Explain any four human activities which …

Continuous use of land over a prolonged period of time without taking necessary steps to conserve and manage it, has resulted in land degradation.
Four human activities responsible for land degradation in India are as follows :
(i) In states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa deforestation due to mining have caused severe land degradation. Mining sites are dug, drilled or quarried and abondoned after excavation work is over, leaving the landover burdened and in a highly degraded state.
(ii) Mineral processing like grinding of limestone for cement industry and calcite and soapstone for ceramic industry generate huge quality of mineral dust in the atmosphere which ultimately settles down on the land. It retards the process of infiltration of water into the soil, thus, degrading the land. Discharge of industrial effluents and wastes cause pollution and land degradation in industrial regions.
(iii) In states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra overgrazing is one of the main reasons for land degradation.
(iv) In Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh over-irrigation is responsible for land degradation. It leads to water logging which in turn increases salinity and alkalinity in the soil and reduces its fertility.

Human interventions which are causing land degradation are (1) deforestation, (2) overgrazing by livestock, (3) mismanagement of agricultural land, (4) overexploitation of the vegetative cover for domestic use, and (5) (bio)industrial activities. The main causes of the land degradation includes climate change, land clearance and deforestation, depletion of soil nutrients through poor farming practices, overgrazing and over grafting. In India, water erosion is the most prominent reason of land degradation. Its impacts can be far-reaching, including loss of soil fertility, destruction of species habitat and biodiversity, soil erosion, and excessive nutrient runoff into lakes. Land degradation also has serious knock-on effects for humans, such as malnutrition, disease, forced migration, cultural damage, and even war.