Desertification

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-

humid areas due to various factors: including climatic variations and human
activities.
A major impact of desertification is reduced biodiversity and
diminished productive capacity, for example, by transition from land dominated by
shrub lands to non-native grasslands For example, in the semi-arid regions of
southern California, many coastal sage scrub and chaparral ecosystems have been
replaced by non-native, invasive grasses due to the shortening of fire return
intervals. This can create a monoculture of annual grass that cannot support the
wide range of animals once found in the original ecosystem. In Madagascar's
central high land plateau 10% of the entire country has decertified due to slash and
burn agriculture by indigenous peoples
Desertification is a historic phenomenon; the world's great deserts were formed by
natural processes interacting over long intervals of time. During most of these
times, deserts have grown and shrunk independent of human activities. Pale deserts
are large sand seas now inactive because they are stabilized by vegetation, some
extending beyond the present margins of core deserts, such as the Sahara. Many
deserts in western Asia arose because of an overpopulation of prehistoric species
and subspecies during the late Cretaceous era
Dated fossil pollen indicates that today's Sahara desert has been changing between
desert and fertile savanna. Studies also show that prehistorically the advance and
retreat of deserts tracked yearly rainfall, whereas a pattern of increasing amounts of
desert began with human-driven activities of overgrazing and deforestation.
Desertification takes place in dry land areas where the earth is especially fragile,
where rainfall is nil and the climate harsh. The result is the destruction of topsoil
followed by loss of the land’s ability to sustain crops, livestock or human activity.
The economic impact is horrendous, with a loss of more than $40 billion per year
in agricultural goods and an increase in agricultural prices.
Desertification creates conditions that intensify wildfires and stirring winds, adding
to the tremendous pressure to earth’s most precious resource, water, and, of course,
the animals dependent on it. According to the world wide fund for nature, the
world lost about 30% of its natural wealth between 1970 and 1995.
 Sardar Sarovar Project
The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a dam on the Narmada
River near Navagam, Gujarat, India. The dam is the largest dam in and part of the
Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering project involving the
construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi purpose dams on
the Narmada River. The project was first conceived of in the 1940s by the
country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The project only took form in
1979 as part of a development scheme to increase irrigation and produce
hydroelectricity.
Of the thirty large dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) is
the largest structure to be built. It has a proposed final height of 136.5 m (448 ft).
The project will irrigate more than 18,000 km2 (6,900 sq mi), most of it
in drought prone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra. Critics maintain that its negative
environmental impacts outweigh its benefits. It has created discord between its
government planners and the citizens group Narmada Bachao Andolan.

Protest

The dam is one of India's most controversial dam project and its environmental
impact and net costs and benefits are widely debated. The World Bank was
initially a funder of the SSP, but withdrew in 1994. The Narmada Dam has been
the centre of controversy and protest since the late 1980s.
One such protest takes center stage in the Spanner films documentary Drowned
Out (2002), which follows one tribal family who decide to stay at home and drown
rather than make way for the Narmada Dam. An earlier documentary film is
called A Narmada Diary (1995) by Anand Patwardhan and Simantini Dhuru. The
efforts of NBA to seek social and environmental justice for those most directly
affected by the Sardar Sarover Dam construction feature prominently in this award
winning film (Filmfare Award for Best Documentary-1996.
The figurehead of much of the protest is Medha Patkar, the leader of the "Narmada
Bachao Andolan," the "Save Narmada Movement." The movement was cemented
in 1989, and was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1991.