Assessing the role of forest resources in improving rural livelihoods in West Bengal of India

Forest 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.

Developments of Rill Networks: An Experimental Plot Scale Study

Enumerating the relative proportions of soil losses due to rill erosion processes during monsoon and post-monsoon season is a significant factor in predicting total soil losses and sediment transport and deposition. Present study evaluated the rill network with simulated experiment of treatments on varying slope and rainfall intensity to find out the rill erosion processes and sediment discharge in relation to slope and rainfall intensity. Results showed a significant relationship between the rainfall intensity and sediment yield (r = 0.75). Our results illustrated that due to increase in rainfall intensity represent the development of efficient rill network while, no rill was found with a slope of 20° and a rainfall intensity of 60 mm·h-1. The highest rill length was observed in plot E with 20° slope and 120 mm·h-1 rainfall intensity at 360 minutes. Positive and strong correlation (R2 = 0.734, P 0.001) was observed between the cumulative rainfall intensity and sediment discharge. A longitudinal profile was delineated and showed that the depth and numbers of depressions amplified with time and were more prominent for escalating rainfall intensity for its steeper slopes. Information derived from the study could be applied to estimate longer-term erosion stirring over larger areas possessing parallel landforms.

Assessment of School Infrastructure at Primary and Upper Primary Level: A Geospatial Analysis

With the introduction of powerful and high-speed personal computers, proficient techniques for infrastructure development and management have advanced, of which Geoinformatics technology is of great significance. An attempt has been made for broad mapping and analysis of existing infrastructures in the context of planning scheme in Paschim Medinipur district, and to delineate the development zones of educational infrastructure facilities. The thematic layers considered in this study are infrastructure accessibility, type and condition of classroom and number of classroom allocated for the educational system at primary and upper primary level. Moran’s I statistics was used to estimate the spatial distribution of elementary infrastructure across the district. All these themes and their individual features were then assigned weights according to their relative importance in educational development and corresponding normalized weights were obtained based on the Saaty’s analytical hierarchy process. The thematic layers were finally integrated in GIS software based on multi-criteria approach to yield educational development infrastructure index. Moran’s I statistics shows girl’s toilet, electric and boundary wall facility within the district are clustered in pattern at primary level. At the upper primary level, only electric and computer facilities shows the clustered distribution across the district. However, four different zones have been delineated, namely ‘very good’, ‘good’, ‘moderate’ and ‘poor’. The block covered by very good elementary educational infrastructure facility is Daspur –I and Dantan –II at primary level and Keshiary block at upper primary level in Paschim Medinipur district. Finally, it is concluded that the Geoinformatics technology is very efficient and useful for the identification of infrastructure development.

Assessment of Factors Affecting Ephemeral Gully Development in Badland Topography: A Case Study at Garbheta Badland (Pashchim Medinipur,

Gully erosion in the Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, Indiahas been an issue of anxiety, formed by the amputation of soil from narrow channels through the accretion of surface runoff. Here, we attempted to investigate the erosion variability of gully in a micro catchment area, and also scrutinized the gully cross-sectional areas as distinct components of gully volumes. Twelve gullies were randomly selected in different slopes. To determine the geometric growth of the gully dimensions and soil loss, the initial length of gully, the width of the gully and depth of respective gullies was monitored in different seasons. Univariate analysis was conducted to measure the association between gully head retreat and vegetation coverage, slope, rainfall volume and runoff contributing area. We found strong and significant relation between the slope of gully head and linear retreat in the pre monsoon (p 0.008) and post monsoon (p 0.024) season respectively. Conversely, rainfall volume and gully head retreat showed a strong relationship in the pre monsoon (r = 0.80), monsoon (r = 0.66) and post-monsoon period (r = 0.94);while meager relationship was observed with rainfall intensity (r = 0.06). Results also illustrated that the overall retreat of gully head had very strong and positive relationship with the runoff contributing area (r = 0.89, p 0.001), and maximum gully erosion was observed in the monsoon period (55.67%). These results indicate that slope, rainfall and runoff contributing area have a strong positive influence on gully erosion in Paschim Medinipur district, since the initiation of the gully.