Chlorophyll Volume-1 Issue-3

...for the planet that breathes

Tracking Asiatic Lions

Thematic

Columns, Departments & more...

Vol 01 | Issue 03

Infographics

TECHNOLOGY

% of males smoking any form of tobacco

What you thought of when you first heard of the term ‘electronic cigarette’? Many believe this is a novel way to reduce harm from smoking. However, recent researches (and debates) - despite a bunch of contradictions - agree that we do not know much of its effects. And also agree that these may rather harm more than conventional cigarettes - to the smoker and to the people in vicinity. Why people smoke? See graphs on left of second row. Put simply, to get fastest ‘kick’!

More at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_Smoking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_cigarette

chlorophyll Editorial Team Managing Editor : Nimit Kumar Co-editor: Dr. Gipson Edappazham Reviewer-cum-mentors Dr. Kausik Banerjee Dr. Chintan Pathak Mr. Vandan Jhaveri Dr. Vivek Vegda Designer Team Concept Courtesy: Rohit Valecha (www.rohitvalecha.com) Cover Art: Bhumi Mehta (www.facebook.com/24ten) Layout & Compilation: Sophie Chlorophyll is a non-commercial, open access (CC-BY-SA), science eZine (e-magazine) quarterly published by Mahiru Foundation. However, all the rights for images and any other content stay with the authors/creators, except mentioned otherwise.

The opinions expressed in this publication are of the authors and may not necessarily be same of Mahiru Foundation and/or Chlorophyll team. None of these are liable for any unintentional errors.

Regd. office: Mahiru Foundation 702/B, Chanakya Apt. Junagadh-362001 (Gujarat) INDIA.

Email: mahirufoundation.india@gmail.com Web: www.mahirufoundation.weebly.com

To subscribe, visit: http://goo.gl/KIKLWi or use this QR-code

editors’ take Before few weeks when I read about cassette, it flooded over with nostalgia. Once upon a time, it used to store all the songs from one movie which was incredible in compare to then ‘old-fashioned’ gramophone records.

As we grew, journey from CD to DVD, reaching today up to Blue-Ray Discs (BRD); made simple joys of cassette-tape winding with pencil obsolete. Seems wheel of time has turned fully and researchers have brought new avatar of cassettes, able to hold gigabytes of data.

Where is my pencil by the way?

Since 1990s, technology has helped India become contributor to the world. This ensures me of a better millennium. Witnessed rampant red-tapism as kid, I am astonished seeing this country dare sending spacecraft to planet mars just after two decades of economic reforms. Indeed, if we humans understand that for any advanced species, a single planet - let it be ‘home’ planet - must not become final destination (for there is none); galactic exploration becomes destiny and helping hands of many nations together only will make this reality.

NASA’s recent ‘flying saucer’ is another such move!

And technology doesn’t always end up being even metaphoric ‘rocket science’. It is indeed a sight when world’s biggest democracy votes with the help of technology which so far, only few countries could adopt successfully. Electronic Voting Machines have not only become popular amongst election commission which organizes voting, but also – by and large – among politicians and voters alike. I dare to dream a future where vox populi won’t be mere once-in-five-year exercise limiting to government formation. Rather, on crucial issues, parliament will choose for people’s voice; which will be accomplished via permanent district voting stations where an eligible voter can cast vote – within pre-defined period instead of single chosen day.

Those will be times where we, as mass of a species, will achieve path of stability and progress.

July, 2014 Last Cover (courtesy: Wikimedia Commons) as seen at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting

in this issue featured Beeps of Conservation

How does an antenna ‘see’ creatures in thick jungle?

by Kausik Banerjee

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a lightyear of infographics From Nostalgic Lanes ISEE-3

Technology Today

ARGO - Robots in the Ocean Tsunami Detection and Warning

Proximate Horizons Mars Orbiter Mission Bloodhound SSC

07 09 13

covers E-Cigarette

II

Electronic Voting Machine

IV

columns The Green Snapshot: Corbette National Park –

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Virtual tour to India’s oldest National Park!

by Arun Raghuraman

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Women’s Corner: Period Problems

What causes irregular, painful or absent periods?

by Sophie

27

Sustainable Living Graywater

by Nitin Kumar

departments

30

Creepy Crawly of the Issue

33

Popping the Myth Bubble

36

Parasitoid Wasps

Can cell-phone radiation induce cancer?

Eye, On the Skies

Skygazing Apps , Websites & Software

telemetry

Beeps of Conservation Abstract Beautifully combining scientific information among his personal experiences, Kausik explains on how telemetry helps biologists like no other application can - when it comes to study a perticular animal. He also touches management issues such as perspectives that affect against such useful technology and also reveals examples where managers benefitted like never before when they adopted it.

Keywords: Telemetry, Animal Tracking. Triangulation, Radio-Collar II can still recall a scorching, sultry summer afternoon of April 2008 when I & two of my old hand field assistants Bhupat and Bhola, exhausted, finally decided to rest for a while under a Neem (Azadirachta indica) tree on the bank of Shetrunjee River in Gujarat - the westernmost state of India. It was almost a week since we lost track of one of the radiocollared male lions and our daily traveling was extensive, often beyond 100 km looking for the male. I was working as a research fellow at Dehradun based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and as a part of our study on investigating lion ecology outside the Gir forests in Gujarat, we had fitted the male with a radio-collar ten days back in the human dominated areas of Amreli district; about 100 km east of the Gir forests. The initial two days after collaring were easy-going as we located the male in various Prosopis (babool) pockets along the Shetrunjee basin near Savarkundla and Amreli. But the bad luck struck us on the third day morning. I opened my radio-receiver and antenna to reveal that the male had already disappeared marking the commencement of days’ long nightmare for us! Based on our experience of lion range sizes outside Gir and

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information on lion sightings and kills by local people, we started looking for the male in every possible nook and corner of Shetrunjee river and left almost no stone unturned in the grasslands and agro-pastoral landscapes of Amreli, Savarkundla, Jesar and Palitana. The offshoot were, however, always disheartening.

Overwhelmed by fatigue when we were almost certain about a technical snag in the collar and I was about to inform it to my supervisor at the Institute; a miracle happened. The receiver beeped; first feebly and then quite assertively to guide us to the male. We saw the male resting under the very same Neem tree under which we were taking rest two days back.

