A Decision Support System (DSS)on bio-drainage for reclamation of salt affected and waterlogged lands was developed using Visual Basic (VB) protocols. The DSS permits the user to interactively enter input information viz., the area available for plantation, average annual rainfall, initial and desired water table depth, soil type and the plantation type.

A decision support system was developed for reclamation and management of alkali soils. The decision support system identified different reclamation and management techniques as land levelling, gypsum requirement and its addition, cultivation of tolerant crops, cultural practices, afforestation, groundwater recharge, groundwater use and surface drainage.

The present work examines the changing notion of wastelands and contested rights over it in
Assam in the last 200 years. As the East India Company gradually became aware of this
region, they expressed their serious interest in the wastelands. The initial intervention took
place with the discovery of tea plants in Assam, and the Company administration began to
lease out such lands to the European planters. During the 1830s and 1870s, a significant
amount of such lands was transferred to the planters. It was from the 1870s that the newly

Crude oil is of organic origin and is an extremely complex structure of hydrocarbons. Besides carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur many other elements are present in crude oil. In oil fields, during drilling, gathering, transporting or in some other operations, some quantity of the crude oil gets spilled over the neighboring areas. The spilled crude oil affects the bio-chemical nature of the soil. As a result no vegetation occurs in those areas. Therefore, a study was made with an objective to revive the soil condition for vegetation development.

Poor management of irrigation water and inadequate drainage system in plains have made vast tracts of agricultural land unproductive due to waterlogging and high moisture content. Integrated development of such waterlogged ecosystem has been taken up under NWDPRA (National Watershed Develpoment Project for Rainfed Areas) with the twin objectives of sustainable production of food, fruit, fuel and bio-mass and restoration of ecological balances with the watershed.

The hot arid regions of India in economically and environmentally disadvantaged part of the country with unique problems. These, ecosystems are highly fragile and large liabilities causing severe impediments in development programmes.

Mangroves, although have unique ecological characteristics and multifarious uses are in a very much degraded state. In Orissa, except Bhitarkanika, the small patches of mangroves which are available along the coastal track are considered as the relics of a glorious past when thousands hectare of land was covered with mangroves.

Land degradation is as a result of broad range of scales and factors, which include biophysical, climatic, demographic and socio-economic. The aim of this paper was to provide an analysis of wetland utilisation, ecosystem degradation and their effect on the Lake Victoria (Kenya) ecosystem. This involved analysis of socioeconomic and remote sensed data. The main sources of wetland degradation in the Lake Victoria basin were identified as (1) farming activities, (2) grazing and macrophyte harvesting and (3) coupled with catchment degradation-deforestation.