It stretches along the border lowlands and hills between India and Pakistan and includes: the western half of Gujarat (excluding the mountain of Girnar), and extending through Rajasthan, where it is bounded on the southeast by the Aravalli Range; most of Haryana and Punjab states of India as well as the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, extending to the foothills of the Himalayas; in Pakistan, most of Punjab province, extending into easternmost Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan provinces and western Sindh.

Precipitation averages 500–600 mm/year with heavy rainfalls and evening thunderstorms with the possibility of cloudbursts and flash floods in the monsoon season, late July–August.

The thorn scrub forests are thought to be tropical dry forests that have been degraded through intensive agriculture and grazing into stunted and open thorn scrub, dominated by trees such as Acacia senegal and Acacia leucophloea, as well as Prosopis cineraria, Capparis zeylanica, and species of Salvadora, Gymnosporia, Grewia, and Gardenia.

There are more than 400 species of birds in the region including the endemic rufous-vented grass babbler (Laticilla burnesii), the near-endemic white-winged tit (Parus nuchalis) and the threatened great Indian bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) and lesser florican (Eupodotis indica).

There are many protected areas but they are very small and unconnected and even these are liable to invasion for firewood collecting and clearance for planting.