Expressions - September 2011 by icare-India

ExpressionS 2

4 2011

ISSUE

SEPTEMBER

featuring THE 3rd POLE by

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Dr. AMIT KUMAR WALIA AKSHAY VERMA

VINIT PATHAK SWAPNIL DESHPANDE

Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints! by COL. ASHWIN BAINDUR remembering Shehla Masood by HEMA MAIRA from social to environmental justice by Isabelle Richaud the plight of the gibbon apes by CHRISTINA BUSH

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Dear Reader, Today let me share something’s with you. We are a youth based organization with an average age of our members ranging between 16-24. We believe in being proactive and creating a forum for dialogue and change. With your support in the past few years we have taken such initiatives as ‘Plant for the Future’ and ‘RTI-Theory & Practice’, for in doing so we go beyond just making plans to save the environment, and you have seen our work in “Expressions”, the first environmental e-magazine of Uttarakhand. Fortunately what we call home abounds with amazing people and organizations who have battled enormous odds and are making great personal sacrifices to extend to the less privileged a hope for a better tomorrow. It is these unsung heroes we want to talk about and honor, who have been working tirelessly for Environment and Education. It gives me great pleasure to share with you the proposal to conceive and organize the first Environmental Awards called “icare Awards for Uttarakhand”. These awards are there to encourage not only young people in our schools and colleges but also Organizations and NGO’s help spread the message to save our environment and promote heritage conservation. Your support will go a long way in making this dream a reality and would be a great source of encouragement to all the young people supporting the cause of a better tomorrow.

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Yudhishter Puran Singh Founder and CEO icare INDIA

ExpressionS SEPTEMBER 2011

“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.” John Ruskin, (1819-1900)

the readers’ expressions Each new issue of Expressions is as always - a class apart.... my congratulations to the Icare Team who work towards perfection day in and day out - to create awareness among the youth - to care for our enviornment and be responsible citizens....Cheers…. Surbhi Arora Expressions-August 2011 is simply marvelous. Articles by Dr Caesar on Winged wonders, Isabella on Vegetarianism. I am so happy to see my Thomson Saburaj”s work in Photo Story section. Superb editorial. Congrats to Yudhishter and his team at Expressions. Sekar Keerthi The august issue was a treat if you’re a butterfly lover. Article by AK Sahay was a marvel. The photographs were truly a treat to the eye. Keep up the good work. Love the way you present the information to your readers, exciting and informative. Rahul Kumar Amazing photographs by Gurmeet Sapal and Thomson Saburaj. Ritvik Sharma I have been a regular at Expressions, love the column “Green Corporate”. Gives us an insight into how the corporate are initiating changes for a greener and sustainable tomorrow.

from the editor’s desk A Chinese proverb goes: “If you plan for one year, plant rice, if you plan for ten years, plant trees, and if you plan for 100 years, educate people.” Expression is a ‘magazine’ for the environment. Why is reaching out to the common man regarding the environment so important? In the dictionary of environmental protection, the popular phrase coined is sustainable development. Does the common have anything to do with it? By making you read about the environment, are we making a point? The goals of sustainable development cannot be achieved by any government at its own level until the public has a participatory role in it. The knowledge of our surroundings is important because it deals with the most mundane problems of life where each individual matters, like dealing with safe and clean drinking water, hygienic living conditions, clean and fresh air, fertile land, healthy food and sustainable development. Living in a technologically developing society, our lifestyle is becoming ostentatious and attitude, self-oriented (We seriously do not know our neighbours these days-it isn’t an exaggeration anymore). This is where environmental awareness steps in-to change the mindset of modern society to an earth-oriented approach. Everywhere we go, people talk of the environment, but only a few know about what needs to be done to protect it, and even fewer will actually go and do something. Environment has become a ‘fashion’. Well, it wouldn’t have been a problem at all if lives (ours, our children’s, our grandchildren’s and their children’s), sustenance and security weren’t at stake. Awareness campaigns (chiefly exploited for political propaganda) ‘happen’ all across the globe. There are conferences, meetings, summits, books and articles to read, a whole subject to study, and still, despite these, the imminent doom. Last month, we talked of how innovative methods of making people aware need to come up. This month we tell you why if we don’t hurry (because the fact that we have to make people aware doesn’t change), the beautiful house we dream to build on a beautiful piece of earth, might just be a castle of dreams after all.

Sonali Chauhan

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I liked the new concept whereby you have started covering Organizations in your magazine. It gives the reader a chance to know whats happening across the country and gives them a chance to be a part of various organization. Please cover organizations based in Mumbai and Pune. Sarthak Shinde

4 ExpressionS SEPTEMBER 2011

Best

Karishma Gulati

Features Editor, Expressions

ExpressionS 8

the CREATORS Pooja Bhatt

the expressions INSIDE

It ’s time to stand up Yudhishter Puran Singh

SENIOR EDITOR

Winged Wonders - Bird Photography couldn’t have been simpler than this… Dr. Caeser Sengupta Remembering Shehla Masood HemaMaira

From Social to Environmental Justice Isabelle Richaud

Swapnil Deshpande

Shubhodeep Pal

Trade-offs, Opportunity Cost andExternalities Mrs. Surbhi Arora

Karishma Gulati UTTARAKHAND

ADVERTISING Rohit Bedi

REST OF INDIA

O R G ANIZ ATIO NAL UPD ATE Indian Youth Climate Network

The 3rd Pole Dr. Amit Kumar Walia & Akshay Verma

The Plight of the Gibbon Apes Christina Bush

64 IN TH E NEWS 66 ICARE India

Harshit Singh

NEWS EDITOR

The Silver Lining Rini Tarafder

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Green Corporate - Being Green is in Naman Khanduri

