Sunderbans will drown in 60 yrs: WWF

The World Wildlife Fund has warned that days are numbered for much of the sensitive Sunderbans eco-system and in 60 years vast tracts of the rare mangrove forests, home to the Bengal tiger, will be inundated by the rising sea.

The study, focussed on Sunderbans in Bangladesh, says the sea was rising more swiftly than anticipated by
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 and would rise 11.2 inches (above 2000 levels) by 2070. This would result in shrinkage of the Bangladesh Sunderbans by 96% within half a century, reducing the tiger population there to less than 20, said the study.

Unlike previous efforts, WWF's deputy director of conservation science Colby Loucks and his colleagues used a high-resolution digital elevation model with eight estimates of sea level rise to predict the impact on tiger habitat and population size. The team was able to come up with the most accurate predictions till date by importing over 80,000 Global Positioning System (GPS) elevation points.

The study, Sea Level Rise and Tigers: Predicted Impacts to Bangladesh's Sunderbans Mangroves, has been published in the journal, Climatic Change. Though the Indian part of the Sunderbans will not be so badly affected, conservationists wonder how many tigers would be able to survive here with nearly 60% of the habitat gone. Of the total Sunderbans, nearly 60% is in Bangladesh. Tigers do not recognize international borders though and cross over from one side to the other as and when they choose.

Experts say that every tiger requires a large territory of its own (known as range). An ever-spreading human habitat in the Indian part has already resulted in a drop in the big cats' territory, leading to frequent incidents of straying.

``Tigers have adapted to a life in the mangroves and crabs constitute an important part of their diet. Though tigers are a highly adaptable species, occupying territory from the snowy forests of Russia to the tropics of Indonesia, the projected sea level rise in the Sunderbans may outpace the animal's ability to adapt,'' a WWF source said. There are no accurate estimates, but conservationists estimate the mangroves could be home to upto 400 big cats.

The sea level rise will also have an impact on the lives of people who depend on the Sunderbans for their livelihood. The mangroves protect human habitation from cyclones and other natural disasters.

WWF has recommended that governments and natural resource managers take immediate steps to conserve and expand mangroves while preventing poaching and retaliatory killing of tigers. Neighbouring countries should increase sediment delivery and freshwater flows to the coastal region to support agriculture and replenishment of the land.

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Kerala’s largest freshwater lake shrinking

The Sasthamcotta Lake in Kollam district which was designated as a Ramsar Site in November 2002 and listed by the Government of India as a wetland of national importance has started shrinking at an alarming rate. Sasthamcotta Lake is also Kerala’s largest freshwater lake.

Although the water level of the lake has always fluctuated in response to the summer and monsoon, environmental activists and others living in the vicinity of the lake said the decline in the lake’s water

volume at present is simply alarming. Even as summer has only started advancing, the lake exposes its parched bed on all sides.

At a couple of locations, the lake has shrunk by about 250 meters to 300 meters. Indiscriminate exploitation of water from the lake and environment degradation activities carried out around the catchment area of the lake is being cited as the main cause for the reduced lake volume.

Monsoon rains are not the main water source of the lake. Its main source of water is the underground sprouts. These sprouts had been sustaining the water volume at a satisfactory level even during the height of summer. But this year the lake started shrinking even by January end.

The area of the lake as per official records is 3.74 square kilo meters and has the capacity to hold 22.39 million litres of water. It is surrounded by thirty-eight hills on three sides and paddy fields on the eastern side. To prevent water from spilling into the fields, an earthen bund has been constructed. Almost all the hills surrounding the lake have human habitations.

According to the general convener of the Environment Protection Coordination Council, Odanavattam Vijayarakash, one of the biggest threats to the lake’s volume is the uncontrolled and illegal clay and

sand mining activity in its catchment areas and the periphery of those areas. The council is in the forefront since the past many years championing the cause of the lake’s protection and conservation.

These activities have created huge gaping chasms all over the catchment area which in turn have depleted the underground sprouts of the lake, Mr. Viajyaprakash said. Continuing to remain the drinking water source for Kollam city and a couple of grama panchayats in such a situation is also heavily taxing the lake.

Each day 37.5 million litres of water is being pumped from the lake for drinking water purposes. The pumping rate continues even as the lake stands alarmingly shrunk. Added to this the State government is shortly commissioning another major drinking water project for three more grama panchayats with the Sasthamcotta Lake as the source.

This is in spite of the fact that the State government’s Centre for Earth Science Studies had warned against further exploitation of the lake for drinking water projects. Environment activists say the new project will sound the death knell for the lake. Yet there is no concrete programme to protect and conserve the lake.

While several projects for the purpose had been announced from time to time, none of them have taken shape, Mr. Vijayaprakash said. Added to that, the lake is also made to serve as garbage and other domestic

waste dump of Sasthamcotta town. The main reason for this is that the lake has not been made a reliable drinking water source for the people of Sasthamcotta under any of the government’s water supply schemes.

