In Asia and South America it is 39% and 30% respectively. DW's half-hour radio show and podcast brings you environment stories from around the globe. We use cookies to improve our service for you. "Three to four years ago, they used to be lush and green. European countries can also suffer from cracked soil and dried up waterways. They (hills) act as barriers.”. “Thirty-one hills or hillocks have disappeared. For decades, China has been trying to counter this trend by reforesting. The Hindu has always stood for journalism that is in the public interest. As the climate in the region changed, it led to the creation of a vast sandscape. "After the mining, the atmosphere gets filled with the storm of the dust which is fatal," he told DW. ", Read more: Saving Mumbai's natural mangrove buffer against rising tides, Preventing pollution by saving the mountains. "This is the only place where we can get water. This week: solar-powered irrigation in Rwanda, flip-flops made of algae and churches in Ethiopia protecting forests. One man is protecting the last remaining natural forest near India’s capital Delhi. This could be one of the reasons that we have so much pollution in Delhi. Farmers crowd their pastures with animals that eat every last plant. But Girdhari Singh, the owner of the Creative Projects & Contracts construction company argues that housing is just as important as hills – and that development requires change. You can find more information in our data protection declaration. A small lake fed by groundwater that fell to earth as rain thousands of years ago, serves to remind of times gone by. The Aral Sea on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan illustrates a failed agricultural policy that led to desertification. We also reiterate here the promise that our team of reporters, copy editors, fact-checkers, designers, and photographers will deliver quality journalism that stays away from vested interest and political propaganda. The top court said that it was compelled to pass an order to stop illegal mining activities in the area within 48 hours as it appeared that the State has taken the issue “very lightly”. Local resident, Munna Mev, who is in the hills collecting fresh leaves to feed his goats, says the ban has been ineffective. Elections in India usually center around communities, religion, jobs and development. If hills will disappear in the country, what will happen? He says that crushing rocks mined in the Aravalis releases a lot of dust into the air, causing pollution in the form of respirable particulate matter. During the hearing, the Bench asked the State’s counsel as to what steps have been taken by them to stop illegal mining activity in the Aravallis. Breaking them apart though, says Chetan Agarwal, a senior fellow at the Centre for Ecology in New Delhi who has been researching the range for the last 10 years, has the exact opposite effect. On the World Day to Combat Desertification, the United Nations wants to draw attention to this increasingly urgent problem. When the water falls, the limited rains we have helps to raise the water level," she told DW. You have reached your limit for free articles this month. On a visit to, Undefined Aravalis falling prey to mining as bureaucrats collude with exploiters, How shrinking Aravalis opened giant gateway for dust pollution in Delhi-NCR, Gurugram: ‘Policy’ to look the other way hurting the Aravalis, The disappearance of India's Aravali Hills. It directed the Chief Secretary of Rajasthan to file an affidavit regarding compliance of its order within the week and posted the matter for October 29. The Aravalis of south Haryana constitute at least one-third of the 3.59% forest cover of the state but they are being denied the status of a legal forest. (11.03.2019), Legend has it that the world will come to an end if women scale the Agasthyarkoodam peak in India's southern state of Kerala. In the past, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world; today there is little left of it. In Spain, desertification is accelerating — triggered by the demand to accomodate an influx of tourists from all over the world. Have people become ‘Hanuman’ that they are running away with hills?,” Justice Lokur asked the counsel appearing for Rajasthan. | Mobile version, Fed up with fly ash, India villagers fight back against power plants, 2018 report by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC), Saving Mumbai's natural mangrove buffer against rising tides, How foul air in India is putting people's lives in danger. Local ecologist, Vijay Dhasmana the landscape is feeling the pressure from of urbanization. For sake of few miners in your State, you are endangering the lives of lakhs of people in Delhi,” the Bench said. It is often connected to human behavior. Uganda's young social entrepreneurs are tackling their country's many problems. "See these mountains," he said pointing at the pocked and scarred landscape. The GIZ estimates that desertification affects 485 million people in Africa. "We are losing wildlife, plant species and villages are losing grazing lands," he told DW, adding that the loss of the hills implies a huge loss of biodiversity. "Desertification" describes the transistion of fertile land to desert. The soil is loosened and eventually eroded by wind and rain. A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta referred to the status report filed by the Rajasthan government and said it indicated that illegal mining activity was going on in 115.34 hectare area in Aravalli range in the State.