Changes in Soil Characteristics Developed under Various River Alluvium in Eastern India

Being one of the most important natural resources, soil plays a crucial role in the sustenance of life. Based on the productivity perspective, the alluvial soils have a preference for growing a large variety of agricultural and horticultural crops. Thus, soils developed from alluvium deposited by different rivers flowing in Eastern India exhibited different soil characteristics as influenced by various factors in the river basin. The present study has been conducted in Malda district, West Bengal having alluvial soils developed under the Ganga, Mahananda, Tangon and Punarbhaba rivers. The detailed soil study and characterization revealed that soils under the Ganga and Punarbhaba basins are fine-silty type with silty loam to silty clay loam surface texture, whereas the soils under the Mahananda and Tangon river basin are fine to very fine soils with silty loam to clayey surface texture. All the soils were calcareous in nature. Genesis study discovered that the Ganga basin developed Entisols, whereas soils in other river basins (Mahananda, Tangon and Punarbhaba) are comparatively more matured Inceptisols with vertic and non-vertic properties, respectively.