The next series of my tasks involved some routine works; checking the male with a binocular to roughly note his body conditions, record GPS locations and some other necessary habitat data and finally downloading the movement locations onto our hand-held receiver. I could not simply hold my breath to look at the downloaded data as that would tell us about the movement of this nomad male during the last ten days when we lost contact with him. Immediately after the

telemetry Schematic representation of satellite telemetry. Courtesy Raptor Research Center, USA data got downloaded onto the receiver, I transferred them on my laptop, projected on a landscape map and my instantaneous reaction was “Oops”!!! To my utter astonishment and sheer contrary to my expectations, the male had been ranging about 80 km away from us in the Gir forest for the period when we were searching for him in the vast human dominated landscapes of Amreli. And there were many more unfolding stories. On the third night after the collaring, the male had moved about 70 km in a single night to reach Gir and therefore we did not get a signal from him in the next morning. A movement figure unheard of about lions in India till date! I could also guess from the GPS data (and later ascertained with certainty) that the male had also made three kills during his ten days’ trip to Gir. Such to and fro movements between Gir and scrub forests of Amreli became regular events for the male and it unfolded many more exciting hitherto unknown facts on lion biology and behavior during the later years; thanks to the GPS telemetry! It seemed that our week long ordeal was finally rewarding.

As a part of my doctoral study, I monitored thirteen radio-collared lions in Gir landscape for seven years and spent about 7,000 hours with them continuously (40+ days a year for 24 X 7 basis) and I must say that every individual had some or other fascinating story to narrate. And we could hear them because of radio-telemetry; an evolving but indispensable and cost-effective tool for many ecological investigations.

History of tracking animals goes back long way when individual animals were marked based on natural markings and their movements were tracked; a method similar to traditionally keeping tracks of domestic livestock by todays’ herders using several indigenous techniques.

However, serious limitations were felt for monitoring movements of long-ranging and elusive animals (carnivores, migratory fish, birds and turtles). Therefore, by 1950s radio telemetry began to emerge as a dominant and critically important tool used in the developing sciences of wildlife and fishery’s management and ecology. Development of 02

Telemetry

Radio telemetry paraphernalia Very High Frequency (VHF) radio-collars enabled day and night tracking animals from a distance with a receiver for all terrains and all steasons. The next two decades were of unremitting research, innovations and needbased improvisation of radio-telemetry techniques and applications. Then came the era of satellite/GPS based platform terminal transmitter (PTT) in 1990s which could send signals to the navigational satellites up in the sky indirectly via satellite systems like Argos and can store positional data onboard the unit for later download after recovery of the unit. Despite advances in the use of satellites for radio-tracking, even today, PTTs and GPS telemetry remain relatively expensive in comparison with the VHF telemetry.

During the later years while global experts were busy working on integrating GPS/ satellite technologies in novel ways to develop more sophisticated tracking systems with fast changing research requirements; radiotelemetry has slowly become an inevitable tool for uncovering many ecological questions.

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In India, the technique is now not very recent.

The first radio collaring was done for training and capacity building of the forest officer trainees almost three decades back (in 1976)

by WII with technical inputs from Prof. L.D. Mech of the US Fish and Wildlife Services.

Two sambars, three nilgai, two chitals and one wild pig were collared and tracked from 1976 to 1980. Further in 1980, one Asiatic elephant, one tiger and one Asiatic lion were also radio-collared and tracked. However, the first full-fledged radio-telemetry study was carried out in 1983 by the Crocodile Research Centre of WII at Hyderabad. A recent 2013 publication by WII’s ENVIS has documented 82 telemetry studies from India, covering 47 species from four taxonomic classes involving 483 animals with 496 radio-tags during the past three decades. These figures adequately connote the growing significance of radiotelemetry in modern ecological research, even in countries like India.

But what unique factors were there in radiotelemetry that made them so popular amongst

In absence of any scientific information, most of our ideas on species biology are shaped by educated guesses or expert opinions, which may or may not be true. Radio-telemetry becomes an crucial tool therein unfolding the facts to the ecologists. This was illustrated by two endangered species radio-tagged by WII; Olive Ridley turtles and Amur Falcons.

While the former showed an annual post nesting movement of about 6,000 km upto Sri Lanka the latter showed the longest migration

route of a raptor from Nagaland, India to Botswana and vice versa. And I cannot simply overemphasize enormous significance of such information to science, academics and in the conservation management of these two species.

Going back to my field days; spending nights with lions was the most lovable of all my jobs which I enjoyed a lot. I and my team used to follow radio-collared lions and their associated animals continuously (day and night) for 12 – 15 days keeping a distance of about 50 meters and used to record various lion activities every 20 minutes. Although difficult and sometime strenuous to execute, it was an efficient method to study feeding rates and behavior of Gir lions exhibiting a ‘starve-feed’ cycle of several days like other large carnivores. Results were rewarding and helped us to quantify conflict in Gir. Many conservationists in Gujarat believe that lions outside the Gir forest are feeding upon domestic livestock and

telemetry

wildlife biologists? It is an indispensable modern tool that enables collecting biological data which are either extremely difficult or otherwise resource intensive to obtain. It is extremely important to obtain information from individually known animals at precise predetermined time dictated by an experimental design to answer many ecological questions. Radio-telemetry is a cost-effective tool that assists in collecting this information which would otherwise not be possible to procure. For instance, a couple of years back we published a research article on population vital rates (age structure, distribution of gender classes, births, deaths, inter birth intervals, litter sizes and all) of endangered Gir lions and this was possible only because of our prescheduled monitoring of radio-collared lions over the years. Some people often naïvely argue that one does not need a radio-collar to monitor lions in Gir. Owing to long history of human-lion association in Gir, one can approach a lion fairly close on foot and record the observations. I, however, beg to differ substantially. Lions in some parts of Gir are certainly quite amicable during daytimes; but not all and not during the nights. How can one keep an eye on long-ranging lions (moving about 40 – 50 km/night) at nights without a radio-collar? How can one record the precise time of birth, exact numbers of cubs at natality, death and many more parameters of wild lion biology without a radio-collar? The answers are NO, simply they can’t!

A Radio-collared male lion in Gir forest, India.

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telemetry

Lions mostly feed on carcasses of surplus unproductive cattle in the Gir landscape. This also adequately assisted us to explain one of the reasons behind much talked about ‘legendary’ lion-human coexistence in Gir. We now know that inferring about conflict and adopting management decisions by merely looking at some figures generated from predation and/ or fecal analysis data could be flawed and might have dire conservation consequences.

Radio hunt of Lion - The Game of Patience

therefore conflicts with local pastorals is high.

