This ppt is about the distribution of wasteland and problem soils. Those lands are wastelands which are ecologically unstable, whose topsoil has nearly been completely lost, and which have developed toxicity in the root zones or growth of most plants, both annual crops and trees”.

1. Distribution of waste land and problem soils
in India.
SHANTANU JADHAV

2.  India shares 16% of the world population, while its land is only 2% of the
total geographical area of the world.
 Naturally, the pressure on the land is often beyond its carrying capacity.
 Therefore, the productive lands, especially the farmlands in the India are in
the constant process of various degrees of degradation and are fast turning
into wastelands.
 Out of these lands, approximately 50% lands are such non-forest lands,
which can be made fertile again if treated properly.
 It was unprotected non-forestlands, which suffered the maximum
degradation mainly due to the tremendous biotic pressure on it.
 India has a forest cover of about 76.78 million hectares, Which is 23.36%
of the total geographical area of India. The world average percapita
availability of Forest is 0.8 ha. And for India it is 0.08 ha.
SHANTANU JADHAV

3. Land systems are classified as:
a) Cropland
b) Barren Land
c) Wet Land
d) Arid dry land
e) Range land
f) Grass land
g) Snowy land and
h) Wastelands.
SHANTANU JADHAV

4. Wasteland:
Wasteland Survey and Reclamation Committee, Ministry of food and
Agriculture, govt, of India (1961) has defined
“Wastelands as those lands which are either not
available for cultivation or left out without being
cultivated for some reason or other.”
SHANTANU JADHAV

5. SHANTANU JADHAV

6. Bhumla and Khare (1987) gives a working definition of wastelands.
According to them,
“Those lands are wastelands
(a)which are ecologicaly unstable,
(b)whose top soil has nearly been completely lost, and
(c) which have developed toxicity in the root zones or growth of
most plants, both annual crops and trees”.

7. Wastelands include:
1. degraded forests,
2. overgrazed pastures,
3. drought-struck pastures,
4. eroded valleys,
5. hilly slopes,
6. waterlogged marshy lands,
7. barren land etc.

8. Degraded forests

9. Overgrazed pastures

10. Eroded valleys

11. Hilly slopes

12. Waterlogged marshy lands

13. Barren land

14. As per this definition wastelands are classified into two categories:
culturable wastelands and unculturable wastelands.
1. The culturable category includes all possible wasteland areas which
can be brought under vegetation (though after adequate treatment).
2. On the other hand, unculturable wastelands are the lands which
cannot be developed for vegetative cover. In other words, land which is
barren and cannot be put to any productive use, such as agriculture, and
forest cover is unculturable wasteland.

15. Major categories of wastelands :
1. Gullied or ravenous land
2. Land with or without scrub
3. Waterlogged land or Marsh land
4. Land of soil salinity/alkalinity
5. Land of shifting cultivation
6. Underutilized Degraded Notified Forestland
7. Degraded Pasture/ Grazing Land
8. Degraded Land of Plantation Crops
9. Desertic sands or Coastal sands
10. Mining or industrial waste lands
11. Barren land with rock/ stony wastes
12. Steep sloping lands
13. Snow covered lands

17. Gullied land

18. 1. Gullied land
1. The gullies are the result of the localized surface runoff affecting the
friable unconsolidated material resulting in the formation of perceptible
channels resulting in undulating terrain having a maximum depth of 3m.
2. They are the first stage of excessive land dissection followed by their
networking which leads to the development of ravinous land.
Ravinous land - this category of land contains system of gullies running more
or less parallel lo each other in deep alluvium and entering a nearby river
flowing much lower than the surrounding table lands as are found along the
courses of many rivers.

20. Management
There arises the need to prevent erosion by easing of slopes of gullies
and by checking the surface flow.
Therefore, the ravines should be put under an afforestation and
horticultural programme to stabilise the present rate of erosion.
The gullies need to be plugged by using locally available rock
structure.
Soil conservation measures such as contour furrowing, check
damming, gully plugging, etc. could be used for the management of
ravines.
Diverting the run-off water from active gully is important to arrest
their expansion.

