Assam Valley Research Articles

The History Of Education And The Literary Development Of The Bodo In The Brahmaputra Valley

The education is regarded as the invincible element for the development of a society. Without the progress of education the rate of development index of a particular society cannot be measured. The Bodos are the single largest aboriginal tribe living in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam from the time immemorial. They possessed rich socio-cultural tradition and solid language of their own. In the early 19th century on the eve of British intervention in Assam the condition of education among the Bodos was completely in a stake. It was after the adoption of the education policy in Assam by British Government the ray of educational hope reached to the Bodos. It was undeniable fact that the Christian Missionaries also played an important role in disseminating western education among the Bodos through their evangelical objectives in view. They established many schools in the remote places of the Bodo populated areas to spread the education. Besides that the Christian Missionaries left many literary activities among the Bodos as a credit in their account. These missionary activities awaken the educated elite sections of the Bodos to promulgate social reform movement by the means of literary activities. As a consequence in the early part of the 20th century under the banner of Boro Chatra Sanmilani some of the educated Bodo youths had started to publish series of magazines like Bibar, Jenthoka and Alongbar etc. and many others. This process of literary development among the Bodos stimulated the trend of social awakening and paved encouragement to the new generation towards the path of enlightenment.

Rites And Rituals Of The Bodo In Agricultural Operation

The Bodos are agriculturist. They cultivate different kinds of crops like Bawa, Ashu, Sali etc. during the time of summer season.1 No doubt, the Bodos are good cultivator and they are self dependent. In this regard Rev. Sydney Endle says that the Bodos are especially skillful in the construction of irrigation canals and earth-work embankments for diverting water from river beds into their rice fields and their efforts in this direction are very largely aided by their closely ethnic organization.2 It is stated that when they proceeded and settled in the valley of Assam and some parts of North East India, they had crossed their earlier stages of life and became nomadic farmer.3 In earlier time, when they practiced Jhum or shifting cultivation they always tried to find out virgin land which could provide more productivity. With the passage of time, they gave up Jhum or shifting cultivation and started settled agriculture with ploughshare and other allied agricultural implements. However, concrete evidence has not been found so far when the practice of pre-agricultural activities and Jhum cultivation had been abandoned by the Bodos and when they have started agriculture with ploughshare and other agricultural implements. Even today the majorities of the Bodos are cultivators and inhabited in the village. Whenever the rainfall threatens to be below the average, the cultivators with their elders go to the field to bring the water to the paddy field from the nearest river.4

Automatic Vowel Recognition from Assamese Spoken words

Vowel plays the most important role in any speech processing work. In this research work, recognition of Assamese vowel from spoken Assamese words is explored. Assamese is a language which is spoken by major people in Brahmaputra Valley of Assam, Assam is a state which is situated in the North-East part of India. This automatic vowel recognition system is implemented by using three efficient techniques Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Random Forest (RF) classifier. The database used in the experiments is specially designed for this purpose. A list of phonetically vowel rich Assamese words is prepared for the experiment. As an initial effort, twenty different (20) words uttered by fifty-five (55) speakers are taken. Utterances from both male and female speakers are collected. Each utterance was repeated two times by every speaker. A database of the total of 2200 samples is prepared. After experimenting on different samples it is seen that Random Forest (RF) is giving the best performance compared to the other two classifiers. The performance of the system is shown with testing dataset and comparison is done. Outcome of this research work will enhance the Machine Translation from Assamese to any other language.

They Are Happy (An Ecosystem Study of Bodo tribe of Assam, India)

They Are Happy (An Ecosystem Study of Bodo tribe of Assam, India)

A comprehensive mycofloral diversity of pedosphere, phyllosphere and aerosphere of Som. (Persea bombycina Kost.) in lower Brahmaputra valley of Assam

