Impact of Watershed Management on Bio-physical, Hydrological and Agricultural Indicators in the Lakkonda Watershed Project of East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, India

The present study was taken up to evaluate the impact of the Lakkonda Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) watershed, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh which was implemented during the period 2014-15 to 2020-21 under the Batch-V group with a treatable area of 4986 hectares covering seven micro watersheds. The impact of watershed interventions mainly on bio-physical, hydrological and agriculture indicators. The Land Use Land Cover (LULC), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) were assessed utilizing the Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System technique. The results indicated that the area under cropland and plantation increased by 92.95 ha (2.54%) and 154.08 ha (30.01%) respectively. The scrubland/fallow area was decreased by 269.42 ha (19.72%) which might be converted into plantations and cropland. The area under medium vegetation, 67.98 ha (3.93%) and dense vegetation, 441.51 ha (33.82%) increased, whereas other vegetation classes (nil and low) were substantially decreased. The water body areas also increased from 5.92 ha to 10.95 ha which might be due to rainwater harvesting and water conservation, structures undertaken in the project area. An increase in hydrological features like waterbodies and groundwater table was observed as indicated by the rise of the water table in dug wells(1.84m) and tube wells (0.57m). The cropping intensity raised to 120.82 from 100.19% resulting in a 20.61% increase in the study area, because of watershed management interventions mainly soil and water conservation methods and rainwater harvesting structures constructed during the project period and which shows increased productivity of major crops in the project area i.e., rice (26.64 to 79.03%) pulses (14.69to113.47%) cotton (73.30%) and cashew (167.76%) increased during the post-project period. The overall benefit-cost ratio of import crops was increased and among the observed crops high returns for the rupee invested were from the green gram.