Keywords
tea garden
paddy
fluvial activity
GIS
How to Cite
Abstract
Natural and human causes of land use transformation were analysed in the Sikkimese-Bhutanese Himalayan piedmont over last 150 years with special emphasize on period 1930-2010. A hydrologic and geomorphic approach was employed to delineate three study areas along river courses on alluvial fans stretching 10 km from the mountain front. The visual interpretation of topographic maps and satellite images combined with logical rules in GIS were used for determination of stable and dynamic areas from the viewpoint of land use changes. Analysis indicates rapid replacement of natural forest through location of tea plantations, crop cultivation and development of settlement in the late 19th century. The shift from natural to human dominated landscape caused increase land use stability through enlargement of areas with monoculture cultivation of tea and paddy between 1930 and 2010. The natural fluvial activity intensified by human induced deforestation of Himalayan margin and clearance of riparian vegetation along foothill channels became the most important factors of present-day land use changes of piedmont.
References
Allen B.C., Gait E.A., Howard H.F. & Allen C.G.H., 1906. Gazetteer of Bengal and North-East India. Mittal Publication, New Delhi.
An L., 2012. Modeling human decisions in coupled human and natural systems: Review of agent-based models. Ecological Modelling, 229: 25-36, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.07.010.
An L. & Carr D.L., 2012. Understanding human decisions in coupled natural and human systems. Ecological Modelling, 229: 1-4, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.10.023.
Banarjee A., Ghosh S. & Springate-Baginski O., 2010. The creation of West Bengal’s forest underclass an historical institutional analysis of forest rights deprivations. IPPG Discussion Papers, 51: 1-26.
Basu S.R. & Ghatowar L., 1988. Landslides and soil-erosion in the Gish drainage basin of the Darjeeling Himalaya and their bearing on North Bengal floods. Studia Geomorphologica Carpatho-Balcanica, 22: 105-122.
Basu S.R. & Ghatowar L., 1990. The impact of landslides on fluvial processes in the Lish basin of the Darjeeling Himalayas. Geographia Polonica, 59: 77-87.
Bhandari L. & Kale S. (eds.), 2009. Indian states at a glance 2008-09: West Bengal: performance, facts and figures. Indicus Analitycs, New Delhi.
Bhowmik S.K., 2002. Productivity and labour standards in tea plantation sector in India. In: Sivananthiran A., Venkata Ratnam C.S. (eds.), Labour and social issues in plantations in South Asia. International Labour Organisation, New Delhi: 133-166.
Bookhagen B., 2010. Appearance of extreme monsoonal rainfall events and their impact on erosion in the Himalaya. Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 1(1): 37-50, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1080/19475701003625737.
Carr D.L., 2004. Proximate population factors and deforestation in tropical agricultural frontiers. Population and Environment, 25(6): 585-612, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1023/B:POEN.0000039066.05666.8d.
Carr D.L., Suter L. & Barbieri A., 2006. Population dynamics and tropical deforestation: State of the debate and conceptual challenges. Population and Environment, 27(1): 89-113, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s11111-005-0014-x.
Chowdhury R.R. & Turner B.L. II, 2006. Reconciling agency and structure in empirical analysis: smallholder land use in the Southern Yucatán, Mexico. Annals of the Associationof American Geographers, 96(2): 302-322.
Census of India, 1872. Bengal. Calcutta.
Census of India, 1931. Bengal and Sikkim. Vol. V & VI, Calcutta.
Census of India, 2001. West Bengal. New Delhi.
Champion H.G. & Seth S.K., 1968. A revised survey of forest types of India. Manager Publication, Delhi.
Davidar P., Sahoo S., Mammen P.C., Acharya P., Puyravaud J.-P., Arjunan M., Garrigues J.P. & Roessing K., 2010. Assessing the extent and causes of forest degradation in India: where do we stand? Biological Conservation, 143: 2937-2944, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.04.032.
DeFries R., 2008. Terrestrial vegetation in the coupled humanearth system: Contributions of remote sensing. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 33: 369-390, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.environ.33.020107.113339.
DeFries R, Karanth K.K. & Pareeth S., 2010, Interactions between protected areas and their surroundings in humandominated tropical landscapes. Biological Conservation, 143: 2870-2880, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.02.010.
