Climate Resilient Innovative Livelihoods in Indian Sundarban Delta: Scopes and Challenges

This book covers several innovative alternative livelihoods based on mangrove floral resources with their respective SWOT analysis. True mangrove flora and their associates in Indian Sundarbans are noted for their wide spectrum of ecosystem services in which livelihoods of the region are one of the most important components. Many alternative mangrove-centric livelihoods are in the pipeline of startup. However, due to difficulty in marketing and lack of clarity over ownership of natural resources, the values of the mangrove-based products have not been fully realized. Natural resources of several categories in Indian Sundarbans like oysters, seaweeds, medicinal mangrove flora, vitamin-rich mangrove fruits, etc. are still lying untapped. These untapped resources have been spun with the livelihood sectors of the Sundarban people backed up with sound business models to make the venture sustainable. The carbon foot prints associated with each of these livelihoods have been studied in details and steps have been suggested for net zero carbon livelihood programmes along with their sustainability. The book provides the readers about several mangrove-based cutting-edge researches and technologies in the domain of climate resilient livelihood, which if implemented can lead to food and economic security of the region.

Dr. Abhijit Mitra, Associate Professor and former Head, Dept. of Marine Science, University of Calcutta (INDIA) has been active in the sphere of Oceanography since 1985. He obtained his Ph.D as NET qualified scholar in 1994. Since then, he joined Calcutta Port Trust and WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature-India), in various capacities to carry out research programmes on environmental science, biodiversity conservation, climate change and carbon sequestration. Presently Dr. Mitra is serving as the Director, Research of Techno India University, West Bengal (Hony.). He has to his credit about 688 scientific publications in various National and International journals, and 60 books of postgraduate standards. Dr. Mitra is presently the member of several committees like PACON International, IUCN, SIOS, Mangrove Society of India, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences etc. and has successfully completed about 17 projects and 19 consultancies on biodiversity loss in fishery sector, coastal pollution, aquaculture, alternative livelihood, climate change and carbon sequestration. Dr. Mitra also visited as faculty member and invited speaker in several Universities of Singapore, Kenya, Oman and USA. In 2008 Dr. Mitra was invited as visiting fellow at University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, USA to deliver a series of lecture on Climate Change. Dr. Mitra also successfully guided 54 Ph.D. students. Presently his research areas include environmental science, mangrove ecology, sustainable aquaculture, alternative livelihood, climate science, carbon sequestration and blue economy.

Dr. Sufia Zaman, presently serving as Head, Department of Oceanography in Techno India University, West Bengal started her career in the field of Marine Science since 2001. She worked in the rigorous mangrove ecosystem of Indian Sundarbans and has wide range of experience in exploring the floral and faunal diversities of Sundarbans. She has published 6 books on carbon sequestration, 310 scientific papers and contributed chapters in several books on biodiversity, environmental science, aquaculture, and livelihood development. Dr. Zaman is presently a member of Fisheries Society of India. She is also running projects on carbon sequestration by mangroves of Indian Sundarbans. She is the recipient of DST Women Scientist and Jawaharlal Memorial Doctoral fellowship awards. Her areas of research include aquaculture, fish nutrition, phytoplankton diversity, climate change mangrove ecology and alternative livelihood. Dr. Zaman is also the first researcher in the maritime state of West Bengal (India), who initiated trial experiments on iron fertilization and subsequent enhancement of primary (phytoplankton) and secondary (fish) productions in the brackish water ponds of Indian Sundarbans with the financial assistance of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Dr. Zaman is also providing consultancies on green technology and emission control to several industries, NGOs, and corporate sectors.

Dr. Prosenjit Pramanick is presently holding the position of Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Oceanography, Techno India University, West Bengal. He had passed Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry in 2010 from University of Calcutta, West Bengal, and Master of Science in Biochemistry (in 2012) from Vidyasagar University, West Bengal and then obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2017 from Techno India University, West Bengal. He has to his credit about 113 scientific publications, 23 book chapters published by Springer International, Emerald Group, CSIR-NISCAIR, 2 Books, and 18 publications in conference proceedings in the sphere of Food technology, Aquaculture, Agribiotechnology, Alternative livelihood and Environmental Science. He has participated in various National and International conferences, seminars, workshops and webinars. He also served as an Associate Editor in an Inter-continental Webinar Proceedings on ＂Ecosystem Services and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG)＂ entitled ＂Natural Resources and their Ecosystem Services＂. He has expertise in water quality assessment (in situ and ex situ), food product preparation from mangrove floral species and carbon sequestration. He has served in several consultancy services on the carbon sequestration and Biodiversity assessment conducted by Konnagar Municipality, Government of West Bengal, Kingston Educational Institute, Forest Department, Government of West Bengal, TATA STEEL Ltd. Kalinganagar, Odisha, India, TATA STEEL Ltd. Noamundi Mines, Jharkhand, India and several coal-based power sectors. He also rendered his technological expertise as Research Associate in a project on innovative fish feed conducted by the Directorate of Fishery, Government of West Bengal.