1,721,014 research outputs found
Assessing the role of forest resources in improving rural livelihoods in West Bengal of India
No full textForest resources play a vital role in supporting the livelihoods of rural communities residing in forest-rich areas. In India, a forest-rich country, a significant proportion of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) is consumed locally, supporting numerous rural communities relying on forests for essential resources, such as firewood, timber, and NTFPs. This study focuses on two forest-dominant districts in West Bengal of India, namely, Jhargram District and Paschim Medinipur District. Furthermore, this study aims to enhance the understanding of forest-dependent communities by comparing the standard of living among different village classes. Thus, we categorized villages into three classes based on the distance from home to forests, including inner villages, fringe villages, and outer villages. Through focus group discussions and household surveys, we explored the sources of local economy, income sources of household, and reasons for economic diversification in different village classes. The study findings confirm that substantial variations existed in the income sources and the standard of living in these villages. Forest income varied dramatically among the three village classes, with inner villages having greater forest income than fringe villages and outer villages. Meanwhile, households in outer villages depended on forests and engaged in diverse economic activities for their livelihoods. Compared with inner and fringe villages, households in outer villages derived a significant portion of their income from livestock. This discrepancy can be attributed to challenges, such as inadequate transportation, communication, and underdeveloped market chains in inner villages. Moreover, these findings emphasize the need to develop sustainable forest management practices, create alternative income-generation opportunities, and improve infrastructure and market access in inner villages, as well as promote economic diversification in outer villages. Through targeted policy measures, these forest-rich regions can achieve improved livelihoods, enhanced standard of living, and increased resilience for their communities
Confluence Dynamics in an Ephemeral Gully Basin (A Case Study at Rangamati, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India)
No full textChannel dynamics and geomorphological adjustments of Kaljani River in Himalayan foothills
No full textChannel dynamics is a significant geomorphological process that involves the channel migration, erosion-deposition and meandering of an alluvial river channel within its floodplain region. This geomorphic process is often accelerated by climatic condition and human activities which changes this natural process to a quasi-natural hazard. Current research work tries to evaluate the changing behaviour or dynamic nature of alluvial channel by enlightening average length and shape migration. Finally, state of the art techniques in Arc GIS has been adopted to prepare the mouza (village) wise erosion-deposition map by considering highly fluctuating mouzas of the Kaljani River and its adjacent village at the Himalayan foothill region. The primary data source was a series of time-sequential Landsat data of the years 1972, 1980, 1987, 1993, 1998, 2002, 2008, 2013, and 2019 spanning 47 years. Furthermore, we divided total study time into eight groups i.e. 1972–1980, 1980–1987, 1987–1993, 1993–1998, 1998–2002, 2002–2008, 2008–2013, and 2013–2019 for better understanding. During the study period (1972–2019) the average length of migration of the Kaljani River was 742.05 m and the annual rate was 15.79 m/year. Within this time frame of 1972–2019, the shape area migration of the channel was 66.79 km2 and the annual rate was 1.42 km2/year. The total area of bank erosion from 1972 to 2019 equaled 62.74 km2, out of which, 30.07 km2 were on the right bank and 32.67 km2 were at the left bank. Present analysis helps to enhance the effectiveness of planning and management of land resources and ecological balances in these 45 adjacent Mouzas of the Kaljani River. Among the various important causes, tectonic activity, rainfall, floods, and human intervention especially constriction of the embankment along the Kaljani River are the most significant causes for this dynamic changes of River Kaljani. The results of this study therefore, can be used as an important indicator of the vulnerability of the Kaljani River and also provides information about geomorphological instabilities of the study area
Soil Disintegration Characteristics on Ephemeral Gully Collapsing in Lateritic Belt of West Bengal, India
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