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Proposed Nilgiris elephant corridor runs into resistance

Tension is simmering over a proposed elephant corridor in the Ooty foothills. While conservationists say this is essential to restore the man-nature balance, farmers and property owners are questioning the State government’s decision to acquire 7,000 acres of fertile land for it.

The whole area from the Bandipur reserve forest in Karnataka, adjoining the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary of Tamil Nadu and the foothills of Ooty, was once untouched “tusker territory”, say wildlife activists.

Humans have now intruded into the wilderness and encroached upon the UNESCO-recognised Nilgiri biosphere reserve comprising more than 5,000 sq km in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, they say.

Of the around 2,000 elephants in the southern peninsula, half are in the three contiguous, ecologically sensitive sanctuaries.

An Australian outfit called Rain Forest is spearheading a movement to persuade official agencies to review decisions to locate developmental projects in the threatened elephant habitat.

While officials deny that land acquisition for the elephant corridor has already been initiated, residents say under the Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forest Act, 1947, proceedings have begun in Masinagudi, Mavanallah, Bokkapuram, Vazhaithottam, Anaikatty and Sigur.

This village, which is to be part of the corridor, is around 28 km from the hill resort of Ooty.

Agriculturists say the land in question is being used for cultivation by more than 18,000 farmers. D. Prasad Reddy of the Nilgiris Farmers Association said this was gross injustice to farmers.

Farmers, traders, residents and resort owners under the banner of the Farmers and Landowners Association have been demonstrating regularly. A shutdown was observed by the transporters and merchants of the area, while property owners displayed black badges in protest in early February to oppose the new elephant corridor.

A farmer said their main occupation had been agriculture for more than 500 years and now “more than 2,000 families would be displaced”.

Another farmer in the area said, “The more than 10,000 Sri Lankan refugees have not been touched by the Tamil Nadu government’s move to provide the elephant corridor.”

Narsimhan, president of the Masinagudi Circle Farmers’ Association, apprehended that locals would be forcibly evicted from their land and in return would receive peanuts as compensation.

Locals also allege that the Madras High Court order of November 6, asking the forest department to provide detailed maps demarcating elephant corridors in the Nilgiris for conservation, was being used by the authorities to secure village land to attract foreign funds for conservation projects.

Villagers say the movement and the actual number of elephants in the area should have been properly studied and satellite imagery scientifically analysed before starting the acquisition proceedings.

Villagers of Vazhaithottam, translated as “banana fields,” say the area was never part of the corridor.

A property owner in a village in the Masinagudi panchayat said on condition of anonymity: “We are wondering if the authorities are planning to create a new elephant sanctuary in place of a corridor, which is normally defined as a narrow passage.

“The land belonging to the Scheduled Tribes, even if it falls on the corridor route, will not be touched. Also, one fails to comprehend the logic of official agencies in blaming ‘outsiders’ for purchasing land here. Under the constitution of India, any citizen can own property anywhere without the tag of an outsider.”

State government officials after a recent public hearing at Masinagudi said public opinion was being ascertained and views of the various interest groups were being collected as per the orders of the high court.

Anand Rao Patil, the Nilgiri district collector, has said the opinions of affected parties would be conveyed to the government. More than 150 petitions have been submitted.

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Toxic electronic waste poses increasing risk

Developing countries face increasing environmental and health hazards from electronic waste unless toxic materials are collected and recycled properly, according to a United Nations report released on Monday.

The report highlights the problem of recycling and salvaging procedures in poorer countries, often in unsafe conditions by unregulated operators. Sales of electronic devices are set to rise sharply in the next 10 years, particularly in emerging economies such as China and India, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said.

According to report, titled Recycling - from E-Waste to Resources, the world produces about 40 million tons of waste from electronic devices, known as e-waste, every year.

“Managing this waste has become not just important, it has become absolutely urgent,” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said at a news conference.

Experts said exposure to toxic chemicals from e-waste - including lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and polybrominated biphenyls - can damage the brain and nervous system, affect the kidneys and liver, and cause birth defects.

The report was launched in Indonesia’s resort island of Bali where environment ministers from more than 100 countries are due to meet from Wednesday through Friday.

It used data from 11 developing countries to estimate current and future e-waste generation from discarded computers, printers, mobile phones, pagers, cameras, music players, refrigerators, toys, televisions and other items.

China produces an estimated 2.3 million tons of e-waste annually, and though the country has banned e-waste imports, it remains a major dumping ground for waste from developed countries, the report said.

The UN research predicts that in South Africa and China, e-waste from old computers may jump by 200 to 400 per cent from 2007 levels and by 500 per cent in India.

E-waste from mobile phones in the same period is forecast to rise seven times in China, and 18 times in India.

According to the report, over 1 billion mobile phones were sold in 2007 worldwide, up from 896 million in 2006.

The report said most e-waste in China was improperly handled, with much of it incinerated by backyard recyclers to recover valuable metals like gold.

Jim Pucket of the Basel Action Network, a non-governmental organization fighting the international trade in toxic wastes, said massive amounts of discarded devices had been exported to China for years.

