These are the worst form of land degradation formed, when the vegetal cover is not strong enough to hold and bind the soil particles together from being carried away by the runoff water.

These ravine lands are under biotic stress due to uncontrolled grazing by stray and wild animals and poor vegetation cover leading to huge soil loss during rainy season. The marginal lands adjacent to ravines are under extensive cultivation without much attention to conservation measures, which leads to further extension of gullies head during rainy season. Generally ravine areas have 15 to 32% arable lands and 60 to 85% non-arable lands. The marginal lands near to gully head in ravines are dominated by agriculture land use, while pastures and open forests on the side slopes and gully bed. In India, ravines occupy about 4.3 M ha along the rivers Yamuna, Chambal, Mahi, and Sabarmati. The high drainage density and multi-directional steep slopes are other morphological characteristics of ravines. Ravine is intricate network of large gullies with depth ranging from 3 m or more and affected by extreme form of mass soil erosion. The continuous and aggravated soil erosion and subsequent anthropogenic activities leads to the formation of ravine landscapes. The ravine landscape is considered as one of the most degraded terrestrial ecosystems in the world.

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