Charland mapping and analyzing suitability for settlement and agriculture in ganga river within the stretch of West Bengal, India

Abstract

The Ganga/Ganges river bank erosion forced thousands of people to become landless and environmental refugees. river islands that emerged in this river segment may be alternative habitats for the environmental refugees. The present article intends to map Charland (river island), and the stability of Charland (island) to show the habitable area using time-series satellite images since 1987–2016. Instead of the factor-based approach usually used by scholars, in factor data sparse conditions, a result (charland planform)-based approach has been introduced for examining the stability of charland. From the analysis, it is found that the total area of the charland area excluding mainland charland is 237.64 km² and 286.82 km², respectively in the upper and lower reaches of the Farakka barrage during the post-monsoon period, whereas these are 261.21 km² and 311.48 km² during the pre-monsoon season. The seasonally submerged charland area is 48.22 km² due to the swelling of river water during the monsoon season. Only 22.9% of the area can be treated as stable charland since their appearance is consistent and they can be used for rehabilitation. Seasonally emerged, fertile charland could be used for agriculture during the pre-monsoon season.

Keywords:

• River bank erosion
• Environmental refugee
• Rehabilitation problems
• River island mapping
• Planform based approach and Delineating stable area

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).