The Indo-Gangetic plains region cuts across Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. It is the most extensive fluvial plain of the world and is well endowed with natural resources, deep productive soils, plentiful surface and ground water as well as favourable climate. The region has been the seat of intense human activity with ‘adoption of high input technology’ and intensification of agriculture during the last four decades. During the recent past, there have been sustainability concerns because of loss of biodiversity, soil degradation, depletion of nutrient stocks and declining water table. To develop a long-term perspective for sustainable planning and for assessing the contribution of land cover change to atmospheric gases viz. CO2, CH4 and N2O, an analysis of the technological options and role of biophysical and socio-economic factors, both past and present, which drive land use and cover change is the need of the hour! Some articles, however, address the issues of the Indian subcontinent as a whole. This book summarizes the present status of knowledge on the subject which would help in developing strategies and policy options for the future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mithilesh K. Tiwari
Mithilesh K Tiwari obtained his Ph.D in physics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1979 and till 1995 worked as a scientist at the ISRO headquarters. Currently he is with the National Physical Laboratory. Being conversant with many fields of natural and physical sciences and with an acumen for science organization his major forte and contribution has been in promotion and formulation of large scale multi-institutional/multiÂdisciplinary research programmes for the country over the years in diverse fields including chemical evolution and origin of life, astronomy, use of space platforms for scientific research, micro-gravity physics, study of global change phenomena etc. He has been associated with the growth of activities of SASCOM particularly the development of facilities for crop experimentation under enriched CO2 conditions and also land use/land cover studies in the Indo-Gangetic plains.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Satpal Sangwan
Satpal Sangwan is a science historian at the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi. His research interests include social history of colonial scientific discourse and the environmental consequences of colonial intervention in India. Dr Sangwan has been Visiting Fellow to a number of academia in Europe including Royal Society, London, the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen and the Maison des Sciences de L 'Homme, Paris. He is author of a book : Science, Technology and Colonisation, co-edited 'Nature and the Orient : The Environmental History of South and Southeast Asia (Oxford University Press 1998) and 'Uncertain Terrain : Essays on Science Popularization in Pre-Independence India'.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Yash P. Abrol
Yash P Abrol obtained his Ph.D from the University of Chicago and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California. At present he is working as a Honorary Scientist (INSA) with the Department of Environmental Botany, Hamdard University. Earlier he was associated with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute for over 35 years. Professor Abrol has published more than one hundred research/review papers in reputed journals and edited several books/proceedings volumes which include Nitrogen (Research Studies Press, UK), Photosynthesis (Kluwer Academic Publishers), Climate Viability and Agriculture (Narosa Publishers, Delhi) and others. He is associated with the SASCOM Land Use/Cover Change Programme, is a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and a recipient of several awards which include VASVIK and FICCI.
There are no reviews yet.