On 17 August 2026, India launched its first-ever Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs) of India at the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The launch was preceded by a video message from Shri Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, who made the argument the document exists to correct: grasslands, scrublands and ravines have "for too long been judged by the absence of trees" — despite sheltering species found nowhere else on earth and sustaining pastoral communities.
That single sentence is the reason this is worth an article rather than a line. It names a measurement error with policy consequences, and questions built on that structure are the ones that reward understanding over recall.
The core idea: judged by the absence of trees
For most of the last century, Indian land classification treated tree cover as the marker of ecological value. Land without trees was recorded — in revenue and forestry records alike — as "wasteland".
The consequences followed logically from the label. Land classified as waste is land available for something else: for plantation drives, for solar parks and industry, for "compensatory afforestation" that plants trees on ecosystems that were never meant to have them. Planting a forest on a savanna is not restoration. It is conversion, and it destroys the very thing that made the system valuable.
What the ecology actually shows is that open natural ecosystems are ancient, not degraded. They are shaped over long timescales by grazing, fire and seasonal drought — the three processes that keep them open. They are, in the strict sense, a climax community in their own right, not a forest that failed to grow.
The Minister's own framing was personal and precise: growing up in Ajmer, Rajasthan, surrounded by grazing land and desert scrub "often described as wasteland", and recalling the traditional Oran and gauchar landscapes protected by villages — commons where communities understood that "land, herds and their own lives were closely interconnected."
That reference matters. Orans are sacred groves and community-protected pasture in Rajasthan; gauchar is village grazing commons. They are working examples of the institutional arrangements studied in the governance of common-pool resources — locally enforced rules that sustained a resource for centuries without private ownership or state policing.
What the Guide contains
The Guide brings together information on major Open Natural Ecosystems across India, covering their geographical settings, ecological characteristics, biodiversity, and the communities and tribes associated with them, with thematic sections on pastoralism, fire ecology and carbon sequestration.
India's ONEs, as the Guide maps them, span:
- Himalayan and Terai grasslands
- The Thar and Banni landscapes
- Deccan savannas
- Rocky plateaus and ravines
- Scrublands, coastal ecosystems and desert landscapes
Three functions are highlighted: these ecosystems support distinctive biodiversity, contribute to soil and water processes, and store substantial carbon in their soils.
That last point is the one most often missed. A grassland stores most of its carbon below ground, in root systems and soil organic matter, rather than above ground in woody biomass. It therefore looks carbon-poor to a satellite counting canopy — and it is far more fire-resistant as a carbon store than a forest, because soil carbon does not burn in a grass fire. Any assessment that counts only above-ground biomass will systematically undervalue these systems.
Species associated with Indian ONEs include the Great Indian Bustard, the Indian wolf, the blackbuck, the caracal and the lesser florican — several of them critically endangered precisely because open habitat has been converted.
Who produced it
The Guide was launched at an official COP17 side event under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, with publication organised by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in collaboration with:
- the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
- the Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Land Management (CoE-SLM)
- the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE)
- the Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO
The ISRO involvement is worth flagging: the practical obstacle to protecting ONEs is land-degradation assessment — you cannot defend what your classification system records as waste. Remote sensing is how the classification gets rebuilt.
Discussions at the event emphasised the role of ONE restoration in achieving India's Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) targets, and the need for stronger scientific knowledge, improved degradation assessment and landscape-level planning.
The UNCCD frame
The Convention. The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions that emerged from the 1992 Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro — alongside the UNFCCC (climate) and the CBD (biodiversity). The UNCCD was adopted in 1994, and its Secretariat is at Bonn, Germany. It is the only one of the three with a specific focus on drylands.
COP17. Hosted by Mongolia at Ulaanbaatar, 17–28 August 2026, under the theme "Restoring Land, Restoring Hope", with 197 Parties.
India's record here. India hosted COP14 in New Delhi in 2019, which produced the Delhi Declaration. At it, India raised its 2030 land-restoration target from 21 million hectares to 26 million hectares, and announced a Centre of Excellence to promote South–South exchange.
