Upper air circulation and thermal anomalies over India and neighbourhood vis-à-vis Indian summer monsoon activity

The three dimensional circulation and thermal anomaly features associated with droughts and floods India are examined using 20 year of upper wind data over India and neighbourhood. The analysis reveals that years of droughts (floods) in India are associated with cyclonic (anticyclonic) circulation anomalies and cold (warm) thermal anomalies in the troposphere between 500 hPa and 200 hPa over northwestern India. In drought years (flood years) upper tropospheric westerly (easterly) anomalies are observed in the lower latitudes in the months of May and June. Tibetan anticyclone shifted to east of its normal position in drought years , during the month of June. The correlation coefficient between the meridional component of the wind at 200 hPa over northwestern India and the summer monsoon rainfall found to be -0.72 which is significant.

A retrospective observational study of poisoning and hanging cases during lockdown as a marker of emotional tide of COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary care center in Northwestern India

Background: In January 2020, WHO declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus disease COVID-19 to be a public health emergency of international concern. Worldwide lockdown led to panic, mass unemployment, poverty and domestic violence. The present study was designed to observe the impact of lockdown on the spectrum of medico-legal cases being admitted with drastic events of poisoning and hanging.Methods:In this retrospective, observational and comparative study, around 131 patients were recruited from the admitted patients in the medicine wards in SMS medical college and hospital during COVID-19 lockdown period from 23 March 2020 to 31 May 2020 after applying inclusion and exclusion criterias. Their clinical profile were noted and comparatively assessed with patients admitted in medicine wards during adjoining pre-lockdown period, that is, from 12 January 2020 to 22 March 2020.Results: Out of 131 cases recruited during lockdown period, hanging cases were 10 (8%) while it was 10 cases out of 213 (5% )during pre-lockdown period. Organophosphorus poisoning was 4.5% and 1.4%, celphos poisoning was 3.8% and 2.3%, rat killer poisoning was 3.05% and 1.4% during lockdown and pre-lockdown period respectively. Cases due to ingestion of other than the major group of poisoning were lower (3.8%) during lockdown period while it was 10.3% during pre-lockdown period.Conclusions:Extreme negative behavioral changes precipitated by corona and this might be aggravated further by complete lockdown, to which people resorted to the means which were easily available to them at home like hanging and common poisonings.

Assessing spatio-temporal patterns of human-leopard interactions based on media reports in northwestern India

Large carnivores in human-use areas make for sensational print media content. We used media reports to examine human-leopard interactions in Rajasthan, India. We extracted news reports on leopard-related incidents from January 2016 to December 2018. Incidents (n= 338) were categorized, mapped, and analysed to understand their nature and extent. We found leopard-related news from 26 of 33 districts; a majority of these were in the eastern region of the State. Most of the reported interactions appeared to be non-negative, despite losses to both leopards and people. Our results provide a synthesis of spatio-temporal patterns of leopard-related incidents, which could help wildlife managers in better addressing negative interactions. The study also demonstrates how news reports could be useful for examining human-wildlife interactions across large spatial scales.