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Desertification and rangeland managementin India
Archeological evidence suggest that the region was once a flourishing green coun-
try-side with thick forests and river-systems of which ‘Saraswati ’ and ‘Yamuna’’ were
the most important. Epigraphic evidence by Landsat Satellites Imagery support this
evidence. The onslaught of man and his domestic animals on the local ecosystem
changed the panorama of the region írom a land of plenty to the land of poverty in less
than 5000 years. The artifacts discovered in the Pushkar and Luni basin of Rajasthan
prove that man lived here as early as 5000 B.C. Perhaps the over-exploitation of land
and water resources since the earliest times has made the Rajasthan desert as a ‘man-
maintained’ if not ‘man-made’. The word desert gives the impression of a vast, tree-
less undulating expanse of sand. The great Indian desert ‘Thar’ does not conform to
this popular notion. The desert is not an endless stretch of sand dunes, bereft of life or
vegetation. During certain periods it blooms with a colourful range of trees and
grasses and abounds in amazing variety of birds and animal life. Thar desert is highly
‘generic’ for it become lush green with slightest precipitation. The soil is full of dor-
mant seeds of various species which sprout with little moisture.
After independence, India paid much attention towards desertification control and
ecological restoration of the Thar desert. A water canal called the Indira Gandhi Canal
w'as constructed to bring the sweet Himalayan waters to the desert region. The IG Ca-
nal, 649 km long, has a capacity to flow 524 mJ of water/sec. With the canal water,
the entire scenario of the Thar desert is changing fast. The ‘desert ecosystem’ appears
to be transforming into an ‘ever-green’ forest ecosystem in the Command Area of the
canal (Sinha 1993).
Strategies towards desertification control in the Thar desert
Desert Afforestation Research Station to Control desertification was set up in Jodhpur
in 1952. The State Forest Department made a humble beginning towards desertifíca-
tion control in 1958 by taking up afforestation in the Command Areas of IG canal in
Ganganagar district. The major afforestation programmes implemented were: ‘sand
dune fixation work’; ‘silvipastoral plantations’; ‘village fodder and fuelwood planta-
tion’; ‘shelterbelt plantation’; ‘ecological regeneration; restoration and rehabilitation
of degraded desert lands’; ‘afforestation on barren hills; re-seeding of old pastures and
farm forestry’.
Introduction of fast growing ‘exotic ’ tree species
The indigenous tree species growing in the Thar desert are not only few in number but
are also extremely slow growing. Therefore, greater attention was focused on the in-
troduction and selection of fast growing exotic tree and shrub species ffom isoclimatic
regions of the world. In this effort about 115 Eucalyptus species, 73 Acacia species
and 170 miscellaneous ones from various countries including Mexico, USA, Latin
America, former USSR, Africa, Israel, Peru, Kenya, Australia, Chile, Sudan and Zim-
babwe and the Middle East, were introduced. Acacia tortilis an exotic fforn Israel for
sand dune stabilization, Prosopis juliflora, suitable for fast biomass production, Aca-
cia nubica for sand dune stabilization, Colophospermum mopane and Dichrostachys
glomerata for fodder purpose and Eucalyptus cameldulensis are few exotics suited for
low rainfall area. A number of the exotic tree species like Eucalyptus cameldulensis,
E. melanophloia, Acacia tortilis, A. cillata, A. raddiana, A. senegal, A. sieberiana, A.