Land Degradation Neutrality. LDN is the state in which the amount and quality of land resources needed to support ecosystem functions remains stable or increases over a given period. It is the target of SDG 15.3. The operating principle is a hierarchy — avoid, reduce, reverse — in that order, because avoiding degradation is cheaper and more certain than restoring degraded land.
The three terms examiners confuse. - Desertification — land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. It does not mean the physical advance of sand dunes. - Land degradation — a reduction in the biological or economic productivity of land, anywhere. - Drought — a temporary meteorological or hydrological deficit, not a permanent state of the land.
Why it matters — and the tension in it
It is a classification reform, and classification drives policy. Once a landscape ceases to be "wasteland" in the record, the default assumption that it is available for conversion weakens. That is a larger practical change than any single protected area.
It corrects a carbon-accounting bias. Policies that reward tree planting per hectare will keep converting grassland until soil carbon is counted properly.
It has a livelihood dimension. Pastoralism is the land use these ecosystems support — mobile, seasonal, and consistently disadvantaged by land laws that assume settled cultivation and fixed tenure.
The honest tension, and the strongest thing to say in a group discussion: India has simultaneously committed to restoring 26 million hectares and to a large tree-cover and carbon-sink target. Those two goals can collide, because the cheapest way to show progress on the second is to plant trees on open land — which counts as degradation of the first. Recognising ONEs as ecosystems in their own right is what makes the conflict visible. Resolving it needs restoration targets that are ecosystem-appropriate rather than uniform, and that is a policy choice India has not fully made yet.
🔑 Revision block
The event. 17 August 2026 — India launched its first-ever Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs) of India at UNCCD COP17, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, at an official side event. Video message by Bhupender Yadav, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The core argument. Grasslands, scrublands and ravines have "for too long been judged by the absence of trees." ONEs are ancient, not degraded — maintained by grazing, fire and seasonal drought, and a climax community in their own right. Labelling them "wasteland" made them administratively available for conversion; planting a forest on a savanna is conversion, not restoration.
Traditional commons named. Oran (sacred grove / community-protected pasture, Rajasthan) and gauchar (village grazing commons).
What the Guide covers. Geographical settings, ecological characteristics, biodiversity, and associated communities and tribes, with thematic sections on pastoralism, fire ecology and carbon sequestration.
India's ONEs. Himalayan and Terai grasslands · the Thar and Banni landscapes · Deccan savannas · rocky plateaus · ravines · scrublands · coastal and desert landscapes.
The carbon point most often missed. Grasslands store most carbon below ground, in roots and soil organic matter — so they look carbon-poor to a satellite counting canopy, yet are a more fire-resistant carbon store than forest. Species: Great Indian Bustard, Indian wolf, blackbuck, caracal, lesser florican.
Who produced it. MoEFCC aegis · published by ATREE, with IUCN, CoE-SLM, ICFRE and SAC, ISRO.
The UNCCD. One of the three Rio Conventions from the 1992 Earth Summit — with the UNFCCC (climate) and CBD (biodiversity). UNCCD adopted 1994, Secretariat Bonn; the only one focused on drylands. COP17: Ulaanbaatar, 17–28 August 2026, theme "Restoring Land, Restoring Hope", 197 Parties.
India's record. Hosted COP14, New Delhi, 2019 → the Delhi Declaration; raised its 2030 restoration target from 21 to 26 million hectares; announced a Centre of Excellence for South–South exchange.
Land Degradation Neutrality. Land resources needed for ecosystem function remain stable or increase; the target of SDG 15.3; hierarchy avoid → reduce → reverse.
Three terms not to confuse. Desertification = degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas — not advancing sand dunes. Land degradation = falling biological or economic productivity, anywhere. Drought = a temporary deficit, not a permanent land state.
