The Thar Desert and the Aravalli Hills

Class 7 Social Science · Chapter 1: Geographical Diversity of India · NCERT Exploring Society: India and Beyond section 1.3

Learn

To the west, the map turns yellow: the Thar, or Great Indian Desert, spread over Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana. Wind shapes the sand into dunes up to 150 m high. Days are scorching, nights cold, and water scarce. Neel's cousin in Jaisalmer, the "Golden City", tells him his family stores rainwater in an underground taanka, scrubs pots with sand and reuses the rinse water for plants.

East of the Thar run the Aravallis, among the oldest mountains on Earth, about 2.5 billion years old, now worn down to hills of 300–900 m (Mount Abu tops 1700 m). They act as a barrier that stops the desert spreading east. They are rich in marble, granite, zinc and copper: at Zawar, Indians were the first in the world to extract zinc, over 800 years ago. Forts like Chittorgarh and Kumbhalgarh used these hills for defence.

Explore: desert or Aravallis?

1. Sort each card.

Remember

• The Thar is a hot, dry desert; people save water with taankas and kunds.
• The ancient Aravallis hold back the desert and are rich in minerals.

Quick check

Which hills stop the Thar Desert from spreading east?

1. the Aravallis
2. the Shivaliks
3. the Western Ghats
4. the Khasi Hills

Think about it

What water-saving habits from the Thar could your family use?

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.