Land Capability Classification of Siliguri Sub-Division, West Bengal, India

Land capability is an expression of all environmental parameters which is applied to the biological potential of a specific unit of land in a given time in a year. Land Capability Classification is one of a number of interpretive groupings made mainly for agricultural purpose. Land capability in simple terms describes the measurement of capability of land for certain land use. Land capability evaluation for any certain biophysical unit is very much required to point out the scientific and appropriate land use categories and also land use technique which keeps up with the long term susceptibility of the land units. The area under study is a rural back ground area where the land users pragmatically have very little or no knowledge about the land capability of the area. As a consequence, the unmethodical, unscientific land use practices disregarding of the susceptibility of the land results in either overutilization and consequential degradation of land or underutilization of existing resource base. The conclusive outcome is lowering of carrying capacity of land. Hence the requirement of land capability evaluation in study area is required to put certain land units to befitting land uses which will there after not only increase the productivity of the land but also maintain susceptibility of land on a long term basis. Within this frame of reference, the present study aims to scrutinize the method of land capability classes. The objective of this study is also to analyze the use and prospective of land in the Siliguri Subdivision of Darjeeling District. On the basis of Physical and socio-economical land attributes, the land has been classified into eight land capability classes.