The easiest way to assess this was to study lion predation (kill data) patterns. We did that and found that livestock were major components of lions’ kills. Predation data is always biased towards higher detection and thus reporting of large bodied carcasses. To circumvent this, we tried most unbiased method practised by the wildlife biologists i.e. laboratory analysis of lion fecal samples. Once again we found a higher incidence of domestic livestock in lions’ diet in agro-pastoral landscapes outside the Gir forest. And then finally we used our observational data (feeding events) collected during continuous monitoring of collared lions. We could differentiate amongst major and minor kills, lion predation, scavenging and kleptoparasitism with certainty and it was possible only because of radio-telemetry. We analyzed this information and were awestruck by the outcomes. We found that although lions are using human-dominated landscapes, their dependence on productive livestock and thus conflict with local communities are minimal.

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To sum up, radio-telemetry is a magnificent application of modern telecommunication technology using which wildlife biologists can generate wonderful information essential for wildlife conservation. However, satellite and GPS telemetry applications are still expensive affairs for independent wildlife researchers without any institutional support working in the countries like India. Moreover, funds available for wildlife research in the country are still inadequate and often do not allow a research study to avail of radio-telemetry.

This gets compounded by a serious problem of procuring a research permit for radio collaring from government agencies since the technology is invasive involving capture and handling of the target species whose population may be small in the wild. Besides, there are myths amongst some conservation practitioners about radio-telemetry. Many criticize radio-telemetry as a continuous disruption of the animal’s daily life and biology (feeding, reproduction and social interactions). Today, after about eight years of my familiarity with the technique, I must say that such hypes are mostly driven by selfconceived notions generally unsubstantiated by any scientific evidence and pre-judged efficacy of the technology based on others’ experiences. And then, there are several lobbies and schools of thought; unfortunate politicization of Indian conservation. I have never recorded any mortality event of radio collared lions due to starvation; nor have I noted them not to reproduce. In fact, some

A lot of responsibilities lie with the research community as well. The data collected should be of good quality as the funding for the research generally comes from the tax payers’ money. Reservations of sharing data with managers and other agencies may result into criminal wastages of public resources without any practical implementation of the research and should therefore be avoided. Discussions of pros and cons of radio-telemetry would only enhance the efficacy of the technique and make it more accessible and affordable for the future generation researchers.

Thus, what we need in India is probably more funding commitments promoting telemetry

studies by the Governments, both at the federal and the state levels. And above all, a paradigm shift of our mindsets casting aside individual lobbyism and bureaucratic transparency in granting research permits are urgent needs of the hour. In an exemplifying resolution, Government of Gujarat has declared a fragile habitat corridor between Gir forest and nearby Girnar forest as an eco-sensitive zone in 2012. However, identification of this corridor would have never been possible in the absence of radio-telemetered lions in Gir. With current pace of species extinction, loss of biodiversity and habitat fragmentations; reliable information on species’ biology, dispersal and movement are vital for planning conservation strategies in coherence with inescapable linear developments and human dominations of landscapes. Radio-telemetry is unquestionably one of the means by which conservation practitioners can acquire such information to develop, alter and enforce necessary legislations. Undermining the philosophy and immense power of a technique like radio-telemetry by some people in India, just because they do not agree to a particular ideology may be cataclysmic for science and future conservation. We should and cannot afford that after all.

telemetry

of the radio collared lionesses in Gir were excellent mothers siring almost all their cubs to adulthoods despite high infanticide among Gir lions. Global figures support this too. The Yellowstone wolf recovery program in the USA involved radio telemetry on about 800 individual wolves and turned out to be one of the successful conservation programs in the world. I feel that the key of success of radiotelemetry in India should depend on weighing its benefits to the overall species conservation rather than individual animal-centric issues.

Useful Links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemetry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_(satellite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argos_System http://www.cls.fr/en/ http://www.argos-system.org/ http://www.argos-system.org/web/en/61-flash.php http://www.telemetry.org/ Author Biosketch Dr. Kausik Banerjee has been connected to Asiatic Lions and Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun since almost a decade. He developed his fascination towards these magnificent mammals since his master’s, which made him to get his doctorate studying this same species.

His love especially towards these big cats – and vice-a-versa – is well-known among locals of lion habitat i.e. Gir. As evident from his email id, he is enthusiastically available to talk more on lions at: pantheraleopersica@gmail.com.

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nostalgia 07

Read More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IS http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/doc http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/

SEE-3 cs/heasarc/missions/isee3.html /experimentSearch.do?spacecraft=ISEE%203

nostalgia

Disco Seventies! The very year when super-duper musical hit ‘Grease’ was released, when Argentina hosted (& won!) FIFA world cup, Pop diva Nicole Scherzinger shared birth year with first human baby born in Antarctic... AND Mario Bros was half decade away... in cassette era, a space mission named International Sun/Earth Exloprer (ISEE) -3 was launched.

Come 2014, now space-enthusiasts gathered under name ‘ISEE-3 Reboot Project’ to give it new life and share the data to crowdsourcing. After establishing contact in May; on July 2nd, 2014 they fired thrusters for the first time since 1987 !!

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Technology today 09

ARGO.. “Who”?

HOW do they do i

ARGO Floats are the robots deployed in the oceans.

Till the battery last (usually for many years) they keep collecting the data of scientific importance.

Two modes of profile. As per need,

Where?

When?

To put simply, ‘everywhere’ !

ARGO Program started wit

These & more @ http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/

most of the ARGO floats nowadays can perform underwater acrobatics of either style, as below.

technology today

it?

Why? Data collected by ARGO include (but not limit to) oceanographic parameters such as temperature and salinity. These play crucial part in weather and climate models - even those which forecast and track El Nino!

th change of millenium, grown ever after!

ARGO India @ http://www.incois.gov.in/Incois/argo/argo_home.jsp

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Technology today 11

3. Data sent by BPRs along with sismograph-network and other sensors help supercomputers calculate coastal areas under threat. The information goes to respective authorities within minutes who then initiates evacuation as per threat-levels.

2. As per its name, Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPRs) keep an eye over the pressure a normal water column above them constantly gives. Any changes above normal limits (waves, tides etc) triggers them to send warning to satellite via surface unit, delivered to scientists in real-time.

1. Fau quake sidewa the pu giant w

ult in tectonic plate causes earthe, shaking seafloor upward and/or ways. Water column above it feels ush and spills over sides, causing waves (as simulated here in model)

Courtesy: ITEWS, INCOIS (http://www.incois.gov.in/)

technology today

Levels of Tsunami Threat

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Proximate horizons

Proximate horizons

MoM’s adios photo while cyclone Laher raged over Bay of Bengal

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Proximate horizons

UK Wing Commander Andy Green is out for hunt, AGAIN! Five decades after first sound barrier broken by any human, he did it on land (by rocket-propelled car) on 15 October, 1997. Now he aims to break his own record by year 2017 with “Bloodhound Super-Sonic Car�. Check-to-amaze infographics like one below (and much much more!) about this adventure at: http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/

Proximate horizons 16

PROTECTED AREA

[

THE GREEN SNAPSHOT

]

Jim Corbett National Park – The first of the parks

Abstract Hunter-turned-conservationist and author of ‘Man-Eaters of Kumaon’, Jim Corbette was probably only Britisher whose devotion to work made him known among locals as a Sadhu.

