Lushai Hills Research Articles

Water Quality Parameters: A Case Study of Karnafully River Chittagong, Bangladesh

The river Karnafully is one of the Himalayan River originating from the Lushai Hills in India. The catchments of the Karnafully and its allied streams cover 5,500 (14,000 sq km) square miles. Water samples were collected from Karnafully River along different points and analyzed for various physiochemical parameters during winter. Effects of industrial wastes, municipality sewage and agricultural runoff on the river water were investigated. The study was conducted between the Kaloorghat Bridge and Patenga estuary including Chittagong port. This is the most polluted area due to the presence of many chemical fertilizers, iron, leather and pharmaceutical industries. All these industries discharge their untreated toxic waste water directly into the river Karnafully. The study involved determination of physical and chemical parameters of surface water at different points. The mean values of water temperature, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), total solids (TS), turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, electric conductivity and total alkalinity were 23°C, 365.87 mg/L, 8018.8, 8518.33 mg/L, 31.54 FTU, 1.55 mg/L, 6.65 mg/L, 13961 μs/cm, 247.47 mg/L, 560.27 mg/L and 4.8 mg/L respectively. Key words: Physiochemical parameters; Winter season; Monsoon season; Dissolved oxygen; Biological oxygen demand. DOI: 10.3329/bjsir.v45i2.5722Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res. 45(2), 177-181, 2010

A new species ofSarcopyramis wall. (Melastomataceae) from North-East India

Sarcopyramis subramanii Nayar, a new species from Lushai Hills, Assam, is described with illustrations.

Bible Translation in the Lushai Hills

Bible Translation in the Lushai Hills

FORESTRY IN ASSAM

ASSAM is still one of the most undeveloped provinces of India, in spite of the long period it has been under British Administration. This is in the main due to the considerable area occupied by the hill districts inhabited by various tribes whose chief method of livelihood is by the practice of shifting cultivation, that most wasteful of agricultural methods. The backward condition of these peoples must be attributed to the guiding rule of British administration that the customs of the people should not be interfered with, once tribal warfare and other practices incompatible with modern ideas had been stopped. The consequence is that, in spite of the lapse of well over half a century since forest conservation began to be introduced into parts of Assam, forest reservation has made little progress in the hill districts. Even in the Lushai Hills, we read in the “Report of Forest Administration in the Province of Assam for the year 1940-41”, by C. Mackarness, Senior Conservator of Forests (Shillong, Assam Govt. Press, 1941) “A Forest Regulation has been proposed and a draft submitted to Government which in a modified form has been forwarded to the Governor-General in Council for assent.” The report on this subject continues: “The hill districts of Assam possess an inadequate proportion of Reserved or Protected forests which provides one reason for erosion and flood damage.” It may be asked, it is being asked with increasing pertinence, when will the Governments of the British Commonwealth of Nations-for the matter is equally urgent in many of them-face up to this question of the enormous damage and waste which is increasing annually through deforestation erosion and flood damage. It may be that the War may prove the salvation of these Assam hill districts, since it would seem apparent that for military purposes communications are being opened up in what has heretofore been a wild mass of more or less inaccessible hill tracts.

66. Note on Some Tribal and Family Names Employed in Speaking of the Inhabitants of the Lushai Hills

66. Note on Some Tribal and Family Names Employed in Speaking of the Inhabitants of the Lushai Hills