Impact of the non-biodegradable plastics and role of microbes in biotic degradation

Plastic is a group of elastic organic compounds whose definition has radically changed from being a large family of useful polymers to an indispensable part of life.  We might say we are residing in the “era of plasticene”. If we simply pause and look around, we would realize that a majority of things in our daily life comprise plastic polymers.  Currently, the international production of these polymers has spiked to around 300 million metric tons annually. Surprisingly about 50 percent of the products are discarded within a year of fabrication.  Once discarded ‘outside’ they end up ‘somewhere’ and start exerting their disruptive consequences.  Despite its enormous utility, it is now being increasingly known that these polymers are surely not without their downsides.  Several steps are taken and even more, are being investigated so the mayhem of plastic doesn't prove for a "no pilot in cockpit" situation. Here we have conducted a review work of the available literature on various biological entities that can utilize plastic while at the same time focusing our attempts to assemble information regarding the probable enzymes that do it.  We have also provided a report on the effect of different plastics on the ecosystem and the various management alternatives out there

Geospatial Analysis of Geo-Ecotourism Site Suitability Using AHP and GIS for Sustainable and Resilient Tourism Planning in West Bengal, India

The current study intended to geospatially analyze the potentiality and site suitability of geo-ecotourism in West Bengal, India. The state of West Bengal is a great platform for diverse tourism and has enormous potential to cultivate geo-ecotourism, as has come up in recent years. The current effort throws some valuable light on the possibility of turning the many geologically, geomorphologically and ecologically significant tourist spots of West Bengal into geo-ecotourism sites, aided with geospatial techniques. The study deals with the qualitative and quantitative investigation of the potentiality of the whole state by dividing it into several geo-ecotourism zones, based on its physiographic setting and Land Use Land Cover (LULC) features, using satellite image data. The application of geospatial technology combined with Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) was employed for this geospatial analysis to portray the potential zones using cartographic and statistical techniques. Furthermore, nine criteria were selected to run the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to determine the site suitability for geo-ecotourism. The present submission attempts to record the mapping and analysis of geo-ecotourism of West Bengal employing a secondary database, an expert’s opinions and primary observations, with the application of the AHP method and GIS. The outcomes of the study were found to be very significant, as they indicate a proviso for geo-ecotourism development in the state and will contribute to the formation of location-specific planning and the sustainable management of geo-ecotourism

Copper mediated decarboxylative direct C–H arylation of heteroarenes with benzoic acids

Decarboxylative coupling reactions to date require a stoichiometric oxidant (such as copper and silver salts) for decarboxylation purposes along with a metal catalyst (e.g. palladium) for cross-coupling. In this communication, an economic and sustainable approach by using a simple copper salt was developed in the presence of molecular oxygen as the sole oxidant. A wide range of 5-membered heteroarenes undergo aryl-heteroaryl cross-coupling with electron deficient aryl carboxylic acids