TARS DESERT, INDIA
Many deserts face increasingly severe droughts, but the Thar desert in India has become 38% greener in the last 20 years due to increased precipitation and expansion of agriculture in the region, according to a new study.
The Thar Desert, also called Great Indian DesertIt extends for 200,000 square kilometers in northwestern India and in southeastern Pakistan.
In the last two decades, More people started to live in this desert and changing the landscape, making it more agricultural and urbanwhich is part of the reason why the desert became more green.
According to the authors of the, published at the beginning of the month in the magazine Cell Reports Sustainabilitythe other piece of Puzzle is the climate changewhich caused the increase in the precipitation of the monsoons in the region.
Although many deserts around the world are facing the worsening of droughts, the desert of Thar became an urban growth center and agricultural, becoming the most village desert in the worldwith over 16 million inhabitants.
“The increase in the availability of water and energy led to the expansion of agricultural and urban areas, with a considerable increase in harvests in the region“, These Vimal Mishraresearcher at the Indian Institute of Gandhinagar Technology and study co -author, to.
“There is no other desert In the world that has registered increases in urbanization, agriculture and precipitation during the recent period, ”adds the investigator.
The Thar Desert became 38% greener between 2001 and 2023
The study analyzed satellite data from 2001 to 2023. Mishra and the team found that the desert became an average of 38% greener during this period, with more visible vegetation in satellite images.
The conclusions show that the greening of the Thar desert was driven mainly for more rain during the monsoons Summer-a 64% increase in global precipitation-and secondly, irrigation infrastructures that bring groundwater to the surface outside the monsoon station.
The authors suggest that sustainable management of water resources In the Thar desert can help this zone adapt and continue to support its growing population.
However, the higher temperatures can threaten the 16 million of people who live in this desert, and the excessive use of waters Irrigation underground can exhaust the resources, the investigators observed.
As sustainable water management practicesdrought -resistant crops, adaptations to increased heat and renewable energies should be part of the future development of the Thar desert, the researchers said.
Increasing monsoon precipitation can also mean More floodssince climatic models project that this increase in precipitation will occur in gusts in extreme weather situationswhich can damage houses and buildings in the desert.
However, if managed and adapted, increased precipitation may also allow the development of the population and agriculture in the region. Researchers responsible for a separate study have designed that an even larger part of the landscape will become green until the end of the 21st century.
This change would increase food security in the regionbut could threaten the native biodiversity of desert -adapted specialized species and traditional nose agriculture methods.
Scientists warn that the need to preserve these aspects of the desert environment should be taken into account as development continues.
