Thar Desert

Desert National Park was established in 1980 in western Rajasthan, between the districts of Jaisalmer and Barmer, next to the Pakistani border, and at some 3,162 km² it is one of the largest protected areas in India. It protects a sector of the Thar Desert, the most populated desert in the world.

Contrary to what its name suggests, only part of the park is sand dunes: stony plains, pebble pavements, salt depressions and scattered thorn scrub predominate, with vegetation adapted to minimal and very irregular rainfall. It also preserves palaeontological sites with fossilised Jurassic conifer trunks, evidence that the region was covered in forest some 180 million years ago.

Its emblematic species is the great Indian bustard, one of the most threatened birds on the planet, with a total population reduced to little more than a hundred individuals, most of which live in this park and its surroundings. The main cause of mortality is collision with the high-voltage power lines that cross the region, associated with the expansion of wind and solar energy in the Thar, a conflict that has reached the Supreme Court of India. The park is also home to chinkara, blackbuck, desert fox and a notable wintering birdlife with Macqueen's bustard and numerous raptors.