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Land use influences physico-chemical and water transmission properties of soil, which ultimately determine the suitability of land for different purposes. In present study, impact of different land use (forest and agriculture) on selected physicochemical and hydrological properties of soil was evaluated and compared with a reference site (uncultivated ravinous wasteland). Land use influenced infiltration rate, bulk density, mean weight diameter of aggregates and plant available water of soils. After 25 years of plantation of forest species, soil organic carbon content increased by more than twofold and mean weight diameter of aggregates by 2-to 6-fold in comparison to reference site. Significant reduction in soil bulk density (4-18%) and increase in steady state infiltration rate (1.5-2 times) was observed under the forest land use system.Conversion of ravine to forest system resulted in significant improvement in moisture retention capacity of soil. Conversion of ravine landform to agriculture adversely affected the soil bulk density and infiltration rate. The study provided practical information regarding rehabilitation potential of different tree species (Prosopis juliflora, Leucaena leucocephala, Acacia nilotica and Azadirachta indica) that could be used for restoration of ustifluvent soil susceptible to gully erosion in the semi-arid region.

The present study is mainly concerned with the changing trends of rainfall and temperature of all the thirteen districts of the state Uttarakhand. The state lies on the southern slope of the Himalayan range and the climate and vegetation vary greatly with elevation, from the glaciers at the highest elevations to subtropical forests at lower elevations. In the present study, we have tried to analyze the most important climatic variables precipitation and temperature, for analyzing the trend in the area. For this, daily rainfall data of 41 years from 1971 to 2011 and minimum and maximum temperature data of 37 years from 1971 to 2007 has been processed in the study to find out the monthly variability of rainfall and temperature for which Mann-Kendall (MK) Test has been used together with the Sen’s Slope Estimator for the determination of trend and slope magnitude. Monthly precipitation and temperature trend has been identified here to achieve the objective which has been shown by 41and 37 years of data. There are increasing trends of precipitation and temperature in some months and decreasing trends in some other months for all the thirteen districts of Uttarakhand obtained from these statistical tests suggesting overall insignificant changes in the area.