After reading this article you will learn about:- 1. Distribution of Wasteland 2. Formation of Wasteland 3. Reclamation.
Distribution of Wasteland:
Wastelands are lands which are economically unproductive, ecologically unsuitable and subject to environmental deterioration. The official estimate of wasteland in India in 2004 was nearly 63.85 million ha — more than 20% of the country’s geographical area.
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The category wise wasteland types of India is shown in Table 23.9:
According to the state wise break up, the state with the greatest percentage of its area that is classified is Rajasthan with 45 per cent, followed by the hill states Jammu and Kashmir, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland. This predominance of the hill states at the top of the list is because of the extent of snow-covered and glacial land in these states (Table 23.10).
Formation of Wasteland:
Wasteland is formed either by natural ways or by man-made activities. The undulating upland, sandy area, snow covered area, coastal saline area etc., are natural formation while Gullied or Ravinous land, Jhum or Forest blank, Barren Hill-Ridges etc., are formed by man-made activities.
There are four major anthropogenic activities that lead to the formation of wasteland areas viz., deforestation, overgrazing, over cultivation and unskilled irrigation. The first three activities strip the land of its protective vegetation cover, hastening the process of soil erosion and land degradation, while unskilled irrigation causes special problems of water logging and salinity.
In addition, both cultivated and uncultivated lands suffer from soil erosion and degradation. Mining is another important activity that causes deforestation and land degradation too. Desert is one of the major natural wasteland area and any activity relating to the process of desertification is considered also to be one of the major activities underlying the wasteland formation.
Reclamation of Wasteland:
With the gradual rise of land resource demand, reclamation of wasteland appear to be one of the major tasks of the country.
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The reclamation and development of wasteland has four major ecological objectives:
1. To improve the physical structure and the quality of the soil,
2. To improve the availability and quality of water,
3. To prevent the shifting of soil, landslides and flooding, and
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4. To conserve the biological resources of the land for sustainable use.
The capacity of the land to produce food, fodder, fuel and industrial raw materials is determined both by biological factors—the climate, soil, hydrological system etc.—and by social and economic factors such as land management practices and inputs like irrigation, fertilizers and seeds.
What is the potential productivity of wastelands and how can this be measured?—this depends on what is meant by productivity, which like many other ecological terms is often confused in common usage. One definition of the productivity of an ecosystem is the amount of biomass “fixed” in a given time. This is a continuous process, but is measured as the amount of food manufactured per unit of time (day, month, year).
There are a number of ways and means by which wasteland can be reclaimed for productive purpose in more efficient manner. Among them watershed management, wasteland afforestation and social forestry programmes are noteworthy. In addition for improvement of land condition, control of soil erosion and enhancement of soil fertility a good number of measures has to be taken up.
Deforestation for timber and fuel wood extraction and subsequent conversion of forest land to agricultural or urban areas poses a major threat for land degradation and also quicken the process of wasteland formation. In wasteland reclamation process all these causative factors have to be addressed properly to arrive in a positive solution.
Some case studies of wasteland reclamation and development in India are described below:
(a) Micro watershed development in Sukhomajri (Punjab):
Sukhomajri is a small village which lies along the gorged river bed of the Sukhna Cho (hill torrent) in the Shivalik foothills 35 km from Chandigarh. For many years after the 1968 monsoon, when several hectares of fertile land plunged 12-15 metres into a deep gorge at one end of the village, Sukhomajri had been precariously perched, literally at the edge of a precipice.
Its 455 inhabitants, most of whom were very poor Gujjars, lived by grazing their cattle and goats on hill slopes sparsely covered with grass and shrubs. Many men went to work at tractor, machine tool and cement factories outside the village. Sukhomajri had no irrigation, water and electricity. Its only resource were its 10 ha. land (half owned by individual households) and over 400 goats and cattle.
Although being aware that grazing the animals in certain areas was aggravating the erosion and affecting the production of their rain-fed crops of maize, wheat and legumes, the villagers saw no alternatives.
In 1974-75 the Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute at Chandigarh took on the task of desilting the city’s famous Sukhna lake, 60 per cent of which had been filled with silt from the Shivaliks, brought down by the Sukhna Cho. P. R. Misra, Project Director of the Institute, surveyed the catchment of the lake and, while tracing the course of the Sukhna Cho, chanced upon Sukhomajri.
Misra devised a system of check dams which created three small reservoirs, with diameters varying from 60-120 meters. The heavy monsoon rain water is channelled into the reservoirs so that it can be used for drinking and irrigation. Misra convinced the villagers not to graze their cattle in the watershed areas by allowing them to cut grass from there instead.
