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Ecology, Conservation, and Restoration of Chilika Lagoon, India

  • Offers a rich trove of information on the ecology and management of Chilika Lagoon
  • Covers institutional and governance issues, political ecology, and the Ramsar Convention’s restoration guidelines
  • Shows how a Ramsar Contracting Party can employ and benefit from provisions of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

Part of the book series: Wetlands: Ecology, Conservation and Management (WECM, volume 6)

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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
  2. Introduction

    • C. Max Finlayson, Gurdeep Rastogi, Deepak R. Mishra, Ajit K. Pattnaik
    Pages 1-6
  3. Ecological Characterization of Chilika: Defining Strategies and Management Needs for Wise Use

    • Ritesh Kumar, C. Max Finlayson, Ajit K. Pattnaik
    Pages 23-61
  4. Ecosystem Services: Implications for Managing Chilika

    • Ritesh Kumar, Ajit K. Pattnaik, C. Max Finlayson
    Pages 63-94
  5. Sedimentologic, Chemical, and Isotopic Constraints on the Anthropogenic Influence on Chilika Lake, India

    • Torsten Vennemann, Laurent Decrouy, Géraldine Bourgeois, Kelly Delavy, Michèle Ecuyer, Pauline Lange et al.
    Pages 95-113
  6. Assessment of Runoff and Sediment Yield from Selected Watersheds in the Western Catchment of the Chilika Lagoon

    • Bhabani S. Das, Priyabrata Santra, Rohit Ranjan, Hitesh B. Vasava, Rabindra Nath Samal, Ajit K. Pattnaik
    Pages 133-164
  7. Geomorphology, Land Use/Land Cover and Sedimentary Environments of the Chilika Basin

    • Rajiv Sinha, R. Chandrasekaran, Neeraj Awasthi
    Pages 231-250
  8. Spatiotemporal Assessment of Phytoplankton Communities in the Chilika Lagoon

    • Suchismita Srichandan, Gurdeep Rastogi
    Pages 251-294
  9. Fish and Fisheries of Chilika: Post-Restoration Scenario

    • Surya K. Mohanty, Debabrata Panda
    Pages 295-333
  10. Avifauna of Chilika, Odisha: Assessment of Spatial and Temporal Changes

    • S. Balachandran, Ajit K. Pattnaik, P. Gangaiamaran, Tuhina Katti
    Pages 335-363
  11. Biodiversity of Benthic Fauna in Chilika Lagoon

    • Punyasloke Bhadury, Kapuli Gani Mohamed Thameemul Ansari, Areen Sen, Vandana Kumari Gupta
    Pages 365-397
  12. Microbial Ecology of Chilika Lagoon

    • Pratiksha Behera, Madhusmita Mohapatra, Gurdeep Rastogi
    Pages 399-414
  13. Survey, Characterization, Ecology, and Management of Macrophytes in Chilika Lagoon

    • Ajit K. Pattnaik, Pratap C. Panda, Gurdeep Rastogi
    Pages 415-438
  14. Correction to: Fish and Fisheries of Chilika: Post-Restoration Scenario

    • Surya K. Mohanty, Debabrata Panda
    Pages C1-C3

About this book

This book chronicles the decades-long work of studying, analyzing, and reversing the environmental pressures that threatened India’s Chilika Lagoon, the largest brackish-water lagoon in the region, and the second largest in the world. Designated as one of India’s first Ramsar Sites in 1981, Chilika Lagoon continued to degrade for a decade longer. Then, the Chilika Development Authority (CDA) was established to gather information and devise a restoration plan that benefits the ecosystems of the lagoon, with sensitivity to the needs and livelihoods of local communities.

Expert contributors detail the work of analysis, planning and implementation, including extensive coverage of such topics as:

  •          Devising a plan for implementing Ramsar wise use guidelines
  •          Sedimentologic, chemical, and isotopic impacts
  •          Hydrodynamics and salinity
  •          Runoff and sediment in watersheds of the Lagoon's Western Catchment
  •          Long-term analysis of water quality and continued water quality monitoring
  •          Bio-optical models for cyclone impact assessment
  •          Studies of geomorphology, land use, and sedimentary environments
  •          Spatiotemporal assessment of phytoplankton communities
  •          Creation of a post-restoration scenario for fish and fisheries
  •          Assessing status of waterbirds, species diversity and migration patterns

The result was a major hydrological intervention to re-establish hydrological and salinity regimes, biodiversity, and fish catches, and help protect the livelihood of lagoon-dependent communities. The story of the rehabilitation and management of Chilika Lagoon demonstrates that it is possible to halt and reverse the encroachment and degradation of wetlands, to restore biodiversity and to provide benefits for large numbers of people.

