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Ecology & Environment
Pradeep Kumar

15/06/21 09:00 AM IST

High-Level Dialogue on Desertification

In news

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

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