Discuss the problems and impacts of land degradation in India at different scale

Land degradation is the “reduction or loss of biological or economic productivity… resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes, including human activities.” When land degradation occurs in dryland areas, more specifically arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, it is referred to as desertification. Around 69 percent of India falls under drylands. The main causes of degradation due to direct/indirect human intervention are deforestation and removal of natural vegetation, overgrazing, converting forests to farms, cultivating steep slopes and degrading marginal lands, other agriculture- related activities and over exploitation of the vegetation for domestic purpose. Similarly, the removal or in-situ burning of crop residues, no or least addition of organic manures, and intensive cultivation are the major reasons for the depletion of soil organic carbon. Major threats to the conservation of soil resources are soil erosion both by water and air, salinization/alkalinity, acidity, organic carbon losses, nutrient imbalance, pollution/contamination by toxic substances, and soil sealing and capping. Urgent measures are required to arrest the degradation process and to restore productivity of degraded soils so that more food could be produced to provide livelihood and environmental security to the increasing Indian population. This requires the systematic knowledge on the soils, characterization of basic resources like soil, water, climate and biodiversity problems and potentials for optimizing land use. Its impacts can be far-reaching, including loss of soil fertility, destruction of species habitat and biodiversity, soil erosion, and excessive nutrient runoff into lakes. Land degradation also has serious knock-on effects for humans, such as malnutrition, disease, forced migration, cultural damage, and even war.

Some of the aspects of land degradation are discussed below:

1. Loss of Fertility by Mismanagement:

Man, in his urge to derive the maximum yield to satisfy vast needs of a rapidly growing population, has been resorting to various scientific inputs like irrigation, fertilisers, pesticides etc. At the same time, unscientific cropping practices are sometimes followed.

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