Wasteland

Topic: Geographical Issues: Pollution, Urban Waste, Slums and Land Degradation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 9 "Geographical Perspective on Selected Issues and Problems"

Meaning

Wasteland is degraded land (land that has lost some of its power to produce) that is now left unused or under-used. It matters because about 17% of India is wasteland [2]. Most of it is caused by people, so most of it can be brought back into use. It is also a regular source of UPSC questions on classification, the atlases and restoration targets.

Explanation

How land turns into wasteland

• Land degradation comes first. Land loses its power to produce, for a short time or for good. NCERT gives five main causes:
• Soil erosion: water or wind removes the fertile top layer of soil.
• Waterlogging: water stays in the soil for a long time, so roots cannot breathe.
• Salinisation: salts build up in the soil.
• Alkalinisation: sodium salts build up and the soil becomes alkaline. In north India these soils are called usar, reh or kallar.

• Continuous use without care for fertility: crops are grown again and again, but no manure, fallowing (resting the land) or crop rotation puts the nutrients back.

• Then it turns into wasteland. When degradation is not checked, the land slowly stops being used at all.

• Not all degraded land is wasteland. A field that has lost some fertility may still be farmed. It is degraded land, but it is not wasteland yet.

How canal irrigation creates wasteland

• Too much canal water is used.

• Water seeps into the ground and raises the water table (the top level of underground water).

• The water rises in a hot climate.

• It moves up through the soil to the surface and evaporates.

• The salts stay behind.

• They leave a white crust. The field becomes saline/alkaline and also waterlogged, so farming slowly stops.

NRSC's three-way classification

NRSC (National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO, Hyderabad) maps wastelands using remote sensing, which means studying satellite images instead of surveying on foot.

Group	Wasteland types
(i) Natural agents	Gullied and ravinous land; desert and coastal sands; barren rocky areas; steep slopes; glacial areas
(ii) Natural + human factors	Waterlogged and marshy land; land affected by salinity and alkalinity; land with or without scrub
(iii) Human action	Degraded shifting cultivation areas; degraded land under plantation crops; degraded forests; degraded pastures; mining and industrial wastelands

• Gullied and ravinous land (badlands):
• A gully is a deep, narrow channel that running water cuts into soft soil. A ravine is a bigger, deeper gully. A large area cut up by many ravines is called badland topography.
• Heavy monsoon rain runs over bare slopes of soft alluvium (river-laid silt and clay) and cuts small channels called rills. Rills grow into gullies and then into ravines.

• Deforestation (cutting trees) and overgrazing remove the plant cover that holds the soil, so the process speeds up.

• Mining and industrial wastelands: overburden dumps (waste rock and soil removed to reach the ore), open pits and fly-ash ponds leave land bare and polluted.

Why man-made wastelands matter more (NCERT)

• Natural wastelands, such as glaciers and bare rock, are hard to change.
• Man-made wastelands come from overgrazing, mining, bad irrigation and shorter jhum cycles (less time before a forest plot is cleared again).
• People caused them, so better land management can prevent and reverse them.

Where it occurs

• Ravines (natural agents):
• Chambal valley: the Chambal rises in the Vindhya Range near Mhow (Madhya Pradesh). It flows north-east through Kota (Rajasthan) and joins the Yamuna in Etawah district (Uttar Pradesh). Its ravines are worst in Morena and Bhind (MP), Dholpur (Rajasthan) and Agra–Etawah (UP).
• Yamuna valley: ravines along the Agra–Etawah stretch.

• Mahi valley: the Mahi rises in the Vindhyas in MP, flows through southern Rajasthan and Gujarat and enters the Gulf of Khambhat. It crosses the Tropic of Cancer twice.

• Sands: Thar Desert, western Rajasthan, and coastal sands.

