The financial problems were compounded by the usurious taxes imposed on merchants by a particularly greedy prime minister, Salim Singh Mehta, in the nineteenth century. Many of the wealthiest Jain families moved out as a result, while the royal family, who were also in debt to the Mehtas, lacked the funds to modernize Jaisalmer and reverse its decline. The death blow came with Partition, when its life-line trade route was severed by the new, highly sensitive Pakistani border.

Jaisalmer's location, however, gave it renewed strategic importance during the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971, and it is now a major military outpost, with helicopters and jet aircraft roaring past the ramparts at intervals throughout the day. The area's other main source of income, of course, is tourism.

Visitor numbers increased dramatically throughout the 1990s, partly as a result of the air-force base being cleared for civil traffic (which rendered it accessible to package-tour groups from the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur "Golden Triangle" trail), and partly because of the glowing reputation Jaisalmer earned over the preceding two decades as a backpackers' destination.
 

The sign-board war that has spiraled with the booming camel safari and guesthouse business has transformed Jaisalmer almost beyond recognition. To recapture the feeling of remoteness and tranquility that once defined the town, you'll have to head into the depths of the desert by camel. Back

Jaisalmer | The Town | Arrival and info | Shopping | Restaurants | Moving on from Jaisalmer | Camel trek | Around Jaisalmer | Akal Fossil Park | Amar Sagar, Sam and
Barra Bagh | Barmer | Khuhri | Lodurva | The Lovers of Lodurva | Phalodi and Keechen | Pokaran | Pokaran N-tests | Gadi Sagar Tank and the Folklore Museum | Havelis | Jaisalmer Fort

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