Sustainable management of land resources

Abstract

Since the dawn of civilization, land and water have been the basic clements of the life support systemon our planet. The civilizations flourished well where these natural resources were available in plentyand they declined or perished with their depletion. Civilizations, therefore, learned to respect theseresources and found the best ways of using them. In recent times the land resources have beensubjected to a variety of pressures. Despite this is surviving and sustaining mankind. What is alarmingis the way we use land - our tendency to over-exploit it for a number of reasons, which has led to thispristine resource being robbed of its legendry resilience. Man is the main culprit for degradation ofournatural resources like land and water as he views these in terms of their utility and capability to meethis immediate needs and wants. Preserving, protecting and defending land resources have been partof our age- old culture. There are in numerable examples of the traditional practices and systems ofconservation, which sti II survive and are effective. But, with the advent of new forces of consumerism,a predominantly materialistic value system, short-term profit-driven motives and the greed of theusers, the trad ition of conservation is detoriating. As a result land has degraded, soi I fertil ity depleted,the rivers polluted and the forests destroyed. The ultimate sufferer is the common man, especially inthe third world countries. On the global scale, degradation is equally striking. The world's populationhas doubled in the last forty years and is now more than five billion at this rate it will cross ten billionin the coming fifty years. The current growth rate of the global economy is a mere 3 percent. Even ifthis rate expands five times over there will be a critical demand for food, energy, and services.

Keeping in view the scope of degraded and salt affected lands in food security of India and numeroussocio economic benefits, it is worth while to examine the pattern, practices policies implications relatingto rehabilitation of these problematic lands. The main concern of this paper is to review the reclamationtrend of salt affected land, technology available for reclamation economic feasibility and socio-economicbenefit and socio-econorny and pol icy constraints in reclaiming these lands.