21. 2. Undulating upland with or without scrub
 This is the land of undulating nature prone to degradation.
 This may or may not have scrub cover.
 Such land occupies topographically high locations with 3° to
10° slope, often showing flat tops as in the case of
sandstones, laterite and basaltic plateau areas with gentle
tops and gentle to moderate slopes.

23. Management
• Scrub lands which have been occupying undulating upland having flat
top could be converted into a potential woodland by planting some
perennial species.
• The scrub lands could be used as a protective cover to check excessive
erosion.
• For such maintenance there will be involvement of a small amount of
capital.

24. 3. Surface waterlogged and marshy land
1. This is the land where water table is at /or near the surface and
water stands for most of the year.
2. Waterlogging occurs due to the rise of sub-soil water-table and
this happens almost all the over-irrigated areas.
3. This problem is generally seen in the areas of canal irrigation
where due to the seepage of water from canals, the sub-soil
becomes saturated with water.
4. Marsh is the land which permanently or periodically is
inundated by water and is characterized by vegetation that
includes grasses and reeds.
5. Marshes are classified into salt, brackish and fresh water
categories depending on the salinity of water.

25. Surface waterlogged and marshy land

26. • Depending on duration of waterlogging, two subclasses viz.,
1. Permanently waterlogged
2. Seasonally waterlogged
• Permanent: Permanently waterlogged areas are those where the
waterlogging conditions prevail during most part of the year. These
areas are mostly located in lowlying areas, with impervious substratum
along the canals/ river banks, coastal inlands, etc.
• Seasonal: Seasonally waterlogged areas are those where the
waterlogging condition prevails usually during the monsoon period.
These lands are mostly located in plain areas associated with the
drainage congestion.

27. Management
Draining of excess water, reducing salinity.
Proper soil working, changing the schedule of planting operations and
selection of suitable species for afforestation.
Planting trees on ridges may also minimize adverse effects of
waterlogging.
Afforestation of these areas may be of considerable economic
importance.
These lands can also be utilized for growing grasses like Para, Napier
and Guinea.
Marshy area has enormous potentiality to effectively utilize for the
economic benefits of villagers by converting these into profitable fish
tanks.

28. 4. Shifting cultivation
 Shifting cultivation is a traditional practice of growing crops
on forested/ vegetated hill-slope by the slash and burn method.
 Such land is the result of cyclic land use consisting of felling
of trees and burning of forest areas for growing crops.
This results in extensive soil losses leading to land degradation.

29. Shifting cultivation

31. Management
There is very much urgent to initiate an educative workshop for the
villagers.
The peoples are required to make aware about the defective system of
their land tenurial system.
The very important thing to eradicate the shifting cultivation practice
lies in making alternative arrangement for their living.
Cultivators should be motivated to adopt scientific method of
agricultural practice to check the present rate of degradation.

32. 5. Degraded/under utilized notified forest land
Lands as notified under the forest act and those lands
with various types of forest cover in which denudation
of vegetation cover is less than 20% of canopy cover,
are classified as degraded land.

33. 6. Degraded pastures/grazing land
All those grazing lands in non-forest areas, whether or
not they are permanent pastures or meadows, which
have become degraded due to lack of proper soil
conservation and drainage measures fall under this
category

34. The main causes of formation of wastelands are:
(a) Indiscriminate and over utilisation of forest produces
(b) Over-grazing
(c) Side effects of development projects
(d) Mis-use and unscientific land management.

