Abstract

This paper makes an attempt to identifyand analyse the factors that influence the householduse of wetlands in West Bengal, India. Three wetlandswere selected from three physiographically distinctregions of West Bengal, which are used by localpeople for multiple purposes. Logit and Tobit modelsare used for the identification of the factors explaininghousehold dependency on wetland. The results indicatethat there is spatial difference in the mode andextent of use of wetland resources across the threewetlands. Households belonging to poor, landless,lower social caste, and low education level are morelikely to use wetland resources compared to theircounterparts. Households having larger family size arelikely to extract bigger amounts of wetland products.However, upper caste households have more access tothe wetlands for irrigation. The results indicate thatwetland plays a vital role for the livelihood ofmarginalized sections of the community. Therefore,it is needed to device appropriate policy for equitabledistribution of the benefits of the wetlands amongdifferent sections of the society.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11273-015-9420-8