Section VII : Environmental Sciences PROCEEDINGS OF THE 107TH INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS Bangalore, 2020 PART II SECTION OF ENVIORNMENTAL SCIENCES President: Dr. Ranbeer Singh Rawal CONTENTS I. Presidential Address 5 II. Abstract of Platinum Jubilee Lecture 27 III. Abstracts of Symposium/Invited Lectures 31 IV. Abstract of Oral Presentations 67 V. Abstract of Poster Presentations 119 VI. List of Past Sectional Presidents 269 VII. Authors Index 273 (1) (2) Section VII : Environmental Sciences 107TH INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS January 3-7, 2020, Bangalore I PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS President: Dr. Ranbeer Singh Rawal (3) (4) Section VII : Environmental Sciences PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS A01: INTEGRATING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY IN RURAL TRANSFORMATION -CASE IN POINT INDIAN HIMALAYAN REGION Ranbeer S. Rawal Director, G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment & Sustainable Development (GBPNIHESD), Kosi-Katarmal, Almora 263 643, Uttarakhand Email: [email protected] Dignitaries, colleagues, dear students, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Environmental Sciences Section, thank you for taking the time and effort to join us here in this 107th session of Indian Science Congress. Am privileged and honoured to deliver this presidential address to make a justice with the purpose that has attracted all of us here. My attempt here is not to take a deep-dive in science and technology that is the domain of you all, rather I wish to emphasize upon possibilities of integrating S&T for Rural Transformation. I admit, this address does not include any new idea, but it attempts to highlight that path for improved quality of life of India’s rural people passes through S&T interventions. As my area of operation is in Himalaya, a predominantly rural landscape, the specific examples cited herein have been drawn from this region only. Ladies and gentlemen, in spite of unprecedented rate of urbanization in recent decades, India still remains a predominantly rural society. Census 2011 has revealed 68.8% of country’s population and 72.4% of workforce inhabits rural areas. However, the urban population in the country grew at the rate of 2.76% per annum during 2001-2011. Over the years, the urbanization has increased from 25.7% in 1991 to 31.14% in 2011. Therefore, India with large population and rapid urbanization rate is blamed as major contributor to urban explosion in Asia, and thereby affecting Asian development in the 21st century (Kundu, 2011). (5) 107th Indian Science Congress, Bangalore 2020 Presidential Address Further, accelerated but unplanned rural to urban migration in search of better livelihoods is often held responsible for (i) growing pressure on urban amenities, and (ii) forcing huge number of youth from rural areas to live in unhygienic and deprived conditions of urban slums. Therefore, need to effectively reduce migration from rural to urban areas is being felt. This would require improving socio economic conditions of rural populace by way of creating employment opportunities in rural areas. The improvement in economic conditions of rural households is also essential for reducing the disparity in per capita rural and urban income, which has remained persistently high. This calls for rural transformation across the country. Rural transformation is a proactive and positive process of change and development of rural communities in the context of national and global social and economic changes (Long, Zou, Pykett, & Li, 2011; Wang, Khan, & Zhang, 2013). It involves bringing features of urban environments into rural settings, changes to systems and processes that favourably impact rural people’s standard of living and livelihoods. Rural transformation is a more dynamic concept than rural development as it embodies a transformation in people’s perspective on life (Shaw, 2011). It is usually characterised by changes in civic amenities, female literacy, gender ratio, employment structure, agricultural intensity, crop selection pattern, farm income, labour productivity and major improvements in rural housing and economic and social conditions resulting from industrialisation and urbanisation (Kurien, 1980; Ravallion & Datt, 2002) Rural transformation is a proactive and positive process of change and development of rural communities in the context of national and global social and economic changes (Long, Zou, Pykett, & Li, 2011; Wang, Khan, & Zhang, 2013). It involves bringing features of urban environments into rural settings, changes to systems and processes that favourably impact rural people’s standard of living and livelihoods. Rural transformation is a more dynamic concept than rural Ladies and gentlemen, in spite of unprecedented rate of urbanization in recent decades, India still remains a predominantly rural society. Census 2011 has revealed 68.8% of country’s population and 72.4% of workforce inhabits rural areas. However, the urban population in the country grew at the rate of 2.76% per annum during 2001-2011. Over the years, the urbanization has increased from 25.7% in 1991 to 31.14% in 2011. Therefore, India with large population and rapid urbanization rate is blamed as major contributor to urban explosion in Asia, and thereby affecting Asian development in the 21st century (Kundu, 2011). (6) Section VII : Environmental Sciences Further, accelerated but unplanned rural to urban migration in search of better livelihoods is often held responsible for (i) growing pressure on urban amenities, and (ii) forcing huge number of youth from rural areas to live in unhygienic and deprived conditions of urban slums. Therefore, need to effectively reduce migration from rural to urban areas is being felt. This would require improving socio economic conditions of rural populace by way of creating employment opportunities in rural areas. The improvement in economic conditions of rural households is also essential for reducing the disparity in per capita rural and urban income, which has remained persistently high. This calls for rural transformation across the country. Rural transformation is a proactive and positive process of development that favourably impacts quality of life of rural people. It is usually characterised by changes in civic amenities, female literacy, gender ratio, employment structure, agricultural intensity, crop selection pattern, farm income, labour productivity and major improvements in rural housing and economic and social conditions resulting from industrialisation and urbanisation (Ohlan, 2016). While agriculture and related informal sector activities form major employment for rural people, they are also characterised by a disproportionately low share (both receive and contribution) in gross domestic product and poor ranking in various development indicators. For instance, human development index and life expectancy in Indian states decreases with increase in rural population. Likewise, infant mortality, unsafe delivery, population below the poverty line and hunger index are directly and proportionally related to increasing rural intensity (Ohlan, 2016). Despite being one of the fastest growing global economies, India is still home to the largest concentration of poor people in the world. Most of them live in the rural areas with poor access to education, health, roads and electricity. This is resulting in increased rural distress which is a reflection of (i) growing inequality associated with the fast pace of growth, and (ii) lack of opportunities in rural areas. Rural distress is both a cause and effect of India’s structural transformation and fast pace of growth. Over 40% of total employment in India still comes from the agriculture sector as compared to <20% in China, and <2% in the US. People in rural areas depend on agriculture because of poorly available alternative employment opportunities. There is room for improving agricultural productivity, but this is not a substitute for a faster pace of rural structural transformation that India needs to improve the quality of (7) 107th Indian Science Congress, Bangalore 2020 Presidential Address life (Ghani, 2019). Declining importance of agriculture in development is an integral part of an inclusive growth process. This is evident, during last four decades, Indian rural output has increased by almost seven times (Rs. 3,199 billion to Rs. 21,107 billion at 2004– 05 prices) but the share of agriculture in rural income has reduced from 72.4% to 39.2% (Chand, Srivastava & Singh, 2017). Traditionally, the pathways from agriculture to nutrition have largely assumed farming as the most important means to access food in rural economies. However, greater shares of households in rural India now rely on markets to access food. Evidences suggest that 88% of farming households rely on some form of non-farm income sources to sustain their livelihoods (Chandrasekhar & Mehrotra, 2016). Therefore, the issue of rural transformation requires to be looked into with more balanced view of finding ways through (i) the most prominent and traditional sector of rural employment - the agriculture, and (ii) alternative opportunities of employment/livelihoods through non-farm activities. India’s Initiatives for Rural Transformation Realizing the need, Government of India in recent years has taken several initiatives towards fostering socio-economic changes for quality of life improvement in rural areas. Notable among these include: • National Rurban Mission (NRuM), which follows the vision of “Development of a cluster of villages that preserve and nurture the essence of rural community life with