Studies on land degradation in the three agro-climatic zones of Belgaum District, Karnataka
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Abstract
A study was carried out to determine the extent of different land degradation types in
Belgaum district on 1: 50,000 scale using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Out of
13,44,084.60 ha of total geographical area of Belgaum district, 3,96,059.5 ha land is degraded
accounting for 29.47 per cent. Among the various land degradation types, sheet erosion
(23.13 %) was the dominant land degradation type followed by rill erosion (5.76 %) and
barren rocky/ stony waste (0.44%).
Three micro-watersheds were selected one each from Northern dry zone (Yadawad),
Northern transitional zone (Hukkeri) and Hilly zone (Khanapur) for characterization, soil
fertility mapping and soil loss risk assessment using USLE. The soils of Yadawad microwatershed
were alkaline, low in organic carbon, available nitrogen, P2O5 and sulphur content
and deficient in Zn and Fe. The soils of Hukkeri micro-watershed were neutral to slightly
alkaline, low in organic carbon, available nitrogen and available phosphorus in two third of
area. The entire watershed was found deficient in available sulphur, zinc and iron. The soils
of Khanapur micro-watershed were slightly acidic to acidic in reaction. Available
phosphorus, potassium and sulphur status was low in majority of the area. Nearly all of
Yadawad micro-watershed depicted very low soil erosion risk class. Hukkeri microwatershed
had very low soil erosion risk in 34.9 per cent of TGA and low soil erosion risk in
17.6 per cent of TGA. The Khanapur micro-watershed exhibited a wide range of soil erosion
risk with 41.22 per cent of TGA under low soil erosion risk class with substantial extent
(16.12 %) under high soil erosion risk class because of topographic variation