Geospatial insights into Alphonso mango cultivation: a comprehensive land suitability study in the coastal belt of Maharashtra, India.

Land suitability assessment is integral to the advancement of precision agriculture. This inquiry is focused on identifying optimal regions for cultivating Alphonso mango in the coastal belt of Maharashtra, spanning across Palghar, Raigad, Thane, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg districts. Employing a GIS-based Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology, 10 crucial parameters have been considered, encompassing climatic, physical, and chemical soil characteristics: cation exchange capacity, organic carbon, slope, rainfall, soil pH, soil texture, mean annual soil temperature, base saturation, soil drainage, and soil depth. Weights are assigned to these parameters based on expert opinions and existing literature to determine their significance in developing a soil suitability map. The study reveals distinct land suitability zones for Alphonso mango cultivation. The land suitability map designates 25.78% of the study area as highly suitable, while 9.18% is considered unsuitable for Alphonso mango cultivation. To validate the study, the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve has been employed, indicating an 83% approval rate for the reliability and performance of the soil suitability. The results categorise soil suitability classes, providing valuable insights for farmers and agricultural planners to make informed decisions regarding Alphonso mango cultivation in similar geoenvironmental regions.

Crustal velocity and interseismic strain-rate on possible zones for large earthquakes in the Garhwal-Kumaun Himalaya.

The possibility of a major earthquake like 2015 Gorkha-Nepal or even greater is anticipated in the Garhwal-Kumaun region in the Central Seismic Gap of the NW Himalaya. The interseismic strain-rate from GPS derived crustal velocities show multifaceted strain-rate pattern in the region and are classified into four different strain-rate zones. Besides compressional, we identified two NE-SW orienting low strain rate (~ 20 nstrain/a) zones; namely, the Ramganga-Baijro and the Nainital-Almora, where large earthquakes can occur. These zones have surface locking widths of ~ 72 and ~ 75 km respectively from the Frontal to the Outer Lesser Himalaya, where no significant surface rupture and associated large earthquakes were observed for the last 100 years. However, strain reducing extensional deformation zone that appears sandwiched between the low strain-rate zones pose uncertainties on the occurences of large earthquakes in the locked zone. Nevertheless, such zone acts as a conduit to transfer strain from the compressional zone (> 100 nstrain/a) to the deforming frontal active fault systems. We also observed a curvilinear surface strain-rate pattern in the Chamoli cluster and explained how asymmetric crustal accommodation processes at the northwest and the southeast edges of the Almora Klippe, cause clockwise rotational couple on the upper crust moving over the MHT.