Indus Valley Desert
The Indus Valley Desert, located in Asia, is recognized as one of the most inhospitable ecoregions, covering approximately 7,500 square miles (19,425 square kilometers) between the Indus and Chenab Rivers. Named after the Indus River, which is vital for moisture in this arid region, the desert receives around 25 inches (64 centimeters) of annual rainfall, though high evaporation rates during scorching summers, where temperatures can reach 113°F (45°C), lead to a water deficit. The flora here is predominantly represented by the Prosopis genus, particularly Prosopis cineraria, along with other resilient plant species adapted to saline soil.
Wildlife in the Indus Valley Desert includes 32 mammal species, with notable large mammals like the Indian leopard, Punjab urial, and Indian wolf, which face various threats from poaching and habitat loss. The region is also home to diverse reptiles and nearly 200 bird species, such as the red-necked falcon. While human presence has existed for millennia, recent factors like desertification, driven by unsustainable agricultural practices and climate change, are severely impacting the ecosystem. As the human population grows, concerns about resource depletion and environmental degradation in this fragile desert landscape remain significant.
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Subject Terms
Indus Valley Desert
Category: Desert Biomes.
Geographic Location: Asia.
Summary: One of the least hospitable ecoregions, the Indus Valley Desert is home to only a few plants and animals.
The Indus Valley Desert is almost completely uninhabited; it is considered to be one of the most inhospitable ecoregions of Asia. The Indus Valley itself is named for the Indus River, which flows through Pakistan and part of northern India, originating in western China’s Tibetan Plateau. The ancient Indus Valley civilization developed along this river, which is a vein of moisture through an otherwise arid region, and subsequent civilizations have followed that pattern.
The Indus Valley Desert covers about 7,500 square miles (19,425 square kilometers) between the Indus and Chenab Rivers. It receives about 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain a year—a fairly large amount by desert standards—but the level of evaporation still exceeds precipitation due to the extremely hot summers, which reach 113 degrees F (45 degrees C).
Vegetation
The dominant vegetation here is the Prosopis genus of flowering shrubs, making the Indus Valley Desert plants cousins of the mesquites of the American deserts. Most of the Prosopis individuals in Pakistan are Prosopis cineraria, also known as ghaf or kandi; the short, flowering tree is the provincial tree of Pakistan’s Sindh province. The white mulberry (Morus alba), native to northern China, grows here also, and is noted for the manner in which its stamens act as catapults, launching pollen at 350 miles per hour (563 kilometers per hour).
Other plant life includes sareenh (Alibizia lebbeck); saltcedar (Tamarix), a shrub that thrives in the saline soil of the desert and grows leaves encrusted with salt; numerous Acacia shrubs and trees; bushy evergreen trees called jall (Salvadora oleiodes), which fruit in March; and caperbush (Capparis spp).
Wildlife
There are 32 mammal species in the desert. Though there are red fox, wild boar, and several species of rodents in the Indus Valley Desert, there are only five large mammals: the Punjab urial (Ovis orientalis punjabensis); Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes); hyena (Hyaena hyaena); caracal (Caracal caracal); and Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca), the only one of the subcontinent’s five big cats to be found in the desert.
The Punjab urial is a wild sheep, sometimes called the arkars, related to the mouflon. Males have large horns turning almost a full revolution. Each September, they mate with four to five ewes, instinctively spreading their genetic material as much as possible. Leopards prey on the urial, as do Indian wolves.
The Indian wolf is little understood. Exterminated ruthlessly as a pest in some past eras, it has been revered and protected in others. Smaller than European wolves, but larger than Arabian wolves, about 3 feet (1 meter) long and 2 feet (0.6 meter) high at the shoulder, they have generally reddish fur. Indian wolves are sometimes hunted, because although they are protected as an endangered species (there are 3,000 to 4,000 wolves in the country), they have a history of attacking livestock and children. Because they have little commercial value, the population in the desert tends to be safe.
The leopard, on the other hand, is nearly threatened due to habitat loss, conflict situations, and rampant poaching. India and Pakistan lead the world in leopard poaching by a wide margin, with poachers selling leopard skins and body parts on the black market. Poaching is one of the only direct human threats to this ecosystem, as the region is inappropriate for settlement, industry, mining, grazing, or agriculture. In the Indus Valley Desert, leopards compete principally with hyenas and wolves.
There are a significant number of reptile species here in the desert, including the Sindh krait, Indian star tortoise, Indian cobra, black pond turtle, yellow monitor lizard, and gharial. Nearly 200 bird species are found in the Indus Valley Desert, including the red-necked falcon (Falco chicquera) or turumti, a bird of prey found throughout the Indian subcontinent and sub-Saharan Africa. Medium-size, with a broad wingspan, the falcon often hunts in pairs and reuses corvid tree nests. Other, more common avian species include the black kite, barn owl, myna, Alexandrine parakeet, red-vented bulbul, shelduck, rock pigeon, hoopoe, shikra, and Indian peafowl.
Human Impact
Although humans have occupied this region for thousands of years, it has only been during the last two centuries that long-lasting damage has been inflicted upon this desert environment. Desertification, a process that is already occurring in parts of semiarid and drought-prone Pakistan, can lead to natural resources depletion, agricultural losses, food shortages, and, ultimately, hardships for affected populations.
There are both natural and manmade causes of desertification: reduction in rainfall; reduction in river and tributary outflow; inappropriate agricultural practices, such as improper use of fertilizers and pesticides, and livestock overgrazing; overuse of resources; and reduction in vegetative cover from various causes, such as logging. These problems, along with a rapid increase in human population and the accompanied demand for food in Pakistan, are placing great strains on the desert ecosystems.
The effects of global warming are not entirely clear in this region—while air temperatures may rise and monsoon events gain in severity, the previously recorded glacial retreat in Tibet has recently reversed. Therefore, predictive models of future precipitation in the Indus Valley Desert remain uncertain. Nevertheless, there is a serious possibility that the Indus Valley Desert will spread and the Indus River floodplain will desiccate, if glacial retreat resumes, and if increasing evaporation rates reduce the volume of the river by half, as some past projections have indicated.
Bibliography
Biswas, Soutik, and Saiyed Moziz Imam. "The Child-Killing Wolves Sparking Panic in India." BBC, 4 Sept. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2n1z943zzo. Accessed 17 Dec. 2024.
Ezcurra, Exequiel, ed. Global Deserts Outlook. United Nations Environment Programme, 2006.
Grewal, B., ed. Insight Guides: Indian Wildlife. APA, 1992.
MacKinnon, J. Protected Areas Systems Review of the Indo-Malayan Realm. World Bank Publications, 1997.
McIntosh, Jane. The Ancient Indus Valley. ABC-CLIO, 2008.
Panuganti, Sreya. “Desert Solitaire: Why India And Pakistan Should Collaborate To Combat Desertification.” Stimson Center, April 10, 2012, www.stimson.org/2012/desert-solitaire-why-india-and-pakistan-should-collaborate-combat-desertification/. Accessed 17 Dec. 2024.