Pucket said in one area of China’s Guandong province, people had been “treating information-age materials with stone-age technology.” “That’s happening to this day, every day and the problem is getting worse,” he said.

But China is not alone in facing the serious e-waste problem, Steiner said.

“India, Brazil, Mexico and others may also face rising environmental damage and health problems if e-waste recycling is left to the vagaries of the informal sector,” he said.

Konrad Osterwalder, UN under-secretary general and rector of the United Nations University, said solving e-waste problems represented an important step in the transition to a green economy.

“This report outlines smart new technologies and mechanisms which, combined with national and international policies, can transform waste into assets, creating new businesses with decent green jobs,” he said developing national recycling schemes is complex and simply financing and transferring high tech equipment from developed countries is unlikely to work, according to the report.

It urged governments to establish e-waste management centres, building on existing organizations working in the area of recycling and waste management.

Courtesy: The Hindu

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Warmer seas may rob corals and rainforests of protective clouds

A new research has suggested that rising ocean temperatures may leave corals and rainforests without clouds for protection.

Five years ago, Graham Jones and his team at Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, demonstrated that algae living in coral tissue produce a gas called dimethyl sulphide (DMS). When released into the atmosphere, DMS helps clouds form over coral reefs. Jones says that the clouds block sunlight and cool the sea.

His team has now discovered that a rise in ocean temperature of only 2 degree Celsius causes some algae to stop producing DMS. As a result, fewer clouds will form over the coral, allowing more sunlight to shine on the water, warming it still more.

“When the water temperature rose from the annual mean of 24 degree Celsius to 26 degree C, no DMS was released,” said Jones.

The gas is oxidised and forms small sulphur aerosol particles that attract water vapour and produce clouds.

The findings support Jones’s past work, which found that extreme warming of water around the Great Barrier Reef in the early 1990s led to lower DMS levels in the water. But, he said that this is the first study to measure the effect of water temperature on the amount of DMS entering the atmosphere.

Jones also suspects that DMS may have a significant role in the regional climate of north Queensland. He said that in winter, south-easterly trade winds may carry the DMS aerosol particles into rainforests, producing rain; in the monsoon period, north-easterly winds are responsible for the rainfall.

“We believe it is no coincidence that much of Australia’s rainforest lies adjacent to the northernmost reefs,” said Jones. If this is true, lower levels of DMS over coral reefs could dry out north Queensland’s rainforests, according to Jones.

According to David Bourne (PDF) of Australia’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Townsville, Queensland, it’s likely that rising ocean temperatures could stop the production of DMS. At high temperatures coral expel their algae. “If you lose the algae, it makes sense that you see the loss of DMS,” said Bourne.

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Parambikulam Tiger Reserve opened

Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh on Friday said the tiger population in 18 of the 38 tiger reserves in the country “may die out any time.”

Inaugurating the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, the 38th in the country, at Anappadi (Parambikulam), he said there were only nine functioning tiger reserves in the country.

The tiger population in the reserves of Sariska (Rajasthan) and Panna (Madhya Pradesh) had almost become extinct. The main reason was poaching, mining and operation by real estate mafia in these areas. “They have finished off the tigers in order to lay their claim on the forests. To save the tigers, we have to save our forests.”

He said the Central government would pay Rs.2 crore annually to each tiger reserve. It would also meet the expenses incurred for relocating people from the core area. Nearly 1 lakh families were living in the core areas of tiger reservesand 3,000 families relocated. The Centre would pay Rs.10 lakh each to the family willing to relocate. There was no compulsion to move out.

In the Parambikulam Reserve, 250 families were living in the core area. Of this, 78 had expressed ‘initial willingness’ to relocate. The government would compensate them.

The Minister said the Centre would provide financial assistance to the Kerala Forest Department to acquire the Pachakanam Estate, situated inside the Periyar Reserve. The Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary would be inaugurated on April 11 and the Indira Gandhi Bio-diversity Institute at Silent Valley in May or June.

The Minister expressed the hope that Kerala Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac would present a ‘green budget,’ where there would be lot of incentives for the protection of forest and environment.

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Scientist discovers Himalayan wildcat haven

A little-known rainforest in north-east India could be home to the world’s largest number of wildcat species, with no less than seven species photo-documented by a wildlife biologist at the end of her two-year survey.

Kashmira Kakati’s camera-trap shots reveal that the wildcats share a relatively small, 500 sq.km. patch of rainforest in the Jeypore-Dehing lowlands in Assam, which includes the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary.

Among the cats are the elusive and rare clouded leopard ( Neofelis nebulosa), the marbled cat ( Pardofelis marmorata) and the Asian golden cat ( Catopuma temminckii), besides the relatively more widely distributed tiger ( Panthera tigris), the leopard ( Panthera pardus), the leopard cat ( Prionailurus bengalensis), and the jungle cat ( Felis chaus).

