Thar Desert

Very little rain falls here.

The wind pushes the sand into dunes that slowly move.

The Thar gets only about 12 to 25 centimeters of rain a year, and some parts get less than 10 centimeters. Its dunes constantly shift and change shape, and the European Space Agency (ESA) notes that high winds there carry dry soil away.

Strong winds also carry dust. In April 2010, NASA's Aqua satellite saw a veil of dust hiding the desert below.

NASA/JPL notes the dunes constantly shift and take on new shapes, with only about 12-25 cm of rain a year. UNESCO's Tentative List entry places Desert National Park in a very low rainfall zone (under 100 mm), where sand dunes make up 44.8% of Jaisalmer's landforms and flat buried pediments 28.4% (Kar, 1989); sandy areas dominate the west, gravelly and rocky areas the center, south and east.

ESA adds that high winds carry dry soils onto neighboring fertile land. NASA's Aqua satellite imaged a dust veil over the desert on 20 April 2010.

Hills, river plains and a salty marsh surround the desert.

Long, long ago, there were forests here. Their wood turned into stone.

UNESCO's description puts the Aravalli hills along the desert's eastern edge, the fertile plains of the Indus to the west, and the Great Rann of Kutch, a salt marsh, to the south.

The desert was not always dry. In the Wood Fossil Park at Akal, near Jaisalmer, there are fossils of forests about 180 million years old, from a time when the climate was hot and humid.

The UNESCO Tentative List text bounds the Thar with the Aravalli hills to the east, the Indus plains to the west, the Great Rann of Kutch to the south and the sub-Himalayan plains to the north, and notes that its biota mixes Palaearctic, Oriental and Saharan elements.

It cites fossil evidence from the Jurassic, about 180 million years ago, of a hot, humid climate with dense forests, preserved in the Wood Fossil Park at Akal, 17 km from Jaisalmer.

The great Indian bustard is a rare bird that lives in the desert's open grassland.

Gazelles, foxes and lizards live here too.

Desert National Park in Rajasthan covers 3,162 square kilometers. Its description on UNESCO's list says more than 100 kinds of birds have been recorded there, including the great Indian bustard. It calls the park the most important site for that bird's long-term survival.

Chinkara gazelles, desert foxes, desert cats and hedgehogs live in the park, along with lizards found nowhere else, such as the Laungwala toad-headed agama.

Desert National Park (3,162 km²; Jaisalmer 1,900 km², Barmer 1,262 km²; gazetted 1980) was put on UNESCO's Tentative List in 2009. Its entry lists 168 plant species in 48 families, more than 100 bird species including the great Indian bustard and migrant houbara bustards, and mammals such as chinkara, desert and Indian foxes, desert cat, hairy-footed gerbil and long-eared hedgehog.

Across the Thar it cites 60 mammal, 8 amphibian and 51 reptile species (Baqri and Kankane, 2001), with endemic reptiles such as the Laungwala toad-headed agama and the Sindh awl-headed snake, and calls the park the most important site for the long-term survival of the great Indian bustard.

The desert can get very, very hot. Children get sick from heat more easily than grown-ups.

On hot days, stay close to your grown-up.

NASA's page notes temperatures as high as 52 °C in the Thar. The US National Weather Service says young children and babies are especially at risk from heat-related illness, because their bodies are less able to adapt to heat than adults' bodies.

Dust storms can also blow across the desert, as satellites have seen.

Temperatures can reach 52 °C (NASA/JPL). The US National Weather Service notes that young children and infants are particularly vulnerable to heat-related illness because their bodies are less able to adapt to heat than adults'.

Dust is a second hazard: NASA's Aqua satellite recorded a dust storm over the desert in April 2010, with thick dust rising and falling in rippled waves along its front.