PIB TrackerIndia's rangelands case at UNCCD: pastoralists as custodians, not beneficiaries
At the CoP17 ministerial dialogue in Ulaanbaatar, Bhupender Yadav put 25,000 sacred groves, 10 million hectares of permanent pasture and recognised grazing rights at the centre of India's pitch.
What happened
- Bhupender Yadav addressed the Ministerial Dialogue on rangelands at UNCCD CoP17 in Ulaanbaatar.
- He said restoration begins with pastoralists as custodians, not merely beneficiaries.
- He cited around 25,000 community-protected sacred groves covering about 0.6 million hectares.
- India has roughly 10 million hectares of permanent pastures and grazing lands.
- He sought dedicated, accessible financing for rangeland restoration and offered South-South cooperation.
For Prelims
- UNCCD: the UN Convention to Combat Desertification; its 17th CoP is being held at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
- Rangelands in India: from Himalayan pastures and Central Indian savannas to the arid Thar and Kachchh and the Southern sholas.
- Orans: sacred groves of Rajasthan, protected by communities for cultural and ecological reasons.
- Sacred groves: around 25,000 nationally, covering approximately 0.6 million hectares, many protected under statutory provisions.
- Great Indian Bustard: a grassland bird whose habitat these community-protected groves help conserve.
- Mapping: satellite-based Desertification and Land Degradation Atlases provide the scientific basis for planning restoration.
- Tenure: recognition of grazing rights and community forest resource rights strengthens local management.
- LDN: Land Degradation Neutrality, the goal towards which developing countries are advancing, for which India sought finance and technology.
For UPSC: The clearest statement of India's grassland position in an international forum, with the community-tenure argument attached to hard area figures. Use it for desertification, commons governance and the recurring finance question in environmental conventions.
What it is NOT: Rangeland restoration here does not mean fencing grazing out — India's case is built on grazing rights, fodder development and pastoral livelihoods as the instruments of restoration.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS3.4 · Linkage L2
Anchor
India argued for restoration through use rather than restoration through exclusion — grazing treated as the management tool, not as the pressure to be removed.
Substantiation (data)
Around 25,000 sacred groves over about 0.6 million hectares, roughly 10 million hectares of permanent pastures and grazing lands, mapped through satellite-based degradation atlases.
Exemplification
The Orans of Rajasthan hold pastoral land rights and Great Indian Bustard habitat in the same commons, which is why they survive as ecology and as tenure at once.
Problematisation
Restoration finance and restoration science both remain organised around forests, so grasslands compete for money under rules written for tree cover.
Way-forward
Tie recognised grazing and community forest resource rights to the restoration plans drawn from the degradation atlases, so mapping and tenure point at the same parcels.
Position
Grasslands are India's least defended ecosystem precisely because they look empty, and the pastoralist is the only constituency with a standing interest in keeping them open.
Deploys into: Conservation and pollution + agriculture (GS3.14, GS3.4) · desertification and land degradation neutrality, grassland ecology and community rights over the commons.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change · 2026-08-26 · PRID 2303391 · PIB source ↗