Human settlements to occupy 16% land of Aravallis by 2029

The fast-changing land use pattern of Aravallis hill range into human settlements, Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and mining is leading to gradual environmental catastrophes.

A research report titled Assessment of Land Use Dynamics of the Aravalli Range by the Central University ofRajasthan(CURAJ) Department of Environment and Earth Sciences (DEES) projected by 2029, 16% of the Aravalli land would be consumed by settlements from 4.5% of the land in 1975. The land under agriculture will shoot up from 18.9% in 1975 to 28% in 2029 causing additional Stress on surface and underwater reserves. The total area under the range is 75572.8 square kilometres.

The study assessed land-use dynamics patterns between 1975 and 2019 using remote sensing and machine Learning-based approaches. It has made the projection on the available data on settlements, forest cover, water bodies, and barren land till 2059 concluding that it will disturb the geo equilibrium of the region from Delhi-Ahmedabad.