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Not AvailableSubstantially resourceful and densely populated Sundarbans delta, covering India and Bangladesh, experiences numerous extreme events linked to various hydro-meteorological processes. Further, anthropogenic activities in the coastal zones are accentuating environmental degradation causing wide spread suffering. While large tracts of the Sundarbans were cleared, drained and reclaimed for cultivation during the British colonial era, the remaining parts have been under various protection regimes since 1970s to protect the various flora and fauna. Spatio-temporal study using satellite remote sensing showed, while the mangroves’ areal extent has not changed much in the recent past, accretion rate of coastline has declined as against erosion rate which has remained relatively high in the recent years. As a result, the delta front has undergone a net erosion of ~170 km2 of coastal land during 1973–2010. Thus, the various factors affecting such changes are direct human interference, upstream development in the river hydrology, climate change, extreme weather events including cyclones, tidal surges, floods, sea level rise, salinity intrusion, etc. acting individually or through their interactions. Impact of such factors on agriculture and aquaculture being the main components towards livelihood security has been discussed. There is a need for integration of traditional coping practices and wisdoms with modern scientific management approach in this eco-region to reduce the effects of climate change- and other natural or human factor-induced disasters, and arrest nature and extent of human sufferings for improvement of livelihood enterprises, agriculture and aquaculture being the most important.Not Availabl

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Abstract presented in 5th National Seminar on Climate Resilient Saline Agriculture: Sustaining Livelihood Security. Held at SK Rajasthan Agricultural University Bikaner, Rajasthan, India, during 21-23 January, 2017.Considering the benefit of conservation tillage in rice based cropping system a field experiment was carried out to evaluate the impact of conservation tillage on soil health in coastal region of West Bengal during 2011. The design of experiment was split-split plot with cropping system (rice-rice and rice-cotton) (kharif—rabi) as main plot treatments and tillage type such as zero tillage (ZT), reduced tillage (RT), and conventional tillage (CT) as sub plot treatments. The residue (R) and no residue (NR) were as sub-sub plot treatments. The soil properties analysed after kharif harvest indicated that salinity was reduced considerably during kharif cultivation. EC was slightly higher under rice-cotton system than rice-rice system. Exchangeable Mg was slightly more than exchangeable Ca. Exchangeable Na was relatively more in cotton-rice system than rice-rice system. The salinity probe was used to evaluate the bulk soil salinity during the month of May. The rice-rice system showed lower bulk soil EC than rice-cotton system particularly at 0-30 cm and 30-60 cm soil depth. Also zero tillage plots at surface depth showed higher bulk soil EC than other tillage treatments might be because of higher capillary rise of saline ground water at surface depth in zero tilled plot than other treatments. There was reduction in bulk density and increase in organic C in ZT than other treatments in surface depth. The soil organic C stock was determined up to 45 cm soil depth and it was highest in RT with residue followed by CT with residue, ZT with residue, RT without residue, CT without residue and lowest in ZT without residue treatment. Organic C stock was more in rice-rice system than rice-cotton system. The total quantity of soil organic C sequestered within four years of experiment varied from -1.51 to 5.05 Mg C /ha and was linearly related with cumulative C inputs to the soils. The results indicated for sustenance of SOC level (zero change due to cropping) a minimum quantity of 1.86 Mg C /year is required to be added per hectare as inputs. Treatment-wise fraction of soil organic C like very labile, labile, less labile and nonlabile C determined at different concentration of H2SO4 and microbial biomass C were also analyzed and passive pool of soil C faction was more than active pool in treatments when crop residue was added. After four years of experiment in zero tillage, there was 12-18% reduction in yield than other treatments. In initial period of experiment, the yield reduction was up to 28% in case of zero tillage treatment than other treatments. Treatment-wise net return and benefit: cost ratio (BCR) was calculated and it varied between Rs. 29235/- to 43267/- and 1.8-2.34 per hectare under rice-rice system and Rs. 14464-29554/- and 1.3-1.65 per hectare under rice-cotton system. Operation wise energy used was calculated and fertilizer contributes more than 70% of input energy. Treatment under reduced tillage condition was most efficient in utilizing energy. In most of the cases chemical fertilizer and pesticides consumed more than 70% of energy utilization.Not Availabl

