Tal Chhapar Sanctuary


Tal Chhapar Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary in the Churu district of northwestern Rajasthan, in the Shekhawati region of India. It is known for blackbucks and is also home to a variety of birds. It is situated on the fringe of the Great Indian Desert and between Ratangarh and Sujangarh on the Nokha-Sujangarh state highway.

Geography and geology

The sanctuary is named after Chhapar village which is located at 27°-50' North and 74°-25' East. It is a flat saline depression locally known as a "tal" that has a unique ecosystem in the heart of the Thar Desert. It is at a height of 302 metres above sea level, and covers 719 hectares. Tal Chhaper Sanctuary, with almost flat tract and interspersed shallow low-lying areas, has open grassland with scattered Acacia and Prosopis trees which give it an appearance of a typical savanna. The word "tal" means pond or 'talab' in Hindi. The rain water flows through shallow low-lying areas and collect in the small seasonal water ponds.
The geology of the zone is obscured by the wind blown over-burden. Some small hillocks and exposed rocks of slate and quartzite are found in the western side of the sanctuary. The area between hillocks and the sanctuary constitutes the watershed area of the sanctuary. The whole sanctuary used to be flooded by water during the heavy rains but with salt mining going on in the watershed, hardly any rain falling on the hillocks reaches the sanctuary. Nearby villages are Jogalia, Jaitasar, Bidasar.

Flora and fauna

Tal Chhapar Sanctuary lies on the passageway of many migratory birds, which pass through this area in September and stay until March. These include eastern imperial eagle, tawny eagle, short-toed eagle, cream-coloured courser, Old World sparrows, little green bee-eater, black ibis and demoiselle crane. Resident birds include the skylark, crested lark, Eurasian collared dove and brown doves.

Climate

This region is characterized by a distinct winter, summer and monsoon. The zone has a dry climate with a large variation in temperature, wind blows south – west during summer. In May and June winds become very hot and that is called "loo". The maximum temperature reaches up to in June and the minimum temperature falls to in December – January. The Tal Chhapar Zone comes under the principal arid zone of the country. Rainfall in this region is highly erratic. There is a large variation in mean annual rainfall in this region. The average rainfall in this region ranges between 300 and 450 mm.