DESERTS

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MADE BY
SHRAJAL
GUPTA
VII B
ROLL NO.

CONTENT
PART - THE HOT DESERTS SAHARA

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ST

123456-

INTRODUCTION -5th-6th slide

SOME KNOWLEDGE-7th slide
GEOGRAPHY -8th-9th slide
ECOREGIONS -10th-11th slide
FLORA AND FAUNA-12th-13thslide
PEOPLE AND LANGUAGES-14th-15th slide
2ND PART - THE COLD DESERTS LADAKH
1- INTRODUCTION -16th- 17th slide
2- SOME KNOWLEDGE- 18th slide
3- GEOGRAPHY -19th- 20th slide
4- FLORA AND FAUNA-21th-22th slide
5- PEOPLE AND LANGUAGES-23th-24th slide
6- POPULATION-25th slide
7- CULTURE 26th 27th slide
8- TRANSPORT 28th slide

ST

-PART

THE HOT DESERTS - SAHARA

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I n t r oduc tion - s ah a r a
The Sahara (Arabic: , al-ar al-kubr, 'the
Greatest Desert') is the largest hot desert in the world,
and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica
and the Arctic. Its area of 9,200,000 square kilometres
(3,600,000sqmi) is comparable to the area of the
United States.
The desert comprises much of North Africa, excluding
the fertile region on the Mediterranean coast, the Atlas
Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt
and Sudan. It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and
the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in
the west, where the landscape gradually changes from
desert to coastal plains. To the south, it is bounded by
the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around
the Niger River valley and the Sudan Region of SubSaharan Africa.
The
Sahara can be divided into several regions,
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including the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar

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SOME KNOWLEDGE ABOUT SAHARA DESERTS

Countries

Highest point
-coordinates
Lowest point
-coordinates

Length
Width
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Area

Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya,

Mali, Mauritania, Morocco,
Niger, Sudan, Tunisia
Emi Koussi 11,204ft
(3,415m)
194736N
18336E / 19.79333N
18.55167E / 19.79333;
18.55167
Qattara Depression 436ft
(133m)
3000N
2750E / 30.00000N
27.08333E / 30.00000;
27.08333
4,800km (2,983mi), E/W
1,800km (1,118mi), N/S
9,200,000km2

Geography of Sahara deserts

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The Sahara covers large parts of

Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali,
Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western
Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia. It covers
9million square kilometres
(3,500,000sqmi), amounting to 31% of
Africa. If all areas with a mean annual
precipitation of less than 250mm were
included, the Sahara would be
11million square kilometres
(4,200,000sqmi). It is one of three
distinct physiographic provinces of the
African massive physiographic division.
The Sahara is mainly rocky Hamada.
Ergs (large areas covered with sand
dunes) form only a minor part, but
many of the sand dunes are over 180
metres (590ft) high. Wind or rare

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Ecoregions of Sahara
desert

The Sahara comprises several distinct ecoregions. With their variations in

temperature, rainfall, elevation, and soil, these regions harbor distinct
communities of plants and animals.
The Atlantic coastal desert is a narrow strip along the Atlantic coast,
where fog generated offshore by the cool Canary Current provides
sufficient moisture to sustain a variety of lichens, succulents, and shrubs.
It covers an area of 39,900 square kilometers (15,400sqmi) in the south
of Morocco and Mauritania.
The North Saharan steppe and woodlands is along the northern
desert, next to the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub
ecoregions of the northern Maghreb and Cyrenaica. Winter rains sustain
shrublands and dry woodlands that form a transition between the
Mediterranean climate regions to the north and the hyper-arid Sahara
proper to the south. It covers 1,675,300 square kilometers
(646,800sqmi) in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco,and Tunisia.
The Sahara Desert ecoregion covers the hyper-arid central portion of
the Sahara where rainfall is minimal and sporadic. Vegetation is rare, and
this ecoregion consists mostly of sand dunes (erg, chech, raoui), stone
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plateaus (hamadas), gravel plains (reg), dry valleys (wadis), and salt

