Moa Jamir
Land restoration must be one of the primary goals of the State’s post-COVID recovery plan
Under the theme, ‘Restoration. Land. Recovery. We build back better with healthy land,’ the 2021 Desertification and Drought Day focusing on “turning degraded land into healthy land” was observed last week on June 17. The day spearheaded by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is an annual event officially declared by the General Assembly as “World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought."
How is the issue of desertification and drought relevant to the Nagaland State? The issue seems to be inconsequential in an environmentally 'well-endowed' Nagaland. However, it is very significant if one examines available dataset related to the issue.
At the outset, however, it is important to delineate the issue. According to the United Nations, desertification does not refer to the expansion of existing deserts but it “occurs because dryland ecosystems, which cover over one-third of the world's land area, are extremely vulnerable to overexploitation and inappropriate land use.”
According to UNCCD, no matter where one resides, the consequences of desertification and drought should be a concerning matter. Nearly three-quarters of the Earth’s ice-free land, it noted, has been altered by humans to meet an ever-growing demand for food, raw materials, highways and home and globally, 23 per cent of the land is no longer productive.
The consequences seem to be hovering much closer home than one would assume. For instance, the recent NITI Aayog’s Niti Aayog's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index 2020-21 highlighted concerning the issue of land degradation in Nagaland.
Citing the National Remote Sensing Centre’s report, Nagaland’s percentage of degraded land to the total area in 2015-16 was 47.1%, the second-highest in India after Rajasthan (52.7%). The All-India average was around 28%.
In addition, the report informed that desertified area increased by more than 1 lakh hectares in Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Nagaland and Tripura.
The second data is the ‘Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India’ published by the Space Application Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ahmedabad. The Atlas-based on IRS AWiFS data of 2011-13 and 2003-05, revealed that during the time frame, high desertification/land degradation changes were observed in the states of Delhi, Tripura, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram (11.03-4.34%).
Two districts in Nagaland – Wokha and Kohima were taken in the assessment and the latter was among the districts with more than 50% area under desertification/land degradation. Both Wokha and Kohima, however, were among the districts showing a decrease in land degradation area with more than 2%. Vegetation Degradation and Settlement were shown as the key contributors to land degradation.
‘India State of Forest Report (ISFR), 2019 released last year also informed that forest cover in Nagaland decreased by 2.62 sq km as compared to the previous report in 2017.
Incidentally, the NITI Aayog SDG Index showed a declining score for Nagaland in environmental-related goals such as Sustainable Consumption & Production, Life on Land, and Affordable and Clean Energy while showing an increase in Sustainable Cities and Communities and Climate Action. The State traditionally scored well in such indicators.
The current pandemic, as noted by UNCCD, has reinforced just how much vitals are forests, drylands, wetlands and other land ecosystems: for food, for the green economy, for eco-tourism, as a buffer against extreme climate events and restoring natural landscapes, thereby reducing close contact between wildlife and human settlements and creating a natural buffer against zoonotic diseases. In addition, restoring degraded land brings economic resilience, creates jobs, raises incomes and increases food security and helps biodiversity to recover.
Accordingly, apart from health and economy, land restoration must be one of the primary strategies of the post-COVID-19 recovery plan of the State with achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) as the defined objective.
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