Tourist Flow and Tourism Potential Regions of Gulmarg in Kashmir Himalayas

Gulmarg has a rich and diverse touristic product that holds the potential to be one of the most attractive tourist destinations for both leisure and sports tourism across the whole Kashmir Himalayan region The place owes its importance mainly to its beautiful geo-environmental setup and unique climate The destination has a history of tourism activities for more than five centuries The resort has been a great attraction for several British officials posted in India and their families made Gulmarg their home for the summer months This his to-geographical personality of the place has resulted in the development of tourist regions of interest to a range of tastes especially for holiday makers and sports and adventure tourists Therefore present study aims at identification and delineation of the different tourist potential regions of the place which would help in proper marketing of the tourist product management of tourist flow optimization of economic returns and management of the environmental health of the destination for sustainable tourism development in the regio

Watershed Based Drainage Morphometric Analysis of Lidder Catchment in Kashmir Valley Using Geographical Information System

The quantitative analysis of drainage system is an important aspect of characterization of watersheds. Using watershed as a basic unit in morphometric analysis is the most logical choice because all hydrologic and geomorphic processes occur within the watershed. Lidder catchment which constitutes a segment of the western Himalayas with an area of 1159.38 km2 (10% of the river Jhelum catchment) has been selected as the study area. Various linear and areal aspects of the catchment were computed at watershed level. This was achieved using GIS to provide digital data that can be manipulated for different calculations. The analysis has revealed that the total number as well as total length of stream segments is maximum in first order streams and decreases as the stream order increases. Horton’s laws of stream numbers and stream lengths also hold good. The bifurcation ratio between different successive orders is almost constant. The drainage density values of the different watersheds exhibit high degree of positive correlation (0.97) with the stream frequency suggesting that there is an increase in stream population with respect to increasing drainage density and vice versa

One Dimensional Steady Flow Analysis Using HECRAS – A case of River Jhelum, Jammu and Kashmir

Floods have been recurrent phenomena in the study area. A heavy precipitation, usually coming during the end months of the summer season in association with sudden cloudburst, leads to severe flooding in the study area. By now the catchment area of the river is already saturated and the high run-off swells the rivers beyond their capacity. The present study describes the application of HEC RAS Model for flood studies in the river Jhelum Kashmir valley. The peak flood records were used as inputs into HEC RAS model to find out the resultant expected flood levels. The resultant output generated by the model shows an overflow at maximum locations of the river under study for 50 years and above return period. This purpose is to give a hand to policy makers, planners and insurers, to develop a robust strategy for the development of flood mitigation measures and plans to minimise the losses associated with the disaster in the study area

Spatial Analysis on the provision of Urban Amenities and their Deficiencies - A Case Study of Srinagar City, Jammu and Kashmir, India

The paper examined inequality in the distribution of urban amenities in Srinagar City. Inequality in the study area is manifested in the form of unequal provision of social amenities within the wards (municipal units) of the City. The spatial distribution and concentration of two social amenities, viz, educational institutions and fire service stations was studied. The study mainly relied on the secondary sources of data. The Z-score variate has been used to determine the spatial concentration pattern in the provision of these amenities. However, Lorenz Curve proved to be a useful tool in accessing and quantifying the spatial disparity. The results of the analysis indicate that inequalities exist in the provision of accessibility of these amenities among different wards in Srinagar city. The reasons for the uneven distribution of urban amenities are spurt urban growth in the last three decades and poor management planning. The paper suggests that planning body must keep pace with the urban sprawl in order to ensure the equitable distribution of urban amenities in the city. Keywords: Amenities, Wards, Srinagar City, Well-being, Accessibility, Lorenz Curv

Dynamics of Land use Change in Rural-Urban Fringe - A Case Study of Srinagar City

