THE SOILS OF INDIA

THE SOILS OF INDIA
Soils can be divided into two broad types: (i) sedentary or residual soils which are formed directly from the rocks under them or in situ and transported; (ii) azonal soils, the soils from in situ that are transported to valleys and deltas by water and wind. To the former tYpe belong black soils red, laterite, podzolic soils fo~d in forests, saline and alkaline soils and peaty soils. The azonal type includes the soils of the forests in the northern mountains, soils con­stituting the coastal lowland and plains of India and desert soils.

Indian soils can be geologically classified into those of the extra-peninsular region and those that are found in the peninsular region. The young extra-peninsular soils may be sandy, loamy or of the clay-type :hey are either formed from the debris of the Deccan Plateau or the Himalayan region or from the deposited silt of plains and valleys. They include the alluvial, saline, alkaline, terai, desert, chestnut, peaty and marshy soils of the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Sutlej plains. This region includes the Montane region that bears hill and mountain soils, mountain meadow and the acidic podzolic soils. Soils of the Deccan Plateau comprise black soils, red soils, laterites, alluvial soils, saline and alkaline soils, mixed red and black, and yellow and red soils.