| Introduction: Give a brief context to the question Body: Highlight challenges in land management and policy framework to address these challenges Conclusion: Way forward |
The comprehensive significance of land is often underestimated, despite its pivotal role in various aspects of human existence. It offers a wide array of ecological, economic, social, and cultural benefits. However, this multi-faceted nature of land is frequently disregarded in land management approaches, leading to heightened pressure, degradation, and environmental depletion.
Multifaceted Challenges
- Population Pressure: India with only 2.4% of world’s geographical area and more than 17% of the world population experiences several land management challenges. There is a tremendous demand on land resources for housing, infrastructure, agriculture, and industry due to the rapid population growth. This causes competition in a number of industries and a shortage of land.
- Land Degradation: Arable land in India is around 55% of total geographical area and forest cover accounts for another 22%. The rest is desert, mountains, etc. Around 30% of total geographical area is degraded land. The productivity of land is threatened by salinization, desertification, soil erosion, and ecological balance.
- Administrative complexity: In India, existing land management practices are fragmented, with each department adopting its individual strategies. Land management responsibilities primarily rest with State governments. Moreover, most land is privately owned, and according to the constitution, land-use decisions are the prerogative of the owner.
Comprehensive Policy Framework for Sustainable Land Management in India
- Multi-stakeholder platform: Creating a district-level multi-stakeholder platform is essential to unite farmers, policymakers, businesses, and others for collaborative land management planning. District planning committees should be mobilized to develop comprehensive land management plans covering agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.
- Climate smart approach: A climate-smart landscape approach will contribute to climate objectives, increased agricultural production, improved local livelihoods and the conservation of biodiversity.
- Integrated landscape management: Integrated landscape management approach will be useful in this context as it will provide deep insights to assess the potential of land and the scope of allocation and reallocation of land for appropriate uses. There is considerable experience on the ground to follow this approach, but systematic institutional support is hardly available.
Conclusion
The IPCC’s 2019 report on ‘Climate Change and Land’ advises country-level evaluations of land management practices, focusing on options that reduce land competition, offer co-benefits, and minimize negative impacts on ecosystems. Indian lawmakers can address these challenges by fostering discussions and formulating inclusive policies for sustainable land management.
