Prioritization of Watersheds in Wular Catchment for Sustainable Development and Management of Natural Resources

The resource development programmes are applied generally on watershed basis and thus prioritization is essential for proper planning and management of natural resources for sustainable development. The study area is situated in Sopore, Bandipore and Sonawari tehsils. It lies between 34°12′24.67″ and 34°36′26.26″ N latitude and 74°26′41.42″ and 74°56′02.90″E longitude. The present study is an attempt to carry out the prioritization on an integrated approach utilizing, land use/cover, drainage morphometry and socio-economic data. The indicators included in prioritization are man- land ratio, population growth, average annual fuel wood consumption, drainage density, forest cover, built up, barren land and agriculture.The prioritization is carried by assigning ranks to the individual indicators and a composite score is calculated. It is revealed from the study that eight watersheds fall under high priority zone, eight under medium and three under low priority zone. The Watershed 1EW2b has attained the highest priority level. The prioritized watersheds are in dire need of management and planning so that the problem of environment degradation in them can be addressed

Geomorphologic Character & Receding Trend of Kolahoi Glacier in Kashmir Himalaya

Glaciers are a valuable source of fresh water which sustain life and provide water for drinking, irrigation, hydro power generation, etc. Besides, these exert considerable influence on the climate of a region and fluctuate in dimension in response to the climatological changes and therefore, these are regarded as sensitive indicators of the climate of a region. Glaciers are in the process of retreat in almost all the parts of the world due to global warming. The same process of retreat is found in the valley’s largest glacier, Kolahoi. Thus, it is of great significance to obtain the accurate information of changes in Kolahoi glacier  (34° 07′ to 34° 12′ N latitude; & 75° 16′ to 75° 23′ E longitude, Liddar valley, Kashmir Himalayas). The study was carried out using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques and thorough field observations were conducted to identify the geomorphologic features. The area of the glacier receded from 13.57km² in 1963 to 10.69km² in 2005, registering a change of 2.88km2at a rate of 0.068km2per year. The Crevasses developed in the ablation portion of the Kolahoi Glacier and the formation of numerous caves at its snout position act as the important indicators of its recession. The result of this retreat will prove disastrous for the valley in many fields like drinking water, agriculture, horticulture, ground water, hydro power capacity of the state, etc. Therefore, we need to make efforts to save this precious source of water for the present as well as for future generations

Watershed Characterization And Management Planning In Wular

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The Asian communication debate: culture-specificity, culture-generality, and beyond

Critical discussion of Asian communication theory began in the 1980s, fermented in the 1990s, and in recent years was enriched by the criticism of Eurocentrism. Significant progress has been made in the pursuit of theory construction, especially in areas that closely deal with culture and communication issues, e.g., intercultural communication, postcolonial or cultural studies. While greater attention was paid to the cultural contexts of communication research in Asia, a number of crucial issues seem to have remained unsettled, among them the need and possibility of de-Westernization, and the pros and cons of culture-specific and culture-general approaches. In this article we make an attempt to tease through layers of arguments and sift proposals and possibilities, with the hope that a more viable future direction could emerge to reconcile the tension between culture-specificity and culture-generality. Our discussion focuses on the concept of cultural commensurability, which stresses similarity and equivalence, and not commonality and uniformity. Taking note of the inherent openness of culture, language and meaning, it is argued that the concept of cultural commensurability will open the indigenization issue to a broader horizon for future discourse