Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model coupled with transport limited sediment delivery (TLSD) function was used to predict the longtime average annual soil loss, and to identify the critical erosion-/deposition-prone areas in a tropical mountain river basin, viz., Muthirapuzha River Basin (MRB; area = 271.75 km2), in the southern Western Ghats, India. Mean gross soil erosion in MRB is 14.36 t ha−1 yr−1, whereas mean net soil erosion (i.e., gross erosion–deposition) is only 3.60 t ha−1 yr−1 (i.e., roughly 25% of the gross erosion). Majority of the basin area (∼86%) experiences only slight erosion (=8564/ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987117301093