Northeast Indian State Research Articles

Issues of Conservation and Livelihood in a Forest Village of Assam

The creation of the forest villages in the northeast Indian state of Assam, like the rest of India, was a part of the colonial forest management policy. These villages were established within the limits of the reserved forests for assured supply of labour for the colonial forest department. Later on, many recognized forest villages came up with landless peasants migrating to the forest areas in search of land and livelihood. However, their growing population and demand for land coupled with the highhandedness of the forest department gave rise to intense conflict between the two. This conflict has assumed a much more complex character in the recent times giving rise to serious contestations and challenges with regard to people’s rights and conservation approach of the state.

Indian Lecanidae (Rotifera: Eurotatoria: Monogononta) and its distribution

Taxonomic status of the Lecanidae of India is evaluated based on our collections and the published reports, and an annotated check‐list of 83 species is presented. These comprise nearly 41.0% of the global diversity of the taxon and ∼21.0% of the known species of Indian Rotifera. Biogeographically interesting lecanids include two Australian and Asian; eight Oriental endemic; four Indian endemic; eight Holarctic; two arctic‐temperate and five paleotropical elements, while several species exhibit regional distributional importance. Three species are new to India and the rare L. bulla diabolica is new to northeast India. The diversity pattern of the Indian Lecanidae is predominantly tropical, and has a moderate endemicity. The lecanids are studied in greater detail in certain states of northeast India and from the states of West Bengal (East India) and Tamil Nadu in South India; unfortunately, their diversity from other parts of this country, including the biodiversity important Himalayan region and Western Ghats, remains poorly known. Besides, analysis of cryptic diversity in the L. bulla, L hamata, L. leontina, L. ludwigii, L. lunaris, and L. quadridentata species group complexes deserves attention for further research on rotifer biogeography. Our conservative estimate of occurrence of nearly 100 species of Lecanidae in India merits biodiversity value.

Scanning Electron Microscopy of Some Vital Structures of <I>Puntius</I> <I>shalynius</I> Yazdani and Talukdar 1975, an Endemic Hill-Stream Fish of North East India

Electron Microscope Division, Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility, North Eastern Hill University,Shillong 793022, IndiaThe surface microstructural features of scales, gills, upper and lower jaw of Puntius shalynius,anendemic fish of Meghalaya was investigated through scanning electron microscopy to understandthe structural details of the aforementioned organs in relation to general biology of the fish species.The study is relevant in view of the fact that gills are the structures that are in direct contactwith water and play important roles in feeding, osmoregulation and respiration which govern thegeneral health of fish. Similarly, the scales are important structures that act as protective coveringsof integument and are important pollution indicators. Besides these, upper and lower jaws areimportant in relation to feeding habit of fish. Further, the fish species, P. shalynius is an endemicfish of Meghalaya, a North-east Indian state and no information is available on the microstructuralfeatures of different organs relevant to biology and systematic of the fish. The current study presentsthe first report on the surface microstructural features of some organs and their significance inbiology of the endemic fish species, P. shalynius in the light of available literature.

Culturally prevalent unrecorded alcohol consumption in Sikkim, North East India: cross-sectional situation assessment

Introduction: India is a major producer and consumer of unrecorded alcohol, an under recognized public health problem. This situation assessment was conducted in Sikkim, a state in north east India with a strong culture of unrecorded alcohol, to describe patterns of consumption and possible alcohol problems.Methods: This cross-sectional study combined primary and secondary information. About 395 participants with current unrecorded alcohol consumption completed a baseline assessment. Key informant survey enrolled 28 participants, who responded to a 23-item questionnaire on public health and social impact of unrecorded alcohol.Results: Mean age of participants was 37.5 ± 11.4 years. This assessment did not detect underage regular drinking. Most unrecorded alcohol are home brewed chang (rice beer) and raksi (distilled from cereals). Early hour first drink and “no effect of alcohol today” signified alcohol problems. Key informants confirmed cultural use, household production, cheap price and alcohol problems; but did not approve commercial production and sale.Conclusion: This study shows widespread unrecorded alcohol consumption in Sikkim. There was no evidence of underage drinking, but indications of alcohol problems were present. Stakeholders agreed that unrecorded alcohol is cultural, but accepted harmful effects and need for intervention and legal provisions. Community based outreach and screening for alcohol problems; licensing and quality control; and alternative livelihood are possible policy implications.

