Question

Integrated Wasteland Development Programme (IWDP) had been under implementation since

• A. 1979-80
• B. 1989-90
• C. 1994-95
• D. 1997-98

Hint:

Recall which decade India's wasteland development schemes, alongside the National Wastelands Development Board, began in.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
The Integrated Wasteland Development Programme (IWDP) is a government of India scheme aimed at developing wastelands, degraded, non-forest, non-agricultural land, mainly through a watershed based approach, so this question is really asking when this scheme began.

Step 2: Key Formula or Approach:
Recall the timeline of India's land and wasteland development programmes. The National Wastelands Development Board was set up in 1985, and the IWDP itself was launched a few years later as one of the flagship schemes under it.

Step 3: Detailed Explanation:
1979-80 comes before the National Wastelands Development Board itself was even created, so the programme could not have started this early.
1994-95 and 1997-98 come after the scheme was already running under the National Wastelands Development Board, later brought under the Department of Land Resources, so these dates are too late to be the actual launch period.
1989-90 is the year the Integrated Wasteland Development Programme was actually launched, as one of the earliest major initiatives under the wasteland development mandate, using a watershed approach to restore degraded land through soil and moisture conservation, afforestation and pasture development.

Step 4: Final Answer:
IWDP has been under implementation since 1989-90, so option 2 is correct.