Geographical Diversity of India
The Thar Desert
Travel west to the Thar Desert, also called the Great Indian Desert.
Go west on the map to the yellow area: the Thar Desert, or Great Indian Desert: golden sand dunes, rough land and wide skies.
Mountains are made of rock, so their shape stays. Why do sand dunes look like hills too? The wind pushes the sand into hill shapes, some as high as 150 m. When strong wind slows down, it drops its sand. And the wind keeps reshaping them.
The Thar is very dry (arid). Most of it is in India, across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.
It is a natural barrier too: very hot days, cold nights and little water make it hard for people and animals to cross.
People have adapted: their food, clothes (light cotton) and way of life suit the heat. Water is so scarce that women often walk long distances to fetch it. So utensils are traditionally scrubbed clean with sand, rinsed with a little water, and that rinse water is used again to water a plant. Next time you leave a tap running, remember the Thar!
Rajasthan is famous for clever ways of saving water, like taanka or kunds: tanks that collect and store rainwater, often for drinking. Jaisalmer, the Golden City, has a fort that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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