Ecoregions Of Sahara Deserts

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FLORA AND FAUNA

The flora of the Sahara is highly diversified based on the bio-geographical
characteristics of this vast desert. Floristically, the Sahara has three zones
based on the amount of rainfall received the Northern (Mediterranean),
Central and Southern Zones. There are two transitional zones the
Mediterranean-Sahara transition and the Sahel transition zone.
The Saharan flora comprises around 2800 species of vascular plants.
Approximately a quarter of these are endemic. About half of these species are
common to the flora of the Arabian deserts.
The central Sahara is estimated to include five hundred species of plants,
which is extremely low considering the huge extent of the area. Plants such
as acacia trees, palms, succulents, spiny shrubs, and grasses have adapted
to the arid conditions, by growing lower to avoid water loss by strong winds,
by storing water in their thick stems to use it in dry periods, by having long
roots that travel horizontally to reach the maximum area of water and to find
any surface moisture and by having small thick leaves or needles to prevent
water loss by evapo-transpiration. Plant leaves may dry out totally and then
recover.
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People and languages

The people of the Sahara are of various origins. Among
them the Amazi including the Turq, various Arabized
Amazi groups such as the Hassaniya-speaking Sahrawis,
whose populations include the Znaga, a tribe whose
name is a remnant of the pre-historic Zenaga language.
Other major groups of people include the Toubou,
Nubians, Zaghawa, Kanuri, Hausa, Songhai, Beja, and
Fula/Fulani (French: Peul; Fula: Fule).
Arabic dialects are the most widely spoken languages in
the Sahara. Arabic, Berber and its variants now
regrouped under the term Amazigh (which includes the
Guanche language spoken by the original Berber
inhabitants of the Canary Islands) and Beja languages
are part of the Afro-Asiatic or Hamito-Semitic family.
Unlike neighboring West Africa and the central
governments of the states that comprise the Sahara, the
French language bears little relevance to inter-personal
discourse and commerce within the region, its people 13
1/30/17staunch ethnic and political affiliations with
retaining

ities
v
i
t
c
a
f
o
us types
o
i
r
a
v
o
d
T h ey

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2
-PART
THE
DESERTS
- SAHARA
THEHOT
COLD
DESERTS
LADAKH
ST
1 -PART
ND

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INTRODUCTION-LADAKH
Ladakh ("land of high passes") (Ladakhi: la'dwags;
Hindi: laddkh; Urdu: )is a region in
Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that currently
extends from the Kunlun mountain range to the main
Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of
Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent. It is one of the most
sparsely populated regions in Jammu and Kashmir and
its culture and history are closely related to that of
Tibet.
Historically, the region included the Baltistan (Baltiyul)
valleys (now mostly in Pakistan), the entire upper Indus
Valley, the remote Zanskar, Lahaul and Spiti to the
south, much of Ngari including the Rudok region and
Guge in the east, Aksai Chin in the northeast
17
(extending
to
the
Kun
Lun
Mountains),
and
the
Nubra
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SOME KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ladakh DESERTS

Coordinates: 341012N 773448E / 34.17000N 77.58000E /
34.17000; 77.58000Coordinates: 341012N
773448E / 34.17000N 77.58000E / 34.17000; 77.58000
Country
India
State
Jammu and Kashmir
Area
Total
86,904km2 (33,554sqmi)
Population (2001)
Total
270,126
Density
3.1/km2 (8.1/sqmi)
Languages
Official
Ladakhi, Tibetan, Urdu, Balti
Time zone
IST (UTC+5:30)
Vehicle registration
Leh: JK10; Kargil: JK07
Main cities
Leh, Kargil
Infant mortality rate
19% (1981)
Website
leh.nic.in, kargil.nic.in
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GEOGRAPHY OF
LADAKH DESERTS

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Ladakh is the highest plateau in the state

of Jammu & Kashmir with much of it being
over 3,000m (9,800ft).It extends from the
Himalayan to the Kunlun Ranges and
includes the upper Indus River valley.
Historically, the region included the
Baltistan (Baltiyul) valleys (now mostly in
Pakistani administered part of Kashmir),
the entire upper Indus Valley, the remote
Zanskar, Lahaul and Spiti to the south,
much of Ngari including the Rudok region
and Guge in the east, Aksai Chin in the
northeast, and the Nubra Valley to the
north over Khardong La in the Ladakh
Range. Contemporary Ladakh borders
Tibet to the east, the Lahaul and Spiti
regions to the south, the Vale of Kashmir,
Jammu and Baltiyul regions to the west,
19

