Restoring Banni grasslands, Gujarat battles invasive tree species

Source: The post is based on the article “Restoring Banni grasslands, Gujarat battles invasive tree species” published in Indian Express on 6th July 2022.

What is the News?

The Gujarat forest department plans to restore 10,000 hectares of the Banni grasslands in the coming year and every year in the coming decade.

What are Banni Grasslands?

Banni Grassland is situated near the Great Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.

It constitutes about 4.33% of the total geographical area of Gujarat distributed in eight districts and three different climatic regions — Kutch, Saurashtra and central Gujarat. 

Banni grassland was declared a Protected Forest in 1955, under the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

The grasslands have native trees like Acacia nilotica, Salvadora persica and Capparis decidua which are protected under Section 26 in the Indian Forest Act, 1927. 

Banni also has sensitive soil ecology where the sweet soil rests on salinity only 2 to 3 meters below the ground and any disturbance of the soil brings up salinity destroying the rich productivity of the land.

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What are the threats faced by Banni Grassland?

The landscape of Banni has shown drastic changes with the deterioration of the grassland taking place due to 1) Heavy uncontrolled grazing, 2) Widespread ingress of Prosopis Juliflora (a harmful exotic tree species), 3) Dams constructed on rivers flowing towards Banni, 4) Periodic occurrence of droughts and 5) Continuous increase in soil salinity.