The tension, for essay and GD. India's 26 million hectare restoration target and its tree-cover/carbon-sink target can collide — the cheapest way to show progress on the second is to plant trees on open land, which degrades the first. The fix is ecosystem-appropriate, not uniform, restoration targets.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. UNCCD COP17 was held at: (a) Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (b) New Delhi, India (c) Bonn, Germany (d) Riyadh, Saudi Arabia → (a).
Q2. The UNCCD Secretariat is located at: (a) Bonn (b) Geneva (c) Nairobi (d) Montreal → (a).
Q3. The UNCCD was adopted in: (a) 1994 (b) 1992 (c) 2000 (d) 1972 → (a) — the Earth Summit was 1992.
Q4. Which is NOT one of the three Rio Conventions? (a) Montreal Protocol (b) UNFCCC (c) CBD (d) UNCCD → (a) — the Montreal Protocol concerns ozone.
Q5. India hosted UNCCD COP14 in: (a) New Delhi, 2019 (b) Mumbai, 2015 (c) Hyderabad, 2012 (d) Chennai, 2021 → (a).
Q6. At COP14 India raised its 2030 land-restoration target to: (a) 26 million hectares (b) 21 million hectares (c) 50 million hectares (d) 10 million hectares → (a) — up from 21 million.
Q7. Land Degradation Neutrality is the target of: (a) SDG 15.3 (b) SDG 13.1 (c) SDG 6.4 (d) SDG 2.1 → (a).
Q8. The LDN response hierarchy is: (a) avoid, reduce, reverse (b) reverse, reduce, avoid (c) restore, replant, retain (d) protect, plant, produce → (a).
Q9. Desertification refers to land degradation in: (a) arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas (b) all areas equally (c) coastal areas (d) mountain areas only → (a) — it is not the advance of sand dunes.
Q10. "Oran" in Rajasthan refers to: (a) a community-protected sacred grove or pasture (b) a canal system (c) a desert dune (d) a revenue village → (a) — gauchar is grazing commons.
Q11. Grasslands store most of their carbon: (a) below ground, in roots and soil (b) in tree canopies (c) in surface litter only (d) in standing water → (a).
Q12. The Guide was published by which organisation under MoEFCC aegis? (a) ATREE (b) WWF-India (c) TERI (d) CSE → (a).
Q13. Which ISRO centre collaborated on the Guide? (a) Space Applications Centre (b) VSSC (c) ISTRAC (d) NRSC → (a).
Q14. Which species is associated with Indian open natural ecosystems? (a) Great Indian Bustard (b) Gangetic dolphin (c) Snow leopard (d) Olive Ridley turtle → (a).
Q15. The theme of UNCCD COP17 was: (a) Restoring Land, Restoring Hope (b) Land Belongs to the Future (c) Our Land, Our Home (d) One Earth, One Family → (a).
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Desertification and land degradation are asked in four dependable ways. The Rio Conventions item — naming all three, their years and their secretariats, with the Montreal Protocol as the standard distractor. The definitional item — what desertification actually means, where the "dry sub-humid" qualifier appears, and the difference from drought; this is the most frequently mis-answered part of the topic. The India-hosted item — COP14 at New Delhi, the Delhi Declaration and the 26 million hectare pledge. The SDG item — LDN and SDG 15.3. The fresh 2026 hook is the Guide to Grasslands and ONEs launched at COP17, Ulaanbaatar, and the argument that open ecosystems are ancient rather than degraded. We reference the pattern, not any exact past question.
Preparing for CDS or OTA? "Why is planting trees on a grassland a bad idea?" is an unusually good essay and interview question, because the obvious answer is wrong and the correct one takes thirty seconds to explain. Follow our daily CDS/OTA current affairs and prepare with our faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Aditya Tiwari — Economy, governance & current-affairs faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk. The Cavalier, founded by ex-Army officers, has trained NDA/CDS/SSB aspirants since 2001 (Facebook · YouTube).
Source: PIB / Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, 17 August 2026. Facts cross-verified with independent sources.