Abstract
Soil erosion is one of the most important environmental problems, and it remains as a major threat to the land use of hilly regions of Tripura. The present study aims at estimating potential and actual soil loss (t·h-1·y-1) as well as to indentify the major erosion prone sub-watersheds in the study area. Average annual soil loss has been estimated by multiplying five parameters, i.e.: R (the rainfall erosivity factor), K (the soil erodibility factor), LS (the topographic factor), C (the crop management factor) and P (the conservation support practice). Such estimation is based on the principles de- fined in the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) with some modifications. This intensity of soil erosion has been divided into different priority classes. The whole study area has been subdivided into 23 sub watersheds in order to identify the priority areas in terms of the intensity of soil erosion. Each sub-watershed has further been studied intensively in terms of rainfall, soil type, slope, land use/land cover and soil erosion to determine the dominant factor leading to higher erosion. The average annual predicted soil loss ranges between 11 and 836 t·h-1·y-1. Low soil loss areas (·h-1·y-1) have mostly been recorded under densely forested areas.
Highlights
Soil erosion is a major environmental problem in developing countries like India, where agriculture is the main economic activity for the people
By assuming no support practice in the study area (P = 1), the annual soil losses (A in t·h−1·y−1) with respect to the different land-use/land-cover types of the region were estimated as a product of rainfall erosivity (Rs), K, LS, and C layers
In terms of the land uses, especially the agricultural land and degraded forest cover areas were found to be more susceptible to the soil losses by water erosion than dense forest, moderately dense forest cover areas
Summary
Soil erosion is a major environmental problem in developing countries like India, where agriculture is the main economic activity for the people. Soil erosion is being considered as one of the most critical environmental hazards of modern times [5]. Removal of significant amount of plant enriched top soil due to soil erosion results in lowering of soil fertility through the losses of nutrients and organic matter leading to significant decline of crop yield [7,8]. These eroded materials are carried down to the lower reaches of the rivers which in turn make rivers incompatible to carry excess amount of water and sediment load during monsoon period. It is important to protect soils from erosion for sustain human life [12]
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