The tribals and their sustenance Adhideb Bhattacharya and Ankit Srivastava

ExpressionS SEPTEMBER 2011

cover design AKSHAY MADAN

Take nothing but memories, Leave nothing but footprints! Col. Ashwin Baindur

FEATURES EDITOR

Chetna Gurung

The Million Fireflies Gunajit Brahma

COPY & DESK EDITOR

Water Worries Namrata Shenoy

Survival of Species - a natural instinct Sushma Mishra

EXP R ES S IO NS CH O O L

There is still Time Dr. Ratna Bannerjee

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P H OTO S TO R IES Vinit Pathak

Yudhishter Puran Singh

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Views and opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Expressions., its publisher and/or editors. We at Expressions do our best to verify the information published but do not take any responsibility for the absolute accuracy of the information

Yudhishter Puran Singh 22 year old graduate from Mumbai University, a young entrepreneur who loves to devote whatever time he can towards creating awareness about the need for preserving environment. Presently he leads the icare team and is also the editor of expressions

Pooja Bhatt a design student currently studying in NIFT Bangalore. She’s a nature enthusiast and cares about the planet and wants to prevent its deterioration. She loves music, cinema, learning, art, ideas, reading, writing and so on.

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Shehla Masood was a wildlife activist from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh who had worked uncompromisingly for tiger conservation. One of her major aims was to not let the tiger population slide down in Madhya Pradesh, which has the highest tiger population in the country. She was also an RTI activist and President of The Bhopal Heritage Foundation. Post the accidental death of Jhurjura Tigeress in the Bandhavgarh reserve in May, she had started a major signature campaign saying “The MP government has been given approximately Rs 2,000 crore over the last five years for tiger conservation. But there have been no tigers in the Panna reserve since 2006. So where is that money?” She tried to protect the watershed in the Panna Tiger Reserve and was perturbed at the fact that the clean river Shyamri was being ruined by illegal mining activities of Rio Tinto - A leading , multinational in finding, mining and processing the earth’s mineral resources. This went to become a serious issue. Shehla was shot in the neck in her car out-

ExpressionS SEPTEMBER 2011

side her home in the Koh-e-Fiza area of Bhopal on August 16, 2011. Her death shocked Madhya Pradesh and RTI activists across India. This is something extremely tragic to have happened, an appalling menace. Journalists, RTI activists are extremely vulnerable human rights defenders. They face such serious assaults regularly. It’s not a question about justice, but it questions the integrity of a nation. In an attempt to remedy, they are just brutally murdered. And the killers escape the punishment. They are neither convicted nor scared of anyone because some of the national leaders themselves let such corrupt practices take place under their supervision. Under the RTI, no one can be denied that right and people who sought to find out and actually manage to see the hideous truths meet a bad end. The treatment meted out to people who have genuinely and solely given up their lives for what they believe in. Their voices are strong which act like enormous threats

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The treatment meted out to people who have genuinely and solely given up their lives for what they believe in. Their voices are strong which act like enormous threats for the powerful people who indulge in corrupt practices.

for the powerful people who indulge in corrupt practices. So when their ill-activities are being checked and protested against - they suppress this opposition, this challenge by simply eliminating that voice. This is so unfair. This needs to change. What they don’t understand is that the voice cannot be killed; it grows even louder after they’ve killed it. In the past few years there have been a number of such cases. Amit Jethva – An environmental activists was shot dead outside the Gujrat Highcourt, similarly there are various people fighting it out against the timber or mining mafia in states like Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka etc . As the youth of the country, we are outraged by such rampant killings which are crippling our faith. It’s not just grave misfortune on the part of social or environmental activists who are targeted, silenced, or even killed for their efforts but the government that fails to provide them with the basic security and how incompetently it tackles such issues when they occur. Who would really want to work in such a place where the language of money and power speaks so loudly that it can deafen everyone around and can silence the noblest of voices? This is ludicrous, No one takes responsibility and the criminals get away with even murder easily nowadays. It’s wrecking the entire faith in the system that lacks transparency and accountability. But in spite of all this, there’s a brave league of people who have something to stand up for who always do

it irrespective of the danger looming overhead because they believe in it. So much that they even die for it- A thought to chew upon. These are the noble souls in heaven who’ve won over our hearts and stand on a pedestal of hope that things will get better for what they advocate. The only sad part here is how we wish they were treated with far more respect when they were alive. It is time we all stand up and demand justice, for if we won’t then who will.

“All nature wears one universal grin.” - Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

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ExpressionS SEPTEMBER 2011

Bird Photography couldn’t have been simpler than this… Dr Caesar Sengupta MD

the General Manager and Head Laboratory Operations of Thyrocare Technologies Ltd. He has been passionate about photography since he was a child of 12 years. He still manages to take out time to nurture his passion of wildlife photography amidst his busy schedules of corporate professionalism. He has traveled extensively across the country and his work has been acknowledged and appreciated in various media, publication houses, forums and organisations throughout India.

One evening, sipping my coffee, as I looked out the window, I saw rain kissed roads, a rainbow, partly dressed in clouds and a beckoning green of the grass below that comforts you in its lushness and purity. Suddenly, a flock of egrets flew across the horizon. Amazed by the formation of the receding flying flock, I recalled, we hadn’t discussed bird flight in Expressions yet.

Vaned feathers are also called contour feathers and the flight feathers are of this type while the down feathers remain underneath the vaned feathers. A typical vaned feather has a shaft called the Rachis, which branches out into barbs; barbs further branch into barbules, with barbules ending in minute hook like structures called the barbicels. Barbicels help in cross attachment of the barbules. The vaned feathers of the wings and the tail are the flight feathers. Feathers provide a number of benefits, besides helping in flight. They provide insulation against the cold, and help in camouflaging against predators and water proofing (which is lost by emulsifying agents and thus oil spills create a havoc). Feathers show extreme color and pattern variations as a part of sexual dimorphism. Plumage refers to the layer of feathers that covers a bird and defines the bird’s colour, pattern and arrangement. This plumage shows variation depending on subspecies, sex, and season, and is a very interesting topic of study.

