Research on Thar Desert
​The study on Thar Desert’s focuses to quantify the degree and intensity of land degradation in desertification by providing temporal observations of several environmentally sensitive area indicators. Environmentally sensitive areas to desertification can be quantified as a result of relationships between environmentally sensitive parameters. Severe and irreversible environmental damage may result from poor management and key environmental indicators such as climate, vegetation, and socioeconomic circumstances. As a result, each of these parameters utilized in the current study is separated into unique eco-sensitive classes.
Highlights
Climate Quality Index (CQI) helped to evaluate the eco-sensitive areas over a region. The aridity index indicates the level of water scarcity in a region. A trend toward an increasing aridity index suggests extreme land deprivation and low vegetation cover in this region, which leads to a drought-like condition that negatively impacts cattle and agriculture. The factors wind speed, temperature and rain erosivity showed that south-western regions were more prone to desertification.
The socioeconomic quality of the western Thar Desert was significantly worse than that of the eastern region, according to the Socioeconomic Quality Index (SEQI). The western region's poor climate makes it inappropriate for maintaining the region's high socioeconomic quality. Additionally, it reveals that 16.0% of Thar's total geographic area is classified as low quality, 23.36% as very low quality, and 46.43% as moderate quality. Therefore, only 13.21% of the entire Thar region is classified as having high socioeconomic conditions, indicating a greater susceptibility to desertification due to land degradation.
Highlights
The relationship between the type of land cover and the degree of environmental sensitivity of a region, as well as the implications of this sensitivity in a given area, can be expressed through the land use and land cover variations using Vegetative Quality Index (VQI). LULC maps were analysed by the study to identify changes over the previous 50 years. Water bodies made up 0.57% of the total area in 1973. Vegetation, including both agricultural and non-agricultural land, covered 2.3% of the total area, followed by mining and settlement areas at 11.5% and the sand complex (sand and dunes) at 85.54%. In 2019, water bodies comprised 1.01% of the total area, with vegetation (both agricultural and non-agricultural) accounting for 13.01% of the area, mining areas accounting for 80.50% of the sand complex (sand and dunes), and settlements making up 5.37%. Four classes—very low quality, low quality, moderate quality, and high quality—were used by VQI to classify the study area. While Jodhpur had moderate and high vegetation quality index ratings, the majority of Jaisalmer and Bikaner areas had low vegetation quality ratings. Barmer's VQI was a mix of low and moderate. Generally, low vegetation quality has been observed over 69.59% of the total area.
Thar Vegetative Quality Index (VQI)
Jaisalmer has been found to fall under critical sensitivity after integrating the three Eco-Sensitivity Quality Indices (ESI), namely, Climatic, Socio-economic, and Vegetative. On the other hand, Jodhpur was low sensitive to desertification, while Bikaner and some areas of Barmer were highly sensitive, with the remaining half of Barmer falling into the moderate sensitive category.
Thar Eco-Sensitivity Quality Indices (ESI)
News and Media coverage
References
Sharma, L. K., Raj, A., & Somawat, K. (2021). Spatio-temporal assessment of Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) in The Thar Desert India, to combat desertification under UNCCD framework. Journal of Arid Environments, 194, 104609.