Poverty alleviation and resource conservation through development of cost effective technology at foot hill of Shivalik

Abstract

The study revealed the development of cost effective technology utilized as a practical tool for treatment of seasonal torrent and addressing erosion problems and land use planning. Technology was implemented in a small agricultural watershed located in foot hill of Shivalik, India, to assess its prediction capacity of runoff, peak runoff flow and sediment yield. Cost effective technology was evaluated at the event scale by using a database of hydrological, geomorphologic and land use data collected during a two-year period. In the catchment, the gullies which are small to medium in size were treated with gully plugging by erecting loose boulder check dams and erected with different species of plants. Different types of spur were constructed with vegetative reinforcement for channelization of stream flow. The sediments deposited in the first year at downstream was recorded 0.09-81.0 tons, while in the second year it was reduced up to 0.07-16.7 tons. Similarly, up stream sediment deposition was recorded 1.0-72.0 tons and 0.37-13.1 tons in two consecutive years. The D-50 analysis of sediment deposited was carried in three different places of torrent and it was found that deposited particle size material decreased after treatment undertaken in the torrent bed. Therefore, the mechanical as well as vegetative measures helped in the channelization of water course towards the central line with the tune of 10-100 m, stabilization of torrent bed and reclamation of degraded land.