Land resources of India, land use change, land degradation and the causes of deforestation

Introduction

Land is as finite as any other natural resource, yet every use of it presses on the rest. India's land resources, the changes in how they are used, the damage done to them and the loss of forests are therefore one connected story.

Land resources

The DU course groups them as forest products and medicinal plants, soil, agricultural crops, forest-based industries and livelihoods, and minerals.

• Forests give food, fuel, timber, fodder and medicinal plants, and also services: maintaining oxygen, removing carbon dioxide, controlling water flows and slowing erosion.
• Soil and crops are the base of food production; tree and grass roots bind the soil in place.
• Minerals are naturally occurring substances formed in the Earth's crust over millions of years. They include metals such as iron, aluminium, zinc, manganese and copper; non-metals such as coal, salt, clay and silica; building stone such as granite and marble; and gems.

Land use change

Land use change means shifting land from one use to another. Land is needed for food, animal husbandry, industry and settlements, and these demands usually spread at the cost of remaining forests, grasslands, wetlands and deserts. Natural wetlands are drained for agriculture and semi-arid land is irrigated and overused; the most damaging change is how quickly forests have vanished, in India and worldwide. A familiar present-day example is farmland at the edge of a growing Indian city turning into housing and roads. A rational land-use policy has to decide how much land goes to each use, and where.

Land degradation

Land degradation is the loss of land's capacity to produce. Each year 5 to 7 million hectares worldwide are added to degraded farmland. Its main causes are:

• intensive farming, which lets wind and rain erode the soil faster;
• over-irrigation, which brings salts to the surface (salinisation) and waterlogs the topsoil;
• more and more chemical fertilisers, which poison the soil;
• dumping of highly toxic industrial and nuclear wastes;
• loss of forests and overgrazing of grasslands, after which land turns to wasteland.

Causes of deforestation

• Logging and timber extraction degrade forests in India and elsewhere.
• Mining is, with logging, a serious cause of forest loss today.
• Dams for hydroelectric power or irrigation submerge forests. The Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada in Gujarat is the standard Indian example: it displaced thousands of tribal people whose livelihoods were tied to the river, forests and farmland.
• Fuelwood: many poor rural households still depend on wood for cooking and heating.
• Spread of farming and industry: forest land is diverted for short-term gains.

Conclusion

Minerals, soil and forests are finite, and short-term conversion and misuse degrade them. A planned use of land that keeps forests standing is what protects all the others.