Essays for Civil Service Exams - UPSC, APPSC, TSPSC Group 1 Exams

Are you preparing for civil service examination like APPSC UPSC IAS or TSPSC Group 1 Exams? Then in this section  you can discover huge collection of important essays on various current affairs and events in the society which are mostly asked in the upcoming exams.

• Land Degradation in India - Causes & Impacts
• How to make Agricultural Profitable?
• Kashmir Issue - Issue, Militancy & Solution
• Smart Cities - Concept, Advantages, Problems & Solutions
• Agriculture Subsidies
• India China Relations
• Role of Non Resident Indians
• India France Relations
• Agricultural Policies of India
• Urban Population Scenario
• Sex-Ration: Its Impact, Causes of Low Ratio & how to mitigate the Gap
• Role of United Nations in 21st Century
• Disaster Prevention and its techniques in India
• Directive Principles in 21st Century of India
• Death Penalty in India - Should it Stay or Not?
• SAARC & It's Role in Changing World Scenario
• Maternity Mortality Rate in India

Urban Population Scenario

Sex-Ration: Its Impact, Causes of Low Ratio & how to mitigate the Gap

Role of United Nations in 21st Century

Disaster Prevention and its techniques in India

Directive Principles in 21st Century of India

Death Penalty in India - Should it Stay or Not?

SAARC & It's Role in Changing World Scenario

Maternity Mortality Rate in India

Land Degradation in India - Causes & Impacts

Land occupies about 29 per cent of the earth's surface, the rest 71 per cent is water. Land has soils, forests, agricultural lands, mountains, human habitations, animals, water bodies, etc. These components make up the land system, that supports the biodiversity in a region.

Man has been exploiting land and its resources. He has been clearing forest lands for agriculture. However, over the years, the agricultural practices have undergone a great change. Today, man cultivates genetically modified food crops and cash crops. These require a change in the techniques of production and support systems like better irrigation facilities, inputs like fertilizers, and pesticides. The demand of growing population for shelter, economic activities, transportation and recreational activities have added pressure on the land-use pattern. In order to meet the demand for land, natural lands are being converted to other land- use patterns, resulting in destruction of the land cover.

The change in land-use patterns induced by human activities can be judged from the following:

(i)         From 1700 to the mid-1980s, the cropland increased globally from 392% to 466%. It naturally grew at the expense of forest, grassland and wetlands.

(ii)        The net irrigated cropland has increased, over the last 200 years, from 80,000 sq. km. to 2,000,000 sq. km.

(iii)       The worldwide tree cover has decreased by about 15%. It is estimated that the annual global loss in forest cover may be as high as 1200,000 sq. km.

(iv)       Land-cover change has led to the loss of 27,000 species annually in tropical forests.

CAUSES OF LAND DEGRADATION: