Soil Survey and its Interpretation in Relation to Planning for Watershed Manaement

Abstract

India is a vast country with widely varying climatic, soil and topographical conditions. Extreme variations in climate, relief, vegetation and above all soils are met with. Rising from such mountain ranges as the Himalayas, and the Western Ghats and the plateau territory of Malwa, a number of major rivers drain the land. A large number of rivers and their tributaries provide the courses through which the rain waters drain, the intensity of their flow varying with the location, nature of terrain and from season to season. The whole country may thus be considered to be an integrated unit of different watersheds of diverse drainage systems. The problems connected with the movement of these large volumes of water, however, vary from watershed to watershed depending upon the soils, climate, the agriculture, forestry and socio-economic conditions of the people inhabiting them.