Abstract
Soil erosion is one of the most serious hazards human race is facing today. Four million hectares of agricultural lands have been rendered wastelands in India due to rill and gully erosion. Deccan Trap Region of India is characterized by rocky terrain. Sediments are thin and occupy only restricted areas. The study area is a watershed along the Tapi Basin in Maharashtra where alluvial bank deposits are deeply dissected by intricate network of gullies to form badlands. These badlands have been intensively reclaimed for agriculture in the past few decades. Based on various sedimentological and morphological properties, added by rainfall impact analysis, an assessment has been done to evaluate whether such types of land reclamation practices are permanent solution to the problem of land availability and agriculture in these areas. DEMs of three time periods were self-generated using IRS Cartosat I images and changes in the morphometric parameters were detected from them. A field survey was carried out to measure the current gully reactivation in the area. Results indicate that the region is already indicating soil loss beyond the tolerance limit. A land use planning needs to be designed for these areas because the present land use methods are doing more harm than good.
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Acknowledgements
The paper is a part of a research project funded by Department of Science and Technology, India and a departmental annual project. The data has been obtained during different projects before finally compiling as one paper. The authors would like to thank the commission for the financial support. Authors would also like to acknowledge the help from many students of the department during the fieldwork, they are Priyanka Hire, Sadashiv Bagul, Kajal Sawkare and Nilesh Susware. We thank NRSC (National Remote Sensing Centre) for making the Cartosat I images available for the study. The Department of Geography, SPPU is duly acknowledged for giving all the facilities to conduct the analysis. Thanks are also due to Zuare Agro, Pune for conducting sediment parameters for the study.
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Joshi, V., Kulkarni, S. (2022). Are the Badlands of Tapi Basin in Deccan Trap Region of India “Vanishing Landscape?” Badland Dynamics: Past, Present and Future!. In: Mandal, S., Maiti, R., Nones, M., Beckedahl, H.R. (eds) Applied Geomorphology and Contemporary Issues. Geography of the Physical Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04532-5_10
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