A Score-based Method for Assessing the Importance of Urban Forest and its Ecosystem Services

Urban scape constitutes the manifestation of various natural and anthropic elements entangled in a specific form. However, arbitrary land-use changes during the last few decades have witnessed a significant biodiversity loss in urban areas. Over 50% of the earth’s human population lives in the urban settlement, which accounts for less than 3% of the earth’s urbanized area. Urban green spaces act as biodiversity refuge in urban areas. In such crucial circumstances, an urban forest can play a critical role in biodiversity conservation and management through academic green spaces. To understand and evaluate the role of the urban forest, the present study carried out on the campus of [CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI)], Nagpur. Furthermore, an innovative and multifaceted index named total importance value (TIV) index was developed, which used to analyze the importance of the trees present on the campus. Results revealed the presence of more than 200 plant species belonging to both native and exotic groups and their contributions to improve the urban environment in terms of the TIV index. The study also advocates the usages of TIV as a framework for the development and planning of climate-smart green cities, which is resilience to climate change.

Ecological and Ethnobotanical Characterisation of Gujarat Forests

This study focused on the ecological and ethnobotanical characteristics of the natural forests, forest plantations, and forest orchards in the Gujarat state of India through an extensive field survey of trees, shrubs, and herbs over a span of four years. We inventoried 345 tree, 345 shrub, and 1,380 herb plots using a stratified random sampling design. In all, 706 species [trees (224), shrubs (68), and herbs (414)] were recorded. The highest number of species were noted in teak mixed dry deciduous forest (207), followed by scrub (132), thorn forest (91), grassland (78), teak mixed moist deciduous forest (51), forest plantations (34), degraded forest (30), Prosopis juliflora scrub (24), forest orchard (19), ravine thorn forest (16), Anogeissus pendula forest (8), riverain forest (8), Eucalyptus plantation (6), mangrove forest (1), and mangrove scrub (1). Fabaceae was observed to be the dominant family. Out of total species, twenty-nine (29) species were found to be rare (25), endangered (2), and threatened (2). Fabaceae was also the dominant family for rare, endangered, and threatened (RET) species. Six endemic species were recorded. The highest value of Shannon’s Index of plant diversity was noticed in teak mixed dry deciduous forest (3.14), followed by teak mixed moist deciduous forest (2.96), ravine thorn forest (2.08), forest plantations (1.97), thorn forest (1.64), riverine forest (1.41), and degraded forest (1.49). Two hundred fifty-two species, including trees (24), shrubs (101), herbs (123), climbers (3), and bamboo (1) found to be ethnobotanically important. Fabaceae happened to be the dominant family in terms of ethnobotanically important plants too.

Lichen Allelopathy: An Agricultural Prospect

Allelopathy is a common biological miracle by which one organism produces biochemicals that affect the growth, existence, development, and reproduction of other organisms. These biochemicals are known as allelochemicals and have advantageous, as well as, harmful effects on target organisms. Lichens produce over a thousand different extracellular biochemical terms as secondary metabolites. The lichen secondary metabolites may show either positive effects, such as, in weed control, crop protection, or crop re-establishment or negative effects, e.g., autotoxicity, biological invasion, competition, deterioration, and eutrophic soil sickness. However, several lichen secondary metabolites can potentially be used as growth regulators, insecticidal, and antimicrobial since dated back. Here, we discuss the application of lichen allelopathy in various agricultural prospects in the near future.

Antimicrobial Activity of Calotropis gigantea against Staphylococcus aureus: Eco-Friendly Management

Calotropis gigantea (Madaar) Linn. is a potent medicinal herb that has active compounds in the form of alkaloids, glycosides, lactones, and steroids. All these active compounds have immune-modulatory and physiological roles of different types; the plant is also reported as effective in treating skin, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, and neurological disorders and was used to treat fevers, elephantiasis, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. In this study, the phytochemical and the zone of inhibition was measured in C. gigantea L. It proves that C. gigantea L. is more effective against Staphylococcus aureus. Aqueous extract of C. gigantea L. was extracted by the aqueous method. In the qualitative phytochemical analysis presence of various secondary metabolites were found as alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, and saponin. In the quantitative analysis, carbohydrate was found in C. gigantea L. about concentration is found (470 μg/mL). Antimicrobial activity was also quite good against S. aureus. The study demonstrates that the C. gigantea L. contains the presence different of bioactive compounds indicated a potent antimicrobial activity of C. gigantea L. against S. aureus so that we called as eco-friendly management.

Study on the Relation among Agriculture and Forests of Arunachal Pradesh

The state of Arunachal Pradesh is the northeastern most state of India. It covers the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It also comprises of international borders with Bhutan in the west, Myanmar in the east, and a disputed border with China in the north at the McMahon Line. The state has its agriculture as the main source of livelihood for a majority of the region’s rural population. In the last 10 years, the per capita land availability in the region has reduced by 18.4 percent and now remains a meager 0.16 ha. The reduction is attributed to the rapid increase in population and consequent fragmentation of the land. Similarly, per capita, cereal availability has also reduced by 9.4 percent in the last 10 years. The present per capita cereal availability is only 0.16 kg, thus making it very important to ensure food security in the region at any cost. Agricultural productivity in the region is not adequate to produce sufficiently for the increasing population. The average agricultural yield at present is 2.1 tonnes ha-1 (excluding the Maldives) after an increase of 8.1 percent in the last 10 years. The increase is attributed to increased use of fertilizers (69 kg ha-1, which is a 40 percent increase in the last 10 years in the region, excluding the Maldives) and the inclusion of more areas from forests into the agriculture sector. This situation has, in its turn, taken its toll by depleting and threatening the remaining biodiversity of the region.

