After independence, India launched a series of economic plans for rapid expansion in agriculture, industry, transport, and other infrastructure with a view to increasing production and employment, reducing poverty and inequality of incomes, and establishing a socialist society based on equality and justice. But because of poor planning and in many cases mindless and ruthless exploitation of natural resources, we have degraded our physical environment. Environmental problems have become serious in many parts of the country and can no longer be neglected. Environmental problems in a country are affected by the level of economic development, the availability of natural resources, and the lifestyle of the population. The central question of this paper is what are the key causes of land degradation across typical agroecological regions of India? This present study attempts to understand environmental degradation in India with a special focus on land degradation: its types, causes, and remedies. Then the paper concludes with the whole argument.
This is a term used to describe a situation in which a part of the natural environment is damaged. It can be used to refer to damage to the land, water, or air. Environmental degradation can also mean a loss of biodiversity and a loss of natural resources in an area. Environmental degradation is not a new thing, it has been happening all over the world for centuries. The problem is that it is now occurring at a much faster rate, therefore not leaving enough time for the environment to recover and regenerate. The greater demands placed on the environment by an ever-increasing human population are putting a great strain and drain on the earth’s limited natural resources. Environmental degradation is a serious threat to the lives of people, animals, and plants, making it imperative that we stop further degradation from occurring.
Land is an important natural resource, which provides food, fuel, fodder, and timber to us. Unfortunately, the land has been exploited and abused mercilessly for centuries, resulting in an enhanced rate of land degradation. Land degradation means a loss in the capacity of a given land to support the growth of useful plants on a sustained basis. Land degradation is a big loss to the economy as the land loses its production potential and gets converted into wastelands. Hence shrinking the land resource base is a big problem for developing countries like India. The per capita man land ratio in India is hardly about 0.48 hectares, which is the lowest in the world.
Land degradation poses a considerable challenge to agricultural growth and poverty reduction in India. It is officially estimated that about 44 % of India’s land area is degraded. The causes of land degradation are numerous and complex. Proximate factors include the extension of crop cultivation to marginal and low-potential lands or land vulnerable to natural hazards, improper crop rotations, overuse of agrochemicals, and mismanagement of the irrigation system. Moreover, 'shifting cultivation' practiced in many parts of the country is responsible for deforestation and the expansion of agriculture to less productive lands. However, the underlying causes are believed to be poverty among agricultural households, land fragmentation, insecure land tenure, the open access nature of some resources, and policy and institutional failures.
To illustrate one of these drivers in more detail, India supports 18 % of the world's human population and 15 % of the global livestock population but is endowed with only 2.4 % of the world's land area. Moreover, the average size of land holdings in agriculture declined from 2.30 to 1.16 ha during 1970–2010 due to increasing population pressure. About 60 % of the land is rainfed and low in productivity, leading to high inter-annual fluctuations in agricultural output. About 200 million rural poor depend on these rain-fed areas for their livelihoods.
Land degradation is categorized into three types: physical degradation, biological degradation, and chemical degradation. Physical degradation refers to deterioration in the physical properties of soil, whereas biological degradation refers to reduction in soil organic matter, decline in biomass carbon, and decrease in activity and diversity of soil fauna. Chemical degradation is basically due to nutrient depletion.
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Degraded land includes eroded lands, saline/alkaline lands, water-logged lands, and mined lands.
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