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68-673: Farakka Barrage is a barrage across the Ganga river located in Murshidabad district in the Indian state of West Bengal , roughly 18 kilometres (11 mi) from the border with Bangladesh near sahibganj . Farakka Barrage Township is located in Farakka (community development block) in Murshidabad district. Construction of the barrage started in 1962, and was completed in 1970 at

136-689: A tidal lagoon or estuary as a method to capture tidal power from tidal flows are known as tidal barrages . The English usage of the term barrage originates from the Delta Barrage across the Nile branches north of Cairo, built between 1833 and 1862 by the French Linant de Bellefonds and Eugène Mougel employed by the Egyptian Public Works Department, with assistance from Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin and with

204-662: A 25% increase in global annual dust emissions between the late nineteenth century to present day. The increase of desertification has also increased the amount of loose sand and dust that the wind can pick up ultimately resulting in a storm. For example, dust storms in the Middle East “are becoming more frequent and intense in recent years” because “long-term reductions in rainfall [cause] lower soil moisture and vegetative cover ”. Dust storms can contribute to certain respiratory disorders such as pneumonia, skin irritations, asthma and many more. They can pollute open water, reduce

272-514: A cost of 1 billion dollar . It became operational on 21 April 1975. The barrage is about 2,304 metres (7,559 ft) long. The Feeder Canal (Farakka) from the barrage to the Bhagirathi-Hooghly River is about 42 km (26 mi) long. Faraka Barrage is located at 24°48′16″N 87°55′59″E  /  24.80444°N 87.93306°E  / 24.80444; 87.93306 . Note: The two maps present some of

340-419: A major role in determining the biological composition of the soil , studies have shown that, in many environments, the rate of erosion and runoff decreases exponentially with increased vegetation cover. Unprotected, dry soil surfaces blow away with the wind or are washed away by flash floods, leaving infertile lower soil layers that bake in the sun and become an unproductive hardpan. Early studies argued one of

408-450: A number of factors, alone or in combination, such as drought, climatic shifts, tillage for agriculture, overgrazing and deforestation for fuel or construction materials. Though vegetation plays a major role in determining the biological composition of the soil , studies have shown that, in many environments, the rate of erosion and runoff decreases exponentially with increased vegetation cover. Unprotected, dry soil surfaces blow away with

476-437: A probable increase from 14 million in 2010 to nearly 200 million by 2050. This presents a future crisis for the region, as neighboring nations do not always have the ability to support large populations of refugees. In Mongolia , the land is 90% fragile dry land, which causes many herders to migrate to the city for work. With very limited resources, the herders that stay on the dry land graze very carefully in order to preserve

544-498: A result, changing ocean temperature and reductions in sulfate emissions have caused a re-greening of the region. This has led some scholars to argue that agriculture-induced vegetation loss is a minor factor in desertification. Human population dynamics have a considerable impact on overgrazing, over-farming and deforestation, as previously acceptable techniques have become unsustainable. There are multiple reasons farmers use intensive farming as opposed to extensive farming but

612-614: A result, the agreement is sometimes perceived to be failed by some sections in Bangladesh to provide the expected result. Constant monitoring of the implementation of negotiations in lean season continue to the present today. In Bangladesh, it is perceived that the diversion has raised salinity levels, contaminated fisheries, hindered navigation, and posed a threat to water quality and public health. Lower levels of soil moisture along with increased salinity have also led to desertification . However, this barrage still has significant effect on

680-455: Is a lack of political will, and lack of funding to support land reclamation and anti-desertification programs. Desertification is recognized as a major threat to biodiversity . Some countries have developed biodiversity action plans to counter its effects, particularly in relation to the protection of endangered flora and fauna . Techniques focus on two aspects: provisioning of water, and fixation and hyper-fertilizing soil. Fixating

748-790: Is exacerbated by land degradation because of the reduction in productivity, the precariousness of living conditions and the difficulty of access to resources and opportunities. Geographic areas most affected are located in Africa ( Sahel region), Asia ( Gobi Desert and Mongolia ) and parts of South America . Drylands occupy approximately 40–41% of Earth's land area and are home to more than 2 billion people. Effects of desertification include sand and dust storms , food insecurity , and poverty . Methods of mitigating or reversing desertification include improving soil quality , greening deserts , managing grazing , and tree-planting ( reforestation and afforestation ). Throughout geological history,