“To discover what is, most likely, the maximum number of wild cat species sharing a single area gives us a mere glimpse of what species the Jeypore-Dehing forests hold,” says Jim Sanderson, biologist, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Cat Specialist Group. “That such a place still exists will attract naturalists and scientists alike to make even more discoveries, but only if the Jeypore-Dehing forests receive the protection they so clearly deserve.”

The discovery comes in the backdrop of growing concern among environmentalists over deforestation, poaching, crude oil and coal extraction and mega hydro-electric projects that threaten the ecology of the eastern Himalayas. However, new wildlife species continue to be discovered in this part of the eastern Himalayas — listed as a “biodiversity hotspot” — comprising Bhutan, parts of northeast India and Nepal.

Twelve other carnivore species were also recorded in the Kakati survey, among them the endangered dhole (Asiatic Wild Dog), the Malayan sun bear, binturong, mongoose, otter and civets. And among the 45 mammals documented are six species of primates, deer, porcupine, wild pig and rodents, which are prey for the rainforest carnivores. The discovery is significant in that it points to the importance of protecting less-known patches of wilderness in the country that hold tremendous biodiversity, says Ravi Chellam of the Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program. “It also places enormous emphasis on the need for more structured research.”

Sarala Khaling, regional coordinator of Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) in the eastern Himalayas, says: “It is now time for extractive industries operating in and around the area to [begin] partnering with conservation organisations and local communities to preserve the area’s incredible biodiversity.”

Dr. Kakati’s research was supported by the Assam Forest Department and funded by the CEPF, the Wildlife Conservation Society–India Program and the Rufford Small Grants Foundation, United Kingdom.

Source: The Hindu

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India may have lost Siberian Cranes for ever

For the tenth consecutive year, the majestic Siberian Cranes - among the most endangered birds in the world - have skipped India this winter, say experts.

They apprehend that the Siberian Cranes are unlikely to ever come to the Bharatpur region of Rajasthan again as they have apparently changed their centuries-old migratory route from Siberia to India.

"These birds have not been sighted in the famous Keoladeo National Park of Bharatpur or any other place in northern India. It is clear that their route has undergone a change owing to a variety of reasons," Dilawar Mohammed, ornithologist with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), said.

The last time a pair of Siberian Cranes (Grus leucogeranus) was spotted in this park was way back in 2001.

"After that it has been a disappointment for bird lovers, ornithologists and tourists who used to go there for a glimpse of these royal birds," Mohammed said.

He explained that the Siberian Cranes' route to India was through Afghanistan. The adult birds stand as tall as 91 inches and can weigh over 10 kg.

Dodging the bombings by US fighter jets which tried to root out the erstwhile Taliban regime in October 2001 and after the 9/11 strikes in the US, the Siberian Cranes managed to reach India for the last time.

According to another bird lover and breeder Nigam Pandya, the Siberian Cranes or the Great White Cranes have not been sighted in this part of the world since 2001, indicating that they have skipped India completely.

"Presently, as per authoritative international estimates, there are barely 3,200 Siberian Cranes left in the world, making them among the most endangered species like the tiger or the Himalayan Pandas," Pandya said.

Depending on their breeding habitats, the Siberian Cranes were classified into central, western and eastern populations.

While the central population, which used to come to India during winters for over two centuries, is now considered extinct, the western population spends its winters in Iran.

Only the eastern population with about 3,000 birds is still strong, but it is also under severe threat owing to changes in their wintering areas in China, one of them the construction of the huge Three Gorges Dam, Mohammed said.

Usually, the Siberian Cranes would start flying towards India in mid-October and stay here till March or April.

At its peak, in 1965, Bharatpur hosted over 200 Siberian Cranes. Less than 30 years later, in 1993, only five were sighted there.

Then, after a gap of three years, four were spotted in 1996. That was reduced to barely a pair of these birds by the late 1990s, following by the last pair seen in 2001.

Besides the loss of natural habitat in most parts where they lived and bred, Mohammed said, there have been reports of hunting of these huge birds in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the recent past.

The Siberian Cranes have always fascinated scientists for their ability to fly distances of over 2,500 km to escape the cold winter of Siberia.

En route, they flew over Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and then to northwestern India. One of their brief halting points was the Abi-I-Istada Lake in Afghanistan. From there it took them around eight weeks to reach Bharatpur.

The US-based International Crane Foundation says the eastern population breeds in northeastern Siberia and spends winters along the central Yangtze river of China.

The sparse Western population spends its winter along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea in Iran and breeds near the south of the Ob river which runs to the east of the Ural Mountains of Russia.

The central population that nested in western Siberia and flew down for warm winters to Bharatpur is no more.

Courtesy : The times of India

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WWF meet in NITW

On 6th February, 2009 the Chemical seminar hall was the venue for a lovely interaction with Mr. S.Saravanan, representative of WWF-India who came down from Hyderabad for the event.

