2835 research outputs found
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An Old Monk: Reminiscences of Raja Ramanna in NIAS, 1996–2004
No full textIn this intensely personal chapter of the commemorative volume on the late Raja Ramanna, I reflect on the remarkable individual that Dr Ramanna was and as I saw him during our years together in NIAS, from 1996 till his passing in 2004. I particularly celebrate his multifaceted personality, especially his relationships with the young faculty of the institute, his deep love for all living beings, and his inimitable sense of humour through which he saw the world
Migrant Construction Labour in India: Contracting Chains, Labour Process and Social Welfare Policy (NIAS/SSc/UMS/U/PR/01/2025)
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Spatial and temporal variations of temperature and rainfall, and land use/land cover changes in the Bengaluru urban district
Full text linkSustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 focuses on ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities.’ This paper presents the spatial and temporal changes in rainfall and temperature from 1980 to 2022 and Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) in the Bengaluru urban district between 1992 and 2022. This study employs linear regression and non-parametric Modified Mann-Kendall techniques to evaluate the importance of weather data patterns at yearly, monthly, and seasonal levels. The findings reveal a decrease in mean maximum temperature and an increase in minimum temperature, indicating cooler days and warmer nights. Seasonal rainfall also exhibits an increasing trend in the study area over the observation period of 40 years. To quantify some of the key reasons for these microclimate changes, LULC analysis was conducted over 30 years (1992-2022). This analysis indicates a substantial transformation in Bengaluru's landscape, with built-up areas growing at the expense of water bodies, vegetation, and fallow landdue to the rapid urbanization around Bengaluru and the consequent land-use alterations without adequate planning and assessing their environmental and climate impacts. While this study is based in Bengaluru, the method used in this study can be expanded to other megacities to contribute to the achievement of SDG 11
Assessing water consumption in Indian thermal power plants and parametric strategy for optimal usage: An explanatory approach using machine learning algorithms
No full textThe reliability of water supply resources is of utmost importance for the electricity sector, particularly for the cooling requirements in Steam Rankine Cycle (SRC)-based thermo-electric power plants. The study investigates the influence of specific power plant parameters, such as Cycles of Concentration (CoC) and Plant Load Factor (PLF), and meteorological conditions (such as temperature, humidity, and wind speed) on the specific water consumption (SWC) of Indian thermal power stations using Machine Learning (ML) based Decision Tree Algorithms. While regulations exist to reduce water consumption, the study highlights the underexplored potential of improving these power plant parameters, which are crucial for water use curtailment. By leveraging data-driven decision-making, the study identifies the order of importance for the significant variables that influence SWC in thermal power plants and highlights the necessity of optimizing these variables. The study concludes that an optimal operational range can be established by effectively controlling CoC and PLF, considering the local meteorological parameters, that yields minimal water consumption for power plant operations. The results derived from the Machine Learning algorithms possess intuitive validity, as confirmed by descriptive analysis and insights from domain experts, as well as previously published scholarly articles. This study is a testament to the practical effectiveness of machine learning tools in addressing socially important sustainability issues
Politicising problem wildlife: Insights from the ‘vermin’ campaign for the wild pig in Kerala, southern India
No full textManagement strategies for nuisance wildlife species are typically contentious policy decisions that reveal much about socio-political tensions in a region as they do about the depredating behaviour of wildlife. We examined human-wild pig conflict in the state of Kerala, southern India, to understand the circumstances behind the state government repeatedly petitioning the federal government for a vermin status for wild pigs. Employing a mixed methods research approach, we collected field data on wild pig crop raiding intensities, conducted stakeholder interviews, and analysed various governmental and organisational documents related to the vermin status petitions. Our results show that various human groups supported a vermin status for the wild pig for socio-political reasons rather than economic factors. Human-human conflicts over wildlife are not limited to different human groups but can also occur between state and federal governments. We recommend the need for scientific field studies before wildlife management policies are put into place to deal with problem wildlife
Of Culture and Nature: Interdisciplinary Forays into Cultural Ecosystem Services through Human–Wildlife Relationships
No full textNatural Resource, Conflict and People’s Movement: A Strategy for Resolution
No full textThe issue of people’s movements demanding their fair share, rights, and entitlements over natural resources necessitates a strategic strategy to managing these resources and addressing the socio-political conflicts surrounding them. It is essential to move beyond the dominant discourse that views such conflicts solely through the lens of political and security threats and instead examine their socio-political and economic dimensions. Furthermore, a critical engagement is required to understand how successive governments and non-state actors manipulate and misappropriate these movements. Based on extensive field research in the Kalahandi and undivided Koraput districts of Odisha, this policy document identifies the key issues driving these movements as they assert their claims over natural resources. In doing so, it presents its findings and offers policy recommendations to manage natural resources and address the associated conflicts effectively
Foregrounding Equity in Climate Action
No full textIndia’s developmental challenges are significant and need to be overcome urgently, especially in the era of climate change. The impacts of climate change, both ongoing and the potential impacts in the future, have been compounded further by climate inaction by developed countries. This brief outlines a potential strategy for India to ensure climate justice and equity in global climate action. Based on data, this brief argues that India must strongly lobby for cumulative emissions and the total global carbon budget to be the basis for determining the adequacy and ambition of climate action. A fair share of the carbon space is well in line with the principles of equity and climate justice enshrined in the UNFCCC and is also in keeping with the results of climate science
To be or not to be conscious: Reflections on the phenomenological complexity of the Macaque mind
No full textOne of the most difficult aspects of studying consciousness scientifically, particularly in other-than-humans, is to develop functional definitions for the phenomenon in non-verbal beings, wherein consciousness has to manifest itself in behavioural actions that can be unambiguously ascribed to being products of conscious states of the mind. Walter Veit’s novel pathological complexity thesis proposes to investigate nonhuman consciousness from an evolutionarily bottom-up perspective, casting aside our obsessive preoccupation with the complexities of human consciousness, and seeks to understand the adaptive origins of even the most minimal forms of subjective experience. In this brief response to Veit’s proposal, I offer glimpses into the phenomenologically complex minds of wild individual bonnet macaques Macaca radiata – a cercopithecine nonhuman primate endemic to peninsular India – examined through deep naturalistic observations of their cognitive decision-making processes. Such explorations, I believe, are critically important, in not only revealing the innovative responses of these cognitive beings to the pathological complexity presented by the socioecological realities of the everyday but also in uncovering the mechanisms by which these individuals may be able to ‘consciously’ synthesise their various subjective experiences to take novel decisions at different stages of their challenging life histories in the long term, as postulated by Veit