Environment and Forestry

The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been a tourist paradise from times because of its pleasant climate, typical flora and fauna and the beauty of its natural landscape. Gulmarg – a majestic hill station in the district Baramulla of Jammu and Kashmir nestled with stunning peaks in the Himalayan ranges offers tremendous opportunities for research. Keeping in view the importance and usefulness of Gulmarg Wildlife Sanctuary, it was thought necessary to conduct preliminary studies on the spider community of the Gulmarg wildlife sanctuary in order to assess the diversity and distribution of spiders at four sites during the months of May, June, July, October & December 2012. The spider community was found to be represented by 18 taxa. Araneidae was dominant family followed by Lycosidae, Linyphiidae, Pholcidae, Salticidae, Sparassidae and Clubionidae. Differences in vegetation cover or human use showed variation in diversity and composition of spiders between different sites. Forest sites showed relatively higher diversity as compared to meadow sites.

The effectiveness of mitigation in EIA is vital in preventing adverse environmental impacts thus ensuring sustainable development. However, while EIA has been embedded within the development planning processes in many countries, successful implementation has not been evident in developing countries. Despite EIA being carried out on most development projects there still remains the challenge of implementation of EIA mitigation measures. It’s for this reason that the study evaluates level of implementation of mitigation measures for the selected projects and the utility of EIA mitigation conceptual model in enhancing the effectiveness of mitigation in EIA. A cross-sectional design was adopted to collect and analyse data. Data from thirty (30) EIA reports conducted between 1999 and 2016 were purposively sampled to provide information about the quality of EIA reports in terms implementation proposed mitigation measures. The modified EIS quality review package and mitigation guidelines were used to gather and grade the quality of EIA reports in terms of the impacts and mitigation measures. Regarding the practical implementation of mitigation measures proposed in the reviewed EIA reports, three purposively selected EIA projects, environmental managers, local communities surrounding them and field observations provided the required data. The key findings reveal that the level of mitigation implementation in EIA was partly implemented. Among the six mitigation measures projected, the proponent implemented fully two mitigation measures only relating to impact on land use and impact on soils. The other four mitigation measures relating to air quality and noise pollution control, health and safety, solid waste management and social and economic impacts were implemented partly. The findings of the three projects reveal that mitigation measures are inadequately implemented. The study concluded that EIA reports had shortcomings in impact identification and implementation of mitigation measures. The study recommended that active public participation of local communities can make the implementation of mitigation measures effective.

Each culture has an environmental code to maintain a harmonious relationship between man and nature ensuring the well-being, and material and cultural enrichment of the society. With the entry of industrialism and consumerism, man has become a factor of production and nature a resource only to be exploited for meeting man’s never ending greed. Also, Science and technology has placed an enormous power in the hands of man and this in turn is posing a threat to the different moral codes of conduct of human beings which directly or indirectly are responsible for the environmental degradation. Kohima district of Nagaland which is located in the north eastern most part of India is the home of the Angami tribe, and has a sub-tropical climatic condition. The Angami tribe lies between the border of Manipur state in the south towards the north of Rengma tribe and also spreads along the west towards Dimapur District National Highway 39 passing through Kohima and going towards Imphal in Manipur, cuts across the higher slopes of Japfii range and transverses the entire area under study roughly in north-south direction whereas National Highway 61 passes along the north direction connecting the northern Angami region with the town and also with the rest of the district making the region an easy prey to any cultural and socio-economic changes. Consequently, sustainable environmental ethics which the different communities of the region were equipped with for protecting the environment in the past are now losing ground in this rapid changing world. Sensing the danger ahead, the present study is an attempt to evaluate the precious environmental ethics which protect the region environment and the reasons responsible for the loosening of the grip of environmental ethics in the region.

This paper discusses the effectiveness of strategies used by rural municipalities in recovering service consumer debts. The choice of Thulamela municipality was informed by increases in municipal service consumer debts as a result of inadequate collection of rates and taxes. Unemployment, lack of enforcement of debt and credit policy issues was among the challenges for the municipality. A municipal service consumer debt recovery survey approach was used to unpack the challenges. The municipality uses an ad hoc debt recovery process instead of a holistic approach. The study outlines lessons to be learnt from the Thulamela experience for decision makers at local municipal level.

The main aim of this study was to determiner modeling and sensitivity analysis of rice production based on energy inputs and farm sizes using artificial neural networks in Guilan province of Iran. For this purpose the initial date were collected from 120 rice farmers by a face-to-face questionnaire in Astaneh Ashrafiyeh city of Guilan province of Iran. Total energy consumption and output energy was 51430 and 66387 MJ ha-1, respectively. Diesel fuel with 44.61% had the highest energy use among all of the inputs. Medium farms had the best condition in three group sizes from average of total energy consumption point of view. The Levenberg-Marquardt Learning Algorithm was trained for calculation of prediction models for rice yield based energy inputs and area. The results of the ANN model revealed the 12-13-1 structure belonged to the best topology with highest R2 and lowest RMSE and MAPE. The rate of R2, RMSE and MAPE was computed as 0.972, 0.153 and 0.007, respectively. With respect to sensitivity analysis human labor had the highest sensitivity with 0.311. It indicates that using an additional of 1 MJ either for human labor or seed energy would result in increasing the yield by 0.311 and 0.286 kg, respectively.