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Winged Wonders

FLIGHT

Bird flight basically involves three mechanisms: Lifting: The flight of a bird is very similar to that of an air craft. The lift is possible due to a difference in air pressure above and below the wing-there’s a high pressure just below the wings and a low pressure just above the wings. Gliding: the principle of gliding is the same as that used by gliders. It is a forward and a vertical movement. The lift force has a forward push while the bird is not flapping and descending. Flapping: when the bird flaps its wings, in addition to the lift force it also generates a thrust which counteracts the drag and helps the bird to move ahead.

So as this month’s article under the ‘winged wonders’ series, lets discuss the ‘wonder of the wing’ , or the most unique and distinctive feature of avian lifeflight. FEATHERS

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A feather is the most important part of the wing, when it comes to flying. Feathers are the epidermal appendages or growths forming the distinct outer covering (plumage) of all birds. Feathers are considered to be one of the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates. They are made of keratin proteins, the same protein which forms the nails and hair in animals, scales in reptiles and shells in insects. Not all feathers help in flight. They are of two types: (1) Vaned feathers and (2) Down feathers.

ExpressionS SEPTEMBER 2011

“Nature provides exceptions to every rule.” - Margaret Fuller

The wings which are the forelimbs of the bird are the major apparatus for flight. Wing shape and size defines the type of flight. To understand it better, we must understand two things very clearly. First is aspect ratio and the second is wing loading. Aspect ratio is the ratio between the wing span and the chord. Wing loading means the ratio between body-weight to wing area. Let’s take a few examples. Elliptical wings: They have a very short aspect ratio, which provides the birds with such wings the power of tight maneuvering in confined spaces. Birds with such like wings include forest raptors and passerine birds.

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Wings

High speed wings: are short and pointed wings and usually have heavy wing loading combined with rapid wing beats, which provides the birds with an extremely fast movement. Example: Peregrine Falcon. High aspect ratio wings: low wing loading and far longer than their width. Mainly used for low flights or hovering. Soaring wings: help in soaring- for the larger inland birds.

Take Off, Landing and Hovering

Hovering means lifting by flapping wings, without any gliding. It requires tremendous energy and therefore it is possible by smaller birds only. The hummingbird can achieve a wing beat frequency of up to 52 per second and can hover at one spot. Bigger birds find it difficult because of heavy wing loading. Pied Kingfisher is one of the bigger birds which can truly hover. Most of the birds that hover have a high aspect ratio wing. Take off is the most energy demanding aspect in a bird flight. A bird has to generate enough airflow across the wings so that it can generate a lift. For smaller birds, that is easy as a small hop is enough to initiate the process. But for larger birds, a small hop doesn’t suffice. They have to run in order to generate an airflow which can produce a lift. Landing is also a difficult task. Larger birds while landing aim at a point which is just below the intended landing area and then they pull themselves up just before landing. While doing this the air speed can be controlled to almost zero just before landing. Landing in water is much easier since feet can be used as skids while landing. Bird flight is highly fascinating and capturing birds in flight is an extremely interesting segment of bird photography. We shall discuss about photographing birds in flight in the next issue.

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photos by dr. caesar sengupta

ExpressionS SEPTEMBER 2011

“We owe our lives to the sun... How is it, then, that we feel no gratitude?” - Lewis Thomas Satiliur. Morit detebatabi por patus bondum

shehla masood Hema Maira

She is based in New Delhi and has been teaching primary students for the last 30 years. She is a passionate nature and wildlife lover. She feels exceedingly concerned about the state of our environment today and is committed to doing whatever she can to help preserve it.

first got to know Shehla as a Facebook friend in July, 2010. Her name appeared often in connection with tiger conservation posts and I could tell that she was sincere and dedicated. Closely associated with an NGO, Udai, and working as an RTI activist, Shehla regularly posted letters (from government offices), photographs and/or updates about her activities and news about the latest goings-on in the tiger world.

On the night of May 19th, 2010, a jeep allegedly entered the park, after closing time, with the park vet and other government officials in it. By the next morning,a young tigress, was dead due to internal injuries, allegedly run over by a speeding Gypsy. Besides the tragedy of Jhurjhura’s death, she left behind her three helpless, young cubs. Jhujhura was so named because of the place where she died.

Thereafter, I met Shehla on quite a few occasions…at St. Stephen’s College for a Tiger fest, at a tiger meet when the latest tiger census was released and, most recently, at Corbett National Park for a Freedom Walk for the tiger. Shehla was always where the action was, doing her bit and pushing for positive change and accountability.

In the quest for justice for Jhurjhura, Shehlaapproached the State and Central government as well as the NTCA, pushing for an impartial investigation into the ‘real’ cause of the death of the tigress. She handed over a memorandum (with more than 36, 000 signatures) to the chief minister on the International Tiger Day for action against those responsible for the death of the tigress.

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One of Shehla’s pet projects was to maintain Madhya Pradesh as the foremost tiger state in India, despite a slide in tiger numbers. In this connection, she had been working, relentlessly, onbringing justice to Jhurjhura of Bandhavgarh National Park.

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Shehla highlighted Jhurjhura’s tragic death in every possible way…print and electronic media as well as in conversations and personal interactions.Details are found in the link below.

