Ravine lands in north-western states of India and their developmental potential

Abstract

Gully erosion has led to severe terrain deformation alongside some of major river systems of India. These ravine lands of some major river systems are economically and ecologically hyper-sensitive riparian landscapes which play a crucial role in flood and drought mitigation, aquatic and riparian biodiversity, micro-climate moderation and rural livelihood security. There has been lack of agreement on current status of ravine lands in India; reported ravine area by different institutions varies1 M ha to 10 M ha in India. This paper reports results of a study conducted by ICAR-IISWC for determining the extent of the problem, and to assess developmental potential of ravine lands in four north-western states of India. Total ravine area delineated in four states, viz., Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat is 1.036 M ha which shows about 62% reduction in total ravine area statistics reported by National Commission on Agriculture in 1976. Nevertheless, under unprotected conditions, the average ingress rate increased from 0.43% to 1.26% over a period of 60 years. Partially or fully treated ravine clusters have shown negative ingress rates indicating reduction in ravine area and initiation of restoration of ravine lands. Implementation of ravine reclamation packages have demonstrated benefit:cost ratio (BCR) of 1:1.4 to 1:2.54. Post-project evaluation of ravine area development project after 5 and 10 years of its completion has shown about three and six fold increase in cultivated land and gross irrigated area, respectively and consistent improvement in cropping intensity from 65% to 175% resulting into 386% increase in total crop production. Additional collateral benefits recorded were reduced runoff, erosion rates, improved availability of drinking water and general improvement in social conditions. Current assessment suggests that scientific and judicious ravine land management would increase 10% to 50% of existing arable lands, develop irrigation capacity for its 30% to 60% arable lands, improve 9% to 28% cropping intensity and 20% to 66% of current yield levels with an overall 118% to 280% increase in net returns through increased crop production. Severely degraded non-arable lands can potentially be developed to strengthen several livelihood systems for local in habitants with an expected BCR of 1.49 to 2.46.