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Mousumi Banerjee ¹, Ambarish Mukherjee ²

Affiliations
1 Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission Institute of Advanced Studies, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN
2 Department of Botany, Burdwan University, Burdwan - 713104, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

Deoghar, one of the oldest towns of the Jharkhand state, is with religious importance of high esteem. The place at present is highly congested and the population overgrowth has much exceeded the carrying capacity to push the prevailing infrastructure to the stage of critical derangement. The State as well as Central government has taken initiatives to launch infrastructure development programmes in and around the town. For addressing the issues of ecological solutions to the problems emanating from developmental activities, a fact finding survey was considered necessary by the present authors to evaluate the status of different variables pertaining to water and air factors of the environment in and around Deoghar. As such the present work was kept concerned with the assessment of the impact of developmental activities on water quality of the sites in question. Data reveal the fact that groundwater in the project area in general is soft, with the hardness level below the desirable limit of 300 mg/l., the samples being free from heavy metals like cadmium, arsenic, lead, chromium, etc. Groundwater samples drawn from tube wells were seen to remain free from fecal coliform and total coliform and hence potable and suitable for human consumption after treatment process. Surface water quality data revealed the samples from monitoring stations to be well within the standard prescribed by CPCB for Class B, Class D and Class E types of water for most of the parameters except for oil and grease. None of the heavy metals of interest are in unacceptably high concentration.

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Mousumi Banerjee ¹, Ambarish Mukherjee ¹

Affiliations
1 UGC CAS (Phase II), Department of Botany, Burdwan University, Burdwan-713104, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

Forests provide food, medicine, energy, shelter, various wood and non-wood products to sustain life. In addition, forest plants render numerous essential services as a component of global life sustaining system. The present work deals with certain utilitarian aspects of forest plants that were documented from the Tapovan, a sacred place which located 10 km from the Deoghar Town. It is mainly famous for Tapo Nath Mahadev, the temple of Lord Shiva. It is named Tapovan because in the olden days the van (forest) was a meditation spot (Tapobhumi). The present study shows how the socio-cultural and spiritual values influence the way human communities perceive plants and how religious beliefs and practices affect the way plants are understood, utilized and managed. Through field work and intimate contact with the persons who have spared their traditional knowledge as 188 plant species could be documented as phytoresources. The family-wise account of use potential of plants was analyzed to get a comprehensive idea about the percentage representation of prevalent plants in each category of use-pattern. The ornamental plants of the sites constitute majority in Tapovan area. Next to come are the shade-giving plants which constitute about 76% of total species recorded. The plants, parts of which are utilized particularly for offering to God considered as sacred are 13%. The species used as source of consumable vegetables constitute 16% and 26% species are used as fruits. There are good number of medicinal plants sustained in the area.

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Mousumi Banerjee ¹, Swapna Mukherjee ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Geology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN
2 Geological Survey of India, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

Gemstones are a matter of enigma and speculation from time immemorial. The extraordinary and satiated colors of many gems enhance their aesthetic beauty, while others yield extraordinary fire, birefringence or other unique light displays. The first discovery of gemstone, thus, can be marked as an important event in evolution. Man's ever-increasing quench for gemstones, however, failed to keep pace with the expensive cost of these substances of timeless treasure. Thus, the process of manufacturing synthetic gemstones stepped into the scenario. Now, besides natural gemstones, synthetic gemstones also cover a large sector of global market. Synthetic stones, however, will always be different from the natural ones. Hence one should definitely have a thorough knowledge about the processes by which synthetics are formed and the ways which distinguish them from the natural ones.

Keywords

Gemstones, Natural, Synthetics, Global Market.

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Alireza Eslami ¹, Jyotisankar Ray ², Madhuparna Paul ², Sonia Sarkar ², Mousumi Banerjee ², Moussa Noghreyan ³, Payel Dey ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Economic Geology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-175, IR
2 Department of Geology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700 019, IN
3 Department of Geology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan 81744, IR

Abstract

The present study documents detailed mineral chemi-stry perspective of Nain ophiolite mélange (NOM) of Central Iran with an aim of deciphering the mineral systematics and understanding geothermobarometric equilibration. The NOM covers ~600 km2 and is located at the northwest margin of Central Iranian Microcontinental block. NOM is represented by a sheared, tectonized and serpentinized peridotite in-truded by coarse-grained pegmatitic gabbroic dykes, layered gabbro, sheeted dolerite dykes (with typical rodingite alteration) and pillow basalts. Plagioclase in pillow basalt is albitic and indicates its spilitic affinity, while pyroxene is typically quad pyroxene (augite to diopside). Amphiboles belong to calcic group and range from actinolite to magnesio hornblende. Ilme-nite is the characteristic opaque phase. Clinopyroxene thermometry records a temperature span of 1100–1300C, while amphibole thermometry records 979–1145C. Two-feldspar thermometry also records a similar thermometric range. Amphibole barometry shows higher pressure of equilibration for mantle pegmatite in general and a very low equilibration pressure for sheeted dyke. Pyroxene compositions typically indicate a calc-alkaline basaltic (orogenic) parentage. NOM signifies lherzolite ophiolite type in a chromite-free environment and it is analogous to an idealized ophiolite succession, but has been emplaced in the form of discrete tectonic mélange.

Keywords

Amphibole Barometry, Mineral Chemistry, Ophiolite Mélange, Orogenic Setting, Quad Pyroxene.

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