Peat and Peatlands Research in India: A Review on Present Status and Future Prospects

Energy security and environmental sustainability are now crucial strategies for emerging countries like India. Peat is a versatile geo-material that can serve as a fossil energy source and industrial raw material used in horticulture/agriculture, but also as an archive of geological and palaeoenvironmental records. At the same time, peatlands globally play a critical role in carbon storage, water regulation and biodiversity. Peatlands in Southeast Asian countries (primarily Indonesia and Malaysia) are extensively studied, but in India peatland is a relatively obscure ecosystem and one of the least studied geological environments. This review aims to summarise the peat and peatland research that has been done so far in India. We find that peatlands have been studied in parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. However, India has no centralised comprehensive database on peatlands. In fact, the study and inventory of peatlands in India remains significantly under-developed in terms of global standards, resulting in limited availability of information about the locations, extent and characteristics of these ecosystems. Active development of peat and peatlands research in India could benefit carbon storage and climate regulation bodies, water storage and supply organisations, biodiversity conservation agencies, flood control and prevention agencies, fish farming and agriculture, as well as the energy sector.