Spatial Association of Wetlands Over Physical Variants in Barind Tract of West Bengal, India
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Available on line at: p ISSN: 2354-5844 http://ijwem.unlam.ac.id/index.php/ijwem e ISSN: 2477-5223 Spatial Association of Wetlands over Physical Variants in Barind Tract of West Bengal, India Rajib Tarani Das and Swades Pal University of Gour Banga, Malda, West Bengal, India ABSTRACT Barind tract of west Bengal is an uplifted old alluvial plain area where only <1 percent area is covered by major wetland. The present paper concentrates on general understanding of wetland association with different geographical settings like geological, geomorphological lithological structures and altitudinal gradations. Another purpose of the research is to find proximity of wetland to river in the study area. To find associationship of wetland with various topographical setting, simple overlay technique is applied such as wetland overlay on geological map, morphological map, and relief map etc. Buffer analysis within 2 km radius along the major has been drawn to show wetland proximity to river. Detail investigation reveals that geological and morphological structures do not have deep influence on wetland formation and their distribution is not biased in any particular favourable sub-region. But altitudinal control on wetland distribution is noticeable. Maximum wetlands are concentrated in low altitudes. Similarly, about 40% wetland is found within 2 km width from major rivers which shows good proximity of wetland to river. An irregular distribution of wetland is found throughout the region because of multi parametric influence on it. In recent decades wetlands in Barind tract has been undergoing into rapid loss. Continuous encroachment of agricultural field and newly built-up area to wetland are considered as main causes of wetland loss in Barind tract. Keywords: Barind tract, Wetland distribution, Physical Variants, Spatial association of wetland and Size and frequency distribution of wetland. INTRODUCTION shallow open water etc. (Sather, 1975, Mader, 1991; Martin et al. 1953). Biotic components The term “Wetland” means all types of such as aquatic species, dominant vegetation water logged area, that is wet for some period are other important criteria for wetland of time or permanently. Generally, it classification like, emergent wetlands comprises a rich complex ecosystem and (characterized by erect, rooted, herbaceous represents a transitional zone between hydrophytes) forested wetland (dominated by terrestrial and aquatic system (Cowardin et al. woody vegetation). Identification of accurate 1979, Zoltai et al. 1988, Finlayson et al. category of wetland is essential for 1995). Wetlands can be classified into assessment of wetlands (Mitra et al. 2005). different categories, for example, on the basis Generally Origin of wetlands and their of topographic setting and geomorphology characteristics in an area are deeply there are lacustrine, riverine, shoreland influenced by the geomorphological and wetland and flood plain wetland etc. geological conditions, climatic setup and (Cowardin et al. 1979), on the basis of hydrological characters of that area hydrology or water regime wetlands are (Majumdar et al. 1976; Gray, 2011). But temporarily flooded, saturated, seasonally sometimes this relation does not follow such flooded, intermittently exposed, permanently theoretical rule. Many literatures are available flooded, shallow marsh, deep marsh, and which already have established this type of relationship of wetlands with topographic Correspondence: Das, R.T. Department of Geography, expression. For example, riverine wetlands University of Gour Banga, India are widely available within river corridors Email: [email protected] where wetlands are connected with stream Journal of Wetlands Environmental Management Vol 4, No 2 (2016) 103 – 115 http://dx.doi.org/10.20527/jwem.01.01.02 103 Available on line at: p ISSN: 2354-5844 http://ijwem.unlam.ac.id/index.php/ijwem e ISSN: 2477-5223 channels and gets inundated water from river condition where a large part of this area (Theriota et al. 2013). Similarly, slope belongs to flood plain, alluvial fan, channels wetlands normally found on sloping land, and flood basin of rivers flowing over this elevation gradient may range from steep region. The region is characterized by tropical hillsides to slight slopes. This slope wetland monsoon type climate with moderate to high exists where topographic conditions allow temperature. Seasonal imbalance of rainfall ground water to intersect the surface, creating influences discharge condition of river and a zone of perennial or near perennial moisture ground water level (Rashid et al. 2014). (Stein et al. 2004). Estuarine wetlands occur Various types of wetlands are found in the