State wise soil type in India Upsc

Types of soil in India with states & Soil distribution in India

Andhra Pradesh

Red Soil is 66% of the cultivated area and presents mostly in Rayalaseema districts. Black Soil covers almost 25%, it is present in the coastal district and part of Rayalaseema and Telangana.

Alluvial loamy clay soil covers 5% of the cultivated area found in Krishna and Godavari deltas. The coastal sands are only 3% and the remaining 1% is laterite soil.

Arunachal Pradesh

This state only has a 2% area for cultivation due to its pre humid ecosystem, elevated ridges, and intermontane valleys. Major types of soil are inceptisol, entisols, and ultisols. Alluvial soil found in river valleys is good for agriculture.

Crops grown here are Rice, Millet, Maize, Wheat, oilseeds, ginger, pulses, etc.

Assam

Assam has mainly four types of soil, they are Alluvial Soil, Piedmont Soil, Hill Soil, and Laterite soils. Alluvial soil is distributed over Brahmaputra and Barak Plain.

Piedmont Soils are confined to the northern narrow zone along the piedmont zone of Himalayan foothill and it comprises of Bhabar and Tarai soil that covers the Brahmaputra valley.

Hill Soils are found in the southern hilly terrains, this soil is classified as Red Sandy soil and Red loamy soils.

Laterite Soils were found over the N.C.Hills districts covering parts of southern Karbi Plateau, Karbe Anglong district, Golaghat district, and Barak Plain.

Bihar

The common soil in Bihar is Alluvium from the Indo-Gangetic plains. Piedmont Swamp soil found in the north-western part of the West Champaran district

Terai soil is found in the eastern part of Bihar along the border of Nepal. Other common soils found in Bihar are clay soil, sand soil, and loamy soil.

Chhattisgarh

Two types predominate the black, clayey soils and the red-to-yellow soils.

Entisols covers 19.5% cultivated area of the state, Inceptisols 14.8%, Alfisols 39%, Mollisols 0.3% and Vertisols 26.4%. Red soil is present in the eastern and southern parts of the Deccan Plateau.

Goa

The main soil of Goa is Coastal Alluvial soil, mixed red and black soil, laterite soil, and red sandy soil, which are sub-divided into 32 soil series.

The maximum thickness of laterite is observed along the coast in the west and minimum along the Ghat section in the East.

The soils of Goa are mostly lateritic (81%). They are sandy loam to silt-loam in texture, well-drained, and highly acidic (5.5 to 6.5 pH).

Gujarat

The soils of Gujarat can be broadly classified into nine groups: black soil, mixed red and black soils, residual sandy soils, alluvial soils, saline/alkali soils, lateritic soils, hilly soils, desert soils, and forest soils.

The southern parts of the Gujarat plains show deep black soils. Central Gujarat possesses sandy loam soil, locally called Goradu.

Haryana

The soil type found in Haryana is alluvial. In Haryana, the soil is almost entirely formed of alluvium.

The soils are loamy sand to sandy loam on the surface and sandy loam to clay loam.

Himachal Pradesh

Major soil is brown hill soil, sub-mountain soils, mountain meadow soil, and red loamy soil.

The soil found in Shimla is general sandy loam. The crops cultivated are Wheat, maize, rice, barley, seed potato, mushrooms, olives, fig, etc.

Jharkhand

The soil of Jharkhand is five and they are Red Soil, Sandy Soil, Black soil, Laterite soil, and Red Micacious soil.

Sandy soil, is generally found in Hazaribagh and Dhanbad. The black soil, is found in the Rajmahal area. Laterite soil, is found in the western part of Ranchi, Palamu, and parts of Santhal Parganas and Singhbhum.

Red Soil is found in most parts of Jharkhand except in the basins of Damodar and in the Rajmahal areas.

Red micacious soil is mostly found in the mica regions such as Koderma, Mandu, etc.

Karnataka

Red soils: Red gravelly loam soil, Red loam soil, Red gravelly clay soil, Red clay soil.

Black soil: gravelly soil, loose, black soil, basalt deposits. Lateritic soils:

Lateritic gravelly soil, Lateritic soil.

Kerala

The soils of Kerala can be broadly grouped into coastal alluvium, mixed alluvium, acid saline, kari, laterite, red, hill, black cotton, and forest soils.

Madhya Pradesh

The major types of soils found in the state are Black soil, most predominantly in the Malwa region, Mahakoshal, and in southern Bundelkhand.

Red and yellow soil, in the Baghelkhand region. Alluvial soil, in Northern Madhya Pradesh.

Maharashtra

The soils of Maharashtra are residual, derived from the igneous basalts. The soil in the river basins of Godavari, Bhima, Krishna, and Tapi has a deep layer of fertile black basalt soil, which is rich in humus.

Manipur

The soil of Manipur belongs to 4 orders, 8 suborders, 13 great groups, and 23 subgroups. It is observed that the Inceptisols are the dominant soils followed by Ultisols, Entisols, and Alfisols and occupy 38.4%, 36.4%, 23.1% of the total geographical area of the State, respectively. Lake and marshy land occupy 1.9 percent.

Meghalaya

Meghalaya soils are rich in organic carbon, which is a measure of nitrogen supplying the potential of the soil, deficient in available phosphorous, and medium to low in available potassium. The reaction of the soils varies from acidic (pH 5.0 to 6.0) to strongly acidic (pH 4.5 to 5.0).

Mizoram

This state has sand loamy and clay loamy soil. It is rich in organic carbon and moderately rich in potash. Soil acidic range is 4.5-5.6 pH due to the high rainfall during May to September.

