Vishwas Kale

Savitribai Phule Pune University | University of Poona · Department of Geography

Professor Kenneth J. Gregory was a major contributor to fluvial palaeohydrological research. Beginning in the early 1980s, under his influence, rapid international growth of the discipline was accompanied by major advances in research methods and techniques. Current research emphases include applications of quantitative modeling and meta‐analysis;...

Radiocarbon dates and luminescence ages of Holocene alluvial and flood deposits from over three dozen sites indicate that the variations in the monsoon strength have primarily dictated the fluvial activity in the Indian Peninsula. Although there are some intraregional differences and large geographical gaps with no chronological data, the available...

The Maharashtra Plateau dominantly displays an erosional landscape and the Quaternary alluvial deposits in the valleys are remarkably limited in areal extent and thickness. The only exceptions are the infilled basins/valleys downstream of bedrock gorges with knickpoints. Earlier studies have inferred a good correspondence between the major changes...

Sand sheets and mounds occur along the eastern bank of Hagari River in Anantapur district, Andhra Pra-desh, India. These wind-blown sands are considered to be deposited by a flood about 1-2 centuries ago. Based on the description in the British era District Gazetteer , we infer that the sands were most likely deposited by a flash flood in May 1851.

Slot canyons, with extremely small width–depth ratios, are rare geomorphic features that develop under limited range of fluvial conditions. We report the occurrence of such an uncommon canyon, developed on the crest of the Western Ghats in the Deccan Traps. The canyon is a tourist hotspot. Geomorphic studies reveal that the Sandan slot canyon is 2–...

Slot canyons, with extremely small width-depth ratios, are rare geomorphic features and develop under limited range of fluvial conditions. We report the occurrence of such an uncommon canyon, developed on the crest of Western Ghat in Deccan Traps. The canyon is a tourist hotspot. Geomorphic investigations reveal that the Sandan Slot Canyon (2-30 m...

Instrumental/historic records have helped to understand the extreme flood–climate relationship in the modern environment; however, few studies are available to understand their long-term relation (102–103 years) due to the poor preservation and lack of dating techniques. It remains uncertain whether extreme flooding is linked with long-term wet pha...

The ~65 Ma old Deccan Traps cover about 0.5 million km 2 in western and central India. The Deccan Traps region has huge geotourism potential with several potential geoheritage sites 1-3. We report here the occurrence of spectacular columns in basalt near Bandivade village (16°49′18″N and 74°01′0″E), in Kolha-pur district, Maharashtra (Figure 1). Th...

Recent climate projection models indicate that the semi-arid regions of the world are most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Hence, the understanding of rainfall variability and availability of water resources in water-scarce regions is crucial for planners to formulate annual plan for judicious utilization and distribution of water. In t...

All the rivers of Maharashtra are rainfed. Their annual flow pattern strictly changes in accordance with the monsoon rainfall. The orographic effect of the Western Ghat is mainly responsible for significant spatial variation in the rainfall in the state. Due to the dominance of hard rock terrain (~95%), the availability of groundwater is generally...

South Asia is drained by some of the most flood-prone rivers in the world. Flooding during the monsoon season is the most recurring, widespread and disastrous natural hazard in South Asia that results in enormous social, economic and environment consequences every year. Several massive floods have occurred in the recent decades causing huge economi...

Panchgani is well-known for its impressive tableland and string of mesas, and is a popular getaway for tourists from Mumbai and Pune. The flat-topped hills are the result of differential erosion. The mesas and the tableland are built of flat-lying caprocks and are scarp-bounded on all sides. Ferricrete duricrusts (or laterites) act as the caprock....

The Indian Peninsula is a collage of many terranes, where ancient rocks, denudational surfaces and rivers predominate. The peninsula displays amazing diversity of landscape features, from tiny koppies to the ~1,500-km long Great Escarpment of India (the Western Ghat/Sahyadri). By and large, bedrock landforms and partially to deeply weathered rocks...

India is a storehouse of fascinating and exquisite landforms and landscapes. On account of varied geology, structure, tectonic history, climatic variability and a long coastline there is immense diversity of landforms (geodiversity). In the Indian context, notwithstanding the fact that a detailed inventory of geomorphosites/geoheritage sites import...

