Importance of Sacred Groves in Watershed Management System

Rajasri Ray, Subhas Chandran MD and Ramchandra TV
Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012
Corresponding Author: cestvr@ces.iisc.ernet.in

The role of sacred grove in maintaining biodiversity as well as ecological functions in a region are well established nowadays. Although the extent of biodiversity, its importance in economic benefit as well as its conservation measures are well explored, ecological aspects are much overlooked. Sacred groves play important role in soil and water conservation, ground water recharge, nutrient cycling, temperature control, soil quality improvement etc. This report portrays a conceptual framework for understanding the water conservation potential of the groves. Present day groves are the remnants of past vegetation that mostly represent old growth forests in the catchments of river system. In the past, when groves were larger in size they had their usual role in preventing soil erosion, reducing run-offs, generating perennial streams rich with organic matters which can be seen, even today, in many large groves. However, the present day fragmented nature of the groves greatly affects the watershed activity which can be seen through heavy soil erosion, dying of perennial streams as well as deterioration of soil quality. Works have been initiated to assess the potential of the present day groves in water conservation in the background of local landscape. Field survey of the groves reveals their association with water bodies which are seasonal to perennial in nature. Parameters like water holding capacity, soil moisture analysis and ground water recharge are under assessment in grove as well as in surrounding areas to evaluate the role of these groves in water conservation in local landscape.

City as a Hydro centric Construction: The Water Corridors of Kumbakonam City in the Cauvery Delta

Anitha Suseelan
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture (PG Urban Design Program), R V College of Engineering, R V Vidya
Niketan Post, Bangalore 560 059, (E-mail: anithasuseelan@gmail.com)

Historically the relationship of water to urbanization holds a privileged position in India. In this era where water is a shrinking resource the paper underlines the possibility of simultaneously protect the landscape and impose radically new spatial configuration in urban development. It discusses one of the hydrological civilizations in the Cauvery Delta – Kumbakonam which has not only imbibed the inherent potentials of the landscape but also followed a hierarchical societal modus, accommodating collective construction, living and maintenance. The worldview, with its mystic reverence for the powers of the nature, evolved a water urbanism transforming nature into culture and subsequently in the shaping of the city. It stresses on the ambivalent relationship between urban & rural, manmade and natural and accommodative and resistive forces and projects how a hydro centric strategy can trigger sustainable form of urbanism. This indigenous regenerative strategy of urban development in concurrence with the natural water structure, though facing a major crisis now, opens up new possibilities of sustainable management of water resources in the region.

Impact Assessment of Watershed Development Programme - A Case Study of Itagi Sub Watershed

Palakshappa K and Nagaraj MK^*
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, STJ Institute of Technology
Ranebennur-581 115 E-mail: palakshappa@yahoo.com
^*Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Mechanics & Hydraulics, N I T K
Surathkal– 575 025, E-mail: mkraju@yahoo.com

Soil, Water and Vegetation are the important gifts of nature to mankind. Welfare and development of mankind and his civilization revolves around conservation and development of these vital natural resources, which are so interdependent that one cannot be managed efficiently without the other two. Watershed development programs, which started in India basically as soil and water conservative programs, as a policy response to the increasing environmental crisis and non-sustainability of agriculture especially in the dry land/ semi-arid regions, has modified substantially with the introduction of watershed guidelines in 1994 by the Government of India. In the present study the area considered for assessment is Itagi sub watershed in Ranebennur taluk, Haveri district, Karnataka. In connection with watershed development programme soil and water conservation structures were constructed in the study area during the year 2004. From the analysis of data and results it was found that, there is reduction in soil erosion, improvement in the groundwater recharge, increase in yield of the wells, increase in agricultural production, change in the cropping pattern, improvement in the benefits cost ratio value of various crops and many other tangible and intangible benefits were obtained after the watershed development programme.

Isotopic Composition of Mansar Lake, District Udhampur, Jammu & Kashmir and Its Significance in Hydrological Investigations

Rai SP, Bhishm Kumar, Omkar Singh and Khobragade SD
National Institute of hydrology, Roorkee - 247 667 (Uttarakhand), bk@nih.ernet.in; spr@nih.ernet.in

