The Economic Times

In just decades, the world's fourth-largest lake vanished and became a 23,000-sq-mile desert. Now millions of shrubs are bringing hope back

The Aral Sea, once the worlds fourth-largest lake, dramatically shrank after Soviet irrigation diverted its rivers. Today, Kazakhstan is restoring part of the northern basin, reviving fisheries and ecosystems, while Uzbekistan is planting millions of acres of drought-resistant vegetation across the exposed seabed. Together, these efforts aim to reduce dust, stabilise damaged landscapes and recover parts of a devastated eco