(a) whether nearly a quarter of land mass is desert or turning into desert due
to deforestation and overgrazing in the country as per the study by the Space Applications
Centre and Current Science journal;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether any study with regard to the said report has been conducted by the Government;
(d) if so, the details thereof, State-wise; and
(e) the steps taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRIMATI JAYANTHI NATARAJAN):
(a) & (b) Yes Sir. Space Applications Centre, ISRO has carried out desertification and
land degradation status mapping on 1: 500,000 scale using Indian Remote Sensing Satellite data
of 2003-2005 time frame following the classification systems of Thematic Mapping Network-1
(TPN-1) of UNCCD. The mapping shows that 105.48 mha (32.07% of the Country’s geographic area)
is under land degradation and out of which 81.4 mha area (25% of the Country’s geographic area)
is undergoing the process of desertification. The various processes of desertification are Water
erosion, Vegetal degradation, Wind erosion, Frost shattering, Salinity/Alkalinity, Mass
movement, Water logging, Rocky area/ Barren and Others (Man made, frost heaving).
Desertification is the process of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid
regions (dryland regions).
(c) & (d) Department of Space does not have information about any study on the said
report. This is the first spatial inventory of the land degradation/ desertification
status for the entire country. State -wise details of the area undergoing the process of
desertification and land degradation is given below:
Area under Desertification Area under Land (in hectare) degradation State (in hectare) A.P 3971833 4964792 Arunachal Pradesh 0 1816688 Assam 0 2419086 Bihar 414783 414783 Chattisgarh 1844704 2635292 Goa 0 6245 Gujarat 12744447 13415208 Haryana/Delhi 235010 235010 H.P. 2210197 2762746 J&K 13497418 13497418 Jharkhand 1818886 1818886 Karnataka 1523462 1692736 Kerala 0 89877 M.P. 2599018 3465358 Maharashtra 10687341 13359177 Manipur 0 1496706 Meghalaya 0 876898 Mizoram 0 1665053 Nagaland 0 1065578 Orissa 546924 5469236 Punjab 10380 10380 Sikkim 0 328349 Rajasthan 22966167 22966167 T.N. 451028 451028 Tripura 0 681843 U.P 2125628 2237503 Uttarakhand 2685251 2983612 W. Bengal 1117480 2660667 TOTAL (in hectare) 81449957 105486322(e) Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD) issues are being addressed through a number of programs of various Ministries/State Governments/UT’s which include; Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), National Afforestation Programme (NAP), National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA), National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojagar Yojna (SGSY)/National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and National Mission for a Green India, one of the Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, etc.