Evolution of arid landscape in India and likely impact of future climate change

Abstract

Thar Desert and Ladakh are two prominent arid areas in the Indian Subcontinent, representing the hot and the cold arid regions, respectively. Landforms in Thar Desert have developed over a relatively stable platform, and bear strong impressions of several cycles of late Quaternary climate change between warm wet and dry cool phases, which dictated the spatiotemporal distribution of the fluvial and aeolian processes and the typical disposition of the landforms. By contrast, Ladakh, located in the Trans-Himalaya, is mountainous and dominated by glacial, periglacial and fluvial processes, with fewer signatures of lacustrine and aeolian processes. Since ~44 ka, the area witnessed two major and one minor phases of aridity. Evidence for neotectonic, though expected very much in this suture zone between the Indian and the Eurasian plates, is not very common, and need proper investigation. Presently anthropogenic activities tend to have overbearing influences on the process acceleration and land degradation in both Thar Desert and Ladakh. Since warming-related changes in climate have also started to impact the areas, sustainable land uses, backed up by land conservation measures are called for.

Monitoring land sensitivity to desertification using the ESAI approach and evaluation of the key indicators: A spatio‐temporal study in India

“…A major negative change in the land qualities has been noted in the dry and arid western part of the Country, the region that hosts most of the Great Thar Desert within it (208,110 km 2 ) (Kundu et al, 2017; Sur & Chauhan, 2019). Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and parts of Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi suffered the negative implications of the extension of the desert (Kar & Kumar, 2020). Our study shows that these states have already faced degradation to great extents during 1992–1996.…”

“…The lands that were under Critical‐2 class during 1992–1996, transformed into Critical‐3 by huge amounts till 1997–2009 and continued throughout 2010–2015. The bare topography and harsh climatic conditions with high diurnal temperature range of this area coupled with anthropogenic activities have greatly influenced desertification in this region (Kar & Kumar, 2020). Being located upon the collision zone of the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate, tectonic activities is another important factor in influencing the constant erosional activities in this area (Dietsch, Dortch, Reynhout, Owen, & Caffee, 2015).…”

“…India has not escaped this fate either. According to Singh, Santra, Kumar, Panwar, &Meghwal (2016) and Kar & Kumar (2020), around 12%–14% of land in India is under an arid climatic zone containing both hot (Thar Desert) and cold regions (Ladakh), which are experiencing degradation of land and vegetation in varying degrees due to climate change and encroaching desertification processes. However, Dasgupta, Sastry, Dhinwa, Rathore, & Nathawat (2013) and Christian & Dhinwa (2018) are of the opinion that this process is highly influenced by human activities.…”

“…Saji & Jayakumar (2017), Dharumarajan, Bishop, Hegde, & Singh (2018) and Kumar, Babu, Rajasekhar, & Ramachandra (2020) have portrayed a few individual scenarios from the southern states in their work, or have depicted the spread of desertification from the western states. The Ladakh region has recently caught the attention of researchers because it presents cases of severe desertification (see Kar & Kumar, 2020; Tewari, Pareek, Raghuvanshi, Kumar, & Roy, 2016). However, the latter work are highly localized and scattered in distribution andconsideronly a few factors (mostly anthropogenic activities) responsible for controlling the desertification processed so fail to provide a broad view of the entire Country.…”

Bioprospecting of endophytes in medicinal plants of Thar Desert: An attractive resource for biopharmaceuticals

“…However, it stretches at the eastern end of the extensive arid realm along the Tropic of Cancer that comprising the hyper-arid Sahara, the Rub-al Khali, and the Lut. Nevertheless, the Thar desert has less arid climatic condition than those of extreme deserts due to its position between two major rain-carrying climate systems, the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and a Mediterranean westerly system that brings showers about 100–500 mm during the rainy season and occasionally of <100 mm during the winter and the spring, respectively [ 11 ]. The state of Rajasthan stretches between 23 ◦ 04–30 ◦ 11 N and 69 ◦ 29–78 ◦ 17 E, covering around 342,239 km 2 areas on the land that is about 10.41% of the total land area of India.…”