THE ROTARY CLUB
of
Lahore Cantt.
PROFILE
OF THAR DESERT
Acknowledgement:
The
Thar desert of District Tharparkar, Pakistan, lies in the south eastern arid
zone of Sindh. It is bounded on the eastern side by the border with India, in
the North by district Khairpur and in the West by the districts of Mirpurkhas
and Badin. Tharparkar comprises four administrative units (known as talukas) of
Mithi, Nagarparkar, Diplo and Chachro and is further divided into union councils
and deh (village clusters).
The
name Thar is derived from Thul, the general term for the region's and ridges.
The land area of Thar is spread over about 22,000 sq. km. Apart from
south-eastern part of Nagarparkar taluka which consists of granite hills with
plain cultivable lands, most of the desert consists of sand dunes with flat
plain between them where agriculture can take place.
At
the moment the Thar region is inhabitated by about one million people. There are
two main religious groups, Hindus and Muslims, who have peacefully lived side by
side for centuries. Among the Hindu there are various caste and sub-caste
groups. Bheel, Meghwars and Kholis are considered low castes or scheduled caste
and they are in majority among the Hindus who are at present about 40% of the
entire population of Thar. The “upper caste” Hindus are Lohanas, Sutars,
Meheshwari and Thakurs. The Muslim population at present is about 60%. This
comprises of various zat and tribal groups such as Khosas, Nohris, Bajeers,
Samas and Mangnihars.
The
main occupation of Thari people is cattle and livestock rearing, from which
about 60% of their livelihood is derived. At present there are about 4.6 million
cattle and livestock comprising buffaloes, sheep, goat, camel, donkeys and
horses. About 10% of households get a regular flow of income through services in
various private and public jobs. The rest derive their income through selling
handicrafts, pottery, shoe mending, tailoring, carpet weaving and other
micro-enterprises.
Of
the total land area of 4.5 million acres, 3.4 million is cultivable and the
remaining 1.1 million, constituting about 24%, is grazing land for cattle and
livestock and waste land.
Rain
is the main source of water in Tharparkar arid region. Which is very erratic.
Annual rainfall varies from 0-300 mm. All agriculture and livestock activities
are dependent on rainfall. The failure of monsoon would mean no agricultural
crop and no fodder for Thari livestock. The main crop is bajra and guwar. In
good rainy years, lintels, melons and sesame are also grown as mixed crop with
the main crop of bajra and guwar.
Please
see Annex 1:
Month
Wise Thirty Year's Mean Maximum/Minimum Temperature, Precipitation And
Humidity.