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816-458: Is mostly due to the climate conditions before the growing season, which influence the rate of evapotranspiration and subsequent plant growth. The expansion of the Gobi is attributed mostly to human activities, locally driven by deforestation , overgrazing , and depletion of water resources, as well as to climate change . South America is another area vulnerable by desertification, as 25% of

884-470: Is no single metric which can define all aspects. However, more intense climate change is still expected to increase the current extent of drylands on the Earth's continents: from 38% in late 20th century to 50% or 56% by the end of the century, under the "moderate" and high-warming Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5. Most of the expansion will be seen over regions such as "southwest North America,

952-562: Is still considered to be at risk of disappearing entirely. To limit desertification, the Great Green Wall (Africa) initiative was started in 2007 involving the planting of vegetation along a stretch of 7,775 km, 15 km wide, involving 22 countries to 2030. The purpose of this mammoth planting initiative is to enhance retention of water in the ground following the seasonal rainfall, thus promoting land rehabilitation and future agriculture. Senegal has already contributed to

1020-454: Is substantial evidence, including case studies, that points to dam construction having environmental impact , there are also studies that show less damage than expected. Looking at plankton near some dams has shown that plankton is able to continue to live through changes to its habitat. Changes such as the pH levels near dams have been recorded, and plankton was minimally affected. Other species, however, such as trout, are affected more, due to

1088-456: Is that a dam is built for water storage in a reservoir , which raises the level of water significantly. A barrage is built for diverting water, and raises the water level by only a few feet. The latter is generally built on flat terrain across wide, often meandering rivers. Similar distinctions are used in Egypt, where it is noted: "In this system a "dam" is a structure that forms a reservoir for

1156-453: Is through the use of nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Due to the higher cost of this fertilizer, many smallholder farmers are reluctant to use it, especially in areas where subsistence farming is common. Several nations, including India, Zambia, and Malawi have responded to this by implementing subsidies to help encourage adoption of this technique. Some research centres (such as Bel-Air Research Center IRD/ISRA/UCAD) are also experimenting with

1224-411: Is useful is contour trenching . This involves the digging of 150 m long, 1 m deep trenches in the soil. The trenches are made parallel to the height lines of the landscape, preventing the water from flowing within the trenches and causing erosion. Stone walls are placed around the trenches to prevent the trenches from closing up again. This method was invented by Peter Westerveld. Enriching of

1292-899: The North African climate cycle that alters the path of the North African Monsoon , caused by an approximately 40,000-year cycle in which the axial tilt of the earth changes between 22° and 24.5°). Some statistics have shown that, since 1900, the Sahara has expanded by 250 km to the south over a stretch of land from west to east 6,000 km long. Lake Chad , located in the Sahel region, has undergone desiccation due to water withdrawal for irrigation and decrease in rainfall. The lake has shrunk by over 90% since 1987, displacing millions of inhabitants. Recent efforts have managed to make some progress toward its restoration, but it

1360-641: The Bay of Bengal, and damage to the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans . Starting in 2016, some fish ladders have been built on the Farakkha barrage Barrage (dam) The term barrage is borrowed from the French word "barrer" meaning "to bar". Barrage dams have a series of gates that control the amount of water passing through. A barrage dam can be used to divert water for irrigation needs or limit

1428-488: The Earth. Such variations influence the strength of the West African Monsoon, inducing feedback in vegetation and dust emission that amplify the cycle of wet and dry Sahara climate. There is also a suggestion the transition of the Sahara from savanna to desert during the mid- Holocene was partially due to overgrazing by the cattle of the local population. Research into desertification is complex, and there

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1496-510: The Ganga river due to the high level back waters of the Farakka barrage. Substantial high land is already converted into low level river bed causing displacement of huge populations. The water diverted from the Farakka barrage is less than 10% of Ganga river water available at Farakka. As per the treaty between India and Bangladesh, signed in 1996, for sharing of the Ganges water at Farakka,

