Lok Sabha Question No. 277 (STARRED), answered on 2019-12-06
Subject: Desertification
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Feroze Varun Gandhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 277

TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.12.2019

## Desertification

## *277. SHRI FEROZE VARUN GANDHI:

Will  the  Minister  of  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND  CLIMATE  CHANGE  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) whether desertification is a huge threat to agricultural productivity in the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the  Government  to  combat desertification;
- (c) the total area of land under desertification in the country, State/UT-wise including Uttar Pradesh; and
- (d) the  steps  taken/proposed  to  be  taken  by  the  Government  to  achieve  land  degradation neutrality by 2030 as committed at the UN Convention to combat desertification?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

(a), (b), (c) & (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

***

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARA (a), (b), (c) & (d) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. * 277 ON DESERTIFICATION DUE FOR REPLY ON 6.12.2019

(a) & (b) As per the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India, prepared by the Space Applications Centre for the period 2011-2013, 29.32 % of the Total Geographical Area of the country  i.e.  96.4  million  hectares  is  undergoing  the  process  of  degradation.  It  is  therefore  an issue of increasing concern for agricultural productivity in the country.

Various  steps  have  been  taken  by  the  Government  of  India  to  address  the  impact  of desertification on agricultural productivity. For example, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare has taken up various programmes like the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture which includes interventions such as the Soil Health Card, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna, Mission Organic Value Chain Development  for North-Eastern Region, Rain Fed Area Development,  National  Agro-Forestry  policy  and  the  sub-Mission  on  Agro-Forestry,  National Bamboo Mission, Prime Minister Krishi Sinchai Yojna- Per Drop More Crop (PMKSY)e.t.c.

The  Integrated  Watershed  Management  Programme  (of  the  Watershed  Management Division of the Ministry of Rural Development) was amalgamated as a Watershed Development Component  of  PMKSY  in  2015-16  and  an  area  of  about  20.5  million  hectares  has  been developed under completed and ongoing projects. Upto October 2019 an amount of Rs 17751.75 crore has been released to States as Central share for implementation of Watershed Development Project.  Between  2014-15 to  2019-20  (upto  September  2019),  total  6,08,384  water  harvesting structures were created/rejuvenated, an additional area of 13,47,527 hectares has been brought under protective irrigation, and 27,25,587 farmers have been benefitted during the said period. Under  afforestation/horticultural  activities  92,000  hectares  degraded  and  rain-fed  lands  have been covered during 2018-19 and 2019-20 (upto second quarter).

Studies have also been carried out under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research to combat desertification on various issues such as assessment of status of desertification in India's Arid  Regions  through  satellite  remote  sensing  and  identification  of  field-based  indicators; checking soil erosion, sand movement and control wind erosion through sand dune stabilisation, shelter-belt  plantation  and  soil  and  water  conservation;  rehabilitation  of  mine  spoil  areas; methodology for reclaiming degraded land due to water logging and salinity-alkalinity etc.

- (c)  As  per  the  Desertification  and  Land  Degradation  Atlas  of  India,  prepared  by  the  Space Applications Centre for the year 2011-13, state-wise data is as follows:

|    | Name of the State   |   Total Area under Desertification (hectares) |   Total Area under Desertification (%) |
|----|---------------------|-----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
|  1 | Andhra Pradesh      |                                       2298758 |                                  14.35 |
|  2 | Arunachal Pradesh   |                                        153933 |                                   1.84 |
|  3 | Assam               |                                        716596 |                                   9.14 |
|  4 | Bihar               |                                        694809 |                                   7.38 |
|  5 | Chhatisgarh         |                                       2211153 |                                  16.36 |
|  6 | Delhi               |                                         89868 |                                  60.6  |
|  7 | Goa                 |                                        192973 |                                  52.13 |
|  8 | Gujarat             |                                      10261641 |                                  52.29 |
|  9 | Haryana             |                                        338964 |                                   7.67 |
| 10 | Himachal Pradesh    |                                       2394240 |                                  43.01 |

|     | Name of the State   |   Total Area under Desertification (hectares) |   Total Area under Desertification (%) |
|-----|---------------------|-----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
| 11. | Jammu and Kashmir   |                                       7969607 |                                  35.86 |
| 12. | Jharkhand           |                                       5498726 |                                  68.98 |
| 13. | Karnataka           |                                       6951000 |                                  36.24 |
| 14. | Kerala              |                                        379587 |                                   9.77 |
| 15. | Madhya Pradesh      |                                       3804315 |                                  12.34 |
| 16. | Maharashtra         |                                      13825935 |                                  44.93 |
| 17. | Manipur             |                                        601959 |                                  26.96 |
| 18. | Meghalaya           |                                        494880 |                                  22.06 |
| 19. | Mizoram             |                                        187453 |                                   8.89 |
| 20. | Nagaland            |                                        786678 |                                  47.45 |
| 21. | Orissa              |                                       5304114 |                                  34.06 |
| 22. | Punjab              |                                        144653 |                                   2.87 |
| 23. | Rajasthan           |                                      21526512 |                                  62.9  |
| 24. | Sikkim              |                                         78749 |                                  11.1  |
| 25. | TamilNadu           |                                       1543898 |                                  11.87 |
| 26. | Telangana           |                                       3598856 |                                  31.34 |
| 27. | Tripura             |                                        437128 |                                  41.69 |
| 28. | Uttar Pradesh       |                                       1528997 |                                   6.35 |
| 29. | Uttarakhand         |                                        648253 |                                  12.12 |
| 30. | West Bengal         |                                       1733931 |                                  19.54 |
|     | Total               |                                      96398166 |                                  29.32 |

(d) India has committed to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) status by 2030. At the recently concluded 14 th session of the Conference of Parties (CoP) of United Nations Convention to  Combat  Desertification  held  in  India  in  September,  2019,  India  has  raised  its  ambition  to restore degraded land from 21 mha to 26 mha by 2030.

National Afforestation & Eco Development Board (NAEB) Division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is implementing the "National Afforestation Programme  (NAP)"  for  ecological  restoration  of  degraded  forest  areas  under  which  since  its inception, an area of over 2 million ha has been approved for afforestation at a cost of Rs.3874 crore.   NAP  also  supports  Soil  Moisture  Conservation  activities  to  improve  the  soil  moisture regime in the implementation area along with providing livelihood support for the locals. This multi activity, multi target, multi benefit approach matches with the proposed LDN strategy.

Various other schemes like Green India Mission, fund accumulated under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), Nagar Van Yojana etc. also help in checking degradation and restoration of forest landscape. MoEF&CC also promote tree outside  forests  realizing  that  the  country  has  a  huge  potential  for  increasing  its  Trees  Outside Forest (TOF) area primarily through expansion of agroforestry, optimum use of wastelands and vacant lands.

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