Pokhran (official spelling Pokaran; ) is a town and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

located 112 km east of Jaisalmer city in the Jaisalmer district of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

. It is situated in the

Thar Desert The Thar Desert (), also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of in India and Pakistan. It is the world's 18th-largest desert, and the world's 9th-large ...

region. Surrounded by rocks, sand and five

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

ranges, the word "Pokaran" (पोकरण) means "place surrounded by five salt-ranges" in

Rajasthani Rajasthani may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Rajasthan, a state of India * Rajasthani languages, a group of Indic languages spoken there * Rajasthani people, the native inhabitants of the state * Rajasthani architecture, Indian ar ...

. The site for India's first and second underground

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

test is near Pokhran.

Geography

Pokhran is located 112 km east of Jaisalmer city, 172 km northwest of

Jodhpur Jodhpur () is the second-largest city of the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, after its capital Jaipur. As of 2023, the city has a population of 1.83 million. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Jodhpur district and ...

and 225 km south of

Bikaner Bikaner () is a city in the northwest of the States and territories of India, state of Rajasthan, India. It is located northwest of the state capital, Jaipur. It is the administrative headquarters of Bikaner District and Bikaner division. Fo ...

by road. It lies on Jaisalmer to Jodhpur railway line. It is situated at and has an average

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of 233 metres (764 feet). It has arid climate as it lies in the

and receives a little rain in the monsoon months July to September. Pokhran has extreme climate. It has extremely hot and dry summers from April to June though monsoon months are also very hot. The temperature in summer can reach 46°C during the day. The night temperature in summer is more than 30°C, Pokhran has very cold winters with temperature dropping to 1°C. There is nothing much to see in Pokhran. Tourists may find winter pleasant during the day but they are not allowed near the nuclear test site.

History

Fort Pokhran

Fort Pokhran, the 14th century citadel also known as "Balagarh", stands amidst the

. This monument is the premier fort of the chief of the Champawats, one of the clan of Rathores of the state of

Marwar Marwar (also called Jodhpur region) is a region of western Rajasthan state in North Western India. It lies partly in the Thar Desert. 'Maru' is a Sanskrit word for desert. The word 'wad' literally means fence in Rajasthani languages. Engl ...

. Fort Pokhran is open for visitors and is being currently run as heritage hotel by the royal family of Pokhran.

Sati Mata Memorial

On the outskirts of the town, the Satiyo Deval Sati Mata Memorial, a royal cenotaph, is freely accessible.

Former rulers

* Seat of Chief of the Champawats, a sub-clan of Rathores of the state of

. * Bhawani Singh of Pokhran (b. 1911) was the last jagirdar of Pokhran before Indian independence. He was Sessions Judge and was elected to the 1st Lok Sabha, the Lower house of

Indian parliament The Parliament of India (ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The President o ...

from Barmer-

Jalore Jalore () (ISO 15919 : ''Jālora'' ), also known as Granite City, is a city in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. It is the administrative headquarters of Jalore District. It has a river known as Jawai Nadi. Jalore lies to south of Sukri ...

constituency, after getting elected as an Independent candidate in the

1952 Indian general election Year 195 (Roman numerals, CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The den ...

Demographics

According to 2011 Indian

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Pokhran had a population of 28,457 within Pokaran Municipal Board territory. Males constitute 55% of the population and females 45%. Pokhran has an average literacy rate of 56%, lower than the national average of 74.0%: male literacy is 68%, and female literacy is 41%. In Pokhran, 19% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Pokhran Test Range

The Pokhran Test Range (PTR) is a key component of India's nuclear programme which is located outside the Pokaran Municipal Board jurisdiction and is controlled by the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

. The army base is located 26 km north-west of Pokhran town and 4 km north of ''Khetolai'' village.Forty years after Pokhran nuclear tests, villagers complain of frequent cancer deaths
Scroll.in, 18 May 2014 The army base was built by the

Indian Army Corps of Engineers The Indian Army Corps of Engineers is a combat support arm which provides combat engineering support, develops infrastructure for armed forces and other defence organisations and maintains connectivity along the borders, besides helping the civi ...

and is under the control of

. It was built sometime before May 1974, when, following authorization given to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre by then-

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

, it hosted the detonation of India's first nuclear device.

Nuclear testings

The Ministry of External Affairs designated the test "Pokhran-I", but it is also known as "Smiling Buddha". It was India's first successful

nuclear bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

on 18 May 1974. The bomb was detonated on the army base Pokhran Test Range (PTR), in

, by the Indian Army under the supervision of several key Indian generals. On 11 and 13 May 1998, twenty-four years after Pokhran-I, the Indian

Defence Research and Development Organisation The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, head ...

(DRDO) and Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) conducted five further nuclear tests, dubbed "

Pokhran-II Pokhran-II (''Operation Shakti'') was a series of five nuclear weapon tests conducted by India in May 1998. The bombs were detonated at the Indian Army's Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan. It was the second instance of nuclear testing conducted ...

", at the Pokhran range. Four AEC devices and, under the codename ''

Shakti Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; 'energy, ability, strength, effort, power, might, capability') in Hinduism, is the "Universal Power" that underlies and sustains all existence. Conceived as feminine in essence, Shakti refer ...

'', a thermonuclear device were tested.

References

{{Jaisalmer district Cities and towns in Jaisalmer district Nuclear test sites Indian nuclear test sites Environmental disasters in India Controversies in India