His legacy with wildlife of India is now known as Jim corbett national park. Here, Arun takes us to a virtual tour of the same.

Key words : Bengal Tiger, Project tiger, Kalagarh Dam, Indian elephants Jim Corbett National Park, one of the most famous and the oldest national park in India, was created in 1936 as Hailey National

Park. Covering an area of over 520 square kilometers in the core zone and almost 800 square kilometers of buffer area, it has hills,

Family of elephants

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Forest Floor

marshes, grass lands, lakes and rivers. The elevation ranges from 1300 to 4000 feet resulting in a wide variety of diverse flora and fauna. Although it has over 50 species of mammals, 25 species of reptiles and about 580 bird species, most of the 70,000 tourists that visit here annually do so for the Bengal tiger. It is no coincidence that this was the first national park to come under the project tiger initiative.

Named after the famous hunter turned conservationist, Jim Corbett assisted in demarcation of the area. The park was established under Sir Malcolm Hailey and killing of birds and animals within the area was prohibited. It was renamed to Ramganga National park in 1954-55 and finally to Jim Corbett in 1955-1956. Although the park suffered from poaching and timber cutting during the Second World War, eventually by integrating nearby forests and the launch of

PrOTECTED AREA

project tiger in 1974, the park has flourished.

While tigers are the primary draw here, other larger mammals seen here are elephants, leopards, various deer and jackals among others. Crocodiles and gharials which have been released from captive breeding programmes are frequently sighted in the Ramganga River.

The nearest town is Ramnagar which is well connected with Delhi by rail and road. From there a taxi can be hired to arrive at the place of stay at the park. However with the sheer volume of visitors that the park gets, multiple tour operators also offer pickup from Delhi which is about 8 hours away. Multiple lodges are available near the park, however, Dhikala is considered the best place to stay to truly get a feel of Corbett.

Safaris within the park can be through elephant ride or on jeeps. The elephant ride in the morning is the best way to spot birds while jeep safaris can be a great way to watch the elephants in the grasslands. Despite the hype, the dense forest makes it quite a challenge to sight a tiger here but the sheer variety of fauna here would keep any visitor entertained. Dhikala itself overlooks the river and afternoons can be well spent watching the open grasslands. Winters can be cold but the migratory birds that come down are certainly worth the trip in December or January.

Mammals though are more likely to be found near water holes in the summer. The route from the main gate to Dhikala is a safari in itself.

Other zones in the park are Bijrani and Jhirna, which are not as popular as Dhikala but are easier to book. During the peak season, Dhikala must be booked well in advance as it can get very crowded. Other places of interest nearby are the Kalagarh dam and Corbett falls.

Things that must not be missed are watching the elephants on the grasslands as the sun sets and the sun rising over the plains from Dhikala.

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PROTECTED AREA

Tawny Fish owl

shrike

Green Bee Eater

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Monitor Lizar

Porcupine

rd

On my second trip, as we sat overlooking the valley, someone pointed out a tusker in the distance. Further away was a herd of elephants barely visible because of the distance.

Later as night fell, one of the workers there told us that porcupines would come down to eat the garbage thrown behind the worker mess. After waiting for an hour, sure enough a couple of baby porcupines came down to chomp on the leftovers.

My third trip there was just before the monsoon set in. In summers, the migratory birds would have returned but there is still quite a variety, with quite a few Indian pittas, thrushes, starlings, dollarbirds, black francolins, ospreys, grassbirds and other residents. A bunch of monitor lizards kept crossing our paths. A hog deer also made an appearance late evening on a safari. A lot of birding happened while getting in and out of the park and we moved at a snail’s pace there. A couple of tawny fish owls being my favorite there.

PrOTECTED AREA

Corbett is of course one of the best known tiger reserves around. You are certain to see tiger paw-prints or remains if not the majestic beast itself. Especially the winter months are meant for birding alone. Dhikala of course is the best place to stay there. Right in the jungle, it overlooks a river and sits atop a cliff with plains to behold. The 2 hr drive to it also takes you across a varied landscape and deer and wild boar are of course in plenty.

I could never sight the tiger on any of my trips however, there were some close calls with pug marks and a deer in faraway tall grass causing quite a bit of excitement. The best moments though were still the large herds of elephants in the plains.

Elephants and deer on grasslands

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Jim Corbett National Park - A Virtual Tour Collage by Arun

PROTECTED AREA

Getting There: • • • • • • • • • • • •

By Air: New Delhi (295 km), Pantnagar (50 km)

By Rail: Delhi (295 km), Varanasi, Lucknow , Kanpur Nearby cities: Nainital (50 kilometres) and Delhi (295 kilometres) Best Time: Nov to June

DCF: The Director, Corbett Tiger Reserve, Ramnagar – 244 715, Distt. Nainital, (Uttaranchal), INDIA, Tel.: +91-5947-253977, Park Reception – 251489, Fax: +91-5947-251012, 251376, Email : dirctr@yahoo.in

Nearby attractions: Garjiya Devi Temple, Sita Vani temple Accommodation:Forest Lodges at Dhikala, Bijrani and Gairal, Tel.: +91-5947-253977, Reception – 251489

Do’s

•Do try out the elephant safari for bird watching •Do carry a pair of binoculars or a telephoto lens if you have one •Do make your bookings before you reach, it can get very crowded on peak season weekends •Do take necessary permits before you enter

Do not litter Smoking is not allowed within the park and please refrain from it Do not disturb the wildlife Alcohol is strictly prohibited Do not delay the exit beyond 6 pm if traveling out

Don’ts

Author Biosketch Arun Raghuraman is a software engineer who is passionate about natural heritage of India and grabs every opportunity to quench his wanderlust. Often his partner will be his trusted camera with which he will treasure magnificent moments among wildlife. Upon finding him an interesting personality you may know more of him via his blogger profile - at http://arun-raghuraman.blogspot.in/

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Women’s corner

Abstract : Who has not been left with thoughts by pain and discomfort of periods, “Is it me only?” Sophie explains what can cause irregular periods, lack of periods and heavy periods.

Keywords : Menstrual cycle, period problems, menopause, PMS, Menacrhe “So, This is normal or something is going wrong , It should be considered as heavy flow or not, Why I am late/early this month or why I am spotting in between periods ?”

menstrual cycle using a calendar. Knowing when to expect symptoms and what type of symptoms to expect can help women schedule daily activities around their menstrual periods.

