STORY

1. The world" desert" brings to mind a wide expanse of sand, where no rain falls and there is very little vegetation.it is an area which is dry, hot, waterless and uninhabited. But if we go to a beautiful plants and animals live in conditions different from us.

      All deserts are not hot and sandy. They can be hot all year round as in the sahara of south Africa or they can be always very cold, even snow covered as in Greenland or Antarctica.The gobi desert in Mongolia, is hot but we have ladakh where it is extremely cold.

       We would generally call a place a desert if it has little or no water and vegetation. The major feature of all deserts is dryness and variation of temperature.

      Some deserts are bare and rocky while others are sandy. the wind sweeps the sand into huge wave like mounds called sand dunes. these keep shifting and moving endlessly across the desert. sometimes an underground water source like a spring or well comes close to the surface, creating an oasis, where plants grow, and people live.an oasis is like a little green island in the middle of a desert.

        Despite the barren landscape, a variety of animals and plants can be found in the desert. The problem facing these animals is the lack of water and the heat. smaller animals like rats and squirrels do not drink water.they eat animals and get moisture from their meat. others eat plants and seeds from where they get water. these animals spend the day underground to shelter themselves from the hot sun.

      they come out to feed only at night. Reptiles on the other hand need to warm up in the sun before they  become active to hunt, so they cannot feed at night. they shelter in burrows or rock crevices during the hottest part of the day, basking and feeding during the cooler early  morning and evening. camels are desert animals. their flat wide feet help them walk easily oversoft, sand and they can even close their nostrils to stop sand blowing in. camels will eat dry, thorny plants that other animals would not, and they can go for long periods without food and water. their humps are actually food stores in the form of fat, and their bodies conserve as much water as possible.no wonder they can do  without water for days.the reasons is the they sweet very little. they can stand a high body temperature. when they do drink water they can take  large volumes of water in a short time. the camel is popularly known as the"ship of the desert ". camel are used for carrying goods and people for many miles. their meat, wool and milk is  valuable too.

        As plants need water to survive, they must conserve as much as they can. Desert plants such as the cacti store water in their thick stems. Their roots lie close to the surface to the ground and quickly absorb the moisture from the light rains that sometimes fall.

    Desert, and arid regions cover one eighth of the world's land area.the driest desert as the Atacama in chile' south America and the largest desert is the sahara in Africa .The continent with the largest population of deserts which is almost one half its area is Australia.

    Deserts are as important as forests, oceans, plains and mountains let's not look down upon deserts. many humans, plants and animals have their homes in desert and hence, a useful part of the earth.