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Mapping gully erosion patterns in foothills of lower Shiwaliks
S S Kukal
Department of Soils
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141 004, India
Email: sskukal@rediffmail.com
Bhoop Singh
Director/Scientist F, DST, New Delhi
Abstract
Gully erosion is most prevalent type of water erosion in foothills of lower Shiwaliks. Efforts are being made by different agencies to control the gully erosion in the region but with little success. More than 70 per cent of the permanent structures were damaged either completely or partially. The damage was of two types-physical damage or siltation on the upstream side. In more than 75 per cent cases the siltation was complete up to the crest level of the structure. The possible reasons for the failure of these gully control structures as analyzed could be a complete lack of information about the gully network and most of the structures were installed in the highest ordered. Mapping of gully erosion in a few catchments in the region have revealed that gully texture-number of first-order gullies per unit area ranged from 253.8 to 767.9 per km-2 whereas gully density ranged from 8.73 to 16.3 km km-2. The first order gullies constituted 57 to 85 per cent whereas the second order gullies constituted about 15 to 33 per cent of the total gullies. Of the total length of the gullies, first order gullies represented 60 to 88 per cent whereas the second order gullies represented 12 to 27 per cent.
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