2020 · GS Paper 1 · Q5 · 10 marks
The process of desertification does not have climatic boundaries. Justify with examples.
In short
Desertification is driven mainly by land use such as deforestation, mining, overgrazing and over-irrigation, so it degrades land in humid, irrigated and cool regions as well as drylands. ISRO's atlas (2021) found 97.85 million hectares, about 29.7% of India's land, degraded in 2018-19.
Model answer
Ghissu Editorial · Verified 4 Oct 2026 · 267 words
The UNCCD links desertification to drylands, but the loss of soil, vegetation and productivity is driven mainly by land use and so occurs in humid, irrigated and cool regions too. ISRO's Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas (2021) found 97.85 million hectares, about 29.7% of India's land, degraded in 2018-19.
Desertification Across India's Climate Zones
Humid Northeast
Deforestation, shorter jhum cycles and coal mining have made Cherrapunji, among the world's wettest places, a 'wet desert' short of water in winter.
Sub-humid mining belt
Jharkhand, with well over 1,000 mm of rain, has more than half its area degraded through water erosion and open-cast mining.
Irrigated plains and deltas
Over-irrigation salinised land in Punjab and the Indira Gandhi Canal command, and seawater surges from cyclones Aila (2009) and Amphan (2020) salinised farms in the humid Sundarbans.
Dust Bowl and Iceland
Deep ploughing stripped the semi-arid US Great Plains in the 1930s, while centuries of felling and grazing eroded cool, wet Iceland.
Amazon frontier
In the humid tropics, clearing rainforest for cattle and soy is degrading parts of the southern Amazon towards savanna-like land.
Common thread
Land use, not rainfall, drives the decline, so India pledged at UNCCD COP14 (2019) to restore 26 million hectares by 2030.
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