About the Luni
The Luni is Rajasthan's only significant river, flowing through the Thar Desert — India's most arid region — before disappearing into the Rann of Kutch without reaching the sea. The name means 'Salt River' and with good reason: the water in the lower course becomes progressively more saline as it picks up minerals from the desert soil, making it undrinkable in its lower sections. The river is highly seasonal, carrying significant flash floods during the brief monsoon and drying almost completely in summer.
The Luni basin is the heart of traditional Rajasthani pastoral culture — the Bishnoi, Rajput, and Jat communities of the Marwar region have herded cattle and camels across this desert river landscape for centuries. The Bishnoi people are India's original environmentalists, their 15th-century religious edicts prohibiting the killing of wildlife or felling of Khejri trees (the desert's most important species) predating modern conservation law by five centuries. The Great Indian Bustard — India's most endangered bird — inhabits the Luni basin grasslands.
Jojri · Sukri · Bandi · Guhiya · Sagi