We all might have asked this question during periods. Or there might not be a single day where a question regarding period does not arise. Let’s try to get familiar with some of them.

1) AMENORRHOEA (Lack of periods) There are two categories : Primary and secondary.

THE MENARCHE For most of girls, period starts around 12 years of age. The Menarche is term used to describe the tome when a woman starts her periods.

Although it ranges from 8 to 17 .years. Both genetic and environmental factors can affect the age at which periods begin. Now a days girls start their period at younger age.

MENSTRUAL PROBLEMS Menstrual cycle is controlled by four key hormones : oestrogen, progesterone , follicle stimulating hormone and luteinising hormone.

The cycle of 28 days has been depicted in figure with different levels of hormones at a time and basal body temperature.

It is helpful for women who experience menstrual problems to keep track of their

HYGIENE

PERIOD PROBLEMS!

Primary amenorrhoea is described as when a girl doesn’t not start her period at all. secondary amenorrhoea is described as your periods have started but then abruptly stop for more than 6 months. A number of reasons are there why menstruation should fail to start, or stop suddenly.

•Pregnancy •Delayed puberty :his can run in families.

•Polycystic ovarian syndrome : small harmless cysts on the ovaries and can result in irregular or no periods, hairiness and acne, weight gain and sometimes infertility.

•Very low body weight :Excessive exercise, malnutrition, and eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, can reduce total body fat below this critical level and cause menstruation to stop.

•Hormonal problems : as a result of stress, excessive body weight, or an abnormality with the signalling between the hypothalamus and 28 24

hygiene

pituitary gland in the brain and the ovaries.

•Ovarian or pituitary tumours (these are rare) •Premature menopause due to ovarian failure.

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2)DYSMENORRHOEA (Painful Periods) Most women experience pain during periods, but severity differs from mild cramps to severe backache sometimes nausea and vomiting.

Reason : The uterus contracts during a period to push the menstrual fluid into the vagina. these small contractions which cause period pain. They are triggered by chemicals called prostaglandins,

the action of which can be blocked by simple pain killing drugs like aspirin and mefenamic acid etc . Depression and anxiety also triggers the menstruation discomfort and pain.

Exercise can help in reducing pain by releasing endorphins, body’s natural pain killer.

3)OLIGOMENNORHOEA (Irregular Periods) Irregular periods are also common during the first 2 or 4 years after the for a few months after delivering a baby or following a miscarriage or termination, and during the pre- menopause

4)MENORRHAGIA (Heavy Periods) On average, women lose 20 to 80 mls blood with each period. More than 80 mls of blood or using more than 10 pads or tampons indicate heavy period. It can lead to anaemia.

Reasons: •Hypothyroidism :this is an underactive thyroid gland and one of the symptoms of this is heavier periods.

•Dysfunctional uterine bleeding •Fibroids •Endometriosis •Pelvic infections •Polyops: small mushroom-shaped outgrowths from the lining of the uterus •Blood disorders

If you are having problems with your periods, becoming painful or heavier, anything unusual, you should see your doctor. These are some tests your gynaecologist would suggest depending upon the severity and type of your probles.

•Blood tests - blood count, blood clotting, thyroid function.

•Pap smear test -to take a sample of cells from your cervix to look for abnormalities or signs of cervical cancer.

•Swabs -To check infections.

•Ultrasound scan - to look for fibroids, polyps, ovarian cysts etc.

•Pipelle a womb lining biopsy - a small plastic tube is passed into the uterus to obtain a small sample of the endometrium •Hysteroscopy -a test done under general anaesthetic or Sedation/Local anaesthetic by your gynaecologist. A camera is passed into the womb through the vagina and cervix to look at the lining of the womb.

•Laparoscopy - an keyhole operation done under general anaesthetic to look inside your abdomen with a camera to view the uterus, tubes, ovaries, pelvis wall and bowel.

•Laparotomy - a bikini line operation, to view the inside of the pelvis, uterus, tubes and ovaries. This is usually only done if a keyhole operation is not possible.

Take Care ! Don’t stop just because period has started

HYGIENE

Reasons: •ectopic pregnancy : where the baby grows in the fallopian tube or elsewhere outside the uterus •Stress •Use of contraceptive or a recent change in contraceptive •Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome :small harmless ovarian cysts, causes one or more of the following symptoms - irregular periods, hairiness, acne, weight gain or infertility.

•Dietary change with sudden gain or loss of weight •Hormonal imbalances.

Useful Links http://www.webmd.com/women/features/when-your-period-signals-problem http://www.webmd.com/women/guide/menstrual-blood-problems-clots-color-and-thickness http://www.mypregnancybaby.com/period-problems/ http://www.girlshealth.gov/body/period/problems.html http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/remedy/Menstrual-Problems.html Author Biosketch Sophie is a paramedical student but has too many interests varying from painting to archeology.

She is a voracious reader, free-thinker and nature lover. She doesn’t believe in any “-ism”. She loves to explore about different cultures prompting her to travel different places.

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water

Sustainable We certainly know that freshwater stock on land is limited and now its availability to per capita is decreasing with development and increasing population. Global per capita water availability was 1,800 cubic meters per year in 2001 and is likely to be decreased gradually to 1,100 cubic meters per year in 2050. Water availability lesser than 1000 cubic meters per capita per year is considered as water scarcity.

Modern life style is demanding more water.

Only option to match water demand is to conserve water and reuse waste water from the house after proper treatment. Living in a Water Fresh water Gray water

Sources Ground or surface water Bathroom, Cloth washing

Black water

toilet, urinal

densely populated metro, it looks very difficult to apply water saving ideas. Here, we have to change our attitude to “conserve more and consume wisely.�

Options to save fresh water are rain water harvesting, minimized and efficient use of fresh water and reuse of waste water after treatment. Rain water harvesting is common today and some metros have laws and guideline about rain water harvesting for approval of new constructions.

If we develop habits of efficient use of fresh water, then it leads less generation of wastewater and Less fresh water will be exploited from natural resources. More fresh water will be available to natural ecosystems.

Water saving habits are better than more 27

Living consume, more treatment and more reuse.

Use water efficient appliances only. Home appliances should be designed with water saving ideas and it will be most effective.

Everyone should develop water conservation ethic. A water conservation awareness can be spared by various means.

Treated waste water use is not much popular in India. Some western countries are more advanced and they reuse treated wastewater.

We have two types of waste water at domestic level. Gray water and black water (See table 1).

Possible uses Potable water for Drinking, cooking, bathing etc.

After treatment can be used as toilet flushing, construction, Gardening, irrigation.

