Ravine Lands: Greening for Livelihood and Environmental Security by Jagdish Chander Dagar & Anil Kumar Singh

Author:Jagdish Chander Dagar & Anil Kumar Singh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

13.1 Introduction

Uttar Pradesh (UP) is one of the states of India having the largest population dependent on agriculture. It has varying types of soil and topography, but the major agricultural area constitutes the part of Indo – Gangetic terrain and the great Indian plenteous. Large number of rivers flow through this plain and act as major drainage system. The banks of these rivers are generally sloping and eroded. Where the river cuts a channel very deep from its bank, the runoff from the tableland having to negotiate a large vertical fall in short distances, a situation is created for rapid development of gullies along the riverbanks, resulting in what is commonly called “ravines .” Once a ravine is formed, it grows by the phenomenon of saturation and slip of its head and sides. Further, in broader sense ravines are a system of gullies created by water from top land to the deep rivers below and running parallel to each other. Development of gullies is the last phase in the process of soil erosion by the agency of water starting from the beating of raindrops on the bare soil resulting in “splash erosion ,” the movement of water and washing away of the soil in shallow depths over a large surface call “sheet erosion ,” development of rills along the micro-depressions on the land surface causing “rill erosion,” and the whole process ending ultimately in gully formation. Gullies or ravines are nature’s waterways having a distinct watershed consisting of gently sloping tablelands, the steeply sloping peripheral lands, and the ravinous land proper at the confluence with the river (Dhar 2006). Since the formation and development of ravines are due to soil erosion , the remedy lies in adopting comprehensive soil conservation measures on a watershed basis. This would control and stabilize the growth of fast spreading ravines and consequently help in reclaiming the ravine land for gainful utilization.

To study the technology of the ravine reclamation , a long-term pilot project was taken up in the year 1969–1970. It was observed that ravines which are less than 5–6 m deep can economically be bench terraced and provided irrigation facilities with underground distribution system for intensive agricultural purposes. Deep ravines may be stabilized by check dams , natural vegetation , and plantation with fencing at a nominal cost. The result of the pilot project has encouraged further work in the possibilities of reclaiming the ravinous land on large scale.

A working group on ravine reclamation was set up by the Government of India which published its report in October 1972 (Anonymous 1972). Apart from a survey of the ravine problem, it has worked out a tentative plan for reclamation of 0.73 million hectares of ravinous land of Uttar Pradesh at a total cost of ₹6.08 billion. To meet the above expenditure, a phasing was made to reclaim the entire area by the end of this century. The economic feasibility for reclaiming the ravine area indicate that bankable projects could be taken up with the

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