Fundamentals o f Soil Science
Course Code: Sol 114
Unit II- Lecture 9
AGNIBHA SINHA
Assistant Professor
Dept. Soil Science & Agril.
Chemistry
School of
Agriculture
Why Soil classification is needed
Concept
covered Soils of India
Soils of India
Introduction
The major soil groups of India and their properties
• India situated between the latitude of 8 o and 370 N and longitudes of
’ ’
69 0 to 97o E, has a geographical area of 329 Mha.
’ ’
• India with a variety of landforms, geological formations and climatic
conditions, exhibits a large variety of soils. The variety is so diverse
that except few soil orders, India represents all the major soils of the
world.
• The major soil group of India , according to the Genetic approach
can be classified in to following soil groups:
Alluvial Soils:
• Soils which have developed on parent materials
transported by different agencies viz. water, ice,
gravity(colluvial) and wind (Aolian & Loess).
• Largest and the most important group of soils for crop
production.
• They are extensively distributed in the states of Punjab,
Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Bihar, West Bengal,
Assam and coastal regions of India and occupy an
estimated area of 75 Mha in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and
Brahmaputra valley alone.
• These soils are variable in texture, depending on the
source of parent material and their place of deposition.
Khadar: new alluvial soil, very fertile, fine grained soil
Bhangar: old alluvial soil, less fertile, contains calcareous
deposits known as Kankar
Black (Cotton)/ Regur Soils:
• Soils very dark in colour and turn extremely hard on
drying and sticky and plastic on wetting, and hence
are very difficult to cultivate and manage.
• They occupy an estimated area of 74 Mha.
• They are highly clayey (30-80 %)
• The pH ranges from 7.8 to 8.7, which may go up to
9.5 under sodic conditions.
• They have high exchange capacity because of
smectite clay minerals and high water and nutrient
holding capacity.
The dark colour of the soil is due to clay-humus
complex and presence of titaniferous magnetite
minerals
Red Soils:
• These soils are generally red or reddish brown and
derived from granites, gneiss and other metamorphic
rocks.
• These soils are formed under well drained conditions.
• Eluviation and illuviation of clay, iron, aluminium and
bases are the main soil forming processes.
• These soils are predominantely observed states of
Andhra Pradesh,Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra,
Orissa and Goa and in North Eastern States.
• These soils show common presence of kaolinite clay
minerals
• These soils are generally deficient in N,P and K. They
are also poor in organic matter and lime contents
Laterite and Lateritic Soils:
• The lateritic soils are those in which laterization is
the dominant soil forming process.
• They are generally observed on hill tops and
Plateau landforms of Orissa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
etc.
• These are deeply weathered soils with high clay
content.
• The lateritic soils are more widely distributed and
occupy about 25 Mha of the total geographical area
of India
• Kaolinite is the dominant clay mineral of these
soils
The major limitations posed by these soils are
deficiency of P,K,Ca, Zn,B, etc and high acidity and
toxicity of aluminium and manganese.
Desert (Arid) Soils:
• A large part of the arid region covering an area of 29
Mha.
• The sandy material, under arid conditions , results in
poor profile development.
• These are sandy to loamy fine sand in texture with clay
content varying from 3.5% to less than 10%.
• Pale brown to yellowish brown in colour and have
weak subangular blocky structure.
• Poor in nutrient(N,P,K,S and Zn) and water holding
capacity.
These soils may form gypsic horizon.
These are slightly to moderately alkaline in reaction(pH
7.8-9.2) because of calcareous nature.
Forest and Hill Soils:
• These soils developed under forest cover.
•In India , the total area under forest is estimated to
be 75 Mha and is observed dominantly in the states of
Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar
Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Kerala and North-East region.
Formation - due to mechanical weathering caused by snow, rain,
temperature variation
Chemical properties - are deficient in potash, Phosphorus and
lime.
Nature - light, sandy, thin and found with the pieces of rock.
Their character changes with the parent rocks. Very rich in
humus. slow decomposition makes it acidic
Salt Affected Soils: Saline and alkaline soils
• The soils occuring in the arid and Formation - formed due to ill drainage
semi arid regions and occupy about 10 which causes water logging, injurious salts
Mha area of which 7Mha is sodic. are transferred from subsurface to the top
soil by the capillary action, it causes the
These soils occurs in the Indo- salinisation of soils
Gangetic planes followed by the Chemical properties - liberate sodium,
Deccan (Peninsula) magnesium and calcium salts and
• • The saline soils of coastal region sulphurous acid
result from the rise of brackish ground
water due to capillary action under
excessive evaporation.
Peaty and marshy soils
Formation - formed in humid regions from the organic
matter. It is found in the areas of heavy rainfall and high
humidity
Peaty soils are black, heavy and highly acidic.
Chemical properties - deficient in potash and
phosphate.
Nature - Contain considerable amount of Soluble salts
and 10-40 per cent of organic matter;
Prepared by _ Jancy Garg
