Discuss the role of aeolian processes in desertification and land degradation.

Deflation

Wind removes fine silt, clay and organic matter that hold nutrients and moisture, leaving a sandy lag and desert pavement.

Abrasion

Saltating sand blasts seedlings and crops at knee height, so young crops in western Rajasthan are often cut down by spring winds.

Dust and dunes

Pre-monsoon dust storms carry Thar topsoil into the Gangetic plain, while mobile barchans bury fields, roads and stretches of the Indira Gandhi Canal.

Self-reinforcing cycle

Thinner plant cover exposes soil to wind, which lowers moisture and fertility, so even fewer plants survive.

Human and climate triggers

Overgrazing, ploughing of marginal sandy land and mining breaches in the Aravallis expose soil to wind, while hotter droughts dry it further; the dried Aral Sea bed now generates salt-laden dust storms.

Not only destructive

Wind also builds fertile loess, as on China's Loess Plateau, so it degrades land only when plant cover and soil management fail.