Global warming meet from Sept 9
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Thiruvananthapuram:
Delegates from 20 countries would participate in the three-day international conference on global warming, climate change, sustainable development and secular spirituality organized by the Santhigiri Research Foundation (SRF) at Santhigiri Ashram from September 9-11 in collaboration with Unesco, the American Center and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi.
The meet, to be attended by more than 400 delegates, will be inaugurated by the President of East Timor and 1996 Nobel Peace laureate, Jose Ramos Manuel-Horta, on September 9.
Being held as part of the parnasala dedication celebrations at Santhigiri Ashram, the conference will underscore the vital role of spirituality in promoting a life vision and lifestyle compatible with both nature and development. It will facilitate administrators, policy makers, scientists, social scientists and activists to gather and devise programmes to promote a sustainable way of life and development.
बुधवार, 8 सितंबर 2010
Jumbo to be national heritage animal (Times of India-01/09/2010)
Conservation Body To Be Set Up For Elephants On Line Of Big Cats: Ramesh
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday accepted the Elephant Task Force report and decided to set up a National Elephant Conservation Authority (NECA) along the lines of the one for endangered tigers.
The task force, led by Mahesh Rangarajan, submitted its report to the environment and forests ministry and recommended that land corridors used by elephants in the wild while moving through forest patches should be secured as community and conservation reserves under the Wildlife Protection Act. The 12-member panel also recommended declaring existing elephant reserves as Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) under Environment Protection Act. Declaring an area as ESA ensures that the land-use pattern of the patch gets locked in and cannot be altered without prior permission of authorities. The committee warned that government should not try to buy out these important corridors or turn them into national parks and sanctuaries. Elephant reserves are usually much larger in size than tiger reserves and do not get the same level of protection. The elephant populations (herds and individuals) roam over large distances, unlike the tiger, and often move through populated areas.
Unlike in the case of the tiger, the elephant population has not declined. However, increased human-elephant conflicts leading to crop depredation and increasing injuries and deaths along with skewed sex ratios of the pachyderms due to poaching of males for the tusks are a case for worry.
Accepting the report, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said, “We will soon declare elephant as a national heritage animal as it has been part of our heritage since ages. We need to give the same degree of importance to the elephant as is given to the tiger in order to protect the big animal.”
An amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act would be made to set up the recommended NECA. “We will introduce it (amendment) in the winter session of Parliament,” Ramesh said.
TRUNK CALL
Key recommendations
of the government’s
Elephant Task Force
National Elephant Bring corridors under Conservation community reserves or Authority to be set up conservation reserves
Consortium of Rs 600cr budget in Elephant Research and the 12th Plan, Rs 200cr Estimation to do for securing corridors studies on the Rs 100 crore to be pachyderm spent on reducing
Declare elephant man-elephant conflicts reserves ‘ecologically Full-time conflict sensitive areas’ and management task lock land use forces in regions
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday accepted the Elephant Task Force report and decided to set up a National Elephant Conservation Authority (NECA) along the lines of the one for endangered tigers.
The task force, led by Mahesh Rangarajan, submitted its report to the environment and forests ministry and recommended that land corridors used by elephants in the wild while moving through forest patches should be secured as community and conservation reserves under the Wildlife Protection Act. The 12-member panel also recommended declaring existing elephant reserves as Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) under Environment Protection Act. Declaring an area as ESA ensures that the land-use pattern of the patch gets locked in and cannot be altered without prior permission of authorities. The committee warned that government should not try to buy out these important corridors or turn them into national parks and sanctuaries. Elephant reserves are usually much larger in size than tiger reserves and do not get the same level of protection. The elephant populations (herds and individuals) roam over large distances, unlike the tiger, and often move through populated areas.
Unlike in the case of the tiger, the elephant population has not declined. However, increased human-elephant conflicts leading to crop depredation and increasing injuries and deaths along with skewed sex ratios of the pachyderms due to poaching of males for the tusks are a case for worry.
Accepting the report, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said, “We will soon declare elephant as a national heritage animal as it has been part of our heritage since ages. We need to give the same degree of importance to the elephant as is given to the tiger in order to protect the big animal.”
An amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act would be made to set up the recommended NECA. “We will introduce it (amendment) in the winter session of Parliament,” Ramesh said.
TRUNK CALL
Key recommendations
of the government’s
Elephant Task Force
National Elephant Bring corridors under Conservation community reserves or Authority to be set up conservation reserves
Consortium of Rs 600cr budget in Elephant Research and the 12th Plan, Rs 200cr Estimation to do for securing corridors studies on the Rs 100 crore to be pachyderm spent on reducing
Declare elephant man-elephant conflicts reserves ‘ecologically Full-time conflict sensitive areas’ and management task lock land use forces in regions
सोमवार, 19 जुलाई 2010
150 people fined in Mumbai for throwing plastic bags in drains
Source: DNA, Date: June , 2010
Mumbai: Cracking the whip on all those throwing plastic bags in drains, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has fined nearly 150 people and collected a fine of Rs1.32 lakh in a fortnight.
