Desertification – where land degrades, becomes arid and loses its fertility – is now affecting more than 76 per cent of Mongolia’s total land territory. Climate change and human activity are both to blame and the situation has serious implications for the lives of nomadic herders as well as the nation’s food and water security.

Earlier this year, the country’s president Ukhnaa Khurelsukh officially launched the One Billion Tree movement, an ambitious plan to reverse the relentless spread of the Gobi. 

Mongolia aims to achieve the target by 2030, as part of its commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Various incentives will encourage more people, as well as mining companies and corporations, to be involved.

The province of Ömnögovi has pledged to plant 70 million trees and provide financial packages to individuals for maintaining new trees in the area. Specialists there have designated 900,000 ha of land for forestation.

According to climate scientists, the idea has strong merits. In a special summary by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in 2019, it was reported that “native and other climate resilient tree species with low water needs, can reduce sand storms, avert wind erosion, and contribute to carbon sinks, while improving micro-climates, soil nutrients and water retention”.

“In the Gobi, it is difficult to be a herder. No rain, with too many mines. For the last three years, we haven’t had any rainfall and we are just moving with our animals,” Nergui said.

“I left my camels because you need more people to herd the animals, it is a lot of work. I visited them this year and cut their fur in the spring.

“My camels aren’t doing well, they’ve gotten really weak. Maybe there are no plants they can eat and no water either. It’s quite bad,” he said.

Their new location in Ömnögovi does not offer a stable future either. The pasture is parched. There are too many animals scouring for the little greenery peeking out of the crusted soil. Yet another move is on the cards.

“We will move from here. We don’t have winter lodging and it is someone else’s homeland. If we move to the north, we are just afraid of the cold. In my homeland, it is warm and doesn’t get much snowfall. That is what I am afraid of,” Nergui said.

The family will look to the more plentiful grasslands, knowing they will be unwelcome there too and that the desert will be pursuing them like a shadow.

“If it rains, we will go back. If it doesn’t, there is no way for us to go back. Desertification is everywhere.”

LUCKNOW/BHUBANESHWAR, India: Floods and landslides triggered by intense monsoon rains killed at least 50 people in northern and eastern India over the last three days, officials said on Sunday (Aug 21).

The rains overwhelmed hundreds of villages, sweeping away houses and leaving residents stranded as rescue crews have been racing to evacuate survivors.

Earlier this month the federal weather office had predicted that India was likely to receive an average amount of rain in August and September, pointing to overall good crop yields in Asia’s third-biggest economy that relies on farming to boost growth and generate jobs.

Farming contributes around 15 per cent to India’s US$2.7 trillion economy while sustaining more than half the population of 1.3 billion.

Heavy showers followed by landslides and flooding in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh over the past three days killed at least 36 people, a state government official told Reuters.

In the neighbouring mountainous state of Uttarakhand, an official government release said that four were dead and 13 were missing due to continuous rainfall.

“We have deployed choppers to rescue people who are stuck in remote areas due to rain related incidents. The rescue operation is happening on full swing,” said Ranjit Kumar Sinha, an official in Uttarakhand’s disaster management department.

In the eastern state of Odisha, at least six people were dead amid ongoing torrential rains, a state official said.

Floods have affected nearly 800,000 people and displaced thousands from their homes in Odisha, with rains disrupting electricity and water supply, and damaging road infrastructure.

The state has evacuated 120,000 people so far from the affected areas.

Authorities in the Ramgarh district of the eastern state of Jharkhand said five people had been swept away by the waters of the swollen Nalkari river on Saturday.

Four bodies have been recovered so far, said Madhvi Mishra, a district official in Ramgarh.