Question

How can deforestation lead to desertification?

Answer 1

Hint: Deforestation term refers to the cutting down of trees from the area that we generally called as forest, it can be due to many reasons whereas desertification is the process in which the land and the soil is left devoid of humus that makes it infertile and eventually it gets converted into desert.

Complete answer:
Desertification as mentioned above is directly linked to deforestation as one of the functions of trees is to hold the top layer of soil with the help of their roots and stem in order to get nutrients for their survival. Top layer is rich in all the essential elements which are important for a plant to grow. But when deforestation takes place it can be due to many reasons like some of main are as follows:
Urbanization, Infrastructure expansion, Wood extraction, Agriculture expansion, human activities etc. can definitely lead to deforestation which results in cutting down of trees in large numbers leaving the area barren due to which quality of soil gets degraded and gradually it loses its properties of fertility which has humus in it. This process ends to desertification leaving the useless and converts it into desert. And to study this in deep we can count the numbers of deserts throughout the world i.e. soil which is of no use left.

Note: If specifically discussed about our country “India” so main reasons of deforestation which is absolutely not good at all for soil are over grazing, forest fires, Mining, Increase in population, Urbanization, Industrialisation etc.