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The outliers: An interplay of space, knowledge, and capabilities in defining human–elephant relations in rurban southern India
Get PDFHiristor and Mak, two rurban male Asian elephants, culturally more synurbised than their forest counterparts, traverse a production landscape – once a forest but now teeming with people and infrastructure – in southern India, trying to come to terms with their newly lived spaces and the novel experiences driving them. A complex interplay of space, knowledge, and capabilities has created a new generation of ‘outlier’ elephants, who have no option but to develop novel, potentially adaptive, behavioural strategies to live alongside humans. This rapid synanthropisation of the elephant populations of peninsular India, we suggest, requires an urgent realisation of the latent capabilities of both people and elephants to enable their peaceful, but vital, coexistence in the troubled times of the Anthropocene
Thermal stratification characteristics during simultaneous charging and discharging for different storage tank geometries with immersed discharging coil
No full textThe geometrical shapes of the thermal energy storage and the configurations of immersed discharging coils dictate the efficacy of low-to-medium temperature hot water applications. This study uses a three-dimensional numerical model to investigate the thermal characteristics of three storage configurations for simultaneous charging and discharging. The same tank volume and height, as well as the same coil tube dimensions, are considered for three different configurations - cylindrical tank with a helical discharging coil, as well as circular truncated cone-shaped and paraboloidal tanks with conical discharging coils. The discharging flow rate is varied for a deeper understanding of the realistic interplay between energy demand and supply. Results obtained for the cylindrical tank are found to have good agreement with the observations from the in-house experiments. The energy stored, discharging coil outlet temperature, and the extent of thermal stratification decrease with increasing coil flow rate, whilst discharging efficiency and primary thermocline thickness increase. The paraboloidal tank equipped with a conical discharging coil exhibited the highest cumulative energy stored (8821 kJ) just before the commencement of dynamic dual operation, owing to the minimal thermal losses attributable to the lowest surface-area-to-volume ratio. Thermocline thickness is found to expand with time for all the cases, and the highest thermocline thickness expansion rate of 0.208 mm/s is found for the cylindrical tank indicating a higher degree of energy degradation. The peak values for the cumulative energy discharged (9788 kJ), and average discharging efficiency (0.36) occurred for the paraboloidal tank with the conical discharging coil configuration. Based on the detailed analyses, the paraboloidal storage tank configuration is found to exhibit better system reliability and energy management, leading to more efficient heat dispatch controllability due to the enhanced energy harnessing features
Understanding the influence of summer biomass burning on air quality in North India: Eight cities field campaign study
No full textNear real-time monitoring of major air pollutants, i.e., particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5, PM1), trace gases (O3, CO, NO, NO2, NOx, NH3, CO2, SO2) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs: benzene, ethylbenzene, m-, p-xylene, o-xylene and toluene) along with climatological parameters was done in eight-cities field campaigns during the rabi (wheat) crop residue burning period in the northwest of Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region. The phase-wise monitoring was done at eight locations representing rural, semi-urban and urban backgrounds. During the whole campaign, the semi-urban site (Sirsa) observed the highest average concentration of PM10 (226 ± 111 μg m−3) and PM2.5 (91 ± 67 μg m−3). The urban site (Chandigarh) reported the minimum concentrations of all the three size fractions of particulate matter with PM10 as 89 ± 54 μg m−3, PM2.5 as 42 ± 22 μg m−3 and PM1 as 20 ± 13 μg m−3 where the monitoring was done in the early phase of the campaign. The highest VOC concentration was recorded at the semi-urban (Sirsa) site, whereas the lowest was at a rural location (Fatehgarh Sahib). NH3 concentration was observed highest in rural sites (31.7 ± 29.8 ppbv), which can be due to the application of fertilizers in agricultural activities. Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) based fire and thermal anomalies, along with HYSPLIT back trajectory analysis, show that major air masses over monitoring sites (22 %–70 %) were from the rabi crop residue burning regions. The characteristic ratios and Principal component analysis (PCA) results show that diverse sources, i.e., emissions from crop residue burning, solid biomass fuels, vehicles and industries, majorly degrade the regional air quality. This multi-city study observed that semi-urban regions have the most compromised air quality during the rabi crop residue burning and need attention to address the air quality issues in the IGP region
Investigating early iron finds from Mayiladumparai Tamil Nadu
Get PDFThe paper covers preliminary metallurgical investigations related to the ferrous metal finds excavated at the Iron Age stie of Mayiladumparai by Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeolog
Women and the invisible gender terrain of armed resistance in India
