Impacts of Controlled Forest Fires on Soil Properties in Gadchiroli Forest Circle, Central India

Forest is an important ecosystem service to human beings. In recent decades the forest is facing tremendous pressure from anthropogenic activities. One of the activities is the burning of forest floor for easy collection of non-timber forest produce. As a result of this number of incidences of forest fires has increased in the tribal-dominated area of the world. These forest fires have adverse impacts on soil properties which will ultimately in the long term have impacts on the forest ecosystem. Taking into consideration this fact this study was attempted to assess the impacts of controlled forest fires on the physicochemical properties of forest soil in the Gadchiroli forest circle of Central India. To assess the impacts six sampling sites from the forest where identified from the study area where no previous forest fire history was recorded in that season. Initial soil sampling before controlled forest fire was carried out in summer 2019 by quartering method in the topsoil layer (1-5 cm). A controlled forest fire was carried out in the same area. The soil was prepared for soil analysis and analysed by adopting standard methods for bulk density, water holding capacity, pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, and organic matter. Results revealed that forest fires increase the bulk density of soil, at 50% (n = 3) sampling locations water holding capacity got reduced down; whereas, at other half increased in capacity was observed. In the case of soil pH 66% (n = 4) sample reported increased in soil pH and at other reduction in soil pH was recorded. Except at one sampling location electrical conductivity was reduced. A similar trend was also noticed for organic carbon and organic matter. Bulk density and water holding capacity will have long term impacts; whereas, pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon and organic matter will have short term impacts. Furthermore, in those sampling locations where forest fire does not occur in the last 2-3 years organic carbon and organic matter content of the soil is high. Thus, measures to be taken to reduce forest fires activities by incorporating an effective forest fire management system at a place by incorporating fire load management subsystem and fire suppression subsystem. 

SOURCE OF GROUNDWATER IRON AND MANGANESE IN CHANDRAPUR DISTRICT, CENTRAL INDIA

Groundwater sampling was carried out by grab sampling method from 36 sampling locations from the Chandrapur district in three seasons i.e. winter, summer, and post-monsoon. The samples were analysed for physicochemical parameters and heavy metals i.e. iron and manganese. Data obtained from the study area was interpreted by using multivariate statistical analysis i.e. principal component analysis, cluster analysis, correlation matrix and one way ANOVA to ascertain source apportionment of these two heavy metals. The results of the multivariate analysis revealed that iron and manganese both were associated with the lithogenic source. Groundwater irons concentration was higher when compared with manganese and at a number of sampling locations it was above the stipulated standard of BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) (0.3 mg/L)

Climate Change Impact on Insect Pest Prevalence and Sustainable Adaptation Strategies for their Management

Climate change has a pronounced impact on agriculture. A pan-India study on climate change impact on insect pest prevalence was conducted on paddy, cotton, pulses, wheat, mustard and barley cultivating marginalized farmers (n=280). The systematic random sampling methodology was adopted for sample population identification. A specially designed, developed and field tested questionnaire was used to elicit the information from the respondent. The findings revealed that during the crop growth stage insect pest prevalence has increased, new types of insects affecting the crops, more weed growth affecting the crops, and the cost of insecticides and pesticides use has increased several folds. To manage these insect pests, synthetic insecticides and pesticides are used which have the number of disadvantages associated with them. To overcome these, sustainable adaptation strategies for insect pest management are identified from the literature and are described in this paper. These strategies include intercropping, poly-culture, cover crop, rice-fish agriculture system, organic mulches, bio-fumigation, trap cropping etc. Farmers’ awareness, training, and workshops are required for the dissemination of these strategies for insect pest management for transforming subsistence farming into sustainable farming

Cotton Cultivating Marginalised Farmers’ Climate Change Perceptions, Impacts and Adaptation Strategies in Vidarbha Region, Central India

This study aimed to assess cotton cultivating marginalised farmers' climate change perceptions, impacts, and adaptation strategies in the Vidarbha region of Central India. Purposive sampling was carried out to identify 70 marginalised farmers from the study area in the year 2020. A specially designed and developed questionnaire was used as a tool to elicit information from the respondent. From the identified sample population, 14.28% are illiterate and 34.28% with primary education and 42.85% don't use a cell phone. Climate change perceptions of these farmers are well understood and clear and reported rain pattern change (100%), wind profile change (81.42%) and high atmospheric temperature (75.71%). Of the different causes responsible for climate change crop residue burning is considered as a major (97.14%). Impacts of climate change on agriculture in general is reported as crop production reduced (95.71%) > crop growth reduction (85.71%) > reduction in soil fertility (81.42%) > irrigation water scarcity (65.71%). Impacts on cotton cultivation in particular include increase in insect/pest attack (90%) > production reduced (62.85%) > crop quality deteriorated (32.85%). The cost of insecticide/pesticide use is increased by 21-40% whereas profit received is decreased (71.42%). Heatstroke is identified as a major (66.66%) impact on livestock and death due to it (23.33%). Farmers willingness for adaptation to new methods is in the order of irrigation (82.85%) > harvest (72.85%) > during sowing (67.14%) > crop growth (51.42%). Future climate change adaptation strategies include high yielding crop varieties (100%) > early maturing crop varieties (60%) > use of organic manure (52.85%) > irrigated crops (48.57%) > drought-resistant crop varieties (45.71%) > crop diversification (37.14%) > water use change (30%). The climate change-induced problems faced by these marginalised farmers are well defined and different from other farmer categories and needs a holistic approach to overcome them. Sustainable adaptation strategies emphasize on climate-smart agriculture is the need of the hour to pave the way for sustainable agriculture and sustainable livelihood. This may be perhaps the first study with this aim from the region. Keywords: Central India, Chandrapur, climate change, climate smart agriculture, cotton, marginalised farmers, Vidarbh

