Desertification, an Indian scenario: An annotated bibliography | Loose_Leaf

About this book In India, the problem of `Desertiication’ is recurrent with visible evidence of its ravages in Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner districts. According to a recent estimate by Govt. of India, 32.7 per cent of the country’s land is affected by different degradation processes. Arid areas in our country experience an annual rainfall between 100 and 400 mm with a very high coefficient of variation ranging from 40 to 70 per cent. Low and erratic rainfall coupled with extreme temperatures and intense solar radiation. (200-600 cal cm-2 day -1) results in frequent crop failures and considerably affects the agricultural economy in the region. Occurrence of consecutives droughts along with high wind velocities (40 km h-1) during summers leads to wind erosion resulting in creeping of the sand dunes covering fertile agricultural lands and blocking of roads and rail tracts. Besides the poor rainfall, the sub-soil water is found at a depth of 70 to 120 m on an average. Even for drinking purposes, people have to depend mostly on rain water stored in the reservoirs and during the drought, which is quite often in the desert, the cattle breeders and sheep farmers migrate with their herd of cattle to distant places in search of water and fodder.