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Community Conserved Areas in Northeast India and Their Role in Addressing Human-Wildlife Conflict
No full textIntegration of local communities in nature/wildlife conservation is increasing, and the emergence of “Community-Conserved Areas” or CCAs in recent times is a testimony to that. Keeping northeastern India as the regional focus, this chapter aims to understand the evolution, nature and types of CCAs in this region and analyze their role, with particular reference to local human-wildlife conflicts in and around CCAs. These CCAs, comprising different land-use elements, have resulted in a decentralized model for governance and empowerment for the communities, but their role in reducing the emerging threat of human-wildlife conflict is understudied. Human-wildlife conflict through crop and livestock damage negatively affected the villages surrounding the CCAs, and such damages produced significant friction among various conservation actors. With two cases of human-wildlife conflict around CCAs from Nagaland, a biodiverse state in northeast India, this chapter delves deeper into the governance of this critical issue
Reconstructing the geological and geomorphological history of Morella Crater, Mars
No full textAncient impact craters on Mars provide insights into the geological events and are time markers for studying global processes like colossal volcanism and fluvial activities. Among these craters, the 77 km diameter Morella Crater serves as a representative, capable of demonstrating diverse processes that acted on Martian terrain, and hence, the geological and geomorphological history of this crater is studied in detail. Despite its infilling, Morella hosts Ganges Cavus, a significant collapse structure, and Elaver Vallis, an outflow channel. We hypothesize the development of the crater through five stages, from its origin to its current denuded state, exhibiting diverse processes that determine the fate of Martian craters. Crater size-frequency distribution suggests a formation age of
Ga for the plateau hosting Morella Crater and
Ga for Morella Plains, the vast expansive plains within the crater. The occurrence of pyroxene and olivine in Morella Plains, identified through hyperspectral data, indicates impact-induced volcanism. The heat source associated with faulting and dike intrusion in the adjoining Ophir Catenae Structural Complex might have ruptured the confined cryosphere, resulting in the formation of Ganges Cavus and eventual filling of Morella with water, which subsequently breached to form Elaver Vallis at
Ga. Hydraulic modelling reveals a floodwater volume of 3.27 × 1012 m3 and an estimated peak discharge of 3 × 107 m s−1 associated with this event. Morella witnessed additional fluvial activity at
Ga that created the dark-toned channels. The extensive range of geological and geomorphological processes makes Morella Crater a promising location for future Mars missions
Source-specific fine particulates emission linked to prevalence of ophthalmic cases in India
No full textDerivation of surface and groundwater pollution index in the urban-industrial sector along Cauvery river to assess the quality standards
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Discourses around the Kashmiri Pandits: Engaging with the 'fractured identity' and the 'politics of deadlock'
No full textVegetation indices and the changing landscape: a spatio-temporal study of vegetation composition and health
No full textVegetation indices (VIs), derived from satellite remote sensing (RS) data, are crucial in assessing vegetation dynamics and health. This study applies various VIs to determine forest composition and health across contrasting landscapes: natural vegetation (mangroves and shola), managed ecosystems (rubber and tea), and crops (sugar cane and wheat). We track monthly vegetation fraction from 2019 to 2023, using both optical and microwave frequencies. Multisource and multitemporal satellite RS data from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 are processed via the cloud computing platform Google Earth Engine and R-statistical software. By evaluating these indices across six diverse landscapes, we gain insights into spatio-temporal changes in vegetation health. Understanding the limitations and capabilities of multiple VIs is essential for effective remote sensing in vegetation research
Crafting Fishy News: Framing and Attitudinal Positioning in English Newspaper Articles on Mahseer from Their Endemic Range
No full textSimplified neurochaos learning architectures for data classification
No full textDeveloping Machine Learning algorithms that can classify datasets with higher accuracy and efficiency is crucial in
practical applications. Neurochaos Learning (NL) is a recently proposed algorithm that is inspired by the chaotic firing
of neurons in the brain. NL has shown promise in recent times both in terms of classification accuracy and in the number of samples needed for training. In this study, we propose a novel simplification of Neurochaos Learning algorithm
by reducing the number of features needed for classification and also reducing the number of hyperparameters needed
to be tuned. By using a single feature of the chaotic neural traces (orbit generated by chaotic map) of NL and by using
only one hyperparameter, we demonstrate a significant boost in run time of the algorithm while retaining comparable classification accuracy. This single feature could either be the mean of the chaotic neural traces (Tracemean) or the
Fluctuation Index (FI) of the chaotic neural traces. The classifier itself could either be a simple cosine similarity (Tracemean ChaosNet, FI ChaosNet) or any of the classical machine learning (ML) classifiers (Tracemean+ML, FI+ML). We
compare the performance of these newly proposed simplified NL algorithms on ten publicly available datasets. The
proposed simplified NL architectures in this study are able to efficiently classify datasets while taking much less run
times. The fact that only a single hyperparmeter needs to be tuned in both architectures (Tracemean ChaosNet and FI
ChaosNet) makes them very attractive for practical applications with ease of interpretabilit
Regulation Boundaries for Preservation of Cultural Heritage Sites
No full textPreserving cultural heritage sites in India requires defining regulatory boundaries that reflect their historical integrity. While field surveys are effective for assessing a site’s authenticity, they often overlook unprotected or obscured features essential to understanding a site’s historical extent. This policy brief highlights the role of geospatial technologies—remote sensing, GIS, and sat nav—in identifying and delineating heritage landscapes beyond current protected areas. Case studies of Nalanda, Halebidu, Srirangapatna, and Bodhgaya reveal extensive archaeological features outside designated areas, demonstrating the need for boundary reassessment. The Brief recommends: integrating historical records with geospatial data to identify areas requiring protection, creating a national geospatial heritage database, and training heritage professionals in these methods. It also stresses engaging local communities. Leveraging these approaches can ensure more comprehensive conservation, enabling heritage sites to serve as sustainable cultural and economic resources