Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Open Access Master's Report

Degree Name

Master of Science in Environmental Engineering Science (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering

Advisor 1

Robert M. Handler

Committee Member 1

Valoree Gagnon

Committee Member 2

Brian D. Barkdoll

Abstract

In West Bengal, India, the highest fish-consuming state in the country, fish are woven into everyday life, including ceremonies of birth and marriage, prayers offered during harvesting and the cultural memory of communities whose identities are inseparable from aquatic life. However, the rivers, wetlands, and ponds that sustain these fish-human relationships are increasingly threatened by environmental contamination resulting from industrial discharge, agricultural runoff, and inadequate environmental management. Understanding how communities perceive these environmental changes is essential for developing effective conservation and public health strategies.

In collaboration between the Indian Institute of Technology (ITT) Kharagpur, India, and Michigan Technological University (USA), we conducted a mixed-methods survey to examine how Bengali communities perceive, experience, and respond to contamination. Drawing from quantitative and open-ended qualitative responses, 125 adults across 21 of West Bengal's 23 districts, over 80% of respondents are concerned about water contamination; 54% have directly observed disease conditions in fish; 47% report declining native species; and 82% believe fish are capable of experiencing pain. Only 14% receive environmental information from government sources, compared to 56% who rely on newspapers. These findings indicate a substantial gap between community observations and formal environmental communication.

Situating findings within frameworks of hydrosocial systems, environmental governance, and relational fish ethics, this paper makes three contributions: it provides the first mixed-methods community perception study of fish justice in West Bengal; it demonstrates that perception-based survey data constitutes legitimate primary evidence of environmental harm; and it extends the responsibilized citizenship framework to a Global South, fish-dependent governance context. We argue that Bengali communities constitute a sophisticated environmental early warning system and that the gap between what communities know and what institutions acknowledge reflects responsibilized citizenship: a governance logic in which the state transfers the burden of managing environmental harm onto the communities most exposed.

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