The top layer of accumulated sand washed down by floods over millions of years, makes river floodplains into giant aquifers. We propose a scheme for the natural storage of excess monsoon river-water discharge in the extensive and deep sand top layer of the floodplain of the river.

Bidi is a leaf-rolled cigarette made of coarse, uncured tobacco, tied with a string at one end. Bidis (beedis or biris) dominate the smoking market of India

Bidis and smokeless tobacco are the cheapest, least taxed and most commonly used tobacco products in India. They are highly addictive and high in carcinogens. They cause a broad spectrum of diseases; yet awareness about their ill-effects is low. Smokeless tobacco products containing arecanut, e.g. gutka and mawa, are especially addictive and carcinogenic.

The hookah, a waterpipe, originated in India and became popular for smoking tobacco. It spread elsewhere and acquired other names like nargile, shisha, goza and hubble-bubble, before its popularity declined in India. A resurgence of hookah smoking is occurring in India and around the world, and is being promoted as safer than cigarette smoking.

There are immediate and long-term needs for tobacco control capacity development in India. In the short term, the development of in-person and virtual training programmes aimed at increasing the number of people educating the population about tobacco offers a critical and cost-effective approach to expanding the knowledge-base regarding tobacco.

This communication elaborates a case study in Kerala, where 61 surveys have been conducted from 1990 to 2008 in 21 protected areas and reserve forests in the southern Western Ghats for monitoring bird fauna using the amateur bird-watcher network. Four different methodologies have been used in these surveys, with encounter-based transects being the most common.

Original Source

The Himalayas has one of the largest concentrations of glaciers and permanent snowfields outside the polar region. Snow and glacier melt forms an important source for many rivers originating in the Himalayas. Numerous studies suggest that global warming has started affecting snow melt and stream run-off in the Himalayan region.

In the present study, the possibility of biodegrading the dechlorinated product of 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane (DDT), 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(chlorophenyl) ethylene (DDE) and structurally related compound 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(chlorophenyl)-ethane (DDD) under aerobic conditions was examined.

The Barak Basin of northeastern India covers the states of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. The rich and diversified vegetation of the region is facing perturbation in recent years and large tracts of forest are being converted to non-forest.

Mathematical modelling and time series analysis techniques are important tools for extracting information from complex geotime series. These techniques also facilitate a fair degree of prediction, which is one of the prime goals of science. The data analysis strategy for such a purpose mainly involves spectral analysis and pattern classification.

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