552
N. Roy et al.
wherein inadequate rain threatens the water table to go down thereby increasing the
salinity level that would potentially affect not only the cropping pattern but also the
quality of product. In the following chapter, Abirami and Kumar (Chapter “Spatial
Shift in Chickpeas in India: Role of Climatic Factors”) used the example of chickpea
to explain the role of climatic factors in spatial shift in cropping pattern in India.
The major challenges of twenty-first century is to address the critical issues like
mitigation of climate change effect, sustainable natural resource utilization for sustainable socio-ecological and economic development of people and biodiversity conservation. There is an urgent need to identify the key mechanisms underpinning
climate change impacts on the complex socio-ecological systems in India. India is
home to two important global biodiversity hotspots namely the Himalaya and the
Western Ghats. These hotspots are important not only for biodiversity but also for
about 300 million people living over there and many more residing in adjacent plains.
The livelihood of the people in biodiversity hotspots centered on the land use and
the resource availability and found to be highly climate sensitive. For climate smart
livelihood and sustainable socio-ecological development, sensible use of available
land, water, and forest resource in biodiversity rich areas is of paramount importance.
In this perspective very limited work is available in the biodiversity hotspots.
In a developing country like India, where still more than two lakhs villages are
forest villages the development cannot be compensated with present day concept of
total conservation of natural resources. Therefore, evaluation of the socio-ecological
systems and assessment of ecosystem services would enable the stakeholders to propose the win-win solutions for development and conservation. Variety of factors are
responsible for influencing the dynamic relations between humans and ecosystems
for the sustenance in natural resource rich areas. IPCC latest report has indicated that
the climate change has become one of the major drivers that have impacted the socioecological systems of bio-diversity rich areas. Thus there is a need for developing
scientifically proven strategies for resource conservation, their sustainable utilization in order to provide long term socio-ecological sustainability to the biodiversity
hotspots. To understand this, in-depth study in selected study regions of biodiversity
hotspots will be undertaken to understand the resource availability, resource requirement, and resource utilization for sustainable socio-ecological development in the
hotspots. The temporal change pattern will be assessed for measuring the sustainable
flow of resources in the landscapes.
Lot of studies/reports are available at regional, national and global level that deals
with climate smart livelihoods and socio-ecological development. However, for a
country like India where diversity in nature, people, culture, land use, resources,
practices, languages, societies, development and the many different perspectives
exist, the studies which mostly cover the national status are not going to propose the
sound approaches for the people and landscape of various agro-climatic regions of
the country. Unfortunately, there is no such dynamic orchestrated model for various
agro-climatic regions in India as a ready reference that could have been able to help
develop the understanding of impact of various factors (for example climate change,
population growth, unsustainable resource utilization, socio-economic and sociocultural changes and many others) on landscape—i.e. biodiversity, socio-economic,
N. Roy et al.
wherein inadequate rain threatens the water table to go down thereby increasing the
salinity level that would potentially affect not only the cropping pattern but also the
quality of product. In the following chapter, Abirami and Kumar (Chapter “Spatial
Shift in Chickpeas in India: Role of Climatic Factors”) used the example of chickpea
to explain the role of climatic factors in spatial shift in cropping pattern in India.
The major challenges of twenty-first century is to address the critical issues like
mitigation of climate change effect, sustainable natural resource utilization for sustainable socio-ecological and economic development of people and biodiversity conservation. There is an urgent need to identify the key mechanisms underpinning
climate change impacts on the complex socio-ecological systems in India. India is
home to two important global biodiversity hotspots namely the Himalaya and the
Western Ghats. These hotspots are important not only for biodiversity but also for
about 300 million people living over there and many more residing in adjacent plains.
The livelihood of the people in biodiversity hotspots centered on the land use and
the resource availability and found to be highly climate sensitive. For climate smart
livelihood and sustainable socio-ecological development, sensible use of available
land, water, and forest resource in biodiversity rich areas is of paramount importance.
In this perspective very limited work is available in the biodiversity hotspots.
In a developing country like India, where still more than two lakhs villages are
forest villages the development cannot be compensated with present day concept of
total conservation of natural resources. Therefore, evaluation of the socio-ecological
systems and assessment of ecosystem services would enable the stakeholders to propose the win-win solutions for development and conservation. Variety of factors are
responsible for influencing the dynamic relations between humans and ecosystems
for the sustenance in natural resource rich areas. IPCC latest report has indicated that
the climate change has become one of the major drivers that have impacted the socioecological systems of bio-diversity rich areas. Thus there is a need for developing
scientifically proven strategies for resource conservation, their sustainable utilization in order to provide long term socio-ecological sustainability to the biodiversity
hotspots. To understand this, in-depth study in selected study regions of biodiversity
hotspots will be undertaken to understand the resource availability, resource requirement, and resource utilization for sustainable socio-ecological development in the
hotspots. The temporal change pattern will be assessed for measuring the sustainable
flow of resources in the landscapes.
Lot of studies/reports are available at regional, national and global level that deals
with climate smart livelihoods and socio-ecological development. However, for a
country like India where diversity in nature, people, culture, land use, resources,
practices, languages, societies, development and the many different perspectives
exist, the studies which mostly cover the national status are not going to propose the
sound approaches for the people and landscape of various agro-climatic regions of
the country. Unfortunately, there is no such dynamic orchestrated model for various
agro-climatic regions in India as a ready reference that could have been able to help
develop the understanding of impact of various factors (for example climate change,
population growth, unsustainable resource utilization, socio-economic and sociocultural changes and many others) on landscape—i.e. biodiversity, socio-economic,