STUDY AREA

Sharavathi is a west flowing river located in the Central Western Ghats of Karnataka State (figure 1). The river basin extends 17^o 24’ 14”E to75^o 19’ 31” E Longitude and 13^o 43’ 2”N to 14^o 25’ 52”N Latitude, with area of 3042.7 km². Originating from Shimoga (Ambhu Thirtha), has spread across two districts: a) Shimoga and b) Uttara Kannada, joins Arabian Sea at Honnavara of Uttarakannada. Sharavathi catchment receives an annual rainfall (figure 2) of 2000 mm to more than 6500 mm with 5 rainfall month over 100 mm between June to October. The terrain (figure 3) is undulating and varies from as low as 0 m at sea to more than 1000 m in the Sahyadri’s. The population density (figure 4) of the basin on an average has increased from 90 persons per square kilometer in 1991 to 105 in 2001 and 115 persons per square kilometer in 2011. From early 80’s the region is started experiencing changes in land use for various developmental activities. This conversion has occurred largely at the expense of forests and grassland (Ramachandra et al., 2007; Bharath and Ramachandra, 2012).

Figure 1: Study Area

Figure 2: Annual Rainfall Spatial distribution

Figure 3: Terrain

Figure 4: Population