Gopal Kumar

Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute | CSWCRTI · Department of Soil Science

Stone mining, a vital sector in the global extractive industry, plays a crucial role in meeting the growing demand for construction materials, infrastructure development and various industrial applications. The chapter deals with the dynamic realm of the stone mining industry, providing a comprehensive overview of the diverse array of stones extrac...

Although agro-geotextile (AGT) emplacement shows potential to mitigate soil loss and, thus, increase carbon sequestration, comprehensive information is scanty on the impact of using agro-geotextiles on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, aggregate-associated C, and soil loss in the foothills of the Indian Himalayan Region. We evaluated the imp...

Although agro-geotextile (AGT) emplacement shows potential to mitigate soil loss and, thus, increase carbon sequestration, comprehensive information is scanty on the impact of using agro-geotextiles on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, aggregate-associated C, and soil loss in the foothills of the Indian Himalayan Region. We evaluated the imp...

The ravine is often regarded as the worst instance of how water erosion is causing land deterioration. The farmers' livelihoods are often threatened by the ravine's expansion into the surrounding 50 m buffer zone, leaving them with no choice except to work as landless workers. Due to the high expense of ravine restoration, it is not economically po...

Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental concerns affecting all natural and human-managed ecosystems. Soil erosion, besides having significant impact on productivity of cultivated land also adversely affects chemical, physical and biological functions of soil leading to soil degradation and depletion of multiple soil functions. Althoug...

Considering the immediate need of various stakeholders for arresting soil erosion and averting land degradation this document focus on identification of critical areas based on the permissible soil erosion rate and existing erosion rate at a given location in each district of the state. The document contains soil erosion status and erosion induced...

This bulletin deals with watershed development sustainable rural livlihood in vejalpur-rampura watershed, Kheda district of Gujarat under national watershed development program for rainfed agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi

Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental concerns affecting all natural and human-managed ecosystems. Soil erosion, besides having significant impact on productivity of cultivated land also adversely affects chemical, physical and biological functions of soil leading to soil degradation and depletion of multiple soil functions. Althoug...

The ravine is considered as the worst manifestation of land degradation by water erosion throughout the globe. About 120.7 M ha land in India, suffers from various forms of land degradation, out of which 3.67 M ha of land is affected by ravine. The extending ravine into the nearby 50 m of buffer zone tends to deprive the farmers of their occupation...

Soil erosion and associated loss of soil nutrients and organic carbon are one of the major reasons for low crop productivity in major cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) growing areas of India. This calls for designing acceptable and low-cost bioengineering measures to enhance system productivity and soil health. Thus, a field study was conducted at Vas...

In−situ green manuring in major cropping systems of sloping crop lands of Himalayan states is a cost effective conservation technology which not only enhances system productivity but also reduces runoff and soil loss, which in turn makes farmer self−reliant (Aatmnirbhar) on his own low cost renewable resources and ultimately saving of foreign curre...

The easy accessibility of groundwater by even small-scale users, its local availability and difficulty of coordinating and governing many users of the same aquifer across wide geographic spaces has frequently lead to indiscriminate extraction of this precious natural resource for domestic, industrial and agricultural uses around the world. Groundwa...

The hydraulicsperformance parameters of two design of sand based artificial groundwater recharge filter developed for the rainfedsemi-arid regions of Gujarat was executed from 2017-2019. These two designs, conventional downward flow type and improved upward flow typewere formerly tested as a laboratory scale model and simulated for different suspen...

Ravine agro-ecosystems are characterized by degra�ded gullied lands formed over the years due to several natural and anthropogenic factors, surrounded by the adjacent table lands cultivated for the production of food and fibre for humans and livestock. These poten�tial lands not only support the livelihood of marginal and smallholder farmers, b...

CA practices along with geo-textiles (CA plus) are more efficient in terms of resource conservation and productivity enhancement than only CA practices (minimum soil disturbance, soil residue cover and diversified crop rotation) on a 4% land slope of IHR. If harvested correctly, these resources are readily available and can be used in the long-run.

Soil erosion status, priority treatment areas and conservation measures for different districts of Karnataka.

