Consequences of Koshi flood 2008 in terms of sedimentation characteristics and agricultural practices

Abstract

Background: Koshi flood of August 2008 in eastern lowlands of Nepal affected around 2.64 million people in India and Nepal, including 65,000 people and 700 ha fertile land in Nepal. It was calculated that 25% of the affected cultivated land of Shreepur, Haripur and western Kushaha villages in Sunsari district are still barren and remain filled with flood sediment of sizes from clay to sand even after 8 years. The issues of land change from fertile to barren because of flooding and characteristics of the sediments in terms of cultivation are the foci of this research. Results: Field measurement and information from questionnaire survey showed that the depth of the flood sediment are highly variable in impacted zones. They are divided into central red, red, yellow and green zones as per the thickness of the sediments. The sediments from sieve analysis has also shown that the degree of fineness is greater towards the green zones and texture has shown function of distance : T = f (d). The average thickness varies from 0.10 m in green zone to 4.5 m in central red zone in new channel area of the flood. The crop yield is also 50-75% greater in green zones than in the other zones. Changing in cultivation practice from traditional crops to cash crops have increased income up to 200-300% in the aggraded land. Changing in cultivation practices and removing layer of flood sediment in shallow sedimentation area are the major overcomes against the flood sediments.

Analysing the Environmental Values and Attitudes of Rural Nepalese Children by Validating the 2-MEV Model

“…I enjoy sitting beside a river. [32,34,37,42,56] I especially love the soft rustling of leaves when the wind blows through the treetops.…”

“…I enjoy hearing the soft rustling of leaves when the wind blows through the trees. [34,37] People have the right to change the environment (nature).…”

“…There are different ways to determine a suitable number of components. However, the items which were used in this survey demonstrated two distinct components in their original 2-MEV Scale studies [32,34,37,42,43,56].…”

“…However, these studies were conducted in developed and industrialised countries. Milfont and Duckitt [37] point out that the bi-dimensionality of environmental attitude might not be as distinct in developing countries as observed because the macrosocial and macro-economic variables can influence the psychological constructs. They refer to Corral-Verdugo and Armendáriz's [41] findings of high covariance between the pro-human exception and the pro-environmental exception in Mexico.…”

“…However, Milfont and Duckitt [37] successfully conducted an analysis and theoretical discussion to validate the two-dimensional construct of environmental values, thus strengthening the new construct of environmental values [36].…”