Brykendrickia catenata gen. & sp. nov. from India

A new hyphomycete genus and species,Brykendrickia catenata, collected on decaying culms of bamboo species from Indian forests, is described and illustrated. Brykendrickia catenata is the type species for a new monotypic genus possessing sporodochial conidiomata. Conidiogenous cells are polyblastic, rarely monoblastic, cylindrical, and hyaline to subhyaline. Conidia are loosely cheiroid, blastocatenate, and produce branches of doliiform to oblong, botuliform, globose or subglobose, sub-hyaline to light grey cells.

Gandhi's Successors: from Forest Satyagraha to the Chipko Social Movement

The article examines the role of the ideological successors of Mahatma Gandhi in the development of his teaching on spiritual resistance to violence – Satyagraha. Much attention is paid to the history of the transformation of Forest Satyagraha campaigns, which were characteristic of the period of the struggle of India for independence, into the Chipko social movement that arose during the period of Independence. The contribution of “two English daughters” of Gandhi, Mira Ben and Sarala Ben, and an Indian woman Vandana Shiva, in the formulation of new goals for Forest Satyagraha, is analyzed. Mira Ben states the need to stop cutting down the forests of the Himalayas due to the danger of flooding and causing economic damage to rural communities. Sarala Ben discusses the dangers of a modernizing development concept and opposes it to the thesis of the importance of maintaining the climatic balance in northern India to prevent droughts and floods. Vandana Shiva, summarizing the experience of Forest Satyagraha and the Chipko movement, speaks of the priority of sustainable development over the strategy of economic growth. The article shows that the creative development of Gandhi’s ideas in relation to the protection of Indian forests and the survival of rural communities, carried out by the three successors of Gandhi in India, is important for creating a sustainable world, especially in a highly integrated global economic system.

Improved NDVI based proxy leaf-fall indicator to assess rainfall sensitivity of deciduousness in the central Indian forests through remote sensing

Quantifying the leaf-fall dynamics in the tropical deciduous forest will help in modeling regional energy balance and nutrient recycle pattern, but the traditional ground-based leaf-fall enumeration is a tedious and geographically limited approach. Therefore, there is a need for a reliable spatial proxy leaf-fall (i.e., deciduousness) indicator. In this context, this study attempted to improve the existing deciduousness metric using time-series NDVI data (MOD13Q1; 250 m; 16 days interval) and investigated its spatio-temporal variability and sensitivity to rainfall anomalies across the central Indian tropical forest over 18 years (2001–2018). The study also analysed the magnitude of deciduousness during extreme (i.e., dry and wet) and normal rainfall years, and compared its variability with the old metric. The improved NDVI based deciduousness metric performed satisfactorily, as its observed variations were in tandem with ground observations in different forest types, and for different pheno-classes. This is the first kind of study in India revealing the spatio-temporal character of leaf-fall in different ecoregions, elevation gradients and vegetation fraction.

Controls of plant diversity attributes over above ground biomass in Sal forests of Eastern India

Background Above ground biomass (AGB) is a useful measure for assessing changes in forest structure and functional, and play a significant role in studying carbon stocks, the effect of deforestation and carbon sequestration on the global carbon balance. The present study aimed to study the relationship between AGB and community parameters in Sal forests of Eastern India through stratified random sampling by lying 92 belt transects each of 0.5 ha size. Results It recorded a high AGB (410.70 Mg ha-1), and carbon stock (Cp) (193.06 Mg C ha-1), and forest wise AGB ranged from 0.19 to 24.75 Mg ha-1 (mean 4.45 ± 0.45 SE). The spatial pattern of AGB showed that maximum studied forests (65%) had very low AGB (<5.00 Mg ha-1), and only one forests (1%) located in the northwest corner of Ranchi had very high AGB (>20 Mg ha-1). Species wise AGB ranged from 0.001 to 7074.94 Mg ha-1 (mean 106 ± 71 SE) and Shorea robusta with maximum basal area (120.81 m2 ha−1) contributed maximum AGB (64.87% of the total AGB), however, no similar trends have been observed in any other tree species. A significant positive correlation was observed between AGB and Cp (r=1.00, p<0.01), H’ (r= .58, p<0.01), Dmg (r= .31, p<0.01), Dmn (r= .49, p<0.01), ENS (r= .57, p<0.01), E (r= .26, p<0.05), and basal area (r= 0.71, p<0.05). However, a negative correlation of AGB was evident with CD (r= -.57, p<0.01), and density (r= - 0.17). Conclusions The relationships differed greatly among plant diversity attributes, basal area, density, AGB, and Cp within and among various forests and the strongest relationships within each forests were always those having greater richness (Dmg, Dmn), diversity (H, ENS), basal area or evenness (E). Estimation of forest Cp enables us to assess the amount of carbon loss during deforestation or the amount of carbon stored during forest regeneration. The present study will directly help in studying the response of climate change on ecosystem productivity, energy and nutrient flow, and for assessing the patterns of carbon sequestration in Indian forests under global climate change.

To Hunt or Not to Hunt: Tiger Hunting, Conservation and Collaboration in Colonial India

As the Edwardian era came to an end in Britain and its Empire began to decline, the glorious days of tiger hunting in India were being measured against a genuine fear of the total extinction of tigers. This article maps the precarious position of Indian tigers in the hands of hunters against the rising concern over preservation of the species in the first half of the twentieth century. Ranging from the bureaucratic to the overtly sentimental and personal, these attitudes, taken together, reveal a pre-‘Project Tiger’ conservation milieu in colonial India. They help us to judge the cultural status and symbol of the Bengal tiger before it became an iconic species for wildlife conservation in postcolonial India. The various debates and representations of tigers in hunting memoirs often throw light on intricate socio-cultural problems threatening the survival of the cat. In fact, the debates, as much as they spread awareness, ended up strengthening the bureaucratic and sometimes political hold over Indian forests. The article further tracks imperial discourse on the systematization of tiger hunts, which was effectively linked with the preservation of tigers and collaboration with Indians. During the twilight of the British Empire, tiger hunt and tiger conservation would emerge as sites for possible collaboration between Indians and their rulers. As recent efforts at international collaboration to protect tigers have shown, the tiger retains enough sentimental value to secure bureaucratic and political ties between nations.