Question

How does land pollution occur?

Answer 1

Hint: India is the seventh largest country in the world in terms of India. Ever-growing population and urbanization is creeping into its forests and agricultural lands. In India, a major proportion of land mass suffers from various forms of land degradation due to water and wind erosion and other complex problems like alkalinity/salinity and soil acidity due to water logging. An integrated approach to the problem of degradation, linking agriculture and the environment is an urgent need.

Complete answer:
 The drivers of land pollution are, Agriculture practices, Shifting cultivation, Excessive chemical usage, agriculture waste residue burning, soil erosion, change in forest cover, mining, flooding, desertification.
 Deforestation, cutting of trees beyond the permissible limits, unsustainable fuel-wood and fodder extraction, shifting cultivation, encroachment into forest lands, forest fires and overgrazing, all of which subject the land to degradational forces.
Soil pollution from heavy metals due to improper disposal of industrial effluents, along with the excessive use of pesticides and mismanagement of domestic and municipal wastes, is becoming a major concern. Some commercial fertilizers also contain appreciable quantities of heavy metals, which have undesirable effects on the environment. The indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, is often responsible for land degradation. Soil texture, infiltration and permeability characteristics are affected adversely to a considerable extent due to excessive grazing, fire and mismanagement of land under cultivation.
The strategies identified to check land-degradation are as follows:
Land degradation problems could be tackled to an extent by suitable policies that would internalize the issue into proper decision-making.
Develop and implement viable models of public-private partnerships for setting up and operating secure landfills, incinerators.

Note:The drivers of land pollution are agriculture practices, Shifting cultivation, Excessive chemical usage, agriculture waste residue burning, soil erosion, change in forest cover, mining, flooding, desertification. Development of suitable and sustainable cropping patterns and rotations would help in conservation of our land resource. Appropriate techniques for the treatment and disposal of toxic and hazardous waste, both industrial and biomedical needs to be developed and implemented.