Prosopis Juliflora and Climate Change: Energy and Livelihoods of People in Semi-Arid Drought Prone Areas

The ‘Prosopis debate’ has become an important topic of discussion and policy in India during recent years, primarily due to Prosopis juliflora becoming an aggressive weed in several states, , though the plant had earlier, in the late sixties/early seventies been introduced by state Department of Forest activities for greening degraded land and as fencing material. Now 30-40 years later Prosopis Invasion of grasslands, protected forests and nature reserves has alarmed ecologists. Invasion of irrigation channels and arable land has affected the agricultural community, and landowners and large commercial farmers have seen their income threatened.