Context
The Gujarat forest department is planning to restore 10,000 hectares of the Banni grasslands in the coming year, and every year in the coming decade.
About Banni grasslands of Gujarat
- Banni grassland was declared a Protected Forest in 1955, under the Indian Forest Act, 1927.
- Banni, a high-biodiversity area, is situated in Arid climate, with high temperatures most of the time which reach up to 48°C -50°C during May June and winter temperature goes down to 5°C – 8°C during December January.
- Flora & fauna: The grassland have 40 species of grass and 99 species of flowering plants.
- It is also home to the Indian wolf, jackal, Indian fox, desert fox, desert cat, caracal, hyena, chinkara, Nilgai, wild boar, Indian hare and common monitor lizard.
- Banni also has 273 bird species and in years of good rainfall, is home to thousands of migratory birds.
Grasslands of Gujarat
- The grasslands of Gujarat constitute about 4.33 per cent (8,490 sq km) of the total geographical area, distributed in eight districts and three different climatic regions:
- Kutch
- Saurashtra
- Central Gujarat
- A majority of grasslands in Gujarat (41 per cent) are found in the Kutch district.
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Deterioration of grassland (responsible reasons)
- heavy uncontrolled grazing
- widespread ingress of Prosopis Juliflora (a harmful exotic tree species)
- dams constructed on rivers flowing towards Banni
- periodic occurrence of droughts
- continuous increase in soil salinity
