Thar Desert

The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is a desert located in western India and southeastern Pakistan. It lies mostly in the Indian state of Rajasthan, and extends into the southern portion of Haryana and Punjab states and into northern Gujarat state. In Pakistan, the desert covers eastern Sind province and the southeastern portion of Pakistan's Punjab province. In Pakistan's Punjab province it is known as the Cholistan Desert. The Thar Desert is bounded on the northwest by the Sutlej River, on the east by the Aravalli Range, on the south by the salt marsh known as the Rann of Kutch, and on the west by the Indus River.

Origin of Thar Desert

The origin of the Thar Desert is a controversial subject. Some consider it to be 4000 to 10,000 years old, whereas others state that aridity started in this region much earlier.

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Another theory states that area turned to desert relatively recently: perhaps around 2000 - 1500 BCE. Around this time the Ghaggar ceased to be a major river and now terminates in the desert.

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It has been observed through remote sensing techniques that Late Quaternary climatic changes and neotectonics have played a significant role in modifying the drainage courses in this part and a large number of palaeochannels exist.

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Most of the studies have the same opinion with the palaeochannels of the Sarasvati coinciding with the bed of present day Ghaggar and believe that the Sutlej along with the Yamuna once flowed into the present Ghaggar riverbed. It is postulated that the Sutlej is the main tributary of the Ghaggar and that subsequently the tectonic movements might have forced the Sutlej westwards, the Yamuna eastwards and the Ghaggar dried.

Related Topics:
Sarasvati - Sutlej - Yamuna - Ghaggar

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Remote sensing is widely useful for revealing the palaeochannels in the desert areas using various digital image processing techniques of satellite images. The present disorganized state of many streams in the Thar desert of Western Rajasthan has been attributed by many investigators to change in climate during Quaternary, and in the particular Holocene.

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