Geography

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.

Academic

Faculty Members

Name	Designation	Area of specialization	Email
Sunando Bandyopadhyay [Profile]	Professor	Geomorphology, Remote Sensing-GIS	[email protected]
Sumana Bandyopadhyay [Profile]	Professor	Urban Geography & Gender Studies	[email protected]
Nilanjana Das [Profile]	Associate Professor	Social & Cultural Geography, Tourism Geography	[email protected]
Debasis Ghosh [Profile]	Associate Professor	Environment & Soil Geography	[email protected]
Utpal Roy [Profile]	Associate Professor & HoD	Urban Geography, Health & Health Care Geography	[email protected]
Sk. Mafizul Haque [Profile]	Assistant Professor	Cartography, RS-GIS	[email protected]
Lakpa Tamang [Profile]	Assistant Professor	Fluvial Geomorphology & Socio-Hydrology	[email protected]

Visiting faculty members

Name	Institutions attached with	Period of appointment
Prof. Soumendu Chatterjee	Presidency University, Kolkata	2022-23
Prof. Lakshmi Sivaramakrishnan	Jadavpur University, Kolkata	2022-23
Prof. Sanat Kumar Guchhait	Burdwan University, Burdwan	2022-23
Prof. Subhamita Choudhury	West Bengal State University, Barasat	2022-23

Courses :

Programme	Level of study	Eligibility	Intake capacity
MA / MSc Geography	MA / MSc	BA/BSc (Hons.) in Geography	120
PhD in Geography	PhD	MA / MSc in Geography

Research

Research Scholars :

Professor Sunando Bandyopadhyay
RESEARCHER	THESIS TITLE	STATUS
Nabendu Sekhar Kar	Morphological Changes and Human Encroachment in Indian Sundarban: The Post-1971 Period	Submitted
Atrayee Biswas	Reconstruction of Quaternary Depositional Environment in Parts of the Rarh Region, West Bengal: An Integrated Approach	Working since October, 2014
Karabi Das	Physico-economic Changes in the Indian Sundarban: An Evaluation	Working since May, 2016
Pritam Santra (UGC JRF)	Holocene Evolution of the Eastern Subarnarekha Coastal Region, West Bengal and Odisha	Working since May, 2016
Saheli Bhattacherjee (UGC JRF)	Changes in River Planform in the Chittagong–Tripura Fold Belt	Working since May, 2018
Madhumita Basu	The Ecology and Economics of Wetlands: A Case Study of the BaritiBeel Area, North Twenty Four Parganas , West Bengal	Working since April, 2018
Abhijit Das (UGC JRF)	Changes in River Courses and Coastline of the Eastern Ganga– Brahmaputra Delta, Bangladesh	Working since February, 2019
Professor Sumana Bandyopadhyay
Bikramjit Roy (UGC JRF)	Transformation of Urban Space: A study of Emerging Socio-Spatial Trends In Kolkata	Working since, February, 2021
Prativa Karmakar (UGC JRF)	Ecological Resilience of Wetlands case studies in East Kolkata Wetlands and Deepor Beel.	Working since, August, 2018
Jaydip De (UGC JRF)	E-Governance for Urban Management in India: Organisational Implications and Challenges	Submitted
Debarpita Banerjee (UGC JRF)	Assessing Values of Urban Water Bodies: The case of Kolkata	Submitted
Binay Krishna Pal (UGC JRF)	Managing Public Space for Sustainable Urban Transformation: Lessons from Kolkata	Working since, May, 2016
Yogendra Kumar Srivastava	Water Resources Assessment for Ranchi Urban Area: Impact of Anthropogenic and Environmental Factors	Working since, January, 2018
Jayanti Neogi	Socio-educational Benefits of Integration for Children with Special Needs: A Case Study in Kolkata	Working since, August, 2018
Dr. Debasis Ghosh
Sambit Sheet	Hydro Geomorphology of The Lower Damodar Basin, West Bengal	Awarded
Mrinal Mandal	A Geographical Analysis of Malnutrition in Purulia District, West Bengal	Awarded
Asraful Alam	Fluvial Geomorphology and Water Resource Management In Lower Mayurakshi Basin, West Bengal	Working
Piyali Singha	Impact of Physical Landscape on Agriculture of Uttar Dinajpur District, West Bengal	Working
Monali Banerjee	Morphological and Sedimentological Characteristics of a Mixed Bedrock-Alluvial River Channel in Cratonic Fringe Region: A Study of Dwarakeswar River System, West Bengal	Awarded
Dayamoy Mandal (UGC JRF)	Geomorphology of The Kumari Basin and its Relation with The Human System	Working
Manas karmakar (UGC JRF)	Geomorphology and Associated Resource Potential Of Subarnarekha- Kangsabati interfluve Region, Jharkhand and West Bengal	Working
Dr. Utpal Roy
Meghna Maiti (UGC JRF)	Spatio-Temporal Variation of Infectious Diseases in West Bengal	Working since, February, 2017
Indranil Maity (UGC JRF)	Socio-Cultural Shifts Among Emerging Adults in West Bengal, India	Working since, August, 2018
Subham Pramanick (UGC JRF)	Urban Ferry System-A Study on Kolkata-Howrah Twin City	Working since, July, 2020
Dr. Sk Mafizul Hauque
NimaLhaky Sherpa	Prospects of Ecotourism Development - A Case Study of West Sikkim	Submitted
Ratrita Pal (UGC JRF)		Working
Souvonic Bala	Land Use Transformation around Urban Sacred Spaces in Varanasi uttar Pradesh	Working since, September, 2017
Swasti Vardhan Mishra	Appraisal of Urbanization of Statutory Towns in Kolkata Metropolitan Area	Submitted
Amiya Gayen	Soil Erosion Vulnerability and Management in Pathro River Basin, Jharkhand and Bihar	Working since, February, 2019
Dr. Lakpa Tamang
Suman Mitra (UGC JRF)	River Health Assessment: A Study of the Mahananda System in Darjeeling District, West Bengal	Working since, April, 2018
Ashish Chhetri	Water Security in the Hill Towns of Darjeeling Himalaya	Working since, February, 2020
Bivek Subba (UGC JRF)	Small Scale Organic Tea Farming as an Alternative to Sustainable Rural Livelihood in Darjeeling Hills	Working
Uttam Kumar Mandal (NFSC)	Geo-diversity and Geotourism in Southern Chotanagpur Plateau Region of Eastern India: A sustainable perspective of geo- conservation and regional development	Working

Projects :

Project title	Funding agency	Principal investigator	Duration	Budget
Environmental Perspective and Development in West Bengal	UGC DRS II	Prof. Ranjan Basu	2014 onwards	Rs. 74.50 Lakhs

Thrust areas in teaching and research of the academic department:

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.

Links :

Additional information :

A short term Consultancy assessment with World Bank titled Evolution of Islands in Indian Sundarban by Prof. Sunando Bandopadhyay for the duration of 6 months (ongoing).
A short term Consultancy assessment with World Bank titled Land Dynamics of Indian Sundarban by Prof. Sumana Bandopadhyay for the duration of 6 months (ongoing).
A short term Consultancy assessment with World Bank titled Migration from Bangladesh to Indian Sundarban by Dr. Utpal Roy for the duration of 6 months (ongoing).

Contact

Campus : Taraknath Palit Siksha Prangan (Ballygange Campus)

Address for communication : Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata - 700019, West Bengal, India