Land degradation is defined as a negative trend in land condition, caused by direct or indirect human induced processes, including anthropogenic climate change, expressed as long-term reduction or loss of at least one of the following: biological productivity, ecological integrity, or value to humans. Desertification, on the other hand, refers to the land degradation within dryland regions (arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions), which turns fertile land into a desert. As per the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India, around 29.7% of India’s total geographical area underwent land degradation during 2018-19. Impacts of land degradation and desertification

• Agricultural production decreases with soil degradation which in turn affects agricultural income leading to associated deprivations in health, education, and living standards.
• It reduces the land’s ability to store water resulting in water scarcity, which affects production potential of the industrial sector as well as household work.
• Loss of livelihood and other benefits associated with productive land forces people to migrate to other areas in search of economic opportunities. The influx of climate migrants in other areas lead to societal tensions owing to limited resources.
• Negative health outcomes and diseases are also observed in regions as it creates ground for zoonotic disease, water and foodborne diseases and respiratory diseases. Moreover, there are higher threats of malnutrition from reduced food and water supplies.
• It affects tourism potential of the region owing to loss of scenic beauty and ecosystem services.

National level initiatives

• India is a party to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which has pledged to reach land degradation neutrality targets by 2030.
• India promotes sustainable land management practices in agriculture sector through schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Soil Health Card Scheme, Soil Health Management Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna, Per Drop More Crop, etc. which are helping to reduce land degradation.
• The Ministry of Environment consolidated the intervention on participatory forest management through the National Forest Policy, 1988, and then through enabling guidelines in 1990 on Joint Forest Management.
• The Ministry of Environment is also implementing three major schemes for development of forest areas ie., National Afforestation Programme scheme, National Mission for a Green India and Forest Fire Prevention & Management Scheme.

International initiatives

• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification established in 1994 is the legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management.
• Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation mechanism aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
• Bonn Challenge launched by Germany and IUCN in 2011, has a global goal to bring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes into restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.
• Global Initiative on Reducing Land Degradation aims to strengthen the implementation of existing frameworks to prevent, halt, and reverse land degradation within G20 member states and globally.

Land is the fundamental building block for supporting all lives and livelihoods. Restoration of land can start a virtuous cycle of good soil health, increased land productivity, food security and improved livelihoods. With its own efforts, India is already on the way to achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030.

The introduction of English in India was motivated by a mixture of anti-Orientalism, disdain for local culture as well as administrative pragmatism. The administrative needs of the company required Indians well-versed in the classic and vernacular languages. Further, speaking in English was not enough. Indians had to think and behave like Englishmen as well. This pedagogic enterprise of imperialism, therefore, was to inculcate a spirit of loyalty among its Indian subjects who would believe in its providential nature and its civilising mission.

However, the new system of education had far-reaching consequences on strengthening the anti- colonialism in India:

• As a moral study English did not function as effectively because there were not enough material rewards for liberal education in India. More importantly, the educated Indians selectively adopted this knowledge and deployed it to interrogate colonial rule itself.
• As government appointments were open only to people who knew English, two sets of people emerged i.e., those who knew English and a non-English knowing mass of people. The barriers of caste, conservatism and religious orthodoxy were hence dissolved, at least for the first set of people.
• The slow and gradual promotion of Western learning in India ultimately led to a new spirit of rationalism and a new critical outlook in the Indians which finally led to the emergence of a spirit of nationalism; championing of self-rule and self-reliance.
• English served as the main catalyst propelling the Indian nationalists to accept the Western model of nation-state as the defining principle of their nationalism. The early nationalists, who mainly came from the Western educated elite, ignored the inner conflicts within Indian society and assumed the existence of nation as a homogeneous entity with a single set of interests.
• As a consequence of the spread of Western educational system, new notions of reason, justice and utilitarian concerns of welfare began to mould the minds of the educated Indians in search of an answer to the problems of poverty and impoverishment that plagued Indian society of the late 19th century. It acted as a catalyst in fostering the awareness of colonial economic exploitation.
• A feeling of dissatisfaction also developed toward the existing governmental and missionary institutions. This led to the establishment of a few notable institutions aiming at imparting sound education to Indian youth on national lines such as the Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College in Aligarh (1875), the D.A.V. College in Lahore (1886), and the Central Hindu College in Varanasi (1898).

The colonial administration was keen to promote an education policy, which served its own interests. It totally ignored the importance of mass education. More emphasis was given to Western literature, philosophy and humanities, technology and natural science was neglected. At the end of the British rule in India, the literacy rate of India stood at just 12%. However, the few educated elites helped in exposing the exploitation of India by the British and served as the leaders of masses who fought for Indian independence.

Ocean currents are the continuous, predictable, directional movement of seawater driven by gravity, wind (Coriolis effect), and differences in water density. Ocean currents are horizontally moving ocean water.

Ocean currents play an important role in regulating the climate on Earth in the following ways:

• Redistribution of global heat: Ocean currents act much like a conveyor belt, transporting warm water and precipitation from the Equator toward the poles and cold water from the poles back to the tropics influencing local and global climate. For example, the North Atlantic Drift keeps the coasts of the North Sea (western coast of Europe) warm.
• Influences regional weather phenomenon: The changes in equatorial upwelling and currents play central roles in driving the El Niño and La Niña phenomena, thus influencing global climate patterns like the Indian monsoons, rainfall variability in Southern America and Pacific region, etc.
• Amount of precipitation: Oceans form an essential part of the Earth’s water cycle as most evaporation comes from the oceans and most precipitation falls on the oceans. Warm currents flow along the east coast of continents resulting in warm and rainy climates while cold currents flow along the west coast of continents.
• Formation of deserts on the West Coast: Cold ocean currents have a direct effect on desert formation in the West Coast regions of the tropical and subtropical continents. For example, Peru’s cold-water current of the Southeast Pacific Ocean is a primary reason for the aridity of the Atacama Desert (the driest desert in the world).
• Tropical cyclones: Ocean currents pile up warm waters in the tropics and this warm water is the major force behind tropical cyclones.

Ocean currents also play a profound role in supporting marine life, as discussed below:

• Ocean currents impact the connectivity of marine populations, as they influence the migration of strong swimmers, including whales and turtles.
• They act as carriers of dissolved carbon dioxide and organic matter in the form of small creatures, such as plankton, which constitute a major food source for many organisms like fishes thus creating the foundation of the global food web of species.
• Changes in ocean circulation influence the rate of nutrient supply from depths to the surface thus carrying reproductive cells and ocean life to new places. For instance, the Southern Ocean is a major player in this balance, as its upwelling supplies nutrients for 75% of global primary productivity.
• The meeting of the cold and warm currents provides a conducive ground for the breeding of fish across the Eastern coasts of continents. For example, the meeting of the Labrador (cold) and Gulf Stream (warm) currents near Newfoundland, the meeting of the Oyashio (cold) and Kuroshio (warm) currents near the coast of Japan, etc.

Ocean currents are critical to the interrelated and integrated global climate system, which not only keeps the globe habitable but also constitutes and supports the biodiversity on the planet.