Prioritizing areas for soil and water conservation in Punjab Shivaliks Panwar Pankaj1,*, Pal Sharmistha1, Bhatt V.K.1, Tiwari A.K.1, Mishra P.K.2 1ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (IISWC), Research Centre, Chandigarh 2ICAR-IISWC, Kaulagarh Road, Dehradun *E-mail: dr_pankajp@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 15 March, 2019. Abstract Soil erosion affects sustainable agricultural development throughout the world. Controlling soil erosion would be a major challenge in coming years due to drastic changes in land use and land cover. To prioritize areas for soil and water conservation, present study was carried out in three forest divisions of Punjab viz., Gurdaspur, Dasuya and Garshankar. The current status of forest in these divisions was determined using IRS 1 C LISS IV imageries of the year 2015. It was found that moderately dense and open forests are prevalent in these forest divisions. Moderately dense forest was maximum in Dasuya (31.78%) followed by Gurdaspur (29.20%) and least in Garshankar (11.28%) forest division. Open forest were higher in Garshankar (35.03%) and least in Dasuya (21.92%) forest division, out of total forest area under Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) of respective divisions. In Gurdaspur forest division, 44.33% area is under moderate category of soil erosion; in Dasuya, 56.46% is under severe erosion and in Garshankar, 32.61% area is under very severe erosion, out of the total PLPA area of respective divisions. Such spatial assessment and mapping of land cover in erosion prone areas are essential for planning and execution of efficient soil and water conservation measures and watershed management. Top Keywords Land cover, PLPA, Punjab forest divisions, Soil and water conservation, Soil loss, USLE. Top |