Dugong dugon (dugongs) is probably one of the few living marine mammals surviving in pockets around the Indian Ocean to the western part of the Pacific Ocean. These marine mammals are herbivores which spend their full life in the sea. They are the only extant species of the family Dugongidae. (Correspondence)
Satellite images provide information on the flood disaster footprints, which is essential for assessing the disaster impact and taking up flood mitigation activities. The Brahmaputra floods that occurred during June–July 2012 devastated a large part of Assam. This article discusses the maximum spatial extent affected due to the flood event, villages marooned and population affected, with the aid of multi-temporal satellite images coupled with the hydrological observations and freely available gridded population data.
Sixty hot springs are spread over 18 regions in the west coast of Maharashtra, India. The area is covered by Deccan Basalts. Periodic water sampling was done for more than 5 years from Tural and Rajvadi hot springs along with waters from other deep wells for hydrochemical and isotopic analyses to study the relation between seismicity and hydrochemistry. Residence time of hot spring waters was estimated using the 14C dating.
In this article we have studied a scheme of partitioning the global carbon budget using an equity principle. In contrast to earlier approaches, this article carefully distinguishes between the two quantities – ‘entitlements to carbon space’ and ‘physically available carbon space’. A positive feature of the carbon budgets approach to allocation of mitigation burdens discussed here
Variations in nearshore wave power at four shallowwater locations along the east and west coast of India are examined based on the measured wave data for one-year period. The study shows that along the west coast of India, 83–85% of the annual wave power is during the summer monsoon period (June–September), whereas at Visakhapatnam (on the east coast), 55% of the annual wave power is during the summer monsoon period. Along Puducherry coast in the east, wave power is relatively less with maximum value of 31.8 kW m–1.
Protected areas (PAs) are inviolate and invaluable landscapes that promote the in situ conservation of endangered, threatened and rare species. Accordingly, and in keeping with this definition, PA managers ensure that PAs are free from fire, poaching, grazing, non-timber forest products collection, mining, etc. In India, following the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act (1972), there are
Periodic and quantitative assessment of research activities in a given area is an essential step to ensure identification of priority and niche areas. White-space, a term borrowed from spectrum analysis, in this context refers to areas of research (frequency bands) that are less explored. Thus white-space mapping or analysis identifies relative strength of research, and enables us to uncover opportunities that are not obvious or less explored. (Scientific Correspondence)
The need for achieving food security is felt significantly in the recent years due to enormous pressure from the ever increasing population in India. Owing to the change in preferences in crop production techniques over a period of time, several new challenges draw attention to food security. This article discusses various challenges to food security in India.
The evolution of land–atmosphere–ocean models has resulted in the need for hydrologic models applicable to large areas and river basins. Such developments offer new challenges and opportunities for hydrologists to understand the hydrologic response of areas as large as continents. In the present study, the ability of variable infiltration capacity (VIC) hydrological model has been studied to assess run-off potential and other hydrological components for entire India.
Eastern Ghats (EG) contributes significantly to both species richness and endemicity of the Indian region. However, the forests of EG are relatively under-studied and have received less attention for conservation compared to the relatively better-known Western Ghats. Ultimately EG is left with insufficient data for several groups of organisms.