Adding the Third Dimension to Building Construction Technology in Architecture Education

This paper looks into conventional teaching practices and intends to generate a new approach towards the teaching of Building Construction in architecture schools. With the fast pace of the current world and changing technology, conventional teaching practices that are largely based on information assimilation have ceased to serve us adequately. The rate of change in trends and technologies in the current times do not match the content of our existing syllabus. This paper tries to identify the role and application of Building Construction Technology for training the young minds for handling future challenges and coping up with upcoming developments. It talks about various experimentation and exploration techniques aimed at enhancing the student’s analytical ability as well as his/her understanding of materials, techniques, systems, etc. The Building Construction Technology team at IDEAS has tried to bridge the gap between conventional teaching methods and the changing technology by adding a third dimension to reaching-learning methodology. The paper presents methods devised and tested in the Second Year Building Construction Studio for enabling the students for creative handling of materials and technology

CPW Fed Circular Stub Wideband and Multiband Antennas for Wireless Applications

In this paper, a novel CPW fed slot antenna for multiband and wideband application with rectangle shaped ground planes is presented and discussed. It is printed on a dielectric substrate. The proposed antenna is fed by Coplanar waveguide (CPW) by 50? microstrip feed line. The planned antenna is simulated by means of HFSS (version 13) software by Ansoft. The antenna cover (2-12) GHz range which can meet the requirement of WLAN, WiMAX applications along with that it provide wide frequency band, reasonable gain and return loss. The stub introduced on the geometry will also decide the working of antenna as either wideband or multiband operation. In this work, we investigated its outcome on different places i.e. on centre of patch, on centre of grounds and everywhere on geometry. Placement and existence of stub may be at any point on the geometry. This design offers the enhanced gain and directivity of antenna which is applied for high efficiency antenna. A relationship is drawn among the performances of the antennas in terms of gain, return loss, VSWR and directivity of the antennas. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15039

Indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) from forest dwellers of Gondia district, Maharashtra

Indians have great knowledge of phytomedicines. This valuable knowledge has been conserved in the living folk traditions in ethnic communities.  An attempt has been made to explore traditional medicinal knowledge of plant materials, available in forest villages of Goregaon and Deori forest range of Gondia district, Maharashtra state. Gondia is one of the prominently categorized districts with maximum tribal population in Maharashtra which includes mostly Gond, Gowari, Halbi, Manah tribes with great numbers. In this study we documented about 49 plant species of various families which are commonly used by the tribal people to cure some common diseases viz. Dysentery, acute headache, toothache and carries, urinary troubles, skin diseases, antidote against snake bite, vomiting and many more. Ethnobotanical information were gathered through several visits, group discussions and cross checked with traditional medical practitioner of the study area

Tuberculous intestinal perforation in a case of Burkitt lymphoma on chemotherapy - A case report

Intestinal perforation induced by chemotherapy in a patient of Burkitt lymphoma is a known potential complication whichcarries high mortality. Perforation may also occur as a result of the transmural nature of the tumour. Patients on chemotherapyare prone to contract infectious diseases due to a compromised immune system. Pulmonary tuberculosis has been reported inthese patients, but abdominal tuberculosis has not. We report the case of a five year old boy on chemotherapy for Burkittlymphoma, and who developed a tuberculous jejunal perforation. The patient underwent drain insertion and stabilizationfollowed by exploratory laparotomy with resection of the pathological segment and closure of the duodenal stump at the fourthpart. Bowel continuity was re-established by gastrojejunostomy. Histopathologic examination of the resected segment revealedintestinal tuberculosis. Anti -tubercular therapy was started and continued for nine months. The last cycle of chemotherapy wasadministered 1 month after surgery. At 1 year of follow up the patient is asymptomatic and thriving well

An unusual presentation of rectal atresia with rectal duplication cyst in a neonate: A case report

A 10 days old male baby brought with abdominal distension and cystic swelling in the left buttock. Radiological investigationssuggested para-rectal abscess or rectal duplication cyst. Patient underwent transverse loop colostomy and later definitivesurgery by posterior sagittal approach. Intra-operative findings were suggestive of small atretic rectal segment with duplicationcyst of the rectum. To the best of our knowledge, neonatal rectal atresia with rectal duplication cyst has not been reported inEnglish literature