Geothermal energy can be used for power generation using thermocouple. In this technology the emission of greenhouse gases has been minimized to zero as compared to 5-7% in geothermal energy by drilling method. The chances of occurring earthquake in thermocouple are limited as compared to drilling method. The results indicate that the temperature ranges from 80-90 0C during the experiment performed under the laboratory condition. It is equal to the approximation recordings from the geo-thermal natural springs. Down fall observed in-between the noon time for the output voltage this is due to rise in the surrounding temperature cause the effects on the performance of the heat sink used. During the noon the mean temperature of the surrounding increase to 40-50 0C, hence mean temperature difference between the source and sink decrease which further causing decrease in the output voltage.

The increasing municipal solid waste (MSW) generation along with the high fraction of organic and other types of wastes is the current scenario in many tourist resorts of Kashmir valley in India. As a response to this problem, we carried out a study on the municipal solid waste (MSW) generation between May 2010 and 2011 in Yusmarg area, of the valley. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quantity, composition and sources of wastes generated to recommend appropriate management practices. The study was based on three sites with marked differences in their physical and biotic features. The pattern of generation of municipal solid wastes (MSW) during the study showed a marked seasonal variation. The maximum average net weight of wastes was observed at site 2 (7.86 Kg/day), while as minimum was observed at site 3 (2.55 Kg/day). Among the constituents of wastes the net weight (%) was dominated by Food wastes (41.23%) followed by cardboard (15.28%), glass (11.16%) and rubber & Leather (0.17%) at all sites. Further analysis showed that the maximum Total Net Weight (46.25 Kg/Day) was contributed by recyclable wastes followed by (33.33 Kg/Day) compostable wastes, 2.57 Kg/Day by combustible wastes and 0.7 Kg/Day by inert materials. These insights into generated waste and management practice in Yusmarg health resort allow making suggestions for improved collection and disposal methods. A primary conclusion is that the biodegradable waste is a major fraction having suitable properties for recycling.

The Ganges basin is the largest river basin of India. It is one of the geologically youngest and tectonically active drainage regimes of the world. The sediment load of the basin consist of fine sand, silt and clay and mineral assemblage is dominated by quartz, feldspars, illite and kaolinite. For the present study of Ganges river basin middle Gngetic plain was chosen because of its immense cultural and economic significance. It covers the Bihar plain and entire Eastern Uttar Pradesh on either side of Ganges and Ghaghara rivers within Himalaya and peninsular ramparts on the north and south respectively. The sediment samples were collected from three locations, viz., upstream at Varanasi, midstream at Ghzipur and downstream at Patna, twice once in pre-monsoon period (April, 1999) and other in post-monsoon period (October, 1999). The sediments were analyzed to understand the distribution and biogeochemistry of C, N and P. The Organic Carbon (Corg) was found to be decreasing with depth due to the age of the sediment and extent of anaerobic decomposition. The post-monsoon concentrations were lower than pre-monsoon due to conducive environment for decomposition of organic matter. Total Carbon (Ctotal) was found to be comparable at all these three locations. The substantial part of Ctotal is found to be inorganic in origin. Nitrogen contents were very low decreasing with the depth due to mineralization of organic matter, as more than 90 % of nitrogen is organic in nature. Phosphorous content in all these three locations were comparable. The phosphorus content was decreasing with the depth due desorption of Fe-bound phosphorous under anaerobic condition formed by burial and compaction of the sediments. A distinct spatial pattern was obtained in the distribution of phosphorous. Corg/N ratio was found to be increasing with depth by mobilization and leaching out of nitrogen, due to its mineralization.

Nagaland lies in the extreme North-East corner of India at the confluence of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. For centuries, community fishing has played an indispensable and integral role in the social, cultural and religious life of the Naga. The community fishing also symbolizes a close interdependence between man and environment and demonstrates the sustainable use of resources with clear understanding of the eco-centric approach. The proposed paper tries to draw light on the cultural lives, practices and deep ecological understanding of the Ao Naga while sustainably utilizing the resources from their environment which is demonstrated through community fishing.

Abstract Tribal communities have rich knowledge about medicinal plants and its uses. The traditional livelihood system of tribal people (also known as adivasis) has been based on shifting cultivation and collection of edible forest produce. The area is hilly and has dam and innumerable number of streams which swell up during rainy season. An ethnobotanical survey particularly the uncultivated plant used by them other than medicinal purposes was carried out among the Kaani tribes in various tribal villages of Kanyakumari district, South Western Ghats of Tamilnadu. Forests in the study area hold thousands of medicinal plants which are used by the tribal people for primary healthcare needs. The medicinal plants were mostly used to cure asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, cold, cough, fever, headache, stomachache, diarrhoea, dysentery, skin diseases, poison bites, cut/ wounds, diabetes. Medicinal plants used by Kaani have been listed along with plant parts used with its ethnomedicinal significance.