An assessment of ecosystems services of a selected wetland in Assam
Student name: Ms Bedashree Choudhury
Guide: Ms Fawzia Tarannum
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: TATA Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Abhinandan Saikia
Abstract: This report attempts to exhibit the importance of freshwater wetlands in Assam by briefly
enhancing on one such wetland system – Urpad Beel. The report elaborates on the ecosystem
services provided by Urpad Beel and thereby highlights its significance to the communities
dependent on it as well as the all the interconnected ecosystems around it.
Urpad Beel is a freshwater lake located in the Goalpara district of Assam, and is a major source
of sustenance, economy and livelihood to more than a dozen villages that border it. Marginal
documentation and research has been done on this wetland system and traditional knowledge on
the same is fast fading through neglect.
Urpad Beel is the singular source of water for irrigation to the vast expanses of agricultural
fields in and around the wetland. Through long-standing mutual understanding and cooperation
among the local inhabitants, water from the wetland is neither sourced for domestic purposes,
nor is any 'polluting waste' allowed to drain into it, in order to preserve its quality and thereby
preserve the quality of fish found in it, as the villagers are all predominantly fisher communities.
The report provides a glimpse into the bio-socio-cultural connections these local communities
share with the wetland, painting a picture of their changing relations associated to the changing
wetland resources and attributes over the decades. The report also briefly describes some of the
existing and emerging threats to the wetland, from increased human intrusion to the invasive
growth of water hyacinth.
The report expands on the multitude of direct and indirect ecosystem services provided by Urpad
Beel, and assesses the enhancement or degradation of each of those services, through human use
and management. The report also reflects on the present ecological state of the wetland by
assessing the biological diversity and physiochemical characteristics of the system.
Key Words : ecosystem services, urpad beel, wetland valuation, wetland resources, communitybased
management