The Indian subcontinent is a land of great geomorphic diversity and grand scenery. Two major tectonic influences have affected the Indian subcontinent since the Mesozoic times: fragmentation of the Gondwanaland and the Himalayan Orogenesis. These events, along with Deccan Volcanism, differential uplift and reactivation of faults in the Peninsula, a...

The proposed monograph on 'Geomorphological Landscapes of India' will aim to describe and explain in simple words the geomorphological characteristics and the origin of the above-mentioned landforms and landscapes. The proposed monograph will provide the background information about the geology, climate, and tectonic framework of the Indian region,...

Tectonic controls upon Kaveri River Drainage, Cratonic Peninsular India: Inferences from longitudinal profiles, morphotectonic indices, hanging valleys and fluvial records, Geomorphology (2013), doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2013.07.027 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we a...

This paper provides a synoptic view of extreme monsoon floods on all the nine large rivers of South Asia and their association with the excess (above-normal) monsoon rainfall periods. Annual maximum flood series for 18 gauging stations spread over four countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal) and long-term monsoon rainfall data were analyz...

The most conspicuous erosional features associated with constricted bedrock channel reaches and knickpoints are potholes. The presence and morphology of potholes have been attributed to a number of factors by earlier researchers. Amongst these factors, the role of substrate rock properties has received very little quantitative attention. The main o...

We present in this paper the spatial distribution of stable isotopic composition (δ 18 O and δD) of Kaveri River surface waters to understand how the evaporation and precipitation affect the isotopic signature and dynamics of surface river waters. In the southern peninsular India, Kaveri River is one of the longest tropical river. Our stable isotop...

There is a long history of human–riverine interactions throughout the period of agriculture that in some regions of the world started several thousand years ago. These interactions have altered rivers to human dominated systems with often negative impacts on fluvial environments. To achieve a good ecological and chemical status of rivers, as intend...

The Indian rivers are dominantly monsoon rainfed. As a result, their regime characteristics are dictated by the spatio-temporal variations in the monsoon rainfall. Although the rivers carry out most of the geomorphic work during 4-5 months of the monsoon season, the nature and magnitude of response to variations in the discharge and sediment loa...

Monsoon Asia is home to large and most flood-prone rivers. The Assessment of the hydrological. consequences of the projected global change is hampered by paucity of long instrumental records. Palaeoflood hydrology has provided a robust way to lengthen the records of extreme floods by several centuries to millennia. Such an approach has been adopted...

A key societal aspect is to recognize the factors controlling the spatial variability and the distribution patterns of rainfall in a season, and its long as well as short term variability due to natural factors. We archive the climate variations from instrumental as well as land and marine archives for the entire SE Asia which are crucial for its a...

Palaeoflood Records from Upper Kaveri River, Southern India: Evidence for Discrete Floods During Holocene A record of six discrete middle Holocene floods has been established based on sedimentological and stratigraphical studies in the upper Kaveri catchment at Siddapur. The flood events are represented by six discrete, sharp-bounded, sand-silt cou...

The Western Ghat Escarpment is one of the classic examples of passive margin great escarpments in the world. The Western Ghat zone is an area of spectacular scenery, rugged terrain, deep valleys, impressive waterfalls, and dense forest teeming with wildlife. The ∼1-km high wall is an assemblage of valley heads and spurs. Other associated landforms...

Residual Luminescence in Quartz from Slack Water Deposits in Kaveri Basin, South India: A Single Aliquot Approach Optical bleaching of quartz may be incomplete due to decreased daylight intensity and narrower wavelength spectrum in water column, leading to age overestimation in young fluvial sediments. This hypothesis was tested on a low energy sla...

Using available instrumental records, this paper examines the variation of precipitation from 1866 to 2006 in the northwestern Himalaya (NWH). The study indicates no trend in the winter precipitation but significant decreasing trend in the monsoon precipitation during the study period. Periodicities on a multi-decadal scale (29–34 years and 58–64 y...

In line with the passive margin landscape evolutionary model in vogue, sustained erosion and long-distance retreat of the Western Ghat escarpment are widely considered to be the results of erosionally-driven isostatic uplift since Tertiary by many workers. Others have postulated or adduced evidence for strong neotectonic activity in the Ghat region...

