Management of Gully erosion in the foothills of lower Shiwaliks

Rajan Bhatt
Assistant Professor (Soil Scinece)
Krishi Vigyan Kendra,Kapurthala
rajanbhatt79@rediffmail.com
(98159-63858)

Gully is a steep sided water course which experienced ephemeral (Seasonal) flow

during the rainstorms. These are mainly developed in the sloppy kandi rainfed area. It is a

serious problem of land degradation in foothills of lower Shiwaliks. Gully erosion is the

most spectacular form of erosion as the damage caused by it is relatively permanent.

Nearly 20% of the total land in the region is under gullies. Gully erosion is most

prevalent type of water erosion as it dissects the fields, impedes the tillage operations,

damages agricultural, residential and recreational land and causes environmental

pollution.

Punjab, one of the most contributing state in the sense of meeting the grain

demand of the country. It is mainly because of the high soil fertility, good irrigation

facilities, good management practices and no doubt because of the hard efforts made by

the progressive farmers of the state. Punjab all alone contributes about 12 % of the total

food grain production of the country. However, even in Punjab, there is some area which

cries for the considerable attention known as Kandi area or the submontaneous tract of

Punjab which extends from the Dhar block of Hoshiarpur district to the Derabassi block

of Patiala district. This area contributes about 10% area of the whole state. Among

various problems, encountered by the area, Gully erosion is one of the most dominating

problem in the area which aggravates because of the erratic, high intensive, short duration

rainfall. Further sparse vegetative cover, improper land use such as land mining,
deforestation, overgrazing etc. helps in easy detachment of top soil. Highly erodible

coarse textured and low organic matter soils lying on the steeper slopes further strengthen

the damage caused by the erosion causing agents.The highly erosive, fast moving runoff

water detaches the soil particles both from the bottom as well as from the side walls of

the gully which produces enormous quantity of the sediments. Further it is reported that

gullies produces around 147 % more sediments than produces by the other type of soil

erosion.

Here, in the Kandi rainfed region around 80 % of the total rainfall occurs in three

monsoon months i.e. from July to September. Up to the month of the June, the vegetation

present on the hilly surface is either overgrazed or is disturbed by the improper land use

and further the soil get loosened by the movement of the animals. On arrival of the

monsoon, the highly intensive rains occurs which detaches a large number of the lossened

soil particles and blocking the soil pores with which infiltration greatly decreased and the

rainfall water inspite of going in the soil, starts overflowing and is known as runoff flow.

Whole of the surface runoff water is directed towards the lower unvegetative portion of the

catchments where a depression occurred after sometime as the loosened soil from that very

area is being removed by highly erosive runoff water. Further with rains, by the back action

of the running water depression start moving upslope in the area. Thus a roof like portion

get develops which may get collapsed due to its own weight. This process is known as the

gully head formation which further advances upslope with time as more and more runoff

water visited in it.

Every effort was being made in the region to control the problem of gully erosion.

But the efficiency of the gully controlling structures was much below than that of the
expectations as around 80 % of them were found to be out of order. It may be becausae of

the two reasons

1. The structures may be physically damaged by the highly erosive speed of the

running water which was much high than the speed of the running water in the

lower oreder gullies.

2. Siltation: The erodede particles from the lower ordered gullies were transported

to the gullies of the higher order (where the gully controlling structures were

installed) and settled down there in the upslope side of the structure resulting in

the siltation.With time the silt start accumulating in the upper side of the gully and

siltation level reaches the crest level within a time period of about 2 to 3 years

which makes the running water/runoff more erosive. Now the running water

which pass calmly in the absence of the structure, will now falls from a greater

height equals to the height of the structure.

Therefore, before installing the structures we must concentrate on the behavior of the

development of Gullies and pattern which they follows while developing. Some

preliminary studies in the selected catchments in sub-montaneous Punjab have shown

gully texture to be as high as 1629 - 4423 gullies per Km2 area and gully texture to be

28.1 - 54.6 Km per Km2 area. Of the total gullies, first ordered gullies constitutes

about 73-79 % whereas second ordered gullies constitutes about 18-23 %.The

distribution of gullies on either side of the highest order (main gully) in the region can

be attributed to the land slope steepness status of the catchment. Gully formation is

largely controlled by the generation of sufficient volume of runoff and a sufficient

 level of relief energy which depends on the slope gradient. Of the total length of

gullies, first ordered gullies represented 62-70 % whereas second and third ordered

gullies occupied 15-23 % and 2-8 % of total length. Thus both gully number and

gully length decreased with increasing order of gullies. Of the total first ordered

gullies about 54 % drained into second ordered gullies whereas 29 and 17.1 % first

order gullies drained into third and fourth ordered gullies (highest ordered). Based on

the depth of the gullies in the region 66.7 % gullies were short (<1m), while 16.7 %

were medium (1-5m) and 16.6 % were large (>5m).Based on the shape, the gullies in

the region have been designated as U- shaped which is mainly due to the more

erodible sub-surface soil. Thus management of these Gullies in the earlier stages

(when they are in the lower order) is a must because prevention is better than cure and

following are the some tips in this direction.

Gully management tips:

It is a notable fact that higher ordered gullies are mainly fed up by the lower

ordered gullies, therefore considerable attention must be paid to the lower ordered gullies.

Gullies are a continuous network and the build up of runoff in the main gully (Choe) is

due to the gully tributories which collect runoff from each nook and corner of the

catchment. Though a comprehensive stratigy of gully control in the submontaneous tract

of Punjab is still to be evolved. However, following are some points need to keep in mind

while going for a gully management programme.

1. The gully erosion management programmes should emphasize on

vegetative measures supported by mechanical measures for a long term

development of land resources.

 2. The gullies in the region need to be treated on a watershed basis. A

selected part of the catchment treated for gully erosion will be meaningless.

3. If possible diversion channels must be employed to divert excess runoff

water to the agricultural field.

4. Before planning for gully control measures, information on gully

network including distribution and extent of different ordered gullies, gully

density, gully texture should be collected.

5. The structures installed should neither be under-designed nor it should

be over-designed.

6. Care should be taken to tackle the gullies of the lower order so as to

prevent the build up of runoff in the higher ordered gullies.

Thus, at last it is important to say that Gully erosion is going to be a great problem

for our future generations, if it is not attempted to control at the earliest by understanding

the behavior and pattern of their development. However, the lower ordered gullies are the

main strengthening agents for the higher ordered gullies which collect the runoff water

from every nook and corner of the catchment and providing it to the Gullies of the higher

order. Therefore, the lower ordered gullies must be tackled at the earlist with a care,

which is practically possible for each and every farmer of the region. Hence, tackling the

lower ordered gullies is a must .This will lead to the better management of the problem of

Gully erosion in the area with little efforts.