Marusthali Upsc – The marusthali region is a sand dune region

The Great Indian Desert lies to the Northwest of the Aravali hills and is a land of undulating topography dotted with longitudinal dunes and barchans.

Region of the Great Indian Desert that the Thar Desert receives low rainfall below 150mm per year.

Due to the low rainfall, this region has an arid climate with low vegetation cover.

It is because of these Physical characteristics, that this is also called Marusthali, which is a region in the west that is a very dry part.

This region extends over 62,000 sq. km, north of the Luni river.

It is believed that this region during the Mesozoic era, was under the sea and this belief is made strong by the pieces of evidence found at the wood fossils park at Aakal, marine deposits around Brahmsar, near Jaisalmer.

These wood fossils were as old as 180 million years.

Marusthali desert

The great Indian desert is called Marusthali.

The underlying rock structure of the desert is an extension of the Peninsular plateau but still because of the extremely arid conditions, its surface features have been carved by physical weathering and wind action.

The desert lands feature found here are mushroom rocks, shifting dunes, and an oasis which is mostly in its southern part.

Based on the orientation, the desert can be divided into the northern part is sloping towards Sindh, and the south towards the Rann of Kachchh.

The south half of Marusthali forms a never-ending bowl, framed by flat-topped hills of sand, rocks, and limestone.

The north part has ridden closely packed with coarse sand.

The rivers mostly in this region are ephemeral(lasting for a very short time). The Luni river flowing in the southern part of the desert has some importance.

The Low precipitation and high evaporation make this region a water deficit.

There are some streams that suddenly disappear after some distance and which show the existence of inland drainage by joining a lake or playa.

The lakes and the playas have brackish water which is an important source of obtaining salt.

In this region, the soil is mostly loamy.

The crops grown in this region were attacked frequently by locust invasion.

Occupation in Marusthali

Livestock raising and irrigated farming. The crops grown here are Cereal grains, chickpeas, cotton, sugarcane, groundnuts, and oilseeds. Also, Lignite and gypsum are mined here.