VILLAGE TOURISM AND AGRICULTURE
Life in the Desert
For what is referred to as a desert, Rajasthan is amazingly populated :
its landscape scattered with a number of villages and hamlets, telltale
signs of tree groves and population of cattle being the only
indication that there is such a settlement in close proximity, The typical
village has always been difficult to spot tell one is actually upon it,
Its simplest hamlets, the most basic from of civilisation with a way of
life that has probably remained unchanged since centuries, consists of a
collection of huts that are circular, and have thatched roofs. the walls
are covered with a plaster of clay, cow dung, and hay, making a termite
free facade that blends in with the sand of the countryside around it, Boundaries
for houses and land holdings, called barras, are make of the dry branches
of a fettle like shrub the long sharp thorns a deterrent for straying cattle.
A village that is even a little larger may have pucca houses, or larger
living units usually belonging to the village zamindar family.
Each village is a multicommunity settlement, the various castes creating
a structure of dependence based on the nature of the work. The Village settlement
are usually the Rajputs, the warrior race whose kings ruled, till recently,
over these lands. The rajputs served their kings, joing their armies and
raising their cavalries, but and attendant pursuit was as agriculturists.
AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
Though there are vast tracts of the desert in western rajasthan the
ecological environment is semiarid in eastern Rajasthan, where rivers and
a lasher green cover are present there is more rain, and the seasonal crops
are plentiful. In these harsh climatic conditions, women tend to the cattle
and their milking, while the elderly or the young take them out to pastures
for grazing.
Rajasthan's settlements don't have oasis that are typical of their counterparts
around the world. Water is trapped into man made ponds, but this is intended
for daily use and cannot be used for farming it would not be enough to begin
with, Three important crops grown here are wheat corn and millets, with
the last being used for baking breads in the villages, while those in larger
towns show a preference for wheat flour.
ON A CAMEL SAFAR
There can be no better way of experiencing life in the desert that through
a journey into its hinterland on camel back , Special tours can be arranged
so that you can camp close to a village , participating in aspects of village
life without disturbing it in turn.
A camel is not the easiest animal on which to ride, but then the option
of waling in the sand is an even tougher one. The rocking motion of the
camel takes getting used to and at first the time seems to pass very slowly.
This is not surprising for the only constants seem to be the discomfort
caused by the camel's movement and the unchanging panorama of sheets and
waves of sand with a little scrub.
