• Title/Summary/Keyword: West Bengal

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Biomass, Primary Nutrient and Carbon Stock in a Sub-Himalayan Forest of West Bengal, India

  • Shukla, Gopal;Chakravarty, Sumit
    • Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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    • v.34 no.1
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    • pp.12-23
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    • 2018
  • Quantitative information on biomass and available nutrients are essential for developing sustainable forest management strategies to regulate atmospheric carbon. An attempt was made at Chilapatta Reserve Forest in Duars region of West Bengal to quantify its above and below ground carbon along with available "N", "P" and "K" in the soil. Stratified random nested quadrats were marked for soil, biomass and litter sampling. Indirect or non-destructive procedures were employed for biomass estimation. The amount of these available nutrients and organic carbon quantified in soil indicates that the forest soil is high in organic carbon and available "K" and medium in phosphorus and nitrogen. The biomass, soil carbon and total carbon (soil C+C in plant biomass) in the forest was 1,995.98, 75.83 and $973.65Mg\;ha^{-1}$. More than 90% of the carbon accumulated in the forest was contributed by the trees. The annual litter production of the forest was $5.37Mg\;ha^{-1}$. Carbon accumulation is intricately linked with site quality factors. The estimated biomass of $1,995.98Mg{\cdot}ha^{-1}$ clearly indicates this. The site quality factor i.e. tropical moist deciduous with optimum availability of soil nutrients, heavy precipitation, high mean monthly relative humidity and optimum temperature range supported luxuriant growth which was realized as higher biomass accumulation and hence higher carbon accumulated.

Pharmacognostic Evaluation of Curcuma caesia Roxb. rhizome

  • Verma, Durgesh;Srivastava, Sharad;Singh, Vineet;Rawat, A.K.S.
    • Natural Product Sciences
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.107-110
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    • 2010
  • Curcuma caesia Roxb. (Zingiberaceae) is commonly known as 'Black turmeric'. In India it grows in West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, North-East and Uttar Pradesh and is widely used by ethnic communities for various ailments. Rhizomes of the plant are used for sprains and bruises and are also employed in cosmetics. In West Bengal it is an important place in traditional system of medicine and is also used as a substitute for turmeric in fresh stage. Present communication deals with the detailed pharmacognostical evaluation of the rhizome sample. Inner part of the rhizome is bluish-black in colour and emits a characteristic sweet smell, due to the presence of essential oil. On steam distillation the rhizome yields an essential oil rich in camphor. A detailed HPTLC studies has been carried out for quantitative evaluation of active marker component. HPTLC, physico-chemical, morphological and histological parameters presented in this paper may be proposed as parameters to establish the authenticity of C. caesia rhizome and may possibly help to differentiate the drug from its other allied species.

Application of multivariate statistics towards the geochemical evaluation of fluoride enrichment in groundwater at Shilabati river bank, West Bengal, India

  • Ghosh, Arghya;Mondal, Sandip
    • Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.279-288
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    • 2019
  • To obtain insightful knowledge of geochemical process controlling fluoride enrichment in groundwater of the villages near Shilabati river bank, West Bengal, India, multivariate statistical techniques were applied to a subgroup of the dataset generated from major ion analysis of groundwater samples. Water quality analysis of major ion chemistry revealed elevated levels of fluoride concentration in groundwater. Factor analysis (FA) of fifteen hydrochemical parameters demonstrated that fluoride occurrence was due to the weathering and dissolution of fluoride-bearing minerals in the aquifer. A strong positive loading (> 0.75) of fluoride with pH and bicarbonate for FA indicates an alkaline dominated environment responsible for leaching of fluoride from the source material. Mineralogical analysis of soli sediment exhibits the presence of fluoride-bearing minerals in underground geology. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was carried out to isolate the sampling sites according to groundwater quality. With HCA the sampling sites were isolated into three clusters. The occurrence of abundant fluoride in the higher elevated area of the observed three different clusters revealed that there was more contact opportunity of recharging water with the minerals present in the aquifer during infiltration through the vadose zone.

