Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India

Topic: Geographical Issues: Pollution, Urban Waste, Slums and Land Degradation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India is a set of maps made by the Space Applications Centre (SAC–ISRO), Ahmedabad, released in 2021. It shows all land in India that is losing its power to produce. It found 97.84 million ha (often quoted as 97.85 Mha) under desertification and land degradation in 2018-19, nearly 30% of India's area [2][3].

It matters because it counts all degraded land, including land still being farmed. So it shows a much bigger problem than the wasteland figures do. It is also India's main yardstick for its land-restoration promises under the UNCCD.

Explanation

What the atlas measures

• Land degradation: land loses its power to produce. The loss can be temporary or permanent.
• Desertification: land degradation in dry areas. These are the arid (very dry), semi-arid (fairly dry) and dry sub-humid (slightly dry) zones. It does not mean that sand dunes spread forward.
• The atlas covers both together. It includes:
• land that is still farmed but is losing fertility

• land that has become fully unused (wasteland)

• Coverage:

• state-wise data for 2018-19 [2]
• a change analysis over 15 years, from 2003-05 to 2018-19 [2]

How land gets degraded (the processes it maps)

• Water erosion is the main process in India [2][3].
• Heavy monsoon rain runs over bare slopes.
• It washes away the fertile top layer of soil.

• Over time the land cuts into rills, then gullies, then ravines.

• Other processes (the NCERT list):

• Wind erosion: wind blows away loose soil in dry, open land.
• Waterlogging: water stays in the soil for long periods, so roots cannot breathe.
• Salinisation / alkalinisation: salts build up in the soil. Alkaline soils are called usar, reh or kallar in north India.

• Continuous cropping without restoring fertility: no manure, no fallowing (resting the land) and no crop rotation.

• Human actions that speed it up:

• Deforestation and overgrazing remove the plant cover that holds the soil.
• Too much canal water raises the water table (the top level of underground water). In hot weather this water rises and evaporates, and it leaves a white salt crust behind.
• Mining dumps and shorter jhum cycles (less time before a forest plot is cleared again) leave the land bare.

What the atlas found

• Total area: 97.84 Mha in 2018-19, nearly 30% of India [2][3].
• Main process: water erosion [2][3].
• States with the largest degraded areas: Rajasthan > Maharashtra > Gujarat [2][3].
• Trend: degradation has been rising since 2003-05 [2].

Why the atlas is useful

• It shows where and why land is degrading. Governments can then choose the right fix for each problem:
• ravines: afforestation (planting trees), gully plugging and check dams
• slopes: contour bunding (earth ridges along the contour lines) and terracing
• salty soils: gypsum and drainage

• sand: shelterbelts (rows of trees that break the wind)

• It helps track India's progress towards Land Degradation Neutrality and its Bonn Challenge target.

Where it occurs

• Who and when: SAC–ISRO, Ahmedabad, released in 2021. It covers the whole of India, state by state [2].
• Top states: Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat [2][3].
• Regional examples of the processes it captures:
• Water erosion and ravines: Chambal valley, with the worst ravines in Morena and Bhind (MP), Dholpur (Rajasthan) and Agra–Etawah (UP). There are also ravines along the Yamuna (Agra–Etawah stretch) and the Mahi (MP–southern Rajasthan–Gujarat).
• Wind erosion and sand: Thar Desert, western Rajasthan.
• Waterlogging and salinity: canal command areas (the farmland served by a canal) of Punjab, Haryana and western UP, and the Indira Gandhi Canal area of Rajasthan.
• Overgrazing: the dry parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• Shifting cultivation (jhum): hills of the North-east.

• Mining wastelands: Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

• Global frame: the atlas supports India's work under the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification). India hosted UNCCD COP14 in New Delhi in 2019 [S3a].

Don't confuse with

• Wastelands Atlas of India – 2019: made by DoLR + NRSC, Hyderabad (5th edition). It counts only land that is unused or under-used: 55.76 Mha (16.96%) in 2015-16, and this area is falling [1]. The SAC atlas counts all degraded land (97.84 Mha, ~30%), and that area is rising. Wasteland is a part of degraded land, so the two figures do not contradict each other.
• NRSC vs SAC: both belong to ISRO. NRSC is in Hyderabad (wastelands). SAC is in Ahmedabad (desertification atlas).
• Desertification vs desert: a desert is a natural dry landform, such as the Thar. Desertification is the degradation of land in dry zones, mostly caused by people. It can happen far from any desert.
• Land degradation vs wasteland: a degraded field may still be farmed. It becomes wasteland only when degradation goes unchecked and the land is left unused.

Prelims Hooks

• The atlas is made by SAC–ISRO, Ahmedabad, not NRSC, Hyderabad. It was released in 2021 [2].
• 97.84 Mha (≈97.85 Mha, nearly 30% of India) was degraded in 2018-19 [2][3].
• The main process is water erosion, not wind erosion. This is a common trap, because people link "desertification" with sand and wind [2][3].
• Largest degraded areas: Rajasthan > Maharashtra > Gujarat [2][3].
• Change analysis: over 15 years, 2003-05 to 2018-19. Degradation has risen, while wasteland (Wastelands Atlas) has fallen [1][2].
• Linked targets: LDN = SDG 15.3, under the UNCCD. India's Bonn Challenge target is 26 Mha by 2030, announced at COP14, New Delhi, 2019 [S3a][4].

Mains Points

• The hidden problem: wasteland fell by 0.84 Mha between 2008-09 and 2015-16 [1]. Yet about 30% of India was degraded in 2018-19, and that share has risen since 2003-05 [2].
• Most of the damage is inside farmed land, mainly from water erosion.

• So policy must look beyond "wastelands" to soil health on working farms. (GS-III)

• Regional causes are mostly man-made, so they can be reversed:

• canal-led waterlogging and salinity in Punjab–Haryana and the Indira Gandhi Canal area
• overgrazing in dry Rajasthan and Gujarat
• shorter jhum cycles in the North-east
• mining dumps in Jharkhand and Odisha

These cuts in productivity lower farm incomes, push people to migrate, add silt to rivers and raise drought risk. (GS-I / GS-III)

• Policy response: the atlas gives the starting data for Land Degradation Neutrality (SDG 15.3) and the 26 Mha Bonn target. 21.76 Mha was under restoration by June 2026, and India is "on track" [4]. To reach the target, India needs:
• watershed management (treating a whole drainage area, from ridge to valley)
• afforestation and controlled grazing
• gypsum-based reclamation of salty soils
• a landscape restoration approach (treating farms, forests and water together) [S3a] (GS-III environment)

Related concepts

• Land degradation
• Wasteland
• Gullied and ravinous land
• Man-made wastelands
• Wastelands Atlas of India
• Land Degradation Neutrality
• Bonn Challenge

Read more

• Land degradation and wastelands