Jasbir Singh: Can the Indian States’achieve a Future of the Sustainable Agricultural Developmentand Face Challenges to Agriculture Duringthe 21st Century?
The answer to these questions is in the affirmative, Provided Fifty years of the Indian States’ agriculture be studied under the following different periods:
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R. C. Chandna: Inter–Religion Demographic Diversities In India
The chief objective of the paper is to anlayse inter-religion diversities in selected attributes of population in India. Detailed data on religion released by the Census for the first time form the basis of discussion. The analysis is, by and large, based on state level data tabulated in 6 tables for a comparative analysis. However, maps prepared on the basis of district level data which have recently been released by the Census 2001 were found handy for understanding the regional diversities in various attributes. The attributes examined in the present inter-religion analysis include distribution, growth, sex ratio, literacy and working force. Hindus, who account for 4 persons out of every five persons in the country were spatially most widespread, Christians were most literate, Sikhs recorded the lowest growth rate as well as sex ratio, and Muslims recorded highest growth rate but were not far behind the Hindus in terms of literacy including female literacy. However, Muslims in North India need to be given the benefit of infiltration from neighbouring countries while comparing their growth rates with their brethren from South India. Since both the main minority communities, namely Muslims and Sikhs recorded contrastingly different growth rates of population, it would be inappropriate to view interreligion disparities in growth rate in the context of majority-minority syndrome alone. Literacy, instead, has emerged as one of the significant factors influencing growth patterns strongly defying religious connotations. The North-South divide has been found to be the most forceful common feature among all religious communities of India as far as regional patterns of distribution of various attributes are concerned.Consolidating the fertility decline among Hindus, enhancing the urge for individual well beingamong Muslims especially of North India, accelerating the literacy transition specifically in the North both among Hindus and Muslims alike, arresting the menace of female foeticide especially among Sikhs have emerged significant issues warranting immediate attention.
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Abdul Gaffar:Spatial Patterns of Air Pollution in Lahore
Man’s environment has always been important during the human history. However, with the advent of technology it became more important in man’s life and, eventually, has been focused by the environmentalist. The advancement in technology has provided unprecedented facilities to humans on the earth. But on the dark side of this advancement, a number of environmental problems such as global warming, deforestation and more importantly air pollution have appeared in human life causing the great danger to the future of man on the earth. Air pollution problem is specifically linked with the urban settlements due to industrial development as well as motor vehicles. The problem of air pollution is not a problem of developed countries only but it is also very much observed in developing countries like Pakistan. This paper is an attempt to measure the patters of air pollution in Lahore, the second largest urban settlement of Pakistan.
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D.N. Singh: Population-Development Dilemma and The Indian Context
Rapid population growth is more often than not blamed for impeding variety of developmental efforts and causing fast depletion of resources and deterioration in environmental quality. Of late, quite a few scholars have questioned this type of biased observation and have tried to seek explanation for the deteriorating situation in factors other than population. In their opinion, population is not the sole culprit; it is rather a resource, and only one of several factors accountable for worsening conditions. In this paper, ironies and imperatives have been contextually brought to focus and it has been observed that the population control programs in India are dogged by deficiencies of policies, plan strategies and implementation. Also, the variations in parameters of population growth in different states of the country are yet to be tailored into the national framework. There is felt need to evolve an appropriate policy system which could effectively operate under wide range of conditions. It does require a shift from population to people, from the number game of targets and achievements to a more realistic and human approach in implementing the population program. Better, population factor is integrated into development planning so as to coordinate all population influencing activities carried out by the government. It would be in fitness of things to construct a more rational model around population growth-development syndrome wherein welfare and comfort of masses and respect to poor is given due weightage in right perspective and it is always kept in mind that people are not the problem; people are the solution.
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Sarup Singh, Amit Singh Minhas: Status of Environmental Legislation in India
Environment conscious states have accordingly legislated on the subject of environment from time to time. However, the legislative efforts alone have not been followed by strict enforcement thereby allowing constant deterioration of the environment quality. The fact of this kind has been duly underlined in the scrutiny of available legislation on environment in India. It is clearly established in this paper that sufficient amount of legislation on environment is available in India but the quality of environment is quite poor on account of the poor enforcement of legal provisions for want of support and participation by the society in the process of prevention, control and abatement of environment deterioration.
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Rana Pratap:Tourism as A Factor of Regional Development: A Case Study of Bihar
The purpose of the paper is to discuss the tourism as factors of regional development for Bihar. Bihar is a crisis-State today where socio-economic performance score stands at the bottom of the table, which is really deplorable. The condition has more accentuated otherwise after the segregation of Jharkhand. The state now needs to reorient its socio-economic status after harnessing its abundant natural and cultural heritages. Agronomy and tourism may be the base for all developments here. Since long the former had has been the lifeline of the State but the later has been ever neglected. How the time has come to realize the importance of tourism as a smokeless industry through which a region can redress its relegated socio-economic conditions. It provides opportunities for huge current earnings and enough jobs – the two essentials for the regional prosperity. Really Bihar is fortunate to have ample and various tourism potentials to boast of. The State owes its very name from “Vihara’ – the Buddhist monastery – as this is the land from where the great religions of Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism sprouted and spread all over the world. Hundreds of places are to-day thronged by tourists and pilgrims inflow from home and abroad. Likewise, natural beauty-sights or in the latest form, Eco-tourism are equally catching. Therefore, it has become imperative for Bihar to develop its tertiary industry – tourism with all priority and sincerities for its correction of all maladies.