School Library: The Stopping Heartbeat in the Schools of Manipur “A Library for every School; One School One Library and One Librarian”

Academic libraries are the heart and soul of the academic institutions. Among such libraries, “school library provides information, inculcates ideas, and develops knowledge that is so essential to functioning successfully in today's information and knowledge based society (CBSC, 2010)”. “It is fundamental to school library to equip students with lifelong learning skills and develop in them creative thinking and imagination, and enabling them to live as ideal and responsible citizens (UNESCO/IFLA, 2005).” They play a pivotal role in cultivating lifelong reading habits, nurturing knowledge and improving the quality of education. Do you want to know, “how do school libraries function as the heart of the school education of Manipur in the North-East States of India?”

Prevalence of Group A Rotaviruses (RVA) in Pig Population of North East India

Group A rotaviruses (RVA) have been recognised as an important cause of piglet diarrhoea which is a major threat causing serious economic losses in swine industry of north east India. Apart from RVA, there are many other agents which are directly or indirectly associated with piglet diarrhoea. Thus accurate and timely diagnosis is very much essential to establish the etiology of piglet diarrhoea. In the present study, RVA was detected in faecal samples of diarrhoeic pigs using RNA-PAGE and RT-PCR, collected from different states of Northeast India. Overall, of 601 faecal samples collected, 134(22.29%) samples were found to be positive for presence of RVA by RNA-PAGE. In RT-PCR, RVA was detected by amplification of VP4 and VP7 genes of RV, where 178 (29.61%) samples were found positive. Among the states, Assam and Tripura recorded highest prevalence of RV among pig population in comparison to other states of NER.

Job Competence and Job Performance of the Extension Personnel of the Department of Agriculture in Tripura State of North-East India

The main concern in human resource development in agricultural extension organization is the improvement in the performance of the extension personnel. For enhancing the competence and performance of the extension personnel it is very important to delineate the factors responsible for it along with the level of job competence and performance. A study was conducted in Tripura state of northeast India and data was collected from eighty extension personnel [40 Agriculture Officers (AOs) and 40 Village Level Workers (VLWs)] by using structure interview schedule. The findings of the study indicated that most of the AOs had high level of job competence whereas; most of the VLWs had medium level of job competence. AOs had expressed high level of job performance whereas, VLWs had medium level of job performance.

Farmers Willingness to Pay for Public Agricultural Extension Services in Tripura State of North-East India

The study was conducted to know the farmers willingness to pay for public agricultural extension services. All the four districts of India's state Tripurawas selected for the study and 80 farmers were selected randomly from two villages of eachdistrict. The results of the study revealed that 100 percent of the respondents were willing to pay for getting extension services. The average amount farmers were willing to pay was 34.42; whereas, the willingness to pay was according to the farm size of the farmers, farmers having more land were willing to pay more than the farmers having less cultivated area. All the farmers wanted to pay for plant protection information (100%), followed by majority of the farmers were willing to pay for marketing information (93.33%), credit services (86.67%) etc. From the findings of the study of the it was recommended to introduce fee based extension services on selected topics/aea based on the preferences of the farmers to provide need based and quick services to the farmers’.

Food-Safety Hazards in the Pork Chain in Nagaland, North East India: Implications for Human Health

Pork occupies an important place in the diet of the population of Nagaland, one of the North East Indian states. We carried out a pilot study along the pork meat production chain, from live animal to end consumer. The goal was to obtain information about the presence of selected food borne hazards in pork in order to assess the risk deriving from these hazards to the health of the local consumers and make recommendations for improving food safety. A secondary objective was to evaluate the utility of risk-based approaches to food safety in an informal food system. We investigated samples from pigs and pork sourced at slaughter in urban and rural environments, and at retail, to assess a selection of food-borne hazards. In addition, consumer exposure was characterized using information about hygiene and practices related to handling and preparing pork. A qualitative hazard characterization, exposure assessment and hazard characterization for three representative hazards or hazard proxies, namely Enterobacteriaceae, T. solium cysticercosis and antibiotic residues, is presented. Several important potential food-borne pathogens are reported for the first time including Listeria spp. and Brucella suis. This descriptive pilot study is the first risk-based assessment of food safety in Nagaland. We also characterise possible interventions to be addressed by policy makers, and supply data to inform future risk assessments.

