Prioritization of soil conservation measures using erodibility indices as criteria in Sikkim (India)

Abstract

Erodibility indices are important parameter that can be used to describe the intensity of the soil erosion problems causing environmental concerns. These indices are convenient to estimate the susceptibility to erosion where physical measurement is very difficult. Sikkim is one such state in India where measuring erosion is a tedious process due to its difficult and inaccessible terrain conditions. In the present study, spatial variation of susceptibility of erosion in East district of Sikkim was estimated by using indices such as clay ratio, dispersion ratio, mod clay ratio and critical level of soil organic matter. The result indicates soils in East district are mostly dominated by sand particles (40.5–81.06%) in majority of soil samples. The dispersion ratio values in most of the soils were >15% indicating very high vulnerability to erosion. The values of clay ratio (3.44–9), modified clay ratio (mean value of 6.9) and critical level of soil organic matter content (<5%) indicated high susceptibility to erosion. The trends of indices were generated by IDW interpolation method to understand the spatial variation of the susceptibility to erosion. The interpolated maps were overlaid on subwatershed maps to prioritize the subwatershed for planning treatment measures.