Food from Sewage: Fish from the East Kolkata Wetlands and the Limits of Traditional Knowledge

Vicziany, Marika; Chattopadhyay, Dhrubajyoti; Bhattacharyya, Somenath

doi:10.1080/00856401.2017.1341038

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…East Kolkata Wetland (EKW), designated as an 'International Ramsar Site' in November 2002by Ramsar Convention (1975 (Kumar 2018), and a unique agroecosystem located at the eastern outskirt of Kolkata and comprises a series of natural and manmade wetlands (Saha et al 2013;Singha Roy & Pal 2015;Pal et al 2016). Because of a widely known attribute of EKW in the recycling of waste water in the metropolitan city Kolkata, it has been named as the 'Kidney of the city' (Vicziany et al 2017). EKW was selected for the study because it is the 'World's Largest Integrated Wastewater Fisheries'.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water quality assessment of East Kolkata Wetland with a special focus on bioremediation by nitrifying bacteria

Saha

Sarkar

Bandyopadhyay

2021

Water Science and Technology

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East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) is designated as International Ramsar site and are the hotspot for large-scale wastewater aquaculture practices. However, the continued surveillance of physicochemical properties of water and application of an eco-friendly approach are essential to ensure safe aquaculture practices. In the present study, we assessed the seasonal variation in physicochemical parameters of water across EKW and investigated the role of nitrifying bacteria as probiotics. We statistically analyzed various physicochemical properties of water samples from EKW. Results of the statistical analysis indicated a significant variation in all the physicochemical parameters across the selected water bodies of EKW (p < 0.01). We isolated and enumerated Nitrosomonas sp. and Nitrobacter sp. and assessed their ability to degrade trichloroethylene (TCE). The role of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter sp. were further investigated and established through a small-scale experiment. Two microbial isolates, NSW3 and NBW2, displayed superior TCE degradation ability at pH 5, and the application of these strains as probiotics were found to improve the quality of water and survival rate of fishes in the treated experimental tanks. Our findings suggest that the application of the above mixed bacterial cultures in aquaculture could be an effective and environment-friendly approach for safe and productive aquaculture operations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water quality assessment of East Kolkata Wetland with a special focus on bioremediation by nitrifying bacteria

Saha

Sarkar

Bandyopadhyay

2021

Water Science and Technology

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“…In extending the context in which to understand the benefits and limitations of Co-viSelf, we have drawn on our own research published in peer-reviewed international journals and books. Vicziany has published on the poverty and marginalisation of Dalits (former 'untouchables') [60], the family planning program [61,62], food security [63][64][65], Koli villages in Mumbai [66] and rural health [29,43,47], including work on the potential of point-of-care blood testing in villages [29,43]. Hardikar has reported extensively on questions of rural poverty, co-authored work with Vicziany on poor farmers, agriculture and health [29,43] and has published two books on India's farming crisis [30,67].…”

Section: The Conditions Of Life In Rural Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Self-Administered Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) Help Rural India? An Evaluation of the CoviSelf Kit as a Response to the 2019–2022 COVID-19 Pandemic

Vicziany

Hardikar

2022

Diagnostics

Self Cite

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This paper evaluates India’s first officially approved self-administered rapid antigen test kit against COVID-19, a device called CoviSelf. The context is rural India. Rapid antigen tests (RATs) are currently popular in situations where vaccination rates are low, where sections of the community remain unvaccinated, where the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow and where easy or timely access to RTPCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) testing is not an option. Given that rural residents make up 66% of the Indian population, our evaluation focuses on the question of whether this self-administered RAT could help protect villagers and contain the Indian pandemic. CoviSelf has two components: the test and IT (information technology) parts. Using discourse analysis, a qualitative methodology, we evaluate the practicality of the kit on the basis of data in its instructional leaflet, reports about India’s ‘digital divide’ and our published research on the constraints of daily life in Indian villages. This paper does not provide a scientific assessment of the effectiveness of CoviSelf in detecting infection. As social scientists, our contribution sits within the field of qualitative studies of medical and health problems. Self-administered RATs are cheap, quick and reasonably reliable. Hence, point-of-care testing at the doorsteps of villagers has much potential, but realising the benefits of innovative, diagnostic medical technologies requires a realistic understanding of the conditions in Indian villages and designing devices that work in rural situations. This paper forms part of a larger project regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in rural India. A follow-up study based on fieldwork is planned for 2022–2023.

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“…Similarly, Indigenous agricultural practices—agroforestry, crop rotations, intercropping, polyculture and water harvesting—have fueled the fast‐growing regenerative agriculture industry, now worth $47 billion and able to yield high quality produce while sequestering carbon and enhancing biodiversity (Burgess et al, 2019). Beyond these examples, biocultural innovation is evident in a wide range of industries and practices including the fast‐moving consumer goods (FMCG), finance, and housing sectors—as well as in approaches to criminal justice, weather forecasting, disaster risk reduction and infrastructure design (see Figure 1 for additional examples; IGWIA, 2022; Jayachandra, 2022; Jana, 1998; Maynard et al, 2008; Mukherjee, 2022; Nag et al, 2019; Sydney Institute of Agriculture, 2020; The Economist, 2018; Vicziany et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biocultural innovation: Innovating at the intersection of the biosphere and ethnosphere

Vassallo

Banerjee

Prabhu

2023

J of Product Innov Manag

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Scientists, economists, and politicians increasingly recognize that Indigenous peoples possess invaluable knowledge and practices that have the potential to drive innovation to solve critical global challenges. Indeed, thousands of important drugs—including lifesaving cancer treatments—have their origins in centuries old Indigenous knowledge and practices. Similarly, Indigenous practices have fueled the fast‐growing regenerative agriculture industry that is able to yield windfall profits while sequestering carbon and enhancing biodiversity. Referred to in policy circles as biocultural innovation—a form of innovation that occurs at the intersection of the biosphere and ethnosphere—hundreds of diverse examples from a wide array of industries have been documented outside of the innovation literature. However, innovation scholars have yet to recognize or embrace biocultural innovation. We argue that this major oversight hinders practice and leaves untapped potential for solving issues such as slow or unsustainable economic growth, ecological decline, and inequality. To address this gap, we provide a clear definition of biocultural innovation, differentiate it from other innovation domains, and establish its conceptual foundations. Informed by economic theorizing that views the ethnosphere and biosphere as assets, we propose that these assets share four traits: functionality, potentiality, vulnerability, and inseparability (“FPVI shared traits”). Due to their immense biocultural diversity, we assert that these assets carry an “option value” representing enormous innovation potential that can be converted, conserved, or constructed to solve global challenges (the “3Cs”). We conclude by identifying promising avenues for future research on biocultural innovation and a call for action on how to unlock economic and social value while supporting biocultural assets and Indigenous rights.

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Food from Sewage: Fish from the East Kolkata Wetlands and the Limits of Traditional Knowledge

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Water quality assessment of East Kolkata Wetland with a special focus on bioremediation by nitrifying bacteria

Water quality assessment of East Kolkata Wetland with a special focus on bioremediation by nitrifying bacteria

Can Self-Administered Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) Help Rural India? An Evaluation of the CoviSelf Kit as a Response to the 2019–2022 COVID-19 Pandemic

Biocultural innovation: Innovating at the intersection of the biosphere and ethnosphere

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