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.
Showing 1 of 3 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 September 2026.Show all
Watershed development
Copy link to Watershed developmentPrelims and Mains
A watershed project treats a whole catchment so that rain is held where it falls, which is what protective irrigation later draws on.
- The Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY) reported its twelve year record alongside the Dryland Congress.
34 million haCovered by watershed projects
2 million haBrought under protective irrigation
Nearly 6 millionFarmers benefited
About 2:1Benefit-cost ratio of completed projects
What changed
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.