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The IUP Journal of Environmental Sciences
Focus

The number of ways in which man and environment entwined are numerous. The history of man and the development of civilization itself, in many aspects, has been fashioned and shaped by the physical environment: the presence (or absence) of mountains, deserts, rivers, and oceans determine who settled where and how easily. The flow of Europeans westward on the American continents was determined by which mountains were easiest to cross, which soils were most fertile, or where water was to be found. Power struggles and wars were fought and, of course, will continue to be fought over natural resources like gold, oil, and water.

But man from the beginning tried to tame the environment, to control, rather than to be controlled by our physical environment. We dug and later drilled wells so we could survive in the desert. We ploughed the land, so we could use it for sedentary agriculture. We began to build dams and straighten rivers to control flooding and provide a more secure source of water. We cover the land with asphalts and concrete. We erected earthquake-proof buildings and stabilized slopes. Even the laying of the roofs changed as per the climatic equability.

And with control come challenges. As the population grows, and technology advances, natural resources are threatened. Water supplies become scarce and water quality is degraded. Home sites are frequently located in areas that are incompatible with the environment, resulting in greater efforts to control the land by engineering it. The ever-increasing use of fossil fuels result in fears of climate change. New roads must be built and new airports to accommodate increased travel. Heavy metals from abandoned computers poison landfills.

It's a complicated world with intricate problems. But the underlying root of the problems is actually pretty simple. It is overpopulationan environmental issue that isn't talked about nearly as much as it should have been. It took all of human history up to about 1860 AD for the world population to reach one billion. The second billion came in about 50 years. Then it took 30 years for the third billion. The sixth billion of population arrived in only ten years, and the seventh will come even faster.

When animal population increases beyond the carrying capacity of their environment, natural controls take over, primarily in the form of disease and starvation. Natural population controls, such as disease, flooding, famine, earthquakes and wars, worked for a time with people too, but tended to be harsh and frightening, and we devote tremendous energy to conquer them. But we are not yet successful at replacing traditional population controls with gentler techniques like birth-control.

What will happen when the human population irrevocably exceeds the carrying capacity of planet earth? That's the terrifying question that environmentalists ask themselves. And so far, the answer is .silence.

Here are some suggestions to begin that work:

Teach our children to cultivate an ethical perspective towards the environment: This means avoiding both extremes: purely secular environmentalism or over spiritualizing that undercuts good stewardship

Become informed on environmental issues: A number of books and other publications by scientists are now available. Take care of our property, e.g., unused landscapes. These pieces of the environment should be demonstration plots for our concern for God's world.

Recycle: Here is where good ecology and good economics meet.

Keeping in view the aforementioned attributes, the present issue of the journal has come up with new interpretations of environmental change together with new approaches to environmental management, leading to more integrated research agendas which encourage interdisciplinary, interrelationships between social and natural processes and connections between different scales of enquiry. It brings together perspectives from a wide range of disciplines and methodologies in both the social and natural sciences in an effort to develop integrative knowledge about the processes responsible for environmental change. This issue contains six articles.

The first article "Contaminant Source Identification Using Dating and ANN Techniques", explains the usage of conventional dating technique vs. advanced artificial neural networking techniques in identifying a contaminant source. The later technique is found to be superior in eliciting both source strength and its explicit location in a finite difference grid system.

The second article "Heavy Metal Concentrations in the Soils and Shrubs Near a Metal Processing Plant in Peninsular Malaysia", evaluates the concentrations of selected heavy metals (zinc, chromium and copper) in the soils and leaves of a shrub species, Melastoma malabathricum, around a metal processing plant of peninsular Malaysia.

The third article "Mercury Exposure in Coastal Communities of Kedah and Kelantan, Malaysia", examines the mercury concentration in the hairs of two rural communities of coastal Malaysia. The study reveals age factor and fish consumption appeared to have significant effect on hair mercury levels.

The fourth article "Studies on Surface Water Quality Evaluation and Soil Nutrient Status of Bellary Nala Catchment, Belgaum", investigates the extent of soil and water contamination in the locality caused by the prevailing adverse factors.

The fifth article "Study of Hydrological Characteristics and Level of Metals Present in Four Sites of Sewage Released into Holy River Saryu of Ayodhya-Faizabad", presents a laboratory study carried out to understand the hydrological characteristics and the level of metals in city sewage water which is released into holy Saryu River through four major discharging sites.

The sixth article "Rainwater Chemical Characteristics for Climate Change Studies", examines the rainwater chemical composition at different sites in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. The study reveals that the chemical nature of rainwater is alkaline which may be due to excessive anthropogenic activities.

- G S Brahma
Consulting Editor

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Automated Teller Machines (ATMs): The Changing Face of Banking in India

Bank Management
Information and communication technology has changed the way in which banks provide services to its customers. These days the customers are able to perform their routine banking transactions without even entering the bank premises. ATM is one such development in recent years, which provides remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the development of this self-service banking in India based on the secondary data.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is playing a very important role in the progress and advancement in almost all walks of life. The deregulated environment has provided an opportunity to restructure the means and methods of delivery of services in many areas, including the banking sector. The ICT has been a focused issue in the past two decades in Indian banking. In fact, ICTs are enabling the banks to change the way in which they are functioning. Improved customer service has become very important for the very survival and growth of banking sector in the reforms era. The technological advancements, deregulations, and intense competition due to the entry of private sector and foreign banks have altered the face of banking from one of mere intermediation to one of provider of quick, efficient and customer-friendly services. With the introduction and adoption of ICT in the banking sector, the customers are fast moving away from the traditional branch banking system to the convenient and comfort of virtual banking. The most important virtual banking services are phone banking, mobile banking, Internet banking and ATM banking. These electronic channels have enhanced the delivery of banking services accurately and efficiently to the customers. The ATMs are an important part of a bank’s alternative channel to reach the customers, to showcase products and services and to create brand awareness. This is reflected in the increase in the number of ATMs all over the world. ATM is one of the most widely used remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the growth of ATMs of different bank groups in India.
International Scenario

If ATMs are largely available over geographically dispersed areas, the benefit from using an ATM will increase as customers will be able to access their bank accounts from any geographic location. This would imply that the value of an ATM network increases with the number of available ATM locations, and the value of a bank network to a customer will be determined in part by the final network size of the banking system. The statistical information on the growth of branches and ATM network in select countries.

Indian Scenario

The financial services industry in India has witnessed a phenomenal growth, diversification and specialization since the initiation of financial sector reforms in 1991. Greater customer orientation is the only way to retain customer loyalty and withstand competition in the liberalized world. In a market-driven strategy of development, customer preference is of paramount importance in any economy. Gone are the days when customers used to come to the doorsteps of banks. Now the banks are required to chase the customers; only those banks which are customercentric and extremely focused on the needs of their clients can succeed in their business today.

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Environmental Sciences