• Glacial areas and steep slopes: the Himalaya.
• Waterlogged and saline/alkaline land (natural + human): canal command areas (farmland served by a canal) of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, and the Indira Gandhi Canal command area of Rajasthan. Also coastal marshes.
• Human-made:
• Degraded jhum (shifting cultivation) land in the north-east hills.
• Mining wastelands in the mining belts of Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

• Overgrazed land in dry Rajasthan and Gujarat.

• How much is measured: the Wastelands Atlas of India – 2019 (DoLR and NRSC, fifth edition, made from IRS satellite data) shows 55.76 million ha (16.96% of India) in 2015-16 [2].

• In 2008-09 wasteland was about 56.6 million ha. That is a net conversion of 0.84 Mha (0.26%) back to productive use [2].

• Wasteland area fell in these classes: dense scrub, waterlogged and marshy land, sandy areas, degraded pastures, and gullied/ravinous land [2].

• World: the Bonn Challenge (2011, hosted by IUCN and Germany's Federal Environment Ministry) aims to restore 150 Mha by 2020 and 350 Mha by 2030 [5]. India pledged 26 Mha between 2019 and 2030 at UNCCD COP14, New Delhi (2019) [S3a]. This is the largest pledge ever under the Bonn Challenge [5]. 21.76 Mha was under restoration by June 2026 [5].

Don't confuse with

• Degraded land: the bigger set. It includes land that is still being farmed. Wasteland is only the part that is unused or under-used. The SAC–ISRO Atlas (2021) puts degraded land at 97.84 Mha (~30%) in 2018-19 [3][4], while wasteland is 55.76 Mha (~17%) [2].
• Desertification: land degradation only in dry areas (arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid zones). Wasteland can occur anywhere, including glaciers, marshes and north-east hills.
• Wastelands Atlas vs Desertification & Land Degradation Atlas: the first is by DoLR + NRSC, Hyderabad (2015-16 data, wasteland falling). The second is by SAC–ISRO, Ahmedabad (2018-19 data, degradation rising since 2003-05) [2][3]. The figures do not contradict each other.
• Natural vs natural + human wasteland: ravines are classed as natural agents. Waterlogging and salinity are natural + human, not human-only.

Prelims Hooks

• NRSC (Hyderabad) classifies wastelands into three groups using remote sensing: natural; natural + human; human-made.
• Gullied and ravinous land = natural agents → Chambal, Yamuna and Mahi valleys.
• Trap: waterlogged and saline/alkaline land = natural + human factors, not human action alone.
• Degraded shifting cultivation areas, pastures, plantations, forests, and mining/industrial land = human-made.
• Wastelands Atlas 2019: DoLR + NRSC, 5th edition, 55.76 Mha (16.96%) in 2015-16 [2].
• Bonn Challenge: India's 2015 pledge was 13 Mha by 2020 + 8 Mha by 2030. This was raised to 26 Mha by 2030 at COP14, New Delhi, 2019 [S3a][5].

Mains Points

• Causes, and why man-made wastelands matter more: NCERT says man-made wastelands are more important because they can be prevented. Examples:
• 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 (GS-I / GS-III)

• Reading the data: wasteland fell by 0.84 Mha between 2008-09 and 2015-16 [2]. Yet degraded land is about 30% of India in 2018-19 and has risen since 2003-05 [3].

• So the hidden problem is degradation inside farmed land, mainly water erosion.

• Policy must look beyond "wastelands" alone. (GS-III)

• Policy response: LDN (Land Degradation Neutrality, SDG 15.3: restore as much land as gets degraded) under the UNCCD, plus the 26 Mha Bonn target (21.76 Mha under restoration by 2026 [5]). These need a landscape restoration approach (treating farms, forests and water of a whole area together) [S3a]. The measures are:

• afforestation, gully plugging and check dams for ravines
• contour bunding (earth ridges along contour lines) and terracing on slopes
• watershed management (treating a whole drainage area, from ridge to valley)
• controlled grazing
• gypsum and drainage for saline/alkaline soils
• shelterbelts (rows of trees that break the wind) for desert sands (GS-III environment)

Related concepts

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

Read more

• Land degradation and wastelands