Title: Demarcation of Hyper-Arid Land in the Indian Desert: An Environmental Analysis
Abstract: Hyper-arid deserts bear extremely fragile environment of acute water scarcity with very low floral, faunal and human sustainability. The ecological diversity is meagre and marginal in the hyper-arid conditions. Hyper-arid lands with less than 100 mm mean annual rainfall globally comprise 5.86 million sq. km. Hyper-arid deserts along with very scanty rainfall also experience a very high rainfall uncertainty and recurrent drought frequency. In the Indian Desert, as we advance towards the west, it is noticed that the monsoon becomes feeble and rainfall consequently becomes erratic. As the predominantly rangeland economy and subsistence agriculture are directly related to the amount and variability of rainfall, the socio-economic conditions also hinge upon this variability. The intensity of the problem can be ascertained by the fact that the arid lands of the Indian Desert experience 60 percent rainfall variability, while the extreme water scarcity hyper-arid lands experience up to 80 percent rainfall variability.Macro-level studies have generated a widespread perception amongst the scholars that Indian Desert is a mild desert in comparison to the Arabian Desert, Atacama Desert and the Great Sahara Desert. Most parts of the Indian Desert are admittedly mild but there are small remote patches which qualify themselves to be extreme desert. Central Arid Zone Research Institute delineated the semi-arid and arid lands in the Indian Desert. Semi-arid lands depicted a greater half of the desert and arid lands comprised lesser half of the Indian Desert. However, a micro-level analysis of the western frontier of the Indian Desert has revealed a narrow strip of hyper-arid conditions in the Indian Desert adjacent to Cholistan Desert in Pakistan. The enquiry reveals meteorological, hydrographic and botanic evidences to this effect. The hyper-arid conditions would become even more intense and further challenging in the wake of global and regional climate change.
Publication Year: 2021
Publication Date: 2021-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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