Assessment of degraded lands of puruliya district, west bengal using remotely sensed data

Abstract

Land degradation in Puruliya district, West Bengal was assessed using remote sensing techniques. Analysis of satellite data (False Colour Composite in 1:50,000 scale) was carried out visually and subsequent ground verification and translation of imgae interpretation units into various categories of degraded lands.

The results indicate that 31.8 per cent area of the district suffers from one or the other kind of land degradation. Water induced soil erosion is the major problem which accounts for 31.3 per cent area of the district. Land degradation due to waterlogging is limited to only 0.3 per cent area whereas 0.2 per cent area is degraded due to rock quarries, brick kiln and indus-trial effluents.

The open scrub land are most vulnerable to soil erosion with 15.45 per cent area affected followed by agricultural lands with 12.35 per cent area degraded. Forest lands are least affected with 4.0 per cent area under degradation. The results also indicate that land degradation is quite significant in undulating plain and plateau lands accounting for 16.05 and 13.35 per cent area respectively. The land degradation problem is not so serious in hilly region, where only 2.4 per cent area is affected by water erosion.