India’s largest desert is the Thar Desert, which is also famously known as the Great Indian Desert. Even though most of the Thar Desert is in India, around 15 percentage of its area is in Pakistan. It is the world’s 20th- largest desert and is also the world’s 9th-largest hot subtropical desert. Of its presence in India, more than 60 per cent is confined to Rajasthan.
Like most other deserts, the Thar Desert also has extreme temperatures. Thar witnesses unpredictable and variable amounts of rain, which falls between 100-500 mm during July and September. This vast desert is also home to rich biodiversity, which includes many large mammals like the blackbuck, blue bull, and the Indian gazelle or chinkara.
The Thar Desert accommodates around 40 per cent of Rajasthan’s population, making it one of the richest and most vibrant cultural centres of the state. The people living here do agriculture and animal husbandry for a living and are famous for their passion for folk music and folk poetry. Jodhpur is the largest city in the region and is located in the scrub forest zone at the perimeter of the desert. Bikaner and Jaisalmer are confined completely in the desert and are the largest cities of their kind in the Thar Desert.
Picture Credit : Google
