Benthic diatoms as indicators of water quality in Sharda (Kali), a transboundary Himalayan River.

Bioassessment studies in river systems of India are rather scarce and most of the monitoring programmes still rely on the traditional physical and chemical analysis. We explored the biomonitoring potential of benthic diatoms from the Sharda (Kali) river in the Himalayas, which is due interlinking with the Yamuna River under the National River Linking Programme (NRLP) in India. Seventeen sites along the Sharda were sampled in November 2022 for the analysis of 14 physical and chemical variables and benthic diatoms.

Combining socioeconomic and biophysical data to identify people-centric restoration opportunities.

Designing restoration projects requires integrating socio-economic and cultural needs of local stakeholders for enduring and just outcomes. Using India as a case study, we demonstrate a people-centric approach to help policymakers translate global restoration prioritization studies for application to a country-specific context and to identify different socio-environmental conditions restoration programs could consider when siting projects. Focusing, in particular, on poverty quantified by living standards and land tenure, we find that of the 579 districts considered here, 116 of the poorest districts have high biophysical restoration potential (upper 50th percentile of both factors).

Insights on COVID-19 impacts, challenges and opportunities for India's biodiversity research: From complexity to building adaptations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every sphere of human society. The paradigm shift of focus to COVID-related research and management has significantly affected various scientific domains, including biodiversity conservation. We assessed the perceptions of early-career researchers working for biodiversity conservation across India, to understand the impacts of the ongoing pandemic on their research.

Lake ecosystems as proxies of change in a post-pandemic era.

A wide spectrum of algal-bacterial-viral relationships in aquatic ecosystems provide a complex matrix of interactions with abiotic factors such as temperature, pH and total solids concentrations in water. These relationships are quite reflective of the summative status of changes undergone by the lacustrine environments. However, the environmental risks and vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems in the regions of Global South including India, owing to the increase in sewage and domestic discharges with high loads of viral particles in the post-COVID-19 times have only been sparsely reported.

Exploring Indigenous and Local Knowledge and Practices (ILKPs) in Traditional Jhum Cultivation for Localizing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Case Study from Zunheboto District of Nagaland, India.

Globally, shifting cultivation is known to be an important driver of tropical deforestation. However, in this paper, we argue that it can be sustainably managed if the environmental boundary conditions, laid by the traditional customs and practices, are fully respected. We narrate an empirical study from the Zunheboto district of Nagaland, India, where we deployed a mixed research method to explore the Indigenous and Local Knowledge and Practices (ILKPs) associated with shifting cultivation (aka Jhum), particularly concerning farm-level practices, forest and biodiversity conservation, and disaster risk reduction measures.

COVID-19 and environment: a poignant reminder of sustainability in the new normal.

The nexus of COVID-19 and environment is conspicuously deep-rooted. The roles of environmental factors in the origin, transmission and spread of COVID-19 and the mutual impact of the pandemic on the global environment have been the two perspectives to view this nexus. The present paper attempts to systematically review the existing literature to understand and explore the linkages of COVID-19 with environment and proposes conceptual frameworks to underline this nexus.

Non-invasive biomonitoring of mercury in birds near thermal power plants: lessons from Maharashtra, India.

Thermal power plants (TPPs) have emerged as a major source of air, water, and soil pollution because of the presence of many toxic metals. The presence of mercury (Hg) in fly ash has proven to be toxic in nature because of its tendency to get bioaccumulated and biomagnified in the food chain. The aim of the present study was to understand the presence of toxic Hg in the feathers of wetland birds undertaking the study around a TPP located in Nagpur, India.

Seabuckthorn: an underutilized resource for the nutritional security and livelihood improvement of rural communities in Uttarakhand Himalaya.

Seabuckthorn (Hippophae salicifolia) is one of the potential underutilized plant species having huge multipurpose benefits including economic and ecological. Comparative study of fruit morphology, architecture, and juice yield productivity revealed that fruit berries of Seabuckthorn in Mana valley was found superior and can provide higher economic return than the berries of other plant species. Moreover, awareness programmes related to nutritional worth and development and demonstration of value added product resulted in economy generation for local inhabitants.