Economics of Small Tea Farming System (STFS): An in-depth Study of North Bengal,India

The study was conducted to find out the pattern of labour engagement (both family andhired labour), price realization of different type of small tea growers and economic analysisof the small tea growing system. Small tea growers of Jalpaiguri and Uttar Dinajpur districtof West Bengal were selected purposively. The present study mainly considered primarydata for analysis and a small amount of secondary data was also collected from records ofConfederation of Indian Small Tea Growers’ Association (CISTA) and Self-Help Group(SHG) registers. It has been found that there is a variation in price of green leaves in bothdistricts and higher rates are observed in the month of March. SHGs with own processingunits were found to fetch higher prices compared to other units because of their collectivebargaining power, absence of middlemen and owing co-operative processing units. Numberof such SHGs, with processing units were found in Jalpaiguri district whereas, UttarDinajpur district recorded no SHG with own processing units. The economic analysis alsopresented a clear picture about fixed and operational cost, gross return with or withoutdividend and benefit cost ratio.

Some hydrometeorological studies over Teesta basin in north Bengal

Based on data of 40 rainfall stations located within and in the neighbourhood of Teesta basin in north Bengal for period ranging between 7 & 23 years, hydrometeorological informations of the spatial distribution of monthly rainfall, umber of rainy days and extreme rainfall distribution over Teesta basin have been determined and presented on basin maps for the months of May to October. The average monthly areal precipitation depth as wi1l as extreme areal precipitation depth for a day have been discussed for 6 sectors of the basin. The pentads rainfall for 22 selected stations in the catchment during May to October have also been evaluated and discussed.

A study on effective monsoon and dry spells of short return periods The Indian mountain ranges during monsoon months in two north Bengal districts

This article uses daily rainfall data (April-October) of Cooch Behar (1971-90) and Jalpaiguri (1972-90), the two predominantly rainfed farming districts of Terai zone of West Bengal, to study the, nature of different rainfall parameters of this area. It was observed that the mean date of Onset of Effective Monsoon (OEM) of this region is about one month in advance from the normal occurrence of monsoon over Kerala. However, the monsoon rains, here, retreat at about the same time with those of Kerala. Distribution of the duration of dry spell has been studied to have some idea of the nature of critical dry spells during the monsoon season. The article also examines how prolonged, on the average, are the monsoon breaks for different return periods. Expected length of dry spell (in days) for 2, 5, 10 and 20 years return periods have been estimated with the help of suitably fitted curves for each location.

Assessment of bank erosion and its impact on land use and land cover dynamics of Mahananda River basin (Upper) in the Sub-Himalayan North Bengal, India

Bank erosion is the predominant character of River Mahananda in the Sub-Himalayan North Bengal. The present study aims to identify the bank erosion mechanism as well as the impact of river bank erosion on land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics of the study area. Survey of India (SOI) topographical map 78 B/5 (1975) and satellite imageries for the temporal year of 1991 and 2019 from USGS have been used for the study. For the assessment of bank erosion process Bank erosion hazard index (BEHI) model has been adopted here. The channel migration has been delineated by the superimposition of temporal bank lines extracted from the temporal satellite imageries. LULC analysis has been carried out through the supervised classification technique using remote sensing and GIS tools. Form the assessment of BEHI it can be visualized that the scores have been ranging from 30.75 to 44.30 which indicates high to very high vulnerable areas under fluvial erosion. The channel migration for the temporal period from 1991 to 2019 is ranging from 7.72 to 411.16 m along the studied reach which reflects the high erosion effectiveness. From LULC classes it has been assessed that settled or built-up areas have been increased and the water body is gradually decreased overall in the study area. The study resulted that the river bank erosion has its direct impact on land use of the studied area. In the study vulnerable sites to fluvial erosion have been delineated and unplanned land use can be managed through sustainable way.

Earthquake in Assam and North Bengal and COVID19 in India

Earthquake in Assam and north Bengal in IndiaOn April 28, 2021, a 6.4 Richter scale earthquake affected the Sonitpur district of Assam, the tremors of which were felt in north Bengal and other parts of North-East India, as reported by the National Centre for Seismology1. Six more tremors followed the first shake 2. There were reports of widespread damage to buildings and other structures from across Assam, mostly in the central and western towns of Tezpur, Nagaon, Guwahati, Mangaldoi, Dhekiajuli, and Morigaon3. Again on May 3rd, 2021, an earthquake was felt in the Sonitpur district of Assam with a 3.7 magnitude on the Richter scale4. Assam disaster management authority reported that 10 people from 4 districts suffered physical injuries since the first attack on April 28, 2021, and some more time will be needed to know about the actual amount of damage that had taken place5. According to the National Centre for Seismology, the area affected by the earthquake is seismically very active and falls in the highest seismic hazard zone where the Indian tectonic plate subducts with the Eurasian plate because of which there are high chances of future quakes as well6.

Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) for Teesta basin and heavy rainfall warning over Teesta basin & adjoining areas in north Bengal & Sikkim using synoptic analog method

This article presents the method to issue Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) for Teesta catchment. A synoptic analog model has been developed analyzing 10 years (1998-2007) data for Teesta catchment. The outcomes are then validated with the realized Average Areal Precipitation (AAP) for the corresponding synoptic situations during south-west monsoon season 2008 (1st June to 30th September) over Teesta basin and results revealed that there exists a good agreement between day-to-day QPF with corresponding realized AAP calculated over this basin next day. In addition, occurrence of heavy rainfall has also been studied in this paper.

Emerging Role of Libraries in Language Archiving in India A Case Study of SiDHELA

SiDHELA is a language archive developed by the Centre for Endangered Languages, Sikkim University in collaboration with the Central Library, Sikkim University. It is the first language archive developed in India. SiDHELA is a model attempt at digital archiving in collaboration with communities of Sikkim and North Bengal region of India. The main highlight of the paper is the possibilities which emerges out of a collaboration between under resourced indigenous communities and an institutional library backed by a language documentation project to curate digital contents for endangered and lesser known languages from under resourced regions like the Northeast of India.