Introduction: Forest fires are one of the major natural hazards that affect the forest ecosystem, damaging the biodiversity, environment, and wildlife. The study area, Achankovil forest division, a part of the Western Ghats, is also prone to forest fire, wherein a total of 15 fires were reported for the past 11 years. Objective: The aim of this study is to demarcate the fire risk zones in Achankovil forest division. Materials and Methods: A method that integrated remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) techniques was used to generate the fire risk zone map of the study area. In this mapping process, factors such as land cover type, slope, distance from settlement, distance from road, and elevation were taken into account. The risk zone map of the area of this study was created using the Fire Risk Index (FRI) method. Results: The final map comprised five fire risk zones, viz., very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. The high- and very high-risk zones together constituted 55.75% of the study area. The result of this study was validated with the fire incidence data and showed appreciable reliability. Conclusion: This study, based on geospatial technology, will help the authorities of the forest protection and conservation department to easily identify the fire risk zones for prevention and management of forest fires in the future.

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Context: The Ghamishloo National Park and Wildlife Refuge, located in the west part of Isfahan province, is one of the most important protected areas in the country. This area, as one of the semi-desert ecosystems in the central part of Iran, is the habitat of numerous wildlife species (especially Gazella subgutturosa, Ovis orientalis and so on). Aims: Since the Persian Gazella (G. subgutturosa) is one of the most important protected wildlife species in Iran, parasitic diseases (along with other problems) cause significant decrease in the population of this animal and finally lead to extinction. Materials and Methods: From early May to the late August 2016, seventy fresh dung samples of G. subgutturosa and 10 livestock dung samples were collected and were immediately transported to the laboratory. Then the Clayton Lane method was used to investigate the parasite eggs, and the Berman method was applied to prepare and identify the parasite species. Results: The results showed that five samples had parasite. These samples were cultured to identify the parasite type. According to the results, 7.15% (2.86% Trishuris, 2.86% Moniezia and 1.43% Marshalagia parasites) of the samples were contaminated with the intestinal parasite eggs. Thereafter, some strategies were presented for controlling and monitoring the parasite pollutions in the region.

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Introduction: The implementation of criminal policy for prevention of environmental crimes was examined in this study. Prevention is always better than cure, which is an important concept applicable to all aspects, as in this case, because most of the damages inflicted on the environment have a low probability of being restored. In addition to state agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also try to protect the environment. Some of the existing laws address environmental crimes. Environmental crimes are defined as crimes that cause severe destruction and damage to the environment and are a serious threat to the human health. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the implementation of the criminal policy for environmental crimes, because compensation and return to the previous status in these crimes is very difficult and perhaps impossible. Results: The result here indicates that with respect to the criminal policy of the law, thereof, our country lacks a comprehensive policy regarding environmental crimes, and the existing laws have some restrictions and defects. Swift and decisive acts against the criminals who misuse and damage the environment could have a preventive role. In spite of numerous laws and regulations in the environmental context in our country, appropriate support in this realm does not exist. Conclusions: Considering the fact that the environmental issues need to become a trained cultural aspect among all social statuses and strata, NGOs play an active role to achieve this goal.

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Context: Biogas is one of the most important sources of renewable energy and is considered as an environmental friendly energy source. One of the most important parameter influencing the production of biogas is total solids (TS). Aims: In this study, the effects of different total amount of solids, which consisted of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30% treatments, on the biogas production were examined. The solids were obtained at a thermophilic temperature (55°C) from a mixture of pomegranate rind, cow manure, and sludge in 15 days using one-liter glass bottles. Materials and Methods: The influences of TS, volatile solids (VS), pH, and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio on the biogas production volume from optimized TS treatment were also evaluated. In addition, pomegranate peel was pretreated for lignocellulosic destruction. Results: The results showed that the biogas production increased from 0.273 to 0.736 L/day with an increase in TS from 5 to 25%. The 25% treatment had the highest mean biogas production (i.e., 0.736 L/day). Significant difference was observed between the 25% treatment and all other treatments except the 20% treatment. The regression model showed that the VS was the only parameter that had a significant effect on biogas production. This parameter justified about 74.1% of the biogas production accuracy. Conclusion: Anaerobic digestion is an appropriate technology to achieve the organic fraction of solid wastes. Due to higher biogas production, dry anaerobic digestion is of more importance than wet and semi-dry anaerobic digestion.

