TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES FOR WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT IN NORTH EAST HILL REGION

The scope of soil conservation is very wide and encompasses much more than physical work for erosion control. The concept of soil conservation, now-a-days has been expanded to mean protection of the soil against physical loss by erosion or against chemical deterioration. Thus, the effective conservation and management of land, water and vegetation resources aimed at obtaining optimum and sustained return from these resources without degrading them can be achieved by adopting watershed as basic unit of development. Watershed being a natural hydrological entity, it responds most effectively to various engineering, biological and cultural treatments. Monitoring of runoff and silt at the outlet of the watershed can help assess the impact of various treatments aimed at conserving soil and water, and protecting vegetation. Watershed management involves protection of land against all forms of degradation, restoration of degraded land, sediment control, pollutants control, and prevention of floods, etc. A workable size of the watershed can be decided in accordance with the aim and objective of the particular system as well as the size of the stream for which it forms a catchment. Watershed of smaller size has distinct advantage of involving a smaller number of families within a resource unit with a common social and economic pattern. Demarcation of watershed and subsequently sub watersheds can be done either by using topo sheet of the area