17
Demarcation of Hyper-Arid Land
in the Indian Desert:
An Environmental Analysis
Sahila Salahuddin
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.
Keywords
Hyper-arid Á Indian desert Á Environment Á
Aridity Á Evapotranspiration
S. Salahuddin (&)
Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim
University, Aligarh, India
e-mail: shl10@rediffmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
B. W. Pandey and S. Anand (eds.), Water Science and Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57488-8_17
225
Demarcation of Hyper-Arid Land
in the Indian Desert:
An Environmental Analysis
Sahila Salahuddin
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.
Keywords
Hyper-arid Á Indian desert Á Environment Á
Aridity Á Evapotranspiration
S. Salahuddin (&)
Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim
University, Aligarh, India
e-mail: shl10@rediffmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
B. W. Pandey and S. Anand (eds.), Water Science and Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57488-8_17
225