Geography (Chap-10) Life in The Deserts

Geography (Chap-10)                 Life in The Deserts

Ø  Desert is an arid region characterized by extremely high/low temperature and scare vegetation.

Ø  Depending upon the temperatures there can be hot and cold deserts.

·         The Hot Desert- Sahara

Ø  Sahara is the largest desert of the world which  lies in North Africa.

Ø  It has an area of 8.54 million sq. km where India has an area of only 3.2 million sq. km.

Ø  The Sahara desert touches 11 countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara.

Ø  Besides sand, Sahara desert is covered with gravel plains and elevated plateaus with bare rocky surface. These rocky surfaces may be more than 2500m high at some places.

Ø  Present day Sahara once used to be a lush green plain. Cave paintings in Sahara desert show that there used to be rivers with crocodiles, elephants, lions, giraffes, ostriches, sheep etc. but the change in climate has changed it into a very hot  and dry region.

Ø  Al Azizia in the Sahara desert, south of Tripoli, Libya recorded the highest temperature of  57.7’C in 1922.

Ø  The climate of the Sahara desert in scorching hot and parch day. It has a short rainy season. Here, the moistures evaporates faster than it accumulates. Days are unbelievable hot(50’ above). The nights may be freezing cold with temperatures nearing zero degrees.

Ø  Vegetation in the Sahara desert includes Cactus, date, palms  and acacia. In some places there is Oesis-green islands with date palms surrounding them.

Ø  Bedouins and Tuaregs are the nomadic tribes who pursue different activities like rearing livestock such as goats, sheep, camels and horses. These animals provide them milk, hides from which they make leather for belts, slippers etc.   

Ø  The people here wear heavy robes as protection against dust storms and hot winds.

Ø  The Oasis in the Sahara and the Nile valley in Egypt supports settled population. Since water is available here, people grow date palms, crops like rice, wheat, barley etc. Famous  Egyptian cotton found here.

Ø  The discovery of oil in Algeria, Libya and Egypt is constantly transforming Sahara desert. Other minerals like, iron, phosphorus, manganese, Uranium also found in this desert.

Ø  Now Tuaregs are seen acting as guides to foreign tourists.

Ø  More and more herdsmen are moving to city life for finding jobs in oil and gas operations.

Ø  Depressions are formed when the wind blows away the sands. In the depressions where underground water reaches the surface, an Oasis is formed. Sometimes it may be abnormally large. One of such is Seba Oasis, near Sabha, Libya, in the middle of the Sahara desert. 

·         The Cold Desert- Ladakh

Ø  Ladakh is derived from ‘La’ and ‘Dak’ means ‘mountain’ and ‘country’ respectively(Also known as Khapa-chan means ‘snow land’)

Ø  Ladakh is a cold desert lying in the great Himalayas on the eastern side of Jammu & Kashmir.

Ø  The Karakoram Range in the North and the Zanskar mountains in the south enclose it.

Ø  Indus river flows through Ladakh. Several glaciers like Gangri glacier found here.

Ø  Drass, one of the coldest inhabited places of earth is located here.

Ø  The altitude of Ladakh varies from about 3000m in Kargil to more than 8000m in Karakoram. Due to its high altitude, the climate is extremely cold and dry.

Ø  The day temperature in summer are just above zero degree and night temperature is below -30 degree C.

Ø  It is freezing cold in winters when the temperature remains below -40’C, most of the time.

Ø  It is in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, there is little rainfall, about 10cm every year. The area experiences freezing winds and burning hot sun light. If one sits in the sun with feet in the shade then the person may suffer from both sunstroke and frost bite at the same time.

Ø   The ‘Chiru’ or the Tibetan antelope is an endangered species. It is hunted for its Shahtoosh wool, which is light in weight and extremely warm.

Ø  People here are either Muslims or Buddhists. Several Buddhist monasteries dot the Ladakhi landscape with their traditional ‘gompas’. Famous monasteries like Hemis, Thiksy, Shey and Lamayuru are found here.

Ø  People here cultivate during summer and in winter engaged in festivities and ceremonies.

Ø  The National Highway 1A connects Leh to Kashmir valley through the Zoji la Pass.

Ø  Visits to the gompas, treks to see the meadows and glaciers, witnessing ceremonies and activities are important activities here.