along coastal estuaries under the influence of Barind tract in which most of the natural sea level change and tidal effects. Sometimes wetlands are situated on newly formed they integrate landward with riverine floodplain area. But at present most of these wetlands where tidal currents diminish and natural wetlands have no connection with river flow becomes the dominant water source rivers. Numerous ponds, constructed tanks (Brinson, 1993). But palustrine wetlands (beaver, partly drained, farmed, impounded, system (Shallow, ponds, marshes, swamp, excavated etc) in this region are distributed and sloughs) is different from estuarine unevenly throughout study area. These wetland which includes all non-tidal wetlands wetlands are manmade and natural ones have dominated by trees, shrubs, persistent been modified to some degree by the human emergent (Cowardin et al. 1979). These activities. Wetlands provides a number of entire examples reflect the wetland goods and services like water quality stratigraphy and existing literature on wetland improvement (Brander, 2006) reduces flood research focusing on the multidimensional peak (Brander, 2006), traps sediment aspects of wetland such as formation of (Galbraith et al. 2005), replenishes ground wetland, function of wetland; wetland loss water (Kotze, 2000), providing woods for etc. on different landscape setting. Barind energy (Rewa, 2007) which are ecologically tract of west Bengal lies between catchment as well as economically important to of the river Ganges and its tributaries community. Keeping its beneficial sides, drainage system of Kulik, Mahananda, preservation of wetland should be prioritized. Atreyee, and Punarbhaba Rivers. Drainage Present paper wants to know (1) is there any system of Barind tract shows the meandering specific associationship of wetland with entrenched channels with dendritic drainage geological, geomorphological and altitudinal pattern and rivers are characterized into segments of the study area? (2) study also perennial, semi-perennial and non-perennial emphasizes how far wetlands are associated rivers (Hassan et al. 2013). Generally it has with very proximate zone of the river? unique geomorphological and hydrological MATERIALS AND METHODS 2. Geological, geomorphological and relief map generation: Major geological and Data set used here and their relevant geomorphological units are demarcated and sources have been shown in Table 1. their respective areas are calculated from geological map of Geological Survey of Method for determination of wetland India, 1985 and relief map generated from association: Determination of wetland DEM data of USGS of the projected area. association includes three successive stages, namely: 3. Wetlands overlay: Delimited wetlands are then draped over geological, geo- 1. Wetland delimitation: Wetland area morphological and altitudinal units to assess demarcated from google earth imagery and the nature of association by measurement and toposheet. Simple digitization is done for visual detection. creating wetland layers of different kinds with the help of Arc GIS software (version: 9.3). Journal of Wetlands Environmental Management Vol 4, No 2 (2016) 103 – 115 http://dx.doi.org/10.20527/jwem.01.01.02 104 Available on line at: p ISSN: 2354-5844 http://ijwem.unlam.ac.id/index.php/ijwem e ISSN: 2477-5223 Method for analysis of wetland proximity string from river to 1km and second string to river: First buffer analysis has been done from 1km to 2 km) and after that total area of with 2 km radius along the major river various types of wetland within buffer zone is (Buffer zone divided into two strings; first measured to see concentration of wetland in selected proximate zones of river. Table 1. Dataset used for the work with their relevant sources and purposes Objectives Specification of objectives Data used Data sources Administrative Boundary Malda District Map of District Bureau of Delineation (State and Census of India, North Statistics Office., International Boundary) and South Dinajpur Topographical Map District Map of Census of India. 2011 Objective 1 Water-body Detection and Google Earth Imagery Google Earth Map River Boundary Delineation of 2015 and (Atrei, Punorvaba, Tangon, Toposheet Kulik, Nagar, Fulhar & (USDA, 1951) Mahananda river) Demarcation of geological Geological map Geological Survey of and geomorphological unit India (GSI, 1985) Delineation of river Google Earth Imagery Google Earth Map, of 2015 and Toposheet from Texas Toposheet university website (USDA, 1951) (USA). Objective 2 Wetland measurement Data measured from Google Earth Map within 2 km radius from Google Earth Imagery river of 2015 Study area plains and uplands. Hence, out of total area, only 1 % (4,315.31 hectare excluding paddy The Barind tract of west Bengal is a field) area is covered by various surface