The plantation of trees and grasses in the catchment area helped to regenerate the watershed. Further erosion at the 15 meter gorge at one end of the village was also checked with vegetation.
Instead of one rain-fed crop, two and even three crops are now being grown in a year and grass production has increased 12-fold. A unique method of sharing water has been evolved, by which each household irrespective of the amount of land it owns or the crops it grows is entitled to an equal-value water coupon.
Those who do not want water, such as the landless, may loan or sell their coupons to others who want more water. This works in Sukhomajri because the village is homogeneous and the landholdings are fairly uniform.
Sukhomajri is a success story. However, irrigation has led to some inequalities. The larger farmers with lands in the command area have been using the water even in the kharif season as a result of which small farmers whose lands are further away from the reservoirs do not get enough water in the rabi season when water is scarce.
Although considerable amount of money was spent on it—till 1982, a sum of Rs. 80,4750.00 — perhaps more than will be available for many other villages, Sukhomajri shows the effectiveness of soil conservation in a catchment. The cost of restoring the catchment is also much cheaper than dealing with the consequences downstream. For instance, Rs. 27 million was spent on dredging Sukhna lake.
Those who worked on the project also point out that in the initial stages the villagers were not cooperative. It was only when the improved irrigation resulted in increasing the yield from their fields that they became interested in investing in conservation measures.
The project took several years to tackle the technical problems (1974-79), to generate the trust of the villagers and to develop the system of water distribution (1980-83). All the key persons spent much time with the villagers, learning from them before introducing new methods. The entire process lasted more than a decade.
(b) Afforestation Programmes:
Compared to the effort that went into improving the productivity of cultivable land and controlling soil erosion for improving agriculture, much less attention was paid to improving the productivity of forest lands. This was despite the many policy recommendations emphasizing the need to improve the availability of firewood.
For instance, the National Planning Committee (which was set up before independence with Jawaharlal Nehru as its Chairman but submitted its report in 1948) considered afforestation in relation to soil conservation problems. It pointed out that “the lack of forests within easy distance of the most populous districts” resulted in “the enormous waste of the only source of cheap manure by burning cow dung“.
A look at the expenditure of forestry shows how minimally policy statements, in fact, shaped programmes.
Out of the total expenditure of Rs. 1177 million in the 1951-69 period, the farm forestry cum fuel wood- scheme (introduced in the Third Plan) accounted for only 2.2 per cent (NCA, 1976b). The National Commission on Agriculture (NCA) in its interim report recognized the limitations of , the farm forestry programmes and introduced the concept of social forestry.
This had five objectives (Ministry of Agriculture, 1973):
1. Firewood supply to rural areas and replacement of cow dung as fuel;
2. Small timber supply;
3. Fodder supply;
4. Protection of agricultural fields against wind;
5. Recreational needs.
The NCA’s recommendations were adopted by the Fifth Plan (1974-1979) and the country’s major social forestry programmes were launched soon after. In the Sixth Plan (1980-1985) a number of new schemes were started in an attempt to come to grip with the ever-increasing problem of wastelands and the diminishing resources from these lands.
A programme of Rural Fuel wood Plantations begun in 1980-81 to grow firewood as near as possible to the consumption points.
Other schemes were the Tree for Every Child Programme and the formation of eco-development task forces (mainly of ex-servicemen) to restore damaged hill ecosystems through soil conservation and afforestation.
In recognition of the enormity and the urgency of the problem of wastelands, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in a broadcast to the nation (1985) called for a halt to deforestation by developing a people’s movement for afforestation and announced the setting up of a National Wastelands Development Board with the objective of bringing 5 million ha of wasteland annually under firewood and fodder plantations.
The National Land Board was reconstituted as the National Land Use and Wastelands Development Council, under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister. This has two bodies under it.
The National Wastelands Development Board, which is located in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Wildlife and the National Land Use and Conservation Board, located in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, provide a national focal point for policy formulation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of programmes.
(c) Social forestry: Trees for People:
No government programme in India has been surrounded by as much confusion—or has received as much media attention—as social forestry. The programme, devised to increase the availability of firewood, fodder and small timber to the rural poor, is the subject of intense controversy. Both its approach and its achievements are matters of dispute.
Tree planting for the rural poor is a component of the country’s National Programme and the government claims spectacular progress, with targets being achieved or even exceeded (Ministry of Agriculture, 1984). On the other hand, critics say that the programme has been distorted to benefit the upper classes and diverted away from its objectives.
