MEASUREMENT OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES INDEX THROUGH RAWES OF KONNAGAR-HINDMOTOR WETLANDS, HOOGHLY, WEST BENGAL, INDIA

The Konnagar-Hindmotor wetlands, a geographically isolated inland urban wetland have significantly impacted the locals; way of life directly or indirectly by harnessing the benefits from these wetlands. People not only receive intrinsic values, or direct values, from the wetlands under investigation but also receive enormous benefits in the form of indirect benefits. Thus, the paper aims to aims to identify the Ecosystem Services (E.S) offered by these wetlands and quantify them through computation of Ecosystem Services Index. Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services (RAWES) was used to quantify the ecosystem services offered by these wetlands. The results revealed that the wetland is undergoing severe infilling and human encroachment, thereby offering moderate level of ecosystem services. This has resulted in shifting of livelihood of the stakeholders and conservation and management of these wetlands is the striking need of the hour.