Wise use: indigenous approaches to inland wetland management: best practices?
The ever increasing loss of natural floodplain wetlands to hydrological and global change, land use change and natural hazards is leading to serious environmental and ecological concerns in the flood plains of Assam, where wetlands (beels) which undertakes a range of hydrological & environmental function also provide an ambient habitat to a variety of flora & fauna of local and global significance and covers close to 4 percent of the total floodplain area and 1.29 percent of the total geographical area and is therefore critical. Issues and indigenous approaches governing flood plain wetland under tropical climatic environment was evaluated at a wetland cluster; Athubhanga, Kharupetia, Bherbeir, Sona, Charaihagi, Duboritoli, Hatiholonga, Bechamari, Gelapani, Kordoi, located at a distance of 70 km, east of Guwahati in the Kolong –Kopili sub-watershed in the Morigaon District, Assam, Northeast India.