Study of river sensitivity for sustainable management of sand quarrying activities in Damodar river, West Bengal, India

For sustainable management of a threatened river, a process-based understanding as well as in-depth study of the river is required. Unfortunately, during Anthro­pocene almost every river in the world is under threat. Damodar river, an important drainage system of the Bhagirathi–Hooghly river basin situated in the eastern part of India is not an exception to this. Besides construction of dams and embankment, man has changed the nature of this river by unscientific overexploitation of riverine sand not only from the river bed but also fertile river bars and adjacent river terrace which leads to environmental disruption through adverse dramatic impacts on the river morpho­logy, ecosystem, hydrology and environment. Though from an economic and flood management point of view, we have to mine this inexpensive resource from river, we should follow scientific methods in appropriate mining sites. For this purpose, study of river sensitivity based on active and total channel area can be a good strategy. In the case of Damodar river, using sensitivity we classified 12 reaches in very low, low, moderate and high sensitive sections and suggested section wise which method should be applied. We hope that this study will help to use rivers in a sustainable way.