Preface - 1. Introduction,- Section I Earth Systems: Cryosphere and hydrosphere.- 2. Global warming and glacier retreat - an overview.- 3. Asynchronous behaviour of glaciers of Ladakh Himalaya.- 4. Signatures and evidences of surging glaciers in Shyok valley.- 5. Antarctic climate variability durng the past few centuries.- 6. River systems and river science in India,- Section II Earth\'s climate system and paleoclimate.- 7. Impact of climate change on lichen and moss communities in Ny-Alesund.- 8. High resolution southwest monsoon reconstruction for the past ~ 2800 years.- 9. New record of magnetic properties of late quaternary sediments from the Easatern Arabian Sea.- 10. Anthropogenic climate change: observed facts, projected vulnerabilities and knowledge gaps.- Section III Natural Disasters.- 11. Landslide hazard analysis and management - case study from Nainital, India.- 12. Natural hazards of the Arabian peninsula: their causes and possible remediation.- 13. Influence of Young\'s modulus and Poisson\'s ration on the displacement around a circular tunnel.- Section IV Natural Resource Management.- 14. Gas hydrates - viable future and major energy resource of India.- 15. Impact cratering from an Indian perspective.- 16. Optical characterization of backscattering of total suspended matter and its correlation with phytoplankton concentration in the Arabian Sea.