An attempt has been made to study the isotopic composition (d18O and d2H) of Mansar Lake, a natural Lake located in the Himalayan foothill of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The d18O and d2H composition of the local precipitation, springs, groundwater and the Lake are used to study the hydrological behavior of Mansar Lake. It has been observed that Lake exhibits a distinct hydrothermal behavior. The Lake water mixes completely during the months of January and February and remains stratified in the remaining months. The d18O values of the Lake water varies from +1 ‰ to +4 ‰ in surface water and from +1.1 ‰ to +2.6 ‰ in bottom, while the average d18O values for rain water and groundwater are in the order of -6.8 ‰ and -5.3 ‰ , respectively. The slope of the rain water (i.e., 8.1) (Local Meteoric Water Line) is found very close to that of the Global Meteoric Water Line, while the slope for Lake water is 4.7. The results indicate considerable evaporative enrichment of the Lake water. The D-excess values for the Lake are observed to vary between 0 ‰ and -15‰, which confirm the significant effect of non-equilibrium fractionation. These results clearly reveal that Lake has insignificant interaction with groundwater and Lake water is sustained mostly by rainwater which joins the Lake as surface runoff and that the water retention period for the Lake is very high. The present study throws light on some of the important hydrological characteristics of the Lake, which are useful for proper management of the Lake.

Myristica swamps: A treasure trove of biodiversity

Joyce Jose¹, Roby TJ¹, Ramachandran KK² and Nair PV^2
1Marthoma College, Thiruvalla, Kerala
²Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, Trichur 680 653

Myristica swamps are one of the most endangered forest ecosystems in the Western Ghats. Sixty swamps in Southern Kerala have been surveyed and mapped recently. The vegetation inside and outside the swamps have been enumerated using a total of 33 sample plots of 0.1 ha area each with subplots of 4x4m and 1x1m for shrubs and herbs. Eighty two trees, ninety four species of herbs/shrubs and 49 climbers constitute the vegetation. Twelve of these plants have been redlisted and up to 28 plants are endemic to Western Ghats. Visual encounter survey (VES), Opportunistic sightings and indirect evidences of presence of animals/disturbances were used to compile the checklists of animals and anthropogenic disturbances. Quantitative data on animas were collected from fifteen swamps in Kulathupuzha Forests Range. The first impression of the faunal composition of Myristica swamps in the study area is the enormity of diversity. Fragments of land which have a cumulative area of only 149.75 ha provides habitat for 362 invertebrate species (Platyhelminthes -3 species, Nemathelminthes -1species, Annelida -4 species, Mollusca -10 species, Insecta – 281 species, Myriapoda -6 species and Arachnida – 54 species) and 281 vertebrate species (Picses-14 species, Amphibia-56 species, Reptilia-55 species, Aves- 127 species, Mammalia-28 species). The Myristica swamps in the study area have 23 % butterfly, 11% spider, 8.4% fish, more than 50 % amphibian, more than 20 % reptile, 26.6% bird and 6.6 % mammal diversity of Kerala. 16.32 % of the animals recorded from the Myristica swamp are endemic to Western Ghats. 24.20% of the vertebrates recorded from the swamps are redlisted. Though tree composition may take many years to alter, the composition and distribution patterns of susceptible animal communities especially herpetofauna can indicate the health of ecosystems.

Wetland inventory and the dynamics in Karnataka – A geospatial approach

P. Ramachandra Prasad¹, Chiranjibi Pattanaik^*# and S. Narendra Prasad^#
1Lab for Spatial Informatics, International Institute of Information Technology,
Hyderabad - 500 082, Andhra Pradesh
^#Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History, Deccan Regional Station, 12-13-588/B, Nagarjuna Nagar
Colony, Hyderabad – 500 017, Andhra Pradesh, chiranjibipattanaik@gmail.com

Long term monitoring of wetlands is vital for an adaptive management approach and sustainable development. Inventorization and prioritization of small wetlands is one of the critical needs of the hour. A multi-temporal perspective on the wetland distribution in India can only be achieved using satellite remote sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS). Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data for 1990-92 were used for the present study to map wetlands of Karnataka state. The total extent of wetlands for the state is estimated to be 4,488.13 sq km, which is 1,862.63 sq km more than SAC inventory of wetlands. The present paper also highlights the wetland dynamics in select districts of Karnataka using IRS LISS III satellite data.

