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PM delivers the keynote address at the UN 'High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land degradation and Drought.
Highlights
- In the last 10 years, around 3 million hectares of forest cover added in India, enhancing the combined forest cover to almost one-fourth of the country's total area.
- Restoration of 26 million hectares of degraded land aimed by 2030 to achieve an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
- Centre of Excellence is being set up in India to promote a scientific approach towards land degradation issues.
- The Prime Minister gave example of the Banni region in Rann of Kutch in Gujarat to illustrate how restoration of land can start a virtuous cycle of good soil health, increased land productivity, food security and improved livelihoods.
- In Banni region, land restoration was done by developing grasslands, which helped in achieving land degradation neutrality.
Land degradation
- Land degradation is caused by multiple forces, including extreme weather conditions, particularly drought.
- It is also caused by human activities that pollute or degrade the quality of soils and land utility.
- It negatively affects food production, livelihoods, and the production and provision of other ecosystem goods and services.
- Desertification is a form of land degradation by which fertile land becomes desert.
Impacts of desertification
- Higher threats of malnutrition from reduced food and water supplies;
- More water- and food-borne diseases that result from poor hygiene and a lack of clean water;
- Respiratory diseases caused by atmospheric dust from wind erosion and other air pollutants;
- The spread of infectious diseases as populations migrate.
Source: PIB