Gully erosion has led to severe terrain deformation alongside some of major river systems of India. These ravine lands of some major river systems are economically and ecologically hyper-sensitive riparian landscapes which play a crucial role in flood and drought mitigation, aquatic and riparian biodiversity, micro-climate moderation and rural live...

Conservation is not something that can be controlled exclusively by legislation. It is mostly a way of philosophy and a way of existence. It is as original as honesty and prudence, and it must be achieved in much the same way. The embedded behaviour of civilized people must be changed. We could see opportunities to increase not just “crop per drop”...

This compendium is compilation of experiences, innovation and expectation shared by progressive farmers from north east India during FFCSWR-2017 held at Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat. Small scale water harvesting and integrated farming systems were most common interventions. The information is worthy enough to be emulated by other farmers o...

2021 Second stage ilter layer Ÿ Sand Section: Length = 3 m, Width = 2 m, Depth = 0.6 m The cost of construction is ` 68900/-(including material and labour charges). The peak recharge rate ranges from 7.8 to 6.0 l/s, sediment trap ef iciency ranges from 86% to 90%. The sediment trap requires 4-5 times cleaning annually and the top sand layer of grou...

2021 and potassium (K) in BtCr were recorded significantly higher compared to Bt, SlTr, and Sl. However, a comparison among Bt, SlTr, and Sl revealed that organic C, N, P, and K were highest in Bt, followed by SlTr, and least in Sl. Castor and Cow Pea Yield Crop yield was recorded quite variable during different years as a consequence of drought, h...

Purpose Soil erosion and loss threatens vast tracts of agricultural and non-agricultural land, worldwide. High soil erosion severely affects establishment of vegetation via effects on plant growth and productivity on already degraded lands. However, information on soil loss impact on tree plantation and their relationships is scarce in the ravine l...

The Kundhichira watershed is a sub-watershed of the Kabini river basin in Kerala. To simulate hydrological responses of the watershed, for observed as well as for the projected climate, hydrological model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used. The ASTER data derived DEM (30 m resolution) was processed to delineate stream network and groun...

s A laboratory based empirical assessment of hydraulics of sand filters was carried out under the compelling practical condition of exposure to alternate cycles (wet and dry spell) of filtration. The lab-scale simulations purportedly attempted to mimic the field scale condition of sediment loading in runoff as suspended sediment. The sand filters h...

Monitoring sediment yield is necessary for assessing erosion induced land degradation and used for planning conservation measures. Collecting time and space integrated as well as time distributed runoff samples cost-effectively is still a challenge for hydrologists, civil engineers, soil scientists, and environmentalists. A low-cost automatic runof...

An incubation study was conducted at AICRP laboratory, ADAC&RI, Trichy to assess the efficiency of different amendments in reclaiming soil sodicity. Sodic soil samples were treated with different amendments such as inorganic source (gypsum) and organic amendments (vermicompost, green manure, goat manure, poultry manure, coir pith compost and FYM) a...

Cropping practice (tillage) is an important management tool for tackling water induced erosion hazard, promoting in situ water conservation and improving and stabilising crop yields from rainfed production systems of semiarid and subtropical regions. Four practices including conventional tillage (CT), ridge farming tillage (RFT), no tillage (NT) an...

The hydrologic behaviour of the Brahmani River basin (BRB) (39,633.90 km2), India was assessed for the base period (1970–1999) and future climate scenarios (2050) using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Monthly streamflow data of 2000–2009 and 2010–2012 was used for calibration and validation, respectively, and performed satisfactorily wit...

Globally, the ravine landscapes are considered amongst the world's most degraded ecosystems. Restoring ravines is considered a high priority item in the conservation programs, and tree establishment augmented with appropriate soil and water conservation measures is the most sought after restoration strategy. This study examined the impact of terrac...

The hydrologic behaviour of the Brahmani River basin (BRB) (39,633.90 km 2), India was assessed for the base period (1970-1999) and future climate scenarios (2050) using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Monthly streamflow data of 2000-2009 and 2010-2012 was used for calibration and validation, respectively, and performed satisfactorily wi...

