Sudhirendar Sharma: Economics Versus Ecology: The Plight of Geography.
It is ironical and a grave concern that the economic vision is close to writing off the bottom 10 per cent of our society from the geographical canvas. Shockingly, large numbers of the middle class are now perfectly willing to sacrifice large sections of the society for the sake of development. The way modernization is conceptualized has led to genocides; an enormous degree of violence; the demolition of civilizations; and the devouring of landscapes.
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A.K.M. Anwaruzzaman: Indo-Bangla Enclaves: A Chronological and Chorological Study.
There are Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and Bangladeshi enclaves in India and then enclaves within enclaves (counter-enclave) and again an enclave within an enclave that is in turn within another enclave (counter-counter-enclave). There are Indian enclaves within Bangladeshi enclave attached to Indian territories and vice-versa. Enclaves that have roots to 1712 AD survived during the Mughal period and existed through British Empire. Real problem of enclaves started with partition of India. From 1958 to 1982 several attempts have been made to solve the problem but the sufferings of enclave dwellers have rather aggravated. To trace a long journey, from where these 'encaged' territories, have arrived with their sons of soil is the primary concern of this study.
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Abha Lakshmi Singh, Salahuddin Mohd.: Addressing Waste Associated Problems in Aligarh City.
Indian cities have a striking similarity when it comes to heaps of garbage, overflowing waste bins and drains, a sign of municipality's inefficiency in managing waste. The problem of waste is not just limited to large cities but has seeped into smaller cities like Aligarh. In this paper an attempt has been made to assess the waste associated problems both inside the homes and in the neighbourhoods. The study is mainly based on primary data which were collected through city/ household surveys with the help of a questionnaire interviews. The sample size consisted of 1,629 households belonging to different income groups. Field work was done during the years 2006 and 2007. City and household surveys helped in identification of three most important problems associated with waste – problem of pests inside the house, problem of waterlogging in the neighbourhood and health problems.
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Rupinder Kaur, Gian Singh: Extent and Determinants of Indebtedness Among Farmers in Rural Punjab: Inter - Regional Analaysis (Part I).
The present paper attempts to examine the extent and determinants of indebtedness of the different farm-size categories across the regions in the rural areas of the Punjab state. The paper brings out that the proportion of farm households under debt is the highest in the central plain region (South). The amount of debt per household and per acre is the highest in the western plain region (South). The amount of debt per household is positively associated with farm-size and the amount of debt per operated acre is negatively associated with farm-size in all the regions. Source wise the commission agents come out to be the largest contributor towards loans in the central plain region (North) and the western plain region (South). The major proportion of non-productive loans goes to family maintenance expenditure. Income from subsidiary occupations and the educational level of the head of the family have inverse relationship with indebtedness.
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Ravinder Kaur: Impact of Globalization on Urban-Rural Relations: Some Reflections from Inter-state Chandigarh Region.
Globalization has been quite instrumental in increasing the mobility of persons, goods, capital and ideas which have a direct bearing on urban-rural relations. The present paper purports to highlight the role of globalization in shaping the urban-rural relations in terms of their intensity, nature and direction in the Inter-State Chandigarh Region. In the post 1991 period, privatization and improvements in transport, communication and information technology played a significant role in strengthening the urban-rural relations in the region. Under the changed scenario, the increasing number of vehicles (both two and four wheelers) and telephones (both mobile and landline) have substantially contributed in strengthening the intensity of urban-rural relations. The transport technology has not only facilitated the movement of perishable goods (milk, poultry, flowers, vegetables) but also increased the mobility of commuters from longer distances. Since the distances are gradually shrinking, the distinction between the rural and urban seems to be falling apart. Thus, a visible change can be seen in the intensity, nature and direction of urban-rural relations in the region.
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Surjit Singh Saini, Dr. M.P Gupta: Relief Analysis of Kaushalaya River Watershed Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques.
The present study is aimed at analyzing the relief characteristics of Kaushalaya River watershed using Google Earth (Digital Globe Images) and digital elevation model (DEM)generated from Survey of India toposheets in GIS environment. GIS techniques are being used for assessing various terrain and morphometric parameters of the drainage basins and watersheds, as they provide a flexible environment and a powerful tool for the manipulation and analysis of spatial information for better understanding. In the present study GIS analysis techniques were used to evaluates the relief characteristics in terms of absolute relief, relative relief, hypsometry and landscape profiles. These elements of relief have been analysed using the DEM of 20m spatial resolution and grids of 1 km². The spatial variations in absolute relief and relative relief have been shown with the help of maps. The hypsometric curves have been computed and prepared based on sliced DEM at an interval of 1km distance in x,y direction.
The study reveals that 42 per cent area of the watershed comes under the category of 1000-1500m elevation. The areas of high relative relief coincide with areas of high absolute relief. The study indicates that with the increase in elevation specifically beyond 1400m height, the areal coverage decreases in the watershed. It is more evident from the fact that only 17.82 percent area falls in higher altitudes above 1400m. The hypsometric integral computed for Kaushalaya River watershed is 61.50 per cent which indicates its early mature stage. The superimposed and composite profiles portray both the sharpness of relief features in the northern part and moderate slope in the piedmont zone located in the southern part of the watershed. The slope analysis reveals that about 39 per cent of study area has very gentle slope. The area lying in very steep slope category is merely 2.76 per cent of total watershed.
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Alamtar Ali: Sex Composition in Uttarpradesh: A Spatial Analysis.
