“Wastelands”. That’s how India’s biodiverse semi-arid grasslands and savannas have been undervalued ever since the British colonial era. For the masters, the woody forests of the subcontinent fuelled industrialisation, while the grassy biomes served no purpose in their timber-driven colonisation.
Much of post-independence policy and jurisprudence drew heavily from the erstwhile rulers and “wastelands” made their way into land records and government policy. In 1985, a National Wastelands Development Board was created to bring a more scientific basis “to identify, classify and develop the wastelands” towards more productive uses. Ravines, scrub lands, degraded scrub forests, degraded pastures, grazing lands, barren rocky areas, glaciers and snow-covered mountains, along with mining or industrial wasteland and degraded plantation land, were all classified as wastelands.
For decades, studies have shown that far from being a wasteland, these savanna grasslands are flourishing ecosystems that not only harbour unique biodiversity but also provide livelihoods to millions of pastoral communities. Take Maharashtra, for instance. The State’s livestock economy was valued at over ₹59,000 crore in 2018-2019, and that’s just one year.
What lies beneath
Grasslands play a crucial role in building and maintaining healthy soils, primarily through their deep, fibrous root systems that stabilise the ground, enhance soil structure, and promote long-term carbon storage. Unlike forests, where most biomass is above ground, grassland productivity is concentrated below ground, creating dense root mats that improve water infiltration, reduce erosion, and buffer soils against drought. These roots continually deposit organic matter, enriching soils with stable carbon compounds that can persist for centuries. Grassland soils also support diverse microbial and fungal communities that drive nutrient cycling and maintain soil fertility. When grasslands are degraded, converted, or afforested, these below-ground processes are disrupted, leading to compaction, erosion, loss of soil organic carbon, and reduced ecosystem resilience.
As the climate crisis worsened, the importance of carbon sequestration in ecosystems moved to the forefront of global discussions. Research began pouring in from around the world, showing that grasslands hold enormous potential for carbon sequestration. Thus, in addition to their role as an abode of diverse wildlife and their socio-economic importance, we now know that grasslands store a huge amount of below-ground carbon, which remains undisturbed even by fire.
A pioneering initiative in Solapur’s semi-arid grasslands signalled a shift in the Maharashtra State forest department’s perception of these ecosystems. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) that manages funds collected for the conversion of forest land to non-forest for developmental works, decided to use a part of this for restoring degraded grasslands.
CAMPA authority of the Maharashtra forest department restored degraded patches of grassland in the Malshiras forest range of Solapur district over several years. Native grasses such as Dicanthium annulatum, Chrysopogon fulvus and Cenchrus setigerus were raised in a nursery and then later planted in situ after the first monsoon showers.
Subsequently, a study was conducted by researchers from Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, Bengaluru and The Grasslands Trust, in partnership with the forest department to understand the impacts of these restoration activities on soil, including carbon sequestration. This study compared restored plots of different ages (one, two and three years) to an unrestored site, and to an undisturbed old-growth grassland. The study revealed that the restored grasslands showed a significant increase in the soil organic carbon (SOC) at the treatment sites compared to the control sites.
After two years, the restored sites showed an increase of 21% SOC compared to the untreated site, and a massive 50% greater than the untreated by the third year. These findings highlight how grassland restoration from the CAMPA funds paves the way for India to meet its climate goals.
Another recently published study by researchers at ATREE has documented the remarkable carbon sequestration potential of the Banni Grassland in the Kutch district of Gujarat. Once celebrated as the largest tropical grassland in Asia, Banni suffered decades of policy missteps that promoted large-scale planting of the invasive mesquite (Neltuma juliflora). This rapidly transformed vast open savannas into dense, impenetrable thickets, degrading both ecology and pastoral livelihoods.
The study reveals a striking pattern: restored grassland patches, locally known as wada, store the highest levels of soil organic carbon (SOC), followed by wetlands and dense woodlands. The lowest SOC values were found in mixed woodland stands and saline grasslands. What makes Banni especially noteworthy is that these restored patches were revived by the community itself — first by removing Prosopis and allowing native perennial grasses to regenerate
Carbon-rich and arid
The Maldhari pastoralists manage these areas through rotational grazing, controlled harvest of standing biomass, and careful monitoring of grass recovery. Across its four major land-use types, Banni stores 27 metric tonnes of carbon up to 30 cm soil depth, with an average SOC density of around 120 tonnes of carbon per hectare. This places Banni among the most carbon-rich arid ecosystems globally, demonstrating that healthy grasslands, not invasive trees, underpin true climate resilience in drylands.
Banni also shows the way forward: restoring native grasses, removing invasive woody cover, and placing pastoralist communities at the centre of governance. Participatory, community-led grassland management is not just a restoration method—it is the restoration outcome.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reminds us that soils hold twice as much carbon as the atmosphere and all living biomass combined. In an era of rising temperatures and more frequent forest fires, the relative stability of SOC in grasslands—protected beneath the soil surface—is an advantage we urgently need to recognise.
On World Soil Day 2025, Banni and Malshiras teaches us a profound lesson: our strongest climate solutions lie beneath our feet. The deep roots of native grasses have been storing carbon for millennia, long before the word “sequestration” entered our vocabulary. India’s climate-resilient future will not be achieved merely by planting trees; in many places, especially in our drylands, it will come from restoring ecosystems where the soil still remembers how to breathe.
Tushar Pathade is a policy analyst and Abi T. Vanak is director, Centre for Policy Design at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bengaluru.
Published – December 05, 2025 06:00 am IST
