Ongoing Research
Transport and retention of engineered nanoparticles in porous media
This course has been designed to present the various principles of hydrological processes. At the end of the course, it is expected to have a thorough understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of components of hydrologic cycle e.g. atmospheric water, rainfall, infiltration, evaporation, surface flow, hydrograph analysis; hydrological processes in different climatic zone; water fluxes between earth and atmosphere; water and energy balance; and dissolved and suspended materials in rivers. It also deals with variability of physical & chemical features of surface water, precipitation, evaporation processes.
Transport and leakage of CO 2 gas through heterogeneous subsurface system
Development and testing of a system for quantifying the exchange of gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor between soil and atmosphere across the soil surface are being performed, in addition, leakage and transport of gaseous CO 2 for geological storage of carbon dioxide, and geophysical logging of deep borehole are also a major component these research areas.
Groundwater mapping and well-logging of shallow aquifers
Mapping of shallow subsurface system through actual and regular monitoring of groundwater fluctuations are being conducted. In addition, geophysical fluid logging to understand the water fluctuation provides an understanding on the availability of water reserve for community and agriculture practices.
Colloid and colloid-facilitated contaminant transport
Colloid transport in subsurface environments has received increased attention in the last three decades because mobile colloids/nanoparticles act as carriers of otherwise immobile contaminants. For example, the highly adsorbing organic and radionuclide can attach to colloids and be transported with them deeper into the subsurface. Behavior of colloids and their movement is an another critical issue for understanding local and global problem of contaminants attached with mobilizing sediments on both surface and subsurface water (such as the presence of excess agricultural chemicals/fertilizers in streams and groundwater.
Changing Irrigation Practices and Emerging Sustainability Challenges in South Bihar
This research work engages with sustainability challenges emerging due to changing agricultural pattern, specifically irrigation practices (shift from surface based indigenous system to canal based irrigation and more recent dependence on ground water) in South Bihar, India. It tries to problematise the “science based” “expert” led understanding of “sustainability” that is pushed through policy discourses at national and international fora and attempts to situate the ideas of “sustainability” in the ground realities of socio-economic transformation happening at local and regional level. It specifically attempts to understand, that how “sustainability” related challenges and issues are “framed” and understood by different actors (primarily, farmers and labourers at the grassroots level and policy makers and academicians at the international and national level).
Physical and cultural environment of Eastern Himalayas
An interdisciplinary understanding on the physical and cultural environment of the forest and mountain areas in the Eastern Himalayas is being investigated. The research works integrate the perspectives of human and social ecology, ecosystem services and sustainable development. This research work incorporate photographic documentation with academic findings with a critical conclusion based on experimental and photographic data. The status of arsenic contamination in Bengal Delta and contamination level of arsenic in water and agricultural soil in Bengal Delta, bioaccumulation of arsenic in edible plants (rice and jute) are the major component of this research. For remediation of arsenic pollution, it have extensively been studied the synthesis, characterization and arsenic adsorption potentials of mixed oxide nanoparticles.