1.  Soil is the natural layer on the surface of the earth,
which is formed by weathering of rocks an as it is
source of many materials essential to man forestry,
vegetation etc.
 It forms about 1/5th of earth’s surface, covering roughly
19,393 million hectares.
 Definition: “ The addition of substances to the soil
which adversely affect physical, chemical, and
biological properties of soil and reduce its productivity”.
 The soil pollution cause the loss of 6 hectares of land
every year and loosing 24 billion tons of top soil.
 Globally we are losing a minute if 15 million acres of
prime agricultural lane to overuse and mismanage every
year.

2.  The outer soil crust of the earth is lithosphere.
 The living organism, plants and vegetation are
supported by the lithosphere. It also contains
resources like minerals, organic as well as inorganic
matters and to some extent air and water.
 It plays important role as it is not only produces food
human and animals, but also decomposition of organic
matter is carried out by microorganisms.

3.  For all activities space is required for their location and
development. Various uses of land are:
1. Food production(agriculture)
2. To construct houses, to get water resources, an new
resources
3. Industrial purpose
4. Commercial purpose
5. Waste disposal
6. Energy purpose
7. Forestation
 Now a day’s fertile lands are used for industries or for
residential purpose which may be called abused from
environmental perspective.

4. 1. Soil pollution
2. Soil erosion
3. Salination
4. Water logging
5. Shifting cultivation
6. Dumping
7. Desertification
8. Urbanization
9. Soil mismanagement by improper use

5. SOIL POLLUTION
 It is the reduction in the productivity of soil due to presence
of soil pollutants from all sorts of industrial effluents
discharged in land.
 The soil pollutants include pesticides, fertilizers, plastics
etc.
 These soil pollutants have adverse effect on the physical,
chemical and biological properties of the soil and reduce its
productivity.
SOIL EROSION
 Loss or removal of the superficial layer of the soil by the
action of water, wind or by the activities of man is termed as
soil erosion.
 The top layer of the soil is very fertile. Therefore its removal
degrades the quality of the land making it less productive.

6. SALINATION
 Increase in the concentration of soluble salts in the soil is
called salination.
 It is caused by poor drainage, salts from irrigation, flood
water, in coastal regions, winds bring lot of salt from row to
water to land, excessive use of alkaline fertilizers etc.
 India has about 6 million hectares of saline land. About
6000-8000 hectares of farm land turns saline every year in
Punjab only. This is due to farming with poor drainage of
soil.
WATER LOGGING
 An agricultural land is said to water logged when its
productivity and fertility is affected due to high water table.
 Water logging in particular is normally the result of several
contributory factors i.e. inadequate surface drainage,
seepage from canal system, over irrigation of fields,
obstruction to natural drains, construction of reservoirs etc.

7. SHIFTING CULTIVATION
 In this process selected portion of the forest are cut and
burnt.
 Crops are cultivated on that land for some years till it
becomes sterile.
 Then fresh fields are formed for crop cultivation.
 This practice had led to complete destruction of forests
in mainly hilly areas if India are caused soil erosion and
problems that accompany soil erosion.
Dumping
 Dumping of solid wastes is one of the most important
factors which are responsible for land pollution. In
developing countries like India, the garbage and refused
are dumped to land pollution.

8.  Increasing human population has put great pressure
on land. Vast areas of land have been cleared for
cultivation of agricultural crops.
 The destruction of vegetation results in accelerating
soil erosion which leads to loss of productivity and
formation of deserts.
 Wind causes the shifting of sand from one place to
another leads to convert fertile land into deserts.

9. URBANIZATION
Productive area is fast reducing due to developmental
activities such as human settlements, roads, railway,
industries, canals, dams, airports etc due to increased
population and urbanization. Such activities cause
increment in urbanization and degrade land.
Soil mismanagement by improper
use
Faulty methods of surface drainage, over grazing, wrong
methods of cultivation, forests fires etc. comes under soil
management. This mismanagement of soil degrades the
quality of land.