Mangrove forests, apart from their carbon sequestration and coastal protection benefits, provide a wide range of ecosystem services to people in tropical developing countries. Local people living in and around forests in the developing tropics also depend heavily on these mangrove ecosystem services for their livelihoods. This study examines the impact of mangrove ecosystem services on the livelihoods of people in Indian part of the Sundarbans—the largest contagious mangrove forest on earth. To achieve this objective, a household survey was undertaken to gather data on the diverse range of provisioning and regulating ES local people derived from mangrove forests living near the Indian Sundarbans. Surveys were carried out in nine villages across the Kultali, Basanti, and Gosaba blocks, involving over one hundred respondents. Our study reveals the active participation of locals in gathering various ecosystem services, with fishing and crab collection being the most common in the area. Due to numerous challenges in the agricultural sector, such as soil salinity and frequent extreme weather events, people increasingly depend on non-farming incomes, particularly fishing. A questionnaire was used to assess the dependence of local people on different ecosystem services. Some villages, such as Amlamethi, Satyanarayanpur, Mathurakhand, Vivekananda Palli, and Second Scheme, demonstrated a higher reliance on forest ecosystem services compared to other villages. The study indicates that the contribution of ecosystem services sometimes surpasses traditional activities like farming and daily contractual work. River transportation emerged as the most crucial service, followed by freshwater, food, and fiber. While certain resources like fuel, natural medicine, and genetic resources may not be prioritized, they still hold significance within the community, contrasting with ornamental resources, which are considered the least important. Our findings underscore the importance of preserving natural services in the Sundarbans forest, highlighting the need to conserve the mangrove ecosystem services to ensure the long-term well-being of local communities.

Despite the growing importance of soil and water conservation and watershed development projects as an approach to rural development and natural resource management, there has been relatively little research on devising site-specific best management practice (BMP) to check the soil erosion losses within permissible limits, especially in hilly regions. For a sustainable watershed management programme and implementation, site specific BMPs assume importance and hold the promise of making conservation planning and watershed management simpler and more effective. The study was attempted to develop a methodology to obtain BMPs, aiming to reduce the erosion losses in erosion risk areas of the northwestern Himalayas by employing Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The AHP technique was employed to prioritise the potential technologies and select the BMP suitable for a particular land area. The prioritization of technologies was performed with four criteria viz. soil erosion resistance, cost, benefit, maintenance and environment friendliness of conservation measures. The soil erosion scenario of the study area located in the northwestern Himalayas was generated with each selected measure in a SWAT model using DEM, land use maps, a soil map and climate data of the study area. Then, the resultant erosion scenario of the conservation measures was compared and used for the AHP analysis. However, other criteria were assessed based on the judgement of a group of experts as well as farmers. In this study, four conservation measures, viz. Bench Terraces (BT), Vegetative Barrier (VB), Contour Farming (CF) and Zero Tillage + Live Mulch (ZL), were considered for BMP selection. Three scenarios, viz. experts’ judgement, farmers’ opinions and combined expert and farmer opinion, were analyzed to uncover the BMP for the different zones. The result revealed that experts and farmers unanimously preferred ZL as a BMP because of its low-cost implementation value and lower maintenance requirement while significantly controlling the erosion level as well as being environment friendly. The BT was the second most preferred technology for the study area. However, BMP was recommended for different zones having high to very severe erosion (soil loss > 10 t/ha/yr). Therefore, ZL was recommended for the areas with low altitude, whereas BT was recommended for the areas having high slopes because of its high capability for erosion control in the high slopping area. The methodology will act as a useful strategy for decision makers to prioritize the technology and recommend the best management for any region after considering suitable criteria. Future work may consider more criteria for inclusion to thus recommend the technology for a region in a more realistic way.

The saucer-shaped landform, high rainfall due to the south-west monsoon (June–September) and poor drainage conditions make certain parts of the east coast of India susceptible to waterlogging during the rainy season. There is no alternative other than to grow rice in the coastal lowlands, where surface water accumulation of 0.5–2.0 m occurs during the rainy season. In this study, the physical environments of a representative deep-water ecology were characterized and the performance of improved deep-water rice (DWR) varieties (Hangseswari, Saraswati, Ambika, Sabita) was compared with that of local varieties (Bankei, Dhalakartik) at three water depths (shallow flooded [0.6–0.8 m], medium flooded [0.8–1.2 m] and deep flooded [>1.2 m]). The rainfall–flooding depth relationship was also studied and the probability of successful crop production in relation to the time and depth of waterlogging was investigated, based on historical (34 years) flood data from the region. Among the varieties studied, ‘Hangseswari’ was found to have superior physiological traits for growth, development and production of grain yield and hence may be considered for inclusion in further DWR breeding programs. With the introduction of improved DWR varieties, productivity during the rainy season was enhanced and farmers received good yield (2.05–2.95 t ha⁻¹) and net return (4500 Rs ha⁻¹).