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JHARKHAND

Geographical position and climate

Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15
November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar
Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Odisha to the south, and West Bengal to the
east. Jharkhand is a tribal dominated state of India, the mainland extends between latitude
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21 58' to 25 45' N, longitude 83 35' to 87 57' E and with geographical area of 79.71 lakh
hectares of the state. The forest coverage about 29% of total geographical area (TGA), rich in
mineral resources, dominated by steel and mining industries, having about 22 lakh hectares as
the gross cropped area out of 79.71 lakh hectares geographical area of the state. About 80% of
the population lives in rural areas.Most of the state lies on the Chotanagpur Plateau, which is
the source of the Koel, Damodar, Brahmani, Kharkai, and Subarnarekha rivers, whose upper
watersheds lie within Jharkhand. Much of the state is still covered by forest.
There are three well-defined seasons in Jharkhand. The cold-weather season, from
November to February, is the most pleasant part of the year. Lowest temperature in Jharkhand
lies between -5 and 0 °C. High temperatures in Ranchi in December usually rise from about 10
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into the low 20 C daily. Maximum rainfall takes place during the months from July to
September that accounts for more than 90% of total rainfall in the state. The total rainfall is
about 1350 mm but due to its erratic distribution surface runoff leading to rainfed agriculture in
major part of the state.

Soils

Three soil orders namely Entisols, Inceptisols and Alfisols were observed in different districts
of Jharkhand. Alfisols were the dominant soils covering 54.0% of total geographical area
(TGA) followed by Inceptisols (24.4 %) and Entisols (19.4 %). Vertisol is only present in
Pakur district to an extent of 0.6% of TGA of the district. Red soils are common and found all
over the granite and geneissic plateau surface. These soils are mostly observed in a catenary
sequence. The soils of upland are usually, shallow to medium depth, reddish in colour, low
base exchange capacity, acidic in reaction (5.0 to 5.6) poor in fertility status, well to
excessively drained, prone to erosion with low water holding capacity and high permeability.
The soils become heavier in texture down the catena and down the profile, colour changes from
reddish yellow to yellow and yellowish grey. In lowland (Don soils) soils are grey almost
neutral in reaction, high clay content and high fertility status. The upland soils are generally
Lithic Haplustalfs, Rhodustalfs and medium sloped soil (Haplustalfs and TypicPaleustalfs).
Out of the total geographical area, 49 percent soils are degraded and suffer from soil
acidity problems. About 10 lakh hectares soil having pH < 5.5 need immediate attention to its
amelioration and management. Soil acidity, coarse texture, low organic matter and undulating
topography of the land surface mainly affect the soil fertility status. Jharkhand soil in general
are low to very low in available phosphorus and sulphur, low to medium in available nitrogen
and potassium. Deficiency of available boron and molybdenum has been reached at alarming
stage. DTPA extractable Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn availability in soil generally found above the
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established critical limit (Fe - 4.5 mg kg , Mn - 2.0 mg kg , Cu - 0.2 mg kg and Zn 0.5 mg kg -