Saving the Land for Better use

“Arresting land degradation” was included among the top priorities by the G20 Working Group on Environment and Climate Sustainability.

22 Feb 2023

Context: 

“Arresting land degradation” was included among the top priorities by the G20 Working Group on Environment and Climate Sustainability.

About Land degradation in India:

  • Rajasthan is the most land degradation-prone state. This is followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat. The most rapid deterioration in land quality is in the north-eastern region.
  • Low per-capita availability of land: The per capita availability of arable land has shrunk to merely 0.16 hectares now which is much lower than the global average of 0.29 hectares.
  • Reduction in land quality: It is mainly because of mismanagement and indiscriminate anthropogenic activity. 

Major reasons of land degradation:

  • Deforestation
  • Wind and water erosion
  • Imprudent alteration of land use
  • Excessive pressure on land beyond its carrying capacity
  • Flawed farm practices such as imbalanced use of chemical fertilisers, inadequate application of organic manures, indiscriminate tillage and mismanagement of many other kinds

Steps taken:

  • India has committed to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030.
  • According to a recent report issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, India has restored around 9.8 mha of degraded land between 2011 and 2018 — an average rate of reclamation of around 1.4 mha a year.

Steps required: India should take steps like:

  • To safeguard the physical, chemical, and biological health of the existing normal land.
  • To invest in land improvement.
  • To evolve and meticulously enforce judicious land use policy based on the capability classification of land.

Way Forward:

  • To restore best of the possibility, there is a need to have proper working collaboration of the Union, respective States and local authorities within the judicial land policies. 

News Source: The Business Standard

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UDAAN PRELIMS WALLAH
Comprehensive coverage with a concise format
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Designed as per recent trends of Prelims questions
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