Management Decision Case

Name:
Aditya Sharma (UR20003)

Class: MBA (RM)

Assignment Type: Individual Management Decision

The case of desertification in the Western Ghats.

1. Introduction of the topic:

Desertification is the continuous degradation of the quality of the dry land ecosystem
either by the human activities or due to the change in the climatic condition of the region.
The process of desertification can occur in any of the region in the world where ever
there is dry land, soil, etc. Such conditions if occurred, hampers the livelihood of the
people living in the region.
The desertification can occur in the regions with conditions like arid, semiarid and dry
sub humid areas. In normal terms, we can say that the desertification is the process by
which the biological productivity of the land is reduced to such level that post that
condition, no further life is possible in that region.
The causes of desertification can be overgrazing over the fields by the cattle,
deforestation, Urbanization, climate change and finally overexploitation of resources.
The main reasons behind the rapid growth of desertification are man-made these days.
Urbanisation plays a very vital role behind desertification as it increases the demands for
resources (like deforestation, filling up of land with sand or dust or fly ash or garbage).
Overexploitation of resources occurs when the population size increases their demand for
shelter also increases which leads to increase in the number of shelters and when the need
for shelter increases, the process of cleaning up of the forest starts as the land resource is
limited and fixed, by overexploiting of the resource, the danger of desertification starts.
All these are the man-made factors.
Now, coming to the natural factors, the natural factors that hamper the productivity of the
land are water erosion, Displacement of fertile soil, Water erosion, Wind Erosion etc.
The impact of desertification is also severe as it has several environmental impacts as it
hampers the destruction of vegetation, infertility in soil, increasing the case of soil
erosion, water pollution, and loss of biodiversity leading to loss of species (plants &
animals).
Desertification also has economical impacts and such impacts are floods, landslides,
draughts, etc.

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2. The background of the story:
For the past few years, Mr. Ramesh has been facing a peculiar situation. He is in a
dilemma whether rain is actually good for him or not. A good amount of rainfall would
water his crops but he is also scared that the water will actually destroy his saplings.
Ramesh is a 38 year old farmer in the Sakri block (Dhule district) of Maharastra. His land
is situated on the slope of a mountain range in the western ghats. The topography is not
considered to be very good as it is marked by barren lands and shallow soil.
The main reason he cites for his tension is that the rain water actually rolls down hills and
takes away the top layer of the soil as well as the saplings.
He also said, this way, his saplings of Bajra and Soya bean was washed away.
He also shares one of the examples in the nearby villages where several holes were
formed. Earlier it was thought that some wild animals would have done that but when
they went in detail, they noticed that it was caused due to the soil erosion. They fear, this
way all the topsoil would be gone.
The land, due to less rainfall, is affected by desertification and if this happens, the soil
loses its ability to support plant life.
Not only in this particular region but many of the areas in India under the trap of
desertification. And in recent past, desertification has grown at an alarming rate.
Many articles like the World Atlas of Desertification, 1997 suggests that overgrazing is
the main reason for desertification for majority of the cases in the dry regions.

As per the reports released by the Desertification and Land Degradation of Selected
Districts of India which is an atlas published by the Indian Space and Research
organisation’s space application centre (SAC) in Ahemdabad in the year 2018 said that
the around 96.40 million ha area of land is actually undergoing the desertification.

If compared among the states, Maharastra is suffering from the timber mafia making the
forests thinner and acting as a major contributor to the soil erosion. This practice includes
both legal and illegal practices. Here, the role of forest departments becomes important as
they are ones who give the permission for cutting down of the trees. And for such illegal
activities, they need to stricter with their rules and regulations.
In Jharkhand also, soil erosion and water scarcity was observed as the water table
actually depleted to maximum level. In Nagaland as well, shifting cultivation,
deforestation are the key contributor of desertification.
Overgrazing, deep bore wells, fewer rainfalls all together have contributed a lot to
desertification in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

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Ramesh also mentions how despite of having a acre of land, still he is not able to grow
anything. He further adds on by saying that earlier it was the low rainfall which used to
create problems and now the problem is doubled because of the issue of desertification.
He also said that he is not seeing the wild animals quite often as he used to in the past. On
a sarcastic note he further said that when the animals are not ready to accept the change
in the ecosystem and do to live in such conditions, how can we the humans can adopt to
these changes which is definitely not a chance we all wanted. Here, Ramesh is definitely
making sense as desertification is actually destroying the ecosystem of the regions as it
can be seen that the whole vegetation of the place is hampered and at the end, it is the
lives which is threatened.

Now, it become even more important for the authority to do something in order to stop
further desertification as if the precautions are not taken now, it will be very late later.
Minimizing the further land degradation is what the authorities need to do. For doing so,
the focus is to be less water dependent in many of the activities. The government of India
is also keen for looking for the sustainable mode of land management and also water
resources. Several funding has also been done from the government’s side in order to
protect these resources. The areas where the temperature is generally hot and humid,
areas with lesser rainfalls are the major focus of the government. All such funding is done
in order to improve the soil of health of such regions. Several rules and regulation
regarding the deforestations is also helping a bit in reducing the cutting down of trees.
But the main reason comes out for cutting down the trees are the selfish behavior of the
government whenever it gets to know about the presence of any minerals and metals
found in some of the reasons.
As per several articles, the government is actually investing in the land reclamation
activities. The land reclamation is done in order to motivate the farmers to practice
economical activities that would help the rural communities get rid of harmful a practice
that leads to land degradation. Methods like holistic grazing, underground drip irrigation
might help bringing up positive effects in terms of desertification.
The desertification has to be enhanced in order to get better productions and this would
also help improve the health of the whole ecosystem.

N.B: Some parts of the essay are fictional. Some facts have been used in the essay to get
a better clarity on the issue of desertification.

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3. References:

 Greenfacts.org, Desertification, https://www.greenfacts.org/en/desertification/l-2/1-

define-desertification.htm#:~:text=Desertification%20refers%20to%20the
%20persistent,The%20U.N.
 Staff, DTE, August 2019, Desertification setting in across a quarter of India,
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/environment/desertification-setting-in-across-a-
quarter-of-india-66407
 Department of Space, ISRO, GOI, Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas Released,
https://www.isro.gov.in/desertification-and-land-degradation-atlas-released
 Bansal S. June 2018, The India Water Portal, Twenty-six states under threat of
desertification, https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/26-29-states-country-under-
threat-desertification#:~:text=The%20threat%20of%20desertification%20increases
%20in%2026%20of%2029%20states&text=More%20than%2080%20percent
%20of,Odisha%2C%20Madhya%20Pradesh%20and%20Telangana.
 Davies K. November 2019, Land Degradation, Desertification and Food Security in
India, https://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/land-degradation-desertification-
and-food-security-in-india/

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