2.5% of GDP: India's annual economic loss due to degraded land in 2014-15

The estimated annual cost of land degradation will outstrip the cost of reclamation in 2030

The annual economic loss due to degraded land and change in land use in India was valued at Rs 3.17 lakh crore ($46.90 billion) in 2014-15–2.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014-15–according to a recent study commissioned by the ministry of environment and climate change.

The government needs to speed up reclamation as the cost of land degradation will outstrip the cost of reclamation in 2030, according to the 2018 study done by The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), a Delhi-based think-tank.

The study divided the losses into two major categories: The