The Union Environment Ministry has released the latest version of “Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India.

Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas

• It has been published by Space Application Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad.
• The Atlas provides a state-wise area of degraded lands for the time frame 2018-19.
• It also provides the change analysis for the duration of 15 years, from 2003-05 to 2018-19.
• It would provide important baseline and temporal data and technical inputs.

Content of the atlas

• This Atlas presents state-wise desertification and land degradation status maps depicting land use, the process of degradation, and severity level.
• This was prepared using IRS Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data of 2011-13- and 2003-05-time frames in the GIS environment.
• The area under desertification/land degradation for both time frames and changes are reported state-wise as well as for the entire country.
• The outputs are helpful in prioritizing areas to be taken up for minimizing the impact of desertification and land degradation.

India and desertification

• Desertification and land degradation are major threats to agricultural productivity in our country.
• India hosted the 14^th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in September 2019.
• India is striving towards achieving the national commitments of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and restoration of 26 million ha of degraded land by 2030.
• India has been at the forefront of bringing the issue of land degradation to the core of relevant international alliances for the protection and conservation of the environment.
• India has adopted a collective approach for making progress towards achieving the national commitments related to land restoration.

Answer this PYQ from CSP 2016 in the comment box:

Q.What is/are the importance/importances of the ‘United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification?

1. It aims to promote effective action through innovative national programmes and supportive inter-national partnerships.
2. It has a special/particular focus on South Asia and North Africa regions, and its secretariat facilitates the allocation of major portion of financial resources to these regions.
3. It is committed to bottom-up approach, encouraging the participation of local people in combating the desertification.

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

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