Describe the soils found in India in detail.

1. Black Soils: Black soils are mainly found over the Deccan lava tract (Deccan Trap) including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. These soils are found in river valleys of Narmada, Tapi, Godavari and Krishna. These soils have been formed due to weathering of lava rocks. These soils cover an area of about 5 lakh sq. km. These soils are rich in lime, iron, magnesia and alumina. But these lack in phosphorus, nitrogen and organic matter. These are also called ‘Regur Soils’. These soils are most suitable for cotton cultivation and are known as ‘Black Cotton Soils’ These soils are compared with Chernozem soils of Russia and Prairies soils of U.S.A. These soils can hold water. These soils are suitable for wheat, jowar, sugarcane, tobacco and oil seeds.

2. Red Soils : These soils are found in Chhotanagpur plateau, Telangana, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and

areas of periphery of Deccan plateau. These soils have been formed due to decomposition of underlying igneous rocks under heavy rainfall. These soils have different shades of red and yellow. The red colour of these soils is due to oxidation and diffusion of iron in hard crystalline rocks. These are suitable for the cultivation of millets, pulses, lin–seed, tobacco etc. These soils cover the largest area in Peninsular India, particularly south-east part of the peninsula. These soils are poor in lime, nitrogen and humus. Fertilizers are added to make these fertile.

3. Laterite Soils : Laterite soils are found on the highland areas of the plateau. These are found in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and hilly regions of Assam, Rajmahal hills and Chhotanagpur plateau. Due to monsoonal climate (we,t and dry seasons alternately occurring), there is the leaching of soils due to heavy rains. It washes away the silica content in soils. These are shallow, acidic and less fertile soils. The lowland laterite soils are useful for cultivation of food- grains and other crops. The upland laterite are thin, coarse and infertile. These soils are poor in nitrogen and lime, but rich in iron. So these are suitable for plantation of crops like tea, rubber, coffee etc.

4. Alluvial Soils : These soils are the most widespread soils covering an area of 8 lakh sq. km from Punjab to Assam (the entire northern plains). These cover 22.16 per cent total area. These soils have been deposited by sediments brought by rivers. These are found in river basins, flood plains and coastal areas. These are deep soils rich in potash, but poor in nitrogen. These soils contain fine particles of soils called alluvium deposited over thousands of years. This alluvium has been deposited by three great Himalayan rivers-Sutlej, Ganga and Brahmaputra. These soils are common in the eastern coastal plains.

These soils have been deposited by the rivers in river valleys of Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and their deltas. These are deep and fertile soils. These soils are suitable for cultivation of jute, sugarcane etc.

These are of three types :

(i) Khadar soils : The finer and new alluvium deposited in flood plains is called Khadar.

(ii) Bangar Soils: The older alluvium is known as Bangar.

(iii) Newest Alluvial Soils : The fine alluvium in deltas is known as newest alluvial soils.

5. Other Soils :

(a) Desert Soils : These soils cover 2 lakh sq. km area in dry areas of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana. These coarse soils are suitable for cultivation of jowar, bajara, cotton etc.

(b) Saline and Alkaline Soils :

These soils are found in dry and marshy areas. These are locally known as Bhur, Rehu, Kallar. The accumulation of salts makes these infertile.

(c) Mountain Soils : These soils are mostly thin and infertile. These include peat, meadow, and forest hill soils.

(i) Stony soils which are coarse and infertile.

(ii) Tea soils found in Dun valleys are suitable for tea cultivation.

(iii) Volcanic soils are found on mountain slopes.