Ecology and Environment

The subsurface aquifer systems in Mahanadi delta region in Orissa (India) is largely characterized by two groups of freshwater aquifer systems, both of which are prone to saline water mixing/migration with time and development:

• The south western Mahanadi delta region is represented by unconfined to semi-confined freshwater aquifers underlained by brackish/saline aquifer systems with a diffusion boundary.
• The north eastern parts of Mahanadi delta is represented by deep freshwater confined aquifers overlained by brackish/saline water aquifers with aquitard/ aquiclude boundary.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests released a draft of the regulatory framework for wetland conservation - Wetlands Conservation and Management Rules (2009) for feedback from all stakeholders. The draft framework was prepared by a multi-disciplinary expert group, and final round of comments were invited till June 21st 2010.

The Wetland Conservation Team of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) did a detailed analysis of the draft regulation and submitted several pertinent concerns to the Ministry. The most significant observation is that the new framework (as do much of India's policies and laws) continues to propose unjustifiable State control and interventions over the country's wetlands and livelihoods of people dependent on them. The regulation does not make any constructive suggestions or recommendations for the conservation that the country's wetlands demand, and instead brings all wetlands into complete official control by installing Central, State and District-level wetland regulatory authorities, wherein the majority of the members will be senior government officials.

Desilting is becoming a major component of any Lake Conservation Project now a days. The basic reasons given for necessity of desilting are - increasing the storage capacity and checking eutrophic conditions.

As it is not practicable to reverse the slow process of silting in the bed of lakes through which only silt can be removed, there is no word like 'desilting' in any standard English dictionary. What we are doing in the name of 'desilting' is practically 'digging' or 'excavation' of lake bed. By so called desilting, the original lake bed is disturbed which has far reaching adverse effects on the performance of the lake. Most visible effect is the increase in percolation rate resulting in heavy seepage losses through the lake bed as observed after massive desilting at Pushkar lake in 2009.

Fundamentals of Environmental Pollution and Control is a course offered by NPTEL under Mining Engineering, and is structured into 28 video lectures along the following topics:

• State of the Environment
• Environmental Movement
• Definitions of Environmental Terms

Organiser: YETI Student Volunteers

Venue: Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Description:

Young Ecologists Talk & Interact (YETI) is a conference for students and researchers working in the discipline of ecology in India. This event is meant to serve as a friendly, inspiring platform for early-career ecologists to present and discuss their work, exchange ideas, and may be even strike up collaborations with contemporaries from all over the country.

The study looks at the various processes and mechanisms of wind erosion as well as the factors that contribute to the increase or decrease of wind erosion in desert areas in the particular context of the Great Indian Desert. The method of estimation of soil loss in a desert area due to wind as suggested by Woodruff and Siddoway on the lines of Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is explained.

The study presents automated mapping of snow cover using a new spectral channel of Indian Remote Sensing (IRS-IC) data for the Spiti sub-basin of the Satluj river basin. Snow is an important phase of the hydrological cycle and the estimation of snowmelt runoff in the Himalayan rivers, either seasonal or daily, is of immense use in proper management and use of water resources in the basins.

The report presents a methodology to assess the probability distribution of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) based on the Streeter-Phelp’s equation. The methodology involves the use of first order analysis and Monte Carlo simulation to analyze the uncertainty associated with DO. The mean and standard deviation of the parameters have been assumed as same for the study’s probability distributions.

The study presents a preliminary hydrological investigation of the Deepar Beel, a natural freshwater lake near Guwahati, and notes the theoretical aspects of the techniques to be used, methodologies and instruments for conducting a detailed study of the natural processes at hand.

Deepar Beel acts as a natural stormwater reservoir during monsoon period and is greatly influenced by the rapid urbanization and improper land use pattern of Guwahati. It receives a large portion of sewage of the city, but the preliminary investigations reveal that the Beel is largely free from significant levels of pollution. This is due to the dilution effects of large storm water runoff during monsoons as also the release of the Beel water to river Brahmaputra through the Khanajun outlet. Yet, the soil quality is found to have deteriorated to a large extent.

Various parameters of soil and water quality indicate that the process of eutrophication is in progress in this wetland. Although many trace elements are present in the Beel sediments, no known toxic effects are observed on aquatic life. Increasing sedimentation and reduction in lake water capacity and inflow are also observed.

The study prepares a landuse and landcover map of Devak catchment of Ujh river basin in Jammu for the years 1958, 1979, 1990 and 1998 using image processing and visual interpretation techniques. It involves analysis of IRS-1A L2B2 (FCC) data for the year 1990, IRS -1C LISS III (digital data) for the year 1998 and SoI topographic maps for the year 1958 and 1979.