IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, “Resource and Environmental Monitoring”, Hyderabad, India, 2002 
  
DESERTIFICATION STATUS MAPPING IN COLD DESERT — A CASE STUDY OF 
KATHUA MICRO WATERSHED, KATHUA DISTRICT (J&K). 
P S Dhinwa and Ajai 
Forestry, Land use Planning and Photogrammetry Group 
Remote Sensing Applications Area 
Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad-380 015 
Drdhinwa@yahoo.co.in 
KEYWORDS : Desertification, Agro-ecological Region, Degree of Severity and Classification System 
ABSTRACT: 
Desertification is a term that refers to the process of land degradation that ultimately leads to transformation of productive land into a 
desert. It is a process involving continuum change from no degradation to severe degradation. The causative agent over the last two 
thousand years or more has been man. The man's misuse of land leads to the degradation of the productivity of vegetation and the 
fertility of the soil as well as to various unfavorable alterations in soil water balance. Land degradation by man is initiated when the 
vegetative cover is reduced or. destroyed by over-grazing, over-cultivation, tree cutting, shifting cultivation, mining, road 
construction, irrigation, urbanization and other activities that disturb the natural condition. Subsequently, water and wind erosion 
accelerates the degradation process. Finally condition deteriorates to the point where land is abandoned (Dregne, 1986). For 
assessing the status of desertification in cold desert region, not much work has been reported in the literature. In this research paper, 
an attempt has bee made to evolve a methodology, classification system and legend for desertification status mapping. Using this 
methodology and classification system, a desertification status map has been prepared for Kathua micro-watershed in Kathua 
district, (J&K) to denote the degree of severity of desertification. The multi-temporal satellite data reveals that as result of 
anthropogenic factors vegetal degradation is very prominent in this region, at some place it is moderate and at many places it is 
  
severe. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Desertification means land degradation in arid, semi-arid and 
dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors including 
climatic variations and human activities (Earth Summit, Rio, 
1992). The term embraces loss of biological or economic 
productivity and complexity in agricultural, pastoral and forest 
land. The essential causes of desertification have now been 
identified as climatic fluctuations and non-sustainable forms of 
land use. The most frequently cite forms of unsustainable forms 
of land use are overexploitation, overgrazing, logging and 
inappropriate irrigation practices (Horstmann, 2002). In India 
about 175 m ha of land area is suffering from various kinds of 
degradation problems and 20.17 percent of area is lying under 
wastelands (Wastelands Atlas of India, 2000). Our country 
suffers from many of the problems associated with under- 
developed countries, it is densely populated and its 700 m 
inhabitants are generally dependent on agriculture for a living 
(Rao, 1991). For meeting the need of food, additional area has 
to be brought under cultivation which may cause environmental 
imbalance since the area under forestry has already been 
declining at the rate of 1mha per year due to deforestation. The 
other option lies only in increasing the productivity per unit 
area through systematic appraisal of our soils and climatic 
resources for optimizing land use on sustainable basis. The 
increased agricultural productivity has resulted in large-scale 
irrigation of over 30 per cent of the sub-continent compared 
with a typical figure of less than 10 per cent in many developed 
nations. Large scale irrigation, coupled with extensive use of 
fertilizers, poor drainage and inappropriate agricultural 
practices has led to undesirable increase in soil salinity, 
reducing previously fertile land to an impoverished and 
unproductive state (Williams, 2001). In the last decade it has 
become evident that the processes of desertification have been 
770 
very much enhanced mainly through rapid increase of human 
and animal population (Sharma, 1993). India has large area 
under arid and semi-arid zones. According to National Bureau 
of Soil Survey &Land Use Planning, Nagpur, the arid, semi- 
arid and dry sub-humid regions constituting the ‘drylands’ (as 
per Thornwaites Classification, 1955) cover 228.3 m ha (69.6 
%) of the total area (328mha) of the country (Anon. 2001). 
2. STUDY AREA 
The Kathua micro-watershed (1C1B2) lies in the northern part 
of Kathua district (Anon.,1990). This micro-watershed is 
drained by Bhini River, which is a tributary of Ravi River and a 
part of the Indus River system. Geographically, it is bounded by 
latitude 32° 35° to 32° 46° North and longitude 75° 36° to 75° 
45" East. The total area of the watershed is 160 sq. km. This 
watershed lies in dry sub-humid agro-ecological region (Sehgal 
et, al. 1992). The dry sub-humid ecosystem in India experiences 
rainfall of about 1000 mm — 1200 mm per year with length of 
crop growing period (LGP) varying between 150-180 days. 
Thornwaite's moisture index varies from 0 to -333 
(Velayutham et al., 1999). 
3. METHODOLOGY 
The methodology and classification system is finalised after 
brain storming discussion with various collaborating agencies 
and academia (Fig.l) By adopting the above mentioned 
classification system and employing the visual analysis and 
interpretation technique and by using multi-temporal satellite 
data a desertification status map is prepared for Kathua micro- 
watershed, Kathua district (J&K) (Annexure I). Various 
categories of land use / land cover, processes of degradation 
  
ve 
Tees