In India sustaining dairy farming as a rural livelihood and to meet the growing demand of milk, necessitates development and dissemination of technology for improving the farm’s output. There is also a need to understand how far existing innovations are adopted by farmers and factors influencing adoption and/or rejection. Hence, the factors that influence adoption and the extent of adoption were consolidated from past research using meta analysis and other techniques.

Sustainable development of Indian cities is an essential pre-requisite for India to establish itself as a major economic power. Smart cities dwell on energyefficient urban centres. The National Action Plan on Climate Change and the recently formulated plan for Smart Cities emphasize the need for energy efficiency. However, inadequate domestic finance and lack of public support impose sizeable constraints. (Scientific Correspondence)

While surveying for raptors along the Achara beach in Malvan taluk of Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra, seahorses Hippocampus kuda belonging to the family Syngnathidae were noticed on the beach on 23 June 2015. All seahorses belong to one genus Hippocampus, in which there are 34 species recognized all over the world. Despite their small size, seahorses form a valuable fisheries resource in some areas and support a sizeable international trade.

Original Source

Karnataka suffers from chronic electricity shortages and daily load-shedding, which are expected to persist despite planned additions of conventional power. Using four illustrative scenarios based on different assumptions, we estimate the additional contributions wind and solar power sources could make to reduce these deficits by FY2022. The method developed estimates expected hourly deficits in FY2022 from projected unrestricted demands and expected availability from conventional sources.

In this communication, accumulated soot from typical Indian share autos and buses has been characterized using FE-SEM coupled with EDS and FTIR spectroscopy for its toxicity level. Analysis reveals the size of spherical-shaped primary particles to be less than 40 nm, which agglomerate to form fractal-like structures. In share autos, average weight percentage of heavy metals such as Cr, Fe, Cu and Pt (except Zn) is higher than that in buses; trace elements include noncarbon elements.

The Himalayan glaciers feed major Asian river systems sustaining the lives of more than 800 million people. Though the rates of retreat of individual glaciers are uncertain, on the whole the Himalayan glaciers have been losing mass at an increasing rate over the past few decades. With the changing climate, glaciers will continue to shrink and the rates of retreat may increase even further. This may lead to the formation of moraine dammed glacial lakes, which can cause outburst floods upon failure of the dam, catastrophic to human life and infrastructure downstream.

In the context of achieving a national set target of 60 GW by 2022, a study was carried out in Kayathar, Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu, India on noise propagation from wind turbines. Acoustic and non-acoustic parameters were measured according to IEC 61400-11 at wind speeds of 4–13 and 0.7–8.6 m/s. 

Original Source

Deforestation, forest fire hazard and exploitation of forest have been warning threats to our environment and ecosystem globally. In the present study an attempt has been made to enhance the biodegradability and biomethanation potential of treated pine needles, the leaves of a coniferous tree (Pinus roxburghii) by using Trichoderma spp. and Pseudomonas spp. thereby, utilizing the pine needles for green energy.

Original Source

Despite decades of concerted global conservation efforts, biodiversity loss continues unabated, making it important to assess the effectiveness of conservation approaches. Using forest cover as a proxy for conservation effectiveness, we analysed land-use and land-cover changes across a community and a state forest of Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India. Forest losses in the community lands (77.94 sq. km) were higher compared to the state forest (11.48 sq. km) between 1994 and 2014, and were driven by mining, industry, plantations and agriculture.

The benefits of an integrated approach in the future of leprosy control in India are discussed, by involving professionals from different systems of medicine and coordinated by dermatologists working in the field of community dermatology. The low level of education amongst traditional healers has led to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment, thus emphasizing the importance of health education for patients, families and local practitioners to enable prompt and appropriate treatment. The Indian systems of medicine though supportive do not have the required rehabilitation services.