The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought was observed on Sunday, and for Orissa the day assumed significance as vital ecological parameters allude to an evolving crisis of desertification of the State, said Water Initiatives Orissa (WIO). It said if one takes into account the factors like the trends in temperature, rainfall, land degradation and other climatic and environmental variations, they all imply to a state of desertification looming large over the State.
For instance, abnormal rise in the average recorded maximum temperatures in the State in excess of 4 degree Celsius in the last 10 years, barring Puri and Phulbani. For Sambalpur and Balangir, the maximum recorded temperatures raised by a threatening 6.6 and 6.7 degrees Celsius. And the coastal centres Baleshwar, Bhubaneshwar and Gopalpur recorded 5.5, 5.7 and 5 degree C respectively.
Regarding minimum temperatures the trend is more or less a mirror image of the above trend. Barring Phubani and Puri, the dip in lowest temperatures elsewhere is below three degree Celsius in 10 years. But for Sambalpur, Keonjhar and Jharsuguda the fall is below 5 degree C.
Ominous signs in rainfall trends too, the State's normal annual rainfall is 1482.2 mm, but the average annual rainfall in last 20 years and last 10 years were fallen to 1394.9 mm and 1375.3 mm respectively. A decreasing trend was observed in areas like Sambalpur, Raygada, Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Nuapada, Balangir districts and the decrease ranges in between 11 to 17 per cent.
But some coastal districts registered a rise in average annual rainfalls during the 15-year period in the range of 3-12 per cent over the normal.
Puri and Baleshwar recorded a rise of 3 per cent and 12 per cent over the normal rainfall. This pattern points to a picture that shows drought prone districts getting drier and flood prone districts getting more wet, all signs of desertification. Apart form this, the pace of land degradation in the State is very worrying. Between years 1991-92 to 2004-05, an additional 2.2 per cent of total geographic area of Orissa has turned barren & uncultivable, 3.8 per cent more has stayed fallow.
So in 13 years, around 7.7 per cent of the State's geographic area turned unfit for sustainable agriculture. With State's 18 per cent of total geographic area, excluding forest area, has turned unfit for agriculture. Around 1.6 per cent of more area in the State was converted to non-agricultural purposes.
"We cannot anymore ignore or take lightly the climatic changes and its impacts on Orissa," said Ranjan Panda, convener of WIO. And warned of massive desertification of Orissa and the State may turn a desert in another 150 years.
WIO says even with increase in irrigation potential, and other chemical and fertilizer inputs average annual production of paddy, pulses, oilseeds, potato, onion and other vegetables have decreased by 6.8, 56.4, 44, 20.7, 14.4 and 24.8 per cent respectively in a decade and called it an impact of climate change. It further says increasing desertification factors puts a question mark on State's food security, given the fall in agro
production
