Water Resources

Fresh water availability and conservation of surface water resources are basic tohuman survival. The hydrological cycle is greatly influenced by changing land use and land cover in India. The large-scale deforestation may cause significant changes in regional and global climate. The rainfall variability in both time and space makes wateravailability and plant productivity quite uncertain. India has more than 60 per cent of itsland under rainfed areas, difficult to manage in a sustainable manner. With growingurban impact on groundwater, supply of fresh water is getting contaminated. Recentstudies indicate degradation of the water resource in the Himalaya resulting from erosion, flooding (Singh and Singh, 2007), and scarcity of water and degrading water quality (Singh, 2004). In geography, monitoring and manipulating experiments are required to study in situ for understanding of the hydrological processes and their interaction. Literature related to watershed management, micro-watershed, integrated water resource management and different tools and techniques related to water conservation have been reviewed (Mushir and Khan, 2007; Singh and Bortamuly, 2005).

Wetlands Resources and Mangroves
Wetlands and mangroves are considered rich in biomass productivity. However, these are under serious threat for development of aquaculture, ponds, roads and ports. India has a wealth of wetland eco-systems distributed in different geographical regionsfrom the cold arid zone of Ladakh in the North to the wet humid climate of Imphal in theEast, the warm arid zone of Rajasthan in the West to the tropical monsoon Central Indiaand the wet and humid zone of Southern Peninsula. Most of the wetlands in India are directly or indirectly linked with major river systems such as Ganga, Brahmaputra, Narmada, Tapti, Godavari, Krishna, Cauveri, etc. Significantly, a directory on wetlandsin India, recently published provides adequate information on location, area and ecological categorisation of wetlands. India is signatory to the Convention on Wetlandsof international importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention). Mangroves are salt-tolerant forest ecosystems found mainly in the tropical and sub-tropical inter-tidal regions of the world. India harbours some of the best mangrovesin the world and these occur all along the Indian coastline in sheltered estuary, tidalcreeks, backwaters, salt marshes and mud flats. As per the State of Forest Report, 1997 the total area covered by mangroves in India is estimated at about 6,000 sq km (Paul, 2006; Rajput and Srivastava, 2007). The importance of mangroves in retaining biodiversity, capacity for salt tolerance and stabilizing the shoreline can hardly be minimised.