UPSC Mains 2020 GS1 Q5: Desertification Has No Climatic Boundaries

Desertification is land degradation in dryland areas, where fertile land turns barren due to a combination of climate variability and human activity.

Desertification is often assumed to affect only naturally arid deserts. In reality, it can occur in semi-arid and even sub-humid regions, well beyond any desert’s actual boundary.

Overgrazing, deforestation, and unsustainable irrigation degrade land regardless of a region’s baseline climate. These human pressures, not climate alone, are what actually triggers degradation.

The Sahel region south of the Sahara, a semi-arid zone rather than true desert, has suffered severe desertification from overgrazing and population pressure on marginal land.

Parts of Rajasthan and the Deccan Plateau, not classified as desert, show desertification symptoms from overgrazing, deforestation, and over-extraction of groundwater.

Poor irrigation practices in otherwise fertile, non-arid farmland can raise soil salinity to the point of abandonment, a form of desertification with no relation to a region’s original aridity.

Climate change is shifting rainfall patterns unpredictably, meaning regions once considered climatically safe can newly become vulnerable to desertification.

Because desertification depends heavily on land-use pressure, not just baseline rainfall, two regions with identical climate can have very different degradation outcomes depending on how the land is used.

State the definition, explain why the desert-boundary assumption is wrong, then justify with concrete examples (Sahel, parts of India, irrigation salinization) showing human land-use as the real driver across varied climates.