Vimal Mishra
Interview/ Vimal Mishra, professor, civil engineering, IIT Gandhinagar
While climate change and human interventions are rendering other regions dry, the reverse is happening in the Great Indian Thar. The desert is becoming wetter and greener, going against its very characteristic. “The greening in the Thar can influence local albedo [fraction of sunlight reflected by a body or surface], dust emissions and even monsoon circulation,” says Professor Vimal Mishra of IIT Gandhinagar, who, along with PhD scholar Hiren Solanki and retired NASA scientist Ramakrishna Nemani, conducted the research on the greening of the Thar. Excerpts from an interview with Mishra:
Q/ Why is the greening of the Thar important?
The Thar is one of the harshest landscapes to live in across India, and its rapid greening is not usual. We have noticed that the region is becoming wetter and greener, even as many other arid regions are experiencing drying conditions. The greening within the desert is far more than a local-scale revival driven by natural processes and human interventions. It reflects rapid socio-economic changes, including agricultural expansion, groundwater extraction and urban growth, which transform both the landscape and the livelihoods of the region. Furthermore, the greening of the Thar is not only influencing the habitat of the desert but also impacting regional climate patterns, dust emissions and monsoon circulation across India, making it an important issue.
While global headlines often focus on melting glaciers, rising seas or deforestation, deserts like the Thar rarely feature in the conversation, despite being a source of rich biodiversity.
Q/ Are we seeing such a trend elsewhere in India?
The story of the Thar is not isolated. Satellite records indicate widespread greening across India, particularly in the northwestern plains and central India, which is driven by canal irrigation, intensive groundwater extraction and improved land management practices. The magnitude of greening in cropland is twice that of the forests.
Q/ Why is the greening of the Thar important for the rest of India?
The greening in the Thar can influence local albedo, dust emissions and even monsoon circulation. Reduced dust means cleaner skies and potentially stronger monsoon rains over central and eastern India. At the same time, increased irrigation and evapotranspiration could alter regional humidity and temperature balances. In other words, the Thar’s transformation might subtly reshape India’s climate feedback loops.
Q/ Are steps needed to manage this trend? Or, is greening a good thing?
The greening of the Thar is both a success story and a warning. It highlights India’s ability to adapt to harsh environments but also exposes the limits of that adaptation. The greening is supported by precipitation increase (45 per cent contribution) and groundwater pumping (55 per cent contribution). The latter is where the concern lies. The Thar’s groundwater resources are being extracted far faster than it is replenished, leading to a steady decline in aquifer levels, signalling a growing imbalance between water use and recharge. Therefore, the current greening might be affected without careful management and sustainable use of groundwater resources. Moreover, rising temperatures and erratic rainfall could easily reverse current gains.
As climate models project a 20–50 per cent increase in rainfall over the Thar by the end of the century, sustaining this new greenery will depend on efficient water use, drought-resilient crops and groundwater recharge.
Q/ What kind of interest are you seeing in your research?
Satellites help us detect greening and browning trends from a large-scale perspective. But to understand these changes and verify them with local-scale observations becomes important. Here, we collected multiple district-level data, including agricultural production, changes in irrigation patterns, shifts in irrigation sources and urbanisation. This not only helps validate the satellite observation but also tells the overall story by combining multiple variables. Investigating more such stories driving land cover change is necessary to adapt to the changing climate.
The greening of the Thar invites us to rethink what development in drylands should look like. Instead of simply turning deserts into farmlands, we must aim for climate-resilient ecosystems, where human prosperity and natural balance coexist. As rainfall patterns shift and the monsoon expands westward, India’s desert may well become its newest agricultural frontier.