DeFries R. & Pandey D., 2010. Urbanization, the energy ladder and forest transitions in India’s emerging economy. Land Use Policy, 27: 130-138, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.07.003.
Dhar O.N. & Nandargi S., 2000. A study of floods in the Brahmaputra basin in India. International Journal of Climatology, 20: 771-78.
Dutt G.N., 1966. Landslides and soil erosion in the Kalimpong Subdivision, Darjeeling district and their bearing on the North Bengal Flood. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of India, Series B, 15(1): 62-69.
Froehlich W. & Starkel L., 1987. Normal and extreme monsoon rains - their role in shaping of the Darjeeling Himalaya. Studia Geomorphologica Carpatho-Balcanica, 21: 129-160.
Froehlich W., Starkel L., 1993. The effects of deforestation on slope and channel evolution in the tectonically active Darjeeling Himalaya. Earth Surface Processes Landforms, 18: 285-290.
Froehlich W. & Walling D.E., 2007. The use of environmental radionuclides in investigations of sediment sources and overbank sedimentation rates in the Himalaya Foreland, India. In: Hubert P., Schertzer D., Takeuchi K. & Koide S. (eds.), Predictions in ungauged basins: PUB Kick-off proceedings of the PUB Kick-off meeting held in Brasilia, 20-22 November 2002. IAHS Publication, 309: 137-145.
Geist H.J. & Lambin E.F., 2002. Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation. BioScience, 52(2): 143-150.
Geist H.J. & Lambin E.F. (eds.), 2006. Land use and land cover change: Local processes, global impacts. The IGBP Book Series, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Ghosh B.C., 1970. The development of tea industry in the District of Jalpaiguri. In: Sanyal J.C., Ghose G.C., Chakraborty J.C. (eds.), Jalpaiguri District centenary souvenir 1879-1968: 281-310.
Ghosh S. & Carranza E.J.M., 2010. Spatial analysis of mutual fault/fracture and slope controls on rocksliding in Darjeeling Himalaya, India. Geomorphology, 122: 1-24, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2010.05.008.
Government West Bengal, 2008-2009. State forest report West Bengal. Directorate of Forests, Kolkata.
Grujic D., Coutand J., Bookhagen B., Bonnet S., Blythe A. & Duncan Ch., 2006. Climatic forcing of erosion, landscape and tectonics in the Bhutan Himalaya. Geological Society of America, 34(10): 801-804, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1130/G22648.1.
Hunter W.W., 1876. A statistical account of Bengal. Vol. X. Trubner & Co., London.
Karlsson B., 2000. Contested belonging: An indigenous people’s struggle for forest and identity in Sub-Himalayan Bengal. Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, UK.
Lambin E.F., Geist H.J. & Lepers E., 2003. Dynamics of landuse and land-cover change in tropical regions. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 28: 205-241.
Lambin E.F. & Meyfroidt P., 2010. Land use transitions: Socio-ecological feedback versus socio-economic change. Land Use Policy, 27: 108-118, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.09.003.
Liebault F. & Piegay H., 2002. Causes of 20th century channel narrowing in mountain and piedmont rivers of southeastern France. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 27: 425-444.
Mather A.S. & Needle C.L., 2000. The relationships of population and forest trends. The Geographical Journal, 166(1): 2-13.
Madhusudan K., 2011. Nature tourism development and impact assessment in peripheral areas - a study of North Bengal (India). South Asian Journal of Tourism and Heritage, 4(1): 90-99.
Millar R.G., 2000. Influence of bank vegetation on alluvial channel patterns. Water Resources Research, 36(4): 1109-1118.
Nakata T., 1972. Geomorphic history and crustal movements of the foot-hills of the Himalayas. The Scientific Reports of the Tohoku University, 7th Series, Geography, 22: 39-177.
Office of the Census Commissioner Royal Government of Bhutan, 2006. Results of population and housing census of Bhutan 2005. Kuensel Corporation Ltd., Thimphu, Bhutan.
Parthasarathy B., Munot A.A. & Kothawale D.R., 1995. All India monthly and seasonal rainfall series: 1871-1993. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 49: 217-224.
