Cost Benefit Analysis on Pond Ecosystem Services in Peri -Urban Area

The fast pace of urbanization is creating threat to the natural ecosystems in peri-urban areas and because of that negative impacts have been observed on the livelihood of people and other environmental services as well. Aquatic reservoirs such as ponds, streams are the first hunt of this urban expansion. As a result, agriculture is significantly affected in these areas as well as biodiversity. Therefore, the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers are not well. Now the need has arisen to study the importance of aquatic reservoirs presence peri-urban areas. Present study is based on the survey of a village people from peri-urban area of Gorakhpur district, Uttar-Pradesh, where a pond (0.55 acre area) was revived under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MNREGA). The focus of present paper is on the cost benefit analysis of ponds/wetlands located nearby peri-urban areas. A community farmer interaction was held during this study in the marked area to understand the ground reality about the existence of pond ecosystem and their benefits. On the basis of this public participation, a cost benefit ratio was derived. It was observed that people have significantly appreciated the existence of aquatic reservoirs presence in peri-urban areas.