Economic development in hot deserts

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Economic development in hot deserts The Thar
desert in India and Pakistan. (p.67,
Understanding GCSE Geography)

• Learning objective.
• To know about a case study of a hot desert in a
  poorer part of the world.
• Contrasting the use of the area for
• - subsistence farming,
• irrigation and commercial farming ,
• mineral extraction
• and tourism.

2
Starter.Watch the 10min DVD clip Desert under
threat Arizona, USA to revise about what you
learnt last lesson. We are going to contrast
this with a desert in a developing country,
India.
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Task.Use an atlas to find the Thar desert. Then
answer these questions1. What is its
Latitude? (Approximately how many degrees North
is it, to the nearest 10)2. Which Tropic is
just to the south of it?3. In which Indian
state is part of it found?
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The Thar Desert is one of the major hot deserts
of the world. It stretches across north-west
India and into Pakistan. The desert covers an
area of some 200,000 km2, mostly in the Indian
state of Rajasthan.
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Rainfall in the Thar desert is low - typically
between 120 and 240 mm per year - and summer
temperatures in July can reach 53. Much of the
desert is sandy hills with extensive mobile sand
dunes and clumps of thorn forest vegetation, a
mixture of small trees, shrubs and grasses.
The soils are generally sandy and not very
fertile, as there is little organic matter to
enrich them. They drain quickly so there is
little surface water.
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Task. Write a short report entitled Making a
living in the Thar desert First write the
title.Then the sub-heading.Types of
farmingOutline what types of farming there are
in the Thar desert.
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Economic opportunities in the desert. Subsistence
farming Most of the people living in the desert
are involved in farming. The climate has
unreliable rainfall and frequent droughts. The
most successful basic farming systems involve
keeping a few animals on the grassy areas and
cultivating vegetables and fruit trees. Although
a good deal of the farming is subsistence
farming, some crops are sold at local markets.
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Over the border in Pakistan's Thar region, the
Koli tribe are descendants of hunter-gatherers
who survived in the desert by hunting animals and
gathering fruit and natural products such as
honey. This type of subsistence farming is the
most basic form of farming and is rarely found in
the world today.
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Irrigation and commercial farming Irrigation in
parts of the Thar Desert has revolutionised
farming in the area. The main form of irrigation
in the desert is the Indira Gandhi (Rajasthan)
Canal. The canal was constructed in 1958 and has
a total length of 650km.
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Commercial farming in the form of crops such as
wheat and cotton now flourishes in an area that
used to be scrub desert. The canal also provides
drinking water to many people in the desert.
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Then the sub-heading.Mining and industryList
the things that are mined and the uses they are
put to.
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Mining and industry The state of Rajasthan is
rich in minerals. The desert region has valuable
reserves of gypsum (used in making plaster for
the construction industry and in making cement),
feldspar (used to make ceramics), phosphate (used
for making fertiliser) and kaolin (used as a
whitener in paper).
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There are valuable reserves of stone in the area.
At Jaisalmer the Sanu limestone is the main
source of limestone for India's steel industry.
Limestone is also quarried for making cement.
Valuable reserves of the rock marble are
quarried near Jodhpur for use in the construction
industry.
A marble quarry.
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Local hide and wool industries form a ready
market for the livestock that are reared in the
area.
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Then the sub-heading.TourismWrite a paragraph
on why tourists visit the area.
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Tourism In the last few years, the Thar Desert,
with its beautiful landscapes, has become a
popular tourist destination.
Desert safaris on camels, based at Jaisalmer,
have become particularly popular with foreigners
as well as wealthy Indians from elsewhere in the
country. Local people benefit by acting as guides
or by rearing and looking after camels.
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Then the sub-heading.Challenges and
problemsList these as you see them on the
slides.
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The Thar Desert faces a number of challenges
Population pressure
The Thar Desert is the most
densely populated desert in the world, with a
population density of 83 people per km2, and the
population is increasing. This is putting extra
pressure on the fragile desert ecosystem and
leading to overgrazing and over-cultivation.
The desert city of Jaisalmer
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Water management
Excessive irrigation
in some places has led to water logging of the
ground.
Where this has happened, salts poisonous to
plants have been deposited on the ground surface.
This is called salinisation and is a big problem
in deserts (see the diagram). Elsewhere,
excessive demand for water has caused an
unsustainable fall in water tables.
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Task. a. With the aid of a diagram, describe
the process of salinisation. b. Why does
salinisation occur in the Thar Desert? c. Why is
salinisation a problem for the future? d.
Suggest ways of reducing the problem of
salinisation.
Write out the questions first.
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Answers. a. With the aid of a diagram, describe
the process of salinisation.
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Answers. c. Why is salinisation a problem for
the future?
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Answers. d. Suggest ways of reducing the
problem of salinisation.
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Soil erosion Over-cultivation and overgrazing
have damaged the vegetation in places, leading to
soil erosion by wind and rain. Once eroded away,
the soil takes thousands of years to re-form.
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Fuel Reserves of firewood, the main source of
fuel, are dwindling with the result that people
are using manure as fuel rather than using it to
improve the quality of the soil.
This cooking fire is made of cow pats!
This cooking fire is made of cow pats!
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Tourism Although tourists bring benefits such as
employment and extra incomes, the environment
that they have come to enjoy is fragile and will
suffer if tourism becomes overdeveloped.
A tourist camp in the desert
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Task. a. Describe the environment of the Thar
Desert. b. What are the challenges of this
environment for local people? c. What is the
difference between subsistence farming and
commercial farming? d. Describe the
characteristics of these two types of farming in
the Thar Desert.e. Apart from farming, what
other economic activities take place in the
desert?
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Thar Desert National Park The Thar Desert
National Park has been created to protect some
3,000 km2 of this arid land and the endangered
and rare wildlife that has adapted to its extreme
conditions.
Demoiselle Cranes
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Task. Now do the Sustainable development in the
Thar Desert, worksheet.
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• Key points for you to know for revision.
• The Thar desert is found on the border between
  India and Pakistan. It is the most densely
  populated desert in the world.
• The growing population leads to pressure to
  develop it for economic purposes.
• Farming is gradually changing from small-scale
  subsistence to large-scale commercial farming.
• Commercial farming needs irrigation, with water
  provided by a canal.
• The irrigation is leading to salinisation of the
  soil.
• An alternative way of using the desert is
  tourism, but this can also damage a fragile
  ecosystem if not managed carefully.