Vol. 11, Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Dinesh Kumar, GP Upadhyay and Rajeev Dhiman

Abstract:
The present investigation entitled “Studies on soil biological properties under different land uses at Barog-Dhillon watershed in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh” was carried out with a view to ascertain the biological properties of soils under different land uses viz. agriculture land, forest land, grassland and scrub land under project area and non-project area of Barog-Dhillon watershed. On the basis of detailed survey and random sampling, representative soil samples from two depths i.e. 0-15cm and 15-30cm were collected. The Bacterial count (310.56 and 155.56 cfu g^-1), fungal count (3.57 and 1.78 cfu g^-1), and actinomycetes count (15.81 and 8.43 cfu g^-1) recorded higher in surface and subsurface soils under forest land and lowest under scrub land soils, respectively. Whereas, in case of conditions, bacterial count (271.62 and 136.01 cfu g^-1), fungal count (3.73 and 1.86 cfu g^-1) and actinomycetes count (12.52 and 6.73cfu g^-1) recorded higher in surface and subsurface soils under watershed project area compared to non-project area of watershed. It was concluded that biological properties assessed for different land uses were found higher in case of watershed project area as compared to non- watershed project area.