Photonirvachak Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Vol. 27, No 1, 1999 Assessment of Degraded Lands of Puruliya District, West Bengal Using Remotely Sensed Data K M SAINI, T K DEB, P P MITRA, S G GHATOL, A K SEN, N C SAHA and S N DAS All India Soil and Land Use Survey, New Delhi Introduction Land degradation is a burning issue in India. Both natural and biotic forces are responsible for degradation of land. Natural processes of land degradation have been continuing ever since the formation of soil mentle on the earth's surface. Though land (Recd. 11 Aug. '97; in final form 15 Jan. '99) degradation has long been perceived as serious problem, global interest in land degradation took a new proportion in 1970 (Arnold, 1994) when the need for a systematic assessment of the problem in terms of actual and potential degradation was realised. The data on the nature and extent of degraded lands of the country