We describe the diversified National Ambient Noise Monitoring Network (NANMN) set up across 7 major cities of India and covering 70 stations for continuous noise monitoring throughout the year. The annual average Lday (06–22 h) and Lnight (22–06 h) values observed in 2015 for these 70 locations are described. Of these, 25 locations are in commercial zones, 12 in industrial, 16 in residential and 17 in silence zones. Each city has 10 noise monitoring stations installed for analysing environmental noise pollution levels round the clock (24  365 h).

Free speed, the key parameter in the modelling of pedestrian flow, is the speed that a pedestrian desires to walk at. In this study free speed of pedestrians considering characteristics such as age, gender, and with or without luggage in ascending and descending stairways located on platforms in suburban and intercity railway stations was examined. Due to difficulty in observing free speed directly, an approach for developing distributions of speeds at varying levels of pedestrian density is proposed to estimate free speed precisely.

Physical forcing of cyclonic phenomenon on water quality often exerts stress on marine and estuarine ecosystems due to their unpredictability. The post-cyclonic changes in phytoplankton biomass have been reported in the Bay of Bengal. In addition, cyclones also intensify physical processes resulting in entrainment of nutrient-rich water from deeper depths into surface leading to regional phytoplankton blooms.

Original Source

Under the loom of extreme climatic perturbations, human expansion and rising demand, world’s freshwater reserves are expected to suffer severe setbacks in the coming years. A major task for the international authorities in this regard is to develop a reliable inventory of existing potable water sources and identify the challenges therein. The main objective of this study was to present a spatial summary of ‘safe’ water sources in India using the most ‘authentic’, cross-sectional, open-sourced census database for 2011 ranging from household to state level.

A study on the physiology of root parasitism in sandal (Santalum album L.) was conducted by comparing a six-year-old sandal grown alone and along with a host (Casuarina equisetifolia). Although maximum haustorial connections were observed when grown along with the host, sandal formed haustorial connections with plants including grass up to a distance of 3 m. Anatomical studies on haustoria indicated a vascular connectivity between the host and sandal.

Original Source

This study seeks to understand factors that guide the decision-making process to adopt and implement the available arsenic-mitigation technologies in rural areas in the middle-Ganga Plain in India. A total of 340 households comprising 2500 people were surveyed.

Heavy rainfall and hailstorm events occurred in major wheat-growing areas of India during February and March 2015 causing large-scale damages to the crop. An attempt was made to assess the impact of hailstorms in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (MP) using remote sensing data.

Original Source

Impacts of elevated temperature and carbon dioxide (CO2) enrichment on rice were assessed by carrying out an experiment with four dates of planting (1 June and 15 June, 1 and 15 July) during 2014 under two different environmental conditions, viz. ambient and modified (climate control chamber) with +4C compared to the ambient temperature and CO2 enrichment of 650 ppm.

Regulating fluvial systems by dams, barrages and construction of inter-basin link canals, has severe impacts on fish populations across the world’s rivers. In India, all major fluvial systems are interrupted by a series of barriers. This includes small weirs to large dams and salt-water barriers preventing saline incursion to the estuarine lakes.

Original Source

Wetlands seem to be more vulnerable to invasions compared to terrestrial ecosystems. The alien invasive weed, Ludwigia peruviana, invading the wetlands of the Dhansiri catchment and eastern part of Kopili in Assam has threatened the resident biodiversity and has also posed possibilities of spreading to other wetlands of North East India. The present study was conducted to measure the impact of the weed on the biodiversity of this region, to find out the causes for increasing invasiveness and to suggest a suitable management strategy.