As a toxic waste stream, E-waste poses serious challenges to the waste management initiatives in India. While the hazardous components of E-waste call for environment-friendly disposal mechanisms, the valuable and precious metal constituents necessitate adequate infrastructural provisions and responsible management programmes to avoid the loss of economically vital materials. Considering this duality, this paper is an attempt to evaluate the current E-waste disposal practices in India, particularly emphasizing on the city of Bangalore. Three sectors listed as ‘bulk consumers’ of electrical and electronic equipments under the recent E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016, namely (1) IT and electronics, (2) banking and (3) education, are considered for the study purpose. Our experience suggests that these bulk consumers adopt two different approaches to comply with the new EPR guidelines as enlisted in the E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016. These are: (1) IT companies like Wipro adopts a ‘take-back system’ where it is responsible for taking back the products originally produced in its various facilities from the consumers; (2) most of the banks and educational institutes take ‘auction’ as the measure by calling tenders from authorized E-waste recyclers with some banks embracing an ‘E-waste exchange system’, or complying through producer responsibility organizations (PROs) for responsible E-waste management in the city. However, we sense a lack of meticulous initiatives towards addressing the E-waste crisis largely prevalent across these sectors. We argue that ensuring responsible disposal behaviour is central in any successful E-waste management initiative. Further, we emphasize on the relative disinterestedness of the research community in addressing the issues concerning E-waste in India by carrying out a detailed bibliometric analysis on the topic. We conclude that a transparent system across these diverse sectors with adequate infrastructural provisions and administrative controls is the key to address India’s E-waste apprehensions.

Litter decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems has a major role in the biogeochemical cycling of elements in the environment. Climatic features, like temperature, rainfall, humidity, and seasonal variations affect the rate of litter decomposition. This review attempts to understand the litter decomposition process in tropical forest ecosystems. It also reviews the influence of various factors on litter degradation and techniques used for assessing leaf litter decomposition. It is observed that very few studies were conducted on litter decomposition in forest ecosystems, such as tropical and temperate forests. Hence, comprehensive studies on litter degradation have to be undertaken in order to understand the turnover rate of nutrients and other elements in these sensitive ecosystems.

The multifarious relationships between nitrogen application, energy consumption and GHG emissions are still not well understood in irrigated potato production system. There is a need to ensure that N and energy use are closely considered to provide useful options for adaptation and to build resilience at the farm level. A field experiment was conducted during the winter (November–March) of 2012–2013 and 2013–2014 at the District Seed Farm, Adisaptagram, Hooghly, West Bengal, India (23°26′N latitude and 88°22′E longitude with an altitude of 12 m above mean sea level), under sub-humid subtropical climatic condition of West Bengal, India. The objective of the study was to assess environmental and economic sustainability in potato cultivation as influenced by nitrogen fertilization. This paper examines nitrogen application and energy consumption relationships for irrigated potato production system in eastern India. Results showed that net energy gain was the highest with the supply of 225 kg N/ha for both Kufri Himalini and Kufri Jyoti and 150 kg N/ha for Kufri Shailja. However, maximum values of energy ratio, specific energy and energy intensiveness were recorded with 300 kg N/ha for all three tested cultivars. Total estimated GHG emission per ha increased with the increase in N level from 0 to 300 kg N/ha, regardless of cultivars. Net benefit of potato cultivation was observed to increase with increasing levels of N application up to 300 kg N/ha (for K. Himalini) and up to 225 kg N/ha (for K. Shailja and K. Jyoti). The highest GRF for K. Himalini was observed at 300 kg N/ha, while for K. Shailja and K. Jyoti the maximum GRF was associated with 150 and 250 kg N application per hectare, respectively.

Water demand, pollution, and climate change threaten water security in industrialized and urbanized regions worldwide, especially in developing countries. Investments in massive infrastructure have often not met the water needs of the population, requiring water resource managers to adopt new approaches, such as decentralized and regionalized management at the micro-basin scale. However, little is known about the impact of anthropogenic activities on the water quality and vulnerability of streams that cross urban areas and feed into the main rivers and reservoirs supplying cities and industrial regions. The main goals of this research were to evaluate the water quality, pollutant loads, and effect of untreated sewage discharges in streams of the Piracicaba river basin, in the municipality of Americana, Southeast Brazil. The water quality parameters evaluated were as follows: pH, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, biochemical oxygen demand, inorganic phosphorus, total phosphorus, total nitrogen, real colour, turbidity, total dissolved solids, metals (Ba, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Cd, and Zn), total coliforms, and Escherichia coli. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses were performed. The results revealed chemical and biological degradation of the water resources, and vulnerability of the urban streams due to the release of untreated sewage into these waterways. The findings indicate the need for an immediate implementation of policies to monitor and control discharges of industrial effluents into the sewage collection systems, as well as discharges of sewage into rainwater drainage systems, together with the maintenance of green spaces.

With the development of nanotechnology, metal oxide nanoparticles have been applied in many industries, increasing their potential exposure level in the environment, yet their environmental safety remains poorly evaluated. Present work demonstrated the effects of ZnO and TiO₂ nanoparticles on the germination, morphoanatomical attributes and biochemistry of Cicer arietinum. The nanoparticles are used in three doses, i.e., 100, 500 and 1000 ppm along with control and each dose has three replicates. Results demonstrated that ZnO nanoparticles did not aid in the germination of seed, whereas TiO₂ nanoparticles showed positive impact on germination at 48-h observation. But at 72-h observation both the nanoparticle-treated and control seeds showed 100% germination. Morphological parameters revealed that ZnO nanoparticles have drastic negative impact on both root and shoot length, root and shoot fresh and dry biomass. On the other hand, the status of chlorophyll is almost opposite, i.e., ZnO nanoparticle-treated plants showed higher pigment content than TiO₂ nanoparticle-treated plants. From the statistical point of view, it is revealed that ZnO nanoparticle-treated plant showed significantly different results than that of TiO₂ nanoparticle-treated plants in Chl ‘a’ (p < 0.001), Chl ‘b’ (p < 0.001), total Chl (p < 0.001) and carotenoid (p < 0.001) content. Therefore, from these observations it can be concluded that ZnO nanoparticles showed positive effect on plant pigment content. Transverse sections of root clearly revealed the formation of vascular bundle, and parenchyma tissue is hampered in all the ZnO nanoparticle-treated plants. However, well-formed vascular bundles and other tissue systems are clearly visible for TiO₂ nanoparticle-treated roots. This work shows a combination of both positive and negative effects of ZnO and TiO₂ nanoparticles on a dicot plant. Present observation is very much important to understand the morphological, biochemical and anatomical alteration of plant system under the influence of ZnO and TiO₂ nanoparticles. This will help to utilize the nanoparticles in a managed way where nanoparticles with harmful effect on biological systems can be used in such a way to reduce their exposure to environment, and on the other hand, nanoparticles showing positive effect on biological systems may be used as growth enhancers or biofertilizers. Moreover, these results further strengthen our understanding of environmental safety information with respect to metal oxide nanoparticle.