Assessment of Soil Loss of the Dhalai River Basin, Tripura, India Using USLE

Soil erosion is one of the most important environmental problems, and it remains as a major threat to the land use of hilly regions of Tripura. The present study aims at estimating potential and actual soil loss (t.h super( -1).y super( -1)) as well as to indentify the major erosion prone sub-watersheds in the study area. Average annual soil loss has been estimated by multiplying five parameters, i.e.: R (the rainfall erosivity factor), K (the soil erodibility factor), LS (the topographic factor), C (the crop management factor) and P (the conservation support practice). Such estimation is based on the principles defined in the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) with some modifications. This intensity of soil erosion has been divided into different priority classes. The whole study area has been subdivided into 23 sub watersheds in order to identify the priority areas in terms of the intensity of soil erosion. Each sub-watershed has further been studied intensively in terms of rainfall, soil type, slope, land use/land cover and soil erosion to determine the dominant factor leading to higher erosion. The average annual predicted soil loss ranges between 11 and 836 t.h super( -1).y super( -1). Low soil loss areas (