Managing Keoladeo National Park: trade-offs with agriculture
Student name: Ms Ruchika Khanna
Guide: Prof Kanchan Chopra
Year of completion: 2012
Host Organisation: TERI University
Abstract: Proper management of the national parks requires cooperation of the local communities
residing around the park and depending on the resources for their livelihoods. Keoladeo
National Park in Northern India, which is designated as a Ramsar site, is facing another kind
of management problem at the moment, that of water. Under the pressure of agricultural
communities, water has been diverted to the agricultural ecosystem upstream and this has led
to shortage of water and change in the status of the park. The conflict over the use of the
waters of Panchana Dam for the park, in which upstream farmers in the command area of the
dam has staged protests, is about rapidly decreasing water supply amidst a growing number
of users. This study attempts to quantify the contribution of water to the livelihoods of people
depending on the two ecosystems i.e. Agriculture and the Wetland ecosystem of the park.
The objective is to determine where the water contributes the most. The two ecosystems need
to be analysed as constituent parts of a system linked through the supply of water in order to
analyse trade-offs between the two services. The data employed are secondary data, collected
over a period of 40 years. The problems that both the involved parties (agriculturists and
communities dependent on KNP) face are different and thus require two separate
methodologies. The DPSIR framework is used to understand the impact that water flow has
on the park whereas to understand the impact the diversion of water to the catchment have on
the welfare of the farmers can be showed with the help of the supply response model. Also,
we calculate the forecasted net income for the farmers of the catchment area and the park
stakeholders separately. This is done to see what will be the earnings of the both parties if the
similar situation prevails in terms of water availability. The results show an ecologically
highly valued region has a high economic value. Thus, it is believed that National Park
should be given attention while addressing the issue of water distribution as it doesn‘t only
protect the biodiversity but also generates livelihoods for the people.
Keywords: Ecosystem; Biodiversity; Trade-off; Stakeholders; Economic Value
