| Popis: |
Grasslands together with rangelands & pastoral scenery, forms about 40% of the global land surface, and remains an important ecosystem to offer livelihoods for more than 800 million people. They are active sink for about one-third of the global stock of carbon. The growing issues of climate change and water scarcity have added a new dimension to the values of such lands with a critical warning to appropriately understand their hydrological processes and water budget. Harnessing optimum productivity of bio-mass and water from such land parcels is a growing need to cater the upward feeding demands of India's livestock (being largest in the world ~623 M of which at least 50 % depends upon open grazing on natural grasslands). Indian grasslands are still least understood and underestimated natural habitats where grazing-based livestock husbandry continuously influence the regional water economy. The rationale of this paper is revealing potential benefits and developmental prospects of Indian grasslands to facilitate their elementary role to regulate prevailing natural resources at watershed scales. It describes the interacting factors that indeed affect the hydrologic cycle under rangeland/pastureland conditions. The author has shared his own case studies and 20 years operational experiences while being actively engaged in planning, development and management of grasslands, wastelands, and degraded forest catchments in many parts of India. It also includes few outcomes from execution of soil & water conservation plans & measures controlling runoff and soil erosion to deliver better (quantitative & qualitative) biomass outputs from such lands. A substantial food for thought is provided for debating & devising a suitable component of water policy framework exclusively for such lands. |