Muga silkworm is endemic to North-East India. The quality of primary host plant, i.e. Som. (Persea bombycina Kost.), greatly affects the quality of cocoon and silk production. Som is susceptible to different foliar diseases caused by fungi, which can reduce the yield of leaf from 13.8 to 41.6% annually. So, a comprehensive mycofloral study of the host plant is important to forecast future diseases and design different disease management procedures. This study has been done for a period of 2 years from 2014 to 2016 in Goalpara district of Assam, India. Mycoflora of pedosphere (rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere), phyllosphere and aerosphere were identified and correlated with the seasonal variation. The rhizosphere, air and phylloplane were dominated by Rhizopus stolonifer (22.13%; 15.08%; 24.01%), while Aspergillus niger (12.63%) dominated non-rhizospheric soil. In summer, soil was majorly dominated by A. niger, Aspergillus fumigatus and Curvularia lunata, while R. stolonifer, Aspergillus clavatus and Penicillium chrysogenum dominated the winter soil. Pestalotiopsis disseminata is one of the major pathogens of Som and was found highest in aerosphere followed by phyllosphere. Temperature between 25 and 28 °C with 70–80% of relative humidity favours P. disseminata. This study provides a deep insight into the fungal diversity of Som with respect to pedosphere, aerosphere and phyllosphere, and this knowledge can be used to better select the plantation area and design different disease management strategies to sustain and proliferate the industry for socioeconomic development and to conserve its cultural essence.

An Assessment of Organic Carbon Fractions in Paddy and Associated Non-paddy Soils of Upper Brahmaputra Valley of Assam

An investigation was carried out to study the soil organic carbon fractions in paddy and associated non-paddy soils of Assam, India. Three districts viz. Sivasagar, Jorhat and Golaghat in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam were selected for this study. Soil samples were collected from six profiles, three each from mono-cropped paddy and associated non-paddy areas were collected. Horizon -wise, soil samples were analyzed for organic carbon fractions. Organic carbon, Humus C, Humin C, Humic acid C and Fulvic acid C were all analyzed from the samples. Organic carbon content in soil varied from 0.90 -7.90g kg⁻¹. Surface horizons of paddy soils contained lower amounts of humus C (0.255-0.330 per cent) and fulvic acid C (CFA) (0.135 – 0.180 per cent) and higher amounts of humin carbon (0.210 -0.475 per cent) and humic acid C (CHA) (0.120-0.150 per cent) as compared to that of non-paddy soils (0.300-0.435 and 0.195-0.300, 0.180-0.490 and 0.105-0.135 per cent respectively). It was concluded that the ratio of (CHA+CFA)/CTOC indicated less humification on the surface horizons of paddy soils. This is a direct result of prolonged submergence which led to humic acid carbon becoming less oxidized or humified.

Morphotectonic aspects in a part of Naga-Schuppen belt, Assam-Nagaland region, Northeast India

The Belt of Schuppen is an important tectonic element of the Assam-Arakan basin. It is a narrow belt of thrust slices in southeastern boundary of the Assam valley. The Naga Schuppen Belt, consisting of eight or more imbricated thrusts, occurs between the Naga and Disang thrusts. This present study encompasses an area of 4,720 sq km along the Assam-Nagaland border. The Dikhow River, which is a seventh order basin, originates from Naga Hills flowing through a total length of 240 km in the Assam valley and reaches the Brahmaputra. In this study, the morphotectonic analysis of the Dikhow River was carried out to understand the role of active tectonics of the Naga Hills in Nazira-Naginimora areas of Assam and Nagaland respectively. The parameters such as asymmetric factor (AF), transverse topographic symmetric factor (T), and stream length gradient index (SL) were computed. Absolute AF values shows asymmetric to highly asymmetrical shape of the basins (range III-IV) which is also supported by T values. Anomalous SL values were obtained wherein major lineament and tectonic features are present. This indicates that the study area is tectonically active. Further, in the Assam valley it has been observed in the bank stratigraphy of Dikhow River that the Quaternary sediments are deformed. This deformation of the soft older alluvium indicates that the area is undergoing deformation during post Pliocene time. This evidence demands the morphotectonic evaluation of the aforesaid area to demarcate the tectonic activeness of the region in post Pliocene times.

Analysis of genetic diversity and phylogeny of Philosamia ricini (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) by using RAPD and internal transcribed spacer DNA1.

The Indian Eri silkworm, Philosamia ricini Hutt, a commercial silk producing insect, is believed to have originated in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam. In this study, the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of six morphs of Eri silkworm viz. white plain, white zebra, white spotted, blue plain, blue zebra and blue spotted collected from different geographical locations of North-East India were investigated by using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and the first internal transcribed spacer region (ITS1). This study revealed a low genetic diversity among the morphs of Eri silkworm. Twenty-eight random primers generated 199 bands. Out of these, 112 were polymorphic (56.28%) with an average of 7.1 bands per primer. The genetic similarity matrix ranged from 0.56 to 0.99. The morphs collected from same geographical area shared the same cluster in the dendrogram. The genetic diversity in case of ITS1 sequences (2.19%) was found to be less as compared to RAPD. The ITS1 sequences of the morphs collected from same geographical area were found to be identical. The information generated in this study will help in conservation and effective breeding program to improve its productivity.

