Investigation of the principal vectors of wetland loss in Barind tract of West Bengal

In last few decades flood plain wetland loss in the Barind tract of West Bengal has become a serious threat to the hydro-ecological setup and livelihood security. Out of total study area (6790.38 km²), only < 1% is covered with riparian wetland of different kinds. Moreover there is no definite wetland map in meso and micro spatial scale which is crucial for managing wetland. Therefore, present paper attempts to systematic mapping of riparian wetland, monitoring, estimating loss and investigating associated vectors of wetland loss. The result demonstrates that since 1988–2016, about 65% wetland has either lost or at the verge of loss. Heavy anthropogenic pressures like reclamation of 4% wetland to agriculture land, 35–50% dwindling of peak flow in Tangon, Punarbhaba and Atreyee rivers, average 3–4 m lowering down of ground water level, delinking of Tista system from off shoots channel as mentioned are the prime vectors of wetland transformation. Such disappointing incidents may invite shrinking of valuable biodiversity rich natural capital and precious habitat.     

Lead isotopic ratios in source apportionment of heavy metals in the street dust of Kolkata,India

Street dust from 29 locations, in some of the busiest parts of north and south Kolkata, was analysed for heavy metal composition. The decreasing order of average metal concentrations (mg kg^?1) found was Mn (390) > Pb (380) > Zn (300) > As (96) > Cu (61) > Cr (40) > Co (13) > Ag (2.1). The heavy metal composition of the Kolkata dust was compared with reported data for other cities. Enrichment factors of Pb and As were high. Multivariate statistical analysis of the heavy metals and analysis of lead isotopic ratios of the dust revealed a predominant anthropogenic influence in the contamination. The range of lead isotopic ratios found in the dust was between 0.8789 and 0.8998 with a mean Pb concentration of 383 mg kg^?1. The three Pb isotope plots of street dust, diesel and rainwater clustered linearly, while coal did not fit into this trend. The highest 207/206 lead isotopic ratio obtained was from diesel with a mean value of 0.9015, followed by the rainwater sample. The application of the binary mixing model showed that about 66.86% of lead contamination in the street dust was sourced from the atmosphere. The two components extracted by the principal component analysis explained 64.34% of the total variance. Vehicular and industrial emissions appeared to be an important contributor to the accumulation of heavy metals in the dust. The health risk assessment study of the dust indicated carcinogenic risk associated with As and Cr.     

Bioslurry phase remediation of petroleum-contaminated soil using potato peels powder through biosurfactant producing <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus licheniformis</Emphasis> J1

Soil contamination due to petroleum oil has become significant ecological issue due to their toxicity. Thus, detoxification of petroleum-contaminated soil is of pressing concern. In this study, bench-scale bioslurry experiment was carried for remediation and detoxification of petroleum-contaminated soil. Potato peels powder was used as organic nutrient source in the slurry for biostimulation purpose, while biosurfactant producing Bacillus licheniformis strain J1 identified through molecular approach is used as inocula in the slurry treatment. The strain J1 has the capability to utilized petroleum as carbon source, but its efficiency increase in the presence of potato peels powder. Bioslurry phase experiment was categorized into four groups based on the treatment, such as B0 (soil + H₂O), B1 (soil + petroleum oil + H₂O), B2 (soil + petroleum oil + strain J1 + H₂O), B3 (soil + petroleum oil + potato peels powder + strain J1 + H₂O). After 90 days of treatment, the soils from each treatment were subjected to toxicity analysis using earth worm acute toxicity test and seed germination inhibition assay. The results suggest that in B1 treatment the toxicity effect on germination and seedling growth is highest, while decrease in effect was observed in case of B2 and B3 treatment. Results of earthworm acute toxicity test revealed that 30 ± 5% earthworm survival rates was reported in B1 treatment, whereas 71.6 ± 2.8 and 78.3 ± 2.8% was observed in B2 and B3 treatment, respectively. Hence, the result of the present study signifies that bioslurry phase treatment can be effectively and commercially used for detoxification petroleum-contaminated wastelands.     

Impact Assessment of GIS Based Land Resource Inventory Towards Optimizing Agricultural Land Use Plan in Dandakaranya and Easternghats Physiographic Confluence of India

GIS based land resource inventory (LRI) with fine resolution imagery is considered as most authentic tool for soil resource mapping. Soil resource mapping using the concept of soil series in a smaller scale limits its wide application and also its impact assessment for crop suitability is controversial. In this study, we attempted to develop LRI at large scale (1:10,000 scale) at block level land use planning (LUP) in Dandakaranya and Easternghats physiographic confluence of India. The concept of land management unit was introduced in this endeavour. The impact assessment of LRI based LUP was exercised to develop efficient crop planning with best possible management practices. The study area comprised six landforms with slope gradient ranging from very gentle (1–3%) to steep slopes (15–25%). The very gently sloping young alluvial plains occupied maximum areas (19.95% of TGA). The single cropped (paddy) land appears to dominate the land use systems (40.0% of TGA). Thirty three landscape ecological units were resulted by GIS-overlay. Eighteen soils mapping units were generated. The area was broadly under two soil orders (Inceptisols and Alfisols); three great group (Haplaquepts, Rhodustalfs and Endoaquepts) and ten soil series. Crop suitability based impact assessment of LRI based LUP revealed that average yield of different crops increased by 39.2 and 14.5% in Kharif (rainy season) and Rabi (winter) seasons respectively and annual net returns by 83.4% for the cropping system, compared to traditional practices. Productivity and net returns can be increased several folds if customized recommended practices are adopted by the farmers. Informations generated from the study emphasized the potentiality of LRI towards optimizing LUP and exhibited an ample scope to use the methodology as a tool to assess in other physiographic regions in India and abroad.     

