River Restoration Through a Social-Ecological Lense project is a bottom-up initiative, co-designed with the local community, using rigorous scientific methods of restoration ecology. The project is a novel effort towards restorating the Tamiraparani river basin in Tamil Nadu, with the intent of serving as a model for the restoration of other river systems. Taking into account culture, history, and pathways of community engagement, the project looks into the river's biodiversity and socio-hydro aspects and highlights how they relate to the community's interactions and dependence on the river. The project targets 2 villages along the river and scales up to create a network of Social-Ecological Observatories in the riverscape. The overarching aim of the project is to mobilize local community and youth groups for creating a baseline data of traditionally recognized and native indicators of riverine ecosystem health such as fish, otters and riparian flora.
Sneha Shahi is a doctoral candidate at ATREE studying rivers and their co-evolution with society.
