Which desert is shared mainly by India and Pakistan?

The desert shared mainly by India and Pakistan is the Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert. It lies in the northwestern Indian subcontinent, with most of its area in India—especially Rajasthan—and the remainder extending across Pakistan’s Sindh and Punjab regions.

The Thar is a subtropical desert of sandy plains, dunes, thorn scrub and grasslands. Unlike many extremely barren deserts, it supports substantial human settlement. Communities have adapted through pastoralism, farming where water is available, craft traditions and trade. Seasonal rainfall from the southwest monsoon is limited and highly variable, so droughts can be severe.

The international border divides a landscape that long predates the modern countries. The desert is bordered by the Aravalli Range, the Indus plain and the Rann of Kutch. It also contains important wildlife, including blackbuck, chinkara and the critically endangered great Indian bustard. A common mistake is treating the Cholistan Desert as entirely separate: Cholistan is generally regarded as the Pakistani extension of the wider Thar system.