The near surface rain (NSR) dataset of the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) 2A25 V7 was validated using 36 tipping bucket raingauges installed over the northeastern Indian subcontinent, which correspond with the rain center of the Asian summer monsoon. This raingauge network covers the Brahmaputra flood plains and mountainous areas, including the Meghalaya Plateau, which is one of the wettest places in the world. We analyzed data from 2004 to 2013, and obtained 28,207 TRMM/PR-raingauge matchups with 2,170 TRMM/PR rainy field of views. Using them, we detected a reasonable time lag of around 300 seconds between the estimates from the TRMM/PR NSR and raingauges. Significant and large underestimations of TRMM/PR NSR were detected during the monsoon season (June-September) over the large areas of Meghalaya, Sylhet, and Barak. The bias ratios were −51.3% and −35.2% for the Meghalaya and Sylhet-Barak areas, respectively. In the Meghalaya subregion, major contribution to underestimation came from moderate TRMM/PR NSR from stratiform systems, and missed detection error was secondary contributor. In Sylhet-Barak subregion, moderate TRMM/PR NSR from convective systems largely contributed. Underestimation was not detected in premonsoon season (March-May).

Abstract. Eco-cultural tourism is a concept where both ecological and cultural aspects of a landscape are combined together creating a tourist paradise. It is travel to destinations where both cultural and natural endowments are the prime attractions and thereby considered to be a potential strategy to support conservation of natural habitats along with economic sustainability particularly to indigenous communities. North Eastern Region of India is one of the most mesmerizing regions of the Indian subcontinent that mirrors a perfect blending of life, culture and ecology. It is a relatively unexplored and unique area in terms of both ecology and cultural diversity and is characterized by the abundance of natural endowments; pristine forests with a huge diversity of flora and fauna, enchanting hills, fast flowing streams and meandering rivers, cascading waterfalls, snowcapped mountain ranges etc. Approximately there are 65 indigenous tribes in the region along with a host of sub-tribes having their own distinctive cultures, customs and traditions preserved till today. This article tries to argue through a case study of village tourism at Darap in West Sikkim that eco-cultural tourism is a potent force for the overall economic, social and cultural development as well biodiversity conservation in the region.

The North Eastern Region of India comprising eight states, including Sikkim, is a relatively unexplored and unique area, in terms of both geography and cultural diversity as it provides one with a glimpse of not just a 'mini India', but also of S.E Asia, all within a space of 265,000 sq. km. The indigenous people belong to mainly the Mongoloid and Tibeto-Burman stock and have preserved their culture, language and way of life, even in the present century.The rich flora, fauna, diverse topography and ethnic groups have of late, started attracting domestic as well as foreign tourists into the region and recently, community-based tourism has gained importance. While community-based tourism has been used to describe a variety of activities that seek to positively link conservation with economic development, many of the issues involved in the development of a community-based tourist area are not clearly defined. There are many concerns about managing negative impacts on local environments, while at the same time sufficiently involving local communities in the planning process to receive just benefits from tourism activities. This paper seeks to examine the potentiality of cultural and eco-tourism in the states of N.E India and the steps that need to be taken in order to make the above activity/industry into a sustainable one.

The rain drop size distribution (DSD) at Cherrapunji, Northeast India was observed by a laser optical disdrometer Parsivel 2 from May to October 2017; this town is known for the world’s heaviest orographic rainfall recorded. The disdrometer showed a 30% underestimation of the rainfall amount, compared with a collocated rain gauge. The observed DSD had a number of drops with a mean normalized intercept log 10 N w > 4.0 for all rain rate categories, ranging from <5 to >80 mm h − 1 , comparable to tropical oceanic DSDs. These results differ from those of tropical oceanic DSDs, in that data with a larger N w were confined to the stratiform side of a stratiform/convective separation line proposed by Bringi et al. (2009). A large number of small drops is important for quantitative precipitation estimates by in-situ radar and satellites, because it tends to miss or underestimate precipitation amounts. The large number of small drops, as defined by the second principal component (>+1.5) while using the principal component analysis approach of Dolan et al. (2018), was rare for the pre-monsoon season, but was prevalent during the monsoon season, accounting for 16% (19%) of the accumulated rainfall (precipitation period); it tended to appear over weak active spells or the beginning of active spells of intraseasonal variation during the monsoon season.

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