Thar Desert Rajasthan is a major opium production and consumption area. The Indira Gandhi Canal irrigates northwestern Rajasthan while the Government of India has started a centrally sponsored Desert Development Program based on watershed management with the objective of preventing the spread of desert and improving the living conditions of people in the desert. In the last 15–20 years, the Rajasthan desert has seen many changes, including a manifold increase of both the human and animal population. Animal husbandry has become popular due to the difficult farming conditions. At present, there are ten times more animals per person in Rajasthan than the
Thar Link Express Thar Link Express Thar Link Express () is the Indian portion of the international passenger train Thar Express operated weekly by Indian Railway using its own coaches and locomotives, between Jodhpur and Munabao. Passengers from Munabao then clear customs and are transported to across the border to Zero Point station where the Thar Express takes passengers to Karachi, Pakistan. The track between Barmer, forming part of the then Jodhpur princely State, and Shadi Palli in Sindh, on which the current Thar Link Express runs, was opened in December 1900 to run the Sind Mail, which ran between Bombay and Karachi