Conservation and Wise Use of Aquatic and Wetland Plant Resources:Introducing West Bengal
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Survey done in the 18 districts of West Bengal, reveals that traditional practices based on wetland plants provide subsistence to approximately 3 million people with a rich traditional cultural heritage. Euryale ferox, Aeschynomene aspera, Cyperus pangorei, Typha elephantina, Colocasia esculenta, Ipomoea aquatica and several others aquatic and wetland plants grow abundantly in waterlogged soils. Marketable surplus obtained from these crops provides sustenance to the rural community.
After an intensive studies in the wetlands of West Bengal for over two and half decades, it is observed that there has been a sharp decline in the richness and diversity of species in freshwater wetlands. Hypereutrophication in water bodies from the catchments and nonpoint pollution sources has led to increase in resilient competitors' species like Eichhornea crassipes, Alternanthera philoxeroides and others. Interdependence of plants and animals in the aquatic habitat is a topic of future research, which will definitely correlate the changing of freshwater faunal diversity with the change in the population density of hydrophytes in the wetlands of West Bengal. Proper and practicable state level wetland policy and a directory of traditional commercial practices in wetlands are an immediate credential. In-situ conservation of man and wetland plants and their habitats will definitely promote conservation of cultural and species diversity of the country.
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