After having learnt lessons from July 26 deluge, when plastic bags had blocked drains and led to flooding in the metropolis, the civic body has formed two 'plastic ban' squads consisting of six people.
"We have collected a fine of Rs1.32 lakh from 146 people who were caught throwing plastic in drains in the last 12-13 days. These people are largely hawkers and shopkeepers," deputy municipal commissioner Rajendra Bhosale told PTI here.
On June 11, municipal commissioner Swadhin Kshatriya had announced that anyone caught throwing plastic, thermocol and other items during monsoon will have to pay fine ranging from Rs100-5,000.
"These cases are mostly from eastern suburbs like Kurla, Mulund, Chembur, Govandi and others followed by western suburbs and the island city," Bhosale said.
Drain clogging had led to massive flooding on July 26, 2005 forcing the state government to contemplate banning polythene bags.
As per the Maharashtra Non-biodegradable Garbage Control Act, the minimum thickness of plastic carry bags must be 50 micron and their size should be no less than 8x12 inches.
Mumbai: Cracking the whip on all those throwing plastic bags in drains, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has fined nearly 150 people and collected a fine of Rs1.32 lakh in a fortnight.
After having learnt lessons from July 26 deluge, when plastic bags had blocked drains and led to flooding in the metropolis, the civic body has formed two 'plastic ban' squads consisting of six people.
"We have collected a fine of Rs1.32 lakh from 146 people who were caught throwing plastic in drains in the last 12-13 days. These people are largely hawkers and shopkeepers," deputy municipal commissioner Rajendra Bhosale told PTI here.
On June 11, municipal commissioner Swadhin Kshatriya had announced that anyone caught throwing plastic, thermocol and other items during monsoon will have to pay fine ranging from Rs100-5,000.
"These cases are mostly from eastern suburbs like Kurla, Mulund, Chembur, Govandi and others followed by western suburbs and the island city," Bhosale said.
Drain clogging had led to massive flooding on July 26, 2005 forcing the state government to contemplate banning polythene bags.
As per the Maharashtra Non-biodegradable Garbage Control Act, the minimum thickness of plastic carry bags must be 50 micron and their size should be no less than 8x12 inches.
शनिवार, 17 जुलाई 2010
'Shining India' makes its poor pay price of hosting Commonwealth Games
The games have yet to start but they already have many losers: the slum dwellers whose communities are being destroyed
Jason Burke, Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 11 July 2010 16.39 BST
A girl works on a building project in front of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in the Indian capital, where the games will be held. Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
The government bulldozers came to the school at 11am, after yoga and before English and Hindi lessons. The children and their teachers had three hours to clear the classrooms. By mid-afternoon, the Yamuna Riverbank school was rubble.
"They told us we were a security risk, so we had to go," the headteacher, Parminder Khaur Somal, said. "All my children were crying. I don't know how we can be a threat to anyone."
Somal founded the school five years ago for 180 slum children living on the banks of the Yamuna river on the outskirts of Delhi. In recent months, she and her pupils have watched a vast new complex of luxury apartments rise 500 metres away: the athletes' village for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games. "We never thought it could be a problem," Somal said.
The games, to be held in October, have triggered demolitions across the Indian capital. The competition is the biggest such international sporting event held in India for decades and is seen as an opportunity for the nation to show off its new economic might.
Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi, has repeatedly said she wants to the city to be "world class". There is even talk of trying to host the Olympics.
A particular target of the authorities is anything that could tarnish the "shining India" image.
Organisers of the games are acutely aware that the din and filth of the Indian capital could shock visitors. So, along with the construction of new sporting facilities, roads, flyovers, metro lines and an airport, dozens of long-standing slum communities built on public land, vacant lots, by railways or along rubbish-strewn stream beds have been destroyed; hoardings conceal others.
The children at Somal's school came from a community of workers on nearby vegetable farms. The nearest alternative was three miles away, across busy dual carriageways. As the bulldozers destroyed the school, police also moved through the workers' shacks, scattering possessions, breaking down walls and ordering residents to leave.
"The police just started beating me." Said Dharam Pal, a shopkeeper. "They dragged me 50 metres on the ground and then told me: 'If you don't leave here on your own, we'll throw out.' " Pal, 40, said the community was established 15 years ago and that he had nowhere else to go.