She had started a signature campaign entitled Justice for Jhurjhura. She held press conferences and also held an amazing photo exhibition in Bhopal which she was planning to take to other parts of the country. All were aimed at creating awareness, highlighting the needless tragedy as well as to point out the arrogance of those meant to be the guardians, allegedly being the perpetrators of this heinous crime. She worked tirelessly to try and bring them to book but it was not to be. The investigation is still carrying on but no one has yet been brought to book. At the time, according to Reserve Field Director, C. K. Patil http://www.zeenews.com/news627863.html The Madhya Pradesh Forest department officials have, for a while now, been in the dock for their apathy and ineptitude in protecting the tigers of the state parks. Panna National Park stands out as an unfortunate case in point. Dr. R. S. Chundawat, a scientist working on radio collaring tigers in Panna, warned authorities in 2002that all was not well with tiger numbers. State officials refused to heed Dr. Chundawat’s warnings and, in fact, banned him from entering the park. Seven years later, 2009 saw the disappearance of the last of Panna’s tigers. According to The Independent, July 16, 2009 “This is not the first time a prestigious reserve has reported that its tigers have disappeared. In 2005, it was revealed that all the tigers in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan had also been killed by poachers. What makes this case different is that the problems faced by the park were regularly drawn to the attention of officials. A committee appointed by India’s Supreme Court even warned of the potential

peril facing the park and how Panna could see a repeat of what happened at Sariska. A report by the central government’s forest ministry says “warning bells were sounded regularly for the past eight years” but that the local authorities did not take heed. Dr Raghu Chundawat, an independent scientist who carried out an extensive tiger radiocollaring project in Panna and who repeatedly warned of their falling numbers, said: “We have been shouting about this for the past six years. There is a big problem. The state government is still refusing to listen.” Shehla took up this cause, too and wrote to the then Union minister, MoEF. Details can be found at http://news.rediff.com/column/2010/ jun/14/shehla-masood-on-why-we-need-a...).

a tribute to shehla masood

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NGO demands CBI probe into Jhurjhura tigress death case The Pioneer www.dailypioneer.com/.../NGO-demands-CBIprobe-into-Jhurjhura...

She worked doggedly, pursued relentlessly and spared no one. She was forthright in her speech and unafraid of taking anyone on. Her primary interest was in pinning accountability and bringing about positive change. Recently there were reports that Shehla was looking into illegal diamond mining operations in the state, too. Shehla, it seems, had become an inconvenience…..and needed to be removed. She was. In broad daylight! Shehla had lodged a complaint after receiving threats from a police officer, not so long ago. Yet, on August 19th she was found dead. Murdered in her car as she was setting off to attend Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign at the Bhopal Boat Club. Shehla was killed at point blank range yet no one heard a gunshot. Shehla’s family has sought a CBI inquiry, not feeling satisfied with a police enquiry. Union minister for Rural Development, Shri Jairam Ramesh, wrote to the CM of Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Shivraj Chouhan, expressing his

“The Truly Healthy environment is not merely safe but stimulating.” - William H. Stewart

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from social to

World View world view

environmental justice Isabelle Richaud

A 30-year-old citizen of the world, Isabelle Richaud works in Antwerp, Belgium for the European branch of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute, based in New Delhi).

hile in Eastern Africa hundreds of thousands of children are currently starving to death, about half of the food in some Western countries is being wasted without a second thought. While the vast majority of the world population is left with no option but to utilise even disaster-prone areas and unproductive lands, 20 % of the world population consume as much as 80 % of global natural resources. While the one billion poorest people in developing countries consume only around 4 % annual global primary energy use, mainly in the form of traditional biomass used inefficiently for cooking and heating, the one billion people living in developed countries consume around half of it.

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shock at Shehla’s killing. Shehla had met Mr. Ramesh on numerous occasions during his teure at MoEF.”She brought to my notice issues

relating to Panna and Bandhavgarh (wildlife preserves),” he said.

Urging the chief minister to bring her killer to book, Mr. Ramesh wrote: “This is the least we owe to the memory of a committed activist.” The world of conservation and wildlife has lost a dedicated and committed proponent. We will miss you, Shehla!

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While the bottom half of the world adult population own only one % of global wealth, the richest 10 % of adults in the world own 85 % of global household wealth . These are some of the striking inequalities that characterise the world we live in. And continuous environmental degradation is only making the matter worse. The poorest largely depend on natural resources for survival, so decreases in the availability and quality of these resources are a particular threat to the livelihoods and well-being of these populations. Environmental hardships can impose insurmountable barriers to human development by adding to the challenges of providing adequate food, shelter,

health, and empowerment to the poor. Poverty also reduces the options to cope with dwindling resources and environmental hazards. About 90 % of the death toll caused by natural disasters presently occurs in developing countries. The expected increased intensity in storms, droughts and floods and sea-level rise resulting from climate change is expected to be particularly harshly felt in areas where the majority of the world poor is located: arid countries, slums and mega-deltas. As emphasised by the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the poor and marginalised communities are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate

1 United Nations University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research, 2008. The World Distribution of Household Wealth report - http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/discussion-papers/2008/en_GB/dp2008-03/

“A Healthy Ecology is the Basis for a Healthy Economy” - Claudine Schneider

Drought and desertification are becoming increasingly acute problems for small holder famers, who constitute the major part of the world poor. When natural resources are becoming scarce or unproductive, these farmers are constrained to exploit even more fragile and unproductive soils, thus leading to a vicious circle in which environmental degradation and chronic poverty are feeding each other. The unequal effects of environmental degradation appear all the more unjust in the light of the fact that the most vulnerable populations are globally the least responsible for the problems that afflict them. On average, someone living in a developing nation emits one-fourth of the greenhouse gases emitted by someone living in a developed nation. He or she consumes half the grain, half the fish, one-third of the meat, one-ninth of the paper, and one-eleventh of the gasoline consumed by someone living in a developed nation . There will be no peace in