35. Causes of Land Degradation
Causes of Degradation Area (million hectares) Percentage of total area
Water erosion 107.12 61.7
Wind erosion 17.79 10.24
Ravines 3.97 2.28
Salt-affected 7.61 4.38
Waterlogging 8.52 4.90
Mines & quarry wastes -- --
Degraded land due to
shifting cultivation
4.91 2.82
Degraded forest lands 19.49 11.22
Special problems 2.73 1.57
Coastal sandy areas 1.46 0.84
TOTAL 173.64 100.0

36. Water erosion
• Raindrop/ Splash Erosion:
• Sheet erosion: This erosion is the hardest to see, as a uniform
soil layer is removed from an area over the surface.
• Rill erosion: This type of erosion starts as water flowing over
the soil surface concentrates into small streams, creating
channels of water flow.
• Gully erosion: If the rill erosion is not kept under control, it
creates gullies, which are deeper and wider cuts. They are
really problematic on cropland, since tractors and tillage
implements cannot get across them.

37. Wind erosion
• Like water erosion, there are three different types of wind erosion,
surface creep, saltation, and suspension.
• Surface Creep: When the wind speed at the soil surface exceeds 13
miles per hour (21 kilometers per hour), soil particles start to roll
along the soil surface.
• Saltation: As the wind speeds pick up, the surface particles start
leaping off the surface into the air, this process is saltation.
• Suspension: After the saltation begins, the particles hit the surface and
knock loose other particles, knocking them into the air. These include
smaller sand particles and clays. They then are lifted into the
atmosphere and can be transported long distances until the wind speed
decreases.

38. Salt affected soils:
Soils, in which concentration of salts is so high as to adversely affect
plant growth and crop productivity, are called salt affected soils.
Some amounts of salts are always present in the soil.
When the concentration of these salts is low, they are not harmful for
the growth of plants.
But with the increase in salt content of the soil to high levels, the plant
growth adversely affected which, in turn, decreases the productivity of
agricultural crops.
The extent of reduction in growth and decrement in productivity,
however, depend upon many factors such as kind and content of salt
constituents, soil texture, distribution of salts in the soil profile, the
species of plant grown, level of soil - water - crop management and
climatic condition.

39. Classification of salt affected soils:
The salt affected soils needs to classified in to various groups for
developing special systems of management for specific types of
problems and constraints in the production of crops.
In 1954, the US Salinity Laboratory Staff grouped salt affected soils
in to three distinct classes based on the behavior of salts in the soils
viz.
(i)Saline soils,
(ii)Alkali soils and
(iii)Saline- alkali soils

40. Extent and distribution of salt affected soils
in India

41. Sr. No. State Saline soils (ha) Alkali soils (ha) Coastal saline soil Total (ha)
1 Andhra Pradesh 0 196609 77598 274207
2 A & N islands 0 0 77000 77000
3 Bihar 47301 105852 0 153153
4 Gujarat 1218255 541430 462315 2222000
5 Haryana 49157 183399 0 232556
6 Jammu & Kashmir 0 17500 0 17500
7 Karnataka 1307 148136 586 150029
8 Kerala 0 0 20000 20000
9 Maharashtra 177093 422670 6996 606759
10 Madhya Pradesh 0 139720 0 139720
11 Orissa 0 0 147138 147138
12 Punjab 0 151717 0 151717
13 Rajasthan 195571 179371 0 374942
14 Tamil Nadu 0 354784 13231 368015
15 Uttar Pradesh 21989 1346971 0 1368960
16 West Bengal 0 0 441272 441272
Total 1710673 3788159 1246136 6744968

42. Salt-affected soils occur at a tune of 6.73 Mha in our country.
Soils Area (Mha)
Red and laterite soils 117.2
Black soils 73.5
Alluvial soils 58.4
Desert soils 30.0
Other soils {saline–alkali soils, forest
and hill soils, peaty and marshy soils}
49.6
Major soil groups in India

43. Reclamation of Wastelands:
The different methods used for the reclamation of wastelands
are:
1. These lands can be brought under cultivation by using excess
water and fertilizers.
2. Afforestation and agronomical methods are used to conserve the
soil, which help us to use it for agriculture.
3. Contour bunds are constructed which afford safe disposal of
water of the catchment areas.
4. These lands can be used for settling the landless agricultural
laborers.