Forest fire has been a major influencing factor on the development and management of the forests throughout the world, which has serious consequences for ecology, environment, and populations, and is also a driving factor in shaping forest vegetation and landscapes. In this scenario, fire-tolerant plants can play a crucial role in developing effective strategies for managing forest fires. Keeping this in mind, a study was undertaken from 2022 to 2024 on the identification of fire-tolerant tree species and their traits and mechanisms that make them fire-resistant in Bonai Forest Division, Sundargarh, Odisha, India. The study area has sal-dominated forest types and is prone to surface fire each year. The survey determined that 40 tree species belonging to 22 families are capable of resisting forest fire based on the thickness of bark, bark moisture content, texture of bark, exfoliating or flaky bark, resinous or non-resinous bark, and ability to heal and regenerate. Among them, 16 species are highly fire-resistant, 12 species are moderately fire-resistant, 9 species are fire-tolerant, and 3 are low-fire-resistant. Results revealed that thick bark showed more tolerance to forest fires, which were 8 species (20%) among the enumerated taxa. The present study provides valuable baseline information for future in-depth studies on fire-resistant trees and the management of forest fires in India.
Due to increased usage of synthetic dyes in the fields of food, textiles, and dyeing industries, the untreated effluent also causes severe effects on humans and the ecosystem, respectively. The colourants present in the untreated effluent belong to the azo group, which cannot be easily degraded. The degradation method adapted for the study will focus on the mechanism to open the aromatic ring structure present in the azo dye, which helps to increase degradative efficiency. The combination of SMCE and activated charcoal, extracted from the mushroom waste rich in bioactive compounds used for the dye decolorisation studies, and also the activated charcoal prepared from the wood scraps, has the ability to absorb the contaminants, respectively. This study investigated the extraction of extracellular bioactive compounds, particularly laccase, from spent mushroom compost (SMCE) derived from Pleurotus ostreatus, and the use of activated charcoal (AC) to degrade safranin. The bioactive compounds present in the SMCE enhance the decolorisation rate, which was partially purified by ammonium sulphate salt precipitation and dialysis. The desalted, partially purified extract was confirmed to contain laccase by ABTS in the protein sample obtained at 60%, and the optimum temperature and pH for laccase enzyme activity were recorded at 45°C and 3.5, respectively. The immobilisation was carried out using the entrapment method by 4% sodium alginate and AC. Among them, AC:SMCE (2:1) showed excellent safranin dye decolorisation, achieving 94.37% decolorisation at the end of 24 hrs.
The current study assesses the impact of U.S. sanctions on developing nations like India. The study also evaluates how the developing nations transform the pressure generated by the sanctions into opportunities to strengthen sustainable innovations. To fulfil the objective of the study, a mixed-method approach was followed. The data were taken from the documents of the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the proceedings of the parliamentary debates and climate policy documents. Further, the data were processed using statistical methods, i.e., the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), difference-in-differences regressions (DiD), and Granger causality tests to quantify the relationship among sanctions, diversification, and energy transition dynamics. The results revealed that the sanction had a significant impact on the outdated energy sources, defence systems, and economic interconnections, while multiple renewable sources of energy came into the picture, and stakeholders showed increasing interest in the investment in renewable energy sources. The sanctions work as a limit controller for some activities (eliminating Iranian oil imports), while acting as an enhancer for some other activities (increasing discounted Russian crude purchases). On the one hand, the global vision is shifting towards renewable energy as an alternative in ASEAN and Gulf countries. Based on the current review, the development of green finance institutions and low-carbon energy sources is recommended globally, with a special focus on climate-constrained areas.
The four countries (India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Pakistan) of the Himalayan mountainous regions of South Asia each have good possibilities for honeybee agriculture because of climate conditions, flowering vegetation, and types of traditional beekeeping. This review summarises and gives evidence for the literature and secondary dataset analyses which will inform honeybee agriculture trends, pressures facing the environment, and the social and economic aspects associated with honeybee production in the Himalayan region. The overall trends observed in honey production are from reports for 2020-2022 and show that India continues to be the primary producer of honey, but there have also been large increases in production in Nepal, as well as a declining trend in honey production in Bhutan. A special emphasis is placed on the effects of climate change, urbanisation, habitat destruction, and the loss of pollinators on honey systems. The contribution of honeybee agriculture to rural livelihoods, biodiversity, jobs, and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is also examined. This literature review integrates ecological, economic, and development perspectives and provides detailed information that will help identify opportunities for and challenges to achieving sustainable honey production in South Asian Himalayan countries. The results of this study indicate the need for developing climate-adapted beekeeping practices, preserving pollinator habitats, enhancing the development of market access infrastructure, and changing government policy to support the strengthening of sustainable beekeeping systems in South Asia.
Forest ecosystems form complex acoustic environments that reflect patterns of biodiversity, ecosystem health, and environmental changes. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) with autonomous recording units (ARUs) has substantially changed the assessment of forest biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring. The present review synthesises the existing literature on the use of bioacoustics in forests and considers technological and methodological developments and the application of bioacoustic methods to forest management. The available evidence from this review indicates that acoustic monitoring achieves 65-85% species detection rates in all forest types, and costs are 75-90% cheaper compared to conventional survey techniques. Acoustic indices are moderately correlated with species richness (r = 0.33-0.50), with the strongest correlations observed between the Acoustic Entropy Index (H) and the Normalised Difference Soundscape Index (NDSI). Low-cost devices such as AudioMoth can provide landscape monitoring over ranges of 100-500 m and have a battery life of more than 250 days. Detection percentages vary among taxonomic groups: in songbirds, detection is 89.3 per cent, and in insects, detection is 98.2 per cent, but both non-vocal species and high noise levels are problematic. Further applications include real-time forest-health monitoring, detection of illegal logging, fire management, and monitoring of the impact of climate change. Convolutional neural networks, a type of machine learning, have achieved accuracies exceeding 90 per cent for species identification. Integration with IoT networks allows real-time notifications of disturbances in the forest and management responses. Cost-effectiveness studies show 10-20-fold increases in monitoring efficiency over conventional techniques, allowing complete coverage of time and minimal observer bias. Therefore, the findings of the reviewed studies suggest that forest bioacoustics is an evidence-based transformational tool for the management and conservation of biodiversity in forests in the 21st century. However, these figures were synthesised from primary studies that differed in equipment, protocols, and forest context. Therefore, they should be interpreted as indicative ranges rather than precise estimates that are universally applicable.
