The Desert Which Lost Its Soul: Unsolicited Development, Indigenous Eco-Systems and Hindus of Tharparkar

Development projects initiated without recognising the needs of local indigenous communities

have drastic consequences and in some cases destruction of indigenous eco-systems developed

through centuries of natural preservation, especially in more vulnerable lesser developed countries

(Escobar; 1996, Cox; 2013, Ferguson and Lohmann; 1994 ). Through first-hand ethnographic

accounts, this paper will shed light on the direct impact of the coal mining project on the local

Hindu population of Thar desert in Pakistan. Adopting a critical development studies approach the

study demonstrates that the connectivity of remote desert area to mainland Pakistan through

newly constructed roads has had direct consequences on the preserved secular culture of the area

resulting in religiously motivated Hindu-Muslim conflict. The toxic waste excreted from the coal

mining project in Thar desert has adversely impacted the indigenous flora and fauna, local wildlife

and the nomadic pastoralist communities. The environmental impact of the gentrification of the

Thar desert has resulted in the extinction of local trees and herbs used by the nomadic population

for medicinal purposes as well as a source to feed their animals. Moreover, the untreated toxic

waste directly released in the desert has resulted in the desertification of irrigation land, which has

limited the livelihood potential of the indigenous Hindu population of Thar. Finally, findings have

revealed that the isolation of Thar desert from rest of Pakistan protected it from the

fundamentalist discourse of the country which has changed as a result of the development

projects.