People belive that it could have been a result of loss of trees. The harappans used wood burning kilns to make bricks. But the trees they cut down around the bank of the river, although they didnt know it were very helpful for farming. The kept the soil from being washed away. But since the trees were cut down, the soil did exactly that , leaving only hard clay in its place, which is almost impossible to farm in
There is a popular theory that Indus sites declined because of Aryan invasion or climatic problems. My recent theory is that it never declined at all. It was a burial ground, hence it was deserted after introduction of cremation practices. See my web site at Google sites/induscivilizationsite/ maintained by me jeyakumar