Efforts to meet the needs of a growing global population while ensuring ample resources for future generations are at the heart of sustainable development. The defining challenges of the 21st-century involve a complex set of interconnected social, economic, and environmental factors. Innovation in education and research will be essential in helping society address these challenges. To do so requires individuals working collaboratively across science, technology, and engineering as well as wi...

Intoduction Rivers represent as one of the key aspect of the urban spaces 1,2 as they ones served as the foundation for defining the human settlements, yet the urbanisation has degraded their ecosystem and aesthetics, often to the level that they no longer serve to the society from which the human settlements developed 3. From historical time cities have sprung up along the rivers due to availability of water, yet urbanization had adversely affected the urban rivers by the increase in the i...

Introduction Water and soil qualities are the two main factors in agriculture activities that play a significant role in agronomy growth and yield.1 Studies on ecology and agronomy are focused on the water and soil as they are significant in maintaining human health and ecosystem.2 Without access to quality water and soil, it is impossible to make sustainable agriculture and life.3 Contamination arising from agricultural activities results in water and soil pollution. 4 Increased food deman...

Dear Readers I hope you are safe and doing well during COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of challenges, the authors have very enthusiastically contributed highly relevant papers as included in this issue of Current World Environment. I thank all the contributors for their sincere efforts made to enable its timely publication. In this issue, we have papers on environmental pollution, pollution remediation, water purification, COVID-19 impacts, post COVID-19 scenario of environmental education, mon...

Introduction World health organization declared an outbreak of pandemic due to SARS-COV-2 virus on 11th March 2020 and named the contagious diseases as COVID-19 due to thirteen-fold increases in the number of cases in China, with 114 countries affected and 4291 deaths1. "2019 Novel Coronavirus" or COVID-19 is not a new virus that causing the pandemic situation, earlier the same group of Corona viruses (CoV) known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and the ...

Introduction The impact of Covid-19 is unprecedented and global, unlike the earlier crises which disrupted education in individual countries or regions. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), more than 90 per cent of the world’s students or 1.57 billion learners across 190 countries have been affected by the closures from pre-primary to higher education levels.1,2 As a result, the students are temporarily forced to ‘sc...

Introduction Water is a prime resource, its effective use and management are considered very important for the future demands of the increasing population. The quality and quantity of water is of much value specifically in the rural areas. The quality of water is characterized by various physico-chemical parameters influenced by many natural and anthropogenic factors like weathering, sources of water, type of pollution, seasonal fluctuations, etc. causing a diverse change. A tremendous chan...

Introduction Algae belong to the kingdom of Protista and the size varies from the microscopic to macroscopic. Algae are diverse inlife forms andarefound almost everywhere on the earth and it play a key role in the balancing of the ecosystem. Algaearethe primary producers in aquatic ecosystem and have prime role in the food web. They have an important role in maintaining the equilibrium between living organisms and abiotic factors.1 Phytoplankton plays a key role in aquatic environment and g...

Introduction Lakes are very useful aquatic resources. Lake water can be used for various purposes such as agriculture, aquaculture, livestock rearing and for various domestic use also. Review of literature reveals that several workers have carried out the work related to the physicochemical parameters of lakes in relation to various aspects in India and abroad. Water Quality of Pariyej lake in Gujarat was found poor and not safe for human consumption due to the low Water Quality Index.1 Pol...

Introduction Environmental degradation is caused because of urbanization, industrialization, and high population growth. Due to the high pollution rates and their effects on various environs, many developed countries decided to modify environmental policies and decrease pollution rates and their effects.1 “The direct discharge of water from any industrial or domestic source is called Wastewater”.2 Various environmental difficulties, which related to pollution are create...

Introduction To keep all living things alive on the earth, the amount of water in the human body always has to be kept balanced and adequatewhich is 55% to 78% in range.1 Sitting men and women under normal conditions needed 2.9 and 2.2 litres of water every day for enough hydration.2 Similarly, the separate advice has also been made for the stage of child, pregnancy, and lactation. Women and children at high temperatures may require up to 4.5 litres of water every day.3 World Health Organiz...

Introduction Climate change is emerging as one of the most serious challenges humanity has ever facedin this century1-5. Changes of climate factors such as increase in temperature, in rainfall pattern or rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide are closely linked to agricultural sector which is highly prone to weather and climatic conditions6-9. Hence, agriculture is deemed to be one of the economic activities that would be most influenced by climate change10. Therefore,adaptation initiatives ...

Introduction Random waves generated on the ocean surface play important role in local and global climate changes through various atmosphere-ocean interactions. Prediction of wind-wave parameter along the coasts during extreme conditions is of paramount importance. The concept of significant wave1 is introduced to describe wind-waves quantitatively in terms of the average wave height and the average wave period. Considering a wave spectrum, 33% of the waves which are maximum are averaged. Th...

Introduction Air pollution affects each one of us irrespective of gender, age income status and geographical location. Cardiovascular and respiratory disease fuels death from lung cancer1, ischemic stroke2, asthma3 causing erosion of quality of life. Air pollutants move deep into our respiratory system and gets absorbed into our blood circulation impairing our brain, heart and lungs.As per WHO’s newsletter4 9 out of 10 people breath air loaded with high pollutant level.“...

Introduction The flora and fauna of mangroves are pretty dynamic in nature and constitute evergreen type of varied life forms. Mangroves of Krishna delta are dominated by partial submerged selerophytic species which are taxonomically unrelated and consists of a group of salt tolerant species that occur in intertidal estuarine region, sheltered coast line and creeks. Mangroves from nesting grounds for turtles, helps in soil formation by trapping debris. The mangroves of Godavari delta are...

