Inside this Issue

20th APG Meet and National Conference, 2019
21st APG Meet and National Conference, 2020
Meritorious Student Award, 2019
Young Geographer Award, 2019
Promising Geographer Award, 2019
Punjab Geographer
News about the Departments
News about the Members
Geographical News

20th APG Meet and International Conference, 2019

Focusing upon the theme of "Ecological Sustainability, Regional Development and Geospatial Technology", PG Department of Geography, Government College, Hisar organized the 20th Meet of the Association of Punjab Geographers (APG) and National Conference on 9th and 10th November 2019. Principal P.S. Rohilla, Patron of the event welcomed all the dignitaries and delegates. Dr. Manoj Kumar, Organizing Secretary, introduced the theme before the House. Professor, Tankeshwar Kumar, Hon'ble Vice Chancellor, Guru Jambeshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar graced the occasion as Chief Guest of this mega event.

21st APG Meet and National Conference, 2020

21st APG Meet and National/International Conference is being hosted by Department of Geography, Baba Farid College, Deon, Bathinda, Punjab in the month of Oct/Nov, 2020. Main theme: Development, Sustainability and Geography: Building Synergies.

Devinder Singh Raina, Meritorious Student Award, 2019

To promote the subject of Geography, the Association of Punjab Geographers has instituted Meritorious Student Award, in the memory of Prof. Devinder Singh Raina, Department of Geography, University of Jammu, Jammu. For the year of 2019, this award has been conferred to Mr. Lucky Sharma, for securing First Position in M.A. Geography, University of Jammu, Jammu.

Dr. Saminderjit Singh Young Geographer Award, 2019

The Association of Punjab Geographers in its 20th APG Meet and National Conference held at Government College, Hisar organized the Oral paper presentation Competition to confer upon Dr. Saminderjit Singh Young Geographer Award-2019 for the best young geographers/researchers. Young geographers belonging to Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh; Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi and Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla participated in the competition. Ms. Deepika Vashishtha, Research Scholar, Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University was conferred upon the Dr.Saminderjit Singh Young Geographer Award-2019.

Prof. B. Hema Malini Promising Geographer Award, 2019

There were 7 candidates representing 4 universities of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Panjab states who participated in the competition. Under this award of Poster Presentation Competition, various themes of contemporary relevance such as safe drinking water issues, landscape changes, meteorological drought analysis, rainfall change detection, climate change and biodiversity, regional disparities in development etc. were focused. Finally, Mr. Vivek Negi, Research Scholar, Panjab University, Chandigarh was declared, the Winner of the competition.

Punjab Geographer

It is a matter of great pride for us that our journal 'Punjab Geographer' has been indexed in SCOPUS - (200114-020025). Original research papers are invited for publication from the members. Members can contact Dr. H. S. Mangat, E-mail editor@apgorg.org. Please visit website of Punjab Geographer: www.punjabgeographer.org or APG website: www.apgorg.org to see the guidelines for the authors and format of the paper.

News about the Departments

Department of Geography, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla

The department coordinated 2-week Refresher Course in Geography and Geology w.e.f. 20 -05 -2019 to 01 -06 -2019. The department also organized 21 days "Capacity Building Training Programme on Geo-spatial Technologies" w.e.f. - 18.06.2019 to 08.07.2019. This training programme was funded by NRDMS, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Department of Geography, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra

The Department conducted a socio-economic field survey under the supervision of Prof. M.S. Jaglan and Prof. Omvir Singh from September 30, 2019 to October 5, 2019 at Kathgarh village in Yamuna Nagar district of Haryana. Fifty one students comprising of 25 boys and 26 girls of M.Sc. Geography final year participated in this survey. The surveyed village is located in the foot of Siwalik Hills along the ephemeral Somb river, a tributary of Yamuna river. During the survey period, both students and teachers stayed at village. The students surveyed 238 households. This village has been inhabited by the pastoral community, Gurjar that has sedentarized recently.

Department of Geography, Govt. College, S.A.S Nagar (Mohali)

The department celebrated International Literacy Day on 08.9.2019 and World Ozone Day on 16.9.2019. Dr. Jaspal Singh and Prof. Ranbir Singh made their presentations digitally on the topics. Ten students of the department also participated in paper reading and poster making competitions.

News about the Members

Dr. Anuradha Sharma has taken over as Head, Department of Geography, University of Jammu, Jammu.

Dr. Omvir Singh has taken over as Head, Department of Geography, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra.

Dr. Vinod K. Bhardwaj, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Govt. College, Kotputli, Jaipur, Rajasthan submitted, ICSSR Sponsored Major Research Project, "Women and Child Trafficking from Nepal in India: Mechanism, Control Measures and Implications" after completion to the ICSSR.

B.R. Thakur, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography has been awarded with a major research project titled "Impact of Pradhanmantri Gramin Sadak Yojna on Rural Development in Churah Tehsil of Chamba District, Himachal Pradesh" funded by ICSSR, New Delhi under a prestigious Impactful Policy Research in Social Science (IPMRESS) Scheme recently launched by Government of India.

Dr. Shaik Iftikhar Ahmed of Population Research Centre (PRC), CRRID, Chandigarh has been awarded Third Prize for his research paper entitled "Evaluation of Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana in Punjab" in the 4th Knowledge Dissemination Workshop of Population Research Centres of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi held on 16-17 January, 2020 at PRC, Patna University, Patna.

Geographical News

Meteoric impact craters are among the most interesting geological structures on our planet. Scientists have discovered three deep scars in the earth's crust in India that are believed to mark the remains of a meteorite crater. While the Lonar Lake is famous for being the world's largest basaltic impact crater, the other two, Ramgarh and Dhala, are relatively unknown.