Study of Environmental Flows in Tungabhadra River, Karnataka, India

Harish Kumara BK¹, Srikantaswamy S
¹Research Fellow, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Mysore
Selection Grade Lecturer, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Mysore

Environmental water requirements, also referred as ‘Environmental Flows’, are a compromise between water resources development and the maintenance of a river in ecologically acceptable or agreed condition. Dams are often the most significant and direct modifiers of Natural River flows. They are therefore an important starting point to implement environmental flows. Downstream releases from dams are determined by pass water through, over or around the dam. The operating policies and rules determine the amount and timing of releases for environmental flows. Managing environmental water flow is a complex task, because the change of quantity of water occurs as the flow moves downstream. For instance, between a major storage and the places downstream where water is diverted, the quantity of water in a river may be greatly changed from the natural condition and also seasonal pattern of flow may be drastically altered. Further downstream, where a large proportion of the river’s water has been removed for human uses is likely to be reduced by the overall flow levels. This paper attempts to present the existing conditions of the water flow from the Tungabhadra (TB) River, and water requirements for the better management of a downstream ecosystem, based on both the field investigations and desk study. A dam across the river TB has reduced the natural flow in the main river. It has altered the socio economic condition of the downstream dependent population of the River. The downstream of the river for 100 km has shrunken in its river bed. The lively support has gradually comedown during last decade leading in shifting of the occupation and migration of the community has commonly registered during the study.

Impact of Historical Flows of the Coleroon River on the Surrounding Ecosystem

Sathyanathan R, Deeptha VT and Selvam V^*
School of Civil engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology
SRM university, Kattankulathur, Chennai – 603 203
^*Director, Coastal Systems Research, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (mssrf), Taramani, Chennai
Sathyanathan_r@yahoo.com, deeptha@civil.srmuniv.ac.in

River flows fluctuate on many scales (monthly or seasonal), and the fluctuations are the result of complex non-linear interactions between rainfall processes, topography and geography. The fluctuation in the flow over a time period is also due to the anthropogenic activities like construction of dams, diversions and upstream withdrawals. These fluctuations may have profound effects on ecosystems such as an estuary which has emarkable biological productivity and diversity. As there exists strong correlations between freshwater inflows and the salinity gradients and between salinity and a wide variety of biological productivity, if the quality and quantity of river water is reduced it will affect the health of the estuarine ecosystem seriously. In this context, it is vital to know the dynamics of freshwater river flow reaching the ecosystem i.e. the environmental flow to understand the present status of the system. This study pertains to the Coleroon River, a distributary of the Cauvery River, Tamil Nadu, India and its tail end estuarine ecosystem namely Pichavaram wetlands, which houses a vast diversity of mangrove species covering an aerial extent of 858 ha. As the floristic composition and vegetation community structure in wetlands are determined by frequency, duration, depth and season of flooding, it is necessary to know the present and past status of the Coleroon River, which is a dominant source of freshwater for the wetland system. In this work, a desktop analysis is carried out to know the present dynamics of the river by compiling historical records of virgin and present-day monthly average discharge data and other hydrological information such as seasonal index, flood duration curves etc. in various formats. Compilation of flow related information on mangrove ecosystem component is analysed to upgrade the ecosystem to the desired environment management class.

Niche analysis and environmental status of river Narmada flood plain ponds

P Thamil Chelvan and Yashika Chelvan^*
Dept of Biosciences, Narmada College of Science and commerce, Zadeshwar-392011,
Bharuch (Gujarat), E-mail: chelvan29@rediffmail.com
^*Dept of biotechnology, Christ College, Rajkot (Gujarat)

River Narmada, the life line of Gujarat forms the one of the largest River Delta estuary at Bharuch District of Gujarat. But except heavy turbulent flood times it forms on its bed several flood plain ponds which are unique lentic freshwater habitats. They are formed beyond the tidal reach and not influenced by tidal saline influx. Some of this ponds act as typical annual types, whereas remaining as perennial types. These ponds support several aquatic macrophytes, belonging to the diverse sections of plant groups like Spirogyra, Chara (algae), Azolla, Marsilea (Pteridophyta), Potomageton, Hydrilla, Valisneria, Typha, Jussiaea, Ottelia, Nymphioides, Ceratophylum, Cypress, etc (Angiosperms). Using water in some of these ponds for limited time cultivation of river bed land also practiced. For marsh Crocodiles and Phythons these ponds and their surrounding act as ideal Niche. The ephemeral pools formed in the sand habit supports large amount rare Tripos. Several little egrets, median egrets, little bittern, great bittern, painted stork, oriental white ibis, black ibis, Eurasian spoonbill, lesser flamingo, shelducks, teals and pochards are making these ponds as their feeding or temporary shelter. Domestic untreated sewage and day-to-day human interference brings large amount pollutants to bank north ponds and industrial effluents a great treat to south bank. Change in seasonal temperature brings drastic alteration in some of these ponds. These wetlands habitats slowly change dry desert like sand dune habitats in severe summer.