Different Sources and Levels of Copper Supplementation on Performance and Nutrient Utilization of Castrated Black Bengal (Capra hircus) Kids Diet

  • Mondal, M.K.;Biswas, P.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.20 no.7
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    • pp.1067-1075
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    • 2007
  • Twenty eight 3-4 month old castrated Black Bengal kids (Capra hircus) were used to determine the effects of source and level of dietary copper (Cu) concentration on their performance and nutrient utilization. Cu was supplemented (0, 10, 20 and 30 mg/kg diet DM) as copper sulfate ($CuSO_4$, $5H_2O$) or copper proteinate (Cu-P). Kids were fed a basal diet containing maize (19.5%), soybean (17.0%), deoiled rice bran (56.5%), molasses (4.0%), di-calcium phosphate and salt (1.0% each) and mineral and vitamin mixture (0.5% each) supplements at 3.5% of body weight to meet NRC (1981) requirements for protein, energy, macro minerals and micro minerals, excluding Cu. The basal diet contained 5.7 mg Cu/kg, 122.5 mg Fe/kg, 110 mg Zn/kg, 0.26 mg Mo/kg and 0.32% S. $CuSO_4$ or Cu-P was added to the basal diet at the rate of 10, 20 and 30 mg/kg. Kids were housed in a well ventilated shed with facilities for individual feeding in aluminum plated metabolic cages. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein on d 0, 30, 60 and 90 to determine hemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), total erythrocyte count (TEC), total leukocyte count (TLC) and serum enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, alanine transferase and aspertate transferase). A metabolism trial of 6 days duration was conducted after 90 days of experimental feeding. Statistical analysis revealed that source and level of Cu supplementation improved live weight gain (p<0.04) and average daily gain (p<0.01). No significant contribution of source and level of Cu to alter serum serum enzymes was evident. Goats fed Cu-P tended to have higher Hb, PCV and TEC than with $CuSO_4$ supplementation. Cu-P increased digestibility of ether extract (EE, p<0.02) and crude fiber (p<0.05) and showed an increasing trend (p<0.09) for digested crude protein (CP) and crude fiber (CF). Supplemental dose of Cu linearly improved (p<0.02) digestibilities of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), EE and nitrogen free extract (NFE). Though the absorption of nitrogen (N) was not affected (p>0.10) by both source and dose of Cu, N retention was affected (p<0.04) and there was a significant $Source{\times}Dose$ interaction (p<0.05). Final body weight (BW) was not influenced (p>0.10) by the source of Cu but increasing dose of Cu increased (p<0.04) the BW of kids. TDN intake (g/kg $W^{0.75}$) was higher (p<0.05) with the increased dose of Cu and there was a significant $Source{\times}Dose$ interaction. It was concluded that supplementation of Cu from different sources and varying dose level in a concentrate based diet may improve performance, nutrient utilization and plane of nutrition in castrated Black Bengal kids. The effects on performance and nutrient utilization are more pronounced with Cu-P than $CuSO_4$ supplementation. Higher dose of Cu showed better result than lower dose.

INTERACTION BETWEEN THREE MOVING GRIFFITH CRACKS AT THE INTERFACE OF TWO DISSIMILAR ELASTIC MEDIA

  • Das, S.;Patra, B.;Debnath, L.
    • Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.59-69
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    • 2001
  • The paper deals with the interaction between three Griffith cracks propagating under antiplane shear stress at the interface of two dissimilar infinite elastic half-spaces. The Fourier transform technique is used to reduce the elastodynamic problem to the solution of a set of integral equations which has been solved by using the finite Hilbert transform technique and Cooke’s result. The analytical expressions for the stress intensity factors at the crack tips are obtained. Numerical values of the interaction efect have been computed for and results show that interaction effects are either shielding or amplification depending on the location of each crack with respect to other and crack tip spacing. AMS Mathematics Subject Classification : 73M25.

Effect of Different Dietary n-6 to n-3 Fatty Acid Ratios on the Performance and Fatty Acid Composition in Muscles of Broiler Chickens

