INDIAN GEOGRAPHY

Detailed explanation-1: -It has arid climate with low vegetation cover. Streams appear during the rainy season. Soon after they disappear into the sand as they do not have enough water to reach the sea. Barchans (crescent-shaped dunes) cover larger areas but longitudinal dunes become more prominent near the Indo-Pakistan boundary.

Detailed explanation-2: -Barchans are characteristic of open, inland desert regions such as Turkistan, where the name originated. The Russian naturalist Alexander von Middendorf is credited with introducing the word into scientific literature in 1881.

Detailed explanation-3: -Barchans are concentric in shape, have convex sides which face the prevailing winds. These can be found in Jaisalmer city of Rajasthan. The Thar Desert or the Great Indian Desert, a large arid region which covers 200, 000 square kilometres and ranks 17 in terms of the world’s largest desert.

Detailed explanation-4: -Desert soil is mostly sandy soil (90–95%) found in low-rainfall regions. It has a low content of nitrogen and organic matter with very high calcium carbonate and phosphate, thus making it infertile. The amount of calcium is 10 times higher in the lower layer than in the topsoil.

Detailed explanation-5: -Deserts are basically regions characterised by three main features-low rainfall, scanty vegetation and extreme temperatures.