Changing Wetland Landscape and Effects of Urbanization: A Study on Silsako Wetland in Guwahati, Assam, India

Abstract

Wetlands in Assam largely depend on the geo-ecological environment and they act as store-house of rich biotic and abiotic resources besides controlling flood, storm water surges and improving water quality. In Assam, as many as 5097 major wetlands and other 6081 small wetlands altogether account for 9.74% of the total area of the state. Among all the wetlands the urban wetlands are mostly suffer from the degradation process. The present study focuses on the Silsako beel, an urban wetland of Guwahati city, Assam. Silsako beel situated in the heart core of Guwahati is affected by unplanned urban expansion and rampant encroachment virtually causing changes of the landscape of the beel. Silsako is getting degraded due to impact of fast-growing urban development resulting a host of problems like waterlogging, reduction in aquatic flora and fauna, loss of water quality and other environmental problems. This study has revealed the gravity of degrading ecological problem of the wetland which calls for an adequate interdisciplinary policy and political will to implement sustainable management programmes for protection of the ecologically sensitive ecosystem in Guwahati city. The study uses Arc GIS software for analyzing the data and deriving the results.