Abstract
A study was conducted in peninsular India in a predominantly agricultural watershed treated with soil and water conservation measures such as diversion drains and staggered contour trenches in nonarable land, terraces of trapezoidal cross section with graded channel on the upstream side (locally termed as graded bund) and stone checks in arable lands and rockfill dams, archweir and nala bund (a local term used for earthen embankment across the drainage channel) across the gully. Hydrological analysis has revealed that integrated management of land and water resources has consistently improved the groundwater regime. Surface runoff from the treated forest and agricultural catchment were only 27.4 and 57.4% of the untreated agricultural catchment, reflecting in high infiltration of rain water due to enhanced opportunity time. Consequently, water levels in the open wells rose by 0.5 to 1.0 m, thereby increasing the area irrigated by the wells by 172% when compared to the preproject period, which in turn improved crop yields by 70%. Hypssometric analysis indicated that water surface levels do not follow the trend of land surface levels due to the nature of the underground geological formation.
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