Micromorphological Study of Shrubs from Roadsides in Kathmandu Valley

Urban air pollution is an environmental concern, particularly in developing countries and in their cities. The present study was mainly aimed to study the effect of air pollution on the micromorphological characteristics of the leaf of Euphorbia pulcherrima and Jasminum mesnyi from heavily polluted and less polluted areas of Kathmandu district. Different methods used to analyze the leaf structure (epidermal cells, stomatal frequency, and stomatal size). The stomatal study and observation from the leaf surface were completed under the compound microscope. Based on study results, in E. pulcherrima, the epidermal cells, stomatal pores, and the subsidiary cells were prominent in the anatomical structure of the leaf. In the winter season, the values were comparatively high for all different structures at less polluted sites. The values were comparatively equal for the stomatal index. The number of stomata, clogged stomata, subsidiary cells, epidermal cells, and the stomatal index was comparatively high. In J. mesnyi, the epidermal cells, stomata, were clear and many numbers in epidermal cells. The values were more in the less and moderately polluted sites both in spring and in the winter season. The number of stomata and stomatal index was high at less polluted sites and in the winter season. Within the two seasons, winter and in pre-monsoon, the values of stomatal size were comparatively high in the less polluted site. It was concluded that these two study plant species were categorized as good for plantation because their leaf micromorphological structure from air polluted areas have given suitable results.

Assessment of Growth and Biomass Production among Different Varieties of Chickpeas in Bundelkhand Region of Uttar Pradesh

Chickpeas are the most popular pulse crop of India, popularly known as gram or Bengal gram, mainly grown in Rabi season. Chickpeas are a rich source of highly digestible dietary protein. Though the crop has huge importance, no detailed studies are available on morphological and growth parameters with reference to this crop sown in the Bundelkhand region of India. Here, we compared the plant growth and yield among different varieties of chickpea under farmer’s field conditions and screened the high yielding varieties for the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. Different varieties of chickpeas viz., Avrodhi, Subhra, Ujjwal, Red gold, Pant-G-186, JG-11, Radhey, DCP-92-3, and HK94134 were analyzed in terms of growth and morphological parameters to screen the best adaptive variety with the highest yield under rain-fed conditions of that particular region. Field evaluation based on phenological traits and biomass patterns was carried out in randomized plots with three replicates for each variety. We observed significant differences in the majority of evaluated traits among the different varieties. Although, the plant height was better in the variety “Ujjwal” altogether, “Radhey” variety was observed to have the highest pod number. The above-ground biomass was again highest in Radhey with an average of 31.77 ± 3.38 g plant-1 followed by Avarodhi (30.33 ± 2.64 g plant-1) and Subhra 19.83 ± 3.08. From the present findings, it may be concluded that variety Radhey has the highest carbon sequestration potential with the highest yield in the rain-fed conditions, followed by Avarodhi and JG-11.

Kinetics of Arsenic Accumulation and its Impact on Biochemical Responses of Brassica juncea

Arsenic (As) contamination of the environment is a widespread problem with the situation at its worst in the South Asian region of West Bengal, India, and Bangladesh. In order to cope up with the problem and to be able to engineer plants in near future, there is a need to thoroughly understand the kinetics of As uptake and its impact on responses of plants. In this work, Brassica juncea (L.) Czern was used as a model system to understand kinetic interaction between As uptake and transport to the shoot and corresponding biochemical responses. The seedlings of B. juncea were exposed to 100 μM arsenite [As(III)] in hydroponics for different time points of 1, 4, and 24 hours. The As concentration was found to show a gradual increase in different tissues with time and the level of As followed the order: lower root greator than upper root greator than shoot greator than top leaves at all the times points. However, the level of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the activities of NADPH oxidase, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate oxidase (AO) were increased even at 1 h in lower shoot and leaves. The expression of transporters genes, NIP1;1, NIP2;1, NIP5;1 and NIP6;1 was found significantly up-regulated at 24 hours. This work establishes a kinetic relationship between As accumulation and ensuing biochemical responses in B. juncea.

Impact of Homa Organic Farming in Mitigating Soil, Water, and other Environmental Crises

Pollution of the atmosphere, the soil, and water resources are some of the biggest problems of our time, and it affects all areas of life, including agriculture. In this situation, it seems plausible to make use of every method, including traditional knowledge, which may help to overcome these problems (as it was suggested in the Convention on Biological Diversity, also known as the Rio Convention). Homa therapy, a method based on traditional Vedic knowledge, is said to bring nature back to harmony and thus remove pollution from our environment. But this method has to be understood and evaluated in terms of modern science. This will be done in this article. The method will be explained, and then an overview is given of completed and ongoing research into mitigating problems of the pollution of our atmosphere, the soil, and water resources. Also, the impact on agriculture and horticulture will be shown, and there will be suggestions for further research.

A Mutation Study on Gerbera jamesonii: An Important Ornamental Plant

The demand for variations in ornamental plants is always on high for the development of different types of color and other morphological changes etc. In this context, the mutation is a very much helpful and promising approach among the floriculturists and very well recognized for the development of novel varieties. Most of the researchers used the micropropagation techniques for large scale propagation of ornamental plants. Micropropagation not only enhances the rate of propagation but also produce true to type plants in a relatively short time and space. In this study, we use a combination of mutation and micropropagation strategies in Gerbera jamesonii plant.