1564-643: The Gobi Desert itself is still a distance away from Beijing , reports from field studies state there are large sand dunes forming only 70 km (43.5 mi) outside the city. In Mongolia , around 90% of grassland is considered vulnerable to desertification by the UN. An estimated 13% of desertification in Mongolia is caused by natural factors; the rest is due to human influence particularly overgrazing and increased erosion of soils in cultivated areas. During

1632-404: The Mongolia government has listed forest fires , blights , unsustainable forestry and mining activities as leading causes of desertification in the country. The transition from sheep to goat farming in order to meet export demands for cashmere wool has caused degradation of grazing lands. Compared to sheep, goats do more damage to grazing lands by eating roots and flowers. To mitigate

1700-451: The amount of water downstream. In most cases, a barrage dam is built near the mouth of the river. The site of dam construction needs to be thoroughly investigated to ensure that the foundation is strong enough to support the dam and has low possibility of failing. When dams are created, they are given a safety rating depending on the type of dam, location, and the possible effects in case of failure. The ratings are from one to five, five having

1768-527: The barrage is to divert 1,800 cubic metres per second (64,000 cu ft/s) of water from the Ganges to the Hooghly River for flushing out sediment deposition from Kolkata harbour without the need of regular mechanical dredging. After commissioning the project, it was found that the diverted water flow from the Farakka barrage was not adequate to flush the sediment from the river satisfactorily. In addition, there are regular land/bank collapses in to

1836-783: The blessing of the Egyptian Viceroy of the Ottoman Empire , Muhammad Ali . When the British, after 1882, had to look after these structures generally referred to as barrages , they adopted the term in their language and continued to use it for similar structures built by themselves across the Nile (Zefta Barrage and Assiut Barrage , both completed in 1902). Since the British in the Egyptian Public Works Department kept close relations to their counterparts in British India ,

1904-505: The dam. With that data, they are able to see how the population size increased or decreased. In some cases, it was found that the species richness was less downstream from a dam compared to further upstream. Inhibiting the volume of water was shown to be detrimental to species diversity and richness. Also, at the entrance of dams, there are fewer nutrients due to the high-water flow reducing the ecosystem's reproduction standard. Along with species richness, plankton diversity can be an indicator of

1972-681: The development of deserts has occurred naturally over long intervals of time. The modern study of desertification emerged from the study of the 1980s drought in the Sahel . Desertification is a gradual process of increased soil aridity . Desertification has been defined in the text of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities." Definition of Desert – That area of

2040-569: The division is as follows: Farakka barrage has led to following problems upstream of the barrage: The Ganges is one of the major rivers of the world. It rises at an elevation of about 4,356 metres (14,291 ft) in Gangotri on the southern slope of the Himalayan range. About 70% of the total population of Bangladesh and about 50% of the Indian population live in the Ganges basin; 43% of

2108-470: The earth where the sum of rain and snowfall is much less than other areas, where the annual average rainfall is less than 25CM. Definition by UNO (1995) – Land degradation in barren, humid and sub-humid areas due to climate change and human activities is called desertification. As of 2005, considerable controversy existed over the proper definition of the term desertification with more than 100 formal definitions in existence. The most widely accepted of these

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2176-469: The ecosystem's ability to handle the newly-built dam. It has been shown that dams can have an effect on the migration of fish, leading to less reproduction. There are many small factors that can have a relatively large effect on the river ecosystems, such as species richness, water volume and nutrient levels. Different experiments have been done that looked into each of these individually and were able to determine why some dams cause such effects. While there

2244-411: The effectiveness of clean energy efforts, and halt most forms of transportation. Dust and sand storms can have a negative effect on the climate which can make desertification worse. Dust particles in the air scatter incoming radiation from the sun (Hassan, 2012). The dust can provide momentary coverage for the ground temperature but the atmospheric temperature will increase. This can disform and shorten

2312-709: The financial impact of desertification in Inner Mongolia , Bai Jingying teaches women how to do traditional embroidery, which they then sell to provide additional income. The Gobi Desert is expanding through desertification, most rapidly on the southern edge into China, which is seeing 3,600 km (1,390 sq mi) of grassland overtaken every year. Dust storms increased in frequency between 1996 and 2016, causing further damage to China's agriculture economy. However, in some areas desertification has been slowed or reversed. The northern and eastern boundaries between desert and grassland are constantly changing. This

