Abandoned channels play a crucial role in global ecosystems and are extensively impacted by alterations in the climate, soil composition, topography, and human activities.The goal of this study was to assess the extent of abandoned channel degradation due to anthropogenic interventions in the Raidak River basin in the foothills of the Sub-Himalayan region, West Bengal. The total number of respondents for this research was 300 among the local inhabitants of nearby abandoned channels using purposive sampling techniques. Once the data were obtained, this study evaluated four hypotheses using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The model, SEM, created with the aid of AMOS software and SPSS, was used to assess the coupling interactions between riparian households and adjacent abandoned channels. The results showed that among four hypotheses, three hypotheses, like the constructs of crucial role, anthropogenic intervention, and economic dependency, are accepted, which depict that excessive human intervention within the abandoned channels is the main leading cause of these channels' degradation. The calculated model fitness indices are RMSEA, GFI, AGFI, CFI, TLI, NFI, and IFI, which are 0.079, 0.897, 0.839, 0.954, 0.963, 0.924, and 0.923, respectively, which indicates that the model has performed very satisfactorily. The findings serve as the foundation for the government's protection strategy, which examines efficient management strategies that support community development and sustainable management of the abandoned channels.
Alam et al. (2026) studied this question.