Abstract With the deterioration of tropical forests, the loss of species, their habitat and linked socio-ecological degradation is regrettably becoming widespread. Although having their own contribution to sustainable development separately, the linkages between wetlands and forests exemplify the importance of managing ecosystems in their entirety to protect their ecological character and related ecosystem services (ES) that are vital to human activity. To explore the role of ecorestoration efforts within forest-wetland ecosystem in conserving biodiversity and maintaining the sustained flow of ES, the multi-decadal recovery of a degraded landscape of Gurguripal forest, West Bengal, India, was tracked with the help of geospatial technology and field surveys of biodiversity and socio-ecological bonds. To evidence the noticeable recovery of the study site over 25 years remote sensing (RS) techniques were used to track forest type and land use land cover (LULC) changes over time, together with an ecological monitoring at site of the sal dominated tropical deciduous forest and the created wetland ecosystems using ground truth data on vegetation, floral and faunal diversity, physicochemical parameters of water and soil, etc. and socio-ecological survey do depict existing ecosystem services (ES) of these ecosystems. The study confirms positive effects of watershed management initiated by the Forest Department, Government of West Bengal, involving local people ultimately causing reduction in the proportion of degraded land and an increase in green coverage that has been strikingly manifested through retaining surface water. In spite of the lower incidence of terrestrial fauna inside the core of secondary forest with respect to fringe areas, the wetlands, so formed, not only serve as vital perennial water sources in this drought-prone lateritic tract and enrich aquatic biodiversity, but also multifariously multiply the value of ES in this otherwise degrading piece of land.