Cover Pages of "Resource Conservation for Soil Security and Jalshakti: Farmers Perspective in Bundelkhand, Lead Papers of RCSSJ-2020" February 03-05, 2020 / Datia, Madhya Pradesh

Land degradation has been a major global issue due to its adverse effect on food security, environment and ecology. Among different degraded lands, gullied and ravine lands are very important and remained a highly researchable topic. Gullies are continuous depression on the sloping land surface as a result of soil displacement caused by overland wa...

The book contains selected papers presented in FFCSWR- 2017 and is compilation of various topical issues on the prime concerns of natural resource conservation in arable and non-arable lands, soil-water resource development and conservation, diversification of crops and farming systems, management of various ecosystems, people’s participation, live...

Scientists are almost of unanimous opinion that tropics will be the first and most to suffer due to climate change even though the magnitude of projected change as well as past climate trend is moderate as compared to other part of the world. Reasons are though complex, include poor economic conditions of majority of population, higher dependence o...

In low cost drip system, simple tube connected through the water source which can be installed at upper portion of the field. So that lower portion of the terraces of hilly area can irrigate without any external source of energy. The regular cleaning of the water source can keep the system unclogged and increase the life of drip system.

This bulletin entitled contains district and taluka level ravine statistics, maps, information on soil, vegetation dynamics and will be useful for planners, policy makers and development agencies.

Income enhancement from farming is the main motivator rather than production. Though the crop productivity may be significantly improved by the adoption of appropriate location specific soil and water conservation measures, vertical crop diversification with strong forward and backward linkages are must for actualization of doubling farmer's income...

A partial budgeting approach was used to evaluate drumstick based cropping system against tobacco crop. The study was based on data generated at research farm during 2003-2009. The drumstick based cropping system was not only found to be remunerative than tobacco but also provided environmental services in terms of soil carbon built up and nutrient...

Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn) is an evergreen subtropical fruit, known for its deliciously flavoured and juicy aril, high nutrition and refreshing taste. Owing to its growing popularity, new orchards are coming up in different traditional and nontraditional area. Quality of litchi fruit is an important component for market value and is influenced...

Climate change is being evidenced in form of increased uncertainties and extremities of weather including heat waves and drought. Litchi is a subtropical fruit by origin and natural abundance. Litchi being cultivated on the fringe of tropics and subtropics in India is very sensitive to further warming. The event of drying of litchi tree in some orc...

Litchi occupies a prominent place in the fruit platter of Indian homes. India has diverse agro-climatic regions and litchi is grown throughout the foothills of the Himalayas, right from Tripura in the Northeast to Jammu in the North. However, the fruit remains available in the market only from April until August due to the very short harvest span o...

Most of the agricultural land resources are under the threat of degradation. The lack of scientific management practices, socio-economic issues, and non-implementation of policy initiatives are considered to be the major causes of degradation of resources. Further, the stakeholders are economically not in a position to invest in conservation techno...

In nature, plants recruit beneficial microbes to their root system which aids growth and boosts immune responses. Key beneficial microbes for litchi include arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), biocontrol and biofertilizer fungi Trichoderma spp., free living nitrogen fixers Azotobacter spp., several plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs), and...

This study examines economic sustainability of agri-horticultural systems on reclaimed ravine lands in western India. Ravine lands are marked by their susceptibility to soil erosion along the course of river systems. Introduction of tree component with traditional crops on such marginal lands is beneficial not only in terms of short-term profitabil...

The study attempted to assess the economic feasibility of bamboo plantation in general and its role as reinforcement to soil conservation measures in particular, with implications for reclamation of degraded lands in ravine ecologies in India. Biophysical data, both primary as well secondary, collected from Mahi ravines in Gujarat and supported wit...

Soil and water conservation works were taken up in Bajni watershed in Bundelkhand region of India. Two water storage structures, viz. Dharam talaiya and percolation pond were monitored daily for six years to assess their effect on groundwater recharge. Forty observation wells, well distributed around the two water harvesting structures were monitor...