Professor Amba Prasad, the staff advisor of Nature club NITW first addressed the gathering. He said that it was a great honour for Nature club to be associated with an organization like WWF, and be a part of global programme. He stressed the importance of enhancing awareness about the need for conservation at a personal level and welcomed Mr.Saravanan on the podium.
Mr.Saravanan started off the event by asking the students to ‘come forward’ – that is, occupy the empty front benches, and then cleverly adding, that as engineering students of a premier engineering college like NITW, it was our responsibility to come forward and do our bit for nature. Sir first briefed us on the origins of WWF and WWF-India which was established as a Charitable Trust on November 27, 1969. It started off as a wildlife conservation organization with a focus on protecting a particular species of wild flora and fauna. Over the years, it has become the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 90 countries.

Further, Mr. Saravanan elaborated on WWF-INDIA’S ONGOING PROGRAMMES.

In our own Warangal, on the fields you would see on your bus journey to Hyderabad, WWF-India is involved with sustainable and profitable cotton cultivation initiatives. A part of the ‘THIRSTY CROPS’ initiative, WWF-India is working in Andhra Pradesh (cotton and rice) and Maharashtra (sugarcane & cotton) to promote better management practices, reduce use of water and chemicals and influence the entire supply chain to process and to procure “better” cotton and sugar.


WILDLIFE AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION is one of WWF’s principal areas of involvement. WWF is involved in the ‘Save the Tigers’ media campaign in partnership with Aircel, Rhino relocation programmes in Assam, protecting the Red Panda in Sikkim.

Mr.Saravanan made a very pertinent point relating to the practical difficulties involved, in carrying out conservation programmes in developing countries. Mr.Saravanan recalled an incident in Adilabad, essentially a tribal area, where the livelihood of inhabitants depends mainly on the forest where deforestation activities is leading to loss of Tiger habitat. In response WWF members’ pleas to sensitise the tribals, they replied – “Take your Tigers to Hyderabad, save your tigers there. Our forests are our only source of livelihood, what we will eat if we do not cut trees.”
Hence Nature Club NITW intends to collect from students and transport newspapers, old notebooks etc. to these tribal areas, where WWF will conduct recycling programmes, therefore giving the tribals an alternative source of employment, in addition to saving forest resources used to make paper.
Similarly, in Orissa we lose every year thousands of hapless turtles and other juvenile marine species that get inadvertently caught in fishermen’s nets. The government has made Turtle Excluding Devices mandatory but these are practically never used. There is a deadlock between traditional fisher folk, NGOs, trawlers and the government on this issue.

According to Hindu mythology, the Ganga is said to flow from the lotus feet of Vishnu or the hair of Shiva – right now though, it is filled with chemical wastes, sewage and the remains of human and animal corpses.

The LIVING GANGA PROGRAMME will help to protect the Ganges from the impacts of climate change, benefiting the 450 million people who rely on them.

TOURISM IS KILLING THE HIMALAYAS. WWF is making efforts in Ladakh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh to develop and propagate models of “community-based ecotourism” that are showing signs of success.

Finally Mr.Saravanan encouraged us to come up with our own original ideas to protect the environment around us. He encouraged us to do some research and conduct surveys – for example on the decreasing vulture population in Warangal district or decreasing levels of groundwater in the surrounding districts.
Nature Club NITW, under the guidance of WWF-India has hence decided to conduct a groundwater survey of the surrounding areas. Details of the event will be available shortly on our blog.

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The water man of Rajasthan

Rajendra Singh, who has undertaken extensive water conservation efforts in drought-prone eastern Rajasthan, wins the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.

SUNNY SEBASTIAN
in Jaipur

RAJENDRA SINGH, the man who 'divined' water in the arid regions of eastern Rajasthan by building water-harvesting structures, is the winner of the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. The non-governmental organisation Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), which Rajendra Singh leads as its general secretary, has since 1985 built some 4,500 earthen check dams, or johads, to collect rainwater in some 850 villages in 11 districts in the State. The TBS has also and helped revive five rivers that had gone dry. The award is not only a recognition of his conservation efforts but also an acceptance of the traditional wisdom of the people of rural Rajasthan.

GOPAL SUNGER
Rajendra Singh, winner of the Magsaysay Award.

Incidentally, the honour has gone to an NGO working in rural Rajasthan for the second year in a row. Aruna Roy, whose Rajsamand-based Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) spearheaded the campaign for the right to information and transparency in development works, was the recipient of the 2000 Ramon Magsaysay Award in the same category.

In his reaction to the honour, Rajendra Singh said: "This is a recognition of the rural communities. The village society taught me the value of water. Prior to 1984 I knew nothing about water or its conservation methods."

Johadwala Baba (bearded man of check dams) to the villagers and Bhai Saheb (elder brother) to his associates in the TBS, Rajendra Singh said: "This is the triumph of the traditional wisdom of the people over classroom learning. It is time the governments recognised their deep knowledge of the land and the environment and made use of it for the uplift of the rural masses."

The draft of the citation for the Award, to be presented to Rajendra Singh in Manila on August 31, reads: "In electing Rajendra Singh to receive the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership the Board of Trustees recognises his leading Rajasthani villages in the steps of their ancestors to rehabilitate their degraded habitat and bring its dormant rivers back to life."

