Department of Information and Public Relations

Press Release No. 352/13

WATERSHED ATLAS RELEASED

Shillong, July 11, 2013: Deputy Chief Minister and Incharge Soil and Water Conservation Mr. Rowell Lyngdoh released the Watershed Atlas of Meghalaya at the Annual Officers’ Conference, Office Complex, Polo Hills, Shillong on 11th July 2013. The Watershed Atlas has been prepared by the Soil and Water Conservation Department in collaboration with the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC), Department of Space, Government of India.

The department is publishing the Watershed Atlas where all the watersheds in Meghalaya are delineated and coded by following the Alpha Numeric System according to National Standard Watershed Atlas of India. The Watershed Atlas indicates a detailed report on the absolute extent of the micro-watersheds, mini-watersheds and their linkage to the sub-catchment, catchment and basins of the state.

Watershed Atlas will facilitate proper planning and prioritization of Watershed Project and avoid duplication. It will also give information of location of villages, roads, school and hospitals and can be superimposed on the Atlas from a map of any scale by geo-referencing and can be reproduced to any desired scale as per requirement of the end user.

The Atlas is a base line data on which a data bank can be built and generated for each micro-watershed such as erosion index, soil data, land-use –land-cover and meteorological data. Once these datas are entered the information for any watershed can b retrieved at the click of a button.

The Atlas provides a precise and comprehensive database for developing appropriate strategies for watershed development projects in the spheres of agriculture, resource conservation using scientific interventions.

The information and data contained in this report has far reaching scope for effective implementation of watershed programmes and can also be an important tool for works under various other departments and NGOs as well.

During the programme different Soil and Water Conservation Divisions of the state made power point presentations followed by general discussion. Mr. D Langstieh Director, Soil and Water Conservation, Meghalaya presented a report of various programmes and activities of the department. Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Meghalaya, Mr. Barkos Warjri chaired the function.