[APRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”. Hyderabad, India,2002 
  
  
  
The results are presented in the form of map showing various 
ranges of soil loss (Figure 4). 
  
Figure 4. Soil Loss Map of the Study Area 
It is noted that the erosion rate in the forest area is significantly 
less (1.27 tons/ha/year and 0.86 tons/ha/year) as compared to 
other three types of land covers in both the method of soil loss 
estimation. The variation in average annual soil loss is between 
0.42 tons/ha/year to 1.82 tons/ha/year. This indicates the 
management activities taking place in the forest area as well 
morphological variations in the catchment area. In the 
catchment about 20% is covered by shrubs and the average soil 
erosion estimated is 3.37 tons/ha/year. This is quite higher than 
the forested belt. Similarly, in the case of agriculture land soil 
erosion varies between 9 tons/ha/year to 16 tons/ha/year with 
an average annual loss of 12.37 tons/ha/year. This high rate of 
erosion in the Malaprabha sub-basin is very significant. The 
major reason for this could be due to the alarming rate of forest 
degradation accompanied by conversion of forest land to 
agriculture land, which give rise high soil erosion. Further, the 
cropping pattern, which plays a considerable role in soil 
erosion also lead to, enhanced erosion. A study carried out by 
Purandara (1997) using WEPP model indicated the role of 
cropping pattern on soil erosion. The study reported that Jowar 
and ground nut is the major contributor soil erosion as 
compared to other crops. In the study area, only 1.15 sq. km 
area is covered by barren land and the average soil loss 
estimated for the barren land is 3.57 tons/ha/year. Therefore, it is 
necessary to take appropriate steps to improve the land conditions 
through selective afforestation activities. A study conducted by 
Purandara et al (2000) showed considerable decrease in soil hydraulic 
properties (particularly infiltration and hydraulic conductivity in the 
study area) which is one of the major cause for high soil erosion rate 
under barren land and scrubs. 
4. CONCLUSIONS 
The present study indicated two significant results in the catchment. 
The foremost is that the conversion of forest land to agriculture land 
leads to severe erosion which is about 10 times more than the erosion 
observed in forested area and 4 times more than in scrubs and barren 
lands. Therefore, it is important to consider the land management 
activities with due importance soil erosion and sedimentation 
problems. The second fact which is observed through the study is the 
application of GIS technique for the estimation of soil erosion in 
place of conventional method of soil loss calculation which gave a 
close proximity to the one estimated through GIS technique (ILWIS 
package). Therefore, this method can be adopted as an alternative 
technique for faster and better results. 
S. REFERENCES 
Purandara, B. K., 1997. Application of WEPP, WATBAL and 
WATSED Model to Malaprabha Sub-basin. UNDP Training Report, 
IND/90/003, NIH, Roorkee. 
Purandara, B. K., Kumar, C. P., Venkatesh, B. and P. R. S. Rao, 
2000. Spatial Variation of Soil and Hydrological Characteristics of 
Selected Watersheds in Hard Rock Region. NIH Technical Report 
CS/AR-5/1999-2000. 
Singh, G., Ram Babu and Subhash Chandra, 1981. Soil Loss 
Prediction Research in India. CSWCRTI, Dehradun. Bulletin no. T- 
12/D-9. 
Wischmeier , W. H. and Smith, D. D., 1958. Rainfall Energy and Its 
Relationship to Soil Loss. Trans Am. Geophys. Union, (39), pp.285- 
291. 
698