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In the history of migration in South and South East Asia, the great exodus of 1947 and 1971 due to the outcome of the nation-building process of the Indian sub-continent were the most gigantic episodes with respect to spatial, temporal, and post-traumatic experience. It created millions of homeless and jobless refugees who are still suffering from identity crises and stress through decolonization. Although some of them were ascendant groups and became decision-making authorities in their own ancestral habitats before decolonization. This paper tries to identify the migration scenario of some sections of Namasudra, a lower caste group that emerged as a dominant group as an outcome of westernization in the colonial period in Eastern areas of undivided Bengal. Hence, the Matua community was selected for this study. It is one of the low-caste groups, formed as a distinct religious practice in the undivided Bengal and consolidated in the colonial period but after partition became a refugee for India. Two villages were selected, i.e. A1 and A2 for the primary survey. The study reveals that in both the villages (A1 & A2) migration of Matua families continued till the previous decade of the twenty-first century whereas, in both villages, more than 80 percent of Matua families arrived after 1971. Thus, from the nationality perspective, those were illegal immigrants in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring changes in Land Use/Land Cover (LULC), spectral indices, and Land Surface Temperature (LST) can help to identify the areas at risk for indefensible land use, a low-grade environment, and especially urban heat islands (UHI). This study aims to examine the changing pattern of LULC, the dynamics of geospatial indices (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalised Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI), Normalised Difference Bareness Index (NDBaI), and Normalised Difference Latent-heat Index (NDLI)), and LST patterns with the relationship among them between 1991 and 2021 in the Varanasi City Development Region (VCDR). The LULC classification was done into seven classes (using the maximum likelihood method), the LST has been retrieved, and the above spectral indices have been calculated using Landsat 5 and 8 data. Pearson's correlation method was used to analyse the relationship between LST and spectral indices. As per result, built-up area was increased by 507.8 per cent consequently, water bodies, agricultural, barren, fallow land and vegetation cover were declined by 4.84, 18.68, 82.41, 26.18 and 22.16 per cent respectively during 1991–2021. The maximum, minimum, and mean LST increased by 6.18, 2.28, and 2.24 °C, respectively, throughout the period. A positive relationship has been observed among NDBI, NDBaI, NDLI, and LST, whereas NDVI, NDWI, and LST have an inverse relationship. The finding explains the high number of water bodies, healthy vegetation cover, sufficient open space, and less concrete surface are necessary to maintain the LST and its related problems. So, an SPURS plan has been proposed to maintain the thermal environment of VCDR. This study can be a useful guide for planners and policymakers by providing a scientific background as well as the suggestions for sustainable urban management and development in VCDR and other cities as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information of the distribution and features of glaciers in the Himalayan Mountains is still inadequate and heterogeneous. These glaciers have recently become significant as these are being used as climate change indicators. As a consequence, maintaining a database in the form of Digital Glacier Inventories of these solid freshwater resources has become crucial. Hypsometric relationships are important as they give an insight into the vulnerability of glaciers to climate change. This paper makes an attempt to study the trends of glacier area, glacier number and changes in glaciers according to altitude in Sikkim (India) and Bhutan. As optimal circumstances for glacier growth exist, an increase in the number of glaciers or their size is assumed to be closely linked to an increase in the altitude. Glaciers of this areas were thus inventoried by remote sensing methods using IRS LISS III, AWiFS and SRTM DEM data in the Geographic Information System (GIS) setting. As testified by several scholars (Bolch, et al., 2012) the investigation of glaciers of Sikkim and Bhutan also showed that, the highest concentration of glaciers is in the 4000-5000 m. elevation class. Bhutan had the maximum glacial region (62.95%) in the same category, i.e. 4000-5000 m. Whereas Sikkim, at the elevation of > 4000 m. had the largest concentration of glacial area (60.56%), thus rendering the theory partly correct. Although the number of glaciers and the area covered (6.91%) were the lowest in Bhutan's > 5000 m. elevation region, but the average glacier size (13 km) was very high. Finally, it was observed that the average glacier size in both the study areas was the lowest in the < 4000 m. elevation class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health is the basic need for the human being and it also influences one's lifestyle. In India, Primary Health Centres play a crucial role in determining the health of rural people as they cater to the basic health facilities to them. Hence, the present paper envisages to study the accessibility of Primary Health Centres in the Ahmedabad District of Gujarat which is the most populous district of the state. The present paper analyses the current pattern of the accessibility of these centres and also proposes new centres where required. The entire study is put on Geographical Information System platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is an important element in everyday life. The basic property of water (H2O) is static but with the inclusion of different physico-chemical elements, its quality varies from time to time and place to place. The present paper is an attempt to evaluate the property of sub-surface water in Surat- Bharuch Industrial Region of Gujarat, India. 155 sites were selected for the analysis and spatial pattern of physico-chemical parameters like EC, pH, temperature, calcium, sodium, potassium, lithium, iron, fluoride, copper and cadmium were analysed. To understand the distribution pattern of data, measures of central tendency, dispersion and skewness were applied. High concentration of sodium was observed in the northern part of the region while the level of pH was normal in the region. Lithium concentration was high throughout the area except for the south-eastern region. Other physical parameters like EC and temperature and chemical parameters like potassium, fluoride and copper were found to be within the desirable range. Multiple correlation among the parameters showed most important and strong relation between EC - Lithium, EC-Calcium and EC-Sodium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]