How India's Arable Lands Turning Into Arid Lands?

BANGALORE: The reports from different government sources stated that about 30 percent area of Indian land, 105 Mha is suffering from different kinds of land degradation, and 82.18 percent of area is under desertification. The estimated reasons include water erosion, wind erosion, water logging, salinity or alkalinity, soil acidity and other complex reasons. According to a report of Indian Science Research Organization (ISRO) on desertification from 2007, since 69 percent of the land in India has been dried out, water and wind erosion, water logging and Stalinization has increased. 

Minister for environment, forest and climate change, Prakash Javadekar said, “25 per cent of Indian land is turning to desert and degradation of agricultural areas is becoming a severe problem,” reports Reuters.

In experts view, if the monsoon recovers soon the damage will be lesser. Heat is another problem that Indians are facing along with weak rainfall. It exhausts the soil moisture of the agricultural lands and increases the demand of power. From 1June the temperature is revolving around 45° in many regions of the country. According to the weather forecast, there is no possibility seen for the decrease of temperature in northern part of India in the coming week, whereas, there will be favorable conditions in some of the eastern areas. Most of the Indian regions are dehydrating.

In India, about 69 percent of the land, which was most populated initially, is estimated to dry out or semi parched. This condition is affecting the existence of the farmers. Many programs have also been executed in the country to deal with such problems.

Almost half of the farmers depend on rain for irrigation. 14 percent of Indian economy depends on agriculture. Weak rainfall can strain the economic growth and rise food price. Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has estimated that there is 33 percent possibility that monsoon will deliver lesser rainfall.