desert. burdak 15:56, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Map?
It'll be great if there's a geography map of the desert. —Preceding unsigned comment added by John010117 (talk • contribs) 04:59, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

WP:INDIA Banner/Rajasthan workgroup Addition
Note: WP India Project Banner with Rajasthan workgroup parameters was added to this article talk page because the article falls under Category:Rajasthan or its subcategories. Should you feel this addition is inappropriate, please undo my changes and update/remove the relavent categories to the article --  TinuCherian  (Wanna Talk?) - 09:28, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Size of Thar
The second sentence in this article states that "With an area of more than 200,000 sq. km.,[1] (77,000 sq. mi.) it is world's seventh largest desert". The first statement is correct, it is 200,000 sq kilo's. However, according to "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deserts_by_area", that puts it at 18th largest desert. I will fix this unless anyone has an explanation.- Funga (talk) 01:49, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

It is very interesting place for enjoying. it is one of pleasure day in your life if you r going to visit it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.52.155.134 (talk) 05:27, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

ISBN incorrect
This is a fascinating article but relies almost exclusively on the following citation: Gupta: Rajasthan Jyankosh, Rajasthani Granthagar, Jodhpur, 2008, ISBN 81-86103-05-8, p.216

However, the ISBN listed is not registered nor can I find this book title anywhere. I would be delighted to see this book and hope the correct information can be quickly provided.

GeorgeMCarter (talk) 19:15, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Re: ISBN incorrect
The ISBN as printed on the book is correct. I have got a copy of it. The book is in Hindi language and title is राजस्थान ज्ञानकोष. Literally it means 'Encyclopaedia of Rajasthan'. The word ज्ञान is generally transliterated as 'Jñān'. The Publisher - Rajasthani Granthagar, Jodhpur  has written equivalent title in English as - Rajasthan Gyan-kosh.burdak (talk) 05:04, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

ISBN check
Hi, It may be a matter of a single digit--if you look here: http://www.isbn-international.org/ia/isbncvt - and type in the number, it doesn't come up. It looks like there is one too many digits...what is the title of the English-language version? Is it available only in India? Thanks for your help in looking into this. GeorgeMCarter (talk) 01:36, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

New World Encyclopedia
The above is a mirror and an unreliable source, per Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_84. For some reason, we had credited it in this article. The credit seems to be related to around April 2007 & so there is an argument that we need to revert this article to that date, since NWE adjust our stuff for their own POV purposes.

I cannot see an easy way out of this, while retaining genuine info added here since that time. Can anyone? - Sitush (talk) 03:05, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

Opening incorrect?
In the opening paragraph, it says, and I quote: "This desert spreads over about 2,340,000 km2 (900,000 sq mi),". According to the "List of Deserts by Area" page, the Thar only has an area of 200,000km. Perhaps the writer got confused with the Indian notation, where it would be written 2,00,000. However, that would still not explain the extra 34,000 km2. Currently, according to this article the Thar has an area greater than that of Rajasthan and Pakistan combined and approximately two thirds of the total area of India. I suggest looking at the sources and citations to see if the writer has indeed become confused with the Indian notation.Awesomeshreyo (talk) 12:34, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

Figures for the desert's extent are indeed contradictory and not consistent across publications. I added one that indicates a size of 320.000 sqkm in India only. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 13:42, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Thar Desert. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061219083939/http://www.ecoworld.com/Home/Articles2.cfm?TID=341 to http://www.ecoworld.com/Home/Articles2.cfm?TID=341
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060630062216/http://oilindia.nic.in/ourcomp_spread_rajasthan.htm to http://oilindia.nic.in/ourcomp_spread_rajasthan.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080216005407/http://www.avgustin.net/gallery.php?id=44 to http://avgustin.net/gallery.php?id=44
 * Added tag to http://www.mit.gov.in/tdil/E_TOURISM_CDAC/desert%20visions/html/hjaisal.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 01:29, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Nuclear Test?
I believe Pokhran in the Thar Desert was the site for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Smiling_Buddha Smiling Buddha, India's first nuclear detonation. I'm surprised that this is not included in a page about the Thar Desert. 82.2.157.36 (talk) 13:50, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

I am nihar
The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is a large arid region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's 20th-largest desert, and the world's 9th-largest hot subtropical desert.

