Sindh in Pakistan has been blessed with so many landscapes, mountains and other natural features, however, the Thar desert is dominant on all physiographic features with its serene beauty. It is the largest desert in Pakistan and the 18th largest in the world with an area of 22,000 square kilometres. The population of Thar is 1,5 million and is the only district in Pakistan where more than 50 per cent of the population are Hindus. Despite this, all people have been living in harmony and peaceful co-existence for centuries.
However, in Mithi and Islamkot Talukas, people are living lives of ancient civilisations as they do not have access to anything. In my recent visit to Tharparkar, I was flabbergasted by this natural museum of Pakistan where little attention is paid since the inception of Pakistan. However, if a region like this would have been located in any other part of the world like Europe or America, they would have transformed it.
However, the people of Thar are really hardworking and fetch water from far-flung areas to earn their living by cultivation of land, which is based on saline agriculture. Due to this, people have to invest their day-to-day activities for arrangement of drinking highly saline water, which is not even suitable for animals. Moverover, the Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants are not accessible to every village because the villages are scattered and dispersed. The land is also blessed with coal, granite and salt but for some many years, these precious minerals are prone to political gimmicks and so far, nothing is done to make a difference for the people of Thar. We need to put ourselves in their situation and understand the people of Tharparkar and push them out of their aggrieving situation.
— The reader is a Pakistani assistant director based in Hyderabad, Pakistan