Not usable. Better to drain in sewage. Treatment is complicated and need expertise to make it usable.

Gray water recycling should be encouraged for gardening and toilet flushing in urban as well as rural areas. It will conserve precious fresh water and will decrease load at centralized wastewater treatment plants. We must consider health risk, water pollutants and regulations of local authorities before designing and reusing gray water. Here, I am presenting general guideline and ideas about reuse of gray water.

There is a large scope of reuse of gray water at domestic scale. We can save fresh water requirements up to 40% by reusing treated gray water. It will reduce the water consumption bill, reduce sewage generation and reduce water body pollution. Properly managed gray water treatment system can be valuable alternative water source to

horticulture, building constructions etc. Some minerals in the gray water are pollutants to lakes, rivers, ponds etc., but good nutrients for vegetations. Many rural Indian people commonly use bathroom water to grow plants.

flushing system and garden irrigation system.

Excess waste water can be drained in the sewage line before treatment.

The Indian urban house uses average 100 liter water per day per person. Family of four use 400 liter/day. Housing colony or multistory building with 50 families will use 20000 liter/ day. Approximately 60% water will come as gray waste water and 40% will go to sewage as black water. i.e 20000 * 60 % = 12000 liter/day gray water will be available and 8000 liter/day will be run into sewage line.

Approximately 6000 liter/day water can be reused as flush water, if separate flush water plumbing is provided and other 4000 liter/ day can be available for gardening. Per day 12 cubic meter water can be saved easily. On

The question is how to treat gray water safely.

Gray water may have some pathogens and have health risk if comes to direct contact with

water

Large multistory building or housing colony can design a separate plumbing system for collection of gray water and can install automated gray water treatment plant. Treated water can be collected in a separate tank.

This water can be supplied to the toilet water

Average INR 15 /cubic meter is charged by municipal corporations. 12*15*360day = INR 64800 can be saved directly. Actual cost of fresh water is morebut I consider base price of INR 15/cubuc meter. If societies plan to install gray water treatment plant before constructions, they can easily recover the extra cost incurred within a few years.

human or animal. For bathroom and cloth washing water, treatment is easy and very less chance of health risk. UV technology or ozone treatment is best option to disinfect. Bleaching agents like Hypochlorite or Hydrogen peroxide can also be used for disinfection.

Here, I have suggested general diagrams and idea about system for small scale application.

For large scale utilization, one has to consult waste water treatment engineers.

Awareness before reusing Gray water : Drained water from most houses has pollutants like washing chemicals (detergents, soaps, shampoo etc). Normally these chemicals do not harm garden plants, if concentration is low and used carefully. Soaps and detergents are often high in salts and have sodium salts 28

Some Basic care about Gray water applications:

water

•Gray water should never overflowed surrounding area or into storm water drains.

•Never use it in house for potable water or in the bathroom, cloth washing, dish washing, etc. Only use it for toilet flushing or gardening. Well expertise observation and advanced treatment are required for in house use and is only viable in the highly water scarce area.

•Avoid kitchen water to reduce organic load and never reuse toilet flush (black water). Kitchen water and toilet water can be used in Bio-digester for biogas generation.

•Treating gray water to full human contact standards is costly. It is better and cheaper to invest in rainwater harvesting and develop water conservation ethics.

•Do not use gray water in the vegetable garden.

Extreme care is required for using in food crops.

•A bypass valve should be used to bypass the system for maintenance or shutdown.

•If possible, Subsoil application is advisable using porous pipes. (Porous pipe can be laid six inch below ground surface.) Gray water can also apply below the mulch. This will stop the possibility of human contact and stop the breeding of mosquitoes.

of fatty acids and phosphorus compounds.

Continuous reuse of water containing high salts for irrigation can create problem of salt accumulations in the top soil. Regions with regular rainfall may not suffer with this problem as the accumulated salt will wash out with rain water. But regions, where very less and seasonal rainfall may have salt accumulation and People of these area have to be careful in use of toiletries and laundry products.

They should avoid products having high strength or concentration. Always use mild or environment friendly or green products. Use Hydrogen Peroxide for bleaching in place of Hypochlorites and is less harmful.

Legal issues: Direct use of gray water in gardening is illegal in all developed countries. Proper and safe treatment must be given before using it in gardening, agriculture and horticulture as per laws, regulations and guideline from local area authority or government. Secondary treatment must be given before gardening use. Disinfection unit or green reedbed unit is required. Many local authorities will not permit, if salt and nutrient concentration is very high, as to avoid salt accumulation in land and to prevent salt leaching to ground water.

Useful links http://neeri.res.in/pdf/graywater.pdf http://graywateraction.org/content/choosing-plants-and-irrigating-graywater http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-VmV`C0K8v8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBMpaWq4EKE http://www.sustainable.com.au/graywater-treatment.html

Author Biosketch Nitin Kumar is proud to be a rurbanite (urbanite who is still connected to village). His professional career keeps him in close touch to the captive power plant of chlore-alkali industry, while his spectrum of passion spreads from bird-watching to reviving forgotten tribal recipes to river-bank cleanups – and everything in between.

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Creepy Crawly of the Issue

by Vandan Jhaveri

wasps

Key words: Parasitoid, parasites, wasps Fearsome Creature?

When you hear a word “Wasp� there are chances that most of you will panic, as since childhood you have been told stories of this creature associated with painful sting, and of-course for a good reason, that some of them do inflict painful sting and unlike honey

bee they are capable of giving repetitive stings. Well not all of them possess the sting, but some of them can sting like honey bees, only females have stingers, which are actually modified egg-laying organs, messing up with the one who does have stinger could be a terrible experience.

A Parasitoid Wasp

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Guests are arriving!

wasps

You must also have experienced buzzing wasps hovering in your house, around you, visiting again n again, they just come in to scout for proper n safe corner to build their nest....

They build nests under shelves, corner of the windows or under a tree leaf in the garden around your house.

Friends with benefits There are may kinds of wasp, to name few, Potter wasps which lives solitary life and prey upon other insects, Paper wasps who builds small nesting colonies & Hornets which are known for their aggressiveness and nesting colony as huge as a football..!, these wasps

too hunt upon insects and bring back to their nest, larvae of other insects, to feed their own developing larvae, thus providing important ecological service by keeping population of many insect under control, including numbers of garden and agricultural pests, such as aphids. On the other end there is a group of wasps known as ‘Fig Wasp’ who are the sole pollinator of varieties of Fig trees and without whom existence of fig would be questionable...!! & the creepy crawly......