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FLORA AND FAUNA

Vegetation is extremely sparse in Ladakh except along
streambeds and wetlands, on high slopes, and in irrigated
places . The first European to study the wildlife of this
region was Ferdinand Stoliczka, an Austrian-Czech
palaeontologist, who carried out a massive expedition
there in the 1870s.
The fauna of Ladakh has much in common with that of
Central Asia in general and that of the Tibetan Plateau in
particular. Exceptions to this are the birds, many of which
migrate from the warmer parts of India to spend the
summer in Ladakh. For such an arid area, Ladakh has a
great diversity of birds a total of 225 species have been
recorded. Many species of finches, robins, redstarts (like
the black redstart), and the hoopoe are common in
summer.. The brown-headed gull is seen in summer on the
river Indus and on some lakes of the Changthang.
Resident water-birds include the brahminy duck also
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known as the ruddy sheldrake and the bar-headed goose.

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People and languages

The land is irrigated by a system of channels which funnel water
from the ice and snow of the mountains. The principal crops are
barley and wheat. Rice was previously a luxury in the Ladakhi
diet, but, subsidised by the government, has now become a
cheap staple.
Naked barley (Ladakhi: nas, Urdu: grim) was traditionally a
staple crop all over Ladakh. Growing times vary considerably
with altitude. The extreme
limit of cultivation is at Korzok, on the
Economy
Tso-moriri lake, at 4,600m (15,100ft), which has what are widely
considered to be the highest fields in the world.
A minority of Ladakhi people were also employed as merchants
and caravan traders, facilitating trade in textiles, carpets,
dyestuffs and narcotics between Punjab and Xinjiang. However,
since the Chinese Government closed the borders with Tibet and
Central Asia, this international trade has completely dried up.
Since 1974, the Indian Government has encouraged a shift in
trekking and other tourist activities from the troubled Kashmir
region to the relatively unaffected areas of Ladakh. Although
tourism
employs only 4% of Ladakh's working population, it now
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accounts for 50% of the region's GNP.

T h ey

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do va
r io u s
types
of ac
tivitie
s

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Population of Leh and Kargil districts

Population of Leh and Kargil districts
Leh District

Kargil District

Population

Percen
t of
chang
e

Female
s per
Populatio
1000
n
males

Percen
t of
chang
e

Female
s per
1000
males

195
1

40,484

1011

41,856

970

196
1

43,587

0.74

1010

45,064

0.74

935

197
1

51,891

1.76

1002

53,400

1.71

949

198
1

68,380

2.80

886

65,992

2.14

853

2.75

805

115,287

2.83

901

Year

200
117,637
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Culture
Cuisine

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Cult
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ure
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Transport
There are about 1,800km (1,100mi) of roads in Ladakh of
which 800km (500mi) are surfaced. The majority of roads in
Ladakh are looked after by the Border Roads Organisation.
Ladakh was the connection point between Central Asia and
South Asia when the Silk Road was in use. The sixty-day
journey on the Ladakh route connecting Amritsar and
Yarkand through eleven passes was frequently undertaken by
traders till the third quarter of the 19th century. Another
common route in regular use was the Kalimpong route
between Leh and Lhasa via Gartok, the administrative centre
of western Tibet. Gartok could be reached either straight up
the Indus in winter or through either the Taglang la or the
Chang la. Beyond Gartok, the Cherko la brought travelers to
the Manasarovar and Rakshastal lakes, and then to Barka,
which is connected to the main Lhasa road. These traditional
routes have been closed since the Ladakh-Tibet border was
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sealed
by the Chinese government. Other routes connected 28

Difference between hot and cold deserts

HOT DESERTS COLD DESERTS

1.It is extremely cold in the

1.It is very scorching hot
cold deserts.
and dry in
2.They wear so many
hot deserts.
woolens and shawls.
2.They wear heavy robes
3. The trees grown here are
for protection against hot
In summers , fruit trees
winds.
3.Trees found in hot deserts such as apples,
are date palms, cactus and Apricots and walnut bloom.
4.They do various activities
acacia.
such as
4.The oil is exported from
Sahara desert that is a hot Ceremonies and festivities.
5.Ladakh is a cold desert.
desert.
5.Sahara desert is a hot
desert.

Thanks for giving

your costly time

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