Geography Chapter 07: Life in the Deserts

Desert is an arid region characteriesed by extremely high or low temperatures and has scarce vegetation. Depending on the temperatures there can be hot deserts or cold deserts.

Sahara desert is the world’s largest desert. It has an area of around 8.54 million sq. km. The Sahara desert touches eleven countries. These are Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara.

The climate of the Sahara desert is scorching hot and parch dry. It has a short rainy season. The sky is cloudless and clear. Vegetation in the Sahara desert includes cactus, date
palms and acacia. In some places there are oasis - green islands with date palms surrounding them.

The Sahara desert despite its harsh climate has been inhabited by various groups of people, who pursue different activities. Among them are the Bedouins and Tuaregs.

Ladakh is a cold desert lying in the Great Himalayas, on the eastern side of Jammu and Kashmir. The Karakoram Range in the north and the Zanskar mountains in the south enclose it. Several rivers flow through Ladakh, Indus being the most important among them. The rivers form deep valleys and gorges. Several glaciers are found in Ladakh, for example the Gangri glacier.

Due to high aridity, the vegetation is sparse. There are scanty patches of grasses and shrubs for animals to graze. Several species of birds are sighted in Ladakh. Robins, redstarts, Tibetan snowcock, raven and hoopoe are common.