D.B. Nayak

Not AvailableSundarbans in West Bengal of India by virtue of its strategic location in the Eastern coast on the Bay of Bengal falls in one of the most vulnerable zones of abrupt climate change. Temporal trends of weather parameters of Canning Town (22o18'10.8'' N Latitude, 88o39'58.4'' E Longitude, elevation 3.52 m msl) representing Indian Sundarbans were analysed by non-parametric Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope approaches. Analysis of long term rainfall data (1966-2015) indicated that Canning receives a mean annual rainfall of 1821 mm (±341.8 mm) with a considerable variation (CV = 18.8%). The results revealed that total annual rainfall trend decreased non-signicantly at the rate of 0.94 mm yr-1. On an average 84.4 rainy days in a year was recorded in the region, whereas during last ten years (2006-2015), the number of rainy days was reduced to 79.7 days yr-1. There was no signicant change in maximum, minimum and mean temperature of the region. Bright sunshine hours declined signicantly at an annual rate of 0.055 hr yr-1. Reference crop evapotranspiration (ET ) calculated using FAO Penman-Monteith method revealed 0 that annual ET signicantly decreased at the rate of 5.98 mm yr-1. There was 2.7 times surplus rainfall than 0 crop evapotranspiration during monsoon months indicating very high scope of water harvesting to tackle water logging during the monsoon season and unavailability of fresh water for irrigation during lean season.ICAR-NICR

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Abstract presented in 82nd Annual Convention of Indian Society of Soil Science, held at Amity University, Kolkata, during 11-14, December, 2017.Sundarbans in West Bengal, India by virtue of its strategic location in the Eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal falls in the most vulnerable zones of abrupt climate change. Analysis of the long period rainfall data (1966-2014) indicates that the region receives very high annual rainfall (1818.5 mm) which is concentrated only over a few monsoon months; most of the rain water goes waste as runoff and creates widespread water logging of the low-lying agricultural fields. On an average 84 rainy days in a year was recorded in the region, whereas during last ten years (2005-2014), the number of rainy days was reduced to 78.8 days/year. There was 2.7 times surplus rainfall than crop evapo-transpiration during monsoon months indicating very high scope of water harvesting to tackle water logging during the monsoon season and unavailability of fresh water for irrigation during lean season. The present study assessed the effects of different land shaping models i.e., farm pond (FP), deep furrow and high ridge (RF) and paddy cum fish (PCF) system for rain water harvesting in restoring the productivity of degraded coastal soils in Sundarbans during 2012, 2013 and 2014 with an annual rainfall of 1583 (normal), 2164 (excess) and 1368 mm (deficit), respectively. A water balance was run to estimate the soil moisture, crop evapotranspiration, runoff and water depth in the reservoir. On an average the amount of runoff harvested was 3273, 1387 and 952 m3 per hectare per year in FP, RF and PCF system. The amount of runoff going out of the system was 12.2, 23.6 and 25.5 % of the annual rainfall in FP, RF and PCF system whereas in monocrop rice-fallow system the runoff was 34.6% of the annual rainfall during these three years period (2012-2014). On an average annually 1717, 1042 and 791 m3 of harvested water was used for irrigation during lean period in FP, RF and PCF system. We estimated all the three components of water footprints (WF) i.e., blue WF (WFblue), green WF (WFgreen) and gray WF (WFgray) for washing excess salt accumulation as an aggregative indicator to evaluate environmental impact of each land shaping system along with dominant rice-fallow and rice-rice system. In FP system out of total WF of 808.5 m3t-1, WFgreen was 608.1, WFblue 103.1 and WFgray was 97.3 m3t-1, respectively, whereas in case of RF system total WF was 976.2 m3t-1out of which WFgreen, WFblue and WFgray was 783.7, 75.3 and 117.2 m3t-1, respectively and in PCF system total WF, WFgreen, WFblue and WFgray was 1029.2, 836.2, 63.3, and 129.7 m3t-1 respectively. In rice fallow and rice-rice system the total WF, WFgreen, WFblue and WFgray was 3644.8, 3113.6, nil and 531.2; and 1883.5, 974.2, 702.4 and 206.9, respectively indicating copious use of ground water in rice-rice system. Large scale adaptation of different land shaping models for rain water harvesting in farmers’ field increased the cropping intensity and net farm income in the region and there was reduction in salinity during summer and water logging during rainy season and overall improvement in soil quality.Not Availabl