Sex composition of population is measured in terms of ratio ie. number of females per thousand males. It has been observed that the sex ratio has witnessed declining trend in Uttar Pradesh as well asfor India as a whole. The male deficiency region occurs in the northeastern districts. This deficiency is a strong testimony to highly male selective migration taking place from these districts to the metropolises under the push effect of relatively limited resources and very high levels of socio-economic backwardness. The over all assessment of the thirty three variables taken in this study and their associations with sex composition of population leads to the conclusion that the socio-economic structure, migration and landuse etc. are the chief determinants of the sex composition of population. On almost all counts and variables, wide spatial variations are visible. The spatial patterns of sex composition deserve to be considered as one of the most important resultant of prevailing socio-economic milieu in the state.
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Inder Singh: Khap Panchayats and Social Harmony: A Case Study of Haryana.
The Khap Panchayats are ancient republican and socially sanctioned institutions of Haryana. Khap Panchayats have played an important Social role in fighting against the soicial evils. Khap panchayats still play an important role in formulating social relations including marriages between individuals, between different social groups and between different villages. But sometimes their decisions have been taken as immoral and unconstitutional. In this paper an attempt has been made to examine the role of Khap Panchayats in the past historic time and their relevancy at present. The study also examines the attitude of young as well as old generations about the role of these Khap Panchayats and their future prospective.
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D.D. Sharma, Ashwani Kumar: Administrative Readjustments and Changing Face of Himachal Pradesh: A Geographical Perspective.
Administrative geography of Himachal Pradesh has been a saga of several territorial surgeries and shuffling. This hill state has a colonial past and since its formation on April 15th, 1948 it has undergone a number of administrative readjustments and alterations. This process has been of merger of new areas and realignment of internal boundaries. This resulted into gradual increase in the geographical area of the state along with changing territorial expressions. The entire course of administrative realignment was not an arbitrary or spontaneous process but it was the interplay of various cultural, politico-historical and geographical factors. In the present study, administrative history of Himachal Pradesh since 1872 to 2001 has been examined from a geographical perspective using administrative maps of different time periods prepared by Census of India. This study is primarily focused on changing nature of administrative boundaries in Himachal Pradesh.
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Map Series-II: R. C. Chandna: Literacy in Punjab and Haryana-2001
Indian census considers a person as literate if he/she can both read and write in any language. That is why, literacy rates in India are calculated excluding 0-6 age group of population. There is no denying the fact that India is still in the midst of its literacy transition. Consequently, the country is characterised by low but improving literacy rates. Accordingly only 64.8 per cent of the country's population could be classified as literate in 2001. The study region, however, had 68.8 per cent of its population as literate.
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Doctoral Abstract: Atta-Ur-Rahman: Environmental Impacts of Chashma Right Bank Canal on the Land use and Agricultural Resources of Dera Ismail Khan District, Pakistan
This study attempts to evaluate the environmental impacts of Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC) on the land use and agricultural resources of Dera Ismail Khan (D.I.Khan) district, Pakistan. It is the southern most district of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and stretches between 31 15' to 32 32' North latitude and 70 11' to 71 20' East longitude. D.I.Khan district is bounded on the north by Marwat, Bhittani and Shirani hills, while Suliman Mountain lies in its west. The Indus River and Vehowa stream form the natural boundary to the East and South, respectively. The climate of D.I.Khan is characterized by long hot summerand short cool winter.
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Doctoral Abstract: Daljit Kaur: Ground Water and Agricultural Development in Northeastern Haryana (1970-2003)
At present India has achieved self-sufficiency in food production. Haryana is one of the leading states in the development of agriculture of the country. The main factor behind this development is the role played by non-physical factor i.e. irrigation. The use of available water resources whether surface water or sub-surface water for irrigation can increase the agricultural production to meet the needs of increasing population.
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Doctoral Abstract: Gaurav Kalotra: Patterns of Migration To, From and Within Punjab: A Spatial Perspective
Punjab has a very long history of migration. Many civilisations and dynasties came, flourished and ultimately vanished to the vagaries of time. The proportion of migrant population to Punjab's total population has been changing consistently from 36.88 per cent in 1971, to 35.19 per cent in 1981 to 34.32 per cent in 1991 and to 37.73 per cent in 2001.
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Doctoral Abstract: Ripudaman Singh: Trends in Regional Disparities in India Since Independence: A Geographical Analysis
The research dissertation examined the issue of regional disparities in India from a spatio-temporal perspective as an exercise in development geography. The basic preposition was that underdevelopment and large scale inequalities in India were rooted in its historical past, especially the colonial phase, and the issue had not been adequately addressed in the post-independence period. This study was motivated by a contemporary debate on the impact of the New Economic Policy on regional disparities in India.
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Doctoral Abstract: Salahuddin Mohd.: Household Level Waste Management in Aligarh City
In this work, an attempt has been made to examine the 'Household Level Waste Management in Aligarh city'. The problem of waste is not only limited to larger cities but equally confined to the small and medium cities. These cities also have in plenty of overloaded bins, dump yards and overflowing choked drains. Much work has been done on the waste management in larger cities but little or no attention has been given to smaller cities. Keeping this aspect in mind Aligarh city was chosen as the study area. The focus of the thesis is to conduct in depth investigations of households belonging to different income groups from the different wards of the city.
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Book Review: Swarnjit Mehta: Geography in the Twenty-first Century: Selected Readings
This felicitation volume edited by a team of three geographers has been compiled in honor of Dr. R.S. Dixit. In academia there could not be a better gift to a teacher / researcher /mentor by his students, colleagues, and fellow geographers. It is indeed the most befitting tribute.
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Book Review: Smita Bhutani: Global Warming and Climate Change: From Clash to Crash of Civilization
“Global Warming and Climate Change: From Clash to Crash of Civilization” is a collection of contributions made by the author between 1992 and 2007 to a number of reputed journals, periodicals, magazines and conference proceedings. It includes an abridged project report and an interview with the author published in the Guardian.
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