State-initiated development and the Reang ethnic minority in Tripura (North East India)

This paper explores the wider implications of state-led development on the Reang ethnic minority in the North East Indian state of Tripura, and in doing so presents a critical view on such development endeavours. Basing itself on the study of the relationship between the state and the ethnic minorities, this research argues the following: – first, most state-led development programmes are formulated on a preconceived notion of ‘backwardness’ in the ethnic minorities. Second, state-led development projects create internal fissures and ruptures within ethnic minorities on issues of what constitutes development. Third, often, state-led development programmes create an image of oneself as inherently ‘backward’, whereby the conditioning of the mind plays an important role in extending the desire of the members of an ethnic minority to achieve this ‘imagined modernity’.

Three new species of horned frogs, Megophrys (Amphibia: Megophryidae), from northeast India, with a resolution to the identity of Megophrys boettgeri populations reported from the region.

Northeast India is a well-established region of biological importance but remains poorly understood with regards to the species level identifications of many of its extant amphibians. In this study we examined small sized frogs from the genus Megophrys recently collected from remote and suburban forests in the northeast Indian states of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, from which we have identified three new species. Megophrys vegrandis sp. nov., Megophrys ancrae sp. nov. and Megophrys oropedion sp. nov. are compared with all known congeners from India and surrounding regions from which they differ based primarily on a combination of morphological characters. Megophrys boettgeri is removed, and Megophrys minor added to the Indian amphibian checklist, through critical review of all literature pertaining to the former species, and the discovery of an overlooked historical report of the latter species. Two of the new species, Megophrys ancrae sp. nov. and Megophrys vegrandis sp. nov. are known from low and mid elevations within two large protected forests in Arunachal Pradesh, both with poorly studied amphibian fauna. Contrastingly, Megophrys oropedion sp. nov. is currently known only from small forested areas on the upper reaches of the Shillong Plateau. The importance of the Shillong Plateau as an area of known high amphibian endemicity is highlighted in the light of the miniscule proportion of its land area afforded government protection, raising concerns about the future conservation of its still poorly known species.

Geospatial study on morphometric characterization of Umtrew River basin of Meghalaya, India

Geospatial technology that is, remote sensing (RS), geographical information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) have proved to be an efficient tool in the field of modern day geographical and geological studies. GIS and Remote sensing techniques have been adopted for the identification of different morphological features and to analyze their existence in a hilly river basin of Meghalaya plateau, which is located in the two North-East Indian states of Meghalaya and Assam. Morphometric analysis of any drainage basin can be very much effective in determining the landform characteristics and the processes and components behind its development. The morphometric parameters of the study area have been discussed with respect to linear, areal and relief aspects. The geological formation of the basin area varies from Shillong group of rocks in the undulated hilly areas of Meghalaya plateau to unconsolidated river alluvium in the plain parts of Brahmaputra valley. It is a 7th order drainage basin and the entire drainage network can be defined as “Trellis” in nature. It has been observed that the drainage density value is in between medium to low which indicates that the basin has highly permeable sub-soil material and thick vegetative cover in the most of its areas. The moderate values of bifurcation ratio in the basin area indicates the possibilities of structural control over the development of the entire drainage network. The circularity ratio value reveals that the basin is elongated in shape and a predominance of highly permeable homogenous geologic material. The aim of the present study is to find out the various sets of inherent factors which were behind the formation of this river basin and its hydrologic nature. Key words: Umtrew River basin, drainage, morphometric, hydrologic, geographical information system (GIS).

