Papers by DR. SUMIT MUKHERJEE
The Himalayan Journal, 2021
South Asian Anthropologist, 2023
Mapping of any tribal population group or a particular tribal community, in terms of depicting th... more Mapping of any tribal population group or a particular tribal community, in terms of depicting their distribution, economic or socio-cultural aspects, etc always throws up a different set of challenges to the cartographers. This is primarily due to the unique characteristics of such population in contrast to the non-tribal or general populations. The tribal communities in India, most commonly has their own dialect, other than several socio-cultural traits including integrated social network over a traditional eco-cultural zone. The presented essay is intended to share the author's experience of mapping the complex and intricate world of tribal communities of India with examples of evolution of tribal mapping. It is suggested that distributional maps of tribal communities using census data needs to be verified by certain ground realities and that quantitative thematic mapping of cultural dimensions of tribal population needs to be taken up seriously integrating field-based knowledge. Moreover, community participated GIS mapping has a wider applicability and acceptability for portraying the cognitive aspects of the people and thus to ease out various intercommunity contentions. Therefore, such maps expose the true inherent interrelation between tribe and their eco-cultural world which are of great importance for effective planning of tribal development with a pragmatic and people oriented approach.
ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2012
The Similipal is a densely forested hill-range in the heart of Mayurbhanj district,Orissa, lying ... more The Similipal is a densely forested hill-range in the heart of Mayurbhanj district,Orissa, lying close to the eastern-most end of the Easternghats. Similipal Biosphere Reserve is located in the Mahanadian Biogeographical Region and within the Biotic Province, Chhotanagpur Plateau.There are 4 villages in the core and 61 villages in the buffer area of the biosphere reserve .Agriculture is not well developed and employment opportunities are very poor , most of the people derive their income from collection of NTFP and sale of firewood and timber. A collaborative work is carried out by Regional Remote Sensing Centre(East) and Anthropological survey of India,Kolkata to study the impact of those four villages in the core area of SBR on the conservation of natural resources over the decades.Change in vegetation density as measured by NDVI over the decades is analysed to study the impact of these villages on the core area of Similipal Biosphere Reserve.
Indian Journal of Spatial Sciences, 2022
The components of street as a social space provides numerous evidences of urban environment, econ... more The components of street as a social space provides numerous evidences of urban environment, economic, social and cultural life and living pattern, specific to its geographical location and inhabiting communities. The city street, for that matter, provides the litmus of complex urban mosaic of spatial, cultural, behavioural characteristics of the contemporary society. Therefore, in a large cosmopolitan metropolis like Kolkata, remarkable visual diversity in its public space of ‘streets’, attracts attention of social science researchers.
The streets particularly the pavements of Kolkata metro city offer representative and characteristic tangible aspects of localized cultural identities. In fact the street’s visuality differs as one goes away from its CBD towards peripheries. It is historically prevalent perception of identifying the oldest built environment of the North Kolkata from the more colonial Central (CBD) and the later extensions on South and East in conjunction with its functional and cultural landscapes. These are visually recorded taking certain structural, utilitarian and cultural dimensions of those streets. Systematically and contextually recoded photographs of selected streets of typical Kolkata localities from different directions have been analysed in terms of the content and composition to construct and/or deconstruct the visual identity of those streets or localities using spatial visual methods to extract the relationship between people and place/space. It has been experienced and deduced that juxtaposition of tradition and change is vividly present all over the city in different scale.
With the given concept of ‘street’ the paper is an attempt to include studies on diverse aspects of public space of one of the oldest and historically important megacity in the world, Kolkata and its urban surrounding.
Covid-19 Pandemic: A Geo-ecological Perspective , 2021
Call it ‘unfortunately’ or as a ‘blessing in disguise’ this Covid-19 has, so far, demonstrated a ... more Call it ‘unfortunately’ or as a ‘blessing in disguise’ this Covid-19 has, so far, demonstrated a comprehensive picture of vulnerability of humankind to ecosystem degradation. Major epidemiological predictions on dangerous dominance of zoonotic diseases (diseases which can be transmitted from animals to humans) have come true even beyond the periphery of the prominent forest areas or the ‘human-animal-ecosystem interface‘. Recent large scale researches in tropical Asia have explored the relationship between tropical forests and dwelling population, which is also reflected through higher disease morbidity from several viral and parasitic origins (Colfer et al 2006). On the other hand there exists a high correlation between the diversity of parasitic and infectious diseases and the distribution of tropical humid forests (Guernier et al, 2004).Therefore, health of the forest dwellers is the manifestation of a complex multifaceted interrelationship particularly in the tropical monsoon climate.
In the pre-historic phase of man-nature interaction all forces and objects in the nature we... more In the pre-historic phase of man-nature interaction all forces and objects in the nature were mostly unexplainable ‘mysteries’ and thus ‘sacred’ to human being. ‘Sacredness’ as a universal belief system is embedded both in animistic and organized religions, and has evolved independently worldwide (Ramakrishnan, 2010). In a given landscape any unique natural force and formation are believed as sacred and are linked to mythology, legend or story by the pre-agricultural societies. At the depth of such belief system on nature and natural resources there lay the intangible and tangible aspects of life and livelihood for sustenance. These sacred identities of natural resources are important for the management and conservation of socio-ecological systems where tangible elements have direct economic implications. Therefore, the study of sacred sites and objects is a unique scope for the scientific community to understand and unfold the prime perception of human to explain the hidden aspects of conservation, though partly at subconscious level.
