MITHI: After hearing that the Thar desert received record rainfall, nearly 350 mm this year, many believed that the downpour will bring fortune for the desert's 1.6 million inhabitants — but the reality is otherwise.

The people of Thar, who prayed and waited for the rains with baited breath, did celebrate the first showers but their their celebrations could not last long and when the rains continued to lash the area forcing the Tharis to pray for the stoppage of rains.

The heavy downpour, according to the locals, washed away all the seeds of grass and herbs, which usually surface on the sand tracts after the first few days of downpour.

Even the seeds of traditional crops were washed away incurring huge losses to the farmers who had bought the seeds by taking loan.

Its a common practice that Tharis generate money for buying the seeds by mortgaging their gold and other valuables with the local traders in Mithi, Diplo, Nagerpaekar Islamkot, Dahli Chhachhro, Kaloi and other towns of the desert.

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People living in the barrage areas, who came back with their livestock, hoped to get enough or at least sufficient fodder for their animals but they found nothing.

Mushkoor Falkaro, the historian, writer and environmentalist, who has recently written a book on Thar, "The Folk Wisdom of Thar and Science", while talking to Dawn.com said that "the phenomenon of the climate change in the recent years has totally changed the lives of the inhabitants of Thar".

"The current situation could pose an existentialist threat to the Tharis in the coming years, if corrective measures are not taken to stem the root cause."

Falkaro blamed the global climate change, the deforestation, the fast changing modes of the cultivation as reasons for the current deteriorating climate situation.

He maintained that apart from the devastating climate change and its impacts on the desert, the use of tractors in fields after the rains is hazardous as it damages the fertility of the soil.

"If the soil of desert is ploughed deeper, it becomes of no use," he added.

Falkaro urged the locals and government functionaries to make efforts to stem the the Devi trees, which according to him, are totally unfriendly to other trees which provide fodder to the animals and vegetables to the local people.

A local official of Pakistan Metrological Department, Danesh Meghwar, said Thar needs good spells of rain of around 80 to 100 millimetre with the intervals of 15 to 20 days from mid June to last week of August or first week of September.

He informed that now the chances of more rains are very dim and even if it rains it would be of no use, not for the cultivation of crops nor for the growth of fodder.

A local NGO is working in 75 remote villages to provide clean drinking water to Thairs. The NGO's programming manager, Theerath Kumar, said "despite torrential rains Thar was still bleeding".

Spreading to about 19,623,square km, Thar desert is home to about 1.6 million souls and 60 million cattle.

Malnourishment is high in the area, while health facilities and the number of doctors are insufficient.

So while the ever coming droughts is a major factor, the situation has been aggravated by the neglect of the desert region by successive governments for the last three decades or more.