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Introduction: Parthenium hysterophorus has become a huge problem throughout the world and is menacingly threatening the agriculture and environment. The existing methods for controlling or eradicating P. hysterophorus weed have their own limitations, that is, physical methods are very laborious, costly and ineffective in long term; chemical methods are costly and less environmental friendly and biological methods are not appropriate on large scale. The compost from Parthenium weed can be prepared to recycle the nutrients that are sucked by undesired weed from the soil. Presently, the available methods take a long time in preparing Parthenium compost, while the shorter methods are mostly less ecofriendly. In the present work, a method and recipe have been developed for preparing compost of Parthenium weed in comparatively less time (60 days only) and that too, in an ecofriendly manner; and it has been named as Vishishta composting. The term ‘Vishishta’ is a Hindi word, which means ‘something special’. Materials and Methods: In the present experiment, Parthenium weed was composted using rock phosphate, Trichoderma viride fungi culture powder and different organic wastes such as cow dung, sawdust, cow dung ash, dried fallen leaves and wheat straw in a duration of 60 days using the method of Vishishta composting. Results: The P. hysterophorus compost contains more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and other nutrients than farmyard manure. Overall status of the nutrients as-prepared compost is appreciable. Conclusion: In the present experiment, a method and recipe have been developed for composting Parthenium weed in shortest duration as compared to earlier methods available till date.

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Purpose: This study was to determine the effect of teaching recycling on the students’ perception of concept of recycling. Subjects and Methods: The method of this research was about conducting pretest and posttest for experimental and control groups. The sample consisted of 60 sixth-grade girls from district four of Isfahan from a population of 1000 who were systematically randomly selected and randomly placed in the experimental group and control group. The subjects of the experimental group received the necessary training during 8 one-hourly sessions through the educational book of principles and methods of recycling. A researcher-made questionnaire was used in this study. The reliability of the questionnaire was 1 and its validity was 0.809. The collected data were analyzed based on descriptive method (mean, standard deviation, percentage, etc.) and analytical method (analysis of covariance). Result: The findings of this study revealed that teaching recycling had an effect on the perception of the concept of recycling, paper recycling, glass recycling, metal recycling and also on identifying those who help people collect recyclable garbage (P < 0.001). But teaching recycling had no effects on the perception of the concept of garbage and the importance of recycling, plastic and the concept of garbage recycling (P < 0.001).

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Context: Anaerobic digestion of organic waste is one of the efficient ways to reduce methane emissions in atmosphere and produce pure bio-methane for fuel consumptions. Aims: In this study, the effects of pomegranate wastes, poultry manure, and cow sludge treated with various ratios of respectively 60, 13, and 27% (T1), 89, 0, and 11% (T2), 28, 28, and 44% (T3), and 0, 34, and 66% (T4) were investigated. Evaluation of the pH, total solids (TS), volatile solids (VS), and the ratio of carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) parameters on the digestion yield in the optimal treatment was another objective of this study. Materials and Methods: The waste concentration (7%) was evaluated based on the TS and over a period of 15 days on the performance of anaerobic digestion. Furthermore, a pretreatment of thermal–chemical processing (boiling in acetic acid and nitric acid) was considered to remove lignin from pomegranate peels. The process of anaerobic digestion was divided into four stages of the setting up, including startup period, the first stage of the stabilization period, the second phase of the stabilization period, and the consolidation phase. Results: The results showed that there was a significant difference in biogas production between the T3 with efficiency of 0.50 L/gr VS and cumulative biogas production value of 5885 ml/day and the T2 with efficiency of 0.60 L/gr VS and cumulative biogas production value of 718 ml/day. The third treatment (T3) was detected as the optimum. In this treatment, the superior performance of anaerobic digestion in the days of third to ninth of the experiment led the highest removing percentage of VS. The C:N ratio remained in the optimal range during the experimental period. Conclusion: The results of this study in a laboratory scale for biogas production appear to be a challenging process so that the substrate composition had a great influence on the performance.

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Context: Water is an essential commodity for the sustenance of life, yet its availability is drastically reducing due to pollution. The conventional methods used for the treatment of water is relatively expensive and not readily available and hence the need for alternative sustainable means of water treatment. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of Adansonia digitata L. seeds as a biocoagulant and disinfectant in the purification of water. Materials and Methods: Dried fruits of A. digitata were collected from the Department of Biological Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The seeds were excised, washed, sun-dried, powdered and defatted using n-hexane. Synthetic turbid water used for the biocoagulant study was prepared using beneficiated kaolin while that used for disinfection studies was prepared using Escherichia coli isolate. Surface water was also used for the study and was obtained from the Kubanni Reservoir, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The experimental design was complete randomized design (CRD). Experiments were performed in triplicates using 0 mg/L (control), 50 mg/L, 100 mg/L, 150 mg/L and 200 mg/L of A. digitata seed extract. Statistical Analysis: One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the means of the various parameters measured. Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) was used in separating means where significant. The level of significance was taken at P < 0.05. Results: Results revealed that as a biocoagulant, an optimum dose of 150 mg/L was able to reduce turbidity of synthetic water significantly (P < 0.05) by 96.7% while there was no significant reduction in the turbidity of surface water. As a disinfectant, a dose of 200 mg/L was able to significantly reduce (P < 0.05) the concentration of E. coli of synthetic water from 1.65 × 10⁴ cfu/mL to 5.00 × 10² cfu/mL (97.0%) and that of surface water from 4.27 × 10² cfu/mL to 6.67 × 10¹ cfu/mL (84.4%). Conclusion: From the investigations done, A. digitata seeds possess biocoagulant and disinfectant potentials, which may be harnessed for water purification.

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