Combating desertification

Past experience can help reclaim degraded land

The recently concluded 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at Abidjan has called upon nations to invest in restoring degraded land for future prosperity. This counsel is especially relevant for a land-stressed country like India, where close to 30 per cent of the land falls in the degraded category. More worrying, the process of decline in the quality of land is still apace despite the government’s avowed resolve to achieve “land degradation neutrality” (zero addition to degraded land) by 2030. According to the data collected by the Indian Space Research Organisation through