Traces of a river from 1,72,000 years ago found in Thar Desert2 min read

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Imagine Aladdin’s Agrabah. Do you remember seeing a river there? The Thar desert, also called The Great Indian Desert, is a large arid region in northwestern India. Water and vegetation are scarce in deserts. However, research always finds ways to surprise us!

An international team of researchers have found a ‘lost’ river that ran through the central Thar desert. This river flowed in the region 1,72,000 years ago indicating that it was the lifeline of the Stone Age population. Further research has also shown the oldest evidence of river activity in the Thar region making this river as an important corridor of human migration.

The study was conducted by The Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, Anna University in Tamil Nadu, and IISER Kolkata. Satellite images indicated where the rivers existed and what their network was. To find the time to which the river belonged, the researchers studied evidence on ground for the river activity. They studied a deep deposit of river sands and gravels exposed by quarrying activity in the area.

Scientists found the last trace of river activity in the region 26,000 years ago. With the river, Thar desert would have looked very different. It might not have even been a desert. This discovery will help scientists and researchers understand the patterns of the earliest members of our species and their movement from Africa to India.

Well, history is built piece by piece.
In the case of the river it is built drop by drop.

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Why did our earliest ancestors settle by the river? 
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Image courtesy Sushmita Balasubramani