Screening of fruit and leaf essential oils of Litsea cubeba Pers. from north-east India – chemical composition and antimicrobial activity

Essential oils from the leaves and fruits of Litsea cubeba Pers. collected in the Assam and Arunachal Pradesh states in north-east India, were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and GC–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). On the whole, 117 components have been characterized. The two leaf oils (LC1, LC2) show sabinene as the main component; the other significant compounds for LC1 oil are α-pinene, terpinen-4-ol, α-terpineol and myrcene, whereas for LC2 1,8-cineole and α-pinene are the other most important compounds. The three fruit oils (LC3, LC4 and LC5) were characterized by different profiles, indeed LC3 and LC4 showed a similar composition with citronellol and citronellal the main components, accounting for 70% and 10% of total oils, respectively. LC5, instead, presents geranial (c. 44%) and neral (c. 40%) as the main components, whereas citronellal reaches only c. 3%. Essential oils were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger. All microbial strains appeared sensitive to the cytotoxic activity of the essential oils under investigation. Leaf and fruit oils showed different levels of inhibition depending on their particular chemical composition; however, the LC5 sample was broadly the most effective.

Wildlife Exploitation: A Market Survey in Nagaland, North-Eastern India

With growing human population, increased accessibility to remote forests and adoption of modern tools, hunting has become a severe global problem, particularly in Nagaland, a Northeast Indian state. While Indian wildlife laws prohibit hunting of virtually all large wild animals, in several parts of North-eastern parts of India that are dominated by indigenous tribal communities, these laws have largely been ineffective due to cultural traditions of hunting for meat, perceived medicinal and ritual value, and the community ownership of the forests. We report the quantity of wild animals sold at Tuensang town of Nagaland, based on weekly samples drawn from May 2009 to April 2010. Interviews were held with vendors on the availability of wild animals in forests belonging to them and methods used for hunting. The tribes of Chang, Yimchunger, Khiemungan, and Sangtam are involved in collection/ hunting and selling of animals in Tuensang. In addition to molluscs and amphibians, 1,870 birds (35 species) and 512 mammals (8 species) were found in the samples. We estimated that annually 13,067 birds and 3,567 mammals were sold in Tuensang market alone, which fetched about Indian Rupees ([Formula: see text]) 18.5 lakhs/ year. Temporal variation was observed with respect to various taxa sold; molluscs: almost all through the year; amphibians: June-August; and birds and mammals restricted to October-February. We suggest monitoring of all major markets of Nagaland to examine trends in exploitation of wild animals. However, considering the traditional dependency of people on wild resources, as well as their cultural sentiments and livelihoods, any interventions for wildlife conservation should have the involvement and support of local inhabitants.

Prison Houses and Valleys of Torture: Structural State-Sponsored Violence in Kashmir and North East India

Violence is seen to upset normalcy.But what happens when violence becomes the state of normalcy. This is the situation in Kashmir and the states of North East India. In these states of India, the Government has imposed heavy militarisation under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA. AFSPA has led to extra judicial killings, torture and gang-rape. There is everyone violence in the name of upholding the integrity of the nation. How do we then view violence?

Vowel Phoneme Segmentation for Speaker Identification Using an ANN-Based Framework

AbstractVowel phonemes are a part of any acoustic speech signal. Vowel sounds occur in speech more frequently and with higher energy. Therefore, vowel phoneme can be used to extract different amounts of speaker discriminative information in situations where acoustic information is noise corrupted. This article presents an approach to identify a speaker using the vowel sound segmented out from words spoken by the speaker. The work uses a combined self-organizing map (SOM)- and probabilistic neural network (PNN)-based approach to segment the vowel phoneme. The segmented vowel is later used to identify the speaker of the word by matching the patterns with a learning vector quantization (LVQ)-based code book. The LVQ code book is prepared by taking features of clean vowel phonemes uttered by the male and female speakers to be identified. The proposed work formulates a framework for the design of a speaker-recognition model of the Assamese language, which is spoken by ∼3 million people in the Northeast Indian state of Assam. The experimental results show that the segmentation success rates obtained using a SOM-based technique provides an increase of at least 7% compared with the discrete wavelet transform-based technique. This increase contributes to the improvement in overall performance of speaker identification by ∼3% compared with earlier related works.