Although the social forestry programmes vary from state to state, most include one or more of four components:
1. Strip plantations on road, rail and canal sides (government lands) by the Forest Department;
2. Village woodlands on government and community land by the Forest Department and by community self-help;
3. Rehabilitation of degraded forest land by forest departments;
4. Farm forestry on private land (including farm bunds) and leased government land (including wastelands) with assistance and saplings provided by the forest department.
The programme began in 1974 and during the Fifth Plan Rs. 373 million were allocated, roughly half of what had been recommended by the National Commission on Agriculture. Of the 1.2 million ha planted during the Fifth Plan period, 50 per cent was under the social forestry programme.
In the Sixth Plan this was increased to Rs. 3,518 million, 51 percent of the total forestry budget of Rs. 6,925 million (which itself was more than the total cumulative forestry budget in the previous 30 years — Rs. 4,820 million).
The Sixth Plan of social forestry programmes were carried out under three categories:
1. Central Government programme for social forestry, which included a Rs. 500 million rural fuel wood plantations scheme in 157 fuel-deficit districts;
2. Externally assisted projects in nine states (with a government allocation of Rs. 1,600 million);
3. State government schemes (Rs. 1,418 million).
During the Seventh Plan a National Umbrella Project was envisaged, extending the foreign-assisted social forestry projects throughout the country and involving an investment of Rs. 800 million (Guhathakurta, 1984).
Though the planting activity under the various components of social forestry has on the whole been satisfactory, the programme has failed to achieve its broader objectives on three counts:
(a) It has subsidized the richer farmers;
(b) It has not produced wide-ranging social and environmental benefits;
(c) In some cases it has worsened the position of the poor.
Because tree-planting can be an attractive financial proposition where there is a market for the wood, the benefits from the programme are appropriated by bigger farmers. The initial success of social forestry in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab was because of the response of medium farmers (with more than 2 ha.) and large farmers (more than 4 ha.), coupled with the rising price of wood.
Surveys have shown that the percentage of farmers with holdings under 2 ha, who have received free or low-cost seedling, varies from 38.5 per cent in Haryana and 42.5 per cent in Gujarat to 64.7 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir and 80.8 per cent in West Bengal.
The failure of social forestry to fulfill the basic needs of the poor was highlighted by a study in Kolar district, Karnataka.
The eucalyptus plantations under the programme feed big rayon and paper industries; while some farmers benefit from the high prices the mills pay, agricultural labourers have been hard hit. Because the big farmers are growing eucalyptus instead of the traditional ragi, there is less food available locally, pushing food prices up, and because eucalyptus requires less care, agricultural workers are losing their jobs.
The social forestry programme in Tamil Nadu has been similarly criticised. In one instance at Acharapakkam village in Chengalpattu district in 1980, 5,000 eucalyptus hybrid saplings were uprooted by the villagers (CSE 1985). The state’s ingenious programme to plant the exposed bed of the tanks (called “foreshores“) also ran into trouble.
Tamil Nadu has 38,000 tanks (rainwater collection reservoirs) irrigating a total area of 50,000 ha. The tanks are shallow with sloping banks and vary in size from small ponds to reservoirs of over 1,000 ha. Many were built in the Eleventh century in the late Chola period.
The stored water is let out into the fields in summer, exposing an increasingly large area of foreshore. This land is already used for grazing and to grow vegetables, but the plan was to plant trees. The villagers opposed this. The poramboke or common lands belonging to the government are also not available for planting because they have been encroached upon for cultivation.
Eventually, the government had to accept the position that there was no clear social justification in withdrawing land from the poor in order to provide them with fuel at a later date.
In contrast to large social forestry programmes which have problems in reaching the most needy, new schemes are being developed to reach the poorest directly. Under a social security scheme in Rajasthan, villagers are being leased degraded forest land to plant trees. The poorest individuals were identified and are to be given 2 ha. each, every year for 15 years, making 30 ha. in all.
They were provided with 1,600 saplings for the initial planting on two hectares. Besides each gets a salary of Rs. 250 per month, Rs. 500 to build a house and a cash incentive for trees surviving into the second and third years. They are also entitled to 20 per cent of the profits from the trees they grow.
In the Udaipur area, 435 individuals have joined the scheme. The scheme is now being revised and it is intended to give leases of one ha. each year, building up to a maximum of 10 ha. But 1,200 saplings will be planted per ha. Here too a problem has been that some of this land is used for grazing.