Father-son duo of Dehradun set a Limca Record in trekking through the Thar Desert

A father-son duo of Dehradun have set a Limca Record in trekking through the Thar Desert - they have completed their planned trek of The Great Indian Desert (Thar Desert) covering on foot a distance of 305.17 kms in Bikaner-Jaisalmer area along the Indo-Pak Border in 9 days.
Both of them are products of Doon School - the father Manmohan Bhardwaj is an ex-student of the school batch of 1980 and his son Madhav Bhardwaaj is now a student of class 12.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 19 October 2016.

The earlier record of maximum length trek in desert was in the name of Indian Army with 261.59 km in 10 days in the month of February 2010.
After completing their record, the father-son duo had applied to the Limca Book of Records to consider their longer trek as the new record, in view of added achievements like less time, early summer hot weather as against February of the Army and being a father-son duo. The Limca Book of Records have accepted their record.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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Water aplenty in Thar Desert - could be gift of River Saraswati, now extinct

Water is usually a scarce commodity in any desert but the Thar Desert appears to be an exception because, even as many parts of India are reeling under acute crisis of drinking water, this precious commodity is available aplenty at just 2 to 3 feet underground. Coming across water by digging just 2 to 3 feet in Thar Desert is not less than a miracle. There is an oasis amid the sand dunes in Shahgarh Bulge in Jaisalmer district and it boasts of wells and ponds. Sources attribute this to the long extinct Saraswati River.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 28 May 2016.

These water bodies are the source of water for BSF jawans positioned at India-Pakistan border. These sources never dry up and water that is drawn during the daytime gets replenished automatically at night. The quality and purity of the water is unquestionable - its quality is superior to mineral water.
Incidentally, the sand dunes in Shahgarh Bulge area has good vegetation and the trees and plants in this part never die. This leads one to conclude that there is a possibility that some there is some source of water flowing below ground level that feeds this oasis with fresh water. There are many wells in BSF outposts at Khara, Khajuria, Nalka, Jhalaria, Rohtosh, Veerhill, Kirarwali, Somgam and others that never go dry.
Another point to note is that consumption of water is very minimal in these areas and hence water level is very high. In the opinion of a historian, the water stems from the now extinct Saraswati river.


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