29% of the earth’s surface is made up of land on which plants animals and human beings live.

Land pollution refers to the degradation of land, soil and its nutrients due to various human
activities such as deforestation, urbanization, agriculture activities, etc. The land consists of
forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, cities, villages and other settlements. The land sustains life on
earth. It is because of the land that we can produce food that sustains our growing population
boom. Also, forests that stand on land sustains all the living beings, from animals to plants and
trees and even the grasslands.

When we refer to land pollution, we mean the degradation of land and its fundamental properties.
these include removal of its nutrients, desertification and ultimately making it a barren land, which
means that a particular piece of land cannot support life on earth.

But in recent years, the land has been over-exploited by man because of his need and greed.
There are plenty of reasons for the pollution of land, some which are,

Agriculture

Agricultural activities have been a pivotal reason for the degradation of land. There are certain
harmful agricultural practices that farmers follow in many countries that have led to this problem.
Burning of land is one of the biggest causes of both land pollution and air pollution. Burning of the
land after harvest helps in regaining the nutrient in the soil. But this land will lose its original
nutrient and humus capacity thereby turning it into a barren land after a few years. This crop
burning activity will also cause lots of air pollution because of the release of high amounts of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Statistics suggest that the high level of pollution in the capital
city of India, New Delhi, is because of the crop burning activities in the neighbouring states.

Other than crop burning, farmers tend to clear forest covers in order to convert it into agricultural
land. This practice, on a large scale, will lead to massive deforestation. Once the land is cultivated,
farmers tend to move to other nutrient-rich pieces of land thereby making the previous piece of
land abandoned and barren. This practice on a repeated cycle will lead to desertification of the
land. We can’t entirely blame the farmer for this situation. Lack of knowledge and technical
expertise in good agricultural practices has led to this problem. Governments need to educate and
create an awareness campaign for the farming community to follow judicious and environmentally
friendly agricultural policies. Also, there should informative awareness campaigns for family
planning and proper laws and regulations in place to control the growing population of India.

Urbanization and Industrialisation

With the increase in population, it has been difficult to control the expansion of cities. Metropolitan
cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai or New Delhi has been increasing and gulping up its neighbouring
towns due to lack of space within the cities. The reasons for this rapid urbanisation are many,
some of which are migration of people from rural to the urban area in search of a better livelihood,
increase in market size for industries to open up, improvement in consumer demand and
technological advancements. This has led to garbage disposal problems leading to massive
exploitation of open lands.

Large factories, sky scrappers, airport, damns, bridges and other infrastructural development in the
country are putting massive amounts to pressure on our lands. To feed the growing population in
cities, deforestation is taking place for agricultural purpose, to feed the growing thirst of our
population, groundwater is getting depleted at an ever-increasing rate. If the same tendencies
continue, experts have predicted that the survival of the human race in the next 50 years will be a
big question mark.

As much as oxygen is important for the survival of living beings on earth, the land is also
necessary to sustain life. Without land, no living being can continue on this planet. Collectively, it
becomes our responsibility to formulate strong and effective laws and regulations to prevent further
land pollution. It is not just the responsibility of governments or a corporate house, each individual
citizen needs to take care of the environment to leave earth as a better place for future generations