Desertification/land degradation status mapping of India.

Desertification is the process of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry-subhumid areas. This communication describes the classification system, methodology and the results of desertification and land degradation status mapping carried out for the entire country on 1:500,000 scale using multi-temporal Resourcesat AWiFS data. The dominant processes of land degradation, viz. water erosion, vegetal degradation, wind erosion, salinization/alkalization, water logging, frost heaving, frost shattering, mass movement, etc. have been deciphered and mapped using satellite data. The study reveals that 105.48 mha area of the country is undergoing processes of land degradation (32.07% of the total geographic area of the country). Area undergoing desertification is 81.4 mha.