2380-696: The fish. After the building of hilsha fish dwindles greatly in India, while the fish thrived in the lower Padma river river in Bangladesh. After the construction of the Farakka Barrage in West Bengal , the maximum flows in the Ganga-Padma River were reduced significantly. The flow reduction caused many problems in India and Bangladesh, including the loss of fish species, the drying of Padma's distributaries, increased saltwater intrusion from

2448-490: The gradual and rapid ecosystem changes caused by land use. The study found that, between 1982 and 2015, 6% of the world's drylands underwent desertification driven by unsustainable land use practices compounded by anthropogenic climate change. Despite an average global greening , anthropogenic climate change has degraded 12.6% (5.43 million km ) of drylands, contributing to desertification and affecting 213 million people, 93% of who live in developing economies . There has been

2516-450: The highest danger rating. The rating of five would be given to dams built with a town or city downstream, which would have higher possibility of injury to people in the case of dam failure. New designs have been made that are able to sustain greater amounts of water. An improved wedge-shaped block technology was developed by Rafael Moran and Miguel Toledo. The new structure is able to withstand severe flooding and uses less materials, reducing

2584-619: The inhabitants of drylands live in developing countries , where they also suffer from poor economic and social conditions. This situation is exacerbated by land degradation because of the reduction in productivity, the precariousness of living conditions and the difficulty of access to resources and opportunities. Many underdeveloped countries are affected by overgrazing, land exhaustion and overdrafting of groundwater due to pressures to exploit marginal drylands for farming. Decision-makers are understandably averse to invest in arid zones with low potential. This absence of investment contributes to

2652-451: The inoculation of tree species with mycorrhiza in arid zones. The mycorrhiza are basically fungi attaching themselves to the roots of the plants. They hereby create a symbiotic relation with the trees, increasing the surface area of the tree's roots greatly (allowing the tree to gather much more nutrient from the soil). The bioengineering of soil microbes, particularly photosynthesizers, has also been suggested and theoretically modeled as

2720-728: The land is classified as drylands and over 68% of the land area has undergone soil erosion as a result of deforestation and overgrazing. 27 to 43% of the land areas in Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru are at risk due to desertification. In Argentina, Mexico and Paraguay, greater than half the land area is degraded by desertification and cannot be used for agriculture. In Central America, drought has caused increased unemployment and decreased food security - also causing migration of people. Similar impacts have been seen in rural parts of Mexico where about 1,000 km of land have been lost yearly due to desertification. In Argentina , desertification has

2788-666: The land. Agriculture is a main source of income for many desert communities. The increase in desertification in these regions has degraded the land to such an extent where people can no longer productively farm and make a profit. This has negatively impacted the economy and increased poverty rates. There is, however, increased global advocacy e.g. the UN SDG 15 to combat desertification and restore affected lands. Drylands occupy approximately 40–41% of Earth's land area and are home to more than 2 billion people. It has been estimated that some 10–20% of drylands are already degraded,

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2856-412: The life time of clouds which can result in less rainfall. Global food security is being threatened by desertification. The more that population grows , the more food that has to be grown. The agricultural business is being displaced from one country to another. For example, Europe on average imports over 50% of its food. Meanwhile, 44% of agricultural land is located in dry lands and it supplies 60% of

2924-467: The low-lying part of the Gangetic valley. After the completion of the barrage at the end of 1975, it was agreed to run it with specified discharges for a period of 41 days from 21 April to 31 May during the remaining period of the dry season of 1975 under an accord announced as a joint press release on 18 April 1975. But after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975, relations between

2992-442: The main reason is to maximize yields. By increasing productivity, they require a lot more fertilizer, pesticides, and labor to upkeep machinery. This continuous use of the land rapidly depletes the nutrients of the soil causing desertification to spread. Scientists agree that the existence of a desert in the place where the Sahara desert is now located is due to natural variations in solar insolation due to orbital precession of