  • Mandal, G.P.;Ghosh, T.K.;Patra, A.K.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.27 no.11
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    • pp.1608-1614
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    • 2014
  • The objective of this study was to investigate the different dietary ratios of n-6 to n-3 (n-6/n-3) fatty acid (FA) on performance and n-6/n-3 FA in muscles of broiler chickens. A total of 300 one-day-old Cobb chicks were randomly assigned to 3 treatments of 10 replicates in each (10 birds/replicate). Birds were fed on a corn-soybean meal-based diet containing 1% oil during starter (day 1 to 21) and 2% oil during finisher (day 22 to 39) phases, respectively. Treatments of high, medium and low dietary n-6/n-3 FA were formulated by replacing rice bran oil with linseed oil to achieve n-6/n-3 FA close to >20:1, 10:1 and 5:1, respectively. Average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and feed conversion ratio were similar (p>0.05) among the treatments. Serum glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides concentrations were not affected (p>0.05) by dietary treatments. In breast, concentration of C18:3n-3 was significantly greater (p = 0.001) for medium and low vs high n-6/n-3 FA, while concentrations of C20:5n-3, C22:6n-3, total n-3 FA, and n-6/n-3 FA were significantly higher for low vs medium, and medium vs high dietary n-6/n-3 FA. In contrast, concentrations of C18:2 and mono-unsaturated FA (MUFA) were lower for low vs high dietary n-6/n-3 FA. In thigh muscles, concentrations of C20:5n-3 were higher (p<0.05) for medium and low vs high dietary n-6/n-3 FA, and concentrations of C18:3n-3, C22:6, and n-3 FA were greater (p<0.05) for medium vs high, low vs medium dietary n-6/n-3 FA. However, concentrations of C18:1, MUFA, n-6/n-3 were lower (p<0.05) for low and medium vs high dietary n-6/n-3 FA. In conclusion, lowering the dietary n-6/n-3 FA did not affect the performance of chickens, but enhanced beneficial long-chain n-3 FA and decreased n-6/n-3 FA in chicken breast and thigh, which could be advantageous for obtaining healthy chicken products.

Hypoglycemic Activities of a Mangrove Plant Rhizophora apiculata Blume

  • Sur, Tapas Kumar;Seal, Tapan;Pandit, Srikanta;Bhattacharyya, Dipankar
    • Natural Product Sciences
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.11-15
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    • 2004
  • The leaves of Rhizophora apiculata, a plant belonging to the family Rhizophoraceae were collected from the mangrove forest of Sunderbans, West Bengal, India. Alcoholic extract of the leaves of this plant was prepared and hypoglycemic/anti-hyperglycemic activity was studied in fed rats, glucose loaded rats and streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. The results of this study reveal that this plant extract has potential hypoglycemic action.

Uniqueness of Meromorphic Functions Sharing a Small Function with Their Differential Polynomials

  • Banerjee, Abhijit
    • Kyungpook Mathematical Journal
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    • v.49 no.4
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    • pp.651-666
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    • 2009
  • With the aid of weakly weighted sharing and a recently introduced sharing notion in [3] known as relaxed weighted sharing we investigate the uniqueness of meromorphic functions sharing a small function with its differential polynomials. Our results will improve and supplement all the results obtained by Zhang and Yang [17] as well as a substantial part of the results recently obtained by the present author [2] and thus provide a better answer to the questions posed by Yu [14] in this regard.

Uniqueness of Certain Non-Linear Differential Polynomials Sharing 1-Points

  • Banerjee, Abhijit
    • Kyungpook Mathematical Journal
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    • v.51 no.1
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    • pp.43-58
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    • 2011
  • Using the notion of weighted sharing of values we study the uniqueness of meromorphic functions when certain non-linear differential polynomials share the same 1-points. Though the main concern of the paper is to improve a result of Fang [5] but as a consequence of the main result we improve and supplement some former results of Lahiri-Sarkar [16], Fang-Fang[6] et. al.

A Survey on House Sparrow Population Decline at Bandel, West Bengal, India

  • Ghosh, Samik;Kim, Ki-Hyun;Bhattacharya, R.
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.31 no.5
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    • pp.448-453
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    • 2010
  • The population of House sparrow (Passer domesticus), once a very common bird, has declined markedly in most parts of the world including India. Sparrows were distributed widely in the district Hoogly, West Bengal, India. However over the past few decades, they became not so common in this part of the wo rld. A study has been conductedto establish the database for their current population and to assess the possible causes of their decline at Bandel ($22^{\circ}$52'22''N/$88^{\circ}$22'53''E) placed beside the river Hoogly from September 2008 to May 2009. After prolonged searching, a relatively dense population of sparrow (total subject 270) was found in busy areas of railway station and a nearby market in Bandel. The behavior of these birds was studied extensively from early morning to late night. The noise level of the area varied from 35 to 95 dB with an average of 70.6 dB from 04:30 am-10:30 pm, IST. It was also observed that the sparrows took rest on the site of the tree where the illumination level was low (30-45 lux). Sparrows residing at the Bandel station are habituated with the loud noise, being undisturbed by passing trains. Thus, it can be concluded that in spite of heavy noise of trains, crowdy travelers, and lack of nest sites, they remain at the station because of availability of food in the nearby roadside market. Based on this observation, sound pollution and availability of food are not responsible for their decline.