Survey and Planning in Soil Conservation

Abstract

In view of the completion of quite a number of multipurpose River Valley Projects since Independence and contemplation for construction of many more of such Projects in future, soil conservation in the catchments of River Valley Projects has assumed a paramount importance. In order to save the reservoirs from premature silting, effective soil conservation measures have to be carried out in the catchments at a speed which woulcl enable the benefit of these works to accrue significantly and contribute towards prolonging the life of the reservoir. The catchment area of such River Valley Projects runs in thousands of square miles. It, therefore, becomes desirable to limit the area of operation so as to achieve the objective within the shortest possible period and with lesser amount of funds and still lesser number of technical personnel available at hand. Therefore, for proper utilisation of nation's material resources and manpowar to the best advantage, planning for soil conservation in the catchments of River Valley Projects is very essential. With that objective in view the first and foremost step in planning soil conservation work is to locate the tributaries and the subtributaries of the river which carry relatively higher silt load. The second step would be to locate the sedi- ment sources in the catchments of such tributaries. The Third step would be to prepare work plans on the data collected during the first two operations. These work plans would indicate the magnitude of the problem and the phasing and localion of works to be carried out with estimates of cost.