India restored 21.76 million hectares of degraded land between 2011 and 2020, generating 1.22 billion person-days of employment in the process. The data, released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, aligns with India's Land Degradation Neutrality commitment under the UNCCD. India has pledged to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 under its updated Nationally Determined Contribution and its Bonn Challenge commitment, contributing to both climate mitigation and rural livelihood goals.

Land degradation neutrality (LDN) is a state where the amount and quality of land resources remains stable or increases within a specified ecosystem and time period. It is operationalised under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), to which India is a party. India submitted its voluntary LDN target as part of its broader NDC commitments under the Paris Agreement.

India's restoration target of 26 million hectares by 2030 is also linked to the Bonn Challenge — a global effort launched in 2011 to restore 150 million hectares by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. India pledged 21 million hectares under the Bonn Challenge and later raised its ambition.

The 21.76 million hectares restored between 2011 and 2020 demonstrates significant progress. Key programmes driving this include the Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), now subsumed under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) – Watershed Development Component, MGNREGS (which explains the massive employment generation figure), and the Green India Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).

The employment co-benefit — 1.22 billion person-days — is significant because it quantifies land restoration as a rural livelihood intervention, not merely an ecological one. This dual dividend (ecological restoration + employment) is central to India's argument that climate action and development are complementary, not competing, goals. NABARD finances watershed and land restoration projects through its Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) and climate finance windows.