Growing Desertification in India

Growing Desertification in India

IAS/PCS Mains: General Studies Question Paper 3

(Desertification: Impacts and Prevention)

Foreword:

  • Due to the exploitation of natural resources on a large scale all over the world including India, the problem of desertification ie fertile land becoming barren is getting worse. Due to excessive exploitation of natural resources like water in dry areas, trees and plants are getting extinct. Presently, desertification has become a serious challenge facing the whole world.

About Desertification:

  • The condition of reduction in biological or economic productivity due to natural causes or human activities in the land is called soil erosion. When it occurs in relatively dry areas, it is called desertification.

Areas Affected by Desertification:

In India-

  • According to a report by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) published in the year 2016, desertification is taking place in an area of 96.4 million hectares across the country, which is about 30 percent of India's total land area.
  • 80 percent of this degraded land is in only nine states – Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.
  • The process of desertification is very fast in Delhi, Tripura, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram. More than 50 percent of the geographical area of Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Goa is getting eroded.
  • At present, about 70 percent of India's land area is relatively dry.
  • According to a report by the 'Centre for Science and Environment' (CSE), between 2003-05 and 2011-13, desertification in India had increased to a large area and out of 78 drought-affected districts, 21 are such that more than 50 percent of their area has turned into desertification.
  • The Thar Desert of the country has affected the plains of North India the most. More than 13 thousand acres of barren land is increasing every year in the Thar desert.
  • Worldwide-
  • According to United Nations data, about 20 percent of the world's total land area is in the form of desert land, while about one-third of the global area is in the form of dry land.

Major Causes of Desertification:

  • Human Activities: About 13 million square kilometers of land in the world has turned into desert due to human activities. About 23 hectares of fertile land is turning into barren land every minute.
  • Intensive farming: According to the United Nations, one-fourth of the Earth's fertile land has been destroyed since 1980 due to intensive farming and the area of desert is continuously expanding around the world.
  • Exploitation of Natural Resources: Over-exploitation of natural resources like water in dry areas.

Impact of Desertification:

  • There is a negative impact on agricultural production.
  • Due to desertification, there may be shortage of food grains in the coming times. There is a possibility of a shortfall of 20 million tonnes in food grain production every year.
  • The problem of soil erosion has become serious in two-thirds of the world.
  • The problem of drought and pollution has become serious.
  • Desertification also has a major role in increasing the level of air pollution in India, due to which the health and work of the people are being affected badly. Due to this, various problems of breath, lungs, headache etc. are increasing rapidly in people.
  • According to a United Nations estimate, by the year 2025, two-thirds of the world's people will be forced to live in conditions of water scarcity, which will increase displacement due to desertification and in the next 25 years, more than thirteen crore people may have to leave their homes.

Efforts in India to control Desertification:

  • According to a United Nations High Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought, India is on track to bring 26 million hectares of degraded land fertile by August 2030, due to which carbon equal to two and a half to three billion tonnes of carbon dioxide can be absorbed.
  • About 30 lakh hectares of forest area has been expanded in the last decade as part of efforts to compensate for environmental damage.
  • In June 2019, India launched a pilot project to increase forest cover in five states – Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Karnataka.
  • This project is gradually being implemented in other areas affected by desertification.
  • In India, the central government has announced a few years ago that the research work to save the land from becoming barren will be started by setting up an excellent research center at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun.
  • India had also announced to make 50 lakh hectares of barren land cultivable between 2020 and 2030.
  • In the year 1994, the United Nations General Assembly proposed the prevention of desertification. India has signed this resolution on 14 October 1994.

China's Important Efforts for Desertification Prevention:

  • China has presented an example in front of the world by turning its huge desert into a green field in three decades.
  • China's Kubuki desert, the world's seventh largest desert, was once completely isolated in its own country, suffering the curse of barren land and poverty.
  • This desert located in Mongolia had been a major cause of sand storms across China.
  • In the year 1988, the company 'Alion Resources', with the help of the government and the local people, started planting special types of plants to make the barren land of this desert fertile, then the face of this desert started changing.
  • After three decades, today the situation is that this desert is now making its own identity in various industrial sectors including hotel, tourism.
  • This desert has now become the world's largest solar power center, in which China is getting thousands of megawatts of electricity from six and a half lakh solar panels.

Conclusions:

  • At present, due to desertification in the whole world, only 30 percent of the forests are left on the earth and out of that, the size of England is being destroyed every year. In order to maintain proper availability of food and drink for people all over the world, it is necessary to stop soil erosion and to make the destroyed fertile land fertile.
  • Even though many efforts have been started at the government level to make the barren land fertile in the country, but along with this there is a dire need for serious efforts to expand the forest areas. In order to make the future of our future generations safe and prosperous, along with conservation of land, we have to stop ground water exploitation, unplanned urbanization and all kinds of pollution.

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Mains Exam Question

Review the steps taken by India to prevent the increasing desertification in India.