MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)
(a)to (d) Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India, published by Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad, states that the land degradation and desertification in the country has been estimated to be 97.84 million hectares in 2018-19. The State –wise details in respect of Land Degradation/Desertification is at Annexure I.
The Government is implementing several schemes/ programmes to stop water erosion, vegetation degradation, wind erosion, etc. with the help of community participation and awareness to stop desertification which include inter –alia:
(i) The National Afforestation Program: National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board (NAEB) is implementing National Afforestation Programme (NAP) for ecological restoration of degraded forests and adjoining areas through people''s participation. The scheme is implemented through 3 tier institutional set up of State Forest Development Agency (SFDA) at State level, Forest Development agency (FDA) at Forest Division Level and Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) at village level. An amount of 203.95 cr has been released to the states to treat an area of 37110 hectares during 2018-21 under NAP. The State Wise/year wise details of approved area and fund release under NAP are given in Annexure II and III respectively. Now NAP scheme has been merged with Green India Mission.
(ii) Green India Mission: National Mission for Green India (GIM) aims at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s forest cover by means of plantation activities in forest and non-forest areas. GIM activities were started in the FY 2015-16. So far, a sum of Rs. 594.28 Crores have been released to fifteen States namely Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sikkim, West Bengal, and one union territory Jammu & Kashmir for creation of plantation over an area of 117503 ha.
(iii) Projects are taken to check land degradation under the National Mission on Himalayan Studies (NMHS) through community-based plantation towards land reclamation, land greening through afforestation and plantation towards watershed management. The total area on which land restoration activities have been conducted under NMHS, during 2016-17- 2021-22, is 955.9 ha with a budget of Rs. 14.24 crore
(iv) Watershed Development Component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna (PMKSY):Department of Land Resources is implementing Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) since 2009-10, with objective to develop rainfed and degraded lands. The activities undertaken, inter alia, include ridge area treatment, drainage line treatment, soil and moisture conservation, rainwater harvesting, nursery raising, pasture development, livelihoods for asset less persons, etc through interventions seeks to ensure sustainable development through improved natural resource management and better resilience of farmers to climate change.
(v) Government of India through various schemes under the ambit of afforestation parameter of the Twenty point programme, is annually taking up afforestation over 2.0 million hectares since 2019-20.
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