India to restore 26 million acres of degarded land, says PM Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday evening told the United Nations that India is “on track to achieve its national commitment of land degradation neutrality and ... working towards restoring 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030”. This, he said, would “contribute to India's commitment to achieve an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent”. The PM was delivering his keynote address in virtual format at the UN “High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land degradation and Drought”.

“Land is the fundamental building block for supporting all lives and livelihoods. All of us understand the web of life functions as an inter-connected system. Sadly, land degradation affects over two-thirds of the world today,” Mr Modi said, adding: “If left unchecked, it will erode the very foundations of our societies, economies, food security, health, safety and quality of life. Therefore, we have to reduce the tremendous pressure on land and its resources. Clearly, a lot of work lies ahead of us. But we can do it. We can do it together.”

Said Mr Modi: “It is mankind's collective responsibility to reverse the damage to land caused by human activity. It is our sacred duty to leave a healthy planet for our future generations.”

The Prime Minister added: “Land degradation poses a special challenge to the developing world. In the spirit of South-South cooperation, India is assisting fellow developing countries to develop land restoration strategies. A centre of excellence is being set up in India to promote a scientific approach towards land degradation issues.”

He further said: “In India, we have always given importance to land and considered the sacred Earth as our mother. India has taken the lead to highlight land degradation issues at international forums. The Delhi Declaration of 2019 called for better access and stewardship over land, and emphasised gender-sensitive transformative projects. In India, over the last 10 years, around three million hectares of forest cover has been added. This has enhanced the combined forest cover to almost one-fourth of the country’s total area.”

“In many parts of India, we have taken up some novel approaches. To give just one example, the Banni region in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat suffers from highly degraded land and receives very little rainfall. In that region, land restoration is done by developing grasslands, which helps in achieving land degradation neutrality. It also supports pastoral activities and livelihood by promoting animal husbandry. In the same spirit, we need to devise effective strategies for land restoration while promoting indigenous techniques,” Mr Modi pointed out.