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this world without social justice, and social justice is itself intrinsically linked to environmental justice. The concept of environmental justice advocates a global convergence in the ecological footprint of every human being. In this view, and given the world’s current bio-capacity and population, every world citizen is theoretically entitled to have a footprint of 2.1 hectares . And that figure does not take into consideration the necessity to leave space for non-human species (academics have suggested that we should be leaving 20 to 30 per cent of our ecosystems to the other species) . By contrast, the ecological footprint global average per capita is presently 2.7 ha. The finitude of our planet should not lead us to question the crucial necessity to address the basic needs of every human being and to cease the persisting poverty that takes hold of the dignity of a substantial fraction of us human beings. The finitude of natural resources, however, makes it necessary to come up to a fair distribution of these resources within societies, between nations, between species, and between present and future generations. For many people, very basic needs such as lighting, potable (or even pumped) water, or refrigeration are still not being met. Allowing

people to meet these essential needs implies increasing energy use and thus creates new challenges in a world where resources are limited. In order to achieve environmental justice, therefore, rich populations have no choice but to drastically reduce their energy consumption and environmental impacts, so as to leave space for the poorest to increase their consumption levels. Much of the effort in that sense falls to developed countries, which have collectively pursued unsustainable levels of resource consumption and are those responsible for the current global environmental challenges. But efforts are equally urgent in developing countries, where the richest citizens are already reaching levels of natural resources consumption, waste generation and per capita GHG emissions comparable to those in rich countries. This reveals how emerging countries are following the inefficient, polluting lifestyle that has been embraced in developed countries. Despite the relative modesty of their average environmental footprint, poor and emerging countries are home to a consumers’ class that is imposing growing pressure on natural resources. The generalised pursuit of this trend would lead to a sheer global environmental collapse.

To focus on India alone, a report released in 2007 by Greenpeace, provocatively entitled Hiding behind the poor, revealed that if average CO2 emissions per capita in India is approximately 4 times lower than the world average, this figure is mainly explained by the staggering poverty of the vast majority of the Indian population, and their limited access to energy. By contrast, the emissions produced by the richest consumer class are 4.5 times those produced by the poorest class, and are gradually converging towards those recorded in developed coun-

tries . Bringing all countries onto the path of development and taking people out of poverty, therefore, is quintessential and must be done in a way that deviates from the current dominating model of materialistic lifestyle, which has been embraced and promoted by developed countries since the last century. Our limited world could simply not afford to generalise such an unsustainable model of development, but neither can we afford to continue tolerating the blatant inequalities that characterise a world

that paradoxically claims to have become a “global village”. The way forward needs nothing short of a revolution in our conception of human development and well-being. Lifestyles everywhere, whether characterised by their unsustainable extravagance or abject poverty, must converge towards simple prosperity. In conclusion, let me quote Mahatma Gandhi, and say that we should all strive to “live simply so that others may simply live”.

“One Touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” - William Shakespeare

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change. The International Organisation for Migration, on its part, estimates that millions or even hundreds of millions of (mainly poor) people could be forced to migrate in the near future in response to the damage caused by climate change.

TIME Dr. Ratna Bannerjee

is an Assistant Professor in the University of Petroleum & Energy Studies. Besides being a wonderful person she is also the Cultural Convener from the College of Management in UPES and has been successfully organizing various activities. Dr.Ratna is multi-faceted and dynamic lady and well respected and loved by the student community.

ecently I read in the papers, that a student died while working on a laptop while in his bed. This news suddenly made me think about where we are heading. The explanation given for the death of this boy was that the cooling system inside the laptop was not able to rotate properly since it was blocked by the cushion on the bed and it set fire on the bed because of which the student was burnt and ultimately died. This is a very simple example of our indulgence in leisure and luxury – which has its boons but has also multiplied our problems. Life has become inconceivable without being surrounded by electrical and electronic gadgets. We tend to identify ourselves with the latest mobiles, gizmos etc. and have almost lost our own identity among them. It was said earlier that a man is known by his deeds, but equations seem to have changed now. The modern world recognizes a man by the kind of mobile he keeps - the kind of car he drives - and the kind of gadgets he is surrounded by!

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If we compare the present environment with the past, one thing that stands out is that, now, a lot of our time is saved by using machines to get everyday jobs done. However, there are health hazards of always being surrounded by gadgets.

having both some positive and some negative aspects to it. Physical environment involves items with the the ability to fulfill our day to day needs. For example, for students – facilities related to a good school, studies, recreation etc. The efficiency of working mothers has increased manifold due to the advent of the electronic goods. They are now better able to manage their time and maintain harmonious relations within the family – despite the pressures of working life. However, too much dependency on gadgets may lead us to behave like machines ourselves. Psychological environment means the changes in thinking patterns as a result of living conditions. Sometimes these changes happen naturally and sometimes we adapt ourselves to them. Chemical environment means the hybridization of plants, animals and human beings. We are living in the age of cloning – yet we still do not know its psychological, emotional and mental effects! Whatever be the environment, it has affected all of us some way or the other. Some effects have been positive and some negative. If we compare the present environment with the past, one thing that stands out is that, now, a lot of our time is saved by using machines to get everyday jobs done. However, there are health hazards of always being surrounded by gadgets. Within the periphery of psychological environment, we have become self-centered and miss out on the benefits of living together. Electrical and electronic gadgets have made us so dependent on them that we have become lazy and restless. If our mobile is not working for a day – we are unable to concentrate on any other thing! We may have hundreds of friends listed on our friends list on social networking sites – yet we fail to have a single person by our side when we really need a friend! There is still time – if we are willing enough to move away from the jungle of concrete, electrical, electronics, plastics etc. Why do we wait for things to get spoiled before we can take charge of them? We need to think, think fast but act faster – before time runs out and runs us down…

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Our surrounding is known as our ‘environment’ and may be physical, psychological, chemical, electrical, electronic, geological etc. Moreover, there may be gaps among these different types of environments,

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“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” - Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790)

anaturalinstinct Sushma Mishra

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survivalofspecies is a Post Graduate in Animal Physiology. As a Wildlife Enthusiast and an Adventure Lover, she has travelled to many of the Wildlife Pockets and Nature Escapes in India and needless to say, each experience in the past 15 years, has only goaded her to plan and ready herself for the next one. She can be reached at sushmamish@gmail.com.

nimals mate to produce young ones, so their species can survive for generations to come. The simple rule of nature: survival of the best! And well, what do living creatures do for their species to be existent even after centuries? They reproduce. However, every individual of a species is attracted to a unique kind in the opposite sex of the same species, based on their strength, and mainly genetic composition.

