ICAR-National Research Centre on Camel, Bikaner
ICAR-National Research Centre on Camel (NRCC), Bikaner, is a Premier Research Centre of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) which is an autonomous organization under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. Since its inception on 5th July, 1984, the Centre is working with a vision “Improvement of traditional and economic utility of camel through scientic conservation, management, nutritional security, disease control and extension methods” by focusing on basic and applied research on one humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) mostly conned to the arid and semi-arid areas of North-western India and also on double humped camel (Camelus bactrianus) found in the cold arid desert of Nubra Valley of Laddakh region. Climate change has been observed to impact mostly the extreme climatic regions and the native camel seems to be most resistant animal in these regions. The camel production system in India remains traditional, e,g, nomadic, transhumance, sedentary that is mainly linked with the social life of the pastorals and camel herders. Despite its indispensability as a mode of transportation and draught power in the desert ecosystem, modern-day transportation and road-network has diminished its potentiality and it is now thus facing the threat of unsustainability. India's camel population has decreased drastically from 10.0 lakhs in the early part of the century to only 2.5 lakhs in 2019 and the populated state of Rajasthan has the maximum decline compared to neighbouring Gujarat. In this scenario, promotion of 'Camel Dairy' emphasizing therapeutic benets of camel milk would denitely widen the prospects of camel rearing and earn additional revenue to the farmers for their socio-economic stability and may possibly also check its declining trend. Tactical intervention in production and application of marketing strategies for higher return from produce and products would open up avenues for future investment and maximize prot from 'Camel Dairy' based livestock enterprises. Possibilities need to be explored for use of male camels in the eco-tourism business for additional revenue and socio-economic upliftment of camel herders. The unique species of the desert ecosystem has also widened its scope in biomedical research due to its exceptional immune system and adaptive thermoregulation mechanism. Concerted efforts from policy makers, research and development agencies, stakeholders and the farmers for its potential application as 'Multiutility' animal will denitely serve the socio-economic livelihood of the traditional rearers and block its declining trend in safeguarding the community as well as the camelThe main research and developments programmes of NRCC are carried out under two sub-heads:
Camel Production and Technology
Camel Health and Bioscience
Improvement of camel production system
Enhancing camel produce and technology for value addition
Exploration of camel immune system and therapeutics
Healthcare, disease surveillance and diagnosis
Exploration and extension of camel based ecotourism
Transfer of technology and development of public-private partnership
National Environmental Science Academy (NESA), New Delhi
National Environmental Science Academy (NESA) was founded by the Late Prof. TRC Sinha, the then Head of the Zoology Department, MJK PG College, Bihar University to create awareness, promote and protect the environment. Conceptualized and initiated in 1984, it was registered as a Society in 1988 under the Societies Act XXI of 1860 at Patna. This Academy is of National level, presently having its Head Office at 206, Raj Tower-1, Alaknanda Community Centre, New Delhi. The main objective of the Academy is to bring awareness about environmental issues among the masses and strive to find sustainable solutions by arranging lectures, demonstrations, training programmes, seminars, symposiums, conferences, publishing journals and organizing any other activities supporting the cause.Objectives and Functions of the Academy
To implement the SDDGs in India by encouraging students, scientists, researchers, academicians and members of the academy for pursuing research on sustainable development.
To set up Regional/State Chapters for the dissemination of information on the environment.
To motivate and prepare young minds on environmental management.
To organize national/international level conferences, symposia, seminars, meetings and workshops on themes of environmental concerns.
To publish policy papers, synthesis volumes, proceedings, journals, newsletters, transactions and other publications for the promotion of Environmental Sciences.
To forward the recommendation of scientists /professors to govt. agencies.
Various eminent personalities have graced the Academy as President. The first President of the Academy was Dr. K.C. Bose, Vice-Chancellor of Ranchi University; then Dr. B.S. Attri, Advisor, Ministry of Environment and Forest. Most recently Padma Bhushan Dr. S.Z. Qasim was the President of the Academy till June 2015, who is a renowned marine scientist known for his Antarctica mission in 1981-82, he also served as the Secretary at the Dept. Of Ocean Development (now Ministry of Earth Sciences); Member, Planning Commission and Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Currently, Prof. Javed Ahmad, (Former Dean, Faculty of Science), Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, is the President of the Academy.
Central Institute for Arid Horticulture
Realizing the potential of horticultural crops in arid zone and need to achieve nutritional and income security for the people; ICAR established National Research Centre for Arid Horticulture during VII plan which actually started functioning at Beechwal, Bikaner from September, 1994. After visualizing the progress made by NRCAH in short span of time and future needs of the arid region, on 27th September, 2000, the NRCAH was elevated to full-fledged Institute as Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Bikaner (CIAH) and Central Horticultural Experiment Station (CHES), Godhra, Gujarat was merged as its Regional Centre on October 1st, 2000. Two division i.e. Division of Crop Production and Division of Crop Improvement has been created during month of August 2013.2. Mandate
1. Basic, strategic and applied research to enhance sustainable productivity, quality and utilization of horticultural crops of arid and semi-arid regions. 2. Repository of genetic resources and scientific information on horticultural crops of arid and semi-arid region. 3. Transfer of technology, capacity building and impact assessment of technologies. 4. Coordinate research and validation of technologies on fruit crops of arid and semi-arid regions.CAZRI Regional Research Station, Bikaner (Rajasthan)
The arid zone of India covers about 12% of the country's geographical area and occupies over 31.7 m ha of hot desert and about 7 m ha is under cold desert. The production and life support systems in the hot regions are constrained by low and erratic precipitation (100-420 mm/year), high evapotranspiration (1500-2000 mm/year), and poor soil physical and fertility conditions. The local inhabitants have evolved suitable landuse and management systems of farming, pastoralism and animal husbandry; of late, these local survival systems have become inadequate to fulll the ever increasing needs. This has resulted in overexploitation of the resources causing rapid and widespread land degradation and decline in productivity. To arrest this degradation process and for scientic and sustainable management of the resources, Desert Afforestation Station was established in 1952 at Jodhpur. This was later expanded into Desert Afforestation and Soil Conservation Station in 1957, and nally upgraded to Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) in 1959 under Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. The CAZRI operates through Six Divisions, located at the headquarters in Jodhpur. There are five Regional Research Stations located in different agro-climatic zones to work on location-speciic problems.
