In order to counteract climate change and desertification, the Center is considering an ambitious proposal to build a 1,400 km long and 5 km wide green belt from Gujarat to the Delhi-Haryana border along the lines of the “Great Green Wall” that spans the entirety of Africa from Dakar (Senegal) to Djibouti.
Though the concept is still in its infancy, it has already sparked great interest among officials from various ministries who think that, if approved, the project could end up being a legacy program in India’s efforts to combat land degradation and the eastward advance of the Thar desert.
They think that creating a green belt along the Aravali hill range, which crosses Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi, will not only help to restore degraded land through afforestation but also serve as a barrier for dust from the deserts in western India and Pakistan.
The recent United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) meeting (COP14) in India included the idea of constructing a sizable green belt as one of its main topics. However, it was unable to be brought up there because the final approval was still pending, according to an official who spoke on the record.
No official was ready to discuss the idea on the record, claiming that it would be premature to do so before it had received approval.