Geography - University Of Calcutta Researcher profile

Personal profile

History

Year of Establishment : 1941

History of the department : The Department of Geography of the University of Calcutta was founded in 1941 at its College Street Campus by the doyen of Indian Geography, Padmabhushan Prof. Sivaprasad Chatterjee. In 1963 it was shifted to the Science College at the Taraknath Palit Shiksha Prangan. The Department now covers a floor area of 775 m2, 26% of which is occupied by laboratories. Legendary teachers like Prof. Nirmal Kumar Bose, Prof. Kanan Gopal Bagchi, Dr. Ranjit Lahiri, Dr. Sujan Bandhab Chatterjee, Sri Dakshinaranjan Mitra and Dr. Mira Guha contributed significantly to the development of the Department. Other internationally-known geographers who adorned its faculty include Prof. Bireswar Banerjee, Prof. Manotosh K. Bandyopadhyay, Prof. Pijush Kanti Saha, Prof. Subhas C. Mukhopadhyay and Prof. Subhash Ranjan Basu. This year the Department is celebrating its 75th year of foundation. The department has so far produced two D.Litts, two D.Scs and over one hundred sixty Ph.D. Scholars. Alumni of this department have made significant contributions in various states of India and also in different countries of the world.

Special award/ recognition from UGC or related statutory body :

In 2012, the Department successfully completed the UGC DRS SAP Phase-I programmes.
In 2014, it started UGC DRS SAP Phase-II programmes.
In 2015, the DST PURSE Scheme has been introduced.

Thrust areas in teaching and research of the academic department/ centre :

Geomorphology and hazard studies,
Tropical climatology,
Pedology and land use,
Environmental geography,
Industrial geography,
Urban and Transport Geography
Tourism geography,
Regional planning and Cartography
Its spatial thrust areas have traditionally been West Bengal, Sikkim and Jharkhand.

Teaching support
The main facilities of the Department include :

Seminar Library containing 11,020 books and 3,325 volumes of journals.
Map Library holding a rich collection of more than 1,000 old and rare maps many of which date from 1850s to 1930s. It also has a collection of 460 satellite images (paper prints) and aerial stereo photo pairs.
RS/GIS Laboratory housing 30 workstations with state-of-art facilities in terms of software, satellite data, digital maps and equipment that can handle most types of geomatic problems and spatial analyses. It also has an A0 scanner and printer installed.
Pedology & Sedimentology Laboratory for chemical and physical analyses of soil and sediment samples. It also has instruments like BOD incubator and aerosol sampler for analyses of various environmental parameters.
Museum that exhibits specimens of geographical and ethno-cultural interest. Tribal outfits and wares from various parts of India are the speciality of its collections.
Cartographic Survey Facilities of the Department include advanced survey equipment like Leica TC-805 Total Station, Leica Xeno-10 Differential GPS (Base and Rover units) and Koden CVS-118 Echosounder apart from all types of conventional survey equipment.
In its premises it also houses two Learned Societies of eminence: Geographical Society of India (established in 1933) and Himalaya Samiksha Parishad (established in 1976).

Major activities :

29th Conference of the Indian Institute of Geomorphologists (IGI) on Geomorphology and Natural Hazards, forthcoming (November 24-27, 2016).
UGC Refresher course on Disaster Management from February, 26- March17, 2016.
Two Week Training Programe on RS, GNSS & GIS Using Open Source softwares in collaboration with the Geographical Society of India on 25th February 07th March, 2016
International Conference & 47th Annual Seminar of the Regional Science Association, India on Urbanization and Regional Sustainability, January 28-30, 2016.
A special Lecture on Urban Sociality -Difference, Encounter and Belonging by Dr. Michele Lobo, Deakin University, Australia, January 8, 2016.
A special Lecture on Urban Flooding of Greater Dhaka in A Changing Climate: Building Local Resilience to Disaster Risk by Dr. Susmita Das Gupta, Lead Environmental Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington, USA, April 11, 2016.

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