Assessing the nature of seasonal meteorological change in people’s dependency on wetland: a case study of Bhagirathi–Hooghly floodplain system

Abstract

Wetland acts as a biological supermarket and helps to determine people’s lives, livelihoods and needs. In third world countries like India, wetlands are suppressed by over populated surroundings. Although the size, volume and depth of wetlands change due to the whims of the weather, and water pollution and sedimentation are caused by various human activities, people still use wetlands as a means of rice and fish production. This article discusses the continuous decaying of wetlands in the floodplain region of the Bhagirathi–Hooghly river and its impact on human dependency on wetlands. The location of the continuous siltation of the wetlands is known with the help of bathymetry which proves that the wetlands are getting more and more decayed. Agricultural runoff and sewerage from adjacent farmland also continue to pollute the wetlands' environment, with high levels of TDS (total dissolved solids) and Cl2+ (chloride). The result shows that rice and fish production in these decayed wetlands is continuously increasing with seasonal water budget scenario. Comparing economic production with water budgets through SK (seasonal Kendall) test and ARMA (autoregressive moving average process), trend analysis shows the growing demand of the people has made the position of the wetlands miserable, but the economic aspect of the people has benefited. Dredging, public awareness, water pollution prevention and sustainable use of wetlands can be considered as the only way to restore the decayed wetlands to their glory.