The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has launched the Aravalli Green Wall Project.
Features Of Aravalli Green Wall Project
- The Aravalli Green Wall Project is part of the Union Environment Ministry’s vision to create green corridors across the country to combat land degradation and desertification.
- The project is inspired by Africa’s ‘Great Green Wall’ concept
- It will, through afforestation, cover roughly 1,400-km long and five-km wide green belt buffer around the Aravalli mountain range
- The project covers 4 states
- The project will involve planting native species of trees and shrubs on scrubland, wasteland and degraded forest land, along with rejuvenating and restoring surface water bodies such as ponds, lakes and streams.
- In the initial phase, 75 water bodies will be rejuvenated, starting with five waterbodies each in every district of Aravalli landscape.
Districts To Be Covered By Aravalli Green Wall
Objectives Of Aravalli Green Wall Project
- To address the rising rates of land degradation and the eastward expansion of the Thar desert.
- To help in restoring degraded land through afforestation along the Aravali hill range.
- To act as a barrier for dust coming from the deserts in western India and Pakistan.
- To enhance the biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Aravalli range
- The involvement of local communities in afforestation, agro-forestry, and water conservation activities can promote sustainable development.
- To generate income and employment opportunities, improve food security, and provide social benefits.
Significance Of Aravalli Green Wall Project
Promoting sustainable development and livelihood opportunities by involving local communities in afforestation, agro-forestry and water conservation activities that will generate income, employment, food security and social benefits
The five-km buffer zone of the entire Aravalli covers 6.3 million hectares (Mha)
- Total 2.3 Mha of land out of it is currently degraded.
- Most of the degraded land is expected to be restored through the green wall project, giving a big boost to India’s overall goal to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.
- It will also help the country achieve the national goal of creating an additional 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon sink in the next seven years.
- According to Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), some 97.85 million hectares (29.7%) of India’s total geographical area (TGA) of 328.72 mha underwent land degradation during 2018-19.
Great Green Wall of Africa
- GGW is a project launched by African union to restore the continent’s degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in the Sahel.
- The project plans 8km wide band of trees stretching 8,000km across Africa.
- It aims to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land.
- Also, the project envisages to sequester 250 million tons of carbon and create 10 million green jobs by 2030.
- Eleven countries in the Sahel-Sahara region—Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Senegal have joined to combat land degradation and restore native plant life to the landscape.
Aravalli Mountain Range
- The Aravallis, is the oldest fold mountains on Earth. Geological studies show its age as three billion years.
- The Aravalli Range, runs southwest from near Delhi and passing through southern Haryana and Rajasthan before terminating in Gujarat
- It spans over 800km from Gujarat to Delhi (through Rajasthan and Haryana).
- The highest peak in the Aravalli Range is Guru Peak on Mount Abu.
- The Aravalli Hills are the source of three significant rivers – Banas, Sahibi, and Luni River, which flows into the Rann of Kutch
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