Union Environment Minister urges community-led restoration of Aravalli Range to combat desertification

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Tuesday called on the citizens to actively participate in restoring degraded forest areas in the Aravalli region, stressing the importance of using indigenous plant species in ecological restoration efforts.

“Build ideal nurseries in every village. Why decorate the halls using imported varieties? These could have been embellished using the local varieties, too,” the minister said, encouraging people to promote native flora through plantation drives and creating region-specific nurseries.

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Speaking at a national workshop hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change at the Arid Forest Research Institute (ICFRE-AFRI) in Jodhpur, Yadav warned that a significant portion of India’s land is undergoing desertification. He attributed this to human-led degradation, driven largely by unsustainable agricultural practices, including excessive use of urea and indiscriminate pesticide application.

To counter this, he stressed the importance of community-led restoration initiatives under government schemes such as Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam, Matri Van, and Amrit Sarovar. These programmes, he said, demonstrate how grassroots action can play a pivotal role in reversing environmental damage.

Highlighting the critical role of the Aravalli mountain range—which stretches 700 kilometres across 29 districts and acts as a natural barrier against desertification—Yadav urged citizens to support the Green Wall Project launched earlier this year. The initiative aims to combat desertification and drought through mass afforestation along the Aravalli belt.

To inspire participation, the minister shared a personal practice: gifting one plant to officers at the village and district levels and urging them to multiply that effort by planting a hundred more, creating a Matri Van (mother forest) in each constituency he visits.

Yadav further emphasised that ecological restoration is not limited to tree planting alone. “Every villager should contribute by reforesting grazing or barren land in their area, not only by planting trees but also by reviving grasslands. This brings back birds, animals, and even the smallest microorganisms,” he said, adding that every species, from micro to macro, plays a vital role in reviving ecosystems.