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Due to high urbanization rates and increasing deforestation, land degradation in the Bundelkhand region have increased, the region suffering from alternate periods of recurrent drought and high run-off rates, mainly due to the impervious nature of the topography and shallow saline soil which decreases the rate of infiltration and groundwater storage for future use. To address this situation, watershed management approaches like construction of check dams have doubled the rate of crop production and resilient farming practices have restored the ecological balance, by promoting agro-forestry and farm-forestry. Extreme development stress in the region have led to consideration for the importance of land remediation techniques, and comparing the benefits derived from certain ecosystem services, between beneficiary and control villages in Bundelkhand, using natural capital assessment techniques. The study has been established on the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) technique, based on ecosystem service valuation through a capitals approach. The present study concentrates on ecosystem service valuation through natural capital assessment, in terms of indirect ecosystem benefits derived like nutrient storage, species abundance, water resources, habitat quality, and amount of carbon stored and sequestered. In this study, land-use land-cover changes have been assessed for both control and beneficiary villages of 3 districts in Bundelkhand- Datia, Newari, and Shivpuri, in a 5 year gap between 2013 and 2018. Landsat 8 satellite imagery for 2013 and Sentinel 2 satellite imagery for 2018 have been used for analysis. Based on of ELD Methodology, apart from assessing change in land use and land cover change, an IUCN ecosystem service tool, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoff (InVEST) tool have been used to analyse the indirect economic benefits derived from ecosystem services in 2 fields- species abundance and carbon storage and sequestration. Change in Mean Species Abundance (MSA) and change in the amount of Carbon Storage and Sequestration have been assessed for both beneficiary and control villages in all 3 districts, for the time period between 2013 and 2018.
Keywords: Land Degradation, Bundelkhand, ELD, Ecosystem Service, Natural Capital, InVEST.
