Glimpses of Biological Research in Upper Brahmaputra Basin

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Although in the global context, emphasis of research is given more on molecular biology and biotechnology; the importance of basic research cannot be overestimated. This is more so in the case of India's northeast region. The region is well known for its rich biodiversity and a good number of research papers in plant and animal sciences were published in the last few decades. However, it is also a fact that documentation of bio resources of the region is far from complete. Little is known about the distribution and current status of many of the endemic and rare species of the region. It is also necessary to have a scientific information on the traditional usage and active ingredients available in the edible/medicinal plants, animals and microbes, and also how to maintain habitat ecology and formulation of strategies for sustainable utilization of bio resources of the region. The book gives an overview of the present trend of research in biological sciences in the north-east India.

Dr. Akash Kachari obtained M.Sc in Life Sciences (Zoology) from Dibrugarh University, Assam and Ph.D in Zoology from Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh. He has been awarded with Dr. DS Kothari Post Doctoral Fellowship by UGC, New Delhi. Currently he is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology, North Lakhimpur College, Lakhimpur, Assam. His area of research is fish taxonomy, ecology, biology, biotechnology etc. and has published papers in journals of national and international repute.

Dr. S.P. Biswas is a Professor in the Department of Life Sciences Dibrugarh University (Assam). After his Ph.D (Zoology: Fish Biology) from North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, he started his teaching career as a lecturer in Zoology at Sibsagar College (affiliated to Dibrugarh University) in 1982. For the last four decades, he has been working on hydrobiology in relation to fisheries and aquatic fauna of the upper Brahmaputra basin. He has so far supervised ten research projects, published about 100 research papers in various national and international journals, authored six text/ reference books and guided 32 Ph.D scholars. He is a member of technical committees and academic bodies; Ph. D examiner of a number universities, reviewer of research journals, 'Fellow' as well as 'Life Member' of several professional bodies.

Mr. Jyotirmoy Sonowal obtained M. Sc (Zoology) from Dibrugarh University Assam with specialization in Fish and Fisheries. Currently, he is pursuing Ph.D under the supervision of Prof. S.P. Biswas in the Department of Life Sciences, Dibrugarh University. His research interest includes fish taxonomy, ecology, biology etc. He has presented his research works in various national and international symposiums and has also published several papers in journals of international repute.

Biological research has achieved a unique chair in the entire research arena. It is now recognized as an indispensable field of research with immense awaited possibilities in multiple areas of human interest. The legacy of exciting and ground breaking discoveries in biology is still nascent. Dramatic improvement in medicine, agriculture, and forestry is perceived to be endured through the new biological findings. It will be praiseworthy to probe the cure of many threatening diseases like cancer amongst the vast biological resources. At the same time, a major chunk of the population is dependent on bio resources for their livelihood. With burgeoning population and subsequent pressure on limited bio resources, adoption of technology and up-gradation of traditional knowledge systems will help increase agricultural production including fish production. In this context, biologically enriched regions need to play a crucial role in such strategic endeavours. Being a hotbed of biodiversity, northeast India has immense capability to become a key contributor for biological data which may fill up some of the knowledge gap prevailing in biological fields. It is indeed the need of the hour to capitalize on these biological resources of the northeast region through scientific exploration. This book is intended to draw the participation of young minds in the process of biological investigation and to cast their ideas regarding various avenues of this majestic field of knowledge. We deeply believe the notion of exposing the scientific minds to such a platform to encourage their endeavour of knowledge hunt. The mantra behind this book is to reflect the various facet of biological research effort and to capture a snapshot of the ongoing voyage of inquiry, especially in northeast India. This book envisions the idea of accepting a wide range of ideas and works which will impart a holistic outlook to this piece of chore. We also strongly believe that researchers will get a chance to improve their scientific writing skills which is indeed an unavoidable aspect of research.

There has been stark and persistent interregional and interstate disparity in India with respect to major economic and social indicators. This gets clear from the unrelenting development disparity among the different regions of India as reflected through varied achievements of the regions, and states within the regions in terms of industry, education, health, power generation etc. For example, the North Easter Region (NER) of India is historically backward in comparison to the other regions like central or southern in almost all the economic sectors. Again, within the region of Northeast, Nagaland is not at par with Assam so far as development of the leading economic sectors is concerned. The problem of economic and social disparity is more serious in the North-eastern Region of India having huge ethnic diversity and communication. A large body of recent literature has shown that the economic reforms adopted in 1991 have accentuated the problem of regional imbalance; highlighting absolute divergence and conditional convergence. In order to reduce regional imbalances and disparity, the Government of India has initiated a series of policy actions. A special focus has been given to the North-eastern States of India through Look East to Act East Policy. However, the outcomes of the policy actions are yet to reach at their desired level. Particularly, the NER states of India are not uniform in nature and their structural diversity calls for region specific in-depth study.

**Contents and Sample Pages**