Environment › Conservation initiatives
Land degradation, desertification and drylands
Degraded land and drylands: the desertification convention and India's restoration pledges, soil health and erosion, watershed development, rainfed farming, and sand and dust storms. Prelims has asked why the Convention to Combat Desertification matters.
26 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
Degrading land has had a convention of its own since the Rio summit, and its parties met in Mongolia in August 2026 with drought at the centre of the agenda.
- The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was adopted in 1994 and is one of the three Rio Conventions, alongside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
- It has 197 parties.
- Its central goal is land degradation neutrality.
- At the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17), India argued that drought be planned for as a predictable risk, with catchment forests restored so that a landscape holds its water for longer.
- India named the Green Credit Programme and sovereign green bonds as ways of financing restoration.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2016: the importance of the Convention to Combat Desertification
The Hindu, 26 Aug 2026: UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia focuses on drought resilience (opens in a new tab)
26 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Bonn Challenge
Restoration only becomes a policy when a country can be held to a number, and India's number is pledged under the Bonn Challenge.
- India's commitment is to bring 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land under restoration by 2030.
- Its second progress report, presented at COP17, put 21.76 million hectares under restoration between 2011 and 2020.
13 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Dryland Congress
A congress on drylands met in Delhi in September 2026, on land that carries far more of Indian farming than its irrigation share suggests.
- Rainfed farming covers 43 per cent of India's net sown area and grows about 40 per cent of its food.
- The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), founded in 1972 at Patancheru near Hyderabad, is one of the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) centres.
- ICRISAT convened the Dryland Congress 2026, which adopted the Delhi Declaration on Drylands.
- The Department of Land Resources put the next phase of drylands work on resilient institutions, digital public infrastructure and community action.
PIB, 13 Sep 2026: Dryland Congress 2026 Concludes with Delhi Declaration on Drylands (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 11 Sep 2026: Drylands Must be Reimagined through Resilient Institutions, Digital Public Infrastructure and Community Action: Secretary, Department of Land Resources (DoLR) (opens in a new tab)
11 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Watershed development
A watershed project treats a whole catchment so that rain is held where it falls, which is what protective irrigation later draws on.
34 million haCovered by watershed projects
2 million haBrought under protective irrigation
Nearly 6 millionFarmers benefited
About 2:1Benefit-cost ratio of completed projects
- The Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY) reported its twelve year record alongside the Dryland Congress.
Also filed elsewhere
- Open natural ecosystems · on Forests, grasslands and mountain ecosystems
India's open natural ecosystems, its grasslands, savannas, scrub, ravines and deserts, are still recorded in many places as wastelands, and lose out in land use decisions accordingly.