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GS-I : Physical Geography Biogeography

20 March, 2021
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Data on Soils of India

Data on Indian Soils

	Alluvial	Black	Red	Forest	Laterite	Arid/ Desert/ Sandy	Alkaline Usar/reh	Marshy/ Kari of Kerala
% Spread	45.6	16.6	10	8.6	8.5	4.32	_	_
Area (lakh km²)	15	5	3.5	2.85	2.48	1.4	_	_
Deficient in	P hm N	K P hm N	Lime Mg P Hm N	Lime P K low in bases N	leaching Lime Si Mg K P N	Org N	_	K P
Rich in	_	Bases Lime Ca, Fe Al, Mg Magnetite	Al Si K(Some parts)	Very rich in Humus High fertilizers needed.	Fe Al Mn P(some parts)	Soluble salts CaCo₃ k	Na Mg Ca Salts	Org hm
Color	_	Dark Grey to Black	Red	Light grey in dry areas Dark Brown in wet areas	Red to reddish yellow	Red to Brown	Blue	Black
Texture	Sandy loam to clayey	clayey	Sandy to clayey	Coarse Gravels to fine loams and silts	Soft when wet Hard and lumpy when dry	Sandy to Gravely	-	Black Heavy
PH	-	Neutral to Alkaline 7.2-8.5	Neutral to Acidic	slightly acidic	Acidic 5-6	Alkaline High PH	Highly Alkaline >8.5	Highly Acidic
States	All States along rivers	MH, MP, West AP southTN northKA	TN, KA, north east AP, East MP, BH, WB, RJ	FOREST AREAS	AP, KA, KR, MP, OD, AS, westMH	RJ,HR,PN,GJ,TN,TL	UP, PN, HR, RJ, KR, coastal OD, Sundarbans	TN BH UP Kottayam, Alapuzha
Significance	Largest available soils	Self Ploughing High Moisture Retension	-	-	Porous, Well drained, Less water holding capacity.	Low water holding capacity soils	Also called Black Alkali or Usar Soils	Mostly Under Water, After rains Paddy is grown
Crops grown	Rice wheat vegetables fruits cotton jute	Cotton Wheat Jowar Linseed Castor Sunflower	-	Spices, Wheat, Maize Temperate fruits	-	Drought / Salt Tolerant Crops Barley, rape, Cotton, Millets, Pulses	-	-
Other	Khader -fertile alluvium and bhangar-older alluvium Bhabar -pebbly soil	Regur soil	-	stony and infertile for the production of crops	In regions of high Rain. Wet and dry spells	Aeolian sand(90-95%) Clay(5-10%)	Incrustation of salts on surface due to high evaporation Also called white alkali soil.	Partially de- composed organic matter

N-Nitrogen P-Phosphorous K-Pottasium
Si-Sillicon Org-Organic matter hm-humus
All soils of India are deficient in N
Slightly acidic soils are more suitable for plant growth.
More hydrogen ion (H+) concentration shows the acidic nature of soil, while the concentration of more hydroxyl (OH-) ions represents its alkaline nature. Neutral condition is produced by an equal concentration of H+ and OH^- ions.

Some of the effects of soil pH on plant growth are:

In general, soil pH of 6.5 to 7.5 is considered optimum for maximum availability of plant nutrients.
Low pH (<6.0) results in an increase in aluminum content of the soil, which is toxic to plants.

Source: khullar

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