Context:
 

• Recently, the steady and rapid disappearance of sand dunes in the Western parts of Rajasthan has been witnessed.
• The development has become a cause of worry for the experts and policymakers alike.
• The loss of the natural path of sand dunes due to human activities has forced the experts to attempt to understand and study its potential consequences on the local ecosystem.
  
   

Reasons for decline of sand dunes:

• According to natural resource division of Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), sand dunes have dwindled by 16 per cent between 1970 and 2013.
• An in-depth study about the changing patterns of environmental conditions in the desert region has indicated human habitation to be a major precipitating factor.
• The study has further elucidated that the region which is under the human habitat has been transformed from barren land into a cropped area.
• Such human habitation has resulted in a 10,000 years old stabilisation of sand dunes.
• Such large scale geological changes are quite likely to have an adverse impact on the unhabituated land, flora and fauna the study further states.
• Moreover, the study explains that another reason behind the decline in sand dunes is the indiscriminate planting of trees in different geometrical patterns, checkerboard and horizontal, in order to maintain the flow of winds.
• This is hampering the formation of sand dunes even in areas that are beyond human habitation.
• Overgrazing by livestock is also an important factor that has been creating an impact on flora and fauna of the region.
  
   

Importance of sand dunes:

• Sand dunes help in fostering vegetation which is a major requirement for fauna.
• This in turn helps in regulating the food chain which was established thousands of years ago and has been functional since then.
• According to experts and scientists in soil and water conservation department, CAZRI,  sand dunes act as a protective cover as it stabilises the impact of strong winds and sand storms.
• Urban areas are the first to bear the brunt as these areas get directly affected due to the absence of sand dunes.
  
   

Steps taken to restore sand dunes:
 

• Studies are now underway to find out if the rate at which the irrigated land is eating away the desert space would lead to expansion of sand in new urban spaces.
• Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) has taken the initiative to introduce several steps to revamp sand dunes in the western parts of Rajasthan.
• Some of the steps taken include – fencing, planting grass slips, micro windbreaks in 4 lakh hectares in districts such as Barmer, Bikaner, Churu, Jaisalmer, and Jodhpur.
• These preventive measures have helped in the reduction of wind velocity.
• Moreover, the impact of sand storms in the human habitat has also decreased with the help of the aforesaid measures.

Central Arid Zone Research Institute:

Mandate:

• Basic and applied research on sustainable farming systems in arid ecosystem.
• Maintain a repository of information on the state of natural resources and desertification processes
• Livestock-based farming systems and range management practices for the chronically drought affected areas
• Generation and transfer of location-specific technologies Infrastructure
   

• The Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) is one of the premiere research institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), an autonomous organization working under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture Research and Education of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of Government of India.
• CAZRI has the distinction of being one of the first institutes in the world exclusively devoted to arid zone research and development.
• The institute made its beginning in 1952 when Government of India initiated Desert Afforestation Research Station at Jodhpur to carry out research on sand dune stabilization and for establishment of shelter belt plantations to arrest wind erosion.
• The institute conducts multi-disciplinary research to seek solutions to the problems of farming in arid regions of the country.
• The hot arid zone covers about 32 million hectares area in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, while the cold arid zone, covering about 7 million ha area, is located in the states of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.