444
M. Goswami and S. Nautiyal
influence area have access to piped water supply, which is provided under National
Rural Drinking Water Supply Mission.
Open defecation is still highly prevalent in the landscape; instead of governments’
programme like Total Sanitation Campaign, Swacch Bharat low urban impact villages, majority of people do not have access to toilet. In all the three sections of the
landscape, the households have a gradual increase in access to toilet over the decades,
yet the present percentage of households accessing sanitation facility is only 58%.
The same is distributed as 70%, 75% and 23% in high, medium and low urban influence areas respectively. It is much lower than the households having toilets within the
premises for the Guwahati Municipal Development Area, which is more than 85%.
The studied households use fuelwood and LPG the most as their cooking fuel with
an exception of seven families using kerosene and biogas in the last two decades. In
the present days and the last decade, the households are using LPG, fuelwood and a
combination of LPG and fuelwood. Fuelwood is used by 42% and 40% in high and
medium urban impact areas respectively. Combination of LPG and fuelwood is used
in medium and high urban impact areas as 30% and 33%.
(d) Agriculture and urban resource flow
Bunting (2007), Johanna et al. (2009), Agrawal et al. (2003), Brook et al. (2001) and
others have focused on studies related to peri-urban agriculture in India with special
reference to waste water use in agriculture and aquaculture, pollutant residues in
food products, impact of air pollution, food security and livelihood enhancement
in peri-urban areas of various cities in India. Study in fringe areas of Delhi reveals
that although the villagers have been exposed to prolonged urban influences, land
continues to be an integral part of their lives specially in terms of acquiring their
livelihoods (Mallik and Sen 2011). The peri-urban areas of sprawling cities experience significant land transformation, due to expansion of the urban core contained
within their boundaries (Dutta 2012). The studies also reveal different processes and
levels of urban influences that manifest significant social impact with prominent
temporal variation. The pressure of urbanization has been felt more by agricultural
land than natural land. This may be because of the cost of conversion in terms of
clearing of forests, filling up of water bodies and so on. Conversion of natural land
is higher than that of agricultural land because of the drive to conserve natural areas
(Kumar 2009) and further affect on land ownership, property rights regime and land
tenure (Wehrmann 2008).
Urbanization produces a variety of unprecedented and intense “experimental
manipulations,” potentially undermine the capacity of ecosystem to sustain production and maintain the resources (Foley et al. 2005). This leads to intensive use of
resources to serve the growing urban demand, for instance, small area of land would
be used for intensive cultivation for crops with market demand instead of subsistence
farming. Studies demonstrate farmers are dependent and threatened by the dynamics
of broader urban economy (Friedberg 2001).
Decrease in households’ landholdings, diversification of livelihoods and decrease
in income contribution from natural resources have been evident in the study area.
Previous analysis shows 50% of total land area of the landscape was converted
M. Goswami and S. Nautiyal
influence area have access to piped water supply, which is provided under National
Rural Drinking Water Supply Mission.
Open defecation is still highly prevalent in the landscape; instead of governments’
programme like Total Sanitation Campaign, Swacch Bharat low urban impact villages, majority of people do not have access to toilet. In all the three sections of the
landscape, the households have a gradual increase in access to toilet over the decades,
yet the present percentage of households accessing sanitation facility is only 58%.
The same is distributed as 70%, 75% and 23% in high, medium and low urban influence areas respectively. It is much lower than the households having toilets within the
premises for the Guwahati Municipal Development Area, which is more than 85%.
The studied households use fuelwood and LPG the most as their cooking fuel with
an exception of seven families using kerosene and biogas in the last two decades. In
the present days and the last decade, the households are using LPG, fuelwood and a
combination of LPG and fuelwood. Fuelwood is used by 42% and 40% in high and
medium urban impact areas respectively. Combination of LPG and fuelwood is used
in medium and high urban impact areas as 30% and 33%.
(d) Agriculture and urban resource flow
Bunting (2007), Johanna et al. (2009), Agrawal et al. (2003), Brook et al. (2001) and
others have focused on studies related to peri-urban agriculture in India with special
reference to waste water use in agriculture and aquaculture, pollutant residues in
food products, impact of air pollution, food security and livelihood enhancement
in peri-urban areas of various cities in India. Study in fringe areas of Delhi reveals
that although the villagers have been exposed to prolonged urban influences, land
continues to be an integral part of their lives specially in terms of acquiring their
livelihoods (Mallik and Sen 2011). The peri-urban areas of sprawling cities experience significant land transformation, due to expansion of the urban core contained
within their boundaries (Dutta 2012). The studies also reveal different processes and
levels of urban influences that manifest significant social impact with prominent
temporal variation. The pressure of urbanization has been felt more by agricultural
land than natural land. This may be because of the cost of conversion in terms of
clearing of forests, filling up of water bodies and so on. Conversion of natural land
is higher than that of agricultural land because of the drive to conserve natural areas
(Kumar 2009) and further affect on land ownership, property rights regime and land
tenure (Wehrmann 2008).
Urbanization produces a variety of unprecedented and intense “experimental
manipulations,” potentially undermine the capacity of ecosystem to sustain production and maintain the resources (Foley et al. 2005). This leads to intensive use of
resources to serve the growing urban demand, for instance, small area of land would
be used for intensive cultivation for crops with market demand instead of subsistence
farming. Studies demonstrate farmers are dependent and threatened by the dynamics
of broader urban economy (Friedberg 2001).
Decrease in households’ landholdings, diversification of livelihoods and decrease
in income contribution from natural resources have been evident in the study area.
Previous analysis shows 50% of total land area of the landscape was converted