Geography of India of the world's most intensely farmed areas. The main crops grown are rice and wheat, which are grown in rotation. Other important crops grown in the region include maize, sugarcane and cotton. The Indo-Gangetic plains rank among the world's most densely populated areas. The Thar Desert (also known as "the deserts") is by some calculations the world's seventh largest desert, by some others the tenth. It forms a significant portion of western India and covers an area of . The desert continues into Pakistan as the Cholistan Desert. Most of the Thar Desert is situated in Rajasthan, covering 61% of
Thar Desert Paleolithic deposits in the Thar Desert. The soil of the Thar Desert remains dry for much of the year and is prone to wind erosion. High velocity winds blow soil from the desert, depositing some on neighboring fertile lands, and causing shifting sand dunes within the desert. Sand dunes are stabilised by erecting micro-windbreak barriers with scrub material and subsequent afforestation of the treated dunes with seedlings of shrubs such as phog, senna, castor oil plant and trees such as gum acacia, "Prosopis juliflora" and lebbek tree. The long Indira Gandhi Canal brings fresh water to the Thar Desert. It