The recent Kosi megaflood, caused by a breach in the Kosi embankment in Nepal on August 18, 2008 and a sudden change in the course of the Kosi River, was one of the most significant and damaging flood events ever to hit Bihar. The Kosi disaster also ranks as one of the greatest disasters in India. This preliminary note briefly discusses some of the...

This case study presents quantitative data on the magnitude and variability of specific power and total energy expenditure over a period of 51 years for the monsoon-dominated Narmada River, which produced an impressive flood of the order of 69400 m3 s−1 in 1970. Daily specific stream power (ω) for a gauging site located in the lower Narmada Basin w...

The results of trend analyses of the discharge data of four rivers in northwestern Himalaya, namely Beas, Chenab, Ravi and Satluj, are presented here and the impact of climate change in the last century is dis- cussed. In the case of Satluj river, studies indicate an episodic variation in discharge in all three seasons on a longer timescale of abou...

Flooding in monsoon-fed rivers profoundly challenges flood hazard management because of large spatio-temporal variability in the monsoon rainfall over the Indian region and scarcity of long-term hydrological data. Under such circumstances, pre-instrumental (recent, historic or pre-historic) records of large floods could be reconstructed by using pa...

Field stratigraphy, sedimentology and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating have been used to reconstruct the southwest monsoon variability in the semi-arid region of southern India during the late Holocene. Facies architecture and OSL dating of the water-lain sediment suggest prevalence of a weak hydrological regime around 3 ka. Following...

In this study, an attempt has been made to evaluate the temporal variations in specific stream power and the total energy available for geomorphic work during the monsoon season for the Tapi River, in central India. Continuous daily discharge data (1978–1990), hydraulic geometry equations and the relationship between discharge and water surface slo...

The study reveals significant rise in air temperature in the northwest Himalayan (NWH) region by about 1.6°C in the last century, with winters warming at a faster rate. The diurnal temperature range (DTR) has also shown a significantly increasing trend. This appears to be due to rise in both the maximum as well as minimum temperatures, with the max...

In this paper some observations have been made on the current paradigm of long-distance parallel retreat of great escarpments. The paper examines selected aspects of river and basin morphometry in the western Deccan Basalt Province (DBP) to get a better insight into the style and rate of Western Ghat evolution. Various drainage basin morphological...

Fluvial incision in bedrock is common in many rivers of the Indian Peninsula. We investigated a site in the gorge of the Narmada river at Dardi Falls that displays geomorphic evidence of intense bedrock erosion. We report here a terrestrial cosmogenic radionuclide date from an eroded rock surface in Peninsular India. Terrestrial cosmogenic radionuc...

The primary objective of the present study is to identify major phases of alluviation in the Indian region since the abrupt Deglacial intensification of the monsoon (∼15 cal ka BP) on the basis of analysis of 68 radiocarbon dates from two major hydro-geomorphic regions of India: the Central Ganga Basin (CGB) and the Deccan Peninsula (DP). The recog...

The efficacy of extreme events is directly linked to the flood power and the total energy expended. The geomorphic effectiveness of floods is evaluated in terms of the distribution of stream power per unit boundary area (ω) over time, for three very large floods of the 20th Century in the Indian Peninsula. These floods stand out as outliers when co...

Fluvial archives include slackwater flood deposits (SWD), which not only preserve information about centennial- to millennial-scale changes in the flood regime conditions, but also provide information on climate variability and extreme climatic events. The present study is based on SWD evidence from six large rivers in central and western India. A...

The development of physical geography in South Asia has generally followed the British and European trends. Diverse themes from denudational chronology to palaeoflood geomorphology have attracted the attention of geomorphologists, particularly in the last 25 years. In addition, geographers’ interest in climatology and biogeography became pronounced...

The pattern of vegetation distribution on ground is always associated with particular topographic features. In order to understand the relationship between altitude, degree of slope and drainage network on one hand and the vegetation cover on other, topographical maps and Indian Remote Sensing satellite images (IRS-1A) on 1:50,000 scale were studie...

In this paper an attempt has been made to quantitatively evaluate the geomorphic effectiveness of three large-magnitude floods that occurred in 1959, 1968 and 1969 in the lower Tapi Basin. Flood hydrographs available for these and other flood events show that the duration of floods can range from 6 to 10 days, and in exceptional cases up to 15 days...

