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Worrying phenomenon

Studying the data spread over 23 years (1981-2003), the Food and Agriculture Organisation has concluded that 24 per cent of the global land area has degraded. This is over and above the extent of land that had already degraded. The situation has only worsened since 1991 when the previous assessment was made. According to the FAO, in India about 592,000 square kilometres of land has deteriorated — the 1991 assessment placed the figure at 450,000 sqkm. These findings b elie the somewhat reassuring picture the Planning Commission’s sub-group on land-related issues has painted. Based on the 2000 and 2003 estimates, it reckoned that “land degradation has declined from 20 per cent of the geographical area to 17 per cent over a period of 15 years.” In this context, data such as the one showing a decline of one million hectares in the national net sown area during 2003-2004 seem to lend credence to the FAO’s determination. The decline cannot be fully explained by fluctuating rainfall. Clearly, soil health deterioration and unsustainable watershed programmes have had their impact. The worst-hit are the dry lands in Rajasthan and Gujarat where erosion, spread of salinity and alkalinity, and dumping of industrial and mining wastes have affected more than 90 per cent of the land.

A cause for major concern is the FAO’s observation that the current phenomenon of degradation has more to do with land management, rather mismanagement, and less with the nature of the soil or terrain. In the Indian context, a case in point is the over-exploitation of ground water and putting farm land to non-agricultural use. The Planning Commission has noted that, in spite of spending about Rs.19,200 crore on the development of watershed basins, the results are “invisible” and, worse, the treated areas have reverted to their “original status.” What compounds the problem is that about 50 per cent of the 350 million hectare metres of rainwater India receives annually flows into the sea for want of water harvesting facilities. As for the drylands, there is an urgent need to step up implementation of land care measures and to adopt appropriate soil nutrient amendments as suggested by expert bodies such as ICRISAT. Reversing land degradation is not just a matter of technology. It calls for support by way of community participation, which in turn means institution and capacity building at the local level. That degradation of natural resources cost the nation 11-26 per cent of the GDP during the 1990s is a measure of what the lack of a well-conceived integrated land management policy will entail, and it should serve as a warning to the policy makers.

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