India’s Problem of Land Degradation

Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has released Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India. It has been published by Space Application Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad.

The Atlas provides state-wise area of degraded lands for the time frame 2018-19. It also provides the change analysis for the duration of 15 years, from 2003-05 to 2018-19.

Challenges

• Globally, India is the second largest producer of food and has the second-largest arable land area covering 1.53 billion hectare. However, the blend of high population, high agriculture production and diverse agro-climatic conditions create a scenario of excessive pressure on land and raise the risk factor for degradation of land in India.

Area under Degradation

• Desertification and Land Degradation (DLD) map reveals that 97.85 million ha, 29.77% of the Total Geographic Area (TGA) of the country is undergoing land degradation during timeframe 2018-19.
• The analysis with respect to TGA of the individual states shows that Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Goa are showing more than 50% area under desertification/land degradation.

Government’s Commitment

• India commits to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal target of achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN) and working to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land.
• At the UNFCC Conference of the Parties (COP) 2015 in Paris, India also joined the voluntary Bonn Challenge pledge.

Government Action

The following plans/programmes have been launched by the government to meet the issue of land degradation:

• National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA)
• Soil Conservation in the Catchments of River Valley Project and Flood Prone River (RVP and FPR)
• Reclamation and Development of Alkali and Acid Soils (RADAS)
• India Remote Sensing Satellite: Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad along with partner institutes has taken up the task of inventory and monitoring of desertification and land degradation of the entire country.
• Drought Prone Area Program (DPAP): It was the earliest area development program launched by the Government of India in 1973-74 with the basic objective of minimizing the adverse effects of drought.
• National Afforestation Program: for the ecological restoration of degraded forests areas
• Desert Development Program: It was launched in 1977-78 to minimize the adverse effects of drought and control desertification through rejuvenation of natural resources of the identified desert areas.
• Integrated Watershed Management Program