A network of fifty sampling stations was established to monitor the groundwater quality and delineate the zones of contamination in the industrial township of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) in western India. The studies have brought out increase in concentrations of chemical parameters and presence of pathogenic bacteria as strong an...

This paper reports the occurrence of thick calcareous tufa deposits from the semi-arid parts of the Deccan Basalt Province, India, a non-karstic region. The tufa deposits mainly occur at waterfall sites. Two well-known tufa sites were selected for in-depth study. Field observations were supported by geomorphic and geological investigations of the t...

The Tapi Gorge lies in the monsoon-dominated region of the Indian subcontinent. Because of the seasonality of rainfall and flows all the fluvial activity in the bedrock gorge is confined to the monsoon season, in general, and during a few high-magnitude monsoon floods in particular. Field investigations along a 30-km reach of the sinuous bedrock go...

The anomalous sinuosity displayed by a small ephemeral stream in the Deccan Trap region, India, forms the focus of this paper. An attempt has been made to investigate the causes of this unexpected channel behaviour. The study, based on detailed survey of the channel morphologic parameters and field investigations, demonstrates that the local base l...

The Pleistocene-Holocene palaeohydrological and palaeoenvironmental conditions of the Deccan Trap rivers are not well-established. This is mainly on account of the limited extent of alluvial deposits and scarcity of palaeochannels to estimate former river discharges. This paper reports the results of recent investigations of a palaeochannel and the...

In the western Indian Peninsula, a huge escarpment, the Western Ghat, stands high and wall-like. Whether this mega-geomorphic feature is the result of prolonged erosional and recessional processes following rifting and cessation of the Deccan Trap activity in the late Cretaceous (ca. 65 Ma) or the product of erosion and retreat of a fault scarp cre...

In resistant substrate, potholes require hundreds to thousands of years to form. Here we report evidence for the formation of several potholes (0.2-1.0 m in diameter) in about 60 years, within man-made channels and pits carved in bedrock basalt in the channel of the Indrayani river. Although documentary evidence is lacking, available information in...

Geomorphic effects of floods are a function of several controlling factors, such as magnitude, frequency, rate of sediment movement, flood power, duration of effective flows, sequence of events and the channel geometry. In this paper, these measures of effectiveness have been evaluated for the monsoon-dominated, flood-controlled and incised Tapi Ri...

High-magnitude floods are an integral part of the hy- drologic systems of the Tapi and Narmada rivers of central India. To establish whether the largest flood in 1970 on Narmada and in 1968 on Tapi had precedence in the geological records, geomorphic studies were undertaken. The main type of palaeoflood evidence is slackwater deposits in bedrock go...

The southwest summer monsoon contributesthe bulk of India's rainfall. Consequently,almost all the geomorphic work by the rivers is carried out during the monsoonseason in general and the monsoon floods in particular. Indian rivers arecharacterized by high average flood discharges and large temporal variability. Thereis also significant spatial vari...

The rivers of India reveal certain special characteristics because they undergo large seasonal fluctuations in flow and sediment load. The rivers are adjusted to an array of discharges, and most rivers exhibit morphologies that are related to high-magnitude floods. In the last 100 years primarily hydraulic engineers have contributed to the understa...

River Luni is the only well-integrated river system in the Thar Desert of India. This river catastrophically flooded due to unusually heavy rainfall in the catchment area during July 1979. In order to establish whether floods of this magnitude have occurred in the recent geological past, sedimentary records of palaeofloods occurring in the Sindari...

In the present study, the temporal patterns of monsoon floods on five large rivers of the Deccan Peninsula have been investigated. Analyses of the long-term annual maximum discharge/ stage data, available for the last 100 years or so, show non-random behaviour in terms of distinct periods of high and low floods. The normalized accumulated departure...

Alluvial river channels adjust readily to formative discharges of moderate magnitude and frequency. Bedrock river channels present various thresholds to effective channel adjustment, such that only relatively rare, high-magnitude flood discharges contribute to shaping their morphologies. Very high values of power per unit area of bed, exceeding 102...

The rivers of the southern part of the Indian Peninsula are monsoonal in nature and the hydrological characteristics of these rivers djffer markedly from those of Himalayan rivers. The rivers are subjected to severe floods during the monsoon season. In the last few decades, several large-magnitude floods (peak floods between 10,000 and 80,000 m/s)...

