Volume 19, Issue 1, 2019 January-March


Volume 19, No 1 Pages:
2019 January-March Articles: 4

Critical analysis on inclusion of environmental studies in the elementary, secondary and senior secondary schools in Mizoram, India

Education is a process of development which includes three major activities, namely teaching, training and instruction. Environmental education is a process to promote the awareness and understanding of the environment, its relationship with man and his activities. It is also aimed at developing responsible actions necessary for preservation, conservation and improvement of the environment and its components. It has been introduced as a regular course in formal school education system in India following the directive of the Supreme Court of India. The present study aims at critically analyzing curriculum of environmental studies at primary, secondary and senior secondary level. The detailed analysis was done on the basis interactions with important stakeholders. In our study, we found that there is scarcity of qualified teachers to teach Environmental studies at each level. During interactions it was found that teachers have several environmental knowledge gaps and misconceptions about important environmental issues like about acid rain, ozone layer depletion and greenhouse effect. Our survey indicates that teachers hardly practice innovative methods to teach environment education. Most commonly used method is lecture. Field visits, practical, study tour and demonstrations are missing in many schools. It was also found that course content is not incremental; there is very often repetition of the topics. At college level, there is a need to focus more on environmental education and upgrade the course components. There should be both pre-service and in-service training for teachers to infuse emerging issues in course content. Such training should equip teachers for collecting and using relevant teaching materials to impart emerging issues. A few suggestions and recommendations are given based on critical analysis.


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.


Sporadic flowering of Bambusa mizorameana Naithani in Mizoram

Mizoram, one of the states in northeast India, is known for its rich bamboo resources. Mizoram has been unceasingly experiencing flowering of bamboo. Recently, a new species of bamboo, Bambusa mizorameana, was described from Mizoram. It is a less common species, and its distributions within the state are also very limited. Specimens were also collected from Manipur. There has been no previous report of its inflorescence. The sporadic flowering of the species in certain areas within the nearby forest of Aizawl city, observed since 2017 are reported in this paper.


A review on tobacco and its effect on health

Tobacco is an important agricultural product that is consumed all over the world. More than 8000 chemicals are reported to be present in tobacco, and a large number of these chemicals are known carcinogens, and hence is known to be one of the most significant contributors to the development of cancer of different body parts. These chemicals have been reported to alter both the genetic and epigenetic constituents of cells. Such changes involve point mutation, deletion, insertion, recombination, transversion, transition, and chromosomal aberrations including aneuploidy and polyploidy. The chemical composition of different types of tobacco has been reported to be different. In this article, brief information about tobacco plants; history, types and popularity of tobacco; its chemical composition; relation to cancer and other diseases and its effects on the molecular, epigenetic and genetic compositions have been highlighted.