‘Wastelands’ No More: India Charts a Future for Its Grasslands - Yale E360

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A wolf looks out over grasslands in the Indian state of Maharashtra.<br>Mihir Godbole / The Grasslands Trust

it’s almost noon, and the sun is high over gulunche, a village in the western indian state of maharashtra that is surrounded by sugarcane fields, grassy pastures, and short trees. the landscape appears verdant, but it belies an ecological precarity. the sugarcane guzzles water in the semi-arid terrain; a dominant tree species is a south american mesquite, introduced decades ago to fight desertification and provide firewood; and the grass itself has been overrun by a single species that provides poor fodder for the wild herbivores and sheep that depend on these pastures. standing on the edge of a small nursery off the highway, conservationist mihir godbole points to rows of tall green grasses growing at the edge of a trench. the grass is one of several indigenous species thought to have vanished from the land years ago and that his organization, the nonprofit grasslands trust, is trying to revive in one corner of this 50-acre site. the blades have survived two summers now without irrigation or fertilizer. “it can grow without a lot of external inputs,” says godbole. “that tells us that this is the right grass for this region.” godbole’s experiment is a small step in an ambitious effort to restore the region’s native grasslands — part of a new conservation agenda in a country better known for tiger-filled forests than open savannas. such efforts are showing early signs of success: in the arid northwestern state of rajasthan, grassland restoration efforts in the tal chhapar wildlife sanctuary have brought a resurgence of wildlife and birds. in gujarat’s banni grasslands, pastoralists have helped remove invasives and restored around 7,000 acres of land. "><br>It’s almost noon, and the sun is high over Gulunche, a village in the western Indian state of Maharashtra that is surrounded by sugarcane fields, grassy pastures, and short trees. The landscape appears verdant, but it belies an ecological precarity. The sugarcane guzzles water in the semi-arid terrain; a dominant tree species is a South American mesquite, introduced decades ago to fight desertification and provide firewood; and the grass itself has been overrun by a single species that provides poor fodder for the wild herbivores and sheep that depend on these pastures.<br>Standing on the edge of a small nursery off the highway, conservationist Mihir Godbole points to rows of tall green grasses growing at the edge of a trench. The grass is one of several indigenous species thought to have vanished from the land years ago and that his organization, the nonprofit Grasslands Trust, is trying to revive in one corner of this 50-acre site. The blades have survived two summers now without irrigation or fertilizer. “It can grow without a lot of external inputs,” says Godbole. “That tells us that this is the right grass for this region.”<br>Godbole’s experiment is a small step in an ambitious effort to restore the region’s native grasslands — part of a new conservation agenda in a country better known for tiger-filled forests than open savannas. Such efforts are showing early signs of success: In the arid northwestern state of Rajasthan, grassland restoration efforts in the Tal Chhapar Wildlife Sanctuary have brought a resurgence of wildlife and birds. In Gujarat’s Banni grasslands, pastoralists have helped remove invasives and restored around 7,000 acres of land.

A plan to map India’s grasslands “signals an important shift in government thinking about these ecosystems,” says a researcher.

And in an important policy move, India’s National Board for Wildlife in April directed government agencies to map, for the first time, the extent and biodiversity of these ecosystems nationwide. The findings will eventually be published in an “Atlas of Grasslands,” with a view to creating a national policy framework to protect and manage these lands. “It’s a long overdue recognition,” says Abi Vanak, an advisor to the Grasslands Trust and the director of the Centre for Policy Design at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. “[The move] signals an important shift in government thinking about these ecosystems.”

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The shift is not restricted to India. International attention on grasslands and other scrub landscapes has grown in recent years. A key policy moment, says Chetan Kumar, global head of forests and grasslands at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was the publication of the United Nations’ 2024 Global Land Outlook report, which highlighted the untapped potential of rangelands and pastoralism to bolster climate resilience, biodiversity, and rural development. This year is also the U.N. International Year of Rangelands and...