This document discusses wastelands in India. It states that 24% of India's total land area is classified as wasteland. Wastelands are degraded lands that can be rehabilitated through reasonable efforts. They are caused by overuse of land through practices like overcultivation, deforestation, overgrazing, and improper irrigation. Degradation leads to issues like soil erosion. Wastelands are categorized based on difficulty of reclamation - easily reclaimable through practices like reducing salt content, reclaimable with some difficulty using agroforestry, and reclaimable with extreme difficulty through activities like forestry or ecosystem recreation. Various methods of reclamation are discussed, including afforestation, re

2. Wasteland:
Degraded land which can be
brought under vegetative cover
with reasonable effort and which is
currently under utilized and land
which is deteriorating for lack of
appropriate water and soil
management or on account of
natural causes”.

3. Wasteland Map of India 2015
From the total land area of
328 million hectare about
162 million hectare i.e. 51%
is agricultural land,4% is
pasture land,21% is forest
land and 24% is wasteland

4. Categories of wasteland in India
 Gullies and/or ravines
 Upland with or without scrub
 Waterlogged and marshy land
 Land affected by salinity /alkalinity in coastal and
inland areas
 Land under shifting cultivation
 Under utilized / degraded notified forest land
 Degraded pasture / grazing land
 Degraded land under plantation crops
 Shifting sands- inland /coastal
 Mining / industrial wastelands
 Barren rocky / stony waste/ sheet rock areas
 Steep sloping area
 Snow covered and/ or glacial area

5. Causes of land degradation :use and
abuse of our land resource
Over cultivation
Deforestation
Use as fuel wood.
 Shifting cultivation
Commercial timber exploitation
Clearing forests permanently for
non forestry activities like human
settlement, setting up industries etc.
Overgrazing
Improper irrigation practices

6. Effects of Land Degradation
• Surface runoff and floods.
• Soil erosion &
desertification.
• Loss of Nutrients & land
productivity.
• Soil
acidification/alkalinisation.
• Soil salinity.
• Loss of biodiversity.
• Long term socioeconomic
impact on humans like
migration.

7. Wastelands can be classified into three forms:
Easily reclaimable,
Reclaimable with some difficulty,
Reclaimable with extreme difficulty.

8. Easily reclaimable
Easily reclaimable wastelands can be used for
agricultural purposes.
Wastelands can be reclaimed for agriculture by
reducing the salt content which can be done by leaching
etc.
Gypsum, urea, potash and compost are added before
planting crops in such areas.

9. Reclaimed with some difficulty
These wastelands can be
utilized for agro forestry. Agro
forestry involves putting land to
multiple uses.
Its main purpose is to have
trees and crops inter- and/or under
planted to form an integrated
system of biological production
within a certain area.
Thus, agro forestry implies
integration of trees with
agricultural crops or livestock
management simultaneously.

10. Reclaimed with extreme difficulty
Wasteland that are reclaimed with extreme difficulty
can be used for forestry or to recreate natural ecosystem.
Attempts to grow trees in highly non alkaline saline soils
have been largely unsuccessful.
Field experiments have shown that species like
Eucalyptus, Prosopis and Acacia nilotica could not be
grown in highly alkaline soil. Studies have shown that if
tree seedlings are planted with a mixture of original soil,
gypsum, and manure, better growth can be achieved.
It is however important to use indigenous species of
trees so that the program recreates the local ecosystem
with all its species.

11. Method of wasteland reclamation
 There are various methods by which wastelands can
be reclaimed.
1. AFFORESTATION :It means growing the forest
over culturable wasteland.

12. 2. REFORESTATION :
Growing the forest again over the lands where
they were existing and was destroyed due to fires,
overgrazing, and excessive cutting.
Reforestation checks water logging, floods, soil
erosion and increase productivity of land.
3.PROVIDING SURFACE COVER :
The easiest way to protect the land surface from
soil erosion is of leave crop residue on the land after
harvesting.

13. 4. MULCHING :
Mulch is a layer of material applied to the surface of
an area of soil .In this protective cover of organic matter
and plants like stalks, cotton stalks, tobacco stalks etc. are
used which reduce evaporation, help in retaining soil
moisture and reduce soil erosion.

14. 5.CHANGING GROUND TOPOGRAPHY ON
DOWNHILL’S :
Running water erodes the hill soil and carries the soil
along with it. This can be minimized by following
alternation in ground topography:
1)Strip farming : Different kinds of crops are planted in
alternate strip along the contour.

15. 2)Terracing :
In this arrangement,
the earth is shaped in the
form of leveled terraces
to hold soil and water.
The terrace edges are
planted with such plant
species which anchor the
soil.
3)Contour ploughing:
In this arrangement, the
ploughing of land is done
across the hill and not in
up and down style.

16. 6. LEACHING:
In salt affected land, the salinity can be
minimized by leaching them with more water.
7. CHANGING AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES :
Like mixed cropping, crop rotation and cropping
of plants are adopted to improve soil fertility.
8. ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION :
This refers to the natural development or
redevelopment of an ecosystem which help in
reclaiming the minerally deficient soil of wasteland.