Persha L., Fischer H., Chhatre A., Agraval A. & Benson C., 2010. Biodiversity conservation and livelihoods in human-dominated landscapes: Forest commons in South Asia. Biological Conservation, 143(12): 2918-2925, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.03.003.
Price K. & Leigh D.S., 2006. Morphological and sedimentological responses of streams to human impact in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains, USA. Geomorphology, 78: 142-160, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.01.022.
Ray S., 2002. Transformations on the Bengal Frontier: Jalpaiguri, 1765-1948. Routledge Curzon, London.
Rennell J., 1794. A map of the north part of Hindostan or a geographical survey of the Provinces of Bengal, Bahar, Awd, Ellahabad, Agra and Delhi. Laurie & Whittle, London.
Rudel T., Coomes O., Moran E., Achard F., Angelsen A., Xu J. & Lambin E., 2005. Forest transitions: towards a global understanding of land use change. Global Environmental Change, 15: 23-31, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2004.11.001.
Sarkar S., 1996. Impact of catastrophic erosion in the fluvial dynamics of the river Mahananda, Darjeeling Himalaya. In: Singh R.B. (ed.), Research in Geography: Disaster and Environment. APH Publications, New Delhi, 2: 337-348.
Sarkar S., 2004. Hydro-meteorological study of high intensity rainstorms in the upper Tista basin. In: Singh S., Sharma H.S., De S.K. (eds.), Geomorphology and Environment. ACB Publications, Kolkata: 34-53.
Sarkar S., 2008. Flood hazard in the Sub-Himalayan North Bengal, India. In: Singh S., Starkel L., Syiemlieh H.J. (eds.), Environmental Changes and Geomorphic Hazard. Bookwell, New Delhi, Shillong: 247-262.
Starkel L., 1972. The role of catastrophic rainfall in the shaping of the relief of the Lower Himalaya (Darjeeling Hills). Geographia Polonica, 21: 103-147.
Starkel L. & Basu S. (eds.), 2000. Rains, landslides and floods in the Darjeeling Himalaya. INSA, New Delhi.
Starkel L. & Sarkar S., 2002. Different frequency of threshold rainfalls transforming the margin of Sikkimese and Bhutanese Himalaya. Studia Geomorphologica Carpatho-Balcanica, 36: 51-67.
Starkel L., Sarkar S., Soja R. & Prokop P., 2008. Present-day evolution of the Sikkimese-Bhutanese Piedmont. Prace Geograficzne IGiPZ PAN, 219.
Soja R. & Starkel L., 2007. Extreme rainfalls in Eastern Himalaya and southern slope of Meghalaya Plateau and their geomorphological impacts. Geomorphology, 84: 170-180, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.01.040.
Tea Board of India, 2010. List of new registration of Tea Estate during 1900-2010. Licensing Department, Kolkata.
The Indian Tea Association, 1930. Maps of tea districts with complete index to tea gardens. The Indian Tea Association, Calcutta.
Tiwari P.C., 2000. Land-use changes in Himalaya and their impact on the plains ecosystem: need for sustainable land use. Land Use Policy, 17: 101-111.
Traff ord F., 1905. Working plan for the reserved forest of the Jalpaiguri Division. Darjeeling. Bengal Secretariat Tour Press, Darjeeling.
Turner B.L. II., 2001. Toward integrated land-change science: Advances in 1.5 decades of sustained international research on land-use and land-cover change. In: Steffen W. (ed.), Advances in Global Environmental Change Research. Springer, Berlin, New York.
Turner II B.L., Geoghegan J., Keys E., Klepeis P., Lawrence D., Mendoza P.M., Manson S., Ogneva-Himmelberger Y., Plotkin A.B., Salicrup D.P., Chowdhury R.R, Savitsky B., Schneider L., Schmook B., Vance C., Villar S.C. & Foster D., 2001. Deforestation in the southern Yucata´n peninsular region: An integrative approach. Forest Ecology and Management, 154(3): 353-370.
Wohl E., 2006. Human impacts to mountain streams. Geomorphology, 79: 217-248, DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.06.020.
Zvoleff A. & An L. The ChitwanABM: modeling feedbacks between population and land-use in the Chitwan Valley, Nepal. Ecological Modelling. Submitted for publication.
License
This content is open access.