1.Introduction
Gully erosion is severe most stage of soil erosion initiated by splash erosion, followed by wash off erosion, rill formation cross grading and developing recently formed channel which receives and conveys intermittent runoff. Although this is a universal problem, but in alluvial soil region the network of gullies develops all along the river courses and due to high vertical falls both lateral and spatial extensive net work of gullies develop and such net works along rivers in India are called as ravines and internationally, the river system as riparian areas susceptible to gully erosion. The severity of gully erosion became severe from 1950 decades as revealed by long term data (Warren and Beaver, 1965) plot developed (Yadav 2019). The severity of soil erosion coincided with occurrence of intense rainfall and high vertical falls led to development of large areas becoming out of agriculture use in particular and loss of properties in general.Fig 1 depicts various scenarios of riparian areas susceptible to gully erosion. The gullied lands were reclaimed by special external funding from different donor agencies and vast areas were brought in to arable, specially terraced land that converted eroded land escapes a green productive land under irrigated as well as raned agriculture.
Fig1
After the development of work on reclamation of gullied land (Yadav et al.1989) Government of India conducted studies on productivity enhancement by such reclaimed gully watershed, which reveled success of such projects along Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh, Chambal river in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh along the River Chambal, a tributary to the rivers Yamuna and Maui in Gujarat (Bhushan et al., 1991, Bhutan et. al .1992, , 1997) .). An elucidating bulletin on gully and ravines erosion was release by the Government of India, which was prepared under consultancy work of the Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation by the research scientists of Research Centers for Gully erosion located at Agra, Kota and Vassar under the umbrella of the then Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institutes under apex research organization called as Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. Yadav and Bhutan (2002) documented detailed accomplishment of research and developments on gully and ravines in the riparian areas, in India. The development enhanced exemplary enhancement and sustainable yield fulfilling local and country’s food production reserve.
With development of prosperity and civilization created urbanization and development of urban facilities in rural areas, which had been vision of development in India by the past President of India late Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalama. In such developments all sewages were drained in to the existing river systems throughout India. The gullies remain at the lowest level and developing habitations treat the lowest point as last detonation for leaving sewage discharge, which worsen quality of river water. To clean the bad quality of water as a result of dumping all kind of domestic and industrial waste material and water spoiled quality of water. Many river action plans for cleaning of such bad quality waters were launched as prestigious river action plans called as famous Gang action plan, Yamuna Action plan and so on all regional rivers. In all endeavors the main treatment measures had been construction of sewage treatment plants (STPs), which in spite of long time persistent and rejoiced by the changing Governance did not produce any visible sign of improvement. All the efforts went waste, which became clear by self cleansing of not only one, but all river systems during lockdown period from March- May 2020, in India and similar situations that might have developed elsewhere. This fact led to conclusion that the river system should not receive such waste, disposal, be domestic or industrial, if water resources in the river system has to be maintained to keep water qualities free of pollutions, the gullies also being easy access to discharging from such sources suffered this setback. But, for this no attention could come from the Government side. The sewage water irrigation and poor gully condition spoiled entire scenarios of riparian areas, which had been developed after long research and developments, fund resources and human efforts.
Objective of the present study was to find innovative solution to such problems of riparian river systems in general and that susceptible to gully erosion in particular. The study developed innovative technology to eliminate the developing limitations. Case study includes National Research Setup along the river Yamuna, having densest network of gully and ravines of the world, along the river Yamuna at Etowah, in India, Manuscript contains such case study, innovative measures, their potential application and impact in solving problems of varying nature, called as, environmental food, prosperity and employment generation.