Bid to save arable land turning waste
According to the latest government estimate that this conversion is much more than 20 per cent. If we do not do that, experts say, India would soon find its vast land resources turn into wasteland.
ALARMED AT the rate arable lands are turning into wastelands, efforts are on to reverse the trend. According to the latest government estimate the conversion is much more than 20 per cent. If we do not do that, experts say, India would soon find its vast land resources turn into wasteland. An Indian today holds less than half of cultivable land that his elders was holding ten years ago. Experts say, if the rot is not stemmed fast, we could face food insecurity soon as also problems in sustaining ourselves. The government states that there is need for a paradigm shift. Our interventions should be regionally differentiated and should follow an integrated holistic approach. In real sense these are not ‘waste’ lands but ‘wasted’ lands.
It is, therefore, suggested that land resource management has to ensure dynamic conservation, sustainable development and equitable access to the benefits of government schemes. Ecologists note that the land management scenario in India is grim. Wherever modern irrigation models replaced traditional harvesting systems, degradation has set in. This is because in rural India agriculture was a lifestyle which was not in conflict with the nature.
Continued deforestation has landed us into severe ecological and socio-economic crisis and the efforts to recover wasteland should be undertaken at war-footing. It is also said that out of the country’s total geographical area of 32, 87,263 sq kms, 31,66,414 sq kms or 584 districts have about 6,38,518.31 sq kms (20.17 per cent-) as wastelands.
Login
 Login through Social ID
|
Not finding what you are looking for? Search here.