Health of over one billion people, live in or close to tropical forests of the planet earth, is i... more Health of over one billion people, live in or close to tropical forests of the planet earth, is intricately linked to the forests. Recent large scale researches in Indonesia has explored that this relationship exists primarily in four key areas: extraction of forest food and available nutrition; diseases and related health problems; use of forest medicine; and human culture as such (Carol et al 2006). On the other hand there exists a high correlation between the diversity of parasitic and infectious diseases and the distribution of tropical humid forests (Guernier et al, 2004).Therefore, health of the forest dwellers is the manifestation of a complex multifaceted interrelationship particularly in the tropical monsoon climate as the case taken up here on the Dihang Dibang Biosphere Reserve in Arunachal Himalayas located in India’s northeast.
Health of over one billion people, living in or close to tropical forests of the planet earth, is... more Health of over one billion people, living in or close to tropical forests of the planet earth, is intricately linked to the forests. On the other hand, there exists a high correlation between the diversity of parasitic and infectious diseases and the distribution of tropical humid forests .Therefore, health of the forest dwellers is the manifestation of a complex multifaceted interrelationship particularly in the tropical monsoon climate as the case taken up here among the forests in India's northeast. Morbidity from communicable and parasitic diseases dominate depending upon certain environmental conditions like climate, relief, etc. Diversity of disease ecology is seen correlated with anthropogenic variations. Acute respiratory infections and acute diarrhoeal diseases prevail everywhere but malaria poses the most serious health problem with an intricate transmission dynamic. The study has revealed interesting seasonality of disease incidence along with certain cultural linkages among different tribal communities of North East India. The overall disease burden in the region is a major impediment on the human development aspects.
A b s t r a c t : The Gaddis of H im achal Pradesh are tradition ally pastoral people w ho d epen... more A b s t r a c t : The Gaddis of H im achal Pradesh are tradition ally pastoral people w ho d epended m ostly on sheep rearing for their liv iliho od. Recently there are v ario u s ch anges in their economy including a shift o f em phasis from sheep to goat rearin g and also from anim al husbandry to h orticulture. The causes and conseqences o f ~ such changes are discussed in this paper.
Geography, being primarily concerned on spatial dimension, is quintessentially a visual disciplin... more Geography, being primarily concerned on spatial dimension, is quintessentially a visual discipline instead of lacking established visual theory so far. Since the turn of this century increasing use of computerized image processing techniques and their products e.g. maps, photographs, satellite images, films, etc. as means of presentation, substituting text, has been taken as granted in geographical studies worldwide. Instead of just using image this recent ‘visual turn’ in geography, concerns both ‘picturing theories’ and ‘theorizing pictures’. Therefore, ‘visual literacy’ has become an integral part of studying geography. Moreover, both Audio-visual Geography and Geography of Film are gaining increasing importance in teaching and research mostly in European countries. On the contrary, absence of Visual Geography as an established sub-discipline rather marks the image and its visuality as a geographical blind spot. The present piece of essay is an attempt to narrate the background and current state of growth of Visual Geography as a sub-discipline.
Indian census organization, acclaimed as one of the largest and most elaborate data bank on India... more Indian census organization, acclaimed as one of the largest and most elaborate data bank on Indian people, has contributed much in classifying one of the most variegated spectrums of civilization in the world. Since the very first census in 1872 the British ruler inquired along the horizontal and vertical extents of the race, religion and caste with an obvious objective of keeping a stronghold on their colony. The evolution of categorizing and defining Indian population by a group of European administrators, in spite of all genuine efforts, has ever been marred with confusions and contradictions. But their pioneering ventures have provided a strong foundation and maiden database towards conceptualizing and scheduling the people of independent India. The official listing of the Indian people on the basis of the long existing latent social hierarchies of caste and tribe have attributed both towards developing an immensely useful systematic information and a catalyst for separatism and fission among the conglomerated communities of India.
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Papers by DR. SUMIT MUKHERJEE
The streets particularly the pavements of Kolkata metro city offer representative and characteristic tangible aspects of localized cultural identities. In fact the street’s visuality differs as one goes away from its CBD towards peripheries. It is historically prevalent perception of identifying the oldest built environment of the North Kolkata from the more colonial Central (CBD) and the later extensions on South and East in conjunction with its functional and cultural landscapes. These are visually recorded taking certain structural, utilitarian and cultural dimensions of those streets. Systematically and contextually recoded photographs of selected streets of typical Kolkata localities from different directions have been analysed in terms of the content and composition to construct and/or deconstruct the visual identity of those streets or localities using spatial visual methods to extract the relationship between people and place/space. It has been experienced and deduced that juxtaposition of tradition and change is vividly present all over the city in different scale.
With the given concept of ‘street’ the paper is an attempt to include studies on diverse aspects of public space of one of the oldest and historically important megacity in the world, Kolkata and its urban surrounding.
The streets particularly the pavements of Kolkata metro city offer representative and characteristic tangible aspects of localized cultural identities. In fact the street’s visuality differs as one goes away from its CBD towards peripheries. It is historically prevalent perception of identifying the oldest built environment of the North Kolkata from the more colonial Central (CBD) and the later extensions on South and East in conjunction with its functional and cultural landscapes. These are visually recorded taking certain structural, utilitarian and cultural dimensions of those streets. Systematically and contextually recoded photographs of selected streets of typical Kolkata localities from different directions have been analysed in terms of the content and composition to construct and/or deconstruct the visual identity of those streets or localities using spatial visual methods to extract the relationship between people and place/space. It has been experienced and deduced that juxtaposition of tradition and change is vividly present all over the city in different scale.
With the given concept of ‘street’ the paper is an attempt to include studies on diverse aspects of public space of one of the oldest and historically important megacity in the world, Kolkata and its urban surrounding.