Male birds usually display bright and attractive colors, accompanied with dance movements to attract the females. Of the various examples, our National Bird-the Indian Peacock beats them all. It has long tail feathers which are a beautiful blue and green and whenever it wants to attract the Peahen, it spreads its feathers as a fan and struts around, in front of the peahen. If the female has to accept the peacock’s invitation, she pecks on the ground.

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Animals attract their mates in various ways. During courtship, they might dance or sing There are several occasions when males or display bright and attractive colors. fight amongst each other over a female. The strongest one wins! Deer, Antelopes These ways help to get the best mate. and similar animals have long and strong Among most animal species, males initiate antlers or horns, and in their case, the fights the process of mating / courtship. They try may continue till one of them backs off, to impress the females by all means, to be most of the times, after heavy injury. able to mate with them. The females may accept the invitation or not.

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“We will look upon the earth and her sister planets as being with us, not for us.” - Mary Daly

environment & economics

Mrs. Surbhi Arora

a UGC NET qualified faculty member, with around fourteen years of experience in industry and academics. She is a graduate in Commerce and Law. Presently she is pursuing PhD from UPES in the area of Oil & Gas Management. Her research interests include Petro Economics, Micro Economics and Interactional Dimensions of Law & Economics. She believes that our thoughts lead to actions and actions to results. According to her, hard work and consistency have to be the two pillars supporting one’s achievement.

e make choices everyday- how much time to spend working or studying or being with friends or being online etc. in deciding what to spend our money on, we confront what in economics are called tradeoffs and opportunity costs. A trade-off occurs when we choose one option in favour of another and an opportunity cost is what is sacrificed in order to get something. Whether we do it consciously or not, we are constantly evaluating the costs and benefits of each decision that we take. We are actually performing our own cost-benefit analysis each time we make a choice.

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When decisions are undertaken - either individually or for the society - we constantly make trade-offs in order to get more of one thing by giving up another. The saying “time is money” illustrates this point. If we ‘consume’ more free time, we are left with less money due to the fact that we are not earning money from using the time to work. The

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opposite is true as well. If we want more money, we must put in more work hours to get it, which reduces the free time available. The truth is that resources used to meet one choice or alternative cannot be used to meet another. Just as we value other goods, the valuation of natural resources and the environment is based on how we value their services and, for services that are consumed directly. And this value is based on our utility and willingness to pay for a certain amount of the services. The decision of allocating resources relating to the environment has an impact on all sectors of our economy due to the complex relationship between utilizing natural resources and economic output. Many times, the cost of utilizing these resources and/or services include direct costs as well as opportunity costs and external costs, which are not traded in markets or assessed directly in monetary terms. For example, when trees are cut for

Many times, the cost of utilizing these resources and/or services include direct costs as well as opportunity costs and external costs, which are not traded in markets or assessed directly in monetary terms. such uses as housing and furniture, some of the direct costs will include the cost of machinery and labour during cutting, processing, and manufacturing. The opportunity costs relating to this use would be the opportunities foregone by the machinery and labour that could not be used elsewhere, since it was occupied cutting trees. The external costs are the loss of environmental benefits that are no longer realized which may include a loss in watershed management services, species protection, and CO 2 reduction. Most economists agree that in most cases a free market is the best way to determine the allocation of resources. The demand for various products and the availability of natural resources - along with a number of other factors, including preferences, the number of buyers and sellers, pricing, alternative choices, etc - is expected to lead to an efficient result of actual supply and demand. However, markets can fail to account for the full cost of a natural resource and/or services, which will prevent it from achieving an efficient allocation of the resource, leading to externalities.

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Trade-offs Opportunity Cost Externalities

To reduce the potential for market failures and their resulting externalities, planners and policymakers attempt to identify a course of action that generates the greatest societal benefits – the principle of maximum social advantage given by Dalton. This is done by using a mix of policy and strategies, including regulation, taxes, permits, access restrictions, etc. It is finding the appropriate balance between utilizing our natural resources and meeting the demands of society that will allow us to continue to expand our economy while sustaining our natural resources and the environment. An environmental impact analysis is typically conducted to assess the potential impact a proposed development project will have on the natural and social environment. This may include an assessment of both the short- and longterm effects on the physical environment, such as air, water and/or noise pollution as well as effects on local services, living and health standards, and aesthetics.

“If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in Water.” - Loren Eiseley

travelogue

A cycling experience in the heart of Rural India during the weekend of World Environment Day 2011 Gunajit Brahma

an environmentalist, social worker, volunteer and a poet. He is also an entrepreneur working in the area of renewable energy and plans to make it accessible to every individual in this world. He is one of the Partner at Renewable Bazaar (http://renewablebazaar.com/) and is doing PGDM (2010-12) at IIM Indore. He enjoys being closure to nature and likes to trek and cycle with friends.”

This is the second part of the 3 part article series, about my experiences of a cycle tour, a synchronised musical and a rural experience The first part of this article is available in the August 2011 edition of Expressions. After we helped Doley mend his bicycle, we continued our ride. Anil was waiting for us, as always. He had made it a habit to wait for the last rider during the trip, lest some emergency popped up. After applying some antiseptic on Doley’s wounded knee, we continued the ride. The next hill was challenging, and against my wishes, I was forced by my body to board the tempo along with Naveen, till we reached the next downhill. David, who for most of the part of the tour was the fastest cyclist even at the age of 50+, was waiting for us at the top of the hill. We (Navin and I) rested there for a while, waiting for the remaining riders to come and had a few biscuits. It was about 3:00 pm.

