The denudation of the soil cover and subsequent washing down is described as soil erosion . The processes of soil formation and erosion , go on simultaneously and generally there is a balance between the two . Sometimes this balance is disturbed due to human activities like deforestation , overgrazing , construction and mining etc., while natural forces like wind, Glacier and water led to soil erosion . The running water cuts through the clayey soils and makes deep channels as gullies . The land became unfit for cultivation and is known as bad land . In the Chambal basins such lands are called ravens . Sometimes water flows as a sheet over large areas down a slope . In such cases the top soil is washed away this is known as sheet erosion . Wind blows loose soil of flat or sloping land known as wind erosion . Soil erosion is also caused due to defective methods of farming . Ploughing in a wrong way i.e. up and down the slope form channels for the quick flow of water leading to soil erosion .
