India restores nearly 22 million hectares of degraded land, says Bhupender Yadav at UN conference

NEW DELHI: India has restored nearly 22 million hectares of degraded and deforested land during the 2011-20 period as against its target of restoring 26 million hectares by 2030, said Union minister Bhupender Yadav at a UN conference Monday, reports Vishwa Mohan.While addressing the 17th session (CO) of the UNCCD conference in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, he also pitched for “diversified, adequate, predictable and sustained international finance” for land restoration and drought resilience, saying it is not a cost, but an investment in food, water, biodiversity, livelihood and long-term resilience.Underlining how the country’s restoration efforts had generated approximately 1.2 billion person-days of employment during the 2011-20 period, he said these figures demonstrated restoration could deliver both environmental and socio-economic outcomes by reviving degraded landscapes while creating employment and supporting rural livelihoods.