PROFILE OF THAR DESERT

The Thar desert of District Tharparkar, Sindh, Pakistan lies in the south eastern arid zone of Sindh. It is bounded on the eastern side by the border with India, in the North by district Khairpur and in the West by the districts of Mirpurkhas and Badin. Tharparkar is comprised of the four administrative units (known as talukas) of Mithi, Nagarparkar, Diplo and Chachro and is further divided into union councils and deh (village clusters). The highest Government Official for the district is the Deputy Commissioner who is responsible for all revenue collection as well as administrative matters.

The name Thar is derived from Thul the general term for the region's and ridges. The land area of Thar is spread over about 22,000 sq. km. Apart from south-eastern part of Nagarparkar taluka which consists of granite hills with plain cultivable lands, most of the desert consists of sand dunes with flat plain between them where agriculture can take place.

At the moment the Thar region is inhabitated by about 1.0 million people. There are two main religious groups namely Hindus and Muslim who have peacefully lived side by side for centuries. Among the Hindu there are various caste and sub-caste groups. Bheel, Meghwars and Kholis are considered low castes or scheduled caste and they are in majority among the Hindus who are at present about 40% of the entire population of Thar. The so called upper caste Hindus are Lohanas, Sutars, Meheshwari and Thakurs. The Muslim population at present is about 60%. This comprises of various zat and tribal group such as Khosas, Nohris, Bajeers, Samas and Mangnihars etc.

The main occupation of Thari people is cattle and livestock rearing from which about 60% of their living derived. At present there are about 4.6 million cattle and livestock comprising of buffaloes, sheep, goat, camel, donkeys and horses. About 10% household get regular flow income through services in various private and public jobs. The rest of them derive their income through selling handicraft, pottery, shoe mending, tailoring, carpet weaving and other micro-enterprise undertaking.

Of the total land area of 4.5 million acres, 3.4 million is cultivable land and the remaining 1.1 million constituting about 24% is the grazing land for cattle and livestock and the waste land.

The rain is the main source of water in Tharparkar arid region. It is very erratic and the annual rainfall varies from 0-300 mm. All agriculture and livestock activities are dependent on rainfall. The failure of monsoon would mean no agricultural crop and no fodder for the Thari cattle and livestock. The main crop of Thar is bajra and guwar. In good rainy years, the lintels, melons and sesme are also grown as mixed crop with the main crop of bajra and guwar.

THE THAR IN THE PAST

The historians say that thousands of year ago the Thar desert was all under Arabian Sea. There was a great Sea Port at Wirawah which was then called Parinagar. Sea merchants used this port for their business which was pread all over India.

The great Arabian Sea then changed its rout leaving the land completely dry. As the land became dry, the monsoon rain fell on it and it became lush green with trees and natural vegetation. The birds of all kinds, the wild animals and creeping creatures like snakes, scorpions and lizards came to make this place their abode. The merchants who came this way, found this place a heaven for business and settlement. Gradually people from surrounding places came and settled down here. As there were vast pastures and jungle full of fodder trees they brought their animals for grazing on this land.

There were good monsoon with abundant rainfall producing rich carpet of grasses and lush green trees and bushes. People ploughed some land to produce food grain, sweet and juicy melons. The Thar was then called a place of honey, milk and butter. People had more than what they desired and they were happy, healthy and prosperous.

There was no concept of cash transaction then, people exchanged things for things which is called barter. The tribes and communities specialised themselves in various trades. Like some tribes were good at making pottery, some at making shoes, some at making bricks, some at making

hand made clothes, some in producing food grain. These things were then exchanged among themselves according to the need of the people.

This situation remained for many years, people had enough food, clothes and shelter and their lands produced all they needed.

Gradually the resources began depleting with an increase in the population and livestock over time. This process of depletion of resources made people more possessive, greedy and selfish.

The environmental situation in the first half of 20th century was satisfactory as the nature loving Thakur Hindu Community took control of the natural resource base in the Thar region. They controlled vast areas of grazing and agricultural land in Thar and kept haris (peasants) from the scheduled caste groups to work on their lands on share cropping basis. They also hired these scheduled caste people to look after their vast cattle and livestock flocks in exchange of food, clothes and shelter.

The Thakur community, forbade cutting of trees, they undertook annual desilting of water tarais and preserved the pasture land from overgrazing. They were strict rulers who punished people who caused damage to the natural environment.

There were three main groups who exercised power chronologically in those days over the resources and people living in Tharparkar. The first the landlord group or the Thakurs who controlled the natural resources and next was the Government Officers or Revenue Collectors and the third was the Patel or village headmen. The vast majority of poor people comprising of schedule caste and others fell pray to the injustices and corrupt practices of these three categories of power holders in Tharparkar. They used them as they liked and meted out all kinds of discriminatory practices with them. They were always treated as outcaste and untouchable and were treated inhumanly.

For Details Please click here to download word document

Site developed by Sustainable Development Networking Programme, Pakistan in collaboration with IUCN NGO Unit.