Deletion pattern in the dystrophin gene in Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients in northeast India

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder that affects 1 in 3,500 males and is caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene. In this paper, we have reported DNA analysis of DMD patients by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from various states of northeast India. Of the 69 clinically suspected patients of DMD, deletion was detected by multiplex PCR in 49 (71%) patients. Majority of the deletions (42/49, 85.7%) were located at distal hot spot region that encompasses exons 44-55 and 14.3% of the deletions were located at the proximal hot spot region (exons 2-19). In this study population, the deletion rate was 71% and was more frequent in the distal end exon.

Underdevelopment and Ethnic Conflict in the States of Northeast India

Conflict has been a feature of human society since time immemorial and global phenomena. Disputes that arise may be organized around social class, ethnicity, religion, competition for land. The struggle can be over economic opportunities like employment as well as an aspiration to dominate the space. In this situation, the status of being an indigenous group becomes a contestable issue. Ethnic conflict is not necessarily irrational, but a product of fulfilling aspirations and asserting identity, therefore, a balanced debate is required in its analysis. Conflicts make poverty reduction and growth difficult to achieve. Many contemporary conflicts have an ethnic dimension, such as ethnic territory as ethnicity is a strong uniting force. The author studies the underlying factors for the cause of conflicts in the Northeast India, one of the most backward and underdeveloped region in the country and represents a diverse ethnic group belonging to mongoloid race. Mapping the distribution and composition of population in the region as well as socio-economic conditions, would identify space dimension of the ethnic groups. The land based occupation and education would give great impetus in studying the cause of conflicts. Keywords - Social Sciences, ethnic territory, conflicts, mapping, India

Women Development And Government Schemes With Special Reference To Ksy

Women are the most vulnerable group in a major parts of India. India’s North Eastern region is quite backward comparing to other parts of the country and the condition of women is also not so good. Adolescence is a stage when a girl sees a number of changes in her physical and mental health. In this stage she needs proper nutrition for her all round growth. But in our country specially in this part of the country the girls face lot of obstacles including mal nutrition due to which she lacks proper growth of her body and mind. The Government of India thus introduced a number of schemes for the welfare of the people and more specifically for the women and girls. But the schemes also do not reach to the appropriate group of people because of lack of awareness and corruption along with a number of other reasons. In this paper a modest attempt has been made to analyse the causes of poor performance of the Govt. schemes on the basis of available data collected from different sources and Govt. data and produces a comparative chart of the implementation of the Govt. schemes in the eight North Eastern states of India. The study has given special emphasis on KSY(Kishori Shakti Yojona), an important scheme for the development of adolescent girls and its implementation in different states of North East India.

Poverty index as a tool for adaptation intervention to climate change in northeast India

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) reports that the number of extreme precipitation and temperature events in India are projected to increase in the short term. The negative effects of this on rural populations in India may include crop and livestock loss, livelihood risk, health and sanitation disruptions and shelter risk. Overseas Development Assistance, in the form of aid, will help rural communities to counter these impacts; several development agencies already require that the adaptation to climate change risks be included as project activities in the aid programme. However, it is often difficult to accurately target development aid in developing countries due to uneven and cluster-like development of areas. To help counter this problem, we developed a poverty index intended to help prioritize development aid towards communities at risk, in order of need. The district-wise poverty index was created for seven states of northeast India, a region with highly uneven development, and has been developed from data available from the North-East Data Bank (DoNER). The indicators were selected to adequately represent the poverty of the people as well as to act as a prioritizing mechanism in a data scarce region. The inclusion of a Gini coefficient of land distribution is new to poverty indexes, and helps to capture the pattern of highly unequal land distribution in northeast India, which in turn affects the distribution of income. Although primarily developed for northeast India, the index can be used in other developing countries with imbalances in regional development. If the biophysical factors affecting vulnerability are known, this index can be used in a weighted combination with vulnerability.