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The waterfalls of Ranchi plateau are due to disturbances in late geological age. By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Fig.1 Johna falls is the example of waterfalls resulting from upliftment.  Fig.2 Dasam falls formed due to upliftment.   Fig. 3 Hundru falls is the example of knickpoint falls. A waterfall is a place where water flows over a vertical drop in the course of a stream or river. Waterfalls are also called cascades. Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens slowly, while downstream the erosion occurs more rapidly. As the watercourse increases its velocity at the edge of the waterfall, it plucks material from the riverbed. Whirlpools created in the turbulence as well as sand and stones carried by the watercourse increase the erosion capacity. This causes the waterfall to carve deeper into the bed and to recede upstream. Often over time, the waterfa...

Theory begins some 50 million years back. By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi. One of my friends suggested me to become non-vegetarian. He gave the interesting example about the benefit of becoming non- vegetarian. He said that all non-vegetarian animals like tiger, cheetah, wolfs are slim compared to vegetarian animals like buffalo, elephant, zebras etc. I started searching the mystery of why vegetarian animals are so fat? Some theories are hidden in pages of time million years back. Why did some prehistoric animals get so big in the first place? No one knows for sure, but there are lots of theories. One theory begins some 50 million years back. The past 50 million years appear to have been a time of progressive deterioration. On every vegetated continent, grasses and small hard leaves widened their domain. While certain herbivores accommodated to the new foliage- and evolved the art of eating coarse, fibrous fodder-other species, committed to Eocene and Oligocene ways, died. In many animal...

People confused it with flying object or a satellite. By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Venus planet near to Earth. Few of my friends call me up to know about the bright object in the sky above Ranchi city. They confused it with some flying object or a satellite. It is Venus, I told them. It’s the planet which is easily visible at nightfall around the world in early November. Venus continues to draw all eyes to the western sky after sunset. Observers have been watching the bright planet for many weeks, although it seems that a fairly large percentage is not quite sure exactly what they have been looking at. Venus has increased noticeably in recent days. Venus beams mightily in the west at dusk, as seen from across the Earth. You can’t miss it. It sets roughly two-and-one-half-hours hours after sunset at mid-northern latitudes in early November and close to three hours after the sun by the month’s end. Venus! It’s the beautiful “evening star.” The best time to observe Venus is actually in...

Air pollution likely to increase by 30 to 35%. By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Toxic fumes due to burning of firecrackers.   Such firecrackers generate more smokes. Diwali was celebrated in Ranchi city of Jharkhand State in India with fun on Sunday. Firecrackers were used to celebrate this festival. Ranchi sky was covered with smokes due to burning of fire crackers. These smokes may contain toxic and heavy metals which can affect human health. Firecrackers contain elements like copper, cadmium, sulphur, aluminium, barium and various other such elements that help in releasing vibrant colours after it is ignited, causing a host of health problems. Once a cracker is burnt, it releases toxic chemicals that remain suspended for a long time causing serious health aliments. As diwali is festival of lights, people consider it as festival of Firecrackers. Firecrackers come in different varieties from the delightfully visual ones to the ear deafening noisy ones. Our tradition use firecrackers...

Rivers flowing through Ranchi plateau may also contain thorium. By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Thorium deposits in India. River flowing near Ranchi city. Pegmatite intrusions in host rocks in Ranchi plateau. Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive chemical element with the symbol  Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 by the Norwegian mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark and identified by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Thorium produces a radioactive gas, radon-220, as one of its decay products. Secondary decay products of thorium include radium and actinium. In nature, virtually all thorium is found as thorium-232, which undergoes alpha decay with a half-life of about 14.05 billion years. Berzelius was quite unaware of the tremendous amount of power that this element stores within it. Subsequent development in the field of nuclear science and technology, however, revealed that thorium might well prove to ...

Rivers were overflowing and trees were uprooted. By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi. Heavy rains on Sunday (13 th Otober) lashed Jharkhand following the "peripheral effect" of cyclone Phailin. The peripheral effect following Phailin that lay centred in Odisha began in Jharkhand since early morning with heavy rains lashing several districts of the state.74.6 mm rain was recorded in Ranchi till 8.30 am. Phailin entered Jharkhand on Sunday around 4am causing heavy rainfall and recorded wind speed of up to 40kmph. Ranchi recorded 117mm rainfall from Sunday 4am till Tuesday morning. Most of the small rivers of Ranchi like Harmu River, Jumar River, Potpoto River, River flowing under the Over bridge etc. were overflowing due to heavy rain in the city. Even many of the local ponds were overflowing. Trees were uprooted and low land area faced water logging.   Pictures below show the some of the impact of Phailin in Ranchi city.             ...

Its impact is nearly everlasting. By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Earlier it was controversial report of use of the Depleted Uranium where thousands and thousands of people, including many children, died after the war in Bosnia from the use of depleted uranium projectiles. Completely healthy people who have lived or are still living in locations were targeted missiles out of the blue they got cancer or leukemia and after a longer or shorter disease died. Depleted uranium has been used in at least the last four wars Gulf War 1, Bosnia and Kosovo in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Gulf War 2. The last two of the four wars, took place in 2001 ( Afghanistan ) and 2003 ( Iraq ). Now the latest news is about use of other weapon of mass destruction on the humans. According to UN report there is “clear and convincing evidence” that chemical weapons were used in the August 21 attack in Syria . The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syr...