Design of an Integrated System for Modeling of Functional Air Quality Index Integrated with Health-GIS Using Bayesian Neural Network

Air pollution is a major problem, conscious both for health and surroundings. This is a novel approach for the design & development of a system for the monitoring of different air pollutants especially at remote places where it is difficult to install any conventional air quality monitoring stations as well as for the cities. In this research work, a framework of Functional air quality index which is an indicator of susceptibility to respiratory illness has been built using the Bayesian neural network to provide the random real-time data about a location through wireless communication. The monitoring system is integrated with different types of sensors to measure the level of different air pollutants or air quality parameters such as Suspended particulate matters, (PM_2.5), Nitrogen dioxide, Sulphur dioxide, Ozone which are directly associated with airways inflammatory diseases such as Asthma, Bronchitis, COPD. Each location in Map (GPS) can be updated automatically with fAQI to the user through mobile computing and satellite commutation. The user gets information about the neighborhood location with health-related information such as- whether a particular location is sensitive to respiratory diseases such as Bronchitis, asthma, COPD etc. due to suspended allergen/pollutants in the ambient air. This novel approach is designed with its’ own prototype and an application of Inter of Things in Health GIS for the benefit of humanity.     

Trends and Change-Point in Satellite Derived Phenology Parameters in Major Wheat Growing Regions of North India During the Last Three Decades

The virtual certainty of the anticipated climate change will continue to raise many questions about its aggregated impact of environmental changes on our regional food security in imminent future. Crop responses to these changes are certain, but its exact characteristics are hardly understood at regional scale due to complex overlapping effects of climate change and anthropogenic manipulation of agro-ecosystem. This study derived phenology of wheat in north India from satellite data and analyzed trends of phenology parameters over last three decades. The most striking change-point period in phenology trends were also derived. The phenology was derived from two sources: (1) STAR-Global vegetation Health Products-NDVI, and (2) GIMMS-NDVI. The results revealed significant earliness in start of growing season (SOS) in Punjab and Haryana while delay was found in Uttar Pradesh (UP). End of the wheat season almost always occurred early, to even those place where SOS was delayed. Length of growing season increased in most of Punjab and northern Haryana whereas its decrease dominated in UP. The early sowing practice of the farmers of the Punjab and Haryana may be one of the adaptation strategies to manage the terminal heat stress in reproductive stage of the crop in the region. The change-point occurred in late 1990s (1998–2000) in Punjab and Haryana, while in eastern UP it was in early 1990s (1990–1995). Despite the difference in temporal aggregation and spatial resolution, both the datasets yielded similar trends, confirming both the robustness of the results and applicability of the datasets over the region. The results demands further research for proper attribution of the effects into its causes and may help devising crop adaption practices to climatic stresses.     

Mapping and Change Detection Study of Nepal-2015 Earthquake Induced Landslides

The devastating earthquake that struck Nepal in 25 April (Mw7.8) and 12 May (Mw7.3) 2015 have triggered numerous landslides and reactivated existing landslides extending over large areas. These two shocks mostly affected the northwest and northeast region of Kathmandu which accelerated large region along with southward up thrusting in the region. To detect the event of the landslides in time and space satellite images have been analysed using space remote sensing techniques like pseudo colour transformation technique and was employed to pre and post-earthquake images of the event to bring out only landslide affected areas from the image by masking the remaining part, where field based survey of the landslides provided information on real nature of it, slope and rock type. Surprisingly the observed mass movements are mostly belong to debris flow and rock fall types beginning from the top part of the ridge slope with south-westerly faces i.e. sun facing. Further, satellite images of different dates could be gathered which facilitated analysis on development of landslide with time. This study also revealed that the NE–SW trending geological faults have controlled the landslide occurrence especially in Ramche area and along the Bagmati river valley near Shital-chowk village on Kathmandu-Hetauda road.     

Evaluating profile of well-being status (material) of bottom ten backward districts in India: a households level analysis

GeoJournal - Regional disparities and inequalities act as dominant barriers in development in India at different scales such as at state and sub-state (i.e. district) levels. The present paper...     

Heavy Mineral Placer Sand Deposits of Kontiagarh Area,Ganjam District,Orissa, India

The Kontiagarh placer deposit in the Ganjam district, Orissa, India extends in northeast direction having a width of 700–1000 m. A total of 187 samples were collected meterwise from 55 bore holes in a grid pattern from beach, frontal, intermediate and back dunes covering an area of approximately 1 km². Light minerals decrease in size from the beach to the back dunes, whereas the size distribution of heavy minerals in the beach and dunes is more or less uniform. The average heavy mineral content in the beach and dunes vary from 9.38% to 24.20%. The heavy minerals are ilmenite, garnet, sillimanite, rutile, monazite, and zircon with trace amounts of magnetite, hornblende, diopside, sphene, tourmaline, and epidote. Heavy minerals are mostly less than 350 µm in size, with a peak distribution in the range between 180 and 125 µm. Ilmenite shows exsolution intergrowth with hematite. Mineral chemistry of ilmenite, hematite, leucoxene, magnetite, monazite and sillimanite are examined by EPMA. Leucoxene is lower in Fe and higher in Ti, Al, Cr and V than ilmenite. The litho‐units of the Precambrian Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt, comprising primarily khondalite, charnockite, calc‐silicate granulite and gneiss, are the source of heavy minerals for this deposit. The bulk sample has 7.30% ilmenite, 5.24% sillimanite, 9.16% garnet, 0.18% rutile, 0.14% monazite, 0.06% zircon and 0.52% other heavy minerals. The deposit has good potential for economic exploitation of ilmenite, rutile, sillimanite, monazite, zircon and garnet.