LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY OF THE PAMPA RIVERINE ECOSYSTEM

Rivers from their early existence have played a significant role in molding the development of a region. They provide water to quench thirst, fertilize lands and a means of transportation of goods and services. They also provide a habitat to many living organisms, from planktons to fin and shell fishes. Thus as an ecosystem, rivers have an incredible role to play in maintaining ecological balance. River channels comprise only a small part of a landscape, yet their environmental and economic significance far outweighs their biological value. River systems are recognized to have a number of values, including intrinsic, economic, cultural and aesthetic values. They have economic value in so far as they are scarce and capable of generating human welfare. Failure to account for the ecological and economic value of river systems has led to patterns of economic use with many detrimental environmental consequences. In spite of the environmental, ecological, cultural, social and religious importance of the Pampa riverine ecosystem, it is one of the most congested and polluted rivers in south India. Over the years, its landscape ecology has changed. Sewage and Industrial effluents, deforestation in the upper catchment areas of the river, sand mining from the river beds (Padmalal, Maya, Sreebha, & Sreeja, 2008), reclamation and construction activities on the river banks have all contributed to changes in the landscape ecology of the Pamba. Increased influx of pilgrims has indirectly influenced the anthropogenic intervention on the ecosystem. Unless the total economic value of an ecosystem is monetarily recognized, it will never be protected. Policy decisions are most frequently determined on the basis of economic criteria. Yet, it is widely acknowledged that market transactions provide an incomplete picture of the total economic value of any ecosystem. Ecosystem benefits which are not normally exchanged in markets (e.g. flood control, breeding grounds, optional use, existence use etc.) are generally ignored in decision-making. Stakeholders use an ecosystem partially, hence they always tend to undervalue it. Undervaluation introduces inherent distortions to efficient resource allocation and policy decisions regarding ecosystem use. This shapes land use patterns and decisions that change the landscape ecology of a system. Its wholistic value is rarely recognized until the entire system is irrevocably and irreversibly degraded. In order to improve the efficiency of resource allocation two steps are necessary: an estimation of the total economic values of services provided by an ecosystem and the design of appropriate mechanisms to capture the estimated economic values so that they are internalized in policy decisions. The total economic value of a river ecosystem cannot be accurately estimated since many of the functions it performs do not have a market to value them. Thus, people’s value perception of the landscape ecology of a river ecosystem has a great role to play in how the ecosystem is perceived, protected and how its landscape ecology evolves over the years. Greater the value perception, smaller will be the number of unsustainable intrusions and modifications to the ecosystem.