Impact Assessment of Diggi based Canal Water Storage and Irrigated Land Expansion on Wind Erosion Hazards in IGNP command area of Rajasthan using Geospatial Technique

Wind erosion is the most significant process of desertification in hot arid region of Rajasthan, that is continuing to influence the livelihood of desert inhabitants in several ways. The IGNP canal water has brought a paradigm shift in wind erosion problem impacting the desert ecology and agriculture. However, availability of canal water at tail end has always remained challenging for both government and farming community. To overcome this problem and to utilize canal water more judiciously, farmers have developed intermediate water storage structures, called diggi. This study analyzed satellite images for the period of 2001, 2011 and 2021 and found that canal water stored in diggi has increased the extent of irrigated agriculture, thus vegetation cover has increased impacting reduced occurrence of aeolian or wind related hazards in IGNP canal command area of Jaisalmer district. Satellite remote sensing-based assessment has shown decreasing wind erosion/deposition. The results showed that number of diggies in Jaisalmer district has increased 10 times in 2021 compared to the year 2001 which facilitated the use of sprinklers and improved the irrigated crop cover area 4.5 times. Most of the new irrigated croplands, mainly in the tail end were diggi centric where the irrigated area has expanded over the sandy wastelands. Desertification maps also showed decreasing extent of wind erosion affected area by 163371 ha between 2001 and 2021 in the canal command area