NATURAL and man-made reasons such as snow-covered areas, coastal saline area forest blank, barren hill-ridges, etc.Deforestation, overgrazing, over-cultivation and UNSKILLED irrigation also majorly contribute to the formation of wastelands.Land Use and wasteland of different states-Bihar: About 63% of the area of the state is under cultivation, and nearly 72% of this is the net sown area.Forests account for nearly 17% of the state.The remaining 20% is either left barren or is unculturable/culturable wasteland. Degraded and wastelands in Bihar account for 1,371 thousand ha.West-Bengal: About 60% of the total area of the state is under cultivation and 24% of the cultivated land comprising 1.28 M ha is under irrigation.Forestlands account for 12% and land not available for cultivation account for 18% of the total geographical area of the state. Out of 8,875 thousand ha of the state, 2,140 thousand ha (24% of TGA) are affected by various kinds of degradations.Andhra Pradesh: Agriculture is the MAINSTAY of nearly 73% of the population.Traditional agriculture predominates, except in the coastal and irrigated areas, where high-intensity agriculture is practised.Of the total geographical area of the state, about 40% is under cultivation, which is below the national average of 45%.The total area of degraded lands in the state is about 9,193 thousand ha.Tamil Nadu: Hilly areas have a major portion under forests and natural vegetation cover, and the plains are intensively cultivated. Cultivable lands account for about 50% and forests about 16% of the TGA. Degraded and wastelands area of the state totals to 2,997 thousand ha, which is about 23% of TGA.Jammu & Kashmir had the largest area of wastelands in the country, which was more than double of wastelands in Rajasthan, the state with the second-largest area of wastelands in the country. These TWO states are followed by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in terms of the maximum area of wastelands.