what is the importance of land resource ? why should it be conserved?

Land resource is among the most important natural resources. It provides habitation to a wide variety of flora and fauna. Human beings use land for various purposes such as agriculture, forestry, mining, building houses and roads, and setting up industries.

land is the basic natural resoure on which all other resourecs exist. it should be conserved as  it support natural vegetation, wild life, human life, economic activites, transport and communication system.

Importance of land resources are the following:-

1. Land is natural resource of utmost importance. It supports natural vegetation, wildlife, human life, economic activities, transport and communication systems. Land is an asset; therefore it is necessary to make use of land with proper planning.

2. About 43% of the land are is plain. It provides facilities for agriculture and industries.

3. 30% of the land has mountains. They ensure perennial flow of rivers and provide facilities for tourism and ecological aspects.

4. 27% of the land are is the plateau region. It possesses rich resource of minerals, fossil fuels and forests.

Land and water have been the basic elements of life support system on our planet since the dawn of civilization. All great civilizations, flourished where these resources were available in plenty and they declined or perished with the depletion of these resources.

    In recent years, the land resource has been subjected to a variety of pressures. Still it is surviving and sustaining mankind. What is alarming in the way land is being used is the tendency towards over-exploitation on account of a number of reasons leading this pristine resource being robbed of its resilience.

    Of all the species on the earth, man is the chief culprit of this degradation. He views land in terms of its utility, meaning the capability to meet his perceived needs and wants. The most easily categorised varieties of land from the utility point of view are - land fit for use, land with potential for use and land which appears useless at least in the foreseeable future.

    Here probably lies the genesis of the problem of land degradation and erosion of ecosystems. Mahatma Gandhi had said -"The Earth has enough for everybody’s need but not for everybody’s greed". Preserving, protecting and defending the land resources has been part of our age-old culture. The respect for the importance of land resources is best depicted in the conventional concept of Panchabhutas – land, water, fire, sky and air that constitute a set of divine forces. There are innumerable examples of the traditional conservation practices and systems, which are still surviving and are effective. But with the advent of modern age and the advent of newer forces, this tradition is fast deteriorating mainly on account of – consumerism, materialistic value systems, short-term profit-driven motives and greed of the users.

    As a result, land has degraded, soil fertility depleted, the rivers polluted and the forests destroyed.

The Indian Scenario

    India constitutes 18 per cent of the world’s population, 15 per cent of the live stock population and only 2 per cent of the geographic area, one per cent of the forest area and 0.5 per cent of pasture lands. The per capita availability of forests in India is only 0.08 per ha. as against the world average of 0.8 per cent , thus leading to the pressure on land and forests. This poses a major and urgent concern. In accordance with the National Remote Sensing Agency’s (NRSA) findings there are 75.5 million ha. of wastelands in the country. In has been estimated that out of these around 58 million ha. are treatable and can be brought back to original productive levels through appropriate measures. At the moment, taking into account the efforts being made by all the various players in this field treating facilities are in place only for around 1 million ha. per year. At this rate, that there is no further degradation and also assuming that our efforts are 100 per cent successful, it will take around 58 years to complete the process.

    Watershed degradation in the third world countries threatens the livelihood of millions of people and constraints the ability of countries to develop a healthy agricultural and natural resource base. Increasing population and livestock are rapidly depleting the existing natural resource base because the soil and vegetation system cannot support present level of use. As population continues to rise, the pressure on forests, community lands and marginal agricultural lands lead to inappropriate cultivation practices, forests removal and grazing intensities that leave a barren environment yielding unwanted sediment and damaging stream flow to down stream communities.

    Watershed is a geo-hydrological unit which drains at a common point. Rains falling on the mountain start flowing down into small rivulets. Many of them, as they come down, join to form small streams. The small streams form bigger streams and then finally the bigger streams join to form a nallah to drain out of a village. The entire area that supplies water to a stream or river, i.e. the drainage basin or catchment area, is called the watershed of that particular stream or river.

    Management of watershed thus entails the rational utilisation of land and water resources for optimum production but with minimum hazard to natural and human resources. The main objectives of watershed management are to protect the natural resources such as soil, water and vegetation from degradation. In the broader sense, it is an undertaking to maintain the equilibrium between elements of natural ecosystem of vegetation, land or water on the one hand and man’s activities on the other hand.