Bao Dhan of Assam:Organically Grown Indigenous Rice Slated to Increase Farmer’s Income

India, including Assam, has diverse geographical regions with varied climatic conditions for rice cultivation. Thousands of hectares of land is subjected to flood every year which results in poor economic returns to the farming community. Although deep-water rice (DWR) is grown in many states of India in limited areas, the main area of DWR cultivation is the Brahmaputra valley of Assam. Although rice plays a pivotal role in the socio-cultural life of the people of Assam, DWR is God’s gift to Assam, which provides food and nutrition to 30 million people in a condition where other crops cannot be cultivated due to yearround stagnation of water. The state is severely affected by floods almost every year during rainy season due to overflow of the Brahmaputra basin causing enormous damage to crops, livestock, land and properties. However, DWR rice is naturally grown in such areas, giving some economic relief to the flood-prone poor farmers.

Evaluation of hydrogeochemical controlling factors and water quality index of water resources of the Barak valley of Assam, Northeast India

The hydrogeochemical processes and water quality index of Barak Valley of NE India has carried out to delineate the processes controlling the quality. 33 water samples representing river, pond, lake, paleochannel, groundwater were selected. Analyses using correlation matrix, scatter plots, Schoeller, Gibbs, Trilinear, Ternary diagrams and water quality index were examined. The water type is characterized by high HCO3 (70% in SW and 66% in GW) and depleted SO4 (<0.5% of TDS) indicating significant bacterial reaction. Gibbs diagram, bivariate relations of Na/Cl, Ca/Mg vs. Na/Cl, Ca+Mg vs. TZ suggest silicate weathering. The scatter plots of Ca+Mg vs. HCO3+SO4, Ca/Mg vs. Na/Cl, (Ca+Mg)/(HCO3+SO4), (Na-Cl) vs. (Ca+Mg-HCO3+SO4) further indicate normal ion exchange. Chemically the surface water evolved through initial stage depicting Ca-Mg-HCO3 type while groundwater represents mixed type. WQI suggest not suitable for drinking due to excessive elevation of As, Fe, Mn. However, SAR, %Na recommend for drinking and agricultural uses.

Distribution and abundance of Lepidiota Albistigma in relation to soil physicochemical properties in lower brahmaputra valley of Assam

Population of Lepidiota albistigma grubs were estimated in five selected ecosystems of lower Brahmaputra valley of Assam during 2015–17. The study revealed that significantly more grubs were collected from grassland near water sources (8.52 ± 0.97, 7.56 ± 0.59 and 8.72 ± 0.91), followed by open grassland (4.96 ± 0.75, 5.06 ± 0.82 and 4.60 ± 0.89) and cultivated field near water sources (2.74 ± 0.83, 2.38 ± 0.92 and 2.54 ± 0.86) during 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. Existence of grubs in soil depth measured during April, 2015 to March, 2016 in grassland and cultivated fields revealed that maximum grubs confined up to 20 cm. Population estimation of growth stages from March, 2016 to February, 2017 revealed that adults appeared in March (0.4 A) with maximum during April 2016 (1.6 A). Grubs appeared from May (1.6 G), 2016 to January (0.6 G), 2017. Similar population of grubs (1.6 G) were recorded in May, July and September and peak population was observed in August 2016 (3G); pupae were observed in March (1.2 nos), April 2016 (0.8 nos), and February (1.4 nos) in 2017. Soil moisture studies revealed that it was maximum in April (27.63%) followed by July (24.38%) and October (24.32%). Correlation coefficients between grubs and sand (r =-0.693) and silt content (r =-0.845) were significant and negative, in contrast to the clay content (r = 0.839). Soil organic matter content (r = 0.901) and available nitrogen (r = 0.963) revealed significant positive correlations.

