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Vol no. 8 Issue No. 46

Inside this issue

Wildlife Watch

Dolphins at Harike Spotting the rare Indus species

By: Dr Sandeep Behera

December 2007 saw the confirmed splashing of several beautiful dolphins. Mothers with their enrapturing calves, adult males on their lonesome quest for food and mate and juveniles swishing the murky waters till darkness descended.

Natural Resources

Tackling India's Ground Water Resources

By: Staff Reporter

In the Indo-Gangetic and Brahmaputra plains, ground water potential is very high and such areas can support large scale development. In peninsular India and hilly states, however, groundwater potential is relatively much lower.

Survey of India

National Map Policy

By: Staff Reporter

The advancements in digital technologies have now made it possible to use diverse spatial databases in an integrated manner. The responsibility for producing, maintaining and disseminating the topographic map database of the whole country, which is the foundation of all spatial data vests with the Survey of India (SoI).

Traveller's diary

Locating Masroor-Himachal Pradesh

By: Dr S Srinivasan

Day excursion to Masroor in Himachal Pradesh happened to be one of the highlights of our summer vacation at Mcleodganj. The temple standing magnificently on a hill crescent is a unique example of monolithic temples in the sub Himalayan region. ...

Case Study Orissa

Spurious Drug Menace: Tale of merchants of death

By: Kishor Kumar Das

The spurious drug industry is well established in India. According to the World Health Organisation 35 percent of the world’s spurious drugs are produced in India, followed by Nigeria. .....

Forests of Mizoram

Flowers of Doom

By: Staff Reporter

Bamboo grows wild in at least 30 percent of Mizoram's total geographical area of 21,081 square kilometers. The plant is of two types, ‘mau’ and ‘thing’ -Melocanna bamboo Soidef and Bambusa tulda classified by European botanists. ....

Green Money

What are Carbon Credits?

By: Staff Reporter

Oceanic Concern

Coral Reef Bleaching

By: Anil Rao

Coral reef bleaching is caused by anthropogenic and natural variations in reef environment including warm sea surface temperature, solar irradiance, sedimentation, xenobiotics, subaerial exposure, inorganic nutrients, freshwater dilution, and epizootics.

Sustainable Development

Environmentally Sensitive Areas

By: Staff Reporter

With indiscriminate use of land and unplanned development, the physical environment and heritage sites are facing degradation. Environment today stand directly opposed to the very process of developmental work.

Technology Pollution

Managing e Waste

By: Manishika Jain

Computers and electronics have revolutionised the world but brought with it negatives that have created issues of e waste. Developing nations fall prey and turn into toxic dumps with carcinogenic wastes leaching into ground water and noxious fumes polluting the atmosphere through open burning.

Demographic Studies

Understanding Muslim Fertility

By: Aparajita Chattopadhyay and S Parsuraman

Since Independence India’s effort towards sustained fertility decline in all population groups is well documented. However, insufficiency of study on religious differentials of fertility due to political sensitivity proves to be barrier for enumerating programmes.

In brief

Editor's Note

Dear Readers,   Your rising interest and feed back is a source of inspiration for the team that shapes G&Y. I had a dream when I started this magazine way back in 2001, but now I can say that I can see the dream coming true. We are now subscribed by individuals even from Arunachal, Kavaratti,

Vol no. 8 Issue No. 46

Articles...

WILDLIFE

Dolphins at Harike Spotting the rare Indus species

December 2007 saw the confirmed splashing of several beautiful dolphins. Mothers with their enrapturing calves, adult males on their lonesome quest for food and mate and juveniles swishing the murky w

By: Dr Sandeep Behera

NATURAL RESOURCES

Tackling India's Ground Water Resources

In the Indo-Gangetic and Brahmaputra plains, ground water potential is very high and such areas can support large scale development. In peninsular India and hilly states, however, groundwater potentia

By: Staff Reporter

SURVEY OF INDIA

National Map Policy

The advancements in digital technologies have now made it possible to use diverse spatial databases in an integrated manner. The responsibility for producing, maintaining and disseminating the topogra

By: Staff Reporter

TRAVELLER'S DIARY

Locating Masroor-Himachal Pradesh

Day excursion to Masroor in Himachal Pradesh happened to be one of the highlights of our summer vacation at Mcleodganj. The temple standing magnificently on a hill crescent is a unique example of mono

By: Dr S Srinivasan

HEALTH

Spurious Drug Menace: Tale of merchants of death

The spurious drug industry is well established in India. According to the World Health Organisation 35 percent of the world’s spurious drugs are produced in India, followed by Nigeria. .....

By: Kishor Kumar Das

Term Power

What is ...

The study of sources of energy that replenish itself. Most sources of renewable energy are based on solar energy, either directly or via wind power, hydroelectric power, wave power and biomass (the products of photosynthesis). Geothermal power harnesses heat from deep in the ground or from tidal power.

The study of climate, the regular pattern of weather experienced in a particular place over a period of time. The primary factors affecting climatic variation are latitude, wind movements, ocean currents, the temperature difference between land and sea, and topography. Human activities have an increasing effect.

A mixture of particles that remain suspended in the air because they are so small that gravity has little effect on them. They fall naturally at about 10 cm (4 inches) a day, but are removed much more quickly by rain or snow. Aerosol particles include soil particles, salt crystals from the evaporation of sea spray, spores, bacteria and tiny insects.

Energy produced from renewable and supposedly ecologically safe sources, as opposed to nonrenewable sources with toxic by products that require special disposal, such as fossil fuels (in conventional power plants) and uranium (in nuclear power plants). Alternative energy source include flowing water, biomass (from the burning of crops grown, for fuel) waves and tides, wind, Sun and the heat in the Earth's crust.

A colourless gas, slightly soluble in water and denser than air. It is a waste product produced whenever carbon or substances containing carbon burn, and is also produced during respiration in plants, animals and microorganisms, and through the decay of organic matter.

The removal of solid rock particles from the land surface and their transport by water or wind. Agents of erosion include water (the sea, rivers), glaciers and wind. This is a natural and continual process that can be speeded up by human intervention.

Preserving energy resources by reducing the use of energy. Profligate and inefficient energy use by industrialised countries contributes greatly to atmospheric pollution and greenhouse effect, when it draws on nonrenewable energy sources.

An increase in the extent of the ice cover of a planet. Glaciation have punctuated Earth's history, the earliest having occurred during Proterozoic times. A glaciation may include both glacials and interglacials.

The gradual rising of the temperature of air in the lower atmosphere, believed to be due to the buildup of gases such as carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons. As the carbon dioxide component increases, as on Venus, most of the incoming solar radiation is trapped, with a rapid and unstoppable temperature rise.

The principle which requires that the costs of pollution whether incurred in preventing the release of a potential pollutant or in repairing pollution damage, should be internalised and met by whoever causes the pollution.

The previous epoch in geological time, at the beginning of the Quaternary period, about 2.5 million years ago. The Pleistocene ended about 10,000 years ago and was marked by extensive glaciations.

The variation in the atmospheric conditions experienced at a given site.

The mechanical and chemical processes that break up bedrock and reduce it to its individual bedrock or their derivatives.

The regular rise and fall of water levels in the world's oceans resulting from the gravitational attraction that is exerted upon the Earth by the Sun and the Moon.

A highly reactive pale blue gas - O3, with a penetrating odour. Ozone is an allotrope of oxygen, made up of three atoms of oxygen. At lower atmospheric levels ozone is an air pollutant and contributes to greenhouse effect. Near the ground, higher-than-usual concentrations of ozone can cause asthma attacks, stunted growth in plants and corrosion of certain materials.