DESERTIFICATION IS DEVOURING INDIA. BUT THERE’S HOPE IN THE DUNES By Rishika Pardikar

https://www.ozy.com/acumen/indias-land-is-degrading-rapidly-but-a-desert-state-is-showing-a-way-forward/226787/utm_term=OZY&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DD_2019_11_14&utm_content=Final

In monsoon season, farmers in Maharashtra’s Dhule district are torn between hoping for a downpour and dreading it. The barren area needs water — but as the already dry ground becomes increasingly degraded, rainwater could erode the shallow topsoil that remains and destroy the few plants still able to grow there.

Almost 45 percent of Maharashtra’s land area is turning into a desert, as is a huge chunk of India. Land degradation — the process by which land loses its productivity and ability to support plant life — is normally caused by climate change, human activity or a combination of the two. When land in dry areas degrades, that’s desertification — and desertification’s pace has intensified. It’s now happening at as much as 35 times the historical rate, according to the United Nations.