Not long ago, when a group of five youth from Jaipur, which included Rajendra Singh, landed in Alwar district's Thanagazi tehsil, the villagers viewed them with suspicion. The backward Gujjars and the tribal Meenas branded them as child-lifters and terrorists. They were not to blame, for the villages, nestled in eastern Aravallis, were going through difficult times in the 1980s. Most parts of Alwar district had been declared a "dark zone", which meant that there was very little ground water left. Rivers and ponds were drying up and most of the menfolk had left for cities in search of work. Life in the villages had come to a standstill with farming activities getting severely affected and the bovine wealth, the backbone of the rural economy, shrinking in the absence of fodder and water.

Fifteen years and many johads later, water has restored life and self-respect in Alwar. Of late, several villages in the neighbouring districts of Jaipur, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur and Karauli have been revived by the TBS. Neembi in Jamwa Ramgarh tehsil of Jaipur district is one such village which caught the fancy of planners this summer as the perennially drought-prone village had water at three feet from ground in the third consecutive drought year. Neembi's residents, who spent Rs.50,000 in 1994 to construct two earthen dams with the help of the TBS, now produce vegetables and milk worth Rs.3 crores annually.

Farming activities have resumed in hundreds of drought-prone villages with the rivers Ruparel, Arvari, Sarsa, Bhagani and Jahajwali flowing again after remaining dry for decades. The villages, which were deserted by its inhabitants, have been populated once again. There is a sense of belonging among the people as the gram sabhas created by the TBS to facilitate the management of the johads have a say in the general well-being of the community as well.

The rebirth of the Arvari was something of a miracle. In 1986, the residents of Bhanota-Kolyala village, with the help of the TBS, constructed a johad at its source. Soon villages around the catchment area and along the dry river constructed tiny earthen dams. When the number of dams reached 375, the river began to flow. "We were amazed," says Rajendra Singh, recalling the revival of the Arvari, which earned him the titles of water diviner and miracle man. "It was not our intention to re-create the river, for we never had it in our wildest dreams," he remarked. The villagers who revived the Arvari were felicitated by President K.R. Narayanan with the Down to Earth Joseph C. John Award in March 2000.

The residents went on to constitute a parliament of their own. Arvari Sansad, inspired by the Gandhian concept of gram swaraj, is a representative body of 72 villages in the areas served by the river. The Arvari parliament has framed 11 major rules to fix the cropping pattern and water use. The rules permit only landless farmers to draw water directly from the river and bans the cultivation of sugarcane and the raising of buffaloes as these activities would require relatively large amounts of water.

Rajendra Singh, who was associated with Jayaprakash Narayan's Sampurna Kranti (Total Revolution) movement in his student days, has mobilised the people to stand up and speak for themselves and use natural resources in a sustainable manner.

AN air of festivity filled Gopalpura on August 1 when Rajendra Singh reached the village where he introduced his community-based water harvesting method in 1985 by building the first structure. This was two days after the award was announced, but it was the first thing he did after accepting felicitations and addressing a media conference in Jaipur. (In fact, one full day had lapsed after the news was reported, but there was no clue of Rajendra Singh. Journalists eager to get his reaction after a chase learnt that he was at Shekhawati village looking for new locations to erect check dams. Rajendra Singh came to know about his Award from the morning's newspapers.)

Gopalpura elder Mangu Ram Patel (Meena) was the happiest man, for it was a teaser from him - thein to kuch karo Rajinder, kal favte gonti ler agyo (do something Rajinder, bring spade and pick axe tomorrow and start work) - that spurred Rajendra Singh and the bunch of youth who formed the Tarun Bharat Sangh, or Young India Association into action. The following day the youth were digging and desilting the Gopalpura johad, which had been neglected after long periods of disuse. A village resident recalls that the local Station House Officer (SHO) who reached the village looking for the "outsiders" and with an arrest warrant, found Rajendra Singh with a basket of mud on his head. He made a silent retreat.

Activities of the TBS are spread over an area of 6,500 sq km, which includes also parts of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

RAJENDRA SINGH, 43, hails from Dola village of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. He says the crusade he began, unwittingly, against marble miners in the Project Tiger Sanctuary of Sariska in the early 1990s made conservationists take note of his efforts. "The TBS found that even after constructing johads, the water level did not go up in the ponds and lakes around Sariska. But we soon found what was wrong. We traced the missing water to the pits left unfilled by the miners after their operations. Water collected in them, depriving the wells and lakes of water."

Rajendra Singh and his companions at Tarun Ashram, the TBS headquarters in Kishori-Bhikampura in Thanagazi tehsil bordering the sanctuary, took up the issue, which eventually led to the closure of 470 mines operating within the buffer area and periphery of the sanctuary. A public interest petition was filed in the Supreme Court. In 1991, the court issued an order against continuing mining in the ecologically fragile Aravallis. This was followed up by a notification by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in May 1992 banning mining in the Aravalli hill system.