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S.K.Aggarwal, S.P.Kaushik: Growth and Diffusion of Farmhouses in The National Capital Territory of Delhi
This paper examines the process of the occurrence and growth of farmhouses in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Degradation in quality of life in the main city and accumulation of wealth by rich class possibly in clandestine manner encouraged investments in immovable properties like farmhouses. Many stakeholders are involved in this process of its development like farmers, estate developers colonizers and the elites of Delhi. There are striking spatial variations in the distribution of farmhouses. Because of the loopholes in the regulatory byelaws, farmhouses have developed leapfrogging in peripheral areas of Delhi occupying the frontage of major road network. The area falling south of Meharaulli has the largest concentration of farmhouses. About two-third of the agricultural area of the villages located in this belt is under farmhouses. Rajokri- Bijwasan belt has another major cluster in the southern part. Both sides of NH-1 are dotted with farmhouses in Alipur block of northwest Delhi. Distribution pattern on the whole reveals clustering phenomena. The haphazard growth has led to environmental degradation, rising crimes and social tensions.
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Gurbakhsh Singh, Shyamal Sarkar:Consumption of Biomass While Grazing in Western Himalayas: A Case Study of Village Kirmoo and Balota
Himalayas are rightly considered as a fragile mountain ecosystem. As a result of economic development this eco-system has further been pressurized. This pressure has been particularly on the forest resources. In the present attempt two villages located at entirely different altitudinal climatic zones have been selected to study the consumption of biomass being grazed by livestock population and influence on the ecosystem of the region. Heiden formula with minor modifications to suit the local conditions has been used for assessing the biomass being consumed while grazing. The data obtained from the primary sources have been processed, tabulated and analysed.
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S.B. Singh, R. Juyal, Shyam B. Singh:Socio–Economic Aspects in Pathri Rao Micro Watershed Planning and Management
Society and environment are closely interlinked and any change in any one of these variables has a direct bearing upon the other. As environmental degradation does not follow any administrative boundary the livelihood of the whole populace living in a region is affected. It is thus becomes necessary to understand and critically analyse the relationship between society and environment. Hence, there can be no sustainable natural resources management unless it involves the participation of all the inhabitants of the concerned environment/area in an active manner. This is where the role of watershed management becomes imperative. Watershed management refers to the conservation, regeneration and the judicious use of all the resources: natural (land, water, forest) and human within a particular watershed. So, the approach of watershed management should not only restrict to the conservational aspect of eco-restoration but it ought to assess and rectify the socio-economic restraint of the populace living therein so as to achieve sustainable integrated watershed development.
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L. S. Bhat:Evaluation of Land and Water Resources for Integrated Regional Development.
Evaluation of land and water resources of India has to be attempted in a spatial and temporal framework because of the large size of the country, sharp regional contrasts in natural environment, physical and human resources and the patterns and processes of socio-economic development. Empirical studies of the spatial patterns of distribution and concentration of land and water resources reveal that the linguistic States are in most cases heteroqenous and it has been possible to identify sub-regions within the states having homogeneity in resource structure and geographical conditions. Often a distinct resource region comprises parts of the adjoining States as in the case of the forest and mineral resource region comprising Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, western Orissa, small parts of Maharashtra and West Bengal. Agricultural regions too cut across the boundaries of different States. Likewise the river basins of major rivers cut across several States. Taking note of the spatial affinity of the natural resources a scheme of 11 major resource regions and 51 sub-regions have been identified and the boundaries of these regions have been adapted to those of the administrative units to facilitate quantification of the resources’ and formulating development strategies appropriate to these regions and sub-regions. Since the data are used with District as the unit it becomes possible to identify the sub-regions within the States and to evaluate their development potentials and problems.
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K. Surjit Singh:Geographic Studies - Essence of Land Use Planning: A Reminder.
Land surface of the earth appears enormous, but it is only 149.5 million square kilometers against the water surface of 360.5 million square kilometres. In other words, only 29 per cent of the total surface area of the earth is land while 71 per cent is occupied by water. The land of the earth, therefore, be taken as fixed in extent since there is hardly any land left unexplored. Moreover, the whole land available on the earth cannot be put to use as a large part of it is under rugged mountains, cover of ice, hot deserts, dense forests, marshes, lakes, etc. that cannot be brought under use. There is hardly any scope to bring more area under use by way of reclamation. Thus, land available for use is definite, finite and truly speaking inextensible.
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