Date | 2nd January 2022:

ENVIS Resource Partner: IIT(ISM) ENVIS Centre at Department of Environmental Science & Engineering (ESE), Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad organized a one-day Exposure-visit-cum-Training Programme for college students of Jharkhand state on 2nd January 2022. The purpose of this programme was to provide field exposure to the students including hands-on experience about field based primary data generation on ecology and biodiversity sampling, surface water and agriculture/forest soil sampling, air and noise monitoring etc. The training area was located around 40 km from the IIT(ISM) on the Dhanbad-Sahebganj National Highway (near Karamdaha Village) and near to Barakar River. This site was chosen as it has a rich variety of biodiversity consisting of forest, river, agricultural ecosystem and tribal region.

 
Fig 1: Route from IIT(ISM) Dhanbad to Karamdaha Village (Training Location)

The IIT(ISM) ENVIS Centre received 57 nos. of registration forms from students of different colleges of Jharkhand State such as P K Roy Memorial College, Binod Bihari Mahto Koylanchal University, Bokaro Steel City College, SSNLT Mahila Mahavidyalaya, IIT(ISM) Dhanbad and also from other state colleges like, Central University of South Bihar, Gaya and Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The students were of B.Tech, M.Tech, B.Sc and M.Sc backgrounds belonging to different subject domain such as Environmental Science, Geology, Zoology, Biotechnology and Remote Sensing & GIS. In total the Exposure-visit-cum-training Programme was attended by 73 nos. of participants including Registered College Student (40 nos.), Research Scholars from IIT(ISM) Dhanbad (10 nos.), Faculty Experts (7 nos.), Technical Staff (5 nos.), Photographer (2 nos.) Unskilled Labors for assisting in plantation drive (6 nos.), Driver (2 nos.) and Helper (1 no.).

The Training programme was headed by Prof. Anshumali, Head/Dept. of ESE and Coordinator, IIT(ISM) ENVIS Centre along with other expert faculty members: Prof. Gurdeep Singh, Ex-Vice Chancellors of Vinoba Bhave University and at present Emeritus Fellow at Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, IIT(ISM), Prof. Pranab Das, Assistant Professor at Department of Applied Geology, IIT(ISM), Prof. B.K. Mishra, Associate Professor at Dept. of ESE, IIT(ISM), Prof. Suresh Pandian E., Associate Professor at Dept. of ESE, IIT(ISM), Prof. Tinesh Pathania, Assistant Professor at Dept. of ESE, IIT(ISM) and Prof. Saifi Izhar Assistant Professor at Dept. of ESE, IIT(ISM). Research Scholars from Dept. of ESE, IIT(ISM) were also part of this one-day Exposure-visit-cum-Training Programme, who helped in setting up of the various monitoring equipment/instruments and in their demonstration to the college students.

Few of the demonstration and hand-on experiments that were shown to the participants during the Exposure-visit-cum-Training Programme were as follows:

• Field Training on accumulation of data for different parameters required for estimation of plant biomass
• Monitoring of CO2 flux in forest site, degraded land and grassland site by using LICOR LI -8100 (LICOR Inc. Lincoln, USA).
• Demonstration of how to calculate different noise parameters and indices such as Leq, L10, L90, Lpeak etc. with the help of Noise Level Meter (Model: Bruel & Kjaer 2238).
• Spot sampling methods for collecting water samples from river and groundwater.
• Physio-chemical analysis of river water and groundwater samples and soil samples like pH, EC, TDS and salinity with the help of Multi-parameter, Thermo Scientific Eutech (PCSTESTR 35).
• Demonstration of GPS device to locate the latitude and longitude of a particular site.

The training program provided the hand-on-exposure to participants about base line data generation for Environmental Impact Assessment study. To facilitate the training program, the teaching materials were distributed among participants. The Expert faculty members delivered field based lecture for sampling of water, soil, noise and air monitoring, identification of point and non-point sources of pollution, study of geogenic characteristics and geological formations influencing land use and land cover patterns, and plan diversity assessment for carbon sequestration. At the end of the training programme, plantation drive was conducted with an aim to control global warming, make environment pollution free and spread awareness on the importance of keeping a clean and sustainable environment. Total 100 nos. of plants consisting of Mango (Mangifera indica), Jamun (Syzygium cumini L.), Kathal (Artocarpus heterophyllus), Amarud (Psidium guajava), Bakul (Mimusops elengi), Gulmohar (Delonix regia), Simar (Bombax ceiba), Chattni (Alstonia scholaris) and Mehaguny (Swietenia macrophylla) were planted by all the participants, faculty members, research scholars, IIT(ISM) ENVIS Staffs, ESE Office Staffs and local people.

Fig 2: Locations of Field Sites during the Exposure-visit-cum-Training Programme

Training Manual

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