TBS activists had to face the wrath of the mine owners. Rajendra Singh was threatened and attacked. The miners carried on a vilification campaign against them.

Vishnu Dutt Sharma, who was the Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan at that time, recalls: "He was pulled out of the jeep inside Sariska by the agents of the mine owners. I saw them beating him even as the District Collector looked on. Initially my impression was that Rajendra Singh was a rascal who provoked the local people. After seeing him in this situation, I felt he was doing what I should have done - protect the forest land from mining activities."

Initially the forest authorities viewed TBS men with suspicion and banned their entry into the sanctuary. However, things changed dramatically for both Rajendra Singh and the park. The TBS constructed 115 earthen and concrete structures within the sanctuary and 600 other structures in the buffer and peripheral zones. These facilitated a rise in the groundwater levels and helped turn the area into a "white zone". So much so that the Forest Department invited the NGO to take an active part in the park's management. Rajendra Singh helped reform many poachers. Some of the reformed poachers have been recruited by the TBS as nahar sevaks (tiger protectors). Rajendra Singh also agreed to act as an intermediary between the park authorities and the inhabitants of 17 villages inside the park in the matter of their translocation.

Rajendra Singh has been instrumental in creating a people's sanctuary, Bhairondev Lok Vanyajeev Abhyaranya, spread over 12 sq km in villages upstream of the Arvari. During a visit to the wooded sanctuary last year this correspondent spotted the pugmark of a tiger. "We believe that a tiger in the neighbourhood of the village is a matter of prestige," one of the villagers, Nana Ram, said proudly.

Rajendra Singh's activities are indeed multifarious. He has set up educational institutions, mahila sangathans, forest protection committees and now a brotherhood for water conservators - jal biradiri. The TBS conducts padayatras extensively in order to reach out to the people. It has either initiated or participated in long marches. These include the Aravalli Bachao Padayatra (1993), the Gangotri Yatra (July 1994) and the Jangal Jeevan Bachao Yatra (February-March 1995). This summer's Akal Mukti (drought proofing) yatra was led by Rajendra Singh, along with a few sadhus.

A graduate in Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery and a post-graduate in Hindi literature, Rajendra Singh initiated the documentation of medicinal plants and their uses. The TBS has an Ayurveda centre and a laboratory at Bhikampura.

DURING the past 15 years, the TBS has often fought with governments in power in the State over the people's right over the natural resources available in their neighbourhood. Ever since 1987 when the Rajasthan Irrigation Department served a notice against the first johad built in Gopalpura declaring it illegal, the NGO and the Department have been at loggerheads.

The Magsaysay Award has come at a time when Rajendra Singh is battling the Alwar district administration and the Irrigation Department to retain an earthen dam built at Lava Ka Baas in Thanagazi on the tributary of the Ruparel. The johad, built at a cost of Rs.9 lakhs three months ago, was the first of the water-harvesting structures the TBS had planned to construct with the help of business houses.

"So that everyone gets a chance to contribute towards water conservation and rainwater harvesting," Rajendra Singh would say in defence of soliciting the support of the rich. Pani ka kaam punya ka kaam hai (working for water conservation is a pious act), he tells the villagers.

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Adopt ecologically sustainable development path: Meira Kumar

Advocating the need to adopt ecologically sustainable development path, Lok Sabha Speaker, Meira Kumar here on Friday said the country has a legacy of according high value to environment and ecology.

“There is no doubt that the objectives of economic and social development of our people and the eradication of poverty are overriding. Nonetheless, the development path that we adopt has to be ecologically sustainable,” she said addressing a symposium on ‘Urgency in Addressing the Needs of Environment and Conservation of Wildlife.”

The symposium was organised in Madhya Pradesh Assembly on the concluding day of the presiding officers’ meet.

“We have a legacy of respecting rivers, trees, and animals; we have a legacy of putting high value on the environment and ecology,” she said.

“It is an obligation and responsibility and also a compulsion for our own survival that we protect and conserve our environment and wildlife while pursuing a development model that empowers our people,” the Lok Sabha Speaker said.

She said the greater involvement of local communities and local governments is essential for the success of all the conservation efforts.

The Joint Forest Management (JFM) system is a good example of people’s involvement in forest conservation and management, Ms. Kumar said.

Courtesy : The Hindu dated 6th feb, 2010

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Solar Water Heaters installed in 1k and LH

Everyone knows abt solar heaters, how they operate and all.. But there are few problems concerning the proper utlization of the energy produced.. A few of them are listed below :

1 ) In summer when probably no one will be there in the hostels, the solar energy captured is huge and it gets wasted due to lack of users..
2 ) Usually students use hot water in the morning hours.. By the eve.. the water gets repeatedly heated up.. Resulting in the damage of the storage and pumping pipes due to the high temperature.
3 ) Transportion of water to any other place at a long distance for usage is difficult, expensive and the heat cannot be retained.
4 ) Most important thing is that the solar water heating system gets damaged if its not used regularly and needs extra expenses for the servicing of it and replacing the damaged parts.

