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The ravine is often regarded as the worst instance of how water erosion is causing land deterioration. The farmers' livelihoods are often threatened by the ravine's expansion into the surrounding 50 m buffer zone, leaving them with no choice except to work as landless workers. Due to the high expense of ravine restoration, it is not economically possible to begin the process of reclamation in all of the ravine lands at once. As a result, it is necessary to recognize the prospective regions to bring in reclamation activities. In this work, the ravine vulnerability index for the Mahi ravine in Western India was developed using a cutting‐edge hybrid methodology. For the development of the ravine vulnerability index, it was determined that the sand, silt, clay, organic carbon, soil erodibility factor, slope, stream power index, topographic wetness index, sediment transport index, and cover factor were crucial components. Weights were applied to various parameters based on the perceived significance of each parameter in relation to another in the decision matrix of the analytical hierarchical process. The number of iterations made to reach a consistency ratio of under 10% to determine the final priority weights for each parameter. The sediment transport index had the lowest priority weight (1.4), whereas the sand had the highest priority weight (28.5). For reclamation purposes, the prospective active zones inside the designated ravine's 50‐m buffer zone, which covered an area of 63,031 acres, were determined. According to the ground truth‐validated ravine vulnerability index, possible reclamation zones were found in the 16,703 ha (26.50%) region of Mahi ravine, which was given extremely high priority. As per the Mahi ravine's land capacity classification, 20,275 ha (32.16%) of it is arable land, and 18,687 ha (29.65%) of it is non‐arable land that is ideal for soil and water conservation treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquaintance of potassium (K) transformation in soil is crucial for K management in management system of arid India. Present study revealed that the extractable K like ammonium acetate–potassium (NH4OAc–K), nitric acid (HNO3)–K, and hydrochloric acid (HCl)–K under different systems were followed the order: irrigated low input > rainfed low input > irrigated high input > no input. The pearl millet systems in irrigated low input practice maintained a higher NH4OAc–K than irrigated high input practice. The exchangeable-K (Exch-K), non-exchangeable-K (Non-exch K) and lattice-K were observed highest in irrigated low input system and lowest in no input system. It is noticed that Exch-K contributed 2.3–2.6% over total-K, which readily available to plants. The Exch-K was highly significant correlated with K pools and soil properties, indicating that rapid establishment of equilibrium between the pools. Thus, knowing K reserve and distribution of K forms can help in understanding K replenishment capacity of arid soil under long-term intensive cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research over the last decade on emerging trace organic contaminants in aquatic systems has largely focused on sources such as treated wastewaters in high income countries, with relatively few studies relating to wastewater sources of these contaminants in low and middle income countries. We undertook a longitudinal survey of the Ahar River for a number of emerging organic contaminants (including pharmaceuticals, hormones, personal care products and industrial chemicals) which flows through the city of Udaipur, India. Udaipur is a city of approximately 450,000 people with no wastewater treatment occurring at the time of this survey. We found the concentrations of many of the contaminants within the river water were similar to those commonly reported in untreated wastewater in high income countries. For example, concentrations of pharmaceuticals, such as carbamazepine, antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, ranged up to 1900 ng/L. Other organic contaminants, such as steroid estrogens (up to 124 ng/L), steroid androgens (up to 1560 ng/L), benzotriazoles (up to 11 μg/L), DEET (up to 390 ng/L), BPA (up to 300 ng/L) and caffeine (up to 37.5 μg/L), were all similar to previously reported concentrations in wastewaters in high income countries. An assessment of the population densities in the watersheds feeding into the river showed increasing population density of a watershed led to a corresponding downstream increase in the concentrations of the organic contaminants, with quantifiable concentrations still present up to 10 km downstream of the areas directly adjacent to the highest population densities. Overall, this study highlights how a relatively clean river can be contaminated by untreated wastewater released from an urban centre., (Crown Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)