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Abstract presented in XIII Agricultural Science Congress-2017 on ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’ at UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru during 21-24 February, 2017.Sundarbans in West Bengal of India by virtue of its strategic location in the Eastern coast on the Bay of Bengal falls in the most vulnerable zones of abrupt climate change. Temporal trends of weather parameters of Canning Town (22o18'52'' N Latitude, 88o39'45'' E Longitude, elevation 10 m msl) representing Indian Sundarbans were analysed by non-parametric Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s slope approaches. Analysis of long term rainfall data (1966-2014) indicated that Canning receives a mean annual rainfall of 1818.5 mm (±344.8 mm) with a considerable variation (CV = 18.95%). On an average pre monsoon during the month of March, April and May contribute 13.2% , monsoon rainfall during the month of June, July, August and September contribute 74.3% and post monsoon rain during October to February contribute 12.5% of total annual rainfall. Though most of the weather parameters do not show any trend, bright sunshine hours declined significantly at an annual rate of 0.05 hours yr-1. Reference crop evapo-transpiration (ET0) calculated using FAO Penman-Monteith method revealed that annual ET0 significantly decreased at the rate of 5.60 mm yr-1. Pre and post-monsoon rainfall meet the 49 and 54% of crop evapo-transpiration demand. There was 2.7 times surplus rainfall than crop evapo-transpiration during monsoon months indicating very high scope of water harvesting to tackle water logging during the monsoon season and unavailability of fresh water for irrigation during lean season. Research on Sundarbans regions showed that harvesting rainwater through different land shaping techniques like farm pond, deep furrow and high ridge, shallow furrow and medium ridge and paddy cum –fish cultivation and raising of low land with excavated soil could reduce the impact of saline groundwater table on salinity build up of soil, improved drainage congestion of low-lying land and created irrigation resources for rabi season cultivation. Large scale adaptation of different land shaping models for rain water harvesting in farmers’ field increased the cropping intensity up to 240 % from 119% and net farm income from Rs. 22000 to Rs. 1,23,000 in the region. Water foot print for each of the land shaping techniques was also estimated.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableSundarbans in West Bengal, India located in the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal is one of the vulnerable zones subjected to abrupt climate change. The region receives 2.7 times surplus rainfall as compared to crop evapotranspiration during monsoon months causing widespread waterlogging of the low lying agricultural fields and impedes the productivity. The present study assessed the effects of different land shaping models namely, farm pond (FP), deep furrow and high ridge (RF) and paddy cum fish (PCF) systems for rainwater harvesting in restoring the productivity of degraded coastal soils in Sundarbans. A water balance was run to estimate the soil moisture, crop evapotranspiration, runoff and water depth in the reservoir during normal, excess and deficit rainfall years. The average annual harvested runoff was 2709, 1650 and 1169m3 per hectare in FP, RF and PCF systems, respectively. The runoff going out of the system was 19.5, 29.1 and 27.75% of the annual rainfall in FP, RF and PCF systems, respectively, whereas in monocrop rice-fallow system it was 34.6% of the annual rainfall. We estimated all the three components of water footprints (WF) i.e., blue WF (WFblue), green WF (WFgreen) and gray WF (WFgray) as an aggregative indicator to evaluate environmental impact. The results indicated that total as well as the components of WF was higher in rice-fallow and rice-rice systems than in each of the land shaping system. Large scale adoption of different land shaping systems increased the cropping intensity and net farm income and there was reduction in salinity during summer and waterlogging during rainy season and overall improvement in soil quality. The dominant soluble salts identified in the study region were NaCl and MgSO4.ICAR-NICR