However to go with the title of this column Here I would like to introduce you, to the group of wasps know as Parasitoid wasp sometimes also referred as Parasitic wasp, whose life cycle is really gruesome.

fact-Ö-meter • Female parasitoid wasps of many species can choose the sex of their offspring depending on whether the eggs is fertilised (female) or not (male).

• If a female finds a good quality host, providing lots of food for her offspring, then she will often place a female egg in it.

• Female parasitoids benefit more than males from having extra food.

• The name Vespa (a scooter) was coined

by Enrico Piaggio who, when looking at a drawing of the MP6 prototype, declared that it looked like a wasp (Vespa in Italian, or Portuguese, translates to wasp or hornet). Because of this shape, along with the handlebar controls that resembled an insect’s antennae.

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• The n a m e might a l s o h a v e referred to the buzzy noise made by its single cylinder, 98cc two-stroke engine, mounted horizontally and driving the rear wheel through a three-speed transmission.

• A species of North American fly commonly known as known as zombie flies (parasitoid phorid fly) lays their eggs inside wasps and bees that parasitizes wasps. the bees and wasps they infect are colloquially known as zombees.

Wasp Dragging Spider

Parasite vs. Parasitoid

Work under progress

There has been lots of confusion over these two terms and if you search on internet you will find dozens of heavy dose definitions. So far the definition given on arkive.org is most simplified and goes like:

Most parasitic wasps attack a specific host, such as a caterpillar of butterfly or moth, larvae of beetle, cicada, or other insect.

“

“

Parasitoid: An organism (usually an insect) whose larvae live as parasites on a single host organism (typically another insect), which they eventually kill, often consuming most or all of its tissues in the process.

Useful Links

wasps

Image Source : Wikimedia Commons

Wasp Parasitizing Caterpillar

Female wasp, on finding suitable host, lets say a caterpillar, will lay their eggs inside the caterpillar using ovipositor, located at tip of the abdomen, which is nothing but a needle like egg-laying structure (also used for defense).

The egg hatches in to a larva and starts eating the host alive, inside out, until ready to pupate and finally emerging as an adult. Some times multiple eggs are deposited in single host.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMG-LWyNcAs http://www.drmcbug.com/parasitic.htm http://www.royensoc.co.uk/insect_info/what/parasitoid_wasps.htm http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/f/What-Good-Are-Wasps.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitoid_wasp Note: Excepth mentioned otherwise, all images herein are copyright of the author.

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MYTH-BUSTING

with Gipson Edappazham

Do Radiations from Mobile Phones Cause Cancer?

Many people think that radiations from mobile phones and mobile towers are bad and can cause cancer and have other ill effects on health. But are they really so?! Let’s find out.

The effect of mobile phone radiation on human health is a hot subject of recent interest and research, as a result of the enormous increase in mobile phone usage throughout the world. It is estimated that, there are more than 6 billion mobile phone users worldwide and their number is still on the rise.

Mobile phones depend on electromagnetic non-ionizing radiation in the microwave range that they generate to connect wirelessly to the mobile towers. The innumerable numbers of mobile towers dotted across the populated areas also produce high energy microwave radiations. Anyone familiar with a microwave oven know that microwave is capable of generating heat in substances containing water molecules, be it food or human tissue. Thus, the adverse effects, if any, of mobile phone use is partially attributed to the elevation in temperature of the brain tissue. Part of the radio waves emitted by a mobile telephone

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handset is absorbed by the body. The rate at which energy is absorbed by the human body is measured by the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), and its maximum levels for modern handsets have been set by governmental regulating agencies in many countries. The radio waves emitted by a GSM handset are typically below a watt. Some national radiation advisory authorities have recommended measures to minimize exposure to mobile phone radiation to their citizens as a precautionary approach.

In the USA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has set a SAR limit of 1.6 W/kg, averaged over a volume of 1 gram of tissue, for the head. In Europe, the limit is 2 W/kg, averaged over a volume of 10 grams of tissue. As per the government guidelines the SAR of mobile phones sold in India should not exceed 1.6 watt/kg averaged over a mass of 1 gram of human tissue. SAR values are heavily dependent on the size of the averaging volume. Without information about the averaging volume used, comparisons between different measurements cannot be made. SAR data for specific models of mobile phones, along with other useful information, can be found on manufacturers’ websites, as well as

on third party web sites.

In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) – an agency under the World Health Organisation (WHO) - classified mobile phone radiation as “Group 2B possibly carcinogenic”. Engine exhaust, lead (Pb), chloroform etc. are also put under this category. A carcinogen is an agent which is directly involved in causing cancer. The WHO made the decision after a team of 31 scientists from 14 countries reviewed many peer-reviewed studies on cell phone safety. The WHO has also admitted that “to date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use”. It means that there “could be some risk” of carcinogenicity, so additional research into the long-term, heavy use of mobile phones needs to be conducted.

In recent review of the evidence, by the University of Exeter, suggested sperm number and movement were affected by keeping mobile

In 2004, a Swedish scientific team at the Karolinska Institute conducted an epidemiological study and found that regular use of a mobile phone over a decade or more was associated with an increased risk of acoustic neuroma, a type of benign brain tumour.

In contrast, an assessment published by the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) in 2007 concluded that the three lines of evidence, viz. animal, in vitro, and epidemiological studies, indicate that “exposure to RF fields is unlikely to lead to an increase in cancer in humans”.

MYTH-BUSTING

Countless studies on mobile phones and their potential to cause cancer have yielded conflicting results. Currently, there is no consensus among researchers about the degree of cancer risk, if any posed by mobile phone use. Although long-term studies are ongoing, to date there is no convincing evidence that mobile phone use increases the risk of cancer.

phones in pockets. For average man there’s certainly no need to panic, as it’s found to effect only about eight percentage point fall in sperm quality.

According to renowned oncologist and Pulitzer award winner Sidharth Mukherjee, there is no prevalent evidence that radiations from cell phones and mobile towers cause cancer.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that “the majority of studies published have failed to show an association between exposure to radiofrequency from a cell phone

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MYTH-BUSTING

and health problems.” The National Cancer Institute (NCI), USA has also noted that “studies thus far have not shown a consistent link between cell phone use and cancers of the brain, nerves, or other tissues of the head or neck. More research is needed because cell phone technology and how people use cell phones have been changing rapidly.”

A German study conducted in 2006 concluded that “no overall increased risk of glioma or meningioma (brain tumours) was observed among the cellular phone users; however, for long-term cellular phone users, results need to be confirmed before firm conclusions can be drawn.”

