The process of desertification does not have climatic boundaries. Justify with examples.
Approach · directive: “justify”
What it asks · Argue that the drivers and symptoms of desertification cross climatic zones — hot and cold deserts, semi-arid belts and even humid regions — and support this with examples.
It asks 2 things — answer each
- Justify: desertification is driven by land use as well as climate, so no climatic zone bounds it
- Justify with examples from hot deserts, cold deserts, irrigated plains and humid regions
Open with · The UNCCD defines desertification as land degradation caused by climatic variations and human activities; ISRO's atlas puts India's degraded land at 97.84 million hectares in 2018-19.
Cover
- Human drivers: overgrazing, deforestation, mining and poor irrigation act in every climate.
- Climate variability: the Sahel drought of 1967–1977 shows how dryland margins shift.
- Hot desert margins: the Thar and the Sahel lose land to drought and overgrazing.
- Cold deserts: Ladakh's cold desert degrades through thin soils and grazing pressure.
- Irrigated plains: intensive irrigation in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh raises soil salinity.
- Humid hills: shifting cultivation, mining and slope erosion degrade land far from any desert.
- Way forward: India's 26 million hectare restoration target by 2030, plus watershed, agroforestry and grazing management.
Close with · Desertification follows land use as much as climate, so meeting SDG 15 (life on land) needs restoration in every zone, not only in the desert belt.
Add value (verified)
- The UNCCD itself defines desertification as land degradation resulting from both climatic variations and human activities, not from climate alone.United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Article 1(a) ↗““desertification” means land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities”
- Land degradation and desertification in India was 97.85 million hectares (97,854,851 ha) in 2018-19, per the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India (2021) of ISRO's Space Applications Centre (Rajya Sabha reply, PIB, 7 August 2026).Agricultural yield losses due to human-induced land degradation — Rajya Sabha reply, PIB, 7 August 2026 ↗“Total 97,854,851 This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare”
- At UNCCD COP14 (September 2019), India raised its land-restoration target from 21 to 26 million hectares by 2030.India Will Restore 26 Million Hectares of Degraded Land by 2030 — PIB (9 Sep 2019) ↗“India would raise its ambition of the total area that would be restored from its land degradation status, from twenty-one million hectares to twenty-six million hectares between now and 2030”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2020, GS Paper I — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 16 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer· 218words · Minimalist IAS
The UNCCD defines desertification as land degradation caused by climatic variations and human activities. ISRO's atlas puts India's degraded land at 97.85 million hectares in 2018-19, which shows why no climatic line contains it.
Why climate does not bound it
- Human drivers: overgrazing, deforestation, mining and poor irrigation work in every climate, wet or dry, hot or cold.
- Shifting margins: climate variability moves dryland edges; the Sahel drought south of the Sahara (1967–1977) degraded vast rangelands.
Examples across climates
| Zone | Example | Main driver |
|---|---|---|
| Hot desert margin | Thar, Sahel | drought, overgrazing |
| Irrigated plain | Punjab, Haryana | salinity, falling water tables |
| Humid hills | North-East | shifting cultivation, slope erosion |
- Cold deserts: Ladakh's cold desert, with thin soils and short growing seasons, degrades under grazing pressure despite low temperatures.
- Irrigated plains: intensive irrigation in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh is raising soil salinity and depleting groundwater.
- Humid regions: mining and deforestation strip topsoil in wetter plateaus and hills, far from any desert.
Way forward
- National target: at UNCCD COP14 in September 2019, India raised its restoration goal from 21 to 26 million hectares by 2030.
- Tools that work everywhere: watershed development, agroforestry, rotational grazing and micro-irrigation.
Because land use drives desertification as much as climate, meeting SDG 15 (life on land) needs restoration in every zone, not only in the desert belt.
Prepared by Minimalist IAS to the answer standard of Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 16 Oct 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