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Not AvailableSundarbans in West Bengal, India located in the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal is one of the vulnerable zones subjected to abrupt climate change. The region receives 2.7 times surplus rainfall as compared to crop evapotranspiration during monsoon months causing widespread waterlogging of the low lying agricultural fields and impedes the productivity. The present study assessed the effects of different land shaping models namely, farm pond (FP), deep furrow and high ridge (RF) and paddy cum fish (PCF) systems for rainwater harvesting in restoring the productivity of degraded coastal soils in Sundarbans. A water balance was run to estimate the soil moisture, crop evapotranspiration, runoff and water depth in the reservoir during normal, excess and deficit rainfall years. The average annual harvested runoff was 2709, 1650 and 1169 m3 per hectare in FP, RF and PCF systems, respectively. The runoff going out of the system was 19.5, 29.1 and 27.75% of the annual rainfall in FP, RF and PCF systems, respectively, whereas in monocrop rice-fallow system it was 34.6% of the annual rainfall. We estimated all the three components of water footprints (WF) i.e., blue WF (WFblue), green WF (WFgreen) and gray WF (WFgray) as an aggregative indicator to evaluate environmental impact. The results indicated that total as well as the components of WF was higher in rice-fallow and rice-rice systems than in each of the land shaping system. Large scale adoption of different land shaping systems increased the cropping intensity and net farm income and there was reduction in salinity during summer and waterlogging during rainy season and overall improvement in soil quality. The dominant soluble salts identified in the study region were NaCl and MgSO4.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableCoastal West Bengal, the low-lying landward extension of the continental shelf of the Bay of Bengal is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. Extreme climate – driven multifarious threats, including tidal gushes, deluge with seawater, permanent submergence of land, occurrence of salinity and water scarcity have taken a toll on food and environmental security of the region. The present article discusses sea-level–rise trends in the estuaries of West Bengal coast and compares it with other coastal region of India, based on estimates derived from tide-gauge data. The PSMSL (Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level) tide data have been analysed to detect the changes of sea level trend using Mann-Kendall non-parametric test and the magnitudes of such trends have been estimated using Sen’s slope. The results affirmed that the rate of sea level changes for four stations, namely, Garden Reach, Diamond Harbour, Haldia and Gangra in West Bengal coast are found to be+7.48, +4.27, +3.24 and +2.06 mm yr-1 whereas for the stations Mumbai and Cochin in west coast the rate of changes were +0.78 and +2.07 mm yr-1 and for Chennai and Vishakhapatnam in east coast the rate of changes were +1.06 and +1.00 mm yr-1. The rise in sea level in West Bengal coast was more during the last ten years (2005-2014) and it increased by 1.65% of long term average in the region. The information on rate of sea level would help in implementing defences against coastal flooding and salinity due to rising sea level.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableCoastal West Bengal, the low-lying landward extension of the continental shelf of the Bay of Bengal is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. Extreme climate-driven multifarious threats, including tidal gushes, deluge with sea water, permanent submergence of land, occurrence of salinity and water scarcity have taken a toll on food and environmental security of the region. The present article discusses sea-level-rise trends in the estuaries of West Bengal coast and compares it with other coastal region of India, based on estimates derived from tide-gauge data. The PSMSL (Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level) tide data have been analysed to detect the changes of sea level trend using Mann-Kendall non-parametric test and the magnitudes of such trends have been estimated using Sen's slope. The results affirmed that the rate of sea level changes for four stations, namely, Garden Reach, Diamond Harbour, Haldia and Gangra in West Bengal coast are found to be +7.48, +4.27, +3.24 and +2.06 mm yr-1 whereas for the stations Mumbai and Cochin in west coast the rate of changes were +0.78 and +2.07 mm yr-1 and for Chennai and Vishakhapatnam in east coast the rate of changes were +1.06 and +1.00 mm yr-1. The rise in sea level in West Bengal coast was more during the last ten years (2005-2014) and it increased by 1.65% of long term average in the region. The information on rate of sea level would help in implementing defences against coastal flooding and salinity due to rising sea level.Not Availabl