3060-661: The marginalization of these zones. When unfavorable agri-climatic conditions are combined with an absence of infrastructure and access to markets, as well as poorly adapted production techniques and an underfed and undereducated population, most such zones are excluded from development. Desertification often causes rural lands to become unable to support the same sized populations that previously lived there. This results in mass migrations out of rural areas and into urban areas particularly in Africa creating unemployment and slums . The number of these environmental refugees grows every year, with projections for sub-Saharan Africa showing

3128-535: The most common causes of desertification was overgrazing, over consumption of vegetation by cattle or other livestock. However, the role of local overexploitation in driving desertification in the recent past is controversial. Drought in the Sahel region is now thought to be principally the result of seasonal variability in rainfall caused by large-scale sea surface temperature variations, largely driven by natural variability and anthropogenic emissions of aerosols (reflective sulphate particles ) and greenhouse gases. As

3196-537: The mutual relation of these two neighboring countries. Farakka barrage has been criticized for the floods in Bihar as it is causing excessive siltation in the Ganga. Farakkha barrage also greatly reduced fish migration up the Ganga river. Adult sea fish, like the Hilsa fish usually breed in fresh water river. After Farakkha Barrage was built, there were no llfish migration fish ladders built to provide spawning area for

3264-490: The northern fringe of Africa, southern Africa, and Australia". Drylands cover 41% of the earth's land surface and include 45% of the world's agricultural land. These regions are among the most vulnerable ecosystems to anthropogenic climate and land use change and are under threat of desertification. An observation-based attribution study of desertification was carried out in 2020 which accounted for climate change, climate variability , CO 2 fertilization as well as both

3332-623: The notable locations in the subdivision. All places marked in the maps are linked in the larger full screen maps. The barrage was constructed by Hindustan Construction Company . Out of 109 gates, 108 are over the river and one over the low-lying land in Malda , as a precaution. The Barrage serves water to the Farakka Super Thermal Power Station . There are also 60 small canals which can divert some water to other destinations for drinking purposes, etc. The purpose of

3400-413: The period 1940 to 2015, the mean air temperature increased by 2.24 °C. The warmest ten-year period was during the latest decade to 2021. Precipitation has decreased by 7% over this period resulting in increased arid conditions throughout Mongolia. The Gobi desert continues to expand northward, with over 70% of Mongolia's land degraded through overgrazing, deforestation, and climate change. In addition,

3468-492: The physical dam inhibiting their migration and reproduction paths. Barrage dams control the amount of water going through them, leading to differences in the amount of water upstream and downstream from the dam. This discrepancy has different effects on different species native to the area. While there can be reduced flow downstream, there can also be problems upstream. Dams can have buildup of pressure that fish are not accustomed to, and they migrate further upstream, causing part of

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3536-586: The physical expansion of deserts has been rejected as the concept has further evolved since then. There exists also controversy around the sub-grouping of types of desertification, including, for example, the validity and usefulness of such terms as "man-made desert" and "non-pattern desert". The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This is driven by a number of factors, alone or in combination, such as drought, climatic shifts, tillage for agriculture, overgrazing and deforestation for fuel or construction materials. Though vegetation plays

3604-511: The potential to disrupt the nation's food supply. Techniques and countermeasures exist for mitigating or reversing desertification. For some of these measures, there are numerous barriers to their implementation. Yet for others, the solution simply requires the exercise of human reason. One proposed barrier is that the costs of adopting sustainable agricultural practices sometimes exceed the benefits for individual farmers, even while they are socially and environmentally beneficial. Another issue

3672-432: The production cost. Dam construction has several effects on the economy and the environment . Specifically, there are several ways in which the environment can be affected by dam construction. Species richness is usually measured to determine the effect of a dam on the ecosystem surrounding it. To observe the species richness, scientists collect data on the fish and animal populations before and after construction of

3740-579: The project by planting 50,000 acres of trees. It is said to have improved land quality and caused an increase in economic opportunity in the region. Another major area that is being impacted by desertification is the Gobi Desert located in Northern China and Southern Mongolia. The Gobi Desert is the fastest expanding desert on Earth, as it transforms over 3,600 square kilometres (1,400 square miles) of grassland into wasteland annually. Although