A field experiment using different kinds of mulch materials viz. No mulch (M 0), Rice husk (M 1), White polythene (M 2) and Black polythene (M 3) was conducted on medium to deep black soil at Jhalawar Rajasthan to observe their effect on the soil physicochemical changes and on growth, production and quality of strawberry. Highest increase in soil t...

The study was carried out to compare various two-parameter probability distributions for identifying the most appropriate distribution to describe the weekly rainfall data of Standard Meterological Week (SMW) from 22 to 42 weeks in Shivalik region of India. The "best" distribution among different data sets has been identiued using Anderson-Darling...

The paper studies groundwater use under optimal and farmer's myopic groundwater extraction scenarios using a simple optimal control framework in semi arid watershed of Gujarat. Implications of this extraction pattern have been examined on the state of groundwater in terms of life of wells. The optimal control solution suggested a three times increa...

A study was carried out to determine the effect of climate change on design rainfall and its effect on design and costing of soil and water conservation structures in watersheds. For this study, the micro watershed located at Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Research Centre, Research farm, Vasad was selected and...

The occurrences of extreme events like heavy rainfall and associated flash floods in recent years have become a great concern for all of us. The recent record rainfall events during 15-17 June, 2013 in Uttarakhand triggered massive landslides and torrential downpours with mounds of earth, which resulted huge loss of life along with damages of agric...

A ravine land is a network of erosion channels or gullies which are deeper than 0.3 m. Once the process of gully formation gets initiated, it rapidly leads to extreme terrain deformation. These ravine lands show serious on-site and off-site implications. Apart from land and soil quality degradation in gullied and inter-gullied areas and declined pr...

Groundwater quality assessment is an important issue to a megacity like Delhi, where intensive agriculture, use of sewage and polluted drain water for irrigation and industrial effluents have posed a serious threat to groundwater quality. Describing overall groundwater quality over space is difficult because of multiple contaminants and its wide ra...

A field experiment was conducted to determine the efficacy of Dichantium annulatum grass filters in watercourses and to optimize the grass coverage in these watercourses. This experiment was conducted in 2% slope watercourses with varying filter grass coverage (0, 25, 50, 75, 100%) as main treatments and different flow rates (5, 10, 15, 20 L/s) as...

The study was designed to test the hypotheses that watershed approach of decentralized water harvesting and utilization is the remedy to overcome the agrarian stagnation suffered by the Vidarbha region which has been witnessing farmers’ suicides. Participatory watershed management project funded by a development agency, NABARD was taken up as a cas...

A field experiment with four treatments namely control- no application of manure and fertilizer (T1), application of farmyard manure (FYM) at the rate of @ 5 tonnes/ha/year (T2), application of FYM @ 5 tonnes/ha/year + N:P:K @100: 60: 40 every year (T3) and application of FYM @ 10 tonnes/ha/year + N:P:K @ 100: 60: 40 every year (T4) in pearl millet...

Watershed management is considered as a way for sustainable rural development and thus impact evaluation is a must. The common approach of postclassification comparison of pre- and post-implementation satellite imageries for watershed impact evaluation suffers from serious limitations, mainly ignoring the changes which are not due to watershed inte...

Estimates on lost reservoir capacity in India provide an alarming picture. There are several instances of soil erosion and sedimentation with run-off water. The cost of sediment removal from a large reservoir may be high, in addition to cost of dam construction. The present article estimates the loss to economy by siltation of Sardar Sarovar reserv...

Trenching is the most efficient practice for restoration of degraded non-arable lands. Government and various agencies put tremendous efforts and spend lot of money in the rehabilitation of degraded lands by carrying out trenching. Design and layout of trenches under different rainfall conditions involve lot of computation based on watershed inform...

Biomass production in arid and semi-arid regions requires a special attention owing to spatiotemporal scarcity of irrigation water wherein improved water use efficiency (WUE) of the crop is targeted. Under field conditions, the crop undergoes dynamic changes in near ground or within-canopy microenvironments. This changed microclimatic condition may...

Quantification of plants biophysical variable, economic yield and oil content of oilseed Brassica is important to know the potential impact of in-season weather variability. Agroclimatic models may be used to predict the plants' response and adaptability in the soil-plants-atmospheric systems and thereby screening various mitigation options to comb...