Adverse Impact of Canal Irrigation on the Environment in Hyper Arid Parts of the Indian Desert

Abstract

Rajasthan is the largest state of 3,42,200 sq. km. It has a large population of over 70 million people
with an average density of 205 persons per sq. km. Indian desert has the largest livestock pressure.
Rajasthan has the largest 21.1 million hectares of land under crop landuse. It also has 3 million hectares
of irrigated land. This scenario appears to be the result of obsession for bringing more area under cultivation even in the environments fragile and vulnerable to desertification. Indira Gandhi Canal has transformed the desert landscape in Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Barmer
districts. It has brought about massive expansion of agriculture in the arid and hyper-arid lands of the
Indian desert. However, there are shortages of water supply in the secondary distributary areas. Hence,
the lands which were cleared off for agriculture and now with inadequate water supply have become
vulnerable to aeolian processes of erosion and degradation. Their protective meagre but valuable vegetation cover was removed for agricultural expansion. The agricultural expansion even in the remote and
acute desert areas did not benefit the indigenous poor people as most of the new agriculturalists in the
area came from the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana. The present study is an environmental
analysis in the Indira Gandhi Canal Command Area. The study undertakes a village level analysis of
percentage irrigated area to the total geographical area of the village. The objectives of the study are to
identify micro level environmental repercussions of canal irrigation in the Indian desert.