Greening of the Thar is both a success story and a warning

hile climate change and human interventions are rendering other regions dry, the reverse is happening in the Great Indian Thar.

- SHUBHANGI SHAH

The desert is becoming wetter and greener, going against its very characteristic. “The greening in the Thar can influence local albedo [fraction of sunlight reflected by a body or surface], dust emissions and even monsoon circulation,” says Professor Vimal Mishra of IIT Gandhinagar, who, along with PhD scholar Hiren Solanki and retired NASA scientist Ramakrishna Nemani, conducted the research on the greening of the Thar. Excerpts from an interview with Mishra:

Why is the greening of the Thar important?

The Thar is one of the harshest landscapes to live in across India, and its rapid greening is not usual. We have noticed that the region is becoming wetter and greener, even as many other arid regions are experiencing drying conditions. The greening within the desert is far more than a local-scale revival driven by natural processes and human interventions. It reflects rapid socioeconomic changes, including agricultural expansion, groundwater extraction and urban growth, which transform both the landscape and the livelihoods of the region. Furthermore, the greening of the Thar is not only influencing the habitat of the desert but also impacting regional climate patterns, dust emissions and monsoon circulation across India, making it an important issue.