Chhapar

Chhapar is a small town and a municipality in Churu district in the state of Rajasthan, India. Chhapar and Tal chhapar is located in the Churu district of Northwestern Rajasthan in the Shekhawati region of India. It is 210 km from Jaipur and situated on the road from Ratangarh to Sujangarh. The Tal Chappar lies in the Sujangarh Tehsil of Churu district. It lies on the Nokha-Sujangarh state highway and is situated at a distance of 85 km from Churu and about 132 km from Bikaner. The nearest railway station is Chappar which lies on Degana-Churu-Rewari broad gauge line of Northern Western Railways. The nearest Airport is Jaipur International Airport (Sanganer) which is at a distance of 215 km from Chappar. It is known for black bucks but it is also home to a variety of birds. Here is a famous sanctuary known as Tal Chhapar Sanctuary The Tal Chhapar Sanctuary is located on the fringe of the Great Indian Desert. Tal Chhapar nestles a unique refuge of the most elegant antelope encountered in India, "the Black buck". Tal Chhaper sanctuary, with almost flat tract and interspersed shallow, low-lying areas, has open grassland with scattered Acacia and prosopis trees which give it an appearance of a typical Savanna. The word "Tal" means plane land. The rain water flows through shallow, low-lying areas and collect in the small seasonal water ponds. The geology of the zone is obscured by the wind blown over-burden. Some small hillocks and exposed rocks of slate and quartzite are found in the western side of the sanctuary. Area between hillocks and the sanctuary constitutes the watershed area of the sanctuary. The whole sanctuary used to be flooded by water during the heavy rains but with salt mining going on, rain water from the hillocks hardly reaches the sanctuary.