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Article History

Received: 15 June 2026

Accepted: 4 September 2026

First Online: 9 September 2026

Declarations

Ethical approval and consent to participate: Approval was obtained from the Departmental research ethics committee, Department of Geography, Central University of Karnataka, [Approval No. CUK/Exams/PHD-254/2025-26/2172]. All participants were informed about the purpose and procedure of the research, and informed consent was obtained from each participant prior to data collection. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. All authors have agreed and given approval for the submission. We confirm that this manuscript has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by any other journal.

Consent to participate: All participants were informed about the purpose and nature of the study, and informed consent to participate was obtained from all individual participants prior to their participation in the study.

Consent for publication: Consent for publication was not applicable to this study because the manuscript does not contain any personally identifiable information, photographs, videos, or other identifiable data relating to individual participants.

Clinical trial number: not applicable.

Competing interests: The authors declare that there are no known competing financial interests or personal ties that could have influenced the work described in this paper.