Prioritization of soil erosion prone areas in upper Brahmaputra River Basin up to Majuli River Island

Abstract

Soil erosion is a serious concern in most of the Indian watersheds and needs a thorough study. Every year, the Brahmaputra River carries millions of tons of sediment, and the shape of the world’s largest river island Majuli is changing. But due to different activities like urbanization, deforestation, agricultural practices, etc., there is a change in soil loss rate in different parts of the watershed. To assess this change, a study is conducted to prioritize the whole catchment based on soil erosion rate. The annual soil erosion map (0 to 24039 t/ha/yr) is prepared for the entire catchment using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model and is categorized into six classes. It is found that 4.14% and 58.43% of basin area lies in the category of moderate-severe (near Majuli) and very low erosion rate respectively. The developed map may be used further for different studies and watershed management.