Estimation of rural credit demand: a study of Lower Brahmaputra valley of Assam

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the rural credit demand by providing a theoretical and econometric framework which controls the problem of selection bias.Design/methodology/approachThe study is conducted in Assam, India, and uses a quasi-experiment design to gather primary data. Heckman two-stage procedure and type 3 Tobit model are used to evaluate the rural credit demand.FindingsIt is observed that, in general, rural households’ credit demand is influenced by the ability and capacity to work, the value of physical assets of the borrowers as well as some other lenders’ and borrowers’ specific factors. But, the direction of causality of the factors influencing borrowers’ credit demand is remarkably different across credit sources.Research limitations/implicationsThe study recommends that it is possible to provide an efficient credit demand estimate through a correct theoretical and econometric framework. The possible limitation of the study can be due to the exclusion of the role of “traditional community based organizations” in rural Assam while evaluating the credit demand, and therefore, this limitation is left to future research.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature by assessing the probable differences among formal, semiformal and informal credit sources with respect to rural credit demand.

Determinants of Working Capital Requirements of Micro and Small Enterprises in Barak Valley, Assam

Micro and small enterprises play an important role in the development of our economy. In order to run the enterprises efficiently working capital is required. The enterprises have to determine the required level of working capital on the basis of factors determining working capital requirements of the enterprises and they have to prefer the factors on the basis of their relative importance. The present study has assessed the relative importance of factors determining working capital requirements of micro and small enterprises in the Barak valley of Assam. The study has also assessed the relative importance of factors determining working capital requirements of manufacturing enterprises and service enterprises in the Valley. The enterprises which are registered with District Industries and Commerce Centres of the three districts of the Valley namely Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi as on 31st March 2012 and which are still functioning have been studied. Sample size of the study is 246, of which 81.71 per cent are micro enterprises and 18.29 per cent are small enterprises. Again, 78.86 per cent of the sample enterprises are manufacturing enterprises and 21.14 per cent are service enterprises. The study is based on the primary data. The sampling technique of the study is ‘convenience sampling’. Arithmetic mean, rank and standard deviation have been used for data analysis. The hypotheses are tested with the help of the statistical technique ‘Mann-Whitney U test’.

Seismological evidence of the Hales discontinuity in northeast India

The crust and upper mantle shear wave velocity structure beneath the northeast India is estimated by joint inversion of Rayleigh wave group velocity and receiver function, calculated from teleseismic earthquakes data recorded at nine broadband seismic stations. The Assam valley and the Shillong-Mikir plateau are the two important tectonic blocks in the northeast India, which are surrounded by the Himalayan collision zone in the north, Indo-Burma subduction zone in the east and by the Bengal basin in the south. The joint inversion followed by forward modeling reveal crustal thicknesses of 30–34 km beneath the Shillong plateau, 36 km beneath the Mikir hills and 38–40 km beneath the Assam valley with an average shear wave velocity (Vs) of 3.4–3.5 km/s. The estimated low upper mantle shear wave velocity (Vsn) 4.2–4.3 km/s may be due to the rock composition or grain size or increased temperature and partial melt (<1%) in the upper mantle, or an effect of all. Also, we report for the first time, the existence of the Hales discontinuity at depths 56–74 km with Vs ∼4.4–4.6 km/s. Variable depth of the Hales discontinuity may be explained by the geotherm and/or addition of Cr3+ and Fe2+ in the spinel-garnet system.

A data assimilation system combining CryoSat-2 data and hydrodynamic river models

There are numerous hydrologic studies using satellite altimetry data from repeat-orbit missions such as Envisat or Jason over rivers. This study is one of the first examples for the combination of altimetry from drifting-ground track satellite missions, namely CryoSat-2, with a river model. CryoSat-2 SARIn Level 2 data is used to improve a 1D hydrodynamic model of the Brahmaputra River in South Asia, which is based on the Saint-Venant equations for unsteady flow and set up in the MIKE HYDRO River software. After calibration of discharge and water level the hydrodynamic model can accurately and bias-free represent the spatio-temporal variations of water levels. A data assimilation framework has been developed and linked with the model. It is a flexible framework that can assimilate water level data which are arbitrarily distributed in time and space. The setup has been used to assimilate CryoSat-2 water level observations over the Assam valley for the years 2010–2015, using an Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (ETKF). Performance improvement in terms of discharge forecasting skill was then evaluated. For experiments with synthetic CryoSat-2 data the continuous ranked probability score (CRPS) was improved by up to 32%, whilst for experiments assimilating real data it could be improved by up to 10%. The developed methods are expected to be transferable to other rivers and altimeter missions. The model setup and calibration is based almost entirely on globally available remote sensing data.