In the 13-country INTERPHONE study, the largest study of its kind to date, looked at cell phone use among more than 5,000 people who developed brain tumours (gliomas or meningiomas) and a similar group of people without tumours. Result of this study was published in 2011. The study found no link between brain tumour risk and the frequency of calls, longer call time, or cell phone use for 10 or more years. It now seems clear that if there was an effect of mobile phone use on brain tumour risks in adults, this is likely to be too small to be detectable by even a large multinational study of the size of INTERPHONE. However, the changing patterns of mobile phone use since the period of these studies,

particularly prevalent use of smart phones, technologies like 3G, 4G and increased use of data communication mean that further investigation of mobile phone use and brain cancer risk is required. Many of earlier studies were found to be conducted without adequately controlling variables, such as one’s lifestyle, food habits etc. Further studies need to be conducted in order to provide more definitive evidence, but till then it is advisable to take precautionary measures to reduce exposure to mobile phone radiations.

If you are concerned about the possible link between mobile phones and cancer, consider limiting your use of mobile phones. And when you are using mobile phone for voice calls or for wireless data transmission over a cellular network, keep mobile phone at least 2-2.5 centimetres away from your body. The logic behind such recommendation is that the further the phone is from the body, the less radiation is absorbed. Mobile phone users can also use a wired earphone or the speakerphone function to keep mobile phone at a distance.

Wireless Bluetooth earpieces have a SAR value of around 0.001 watts/kg so it is a good option too. Choosing text messages over voice calls for communication is another option for limiting the exposure. Avoid using mobile phones in moving vehicles, elevators, buildings and rural areas to reduce exposure as a moving phone or a phone in an area with a weak signal, has to work harder, emitting more radiation.

Useful links : 1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/no-link-between-cellphone-radiation-and-cancer-indian-origin-oncologist-512090 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs193/en/ http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cellphones http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27767981 35

Eye, On The Skies

‘Iridium’ (here) is a brand name, chosen based on the number of satellites (77, atomic number of element named Iridium) originally planned for launch. The satellites are not actually made of iridium.

Iridium constellation are group of about 66 satellite, used for satellite tele-communication and are rotating in an orbit called low Earth orbit approx 780 km above the earth’s surface, each satellite has three Main Mission Antennas

(MMAs). The MMAs are flat, highly polished aluminium surfaces, and when the angles are just right, they can reflect the sun light just like a mirror and is seen as a flare by the ground observer.

In this EOTS (‘Eye, On The Skies’ of course!) we will introduce you to some (literally) handy gizmos - apps, websites & software - which have powers to make you an avid satellite tracker &/ or star gazer. Geeks ahoy! Awesomeness ahead...

SATTARCK Sattrack as an android app, is quite handy to track International Space Station (ISS) and Iridium flares, especially. Check screenshots below. You can get it from Google play-store.

SKYGAZING

The Iridium Flare & other Satellites A bright flash of light can be seen in the dark evening or morning sky, many a times. These flash or (to use the word by which it is largely known) “flare” are caused by the man-made satellites, largely by Iridium satellites.

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SKYGAZING

Websites

Heavens Above Website: http://www.heavens-above.com/ • Very user friendly and easy to use

• Provides satellite prediction as well as sky chart

Apart from Iridium flare many other moving satellites can also be seen periodically, one of the fascinating sight is Internationalist space station (ISS) which is some time so bright that is called third brightest object in the sky, after Sun and Moon!

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Satellites look like just another star but moving with a constant speed in the steady glittering background of stars. Some moving with great speed, some at slow pace, some uncontrolled satellite or rocket body tumbling with varied speed appears like periodical flash. Colour of the satellite also varies, depending on surface material. All the satellites visible from ground reflect sun’s light and are not self luminated. Due to optimum angle for reflection, satellites are mostly visible two hours before down or two hours after dusk. Satellite watching can be indeed a fun hobby to add to you list.

Astro-calender (below): http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-current.html

SKYGAZING

Web site for information on visual satellite observation: http://www.satobs.org/

Website: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ NASA has come up with a website (preview on left) which, on entering your current location provides sighting opportunities for next few weeks in the sky above you, the space station is easy to see if you know when and where to look up (see preview above). One can also signup for upcoming ISS sightings alters on email.

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Software

SKYGAZING

Celestia - a space simulation freeware allowing universe exploration in 3D (runs on Win, Linux &

Know more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestia Get Celestia at: http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

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MacOS X). Unlike most planetarium software, it doesn’t confine you to earth surface. You can travel throughout solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, beyond the galaxy. or even into the distant future It comes with add-ons for richer experience. Even NASA and ESA uses this for educational purpose and several hollywood movies too, used its rendering.

Witness its capabilities by screenshots of extremely hi-res rendering (left) and asteroid orbits (below).

Cartes Du Ciel enables you to draw sky charts, making use of the data in many catalogs of stars

SKYGAZING

and nebulae. In addition the position of planets, asteroids and comets are shown. A large number of parameters help you to choose specifically or automatically which catalogs to use, the colour and the dimension of stars and nebulae, the representation of planets, the display of labels and coordinate grids, the superposition of pictures, the condition of visibility and more. All these make it more complete than a conventional planetarium.

Know more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartes_du_Ciel Get Cartes Du Ciel at: http://ap-i.net/skychart/en/start

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SKYGAZING

WXtrack is a very light program packed with amazing utilities - developed by a radio enthusiast David Tylor from Edinburth, UK. It predicts the tracks of satellites both as paths above the earth and as image produced by satellite when scanning the ground.

The software comes with intutive GUI setup (see below) and shows day/ night shades over map, sun-moon position, trail and extention of satellite pass, radio horizon and footprint (above).

Software can regularly updates keplers (files of few kilobyte) that ensures you get correct positions. Once set, you can see future pass-prediction (say for 2nd February, 2020), assuming that satellite will still be up there!

Know more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_satellite_pass_predictors Get WXtrack at: http://www.satsignal.eu/software/wxtrack.htm

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SKYGAZING WXtrack comes with visual enhancements such as able to add library of satellite images (above) including that of International Space Station (ISS) (below) & boundary of South Atlantic Anomaly.

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Stellarium is a free, open source planetarium inside your computer that shows a realistic sky

SKYGAZING

in 3D exactly what you see when you look up at the stars with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is also being used in planetarium projectors.

Just set coordinates go!

Know more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellarium_(computer_program) 43

Get Stellarium at: http://stellarium.org/

your and

Occult software uses ephimeris (in simple words, astronomical time-table) covering 30,000 years.

Occultation is an atronomical phenomena where one celestial object hides another. It is of major interest among skygazers.

An incomplete occulation among members of solar system result in what is called, Conjuction.

SKYGAZING

Few clicks and one can instantly get results for eclipses, asteroids, meteor showers, satellites, occulations and more!

Know more about occultation at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occultation Get Occut at: http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/occult4.htm

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