In the beginning of twentieth century, great scientific inventions like that of the steam engine had accelerated the process of industrialization. According to urban geographers, this has provided scope for the expansion of urban centers. Aguilar (2008), states that, urbanization is one of the most striking human induced land transformation of the current era. Cities are expanding in size and relative importance in many parts of the world due to rapid expansion of urban population. Many reasons have been given for the rapid growth of urban population in the developing countries. One of the chief causes has been unbridled influx of rural population in to urban areas. With improved agriculture and increasing pressure of population on land, surplus rural population is released and pushed out. In the meantime, a pull force on account of industrialization in urban areas has attracted the potential rural emigrants to the cities. With rapid pace of industrial development in the towns, progressive mechanization of the farm, disintegration of the joint family system, and an increasing demand for men and material in commercial enterprises and public utility services, the migration of rural population in to urban areas, in search of food and shelter, is expected to continue unabated. Besides above reasons the attraction furnished by job opportunities, greater economic insecurity of the adjoining villages, the lure of improved social facilities for recreation, medical care and education and higher recreation comfort have also caused the influx of people from rural districts to the towns. All these factors became responsible for fast growth of urban centers, making in depth study of urban areas an increasingly important branch of geography

Flood Vulnerability Assessment and Hazard Zonation of Greater Srinagar

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Dynamics of cropping land use pattern and status of food scenario in Jammu and Kashmir- a Spatio-Temporal analysis.

Economic activity is the work that people do to enhance their quality of life. Economic activities include all the tasks that people do to get, refine or use natural resources. Land is one important natural resource used by man from times immemorial in a number of ways (Siddhartha, 2008). It was in Neolithic age (10000-2500 B.C.) when man used first time land for cultivation (Dinham, 2003). This practice of care of the soil or the cultivation of land is referred to as „agriculture‟ [Hussain (1970), Varsha and Datye (1976), Mounton (1981), Timmer and Szirmai (2000), Kurosaki (1999), Huffman and Evenson (2001), Misra and Rao (2003), Hayami (2003), Ainsworth and Leakey (2008)] and is by far the most important of the world economic activities. It has been a popular theme of geographic studies in India as well. It is not only because most of the people depend for food and several raw materials on it, but also because of the largest fraction of land under human occupancy is used for agricultural purposes. Therefore, the geographers are primarily concerned with man‟s varied impact upon the earth‟s surface, i.e., land husbandry or land use analysis (Zamir, 2005). Cropping land-use is a highly dynamic process. It implies that policy discussions and development planning have to be based on a sound understanding of these dynamics. Therefore, it is imperative to make a comprehensive study of the pattern and magnitude of cropping land-use shifts for sustainability and productivity of agriculture in an area (Wani et al, 2009). The very purpose of cropping land use classification is to get an idea of the extent the land has been put into different uses (cereals, non-cereals, cash crops etc). Knowledge of cropping land use helps in maximization of productivity and conservation of land. Physical and human factors influence cropping land use pattern. Cropping pattern refers to the proportion of the area under different crops at a point of time (Siddhartha & Mukherjee, 2007). It also reveals the rotation of crops and the area under double cropping etc. in any state or country.Digital copy of ThesisUniversity of Kashmi

Global overview of the management of acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic (CHOLECOVID study)

Background: This study provides a global overview of the management of patients with acute cholecystitis during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: CHOLECOVID is an international, multicentre, observational comparative study of patients admitted to hospital with acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on management were collected for a 2-month study interval coincident with the WHO declaration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and compared with an equivalent pre-pandemic time interval. Mediation analysis examined the influence of SARS-COV-2 infection on 30-day mortality. Results: This study collected data on 9783 patients with acute cholecystitis admitted to 247 hospitals across the world. The pandemic was associated with reduced availability of surgical workforce and operating facilities globally, a significant shift to worse severity of disease, and increased use of conservative management. There was a reduction (both absolute and proportionate) in the number of patients undergoing cholecystectomy from 3095 patients (56.2 per cent) pre-pandemic to 1998 patients (46.2 per cent) during the pandemic but there was no difference in 30-day all-cause mortality after cholecystectomy comparing the pre-pandemic interval with the pandemic (13 patients (0.4 per cent) pre-pandemic to 13 patients (0.6 per cent) pandemic; P = 0.355). In mediation analysis, an admission with acute cholecystitis during the pandemic was associated with a non-significant increased risk of death (OR 1.29, 95 per cent c.i. 0.93 to 1.79, P = 0.121). Conclusion: CHOLECOVID provides a unique overview of the treatment of patients with cholecystitis across the globe during the first months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The study highlights the need for system resilience in retention of elective surgical activity. Cholecystectomy was associated with a low risk of mortality and deferral of treatment results in an increase in avoidable morbidity that represents the non-COVID cost of this pandemic

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic