Etymologically, Haora and Hugli districts of West Bengal owe their names from waterbodies, i.e. , Haora from haor , meaning wetland in Bengali and Hugli from the river Hooghly. These two districts, being located in the mature deltaic region of Ganga delta plain, are rich in waterways and wetland resources. Important rivers of these two adjacent districts are Hooghly, Damodar, Rupnarayan, Saraswati, Ghia, Kausiki, etc . Major wetlands of these districts include Dunkuni marsh, Rajapur jala, Amta jala, Khanan jala, Khanakul jala, Kumirmora beel, Sultanpur beel, etc. In all, Haora district has non-impounded waters like rivers, canals and beel/ baors of 3,145.46 ha and impounded water of 5,554.66 ha, while Hugli district has 11,958.44 ha and 16,268.01 ha of non-impounded and impounded waters respectively. Field observations have revealed that these two districts enjoy appreciable importance with respect to production of various items of freshwater fisheries in West Bengal which include freshwater fishes, prawns, shrimps, crabs, snails and mussels. Major carps and exotic carps are cultivated in ponds and jheels, while weed fishes, crustaceans and mollusks are naturally grown in various types of wetlands including paddy fields. These two districts also enjoy production of commercially important aquatic and amphibious plant species, such as, hogla, helenchasak, kalmisak, susnisak, thankunisak, padma, paniphal, patighas, madurkathi, shaluk, shola, kulekhara, kushghas, jundarighas, etc . Some of these plant species are cultivated in marshy areas and roadside or railway jheels to earn a living from their production and sale in West Bengal and adjoining states. These cultivated plant species are mainly grown in Haora district, viz., hogla ( Typha ) in and around Kulgachia-Birshibpur areas, padma ( Nelumbo ) in Kulgachia, Kantapukur and Deulti areas, patighas in Balarampur-Birshibpur areas, madurkathi in Garhbhabanipur-Amata areas, while paniphal (Trapa) chas and madurkathi ( Cyperus ) chas are well known in railway jheels of Kamarkundu and Munsirhat areas respectively of Hugli district. Since there is rampant reclamation and horizontal shrinkage of marshes, swamps, beels and jheels it is high time to protect these wetlands and save the livelihood of local farmers, fisherfolk and rural populace depending on these aquaresources in this part of West Bengal.

Wetlands are integral part of our environment and intimately associated with human society. Even then, there is an increasing concern particularly on conservation of wetlands as habitats for wetland biodiversity. In human society, amongst men and women, women are more concerned about environment and they play prominent role in protection and preservation of natural resources including wetland resources. It has been seen that women in rural areas are more linked with wetland resource use, care and conservation of wetlands than men. Greater domestic responsibilities make women socially and psychologically more sensitive to changes in their surroundings as well as for wise use of wetland resources than males. Their traditional gender roles bring them in daily contact with various natural resources like land, water, wetland, forest and wildlife. In the fishing sectors, both freshwater and marine, they contribute a great deal in household income generation and to the fishing economy through collecting, sorting, processing, packaging, marketing, etc . In North Eastern Indian state of Assam, foodplain wetland fisheries follow the history of traditional management wherein the role of women especially fisher women is immense in prevalent management of foodplain wetlands. In the present communication major roles of Indian women are reviewed with respect to their intimate association and concern towards utilization of wetlands and wetland resources from different states of India especially from Assam and West Bengal. Since women act as the initiators and tutors of their children, women should be involved more and more on problems and issues of our environment including wetlands so that environmental conservation particularly wetland and wetland biodiversity conservation can be achieved through their active participation.

During a recent survey to Chandipur coast (Balasore District), Odisha one of us (MR) collected a specimen of polychaete worm from the lower tidal area of the Chandipur sea beach. This specimen is 65 mm long and 7 mm wide with reddish-brown ooze adhering to the skin surface. Body is cylindrical or club-shaped anteriorly, while posterior part tapering, looking like a filiform coiled tail. Body is covered by small globular papillae. Buccal tube is very long, protrusible, cylindrical and frilled at the edge. Mouth opening is trilobed, two ventral lobes are larger than the dorsal.

The sesarmid crab Pseudosesarma edwardsii (Crustacea: Brachyura: Sesarmiidae) was described by De Man in 1887 as Sesarma edwardsii from Bengalischen Meerbusen ( = Bay of Bengal). Alcock (1900 cited from 1984, reprint edition) reported this crab from Myanmar coast, Sri Lanka, Andaman islands and Gangetic delta (without giving precise locality data).

Floodplain wetlands of West Bengal, locally known as beels, offer diverse ecological attributes and diversified faunal elements of which macrozoobenthic communities of some floodplain wetlands of river Ganga located in the districts of Maida, Murshidabad and Nadia in West Bengal have been investigated and reported in the present communication. It may be mentioned that although sotne reports (MandaI and Moitra, 1975; Sarkar, 1989, 1992; Mukherjee and Nandi, 2004; Banerjee and Banerjee, 2005) are available regarding benthos from freshwater wetlands of West Bengal, but very little is known on the benthic fauna of floodplain lakes of lower Ganga river basin of \Vest Bengal, and hence the present study. Studies on faunal resources of wetlands in West Bengal mostly pertain to southern part of West Bengal (De et a/., 1989; Ghosh, 1990; Nandi et a/., 1993, 1999, 2001a, b, 2005, 2007; Mukherjee and Nandi, 2004).

A total of 627 women who had discontinued the use of the Norplant-II implants for various reasons and were exposed to the risk of pregnancy were followed-up for two years for return of fertility. The cumulative conception rates in women who had discontinued due to planning pregnancy were 80.3 per 100 women at one year and 88.3 per 100 women at two years. The majority of women who did conceive (90 percent), had fall-term normal live births; about 4 percent of women had spontaneous abortions, the remaining 6 percent decided on elective termination of pregnancy (ETP). The cumulative conception rates in women who discontinued due to bleeding irregularities and 'other reasons' were 64.5 and 55.8 per 100 women at one year and 77.9 and 75.1 per 100 women at two years, respectively. These rates were significantly lower as compared to those observed in women who discontinued due to planning pregnancy. A large proportion, about 40 percent, of women who conceived after discontinuation of the method due to bleeding irregularities and ''other reasons,'' opted for ETP indicating that many women in these two groups,did not desire another child and that such women need to be counselled for adopting another method of contraception. The spontaneous abortion rates observed in ex-users of Norplant-II implants (1.7 to 4.4% pregnancies) were comparable to the spontaneous abortion rates prior to Norplant-II implant use (3.6% pregnancies) indicating that ex-users of Norplant-II implants were not at a higher risk of spontaneous abortion. There was no association between the pregnancy rates and either duration of Norplant-II implants use or bleeding patterns during the three months prior to discontinuation of the method in this sample. However, there was a delay in return of fertility in women aged more than 30 years as compared to those who were below the age of 30 years. The study indicates that the return of fertility was not impaired in ex-Norplant-II implant users who were planning pregnancy. In addition, those women who continued with the pregnancy until term delivered full-term normal babies in all the study groups.