Attitudinal behaviour of urban habitations towards ecosystem services in north western Himalayas

The importance of ecosystem services and its economics is well formed and emphasized by studies which can built correlation towards bridging the connection in terms of value behind and attitude towards the ecosystems surrounding urban areas. In the present study, assessed the attitudinal behaviour and perceptions of urban habitations towards ecosystem services through questionnaire surveys in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh which is a hilly state of India situated in North western Himalayas. The sample areas were selected using survey conducted in Kangra district with a sample size of 180 respondents. Among the respondents, majority (71.11%) were in favour of non-payment for ecosystem services, whereas, only (28.89%) had shown their concern for payment. The 80.56% was aware about the importance of ecosystem services to environment. Among the six kinds of ecosystem services the highest was above Rs. 2000 per year for water conservation (46.15%) followed by Pollution decomposition (19.23%), soil retention (13.46%), Biodiversity conservation (11.53%), Carbon fixation (05.76%) and the lowest was Rs.400 per year per year for aesthetic existence (03.84%). The results illustrated the top limit of payments was Rs 2000 per year per capita, and people were willing to pay Rs. 426 per year per capita for water conservation, which was the highest among the six ecosystem services. Regarding the un-willingness the major was the low house hold income followed by that it was the duty of Government.