The Desert

People think a desert is endless sand with no rain or shelter. Specialists know it can be beautiful, with people, animals and plants adapted to heat and dryness.

Forest-dwellers may imagine deserts as endless sand without rain, vegetation or shelter. Specialists see beauty: deserts support varied people, animals and plants adapted to hot, dry life. The ground is not always grass-covered, yet rare rain brings rewarding desert flowers.

Deserts are not always flat sand. They may have mountains, hills and oases - green islands with water. Some are hot like the Thar, others cold like Ladakh.

A desert may have mountains and hills, not only flat sand. An oasis is a green island with a spring or well. Deserts may be hot like the Thar or others cold like Ladakh; generally, little water and vegetation define a desert.

In some deserts strong winds raise heaps of sand called dunes that keep shifting. Few plants survive on such dry, moving sands.

Some deserts lack water almost completely. Strong winds raise sand into mounds called dunes that shift endlessly. Few plants live on such dry, moving sands.

Desert plants and animals need less water. Camels drink a lot at once and sweat little. Smaller animals burrow by day and come out at night.

Living things need water, but desert species require less. Camels - 'ships of the desert' - drink heavily and endure days without water because they sweat little and tolerate high body heat. Smaller animals burrow underground by day and emerge at night; some get moisture from meat or plant juices.

Cactus stores water in thick stems. Roots lie near the surface to catch light rain quickly.

Desert plants adapt too. Cactus stores water in thick stems; roots stay close to the surface to absorb moisture from rare light rains.

Dryness is the main feature. Without moist air as a blanket, deserts heat fast by day and cool fast at night.

Dryness and temperature variation define deserts. In humid climates moisture shields the earth from the sun; without that blanket deserts heat rapidly by day and cool rapidly at night.

Deserts are important like forests and oceans. They should not be seen as useless just because they are hot and dry.

Deserts belong to nature's great plan alongside dense forests and deep oceans. Because they are hot and dry, we should not treat them as useless parts of the earth.