Introduction Fluctuations in the occurrence of superfluous weather and climate phenomena can have an unfortunate effect on the local weather situation and are responsible for an unreasonably large stint of climate-related risk.1 The fluctuations are primarily expressed in terms of changes in the environment, economy, water resources, agricultural activities, industrial production, and human lives. Rainfall is considered as a leading meteorological variable that has a direct relationship wit...

Introduction Water plays a crucial role in the creation of everything we produce. While it is renewable, there is only a finite amount of it, and there are no substitutes. The competition for this finite and vulnerable resource is continuously expanding, and so is the demand for it. Today the potential water scarcity, mainly population-driven, is the concern of everyone due to increasing water demands and their consequent effect on our food and energy production. Climate change can alter an...

Introduction The primary component of the food chain, i.e., plants invest an enormous amount of solar energy to support all life forms on earth. Every living creature is dependent on plants for their survival, either directly or indirectly. The perfection of natural processes is evident from the biogeochemical life cycles that occur sustainably. In order to balance the exploitation of resources obtained from nature and maintain continuity in life, it is necessary that we recycle the element...

Introduction Inappropriate agroecosystem management and frequent droughts have made the drylands increasingly susceptible and prone to rapid degradation.1 Drought is an extreme hydrological event relates to not only rainfall amount but also its intensity, duration, frequency as well as distribution. The parameters like temperature, evaporation, wind speed, relative humidity, etc. also play important role in drought occurrence. Drought can be categorized based on its impact in four basic ap...

Introduction Mangroves are tropical plants which grow along the tropical coastlines of the world. They are found growing along shallow sheltered coasts. Mangroves are responsible for several economic as well as ecological services1. Mangroves are the most productive and biologically important ecosystems of the world, as they offer ecological balance, goods and offerings to humans; performs an essential position in nature with the aid of using nurturing ecological, safety and social servi...

Introduction Tannery effluents are rampant as the most noteworthy pollutants among every industrial waste generating vast amounts of Chromium. For example, in India alone, around 2000–3000 tons of Cr+6 escapes into the water environment every year from tanneries. The permissible Chromium suggested is 2 mg/l, whereas it is extending in the range of 2000 and 5000 mg/l in the wastewaters [1]. The elevated concentrations of Chromium may cause many toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic ...

Introduction Of the myriad environmental factors influencing distribution and growth of woody plants, water is of paramount importance and is usually the most limiting throughout the world. This situation exists even though global supplies of water are immense. However, the interaction of air circulation patterns, topography, temperature and edaphic factor result in uneven distribution and availability of moisture. Drought is amongst the most important climatic events which can severely imp...

Introduction Mercury is an environmental pollutant which produces health hazard (Marx, 2002; Ratcliffe et al., 1996). Its application is found in agriculture as fungicide, in medicine as topical antiseptic, disinfectant as well as amalgam fillings in dentistry (ATSDR, 1999). Patients with Minamata disease (methylmercury poisoning) in Japan showed incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM) (Takeuchi and Eto, 1997; Uchino et al., 1995). The study of Shigenaga (1976) showed that repeated treatment o...

Introduction TCs are the rotating atmospheric vortices which develop over the tropical oceanic environments. They are one of the most dangerous climatic phenomena on the earth which cause an enormous amount of loss of lives and property every year by producing high-velocity winds, oceanic surges, and a huge amount of rainfall. Generally, they have a diameter of about 500 to 1000 km extending up to the tropopause. About 15% of the world population are living at risk from tropical cyclones1. ...

Introduction The leather tanning industry holds a prominent place in the Indian economy, providing job to 4.42 million people, mostly of lower socio-economic status. Women workers occupy 30% in this sector, among the states Tamil Nadu, the southern part of India holds the major leather production centers. The state of Tamil Nadu is accountable for 60-70% of leather production in India.1Tannery industries are the most toxic in the world owing to intensive chemical usage.The tanning industrie...

Introduction  Heavy metal contamination of water resources has become a serious concern throughout the world. Heavy metals (HMs) may pose a threat to the environment because of their highly toxic and persistent nature.1 Effluents from household and industrial units are directly discharged into sewerage or drainage system thus, contaminating surface and groundwater. This mixture of domestic and industrial effluents containing HMs is highly complex in nature 2 and reaches sewage treatm...

Introduction Groundwater, a precious dynamic renewable natural resource of earth, is essential for the sustenance of the human life and plays an important role in economic and social progress of a region. During last 4-5 decades ever increasing demands and climate change impacts not only affected availability of this resource in terms of quality and quantity1,2 but also led to variability in space and time.2 Salinity and its intrusion in the fresh water aquifers is the most common groundwat...

Introduction Riverine fishery plays an important role in supporting livelihoods for millions than lacustrine fisheries. It is particularly important to the rural population accounting for direct and subsidiary employment.1 The riverine fishery resources in India are immense as large numbers of productive rivers are present. Geotropically the wealth of stream fishes appears to be influenced by both the abiotic and the biotic factors.2 Research on feeding behavior of freshwater fis...

Introduction The year is 2020. A year that will be etched in the annals of modern history for a long period of time. Caught in its own cobweb of self-destruction and apathy, the whole world was thrown upside down, not by any dictator or war but the terror caused by the microscopic, invisible, non-living enemy, the novel coronavirus, codenamed COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. In the blink of an eye, the world changed. The world economy is collapsing and our work-life balance is distu...