Do you know where india gets most of itssalt from one of the largest salt deserts in the world the run of kutch is the source for almost 75 percent of India's salt production is massive white desert known for its beautiful sunsets and moon rises and it covers an area of almost 25 000 square kilometers but there are two major geological events which led to the formation of this valuable desert so valuable is this area that a border dispute here is believed to have begun the 1965 war between India and Pakistan the run of Kach is part of the Thar desert situated in Kutch district in the state of Gujarat Kach is the largest district in India covering a massive 45 600 square kilometers that's actually larger than a lot of countries including Denmark Belgium and Switzerland in western Europe the term run of Kutch loosely means a salty mar which is intermittently wet and dry many centuries ago most of this region was completely submerged under the arabian sea before a powerful earthquake forced the seabed to rise up if you check out old maps of the area like this one the run is sometimes shown as being part of the scene due to the excessive water supply here due to various rivers coming in from various sites but that was before 1819 in June 1819 another powerful earthquake struck the area leading to two significant changes first Many of the rivers flowing through the area changed their course this included various Tributaries of the river Indus which were earlier flowing towards the run of Kutch but then were diverted towards the west and second part of the land rose up in this area by about nine meters forming an embankment which further stopped the flow of rivers towards the run of Kutch moving the water bodies towards Sindh instead of this embankment is known as Allahabad this made the run of Kach as it is today a largely barren salt desert but in the monsoon season every year the run of Kutch gets submerged underwater and is connected once again to the arabian sea leading to massive inflow of salty water at this time it becomes home to various migratory birds and perhaps is the only place in India where flamingos come regularly to breed the area remains submerged for about four months every year after which the water recedes around October leaving behind salty marshes and a white beautiful desert for the next eight months the locals engage in salt farming and take out the whitest salt in the world this is also the time when the popular ran utsa is held in the desert now another landmark in the area is dholavir which is believed to have been one of the grandest cities of its time 5000 years ago it is the most prominent site in India belonging to the time of the Indus Valley Civilization Incidentally the ancient city of Dholavir was situated on the tropic of cancer which is at latitude 23 degrees north of the equator it is the northernmost point where the
Sun
reaches directly overhead on the day of the summer solstice or June 21 each year similarly the tropic of capricorn is the southernmost point where the sun reaches directly overhead on the day of the winter solstice in December interestingly these tropics are not static and currently both are moving towards the equator at about 15 meters each year and in Mexico this movement has been recorded with signposts marking the movement of the tropic of cancer since 2005 to 2010 the tropic of cancer passes through various states in India There is a town in northeast India which is considered to be closest to the tropic of cancer in the country Incidentally it shares its name with a popular city in north west India you can find out which town I am talking about Thank you you for watching we'll be back with more videos very soon Please don't forget to subscribe to our channel to stay updated and if you know the answer to the question please leave a comment in the comment section below.