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Then we continued with our cycle tour until the monsoon hit us suddenly and hard. The downpour was heavy, and we all were forced to board the Tempo, which was following the last rider. Anil suggested that anyone not feeling upto it could travel by tempo. I decided to ride in the heavy rain, as I felt it was worth experiencing. Anil and Anish also rode in the rain. David was already ahead of us when the rain started. The

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visibility in the rain was very poor (maybe a few feet). Anil warned the riders to be very careful, as we were going downhill, and the chances of accidents loom large, during such bad conditions. Being tired and exhausted, I was again the last rider in no time. The tempo, along with the rest of the riders (Doley, Naveen and Sunil), along with the tempo attendants was following me. Everyone in the tempo cheered and motivated me to continue. I walked the uphill rides, with the heavy downpour and realised that I was one with nature. Accompanied only by the rain, the serene environment and the scenic beauty, I felt calmness inside me. I was telling myself, “You can do it; you can do it” & “Just few more kilometres”. I reached Rajur at around 7 pm. The rest of the riders were loading their cycles in the tempo. I joined them. Then Anil said that we should have some snacks in the village, and then we will continue our tour to Purushwadi in the tempo, as the Sun was setting and we didn’t had the night equipments to aid our night ride. From Rajur, Purushwadi is 10 kms uphill. It was already night by the time we started our journey for Purushwadi.

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The First Encounter

I was shivering with cold after getting all wet in the rain. But I truly enjoyed the ride under the downpour. We were all standing on the back of the tempo. Anil happened to be atop the vehicle. He’d been excused because there was not enough room inside the tempo, and secondly, he wanted to sit on the top and enjoy the visuals up close: of the synchronised glow; of the experience which can truly be called ‘out-of-the-world’. After about 10 minutes on the bumpy and zig-zag ride, we encountered the first glow of a firefly. Although I have seen many since childhood and I was not very keen on fireflies, my perception changed once I saw the synchronised glowing of the fireflies in a tree. There were hundreds of them. And when they glowed, it looked like the Christmas tree with decorative lights arranged on it. But soon I realised that it was more than just the Christmas tree, as the synchronous glowing in one tree is followed by another in a different tree. It looked more like a musical, which a conductor is conducting. Here the conductor was Nature itself. It is worth informing my avid readers that delicate life-forms, like fireflies, live and survive only in the purest of the natural habitat. Here since the village was not easily accessible by motorized road, or very few people know about it, the natural beauty of this place is still intact. The area is kind of pollution-free; maybe that’s why the fireflies could perform such theatrics in this village. Over the rest of the journey, we enjoyed ourselves viewing the synchronous musical and cracking jokes about it (the biological need of the fireflies; reason for their glowing). I recalled being told in my village

(From left to right: Dhruvajyoti Doley, Gunajit Brahma, David Williams, Anish Appukuttan, Anil Uchil, Sunil Gandhi, and Navin Kulkarni) (small town actually) that if it’s the firefly season and they are not to be seen, then the chances of raining is more. But on the way to Purushwadi, in spite of the heavy rain, we could see the ‘million fireflies’. So I am not sure whether my information was incorrect or whether the fireflies in Purushwadi were trying hard to cope with climate change. It is also true that the life forms at the bottom of the pyramid or food web will be affected the most with climate change. We tried to take snaps of the glow of the fireflies, but in vain. Since their luminescence is very less. The real beauty should not through any photography or video, but with naked eyes. The real fun was to see them up close. After about half hour of experiencing their mesmeric beauty, we reached Purushwadi at around 9 pm.

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“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” - Mohandas K. Gandhi

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now and ice covers a considerable part of the earth’s surface, about 15 million km2; being primarily restricted to higher altitudes and higher latitudes. It is, more or less, a permanent feature of the high altitude mountain ranges, even in tropical latitudes as is evident from the glaciers in Uganda in equatorial Africa. Out of earth’s total ice reserve that exists in the form of ice fields and glaciers; almost 98% that is about 14 million km2 is confined to Antarctica and Greenland. Remaining 5% of the glacier cover exists in mountains of Asia, Europe and America. In India , the glaciers are restricted to the Himalayas within the latitude 27°N to 36°N and longitude 72°E to 96°E, comprising the territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Total glacier cover within these states is less than 40,000 km2 with an approximate volume of ice of the order of about 2,000 km3. (Inventory complied by the Geological Survey of India.)

ties like drinking water, irrigation for agriculture, etc., the rivers originating are an important part of the ecosystem and support numerous species of flora and fauna, apart from this they are the source for hydroelectricity. Rapid melting of Glaciers may cause severe droughts and floods, also leading to global sea level rise. These issues are of concern to the whole world and some important steps need to be taken to tackle the problem of Global Warming.

Glaciers are an important part of our lives in one way or the other. It is the major source of freshwater apart from the monsoon rains and is useful for our daily activi-

Because glacial mass is affected by longterm climate changes, e.g., precipitation, mean temperature, and cloud cover, changes in glaciers are considered among the

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Glacier as Resource

On Earth, 98% glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets in Polar Regions, but glaciers are found in mountain ranges of every continent except Australia. In the tropics, glaciers occur only on high mountains. Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of freshwater on Earth. Many glaciers store water during one season and release it later as melt water, water that is especially important for plants, animals and human uses when other sources are scant.

Dr. Amit Kumar Walia

obtained his master’s degree in Geology, worked in Science of Groundwater ‘Hydrogeology” at Aligarh muslim University.Further, he shifted to interest in glaciological studies in Himalaya. He joined National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee as project officer for Gangotri Glacier research studies. He obtained his Ph.D from Panjab University, Chandigarh in the specialize field of glaciology. During the last five years, he has been engaged in extensive field visited to Glaciers of Garhwal Himalaya. He has been associated with various geological and glaciological trainings in Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun.

