Journal of Environment and Sociobiology

Amalendu Chatterjee ¹, Ratna Chatterjee ²

Affiliations
1 Social Environmental and Biological Association, Kolkata, IN
2 Department of Botany, Surrendra Nath College, Kolkata - 700 009, IN

Abstract

Water of the Ganges river is considered as holy and thus this river water is offered in pujas, tarpan, etc., by the Hindus. The fantastic difference of the Ganges water with freshwater of the other sources like ponds, tube-wells, springs, other streams, etc., is observed, when the water of the Ganges is stored for years, in closed can or bottles. In such condition Ganges water is not spoiled, without development of any algae, fungi, or bacteria; whereas in water from other sources it happens. Since thousand years past, a dip or bath in Ganga, or even sprinkling few drops Ganga water over the body is believed to remove all dirt, evils or sins and restore holiness or divineness in human. Taking holiness or divineness synonym to purity or cleanliness, a review is possible to assess the cleaning or purifying capacity of the Ganges water; consulting a good number of publications by workers and scientists in last two decades. The observations are on physio-chemical, as well as microbiological properties of the water taken at different sites of the river length.

The healing or purifying capacity is related with water quality; which again depends upon two major classes of components. First, physio-chemical property, and second, the microbial components of the water used. Beside turbidity, temperature and pH, which varies between different sites on the river length, the water contains a good number of minerals like Ca₂, Mg₂, SO₄, NO₃, Chlorides and Fluorides, etc. Further, the total hardness and total alkalinity of water also have their significant role in controlling different types of germs and microbes. The microbial contents of the river water include different types of algae, fungi, bacteria, protozoans, etc. At places even this water contains dangerous bacteria like faecal coliform and faecal streptococci.

Actually the river stream is polluted at some places, receiving industrial wastes and domestic refuse, and in some places it is autocleaned in touch with earth, exposure to ultraviolate rays (from the Sun) and dissolved oxygen. This is concluded that bath in the safe areas would definitely help to reduce load of germs. But sprinkling few drops of Ganges water would do very little in that regard. Rather, it may be even counterproductive, in case these are contaminated with dangerous microbes.

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Viswa Venkat Gantait ¹, Amalendu Chatterjee ¹

Affiliations
1 Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata-700 053, IN

Abstract

During the course of faunistic surveys in Andhra Pradesh from April 1998 to December 2002, a lota! of 671 insects belonging 14 species under five orders have been examined, of which 128 insects comprising of four species were found to be infected with twelve species of nematode parasites. Of these, four species of parasitic nematodes, namely, Hammerschmiduella desingi (Hammerschmidi, 1838) Chitwood, 1932, Cawieronia biovata Basir, 1948, Gryllophila skrjahini (Sergiev, 1923) Basir, 1956 and G. basin Parveen and Jairajpuri, 1981, under the family Thclaslomatidac are dealt herein with detailed descriptions and measurements. These are being recorded for the first time from Andhra Pradesh. The occurrence of different nematodes species in insect hosts of the Stale arc also communicated hereunder.

Keywords

Haniinersclimidtiella Diesingi, Cameronia Biovata, Gryllophila Skrjabiiii. G. Basiri, Nematode, Insect, First Record, Occurrence.

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Viswa Venkat Gantait ¹, Tanmaya Bhattacharya ², Amalendu Chatterjee ¹

Affiliations
1 Nemathelminthes Section, Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipur, Kolkata-700053, West Bengal, IN
2 Department of Zoology, Vidyasagar University, Medinipur-721102, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

Two new species of phytophagous nematodes belonging to order Tylenchida are described and illustrated. The proposed new species Hirschmanniella mannai n. sp. and Heikotylenchus medinipurensis n. sp. were collected from banana plantations of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, India. Hirschmanniella mannai comes close to H. gracilis (De Man, 1880) Luc & Goodey, 1%3 but differs from it significantly in the values of L, b, b' and O. Besides, the stylet length, the location of excretory pore and the length of spicule are also different. Helicolyknchus medinipurensis resembles with H. tunisiensis Siddiqi, 1963 and H. belli Sher, 1966 by the truncate lip region, total body length and tail shape but shows marked differences from H. tunisiensis in the values of a, b, c and O and from H. belli in the values of a, b', c, c', m and O. Besides, stylet length, shape of stylet knob and location of phasmid in the profX)sed species also differ from both the closely related species.

Keywords

Tylenchid Nematodes, Hirschmanniella Mannai N. Sp., Helicotylenchus Medinipurensis N. Sp., Batuina Plantation, West Bengal.

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