Nagaland

Nagaland soils are acidic, very rich in organic carbon but poor in available phosphate and potash content.

More than 66% of the land is Inceptisols. Its textures are fine clay, clay loamy, and fine loamy clay.

Odisha

Soil types range from fertile alluvial deltaic soils in coastal plains, mixed red and black soils in Central tableland, red and yellow soils.

Punjab

Punjab states soil are the clay, clay loam, sandy clay, silt clay, sandy clay loam, silty clay loam, sandy loam, silt loam, sand, loamy sand, and silt.

The soils are sandy loam to clay loam with light grey color to dark color, the structure is loose and more fertile. But the soils are low in NPK and humus.

Rajasthan

Rajasthan’s large area has desert soil, which covers the area west of the Aravallis up to the Pakistan border. The hilly tracts of the Aravali are characterized by the black, lava soils that sustain the growth of cotton and sugarcane.

Sikkim

Sikkim has well-drained coarse loamy, fragmental soils with brown to dark brown color, developed from sandstone parent rock.

The hills of Sikkim mainly consist of gneiss and schist which weather produce generally poor and shallow brown clay soils.

Tamil Nadu

The primary types of soil found in Tamilnadu are · Red soils, (62 percent) · Black soils (12 percent) · Laterite soils (3 percent) and · Coastal (7percent).

Telangana

Telangana contains various soil types, some of which are red sandy loams (Chalaka), Red loamy sands (Dubba), lateritic soils, salt-affected soils, alluvial soils, shallow to medium black soils, and very deep black cotton soils.

Tripura

The hills have red laterite soil that is porous. The flood plains and narrow valleys are overlain by alluvial soil, and those in the west and south constitute most of the agricultural land

Uttar Pradesh

Most of the area of Uttar Pradesh is covered by a deep layer of alluvium spread by the slow-moving rivers of the Ganges system. Those extremely fertile alluvial soils range from sandy to clayey loam. The soils in the southern part of the state are generally mixed red and black or red-to-yellow.

Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand has Quartzite soil; Volcanic soil; Brown soil; Alluvial soil; and Tertiary soil.

West Bengal

Soil found in West Bengal is Mountain soils, Alluvial soils, Red soils, and Saline soils.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The soil type of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands ranges from sandy clay to sandy loam. These have developed under the dominant influence of vegetation and climate over diverse parent material. The uplands under forest cover are intensely leached, but runoff is very high, wherever forest cover has been removed completely.

Chandigarh

The soils in UT Chandigarh are loamy sand at the surface and calcareous sandy loam in subsurface layers. The hard clay forms pan at depths varying between 20 and 30 m. In northern parts, the soil is sandy to sandy loam whereas it is loamy to silt loam in southern parts.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli

The Union Territory is having clay- loam type of soil, which is poor in drainage. The terrain of the south-eastern part is undulating to hilly and is shallow soil.

Daman and Diu

It is found that the soils of Dadra & Nagar Haveli are rich in Potash, medium in phosphorus, and medium to high in Nitrogen. Soil PH is 6.5-7.5.

Delhi

Delhi areas have mostly light with a subordinate amount of medium texture soils. The light texture soils are represented by sandy, loamy, sand, and sandy loam; whereas medium texture soils are represented by loam silty loam.

Jammu and Kashmir

The outer plains of Jammu are covered with Alluvial soils. The hilly and mountainous areas are covered with residual soils. Other Areas are covered with morainic soils.

Generally, the soil in J&K is loamy with little clayey soil that contains small amounts of lime with a high magnesium content.

Ladakh

Soils in Leh and Kargil district are sandy to loam in texture, with medium to high in organic matter with poor water holding capacity. Wheat and barley are traditional crops of Ladakh, also cereals are grown for food and fodder.

The vegetation found here is Willow groves, Juniper yew, Wild roses, and herbs. Vegetables grown here are Potato, Peas, Onion, Cabbage, and Cauliflower. Apricots and apples are the main fruits of Ladakh and are widely grown in Sham, Nubra, and Kargil.

Lakshadweep

Lakshadweep is a group of Islands in the Arabian sea. It has a soil layer with overlying coral limestone. That is the soil in Lakshadweep is mainly derived from the coral limestones. It includes coral sands and lagoonal sands.

These soil are dominantly sandy soil that is formed by the physical weathering of coral limestones. This is because almost all the inhabited islands are coral atolls.

Main and probably only crop cultivated here is Coconut (Cacos nucifera). The varieties of coconut found here are Laccadive micro, Laccadive ordinary, green dwarf, etc.

Puducherry

The major area of the Union Territory is covered by Red soil of Sandy and Clay loam type. In some places, Ferruginous red soil is found. Along with the river courses, Alluvial soils are found. Also, Coastal Alluvium is all along the coast as a narrow belt.

The major food crops grown here are Rice, Ragi, Bajra, Pulses and cash crops grown here are cotton, groundnut, sugarcane, etc.

FAQ

1.Sandy soil is found in which state?

Sandy soil is mostly found in western Rajasthan, Southern Haryana, South-west Punjab, North-Western Gujarat and also along the east and west coast of India. In Goa, it is found in Salcete Taluk and towards the western Canacona taluk and also in Marmugao Taluk

2. Red soil states in India?

Tamil Nadu has the red soil in India. Red soil is also found in Southern Karnataka, North-Eastern Andra Pradesh and parts of Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

3. Alluvial soil found in which state?

The entire northern plains include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.