No full textThe gender dimension of armed conflict is marginal in the scholarship on Peace, Conflict, and Security Studies and requires further engagement through a feminist lens. It disrupts the notion that participation in these movements helps women escape patriarchy, and raises questions about the ‘ambivalent emancipation’ in India’s ‘Red Corridors.’ Through a historical and contextual reading of various resistance movements in South India and West Bengal, this paper explores how women navigate and negotiate varied socio-cultural and gender norms around women’s participation in the conflict. This reading is beyond the notion of women in conflict as passive participants or victims
Remote sensing of flowers
No full textThe language of color pervades the natural world, with flowers being prime exemplars of communicating with color. Our understanding of floral colors is predominantly qualitative. It hinders the comprehensive decoding of information relayed through vibrant displays. Here we present the results of quantitative studies of floral colors by integrating hyperspectral remote sensing and color science. Further, we present the Indian Floral Spectral database, comprising spectral reflectance data for 686 angiosperm species in Kerala, India. Analysis of the elements in the database reveals intriguing insights into the altitudinal variability in human-perceived floral colors across nine angiosperm species. Our research introduces a novel approach that utilizes floral spectral reflectance data to study subtle changes in the landscape. Through the examination of floral color variations, we gain valuable insights into intra and inter-specific plant communications. The quantified floral colors posit as an objective plant trait, a prospective Tier I indicator of biodiversity targets
Shaurya aur Maya Ke Saat Adbhut Vaigyanik Karanaame (Translated by Niraj Chaddha) (Kindle edition)
No full textAge-Based Stratification to Estimate Aboveground Biomass (AGB) and Carbon Stocks of Rubber Plantations in Tripura
No full textRubber (Hevea brasiliensis (Wild. Ex Adr. De Juss.) Muell. Arg.) is emerging as a fast-expanding plantation crop in India and Southeast Asia. Traditionally, aboveground biomass (AGB) is estimated from forest type or crown density stratification by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) and does not explicitly account for standing age. The present study estimates the AGB and carbon (C) stock of natural rubber (NR) plantations in Tripura, India, which were estimated to cover 93 thousand hectares (kha) in 2021 using remote sensing. A multi-year satellite data-based rubber plantation age-class map was used with measured AGB to generate age-based rubber AGB and C-stock maps with 5-year interval age classes. The total carbon stored for all age group rubber plantations was found to be 2.8 Tg. State-level forest cover and type statistics from the Forest Survey of India (FSI) biannual reports, i.e. India State of Forest Report, were used to understand the dynamics of the forest over the past two decades. This study indicates that the expansion of rubber plantations was accompanied by a loss in natural vegetation and a reduction in standing pools. While India is committed to reducing carbon emissions, and NR plantations have the potential to be an important source of C-stocks at the state and national levels, results indicate that this study site has undergone significant changes in natural forest cover and type. The developed approach may be utilized in practical applications for accurate C-stock accounting in other managed forests
Functional Use-Based Positioning of Conventional Vehicles in Conjunction with Alternate Low-Emission Fuels
No full textIndia envisages energy diversification and transition to a cleaner fuel mix for the road transport segment, which contributes to about 75% of the country’s total CO2 emissions from the transport sector. In this pursuit, electric vehicles are pitted as a ‘one size fits all’ solution to all the problems posed by the current fossil fuel-based transport in the country. The current vehicle fleet running in India is dominated by the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)-based products (powered by mainly petrol and diesel), and the trend is likely to continue in the near-to-medium term. Therefore, it is necessary to consider alternate fuels for ICE-based vehicles to achieve decarbonization in India’s road transport sector. This study discusses the ICE-based alternate fuel options (natural gas, auto-gas and hydrogen) in the light of 28 identified parameters under the 4A framework of energy security, encompassing technical availability, resource availability, infrastructure accessibility, price affordability, social acceptability and environmental acceptability. The 4A framework analysis is carried out to assess the large-scale deployability of the alternate fuel options. The learnings from a few prominent global experiences (compressed natural gas in Argentina, liquefied natural gas in China, auto-gas in Turkey, ethanol in Brazil, biodiesel in Indonesia and hydrogen research across the globe) have been imbibed in the mapping of the possibilities in the Indian context, keeping in mind the diverse functional uses of different vehicle segments within the road transport sector. Biofuel blends are deployable in the short term for all vehicles running on conventional petrol or diesel, whereas the expansion of natural gas usage is constrained by the lack of availability and accessibility beyond a few nodes. The energy transition in the freight segment would need a complete overhaul of the ecosystem since hydrogen appears to be the most prominent alternate fuel in the medium-to-long term