Adani Enterp. 2544.35↑6.90(0.27%)
Adani Ports 726.85↑2.35(0.32%)
Apollo Hospitals 4609.90↑41.75(0.91%)
Asian Paints 3128.40↑4.85(0.16%)
Axis Bank 926.95↑5.90(0.64%)
B P C L 364.30↑1.00(0.28%)
Bajaj Auto 4615.95↓-28.05(-0.60%)
Bajaj Finance 6904.50↑63.35(0.93%)
Bajaj Finserv 1439.15↑11.80(0.83%)
Bharti Airtel 817.95↓-4.75(-0.58%)
Britannia Inds. 4596.20↑32.90(0.72%)
Cipla 951.35↑5.90(0.62%)
Coal India 241.50↑1.45(0.60%)
Divi's Lab. 3514.00↑78.35(2.28%)
Dr Reddy's Labs 4530.95↑27.00(0.60%)
Eicher Motors 3690.35↑38.85(1.06%)
Grasim Inds 1688.30↓-13.05(-0.77%)
H D F C 2650.60↑3.20(0.12%)
HCL Technologies 1139.20↑23.20(2.08%)
HDFC Bank 1615.80↑6.20(0.39%)
HDFC Life Insur. 577.20↑5.15(0.90%)
Hero Motocorp 2745.15↑12.35(0.45%)
Hind. Unilever 2652.35↑55.10(2.12%)
Hindalco Inds. 413.55↑9.30(2.30%)
ICICI Bank 950.70↑10.85(1.15%)
IndusInd Bank 1268.05↑4.65(0.37%)
Infosys 1317.45↑13.10(1.00%)
ITC 443.60↑2.45(0.56%)
JSW Steel 701.70↑5.05(0.72%)
Kotak Mah. Bank 1945.05↑15.10(0.78%)
Larsen & Toubro 2218.45↑13.75(0.62%)
M & M 1281.85↑4.05(0.32%)
Maruti Suzuki 9399.95↑118.10(1.27%)
Nestle India 21581.75↑106.85(0.50%)
NTPC 174.50↓0.00(0.00%)
O N G C 163.75↓-2.25(-1.36%)
Power Grid Corpn 237.30↓-0.65(-0.27%)
Reliance Industr 2506.50↑66.55(2.73%)
SBI Life Insuran 1195.75↑18.40(1.56%)
St Bk of India 586.00↑4.75(0.82%)
Sun Pharma.Inds. 969.90↑24.90(2.63%)
Tata Consumer 789.70↑9.40(1.20%)
Tata Motors 518.45↑3.60(0.70%)
Tata Steel 106.40↑1.55(1.48%)
TCS 3328.90↑35.40(1.07%)
Tech Mahindra 1114.75↑16.65(1.52%)
Titan Company 2742.15↑34.20(1.26%)
UltraTech Cem. 7721.85↑100.10(1.31%)
UPL 688.10↑12.30(1.82%)
Wipro 401.70↑7.60(1.93%)

As India hosts desertification meet, 30% of its land is already degraded

Over 600 million people risk the impact of climate change in India and if land degradation is not addressed, the problem could get more acute

Bhasker Tripathi | IndiaSpend

Premium

Representative image

9 min read Last Updated : Sep 02 2019 | 8:52 AM IST

Even as it prepares to host a global conference on rising desertification, India faces a growing crisis of land degradation: Nearly 30% of its land area, as much as the area of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra put together, has been degraded through deforestation, over-cultivation, soil erosion and depletion of wetlands.

This land loss is not only whittling away India’s gross domestic product by 2.5% every year and affecting its crop yield, but also exacerbating climate change events in the country which, in turn, are causing even greater degradation, as we discuss later.

How can countries slow down this loss of land and biodiversity that threatens global food security and hastens climate change, impacting 3.