597 
were engaged by the Punjab Govt, to provide the 
necessary consultancy services. A resident team of 3 
experts was made available to the Punjab Government, 
for two years. The team selected ten representative 
catchments of the Kandi tract for the detailed study 
and preparation of Feasibility Reports for each catch 
ment during their stay of two years in the state of 
Punjab. The resident team was assisted by the local 
professional staff of Engineers, Hydrologists, Hydro 
geologists & Economists of the Planning & Design 
Studies Directorate (I.B.) of Punjab Government. 
4 BASE MAP REQUIREMENT FOR DEVELOPMENTAL PLANNING 
An accurate and detailed base map depicting the upper 
catchments and the Kandi plains under each watershed 
taken up for the preparation of Feasibility Reports for 
their development was the prime necessity to carry 
out the detailed study. Thus it was decided to have 
a base map of each watershed on 1:20,000 scale,which 
was also adopted as the standard scale for all the 
thematic maps required under the project. It was 
further decided that the base map should provide the 
following minimum information for each watershed to 
serve for the detailed hydrological, hydrogeological, 
soils system and forestry planning programme of the 
project. 
4.1 Upper catchments 
1 Demarcation of overall catchment with sub-catch 
ments 
2 Demarcation of all major and minor drainage system 
3 Demarcation of cultivated areas whether irrigated 
or under rainfed conditions 
4 The sites of severe bank-cuttings along the major 
streams 
5 Locations of suitable dam sites on major streams 
and small dam sites on their tributaries 
6 Stream behaviour-perennial or non-perennial 
7 Extent of baseflow in the major stream beds 
8 Vegetative cover categorisation to evaluate the 
extent of erosion in the Siwaliks under the 
following norms: 
Category 1 - Good tree cover (50-75%) with good 
bush and grass cover 
Category 2G - Intermediate tree cover (25%-50%) 
with good bush and grass cover 
Category 2 - Intermediate tree cover (25%-50%) 
with intermediate bush and grass cover 
Category 3 - Poor tree cover (25%) with poor bush 
and grass cover. 
9 Demarcation of habitation sites if ,any. 
4.2 Kandi plains 
1 Mapping of entire length of all the streams pass 
ing through the area 
2 Demarcation of active flood plains which are gene 
rally devoid of any grass cover 
3 Demarcation of old flood plains which are flooded 
only during the high flood period and are gene 
rally covered with Sarkanda grass 
4 Demarcation of abandoned flood plains and palaeo- 
channels where a fair distribution of tree cover 
and Sarkanda grass generally occurs 
5 Sites of bank erosion along the stream length 
where flood protection measures like bunding, 
embankments, spurs or diversions if any are 
required 
6 Landslope categorisation to plan for the overall 
development of Kandi plains for irrigation, soil 
conservation/horticulture programme under the 
following norms: 
-Very steep unevenly eroded land 
-Medium to steeply sloping land 
-Generally uncultivated land with Sarkanda grass 
-Moderate to shallow sloping cultivated land 
-Cultivated land in the hilly area. 
7 Demarcation of habitation sites if ,any. 
As the existing topographic maps of the area were 
found unsuitable for such a detailed study, it was 
decided to have the base maps prepared from aerial 
photographs. The aerial photographs on 1:50,000 scale 
of the project area were procured from Government of 
India in the early stages of the Project. 
The resultant base maps of each watershed were ori 
ginally prepared on 1:50,000 scale and then blown up 
to the required scale of 1:20,000. Transfer of surface 
contours with a contour interval of 20 metres in the 
plains was done on photo-interpreted maps to serve as 
full fledged base maps. The infrastructure and expe 
rtise for aerial photo-i±nterpretation existed in the 
Planning and Design Studies Dte,(I.B.), Punjab and it 
was carried out by the authors along with the requi 
site cartographic works with the help of drawing staff 
made available to the project. 
5 UTILISATION OF BASE MAP FOR THEMATIC MAPPING 
The base map prepared - from photographs has been uti 
lised for the preparation of a number of final thema 
tic maps utilised in the Feasibility Reports of rep 
resentative watersheds under the Kandi Watershed and 
Area Development Project, by dombining the data derived 
from aerial photographs and the ground based data.The 
final maps prepared for each watershed are as under: 
1 Map showing sub-surface lithology & location of 
deep tubewells 
2 Water level elevation contour & depth to water 
contour map 
3 Groundwater quality map 
4 Present land use map 
5 Land capability & feoil classification map 
6 Problem map of Soils 
7 Layout of dam based irrigation scheme 
8 Map showing layout of ground water based irrigation 
scheme 
9 Map showing flood plain and flood protection 
measures in the Kandi plains. 
6 EXAMPLE OF PHOTO-INTERPRETED MAPPING 
Fig.l represents the sketch-photo-interpretted base 
map of Sughrao watershed, prepared from aerial photo 
graphs of 1:50,000 scale. Sughrao is a tributary of 
Budki Nadi which meets the main Satluj river down 
stream of Ropar town. Its two branches Kakot Nala and 
Haripur Nala merge to form Sughrao near village 
Baghwali at a distance of about 7 to 8 kms downstream 
of the hilly tract which later on flows in a north 
easterly direction. 
The upper catchment of Sughrao Choe system covers 
an area of 45.50 sq.kms. The entire drainage net work 
has been mapped along with the area under cultivation 
and the habitation sites. The vegetative cover cate 
gorisation of the upper catchment has been done to 
judge the extent of erosion and to plan the suitable 
remedial measures, as discussed earlier. The location 
of possible main dam sites and small dam sites has 
been marked to work out the hydrological studies of 
each site. 
The area lying in the Kandi plains has also been 
subjected to detailed mapping. The main streams along 
with their net work of tributaries and all the habi 
tation sites has been demarcated. It has also been 
subjected to land slope categorisation as discussed 
earlier to plan for the irrigation, soil-conservation, 
agriculture & horticulture development of the area. 
The main canals, roads, railway lines surface level 
countours (not shown in the present map) has also been 
mapped on the base map making it as a full fledged 
tool for thematic mapping. The present procedure