Tribal institutions and conservation of the bioculturally valuable ‘tasat’ (Arenga obtusifolia) tree in the eastern Himalaya

This study reports on the biocultural dimensions of the tasat (Arenga obtusifolia Griff.) tree and its conservation by various informal institutions of the Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, India. The study included 240 Adi community members (120 men and 120 women) residing in 12 villages of the East Siang and Upper Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh. The study was conducted using personal interviews and participatory methods. Results indicated that the stem of tasat is used as a traditional food during droughts and in preparing an ethnic beverage. Tasat is being conserved by the Adi tribe in various habitats. Plant populations of tasat were observed relatively higher in Upper Siang than the East Siang district. The study found differences in the status of biocultural knowledge between genders and different age groups. Kebang and reglep are two indigenous institutions of men and women, respectively, and play leading roles in sustaining tasat plants in various habitats. Women of the Upper Siang district still maintain a knowledge network for diffusing biocultural knowledge related to tasat, among others, through a barter system. Changing land use patterns in agriculture affects tasat conservation. The value addition for tasat based products, and rewarding women who conserve tasat, can enhance the sustainability of tasat based on biocultural knowledge and institutions.     

Sorption of cadmium and zinc from aqueous solutions by zeolite 4A, zeolite 13X and bentonite

The sorption and desorption of cadmium and zinc on zeolite 4A, zeolite 13X and bentonite has been studied using batch sorption studies. Parameters such as equilibrium time, effect of pH and sorbent dose were studied. The sorbents exhibited good sorption potential for cadmium and zinc with a peak value at pH 6.0 and 6.5, respectively. The sorption followed the Freundlich sorption model. More than 70% sorption occurred within 20 min and equilibrium was attained at around 90 min for the three sorbents. The metals sorption by zeolite 4A was higher than that by zeolite 13X and bentonite. The desorption studies were carried out using NaCl solution and the effect of NaCl concentration on desorption was also studied. Maximum desorption of 76% for cadmium and 80% for zinc occurred with 10% NaCl.     

Impact of anaerobically treated and untreated (raw) distillery effluent irrigation on soil microflora, growth, total chlorophyll and protein contents of Phaseolus aureus L

Impact of distillery effluent (untreated and treated) irrigation on soil microflora of the pots used for growing Phaseolus aureus L. was investigated. The growth of the P. aureus plants as affected by distillery effluent irrigation was also evaluated. The irrigation of the pots by 1-10% distillery effluent (anaerobically treated) stimulated the growth of the soil microflora (increased number of bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes) and P. aureus plants (increased shoot and root lengths, biomass, chlorophyll and protein contents). Further, 15-20% distillery effluent (anaerobically treated) had toxic effect on soil micro flora as indicated by reduced number of bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes. Reduction in shoot, root, lengths, biomass, chlorophyll, protein contents of P. aureus was also observed when irrigated by 15-20% treated distillery effluent. All the concentrations of raw distillery effluent reduced the bacterial population. However, the treated distillery effluent concentrations <10% had stimulatory effect on fungal and actinomycetes population. However, raw effluent concentrations >5% reduced the same. Raw distillery effluent was more toxic to P. aureus than treated distillery effluent as concentrations >5%, had reduced the growth (shoot, root length and biomass) of the test plant. Raw distillery effluent had adverse effect to total chlorophyll contents and all the test concentrations reduced the total chlorophyll level. However, untreated (raw) distillery effluent stimulated the protein content initially. It has been concluded from-present study that lower concentrations of the raw distillery effluent (1-5%) and treated distillery effluent (1-10%) had stimulated the growth of P. aureus and soil microflora except soil bacteria (inhibited by all the concentration of the raw effluent). However, higher concentrations (raw effluent: 10-20%; treated effluent 15-20%) had toxicity to test parameters.     

GIS-based statistical model for the prediction of flood hazard susceptibility

At present, flood is the most significant environmental problem in the entire world. In this work, flood susceptibility (FS) analysis has been done in the Dwarkeswar River basin of Bengal basin, India. Fourteen flood causative factors extracted from different datasets like DEM, satellite images, geology, soil and rainfall data have been considered to predict FS. Three heuristic models and one statistical model fuzzy Logic (FL), frequency ratio (FR), multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and logistic regression (LR) have been used. The validating datasets are used to validate these models. The result shows that 68.71%, 68.7%, 60.56% and 48.51% area of the basin is under the moderate to very high FS by the MCDA, FR, FL and LR, respectively. The ROC curve with AUC analysis has shown that the accuracy level of the LR model (AUC?=?0.916) is very much successful to predict the flood. The rest of the models like FL, MCDA and FR (AUC?=?0.893, 0.857 and 0.835, respectively) have lesser accuracy than the LR model. The elevation was the most dominating factor with coefficient value of 19.078 in preparation of the FS according to the LR model. The outcome of this study can be implemented by local and state authority to minimize the flood hazard.

     

Water-induced erosion potentiality and vulnerability assessment in Kangsabati river basin,eastern India

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The large-scale water-induced erosion is one of the most determining elements on land degradation in subtropical monsoon-dominated region. From this...     

Heavy metals in water of the rivers Hooghly and Haldi at Haldia and their impact on fish

The paper deals with the measurement of five heavy metals viz., Cd, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn in water of the rivers Hooghly and Haldi at Haldia during June 1999 to October 2002. The industrial effluent out fall (OF) at Patikhali, Haldia was also taken as sampling site along with above out fall (AOF) and below out fall (BOF) sites. Most of the metals exhibited their least concentration at the sampling site above the Haldia industrial area of river Hooghly. The average concentrations of the studied metals were Cd 2-14, Cu 5-19, Mn 8-88, Pb 17-41 and Zn 22-37 microg l(-1). Comparison of the data with the Criterion Continuous Concentration (CCC) of USA revealed that Cd, Cu and Pb were the pollutants present at alarming level to disturb the aquatic life process in the zone. The effect was found to reflect on the tissue level aberrations in the residential fishes. The other two metals viz., Mn and Zn were probably less harmful to the aquatic ecosystem. In India, necessity is felt to develop the CCC values, which will be more appropriate for protection of aquatic environment than comparing with drinking water standards.     

Weather integrated malaria prediction system using Bayesian structural time series model for northeast states of India

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Malaria is an endemic disease in India and targeted to eliminate by the year 2030. The present study is aimed at understanding the epidemiological...     

The duckweed Wolffia globosa as an indicator of heavy metal pollution: Sensitivity to Cr and Cd

The potential of Wolffia globosa, a profusely occurring rootless duckweed, was evaluated as an indicator of metal pollution in the water bodies. Plants of W. globosa were cultured in 3% Hoagland's nutrient medium which was supplemented with 0.05, 0.1, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/L of Cr and Cd. Plants showed substantial accumulation of both the metals at lowest concentrations. For example, at 0.05 ppm, the concentration factor (Cf) value for Cr was significantly higher (5616) than for Cd (1018). A high level of tolerance was shown by the plants to both Cr and Cd. The results show that the plants are sensitive to the variations in metal concentration and are capable of high metal enrichment at very low ambient concentration of the metals. This information may be useful for detecting metals in the water.NBRI Research Publication No. 401 (N.S.)