Soil is one of the most important natural resources of man. Soils are essential for man for growing crops, fodder and limber. Once the fertile portion of the earth’s surface is lost, it is very difficult to replace it. In India, the destruction of the top-soil has already reached an alarming proportion.
Land degradation problems have resulted in increasing depletion of the productivity of the basic land stock through nutrient deficiencies. In addition to the direct loss of crop producing capacity, soil erosion increases the destructiveness of floods and decreases the storage capacity of water in reservoirs.
It is therefore essential that the soils should not be allowed to wash or blow-away more rapidly than they can be regenerated, their fertility should not be exhausted and their physical structure should remain suited to continued production of desired plant materials.
Protection of land from further degradation, adoption of various conservation measures, including reclamation and scientific management of available land stock is very important for a country like India to achieve higher productivity of food, fodder, fuel and industrial raw materials on a substantial basis.
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Besides, demand for land for providing social priorities such as shelter, roads, industrial activities is increasing at a very fast rate with the rise in population and very often good agricultural and forest lands are being diverted to such use.
It is, therefore, necessary to keep soil in place and in a state favourable to its highest productive capacity.
Soil Erosion
The process of destruction of soil and the removal of the destroyed soil material constitute soil erosion. According to Dr. Bennett “the vastly accelerated process of soil removal brought about by the human interference, with the normal disequilibrium between soil building and soil removal is designated as soil erosion”.
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Types of Soil-Erosion
Erosion of soil by water is quite significant and takes place chiefly in two ways (a) Sheet erosion, (b) Gully erosion.
(a) Sheet movement of water causes sheet erosion and depends on the velocity and quantity of pronounced surface runoff and the erodability of the soil itself. In such cases, the soil is eroded as layers from the hill slopes, sometimes slowly and insidiously and sometimes more rapidly. Sheet erosion is more or less universal on:-
– all bare follow land,
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– all uncultivated land whose plant cover has been thinned out by over grazing, fire or other misuse, and
-all sloping cultivated fields and on sloping forest, scrub jungles where natural porosity of soil has been removed by heavy grazing, felling of trees or burning etc.
The particles loosened and shifted by the rain drops are carried down slope by a very thin sheet of water which moves along the surface. The impacts of the raindrops increases the turbulance and transporting capacity of this unchannelized sheetwash which results in the uniform skimming of the top soil.
Sheet erosion is considered as dangerous as it may continue for years but may or may not leave any trace of the damage. Sheet erosion is common in the Himalayan foothills, in Assam, Western ghats and Eastern ghats.
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When sheet erosion continues unchecked, the silt laden run-off forms well-defined minute finger shaped grooves over the entire field. Such thin channeling is known as ‘rill-erosion’, which is active over wide areas in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhva Pradesh and in semiarid areas of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
(b) Gully erosion
On a gentle slope, adequately covered by vegetation, clay soil will resist erosion to a great extent and the water forms small rivulets which can then erode deeper. The rivulets in turn join together to form larger channels until gullies are formed gradually deep gullies cut into the soil and then spread and grow until all the soil is removal from the sloping ground.
This phenomenon once started and if not checked, goes on extending and ultimately the whole land is converted into a bad-land topography. Gully erosion is more common in areas where the river system has cut down into elevated plateaus so that feeders and branches carve out an intricate pattern of gullies.
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Apart from this, it also takes place in relatively level country whenever large blocks of cultivation give rise to concentration of field run-off.
Wind Erosion
It occurs in dry climatic areas having a sparse and low vegetation cover on mechanically weathered, loosened surficial material. Dust storms are the principal agents of wind erosion.
The top soil is often blown off from the surface rendering it infertile. Besides, with the decrease in the wind velocity coarse sand particles get deposited in some areas covering the existing soil and rendering it unproductive.