Desertification in India: causes, effects, and what government and communities can do

Introduction

Desertification is the degradation of dry land until it behaves like a desert: soil, vegetation and water are lost together. In India it spreads with deforestation and sweeping changes in land use, and it is sharpest in the dry and semi-arid regions, whose ecosystems are very easily disturbed.

Causes

• Clearing of vegetation. With tree cover gone, surface runoff increases and rain has no time to seep slowly into the ground.
• Large-scale canal irrigation of dry lands. The canal water evaporates quickly and brings salts to the surface, so the soil turns saline.
• Over-pumping of groundwater. Tube wells drawing too much water lower the water table and leave the land even drier.
• Development and population pressure. Development strategies and growing human numbers keep converting these lands to other uses.

Effects

• Falling productivity: saline land becomes highly unproductive, which hits farmers first.
• Loss of habitat: the sharp reduction in habitat pushes specialised dry-land species to the verge of extinction.
• Water scarcity: rivers that once flowed all year turn seasonal, small streams dry up soon after the monsoon, and wells must go ever deeper, at higher cost.
• Floods along with drought: rapid runoff during the rains causes extensive floods, with loss of life and property.

What government agencies can do

• Fund soil and water conservation across catchments: vegetative cover on non-arable land, contour trenches that slow runoff and raise infiltration, and ponds that store surplus rain.
• Regulate irrigation and groundwater use in dry regions, since both directly drive salinity and a falling water table.
• Plan development around the special needs of the desert instead of converting it, which is the sustainable form of development these lands need.

What local communities can do

• Build and look after simple field works: bunds, which work best on gentle slopes with low to medium rainfall; stone bunds across streams; and live check dams of grass, shrubs and trees planted across gullies.
• Protect water and trees as a shared duty. Desert people have traditionally guarded their meagre water, and the Bishnois of Rajasthan have protected khejri trees and blackbuck for generations.
• Plant trees on village common land and limit how much water each family pumps, so that the shared water table can recover.

Conclusion

Desertification is largely man-made, driven by clearing, misuse of water and short-term land use. It can be reversed only if state programmes and village-level care work together on the same catchment.