Industry urged to innovate business models for reclaiming degraded land

Mr. Anil Kumar Jain, Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India has offered 90 million hectares of degraded land, or 30% of India’s total land area, to industries that can reclaim the land and give it some economic value.

Speaking at a conference on ‘Role of Business and Industry in Land Restoration, Utilization of Degraded and Wasted Land’, organised by FICCI as a run-up to the COP-14 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Mr. Jain urged the industry to come up with business models for reclaiming degraded land.

“More than 90 million hectares, of 320 million hectares of total area, or about 30% of India, is wasteland. This should immediately be brought back into economic use. It is a big elephant in the room, which all stakeholders, including industry, need to solve,” he said, adding that the industry should see it as a business opportunity.

Mr. Jain urged companies involved in industries such as food, biomass, energy, as also businesses that have a large environmental footprint, to make the most of the opportunity.

“Investing in land restoration makes economic sense. We have done economic studies around the world and we feel if we invest $1 in land restoration, you can get $5-7 back. Every 10 hectares can give you two direct jobs and there can be many indirect jobs,” Dr. Pradeep Monga, Deputy Executive Secretary, UNCCD, said.Speakers also emphasized the inter-connectedness of land restoration with India’s climate targets of creation of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent as carbon sinks. They highlighted some of the initiatives taken by Indian companies including urban wastewater management, agroforestry, organic farming, afforestation and watershed management.

Dr. N.H. Ravindranath, Professor, IISc Bangalore and Expert, UNCCD said that 29% to 35% of the total geographical area of India is subjected to land degradation and reclaiming these lands would benefit both the local community and the country.