Thar Desert, only Fertile Desert of the world.

There are about 33 largest deserts around the world, each spanning the area of more than 50,000 square kms. Among those largest deserts, Thar Desert (also know by Great Indian Desert) is the world's 20th largest desert and 9th hot sub-tropical desert. The most notable point about Thar (ٿر in Sindhi, تھر in Urdu, थार in Hindi) is that it is only fertile desert of the world.

Location of Thar Desert

Thar Desert covers an area of around 200,000 square kms (77,000 square miles), located at boundary area between Pakistan and India [1]. About 85% of Thar desert lies in India, and remaining 15% of the desert is in Pakistan side. Indian side part of Thar desert lies in states Rajasthan, Gujrat, Haryana and Punjab of India. Whereas in Pakistan, Thar desert lies in states Sindh and Punjab referred by names Tharparkar and Cholistan respectively. 

The GPS coordinates of Thar desert are 27.4695° N, 70.6217° E.

Location of Thar Desert in India and Pakistan. [2]

If you notice from the google map above, it can be observed that Thar desert is bordered by River Indus to the the west side, Rann of Kuchh to the south side, Punjab plain of India and Pakistan to north and northeast side, whereas to the southeast side there is mountain range of Aravalli Hills.

Geography of Thar Desert

Majority of Thar desert surface is covered with larger and smaller dunes of aeolian (carried by the wind) sand that have been formed over the past 1.8 millions years. The sand of Thar desert is highly mobile or in continual motion due to strong winds that rises during the beginning period of monsoon seasons. There are 

Dunes of Sand in Tharparkar

Eagle view map of Mithi city, Tharparkar. Scar lines in surrounding areas of Mithi can be noticed which are actually dunes of sand.

There is only one and largest river that flows in Thar desert of northwest India which is Luni River.  This river originates from the Pushkar valley in the Aravalli range near Ajmer District of the state Rajasthan, India and ends in the Rann of Kuchh area of state Gujarat, India after traveling a distance of around 495km (308 miles). The water of this river is of mostly saline nature and it doesn't drain into any sea or ocean of the world.

Climate of Thar Desert

The climate of Thar desert is mostly arid and subtropical nature. The average temperature of this desert varies depending upon the season and area, that means maximum temperature may reach up-to 50 °C during summer season, and minimum temperature may fall to 3-10 °C during winter days [3]. Months of May and June are observed as hottest months for the Thar desert areas.

Thar desert gets rainfall of monsoons ranging from 100mm to 500mm during summer season, especially in the months July to September. During the winter season, climate of desert becomes dry and cold. Therefore rainfall in the Thar desert is the only joy to people of Thar desert areas including Tharparkar, as people used to cultivate their barren lands during rainfall of monsoon season.

Farmer is cultivating their land in Tharparkar during monsoon season

References:

[1] The World's Largest Deserts, Geology.com, 23th October 2021, https://geology.com/records/largest-desert.shtml

[2] Rao, Vadlamudi & Arai, Egidio & Franchito, Sergio & Shimabukuro, Yosio & Ramakrishna, S. & Naidu, c.v. (2011). The Thar, Rajputana desert unprecedented rainfall in 2006 and 2010: effect of climate change?. Geofísica internacional. 50. 363-370. 10.22201/igeof.00167169p.2011.50.4.150. 

[3] Roy, P. and Singhvi, A., 2016. CLIMATE VARIATION IN THE THAR DESERT SINCE THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM AND EVALUATION OF THE INDIAN MONSOON. TIP, 19(1), pp.32-44.