3808-473: The river to have reduced population sizes. Although there are environmental effects that come with building new dams, there are also economic benefits from a dam. Without dams, it would be much harder to farm and grow livestock. The irrigation technology that comes with building a dam can exceed the risk factor. According to the World Commission on Dams , a key difference between a dam and a barrage

3876-446: The rule in the Sahel region. The Sahel has lost approximately 650,000 km of its productive agricultural land over the past 50 years; the propagation of desertification in this area is considerable. The climate of the Sahara has undergone enormous variations over the last few hundred thousand years, oscillating between wet (grassland) and dry (desert) every 20,000 years (a phenomenon believed to be caused by long-term changes in

3944-402: The soil and restoration of its fertility is often achieved by plants. Of these, leguminous plants which extract nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil, succulents (such as Opuntia ), and food crops/trees as grains , barley , beans and dates are the most important. Sand fences can also be used to control drifting of soil and sand erosion. Another way to restore soil fertility

4012-444: The soil is often done through the use of shelter belts , woodlots and windbreaks . Windbreaks are made from trees and bushes and are used to reduce soil erosion and evapotranspiration . Some soils (for example, clay ), due to lack of water can become consolidated rather than porous (as in the case of sandy soils). Some techniques as zaï or tillage are then used to still allow the planting of crops. Another technique that

4080-455: The storage of water during the annual flood period of the Nile in order to supplement the natural flow of the river during the low-water period; a "barrage" merely raises the river or canal level, when necessary, to the height required for adequate flow into the canals that take off above it. Barrages are usually larger than the headworks of irrigation and navigation canals, with which they are associated. Barrages that are commonly used to dam

4148-410: The term barrages made its way to present-day India and Pakistan, as well as to the Middle East and thus generally into English. Desertification Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This is driven by

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4216-492: The total area affected by desertification being between 6 and 12 million square kilometers, that about 1–6% of the inhabitants of drylands live in desertified areas, and that a billion people are under threat from further desertification. The impact of climate change and human activities on desertification are exemplified in the Sahel region of Africa. The region is characterized by a dry hot climate, high temperatures and low rainfall (100–600 mm per year). So, droughts are

4284-399: The total irrigated area in India is also in the Ganges basin and there are about 100 urban settlements with a total population of about 120 million on its banks. As a result, Bangladesh and India have had many debates about how the Farakka Barrage cuts off Bangladesh's water supply and how to share the water . Right from the beginning, this created a concern for Bangladesh as it constitutes

4352-532: The two countries became greatly strained and India continued to withdraw water even after the agreed period. The diversions led to a crisis situation in Bangladesh in the dry season of 1976. In 1977, Bangladesh went to the United Nations and lodged a formal protest against India with the General Assembly of The United Nations, which adopted a consensus statement on 26 November 1976. Talks between

4420-462: The two countries were resumed in December 1976. No consensus was reached. Twenty years later, in 1996, a 30-year agreement was signed. It did not contain any guarantee clause for unconditional minimum amounts of water to be supplied to Bangladesh or India, nor could the future hydrological parameters taken into account as is always the case when water resources are planned on historic data series. As

4488-464: The wind or are washed away by flash floods, leaving infertile lower soil layers that bake in the sun and become an unproductive hardpan. This spread of arid areas is caused by a variety of factors, such as overexploitation of soil as a result of human activity and the effects of climate change . At least 90% of the inhabitants of drylands live in developing countries , where they also suffer from poor economic and social conditions. This situation

4556-477: The world's food production. Desertification is decreasing the amount of sustainable land for agricultural uses but demands are continuously growing. In the near future, the demands will overcome the supply. The violent herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria , Sudan , Mali and other countries in the Sahel region have been exacerbated by climate change , land degradation and population growth . At least 90% of

4624-618: Was that of the Princeton University Dictionary which defined it as "the process of fertile land transforming into desert typically as a result of deforestation , drought or improper/inappropriate agriculture". This definition clearly demonstrated the interconnectedness of desertification and human activities, in particular land use and land management practices. It also highlighted the economic, social and environmental implications of desertification. However, this original understanding that desertification involved

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