Other residents complained of being assaulted. "Not only did they break the school, but they beat us too," said Harpyari Devi, 24, a mother of three children at the school.
Police at the scene refused to comment. Officials from the Delhi municipal authorities were unavailable.
Somal said she had been told the school, which is run by volunteer teachers and funded by donations, was a "security risk" for athletes in the village, which is ringed by high concrete walls and heavily patrolled. Equipped with its own water filtration plant and helipad, the complex will cost more than £150m, according to local campaigners.
"If we were a security threat, we could have just stopped classes until after the games. But the law here is just 'might is right,' " Somal said.
Children at the school, still wearing their free uniforms, said they were sad. "I wanted to be a doctor," Ranjeet Shakya, eight, said.
The parents of almost all the pupils are illiterate. Many eke out a living as vegetable vendors in Delhi. None knew what the flats overlooking their fields and the ruined school were for.
"I've never heard of the Commonwealth Games," said Danveer Karan, a 35-year-old farmer who supports his family of four on a daily wage of 100 rupees (£1.30). "I don't know why the buildings have been made. I don't know why the government destroyed our school either."
ends
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
शुक्रवार, 16 जुलाई 2010
Japanese told to go to bed an hour early to cut carbon emissions
Japanese households are being urged to go to bed one hour earlier than normal in order to help tackle climate change.
Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo
Published: 12:38PM BST 24 Jun 2010
A typical family can reduce its carbon dioxide footprint by 85kg a year if everyone goes to bed and gets up one hour earlier, according to the campaign Photo: ALAMY
The Japanese government has launched a campaign encouraging people to go to bed and get up extra early in order to reduce household carbon dioxide emissions.
The Morning Challenge campaign, unveiled by the Environment Ministry, is based on the premise that swapping late night electricity for an extra hour of morning sunlight could significantly cut the nation's carbon footprint.
A typical family can reduce its carbon dioxide footprint by 85kg a year if everyone goes to bed and gets up one hour earlier, according to the campaign.
The amount of carbon dioxide emissions potentially saved from going to bed an hour early was the equivalent of 20 per cent of annual emissions from household lights, "Many Japanese people waste electric power at night time, for example by watching TV until very late," a ministry spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph.
"But going to bed early and getting up early can avoid wasting electrical power which causes carbon dioxide emissions. If people change their lifestyle, we can save energy and reduce emissions." The campaign also proposes that people take advantage of an extra hour of morning sunlight by improve their lifestyles in general by running, doing yoga and eating a nutritious breakfast.
It is the latest initiative tackling climate change by the Japanese environment ministry, which is faced with the challenge of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 25 per cent from 1990 levels within the next decade.
It was the same government department that launched the high profile Cool Biz campaign five years ago, which encourages workers to wear short-sleeved shirts and offices not to turn air con lower than 28 degrees during the summer.
Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo
Published: 12:38PM BST 24 Jun 2010
A typical family can reduce its carbon dioxide footprint by 85kg a year if everyone goes to bed and gets up one hour earlier, according to the campaign Photo: ALAMY
The Japanese government has launched a campaign encouraging people to go to bed and get up extra early in order to reduce household carbon dioxide emissions.
The Morning Challenge campaign, unveiled by the Environment Ministry, is based on the premise that swapping late night electricity for an extra hour of morning sunlight could significantly cut the nation's carbon footprint.
A typical family can reduce its carbon dioxide footprint by 85kg a year if everyone goes to bed and gets up one hour earlier, according to the campaign.
The amount of carbon dioxide emissions potentially saved from going to bed an hour early was the equivalent of 20 per cent of annual emissions from household lights, "Many Japanese people waste electric power at night time, for example by watching TV until very late," a ministry spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph.
"But going to bed early and getting up early can avoid wasting electrical power which causes carbon dioxide emissions. If people change their lifestyle, we can save energy and reduce emissions." The campaign also proposes that people take advantage of an extra hour of morning sunlight by improve their lifestyles in general by running, doing yoga and eating a nutritious breakfast.
It is the latest initiative tackling climate change by the Japanese environment ministry, which is faced with the challenge of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 25 per cent from 1990 levels within the next decade.
It was the same government department that launched the high profile Cool Biz campaign five years ago, which encourages workers to wear short-sleeved shirts and offices not to turn air con lower than 28 degrees during the summer.
शुक्रवार, 29 जनवरी 2010
I wonder Why? 28 Jan. 2010
I wonder why the grass is green
And why the wind is never seen?
who taught the birds to build a nest
And told the trees to take a rest?
O, when moon is not quite round
Where can be missing bit be found?
Who lights the stars when the blow out
And makes the lightening flash about?
Who paints the rainbow in the sky
And hangs the fluffy clouds so high?
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