Exploring the Dev Nadi - Part III

Exploring the Dev Nadi - Part III (Ecosystem & People)

Studying ‘Biodiversity’ of any region is not just about surveying diversity of flora and fauna, but to understand it from a social perspective i.e. people living and associated with it. Practically it is nearly impossible to collect first-hand data of biodiversity by just surveying any region, landscape without interacting with people to gather historical and on-ground secondary data of that region. Biodiversity and People together makes ‘Ecosystem’. From the past and as part of Indian culture, people have been getting benefits directly or indirectly and are dependent on nature & natural resources in the form of social, cultural, economic way. This phenomenon is termed as ‘Ecosystem Services’. 

‘Ecosystem services can be defined as “benefits people derive from ecosystems”. Besides providing basic services or goods like food, water and other raw material; plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms provide essential regulating services such as pollination of crops, prevention of soil erosion, water purification and a vast array of cultural services like recreation and a sense of place’

This is a humble attempt to take you on the journey through Ecosystem Services and People of Dev Nadi catchment. 

Background:

The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity (TEEB), a global initiative have classified Ecosystem services mainly into four categories viz, Provisional (e.g. Food, Water), Regulatory (e.g. water purification, climate regulation), Supporting (e.g. soil formation, nutrient cycle) and Cultural (educational, recreational) aiming to make nature’s values visible. With his standard practice, we tried to understand Ecosystem services in Dev Nadi catchment through portfolio approaches such as Primary data analysis, Socio-Ecological Surveys, Resource Mapping exercise, Village meetings and interviews with stakeholders in the region. It was altogether a different experience to understand ecosystems and biodiversity from a local people’s perspective as they are the one who have been associated with the landscape for a long-time. They are the one who have seen changes (anthropogenic and climatic) happening in the surroundings  and  have adapted their livelihood. One of the basic methods we used was to stay in villages with the villagers. This not only helps in building our relationship but also to get used to the words, language, talks and their understanding  about the ecosystem in general. 

People & Livelihood: 

Dev Nadi catchment has people from diverse castes-traditions, economical backgrounds and occupation, which plays a crucial part in identifying and defining ecosystem services. In a landscape dominated by agriculture, people are dependent on various natural resources such as Water, Soil, Fodder for various needs. Different types of crop require varied amounts of water and soil. Topography and terrain are also important in choosing crop patterns, which itself act as a key factor in providing certain ecological services. 

Ecosystem Services in the Upstream region

There are few tribal communities such as Mahadeo Koli, Thakar and Ramoshi which are living close to the forested areas, hilly slopes are known to be more dependent on ecosystems. Their association is primarily for medicinal plants, fuelwood, timber and wild animals (hunting). Traditional knowledge system in these particular communities is stronger and awareness about decline in forest cover, bee population, riparian zones is noteworthy. Hence they establish a tradition of protecting and conserving a forest or grassland patch for their self-beliefs and future generations.  

Grandfather-Grandson during Livestock Grazing

However on other hand, people living in valleys, plains and near to urban areas have somewhat different needs and dependencies on ecosystems. Water, soil and fodder for livestock are key services for them being farmers. 

Ecosystem Services in the Midstream Region

Tiger Worshiped as deity shows communities association with Wild animals

Fishing - Livelihood option in the Downstream region of River  

Water - Key ecosystem service for daily necessities of local communities

Case study of one village:

We had interaction with group of 8-10 locals from upstream part of the river catchment and data was further analyzed, which helped us in getting following inference: 

Villagers are dependent on the direct usage of resources like fodder and water for obvious reasons. But awareness regarding the reasons impacting these resources is clearly the missing link observed. E.g. Water is important – but slopes, bunds lack vegetation cover – resulting in high runoff and less penetration in ground

Wild vegetables are important – but areas under forest are getting reduced due to pressures from land conversion, tree cutting for fuel wood. Thus eventually, villagers are bound to get lesser and lesser wild vegetables which can also put pressure on their income since rounds to doctors may increase

Grass is important – but burning slopes are not only going to hamper the grass variety but also natural seed germination

In spite of the ecological, cultural and economic importance of these services, ecosystems and the biodiversity is still being degraded and lost is simply not scalable. One major reason for this is that the value (importance) of ecosystems to human welfare is still underestimated and not fully recognized in every day planning and decision-making.    

This series of articles is part of our on-going project of River catchment study funded by The Nature Conservancy, India and in association with Yuvamitra, CTARA IIT Bombay, Arid Communities & Technologies (ACT) and Oximus as project partners. 

About Vanam Ecologics:                                                                                                                 We are Pune based Ecological Consultants working in the field of conservation and restoration of natural resources. We specialize in designing ecologically sound development and ecosystem management projects. Having a broad range of clients ranging from industries to CSRs and individual farm owners to nature resorts, we work hand in gloves with all stakeholders for strengthening and achieving sustainability of ecosystem services. 

For all queries, please get in touch with us on: [email protected]