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An expert panel convened during a recent national land governance conference urged the Union government to overhaul India's colonial-era 'wasteland' classification, arguing that mislabelled grasslands, wetlands, pastures, and village commons are being diverted or degraded due to flawed categorisation. The panel, comprising representatives from the Ministry of Rural Development, ISRO-SAC, IUCN, the Centre for Pastoralism, the Foundation for Ecological Security, and ATREE, maintained that these landscapes hold substantial ecological and economic value, including ecosystem services worth USD 90-110 billion annually. Speakers stressed that proper mapping, tenure clarity, and international commitments demand an immediate policy shift.
A high-level panel brought together by the WestBridge-supported Centre for Policy Design (CPD) at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) stated earlier this week that India's long-standing 'wasteland' categorisation continues to undermine biodiversity, weaken pastoral livelihoods, and risk the country's global climate commitments. The group emphasised that a scientific reclassification of grasslands, wetlands, pastures, village commons, and traditional systems such as Orans and Gochar lands could generate significant ecological and economic gains. Advertisement
The panel discussion formed part of the ninth edition of the India Land Development Conference (ILDC), which reunited policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and civil society leaders to examine land governance and environmental transition. The session, titled Reimagining 'Wastelands' of India: Policy Discussions for Arid Commons, featured contributions from Kunal Satyarthi of the Ministry of Rural Development, Manish Parmar of ISRO's Space Applications Centre, Aniruddh Sheth of the Centre for Pastoralism, Subrat Singh of the Foundation for Ecological Security, Archana Chatterjee of IUCN/Forest Landscape Restoration, and Dr Purnendu Kavoori of the Centre for Social Ecology. Collectively, they assessed how open natural ecosystems-grasslands, grazing lands, wetlands, and village commons-could be mapped and reassessed within India's land administration systems.
Dr Abi T. Vanak, who moderated the session in his capacity as Director of the CPD at ATREE, remarked that the term 'wasteland' had long conveyed an inaccurate suggestion that such areas were idle and therefore available for development or plantation drives. He noted that this misinterpretation disregarded the ecological richness of grasslands, savannahs, semi-arid zones, deserts, and wetlands, which not only act as biodiversity reservoirs but also serve as substantial carbon sinks. He added that village commons, which generate services valued at INR 5-7 lakh crore each year, needed careful documentation and management rather than being viewed as vacant land for construction or afforestation.
While protected forests, sanctuaries, and national parks benefit from clear ownership structures and formal management plans, the panel observed that 'wastelands' sit under ambiguous and often contested tenure arrangements. They pointed out that less than 5% of India's Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs) fall within legally protected areas, whereas nearly 70% are relegated to the wasteland category.
Participants cautioned that this outdated system of classification has significant policy implications. They explained that the ambiguity enables the diversion of commons for infrastructure projects under the pretext of 'unused land', while ecologically valuable grasslands are routinely targeted for compensatory afforestation schemes because they are wrongly deemed degraded.
Kunal Satyarthi noted that village commons remain overlooked largely because they sit across multiple departmental and data silos. He argued that resilient ecosystem management would require integrated governance, viewing these landscapes as interconnected systems. Recognising pastoral mobility, seasonal variations, and shared-use patterns as legitimate land management practices, he said, would support more equitable and forward-looking decisions.
The panel outlined a series of measures to correct existing gaps. Foremost among them was a harmonised national mapping platform that would combine satellite datasets, pastoralist movement records, and seasonal land-use information to develop precise classifications. They highlighted that mapping programmes in several states have already demonstrated that pastoral landscapes generate economic value of up to INR 1.3 lakh crore annually, reinforcing the notion that they are far from 'waste'.
Speakers also referenced India's international obligations as catalysts for reform. They observed that realigning India's wasteland classifications with its Land Degradation Neutrality pledges, commitments under the Bonn Challenge, the Convention on Biological Diversity's 30-30 target, and the country's climate NDCs would strengthen both national and global outcomes. Identifying these areas as OECMs (Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures), they said, could help capture ecosystem services valued at USD 90-110 billion annually.
The discussion culminated in a collective appeal for a unified, publicly accessible National Atlas that would consolidate accurate information on tenure, land use, and seasonal patterns across grasslands, wetlands, pastures, and other commons. The group argued that such an atlas would serve as a single reliable reference point for infrastructure planning, afforestation strategies, and preventing unauthorised land diversion.
The panel maintained that India is currently losing irreplaceable landscapes due to entrenched misclassification. Unless rectified at both administrative and policy levels, they cautioned, the country risks continuing the loss of its most biodiversity-rich and livelihood-critical ecosystems to unsuitable development practices and poorly targeted afforestation.
Source - PTI
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