Quality of Water from Forested Watersheds

Regular hydrological studies are in progress since 1967 in the two experimental watersheds in the hill sal coppice forest of Rajpur Forest Block in the Debra Dun Forest Division. This paper presents the preliminary observations on runoff, sediment discharge and guality of water, made in one of the experimental watersheds (watershed No. 1) during 1967-70. It has been observed that the water flowing out is of high purity, pH was 7, tending to be slightly acidic. Among the dissolved chemicals CaO ranged highest. The total silt washed out during the monsoon months varied from 49 to 153 tonnes/km².