viii
importance, methodology, indicators and determinants of human–environment
interactions.
The second chapter, ‘Contemporary Environmental Issues − The Indian
Perspective’, contributed by P. K. Sikdar (Kolkata), is of enormous scholastic interest. This chapter depicts the various dimensions of environmental issues of contemporary India.
Tapash Mandal, Jayanta Das, A.T.M. Sakiur Rahman and Piu Saha (India and
Bangladesh) looked into the ‘Rainfall Insight in Bangladesh and India: Climate
Change and Environmental Perspective’ (Chap. 3), which is an important issue in
terms of global climate change. They have attempted to highlight detailed characteristics of rainfall in Bangladesh and India from 1951 to 2015. Rainfall features
like Seasonality Index (SI) and Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) were estimated to characterize spatial pattern of rainfall using Innovative Trend Analysis
(ITA), Mann-Kendall (MK) and modified Mann-Kendall (mMK) test to detect the
trend in the data and Sen’s slope (Q) estimator to calculate the magnitude of such
changes.
Chapter 4 entitled ‘Habitat Linkages for Asian Elephants in Central India’ by
Abhijitha C.S., G Areendran, Pamposh, Krishna Raj, and Mehebub Sahana (Delhi)
is another important contribution of this book. This study focuses on the fragmentation and habitat loss as well as encroachments by human beings, which are some of
the few reasons behind the dreadful destruction of these habitats of Asian elephants
in Jharkhand and West Bengal. Securing connectivity between habitat patches is the
only way to prevent their degradation and isolation as these corridors maintain the
movement of different wild species and biodiversity.
Chapter 5 is entitled ‘Environmental Pollution and Municipal Solid Waste
Management in India’, authored by Mithun Ray, Avaya Chandra Mohapatra, Suman
Das, Asraful Alam and Biman Ghosh (Shilong and Kolkata). They discuss the issues
related to municipal solid waste management in India and emphasize on identification and generalization of the shortcomings towards sustainable waste management
for a cleaner and healthier urban environment. A comprehensive survey of literature
has been carried out covering studies from every part of the country with special
reference to class I and class II urban centres, which will be very helpful to urban
environmentalists.
The study by Rukhsana and Md Firojuddin Molla (Kolkata) on ‘Assessment of
Carbon Footprint Across Urban Households in Kolkata’ (Chap. 6) is based on qualitative and quantitative analysis. This chapter focuses on accounting the amount of
important greenhouses gases emission and carbon footprint at household level in the
KMC area.
Part II combines the description and analysis of five chapters (Chaps. 7, 8, 9, 10
and 11) relating to ekistics and ecology of social environment highlighting environment–human interactions. Teesta Dey (Kolkata) analysed the ‘Contested Urban
Ecology: The Ekistics of Dilapidated Dwellings in Kolkata’. In this (Chap. 7), she
Preface
importance, methodology, indicators and determinants of human–environment
interactions.
The second chapter, ‘Contemporary Environmental Issues − The Indian
Perspective’, contributed by P. K. Sikdar (Kolkata), is of enormous scholastic interest. This chapter depicts the various dimensions of environmental issues of contemporary India.
Tapash Mandal, Jayanta Das, A.T.M. Sakiur Rahman and Piu Saha (India and
Bangladesh) looked into the ‘Rainfall Insight in Bangladesh and India: Climate
Change and Environmental Perspective’ (Chap. 3), which is an important issue in
terms of global climate change. They have attempted to highlight detailed characteristics of rainfall in Bangladesh and India from 1951 to 2015. Rainfall features
like Seasonality Index (SI) and Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) were estimated to characterize spatial pattern of rainfall using Innovative Trend Analysis
(ITA), Mann-Kendall (MK) and modified Mann-Kendall (mMK) test to detect the
trend in the data and Sen’s slope (Q) estimator to calculate the magnitude of such
changes.
Chapter 4 entitled ‘Habitat Linkages for Asian Elephants in Central India’ by
Abhijitha C.S., G Areendran, Pamposh, Krishna Raj, and Mehebub Sahana (Delhi)
is another important contribution of this book. This study focuses on the fragmentation and habitat loss as well as encroachments by human beings, which are some of
the few reasons behind the dreadful destruction of these habitats of Asian elephants
in Jharkhand and West Bengal. Securing connectivity between habitat patches is the
only way to prevent their degradation and isolation as these corridors maintain the
movement of different wild species and biodiversity.
Chapter 5 is entitled ‘Environmental Pollution and Municipal Solid Waste
Management in India’, authored by Mithun Ray, Avaya Chandra Mohapatra, Suman
Das, Asraful Alam and Biman Ghosh (Shilong and Kolkata). They discuss the issues
related to municipal solid waste management in India and emphasize on identification and generalization of the shortcomings towards sustainable waste management
for a cleaner and healthier urban environment. A comprehensive survey of literature
has been carried out covering studies from every part of the country with special
reference to class I and class II urban centres, which will be very helpful to urban
environmentalists.
The study by Rukhsana and Md Firojuddin Molla (Kolkata) on ‘Assessment of
Carbon Footprint Across Urban Households in Kolkata’ (Chap. 6) is based on qualitative and quantitative analysis. This chapter focuses on accounting the amount of
important greenhouses gases emission and carbon footprint at household level in the
KMC area.
Part II combines the description and analysis of five chapters (Chaps. 7, 8, 9, 10
and 11) relating to ekistics and ecology of social environment highlighting environment–human interactions. Teesta Dey (Kolkata) analysed the ‘Contested Urban
Ecology: The Ekistics of Dilapidated Dwellings in Kolkata’. In this (Chap. 7), she
Preface