Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
Recently, the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change has
entrusted a national level project on “Desertification Status Mapping of India” to
the Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad. This project has brought out the
“Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India” (SAC, 2016).
Analysis of the information from the above project indicated the fact that there
was an increase of 1.87 M ha of the area under land degradation (constituting
0.57% of the total geographic area of the country) from 2003-05 to 2011-13. The
area under desertification (arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions of the
country) was 82.64 M ha in 2011-13, whereas in 2003-05, it was 81.48 M ha. Thus
there was an increase of 1.16 M ha area under desertification in this period of time.
Around 3.63 M ha productive land has degraded and 0.74 M ha land has converted
from low-severity to high-severity degradation class during this period.
Thus there is a cumulative increase of 1.16 M ha area under desertification. The
most significant processes of desertification in arid regions is observed to be wind
erosion. In semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions, vegetation degradation and
water erosion dominate. Among the process-wise changes in the desertification/
land degradation status, vegetation degradation ranks at the top with 1.02
million hectares from 2003-05 to 2011-13, followed by water erosion (0.49 M ha).
There are global efforts to combat desertification. India is signatory to the United
Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD) and is committed to
achieving a neutral status of land degradation by 2030.
For a sustainable management of land that protects it from further degradation, a
land use approach integrating soil, water, vegetation, and agriculture needs to be
evolved and implemented urgently.
4.3. COSTS OF SOIL DEGRADATION
More than being a vital natural resource for our food, fibre, and shelter, soil is
precious in the sense that it takes thousands of years for an inch depth of soil to
form. Unlike water and air which can cycle very fast and get replenished quickly,
the formation of new soil takes thousands of years. Hence a lot more emphasis on
its conservation is required.
Annexures
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