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West Bengal - an introduction

Location and biogeographySituated between 21°38’ and 27°19’N latitudes and 85°50’ and 89°50’ E longitudes, West Bengal

stretches from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. West Bengal is bounded by five Indian states and three countries: Sikkim to the north, Bhutan to the north-east, Assam and Bangladesh to the east, Nepal, Bihar and Jharkhand to the west and Jharkhand and Orissa to the south-west. The total geographic area of the state is 88752 sq km. West Bengal has a 650 km-long coastline.

Due to altitudinal variations, the state experiences temperature ranging from below freezing point in the hills during winter to about 45°C in the southern plains during the summer. The climate varies from moist-tropical in the south-east to dry-tropical in the south-west, and from sub-tropical to temperate in the mountains of the north. At the higher altitudes (above 1800 m) of Darjeeling district, severe frost formation and snowfall occur in winter.

Annual rainfall of the state in the northern mountains and the sub-montane region is 2000-6000 mm, in the south-western region it is 900-1400 mm and in the coastal region it is 1700 mm. Around 11880 sq. km (13.4 per cent) of the total geographical area is under forest cover. The major rivers systems in the state are Ganga, Bramhaputra and their tributaries.

There are four biogeographical zones in the state: (i) Central Himalayas, (ii) Chhotanagpur plains of the Deccan peninsula, (iii) Lower Gangetic plains, and (iv) the eastern coast.

In West Bengal, there are about 54 natural and nine human-made major wetlands, totally covering an area of about 3,44,527 ha. The predominant wetland types of the state are marshes, jheels, Terai swamps and char lands (waterlogged land formed after floods) of the Gangetic plains, wetlands in the islands of the Bay of Bengal and coastal brackishwater wetlands. The largest stretch of mangroves in the country lies in the Sunderbans of West Bengal, covering an area of about 4264 sq. km (i.e., 36 per cent of recorded state forest land).

The total forest cover is 12343 sq km, i.e., 13.91 per cent of the total geographical area as per the Forest Survey of India 2003. The 10 forest types in West Bengal are Northern Tropical Wet Evergreen, Northern Subtropical Semi-Evergreen, North Indian Moist Deciduous, Mangroves, Tropical Seasonal Swamps, Northern Tropical Dry Deciduous, Northern Subtropical Broad-leaved Wet Hill, Northern Montane Wet Temperate, East Himalayan Moist Temperate and Sub-Alpine Forests.

BiodiversityThe flora of West Bengal comprises 3580 species. A total of 8037 animal species have been

recorded here. Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has listed 176 mammals’ species and 497 species avian fauna in the state. West Bengal is known to have the richest species diversity of fish in India, with a total of 574 species.

Socio-economic profileWest Bengal is the third most populated state of the country with population of 80,176,197. The

official language is Bengali.

Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) comprise 23.62 per cent and 5.59 per cent of the population respectively. Nearly 72 per cent of the population resides in rural areas, in 43,000 villages. West Bengal has at least 38 major categories of tribal people. A majority of these tribes, such as Santhal, Oraon, Munda, Kora, Mehali, Lodha and Malpaharia, have migrated from Santhal Parganas during the 19th century and settled mainly in Medinipur, Puruliya, Bankura and West Dinajpur; while a few others, viz., Bhutia, Lepcha, Mech and, Rava are residents of the hill section of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri.

778 Community Conserved Areas in India - a directory

The main occupation is agriculture, accounting for 95 per cent of the rural population, followed by industry, fishing, honey collection and woodcutting. The principal land uses in state are agriculture, forests, wasteland, wetland, human settlement and industrial sector.

Administrative and political profile West Bengal was created as a constituent state of the Indian Union on 15 August 1947 as the

result of partition of the undivided British Indian province of Bengal into West Bengal. As in other states, there is a three-tier panchayat system, except in Darjeeling district which is governed by the Gorkha Hill Council . There are at present 3437 gram panchayats (at village level), 331 panchayat samitis (at block level) and 18 zilla parishads (at district level).

ConservationThe protected area network comprises 5 national parks, 15 sanctuaries, 2 tiger reserves, 1

elephant reserve and 1 biosphere reserve.1 Sundarbans (2585 sq km) and Buxa (759 sq km) are two tiger reserves. There are also the elephant reserves of Eastern Dooars and Mayurjharna in the state. Sundarbans is an important biosphere reserve (9,630 sq km) encompassing parts of the Ganges delta and the Brahmaputra river system.

The East Calcutta wetlands with an expanse of 12,500 ha is one of important 25 Ramsar sites designated by the Ramsar Bureau. These wetlands (22º25’ to 22º40’ N and 88º20’ to 88º35’E) are critical for their waste recycling properties. The system is described as ‘one of the rare examples of environmental protection and development management where a complex ecological process has been adopted by local farmers for mastering the resource recovery activities.’2 Five more Ramsar sites are proposed in the state3. Many species in the deltaic Sunderbans like tiger, fishing cat, Gangetic dolphin, little porpoise, adjutant stork, osprey, saltwater crocodile, olive ridley turtle, etc. have been categorized under endangered status due to habitat destruction and deterioration of water quality.

West Bengal was among the leading states in implementing Joint Forest Management (JFM). In fact, its participatory forest management programmes seem to have inspired the Indian Forest Policy of 1988, which emphasized participatory forest management in the rest of India. The forest department currently recognizes 3545 forest protection committees (FPCs); of these 17 FPCs have only women members. In Sunderbans area there are 33 FPCs with 13527 members, protecting 567 sq km of mangrove forest. The state also has 52 watershed committees for better management of watersheds. Additionally there are 99 ecodevelopment committees (EDCs) in 2 tiger reserves, 2 national parks and 3 sanctuaries, for encouraging joint participatory action for biodiversity conservation in protected areas.

Wetlands of east Kolkata form an important ecosystem in West Bengal Photo: Ashish Kothari

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Table 1: Some of the notable examples of community conserved areas and community involvement in protected areas

Sr.

No.

Name of Area Location Kind of Effort Area

1. Bankura Village Bankura District Protection of forest under Joint Forest Management

Not available

2. Chandana and Harinakuri

Kharagpur District Forest protection with forest department

160 ha

3. Jaldapara WLS Jalpaiguri District Protection of Wildlife Sanctuary with help of villagers

Not available

4. Jogyanagar Birbhum District Heronry protection Not available

5. Makaibari Darjeeling District Forest protection with tea estate 673 ha6. Rashikbeel Cooch Behar

DistrictProtection of wetland through formation of FPC

100 ha

7. Singalila National Park

Darjeeling District Afforestation and waste management in the NP

Not available

Out of the above, Jogyanagar, Makaibari and Rashikbeel are dealt with in detail in the case studies section.

This information about the state has been compiled by Saili S. Palande of Kalpavriksh based on: State Steering Committee for NBSAP (West Bengal Chapter), Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan, West Bengal. Prepared under National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, Ministry of Environment and Forests (Government of India). (Contained in CD with reference at endnote 1)

Endnotes

1 TPCG and Kalpavriksh, Securing India’s Future: Final Technical Report of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. Prepared by the NBSAP Technical and Policy Core Group (Delhi/Pune, Kalpavriksh, 2005).

2 http://www.ramsar.org/profile/profiles_india.htm

3 M.Z. Islam and A.R. Rahmani, Potential Ramsar Sites in India (Mumbai, IBCN:BNHS and Birdlife International, 2006).