Influence of weather factors on incidence of Alternaria blight of rapeseed under the agro-climate of upper Brahmaputra valley of Assam

Influence of weather factors on incidence of Alternaria blight of rapeseed under the agro-climate of upper Brahmaputra valley of Assam

Crustal seismic anisotropy beneath Shillong plateau - Assam valley in North East India: Shear-wave splitting analysis using local earthquakes

We present crustal anisotropy estimates constrained by shear wave splitting (SWS) analysis using local earthquakes in the Shillong plateau and Assam valley area, North East India (NE India) region. Splitting parameters are determined using an automated cross-correlation (CC) method. We located 330 earthquakes recorded by 17 broadband seismic stations during 2001–2014 in the study area. Out of these 330 events, seismograms of 163 events are selected for the SWS analysis. Relatively small average delay times (0.039–0.084s) indicate existence of moderate crack density in the crust below the study area. It is found that fast polarization directions vary from station to station depending on the regional stress system as well as geological conditions. The spatial pattern of crustal anisotropy in the area is controlled mostly by tectonic movement of the Indian plate towards NE. Presence of several E-W and N-S trending active faults in the area also play an important role on the observed pattern of crustal anisotropy.

Erratum to: A GIS-based study on channel variation, erosion and deposition along the bank of Dibru Saikhowa National Park (1967–2016), Assam, India

The GIS technology presently has become an important tool for various fluvio morphological studies. The present study incorporates GIS technology to assess more precisely and accurately the rate, nature and pattern of channel variations along with erosion and deposition of the study area at the spatio-temporal scale. The Dibru Saikhowa National Park is a river island in the upper Brahmaputra valley of Assam. The island experiences frequent bank erosion by Siang and Dibang River in the north and Lohit River in the south. The total geographical area of Dibru Saikhowa National Park was about 337.96 sq in the year 1967, which reduces to 302.45 sq km in 1988, 279.38 sq km in 2001 and finally to 241.82 sq km in the year 2016. The area witnessed a net loss of 96.14 km of area (1967–2016) with total erosion of 103.84 and deposition of 7.707 sq km of area. The southward shift of Siang and Dibang River channel/bank line and northward shift of Lohit, Dibru and Dangori channel/bank line causes erosion of Dibru Saikhowa National Park. The study reveals an average shift 1425.58 m of Dibru and Dangori channel/bank line northward and 1314.97 m of Siang and Dibang channel/bank line southward during 1976–2016. The westward shift of Dibang and Siang River conjunction along with avulsion of Lohit River southward promotes erosion of the island.

Biochemical Composition and Isoenzymes of Enzyme Peroxidase of Houttuynia Cordata Thunb. from Brahmaputra Valley of Assam, India

Biochemical Composition and Isoenzymes of Enzyme Peroxidase of Houttuynia Cordata Thunb. from Brahmaputra Valley of Assam, India

Factors associated with agrobiodiversity conservation: A case study on conservation of rice varieties in Barak valley, Assam, India

Agrobiodiversity contributes to food security, increase productivity, economic returns and provides social, cultural and ecological functions. The present study aims to investigate the factors associated with agrobiodiversity conservation, with respect to the rice varieties in the Barak valley of Assam, India. Barak valley has high ecological and genetic diversity, and is one of the important regions of NE India in terms of agricultural productivity. More than 80% of the people of the Valley depend upon agricultural activities for their livelihood. Fieldwork included semi-structured interviews, visit to crop field (inventory) and survey to households to register seed exchange network, socio-economic characteristics and other factors influencing agrobiodiversity conservation. We used correlation analysis to know the association of various factors. Thirty six rice varieties were found to be traditionally conserved. Indegee refers to the number informants inform someone’s name when asked about their shareholders. For example, one informant name was informed by five people when asked to list the name of seed givers or receivers, then the informant would have an indegree of five. It was found that Farmers who had higher indegree conserved more traditional varieties than those farmers who had less indegree. It can be hypothesized that conservation of traditional varieties is related with various co-relating factors. Our findings will surely contribute to the conservation of genetic resources. Establishment of seed bank and application of vermicompost technique are suggested to check genetic erosion and fulfill the inadequacy of organic fertilizers.