Pollution Research Paper

STUDY ON KAPLA BEEL RESOURCES, ITS UTILIZATION PATTERN AND THREATS OF THE BEEL

RANTU MANI DEKA, ALAKESH BARMAN AND DWIPEN KUMAR DAS

Abstract

The present paper deals with the study on Kapla beel resources, its utilization pattern and threats of the beel. The investigation was carried out for three years. Kapla beel is blessed with good potential of aquatic resources including fishery resource, land resource and other resources. The fish resource of Kapla beel is composed of 39 fish species belonging to 30 genera under 18 families. The Kapla beel contains an area of 91 hectares. The marginal areas (Approx 36 hectares) of the beel become shallow during lean season. Out of the total shallow areas of the beel the neighboring people used 12-27 hectares of land for paddy cultivation. The neighbouring villagers used some macrophyte species for fodder, commercial and edible purposes. In Kapla beel fishing was carried out by three groups of people for self consumption and commercial purposes. The first groups of people were dependent for both fishing and agriculture and other beel resources. The second group of people engaged in fishing, cutting grasses of beel area for animal and fish feed. The third group is mostly dependent on fishing for their livelihood and they were engaged by lessee (mahalder) of the beel. The Kapla beel faced various man made stress, threatening its sustainability. Therefore, it is necessary to take some protective measures to conserve Kapla beel and its resources to provide benefit to dependent population around the beel on sustained basis.