The Great Green Wall Will Protect India From Natural Disasters

A huge 1400-km-long "green belt" of forests will help to fight against climatic changes, sandstorms and woodland reduction. Such ambitious plan was made by the government of India, a tvbrics.com correspondent reports with the reference to TASS.

The "Great Green Wall" called by analogy with the well-known Chinese protective construction will extend from the western State of Gujarat to the northeast, up to the border between the Delhi capital territory and the State of Haryana. With a length of 1400 km, the width of the forest strip will be 5 km.

The authors of the project were inspired by a similar African belt from Dakar to Djibouti. The Indian belt is designed to play a role of the shield protecting from powerful sandstorms from the western Thar Desert. In addition, by 2030 they are going to use this project to return fertility to 26 million hectares of lands, restore woods on them and turn these desert areas into green oases.

At the moment, nearly a third of Indian territory – more than 29 million hectares – has lost its forest cover. States Gujarat and Rajasthan, and the Union Territory of Delhi suffer from deforestation most of all. In this context, the "Green Belt" is the one to put big hopes on.