Ecology, Conservation, and Restoration of Chilika Lagoon goes beyond scientific research articles to explore institutional and governance issues, political ecology, and the Ramsar Convention’s guidelines for ecosystem restoration. The book will benefit researchers, wetland managers, government policy makers and more general readers concerned with restoration and conservation of wetlands around the planet.



Editors and Affiliations

  • Institute for Land Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia

    C. Max Finlayson

  • Chilika Development Authority, Bhubaneswar, India

    Gurdeep Rastogi, Ajit K. Pattnaik

  • Center for Geospatial Research, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, USA

    Deepak R. Mishra

About the editors

C. Max Finlayson is an internationally renowned wetland ecologist with extensive experience internationally in water pollution, agricultural impacts, invasive species, climate change, and human well-being and wetlands. He has participated in global assessments such as those conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate  Change, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and the Global Environment Outlook 4 & 5 (UNEP). Since the early 1990s, he has been a technical adviser to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and has written extensively on wetland ecology and management. He has also been actively involved in environmental NGOs and from 2002 to 2007 was president of the governing council of global NGO Wetlands International. He has contributed to over 450 journal articles, reports, guidelines, proceedings, and book chapters on wetland ecology and  management and to the development of concepts and methods for wetland inventory, assessment, and  monitoring and undertaken many site-based assessments in many countries. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Marine and Freshwater Research published by CSIRO Publishing and of the book series Wetland, Ecology, Conservation and Management published by Springer. 

Gurdeep Rastogi is working as a Senior Scientist at the Wetland Research and Training Centre (WRTC) of the Chilika Development Authority (CDA). He has received his PhD in the area of Environmental Microbiology from the National Centre for Cell Sciences, Pune, in the year 2006. He has completed his postdoctoral research at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and the University of California, Davis, USA. He is currently heading the molecular ecological research at WRTC, a nodal lab of CDA which has been entrusted with the responsibility of managing the Chilika Lake by the Odisha State Government. His research area is focussed on understanding the microbial biogeography andfunctions in coastal systems with special emphasis on bacteria, archaea, and phytoplankton. Over the past 15 years, he has published more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed international journals which have been well cited by the scientific communities, worldwide. He is an active reviewer for many international journal published by Springer and Elsevier.

Deepak R. Mishra is a Professor of Geography at the University of Georgia, Athens. His research interests are mainly in the area of remote sensing and satellite image processing as applied to inland and coastal environments. His specific interests are water quality, wetlands biophysical characteristics including gross primary productivity, carbon sequestration potential, application of big data in environmental informatics, and cyber-physical systems research. He completed his PhD in Natural Resources from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He has published numerous papers in various high-impact international journals and book chapters, presented his research in many national and international meetings, edited special issues and books, and received external grants from various federal agencies. He currently serves on the editorial board of GIScience & Remote Sensing. He is an associate editor of the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and a senior associate editor of Remote Sensing and coeditor of Southeastern Geographer.

 Ajit K. Pattnaik as the former chief executive of Chilika Development Authority, headed the most successful project of restoration and sustainable management of Chilika Lake for 16 years. He completed his PhD in the “Characterization of Phytodiversity of Chilika Lake” from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. Chilika was removed from the Montreux Record in 2002, due to the successful ecological restoration. He has 37 years of varied professional experience in the management and restoration of coastal ecosystems, climate change, and disaster management. He has extensive experience in project formulation, planning, management, wetland restoration, ecotourism, and water and community development projects. Presently, he is a consultant to the World Bank and UNDP and holds the position of the vice president of Wetlands International South Asia. He is a member of several international and national scientific and technical committees and has published over 100 scientific articles. He is also member of the expert advisory panel of journal Lakes & Reservoirs: Science, Policy and Management for Sustainable Use published by Wiley.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access