Land degradation is increasingly becoming a major concern for Indian agriculture on which two-third of the population depend for their livelihood. Many policies and programs have been initiated in the last two decades to address this problem but the results are meager. Analysis of causes of land degradation and their extents is very important to design suitable policies to overcome the degradation problem. It is in this context, this paper identifies the major socio-economic variables that explain land degradation. It also finds economic and social costs of land degradation and the net benefits from taking up conservation activities and finally draws some lessons on what are the right policy instruments to promote sustainable land management practices. The Total Economic Value (TEV) concept has been used in deriving the costs and benefits. Our findings from state level analysis suggest that 'input subsidies' and 'decreasing land-man ratio' are two major determining factors that increase land degradation. Rationalizing input subsidies will go a long way in improving the management of land resources. At the household level, the number of crops grown and the operating area are significantly influencing land degradation. The analysis of the costs of action versus inaction against land degradation shows that costs of inaction are higher than the costs of action, indicating the benefits that will accrue if sufficient conservation practices are undertaken. Institutions and incentive mechanisms play important roles in changing the behavior of farmers to act in a resource conservative way.

This study aims to determine the trade-off between river pollution and the growth of the economy in the context of India using the concept of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). According to EKC theory, environmental pressure tends to rise faster than income growth in the early stages of economic development and then declines in the later stages with further economic growth. The present study has used the cross-sectional time series data for river pollutants of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Dissolved Hydrogen Ions (PH) across various states of India for the period 1990-1991 to 2005-2006. This study shows why the conventional EKC model is not sufficient to ascertain the declining path of pollution as the economy grows in the second stage. The paper uses the modified EKC theory where the EKC curve is proposed to have 2 turning points. Our results indicated 'tilted-S shaped' relationship which contradicts EKC in the early stages. Most of the regions that were studied have crossed the first turning point but are still to cross the second turning point, which means that there will be an ascent in the pollution level in the future. This calls for more stringent environment policies complementing the desired growth path.

With the increasing demand for non-wood forest products for medicinal purposes and due to its high scope for value addition, these products are increasingly extracted by local communities not only for subsistence use but also to generate cash income. This study explores the factors determining the dependence of local people on a protected forest area for commercial purposes, from a case study in India. The findings go along with that of similar studies that alternative income sources would greatly reduce the dependence on the forest. This paper computes present value of NTFP using the data from a household survey. The projected value for the population, which gives the opportunity cost of prohibiting the use of forest by the local people, would serve as a good indicator for the policy decision on compensation to be paid to the local people for relocating them from the forest area.

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