Wetland habitat vulnerability of lower Punarbhaba river basin of the uplifted Barind region of Indo-Bangladesh

In Barind tract of Indo-Bangladesh, wetlands hammering, alteration of permanent wetlands habitat into seasonal, seasonal into only land, etc. are extremely precise. The aim of this work is to delineate wetlands habitat vulnerability of the wetlands in Punarbhaba river basin for pre and post dam state by taking into consideration of seven influencing indicators of Pressure-State-Response model. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP)-based fuzzy logic model has been employed for producing wetlands habitat vulnerability for both pre (up to1992) and post dam (1993-present). From the produced models, out of total wetland area (222.72 km2), 9.55% and 6.47% area are under high and very high wetland habitat vulnerable zones in pre dam phases but those vulnerable area are boosted to 27.25% and 28.13% in post dam period (total wetland area: 114.72 km2). The leading vectors for growing wetlands habitat vulnerability are amplification of agriculture land, shrinking of active flood plain, lessening of flood frequency.