Status of Biodiversity in West Bengal: Threat to Conservation and Scope of Restoration

Abstract

Despite wide scale deforestation during the colonial and post-colonial periods in the name of economic development, the populous state of West Bengal located in eastern India, still maintains three
different forest types in northern hills and piedmont areas, western plateau and its fringe areas as well as
littoral forest of the of the Ganga delta. Aquatic ecosystems of the water bodies and wetland, snow and rain
fed rivers along with brackish estuaries have diversified the landscape. Expansion of arable land, human
settlements and transport arteries has truncated luxurious forests on one hand and taken its toll on floral
and faunal diversity of wild terrestrial and aquatic environ on the other. Introduction of high yielding
varieties of paddy and hybrid vegetables has led to shrinkage of the biodiversity base in the agrarian
landscape too. Transformation of land use has negative impact on the nesting prospect of the birds whose
species diversity is also at stake. In-situ conservation of biodiversity is a challenging task now either for
the authorities or for the concerned scientists.