Evaluation of parametic impact on soil loss of Panchnoi river basin, Northeast India, using revised universal soil loss equation (rusle)

Water activated soil erosion is an environmental problem in the Panchnoi river basin of North East India which causes serious fluvial hazards in downstream areas. Land degradation by soil erosion is one of the major problems of agriculture in Assam part of Panchnoi basin. Process of soil erosion is a complex system of parameters such as rainfall, rock and soil type, terrain characteristics, and prevailing land use and land cover dynamism that's leave behind a track of land into uneconomic for crop productivity. In order to prevent the ongoing and unseen damages occurred due to erosion of soil, it becomes important to identify the areas which are vulnerable to soil erosion for soil conservation practices. The study is based on Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and it is found much suitable to estimating soil loss and erosion in humid tropical lands. Here we assigned values on different soil erosion parameters such as rainfall, soil types, relief, slope, and land use and land cover base on scientific principles and generate GIS layers ArcInfo 9.3 and accordingly rate of soil loss and amount of soil erosion estimated. Beside estimate this study discloses the parametric impact of erosion parameters in the basin and found that soil types and vegetation cover played major role in soil erosion scenario of whole basin, and in hilly sections terrain conditions and rainfall has a deep control over soil erosion. Again the study reveals soil erosion risk degraded hilly section is quite high and should be paid particular attention for soil conservation practices, especially in regards to forest degradation activities to attains sustainability in the region.