IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, "Resource and Environmental Monitoring", Hyderabad, India, 2002 
  
CHARACTERISATION OF GULLY EROSION IN SELECTED CATCHMENTS OF 
SUBMONTANE PUNJAB, INDIA 
S S Kukal*, G S Matharu 
Department of Soils, 
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141 004, India 
sskukal @rediffmail.com 
KEY WORDS: Gully erosion, Submontane Punjab, Gully density, Gully texture, Catchment shape 
ABSTRACT: 
A study was planned to observe the behaviour and pattern of gully erosion in selected catchments of in submontane Punjab. Three 
adjoining catchments at village Saleran (district Hoshiarpur) were selected for characterization of gully erosion. These catchments 
differed in their size, shape, slope and vegetation status and were designated as Catchments I, II and III. The landuse of the 
catchments comprised of pasture, forest and wastelands. A detailed gully erosion survey was undertaken in these catchments and 
gullies were marked on contour maps having scale of 1:1000. Gully density varied from 28.1 to 54.6 km km. Gully texture in the 
three catchments ranged from 1629 to 4423 gullies km? with trend similar to that of gully density. Catchment III being more 
compact with maximum value of average slope and highest soil erodibility was severely affected by gully erosion. In all the three 
catchments, gully number decreased with increasing order of the gullies. Gullies were nearly equally distributed on either side of the 
main gully in catchment I and III. Gully length was slightly higher on the southwest facing side than on northeast facing side in all 
the three catchments. The first-order gullies constituted the highest percentage of the total gully length followed by second-order 
gullies. The mean length of the gullies in general increased with increasing order of the gullies. In catchment I, 49.2 per cent of the 
total length of the main gully represented third-order while in catchments II and TII, 81.5 and 91 per cent of main gully represented 
fourth-order. 
*Corresponding author: Dr S S Kukal (sskukal Grediffmail.com) 
  
  
INTRODUCTION 
Gully erosion is the most prevalent type of water erosion and is 
responsible for damaging agricultural and residential land, 
causing environmental degradation through downstream 
sedimentation. On marginal farmland gully erosion is a major 
source of soil and associated nitrogen and phosphorus losses 
(Sharpley et al 1996) and thus reduces the crop yields 
significantly. Severe gully erosion is attributed to high soil 
erodibility, steep and long slopes and sparse vegetation cover. 
Various factors such as man-induced anthropogenic factors 
including deforestation, over-grazing, burning, sand mining, 
faulty drain outlets and physiographic factors (Meyer and 
Martinez-Casasnovas, 1999) including rainfall, vegetation 
cover, landform, landuse and lithology affect gully erosion 
considerably (Lal, 1992). 
Planning for soil conservation, food production and 
environmental preservation requires methods to estimate the 
magnitude of gully networks, which come from detailed field 
investigations and aerial photographs taken at periodical 
intervals. Therefore, understanding of gully morphology and 
behaviour is very much necessary for efficient planning 
strategies. Gully erosion, although a serious problem in 
submontane Punjab (Kukal et al 1991), yet virtually no work 
exists regarding gully patterns and behaviour in the area. Quite 
often expensive soil conservation measures fail to check gully 
erosion (Kukal et al 2002) in the area due to lack of knowledge 
about the pattern and behaviour of gullies and for not 
recognizing the factors responsible for gully erosion in the area. 
Keeping these points in view, a study was conducted in the 
region to characterize gully erosion in selected catchments of 
submontane Punjab with respect to their behaviour and 
patterns. 
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MATERIALS AND METHODS 
The study was carried out in three catchments in village Saleran 
(district Hoshiarpur) situated 31° 36 N’ latitude and 75° 59° E 
longitude and 350 m above the mean sea level. The area 
exhibits Shiwalik deposits which are alluvial, derived from sub- 
aerail wastes of the mountains swept down by seasonal streams 
and rivers. These are composed of gray and hard sandstones, 
siltstones and red and purple shales along with pseudo- 
conglomerates of middle Miocene to Helvetian age. Soils on 
shoulder slopes and toe slopes lack any pedogenic 
development, except and ochric epipedon, and qualify as 
Entisols (Typic Ustorthents). The moderately developed soils 
from back slopes and foot slopes are Inceptisols (Typic 
Ustochrepts) whereas the young and stratified soils from 
rivulets qualify for Psamments and Typic Ustipsamments. 
The area has a sub-humid climate with annual rainfall varying 
from 800-1100 mm, of which about 80 per cent is received 
during summer monsoon months (July-September) and the 
remaining during the winter season (October-March). Summer 
rains are received in 20-30 rainstorms of which 10-12 are 
runoff producing and a few occur with an average intensity 
greater than 120 mm h''. The mean temperatures are 31°C in 
summer and 14.9°C in the winter season. The soil temperature 
is hyperthermic and soils have an ustic moisture regime 
according to soil taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff, 1975). 
The three selected catchments differed in their size, shape and 
were installed with stage level recorders. A detailed field 
survey for gully erosion was carried out in these catchments, 
which were divided into grids of 50 m x 50 m on a contour map 
of scale 1: 1000. Each gully line was sketched on the map by 
measuring the distance from the wooden pegs laid out in the 
grids. Vegetation status in terms of tree, bush and grass cover 
was recorded in 100, 10 and 1.0 m? sub-grids. The areal, length