Thermal Power Plant Pollution Land Degradation : an Economic and Environmental Studt Of Ramagundam, AP, India / B. Suresh Lal and M. Ravinder

Land degradation is one of the major ecological issues of the world. Land degradation hazard is a result of a series of factors which affects the land productivity, capacity, capability and further leads to a significant loss of availability of agricultural land, wealth and economic development of a specific region. The pertinent causal factors which are liable for the same problem are water and wind erosion, overgrazing, increasing human and livestock population, salinity. alkalinity, water logging, industrial pollution, mining and quarrying activities, urbanization, improper and faulty crop rotation, poor irrigation practices, recurring droughts and floods. According to an estimate the land degradation problem is affecting more than 1900 million ha

of the land worldwide. In case of India, as per the 10th five year plan, Ministry of Agriculture (Govt. of India) a total of 1736.4 lakh ha. of land was estimated to be degraded. The data pertaining to the same issue reveals that the extent of the problem was reported maximum in Rajasthan i.e. 373.94 lakh ha, 207.17 lakh ha. in MP, 198.46 lakh ha. in Maharastra, 125.86 lakh ha. in Gujarat, 122.31 lakh ha. in AP. Followed by 114.03 lakh ha. in Karnataka State. Out of them, Andhra Pradesh accounts only seven per cent area of the total degradable land of the whole country. In the study region, about 122.31 lakh ha. is suffering from land degradation hazard, out of which about 103.54 laklı ha. is estimated to be degraded only by water erosion, about 11.48 lakh ha. is degraded by forest, about 3.39 lakh ha. affected by water logging and nearly 2.4 lakh ha. area is suffering from the problem of water logging followed by merely 1.5 lakh ha. by shifting cultivation. Apart from all that above stated fact and figures, a large number of thermal power plants located in various parts of the country including the study region also contributing a lot to further deteriorate and accelerate the existing problem of land degradation. The thermal power plant of Ramagundam and nearby power plants presently releasing enormous and thousand tons of chemical effluent water into nearby agricultural fields, canals, streams

and river, as a result adversely affects on the human health, plants, animals, vegetation, soil, water. So keeping in view the importance and gravity of the problem, an attempt has been made in the present research paper to highlight the various relevant factors of land degradation. Apart from that, the another objective of the present research paper is also to discuss the impact of land degradation followed by Thermal Power Plant Pollution (TPPP) on various economic and environmental issues in details. An attempt has also been made to suggest the various relevant strategies to mitigate the problem of land degradation in the study region.