One of the possible solutions can be using the hot water for cooking in food court attached to 1K. But in summer this wont be possible as food court remains closed.

So we invite you ppl to provide us with some feasible technical solutions, suggestions and help us utilising the energy well..

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White roofs may successfully cool cities

WASHINGTON: While world leaders are struggling to tackle global warming, American researchers have claimed to have found a simple way to cool cities -- by painting the roofs of buildings white.

"Our research demonstrates that white roofs can be an effective method for reducing urban heat. It has the potential to significantly cool cities and mitigate some impacts of global warming," said lead author Keith Oleson Atmospheric Research.

The team found that if every roof across the world were entirely painted white, the urban heat island effect could be reduced by 33 per cent.

This would cool the world's cities by an average of about 0.7 deg Fahrenheit, with the cooling influence particularly pronounced during the day, especially in summer, Oleson said.

Asphalt roads, tar roofs and other artificial surfaces absorb heat from the sun, creating an urban heat island effect that can raise temperatures on average by 2 to 5 deg F (about 1 to 3 deg Celsius) or more compared to rural areas.

In the study, the team used a newly developed computer model which provided scientists with an idealised view of different types of cities around the world, Science Daily reported.

However, the team cautioned that there are still many hurdles between the concept and actual use of white roofs to counteract rising temperatures.

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Combating climate change, with help from Lord Ram

SONBHADRA/LUCKNOW: Ram, Ramayana and global warming - the association may sound odd, until you realise how the religious context helped an NGO in Uttar Pradesh combat the ill effects of climate change.

The NGO Raunak Evam Jagruk Samaj Sanstha (REJSS) in Sonbhadra district, some 250 km from Lucknow, conducts recitation of the Ramayana epic in parts of Uttar Pradesh, holds prayers for Lord Ram and distributes saplings as prasad (consecrated offering) among the devotees.

"You can say it's our religious formula to protect the environment and fight against global warming. Planting trees is something simple everyone can do to reduce carbon dioxide, a principal greenhouse gas that causes global warming," REJSS director Arvind Singh Chattan told IANS on phone from Sonbhadra.

"You know the importance of prasad amongst Hindus, who traditionally accept it after prayers as they believe the prasad has been blessed by the almighty. Unlike the usual prasad that usually comprises different fruits, sweets, panchaamrit (made from curd, milk and dry fruits), we provide saplings as prasad to the devotees, who readily accept them and plant them taking into account the religious context," he added.

REJSS launched its Ram, Ramayana and Global Warming programme six months ago and has already distributed over 18,000 saplings.

"We started our programme in June 2009 and till now we have successfully conducted it in several districts including Varanasi, Chandauli, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra," said Dimple Singh, a member of REJSS.

"Though for the last five years we have been organising environmental awareness programmes in different schools of Uttar Pradesh, frankly speaking we were not able to involve the commoners to work towards environment protection. Later, we decided to connect religion with environment, as there is no denying that people of our country, particularly Hindus, are governed by religion," she added.

According to REJSS members, earlier their environmental programmes remained confined to school students, but now it has representation from all walks of life.

"Be it children, youth or elders, all turn up in huge numbers whenever we organise religious gatherings. In fact, most of the time we hand over the saplings to devotees as they come in the camp and bow their head before the almighty," said another member of REJSS, K.P. Singh.

In the coming weeks, REJSS will hold its programme in new parts of Uttar Pradesh -- the dictricts of Lucknow, Kanpur, Unnao, Shahjahanpur and Hardoi.

REJSS buys the saplings with funds raised by the public.

"Residents in different districts, primarily Sonbhadra and Varanasi, voluntarily contribute for the campaign. For collecting funds, REJSS members visit door-to-door and the residents donate money depending upon their income," said Ranbeer Dogra, a resident of Robertsganj town in Sonbhadra.

Arvind Giri, a resident of Sonbahdra's Chopan town, said: "The initiative taken by REJSS will surely be of immense help in expanding the green cover of the state. In my view their drive is a unique mix of religion and science that would definitely ward off a number of environmental problems."

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Global warming helping trees grow faster

WASHINGTON: Global warming is helping trees to grow at a faster rate now than they have done in the past 200 years due to higher temperatures and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, American researchers have claimed.

After studying the growth of 55 forests in the eastern United States for over 20 years, the scientists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland found that the recent tree growth "greatly exceeded the expected growth".

They suggested that global warming is helping trees to grow faster as it brings higher temperatures, longer growing seasons and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

In one forest, studied by the researchers, an extra 1.8 tonnes of timber per acre is appearing each year. "The trees, in Maryland, are sprouting up more quickly than at any time in the past 225 years," the scientists said.

Lead researcher Geoffrey Parker said: "We made a list of reasons why these forests could be growing faster and then ruled half of them out".

"The best explanation was a response to climate change, he was quotes as saying by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the past 22 years, carbon dioxide levels where the study was conducted had risen 12 per cent, the average temperature had increased by nearly three tenths of a degree, and the growing season had lengthened by 7.8 days.

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