Thar Desert Great Indian Desert

Thar Desert in Rajasthan, India

Map of the Thar Desert ecoregion

EcologyRealmIndomalayanBiomedeserts and xeric shrublandsBordersNorthwestern thorn scrub forests and Rann of Kutch seasonal salt marshGeographyArea238,254 km2 (91,990 sq mi)CountriesIndia and Pakistanstates of India & provinces of PakistanRajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab (India), Punjab and Sindh (Pakistan)Coordinates27°N 71°EConservationConservation statusvulnerable[1]Protected41,833 km² (18%)[2]

About 85% of the Thar Desert is in India, and about 15% is in Pakistan.[3] The Thar Desert is about 4.56% of the total geographic area of India. More than 60% of the desert lies in the Indian state of Rajasthan; the portion in India also extends into Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana. The portion in Pakistan extends into the provinces of Sindh[4] and Punjab (the portion in the latter province is referred to as the Cholistan Desert). 106.217.49.60 (talk) 14:02, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

I am nihar again hi
Open main menu

Thar Desert

Article Talk

LanguageDownload PDFWatchEdit

The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is a large arid region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's 20th-largest desert, and the world's 9th-largest hot subtropical desert.

Thar Desert Great Indian Desert

Thar Desert in Rajasthan, India

Map of the Thar Desert ecoregion

EcologyRealmIndomalayanBiomedeserts and xeric shrublandsBordersNorthwestern thorn scrub forests and Rann of Kutch seasonal salt marshGeographyArea238,254 km2 (91,990 sq mi)CountriesIndia and Pakistanstates of India & provinces of PakistanRajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab (India), Punjab and Sindh (Pakistan)Coordinates27°N 71°EConservationConservation statusvulnerable[1]Protected41,833 km² (18%)[2]

About 85% of the Thar Desert is in India, and about 15% is in Pakistan.[3] The Thar Desert is about 4.56% of the total geographic area of India. More than 60% of the desert lies in the Indian state of Rajasthan; the portion in India also extends into Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana. The portion in Pakistan extends into the provinces of Sindh[4] and Punjab (the portion in the latter province is referred to as the Cholistan Desert).

Contents

GeographyEdit

A NASA satellite image of the Thar Desert, with the India–Pakistan border

View of the Thar Desert

The northeastern part of the Thar Desert lies between the Aravalli Hills. The desert stretches to Punjab and Haryana in the north, to the Great Rann of Kutch along the coast, and to the alluvial plains of the Indus River in the west and northwest. Much of the desert area is covered by huge, shifting sand dunes that receive sediments from the alluvial plains and the coast. The sand is highly mobile due to the strong winds that rise each year before the onset of the monsoon. The Luni River is the only river in the desert.[5] Rainfall is 100 to 500 mm (4 to 20 in) per year, almost all of it between June and September.[3]

Saltwater lakes within the Thar Desert include the Sambhar, Kuchaman, Didwana, Pachpadra, and Phalodi in Rajasthan and Kharaghoda in Gujarat. These lakes receive and collect rainwater during monsoon and evaporate during the dry season. The salt comes from the weathering of rocks in the region.[6]

Lithic tools belonging to the prehistoric Aterian culture of the Maghreb have been discovered in Middle Paleolithic deposits in the Thar Desert.[7]

ClimateEdit

The climate is arid and subtropical. Average temperature varies with season, and extremes can range from near-freezing in the winter to more than 50º C in the summer months. Average annual rainfall ranges from 100 to 500 mm, and occurs during the short July-to-September southwest monsoon.[1]

The desert has both a very dry part (the Marusthali region in the west) and a semidesert part (in the east) that has fewer sand dunes and slightly more precipitation.[8]

Desertification controlEdit

Greening desert with plantations of jojoba at Fatehpur, Shekhawati

Checking of shifting sand dunes through plantations of Acacia tortilis near Laxmangarh town

Indira Gandhi Canal flowing in Thar Desert near Sattasar village, Bikaner district, Rajasthan

The soil of the Thar Desert remains dry for much of the year, so it is prone to wind erosion. High-velocity winds blow soil from the desert, depositing some of it on neighboring fertile lands, and causing sand dunes within the desert to shift. To counteract this problem, sand dunes are stabilised by first erecting microwindbreak barriers with scrub material and then by afforestation of the treated dunes - planting the seedlings of shrubs (such as phog, senna, and castor oil plant) and trees (such as gum acacia, 106.217.49.60 (talk) 14:05, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Wrongly shown map of INDIA
Please correct map of India showing PoK as well as LoC parts as disputed but WITHIN INDIA. 114.79.167.253 (talk) 05:28, 6 May 2022 (UTC)

Etymology
In order to help make this a more properly encyclopedic article, shouldn't we explain the etymology of this toponym (from Hindi थार)? 76.190.213.189 (talk) 01:49, 2 February 2024 (UTC)