The Deccan Trap region exhibits an erosional landscape over a relatively ancient and stable Deccan shield. The Quaternary history of the area has been reconstructed on the basis of evidence from alluvial deposits occurring along the major rivers. However, recent investigations have revealed that evidence for geo-environmental change during the Quat...

A continuous record of the largest Narmada floods over the last 2000 years was obtained from Sakarghat, on the Narmada River, from a study of slackwater flood deposits. Two sequences of extreme floods date between ca. 400 and 1000 AD and post-1900 AD. The period 400-1000 AD, representing a period of less frequent but more extreme floods, has been d...

The Deccan Trap region exhibits an erosional landscape over a relatively ancient and stable Deccan shield. The Quaternary history of the area has been reconstructed on the basis of evidence from alluvial deposits occurring along the major rivers. However, recent investigations have revealed that evidence for geo-environmental change during the Quat...

This paper provides a brief outline of the flood studies in India in the field of geomorphology, meteorology and hydrology. The review clearly shows that, though the general characteristics of floods have been known for a long time, our scientific understanding of the floods remains incomplete to a surprisingly large extent. Existing studies seem t...

During the past three decades, the Narmada River of monsoon-dominated central India has undergone extraordinarily large floods that rank among the highest recorded rainfall-runoff discharges per drainage area in the world. The floods on this river are a direct result of intense tropical cyclones embedded within the summer monsoon circulation. The c...

The Indian Peninsula has many rivers that flow through bedrock gorges, providing excellent sites for the emplacement and preservation of late Holocene slackwater sediments and palaeostage indicators. Preliminary surveys of palaeoflood hydrology at these sites and the available historical data (since 1700) indicate considerable spatial and temporal...

An anomalous multiple channel pattern in bedrock is observed on a predominantly downcutting reach of the Narmada River. The multi-channel reach (800–2750 m in width and 8500 m in length) is bounded by major faults, and is underlain by granite and gneiss bedrock. Geomorphological investigations reveal differences among the upstream, middle and downs...

The 1300 km long Narmada River flows along a structural lineament, alternating between constricting rocky gorges and rapids, and meandering wide alluvial reaches. Channel forms and processes were studied in a 120 km long section of an alluvial reach. Channel size, shape and bedforms in the Narmada River are related to very large floods which have o...

To understand flood hazards and environmental change one needs scientific experience of such change as a complement to the conceptualization of that change. One of many ways to make this possible is through the recent scientific breakthrough in studying slackwater deposit and palaeostage indicators in stable-boundary fluvial reaches. Interestingly,...

High-magnitude floods during the monsoon season are considered to be India's recurring and leading natural disaster. Such large flood are extremely important events, not only in terms of human impact, but also from the standpoint of geomorphic effectiveness and geomorphic work. The Narmada and Tapi Rivers in central India are characterized by one o...

A sequence of flood deposits left by the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, provides evidence of at least 15 floods with peak discharges greater than 5500 m3sec-1 over the last 4500 yr. Ten floods during the last 2000-2300 yr had discharges greater than 6800 m3sec. One flood, 1600-1200 yr ago, had a discharge exceeding 14,000 m3sec-1, a f...

Detailed geomorphic, stratigraphic and chronologic data reveal that major aggradatkmal episodes in the Upland Maharashtra were associated with flow-regime changes. Four major alluvial formations and one colluvial formation reflect the spectrum of fluvial activity at different discharge stages of the Upland rivers during the Quaternary period. The a...

Armored mud balls (AMB) on Revadanda Beach, on the west coast of India, are formed in the intertidal zone over a monsoonal seasonal cycle. The AMB are similar in shape to those reported from marine and lacustrine shorelines and the barrier-island environment, but unlike similar areas where the core is derived from erosion of muddy cliffs, at our st...

The global model of ocean formation on Mars is discussed. The studies of impact crater densities on certain Martian landforms show that late in Martian history there could have been coincident formation of: (1) glacial features in the Southern Hemisphere; (2) ponded water and related ice features in the northern plains; (3) fluvial runoff on Martia...

Relations are established between various channel morphologic variables for the Upland rivers of Western Deccan Trap region, using seventy-three sites, three channel categories and ten parameters. The level of explained variance differed for the three categories. The link between bankfull width (w) and upstream length (Ds) and between gradient (G)...