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Akshay Verma

post graduate in Environment Management from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. He is currently pursuing research on “Snow and Shallow Ice Cores from Himalayan Glaciers & Isotope Hydrology”. Mr. Verma has vast experience on working in tough terrains like Antarctica, various glaciers of Himalayan region (Chorabari, Dokriani, Gangotri, Jaundar, Tilku, Jhajju) along with working in cold labs with conditions of (-)20°C. With a passion for research and his subject, Mr. Verma looks forward to serve the cause of preserving our natural resources (Glacier – freshwater) from Climate Change, which is one of the biggest issues the world faces at present

most sensitive indicators of climate change. The word Glacier comes from the Latin ‘glacies’ meaning ice. A Glacier refers to a body of ice which moves from higher to lower elevation under the influence of gravity and its own weight. The processes and features caused by glaciers and related to them are referred to as glacial. The process of glacier establishment, growth and flow is called glaciation. The corresponding area of study is called Glaciology. Glaciers are important components of the global cryosphere. Himalayas are mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. By extension, a massive mountain system that includes the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, and other, lesser ranges those extend out from the Pamir Knot. Some of the world’s major rivers, Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Red River (Asia), Xunjiang, Chao Phraya, Irrawaddy River, Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Tarim River and Yellow River, rise in the Himalayas, and their combined drainage basin is home to some 3 billion people (almost half of Earth’s population) in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhu-

tan, People’s Republic of China, India, Nepal, Burma, Cambodia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Pakistan. The Himalayan range encompasses of about 15,000 glaciers, which store about 12,000 km3 of freshwater. The 72 km long Siachen Glacier is the second longest glacier in the world outside the polar region and also the world’s highest battlefield. Some of the other more famous glaciers include the Gangotri and Yamunotri (Uttarakhand), Nubra, Biafo and Baltoro (Karakoram region), Zemu (Sikkim) and Khumbu glaciers (Mount Everest region). The higher regions of the Himalayas are snowbound throughout the year, in spite of their proximity to the tropics, and they form the sources for several large perennial rivers, most of which combine into two large river systems: • The western rivers combine into the Indus Basin, of which the Indus River is the largest. The Indus begins in Tibet at the confluence of Sengge and Gar rivers and flows southwest through India and then through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. It is fed by the

The Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and the Huang He (Yellow River) all originate from parts of the Tibetan plateau that are geologically distinct from the Himalayan mountains, and are therefore not considered true Himalayan

rivers. Some geologists refer to all the rivers collectively as the circum-Himalayan Rivers. In recent years, scientists have monitored a notable increase in the rate of glacier retreat across the region. The Indian Himalayan glaciers are broadly divided into the three-river basins of Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra. The Geological Survey of India as estimated about 9,575 Glaciers in the Indian Himalayas. The principal glaciers of this region are Siachen 72 km; Gangotri 26 km; Zemu 26 km; Milam 19 km and Kedarnath 6.5 km. The diversity in climate is one of the beauties of the Himalayan region. The extreme relief of the Himalayas produces marked changes in air masses crossing the region and results in a complex mosaic of “topo-climates” determined by variations in slope, aspect and relative altitude (Flohn 1974; Alford 1992). These range from the sub-tropical climates in the southern plains, to the temperate climate of

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Dokriani

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Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej rivers. • Most of the other Himalayan Rivers drain the Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin. Its two main rivers are the Ganga and the Brahmaputra and the Yamuna, among other tributaries. The Brahmaputra originates as the Yarlung Tsangpo River in western Tibet, and flow east through Tibet and west through the plains of Assam. The Ganga and the Brahmaputra meet in and drain into the Bay of Bengal through the world’s largest river delta. • The eastern-most Himalayan Rivers feed the Ayeyarwady River, which originates in eastern Tibet and flows south through Myanmar to drain into the Andaman Sea.

GANGOTRI the middle hills and Alpine climates in the high mountains. The main controls on climate are weather systems moving in from the south-east during the summer and from the west in winter. The summer monsoon normally commences in mid-June and lasts until mid-September. The mountain ranges block the northward advancement of the monsoon causing widespread and intense rainfall on southern slopes, whereas on the lee of the mountain ridges, drier conditions prevail. Delayed onset of the monsoon decreases precipitation along the Himalayan arc from east to north-west. There is also a general decrease from south to north with each successively higher mountain range, featuring windward maxima and leeward rain shadows, which culminate in the highaltitude aridity of the Tibetan plateau. The western Himalayas get more precipitation from the westerly winds during November to

April. There is a large variation in the annual average precipitation in the Himalayas. The southern slopes of the Eastern Himalayas experience some of the highest annual rainfall totals on Earth while other areas receive as low as 50 mm a year. Temperatures across the globe have gone upward, helping the cause of ice glaciers melting faster than required. In certain places across the world small ice glaciers have totally vanished, exposing the earth below. Ice glaciers are able to deflect almost 80% heat of the sun, absorbing approximately 20% heat. This figure gets reversed when sunlight falls on earth, 80% is absorbed and only 20% is deflected back. This in turn helps in increasing global temperatures. This leads to an increase in the temperature of sea water. Icebergs melt faster. Added to this is the expansion of sea water, leading to

“Water is the best of all things.” - Pindar (c. 522 BC - c. 438 BC)

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a rise in sea water levels. When seen from outer space, the earth looks self-sufficient in its need for water; in reality it is just the reverse. Almost all this water seen from space is salt water; unfit for human use. Just over 2% of this water is freshwater that is fit for human use; and over 70% of this 2% make-up the Earth’s glaciers. Many on earth depend on the melting water from glaciers for their fresh water supply through lakes and rivers. The melted water gets renewed as ice on the glacier through a process known as precipitation. In many parts of the world this is the ‘only’ source of fresh water supply throughout the year. An ever-increasing human population and a rapidly decreasing glacier mass will lead to severe fresh water shortage in the near future (some places like those surrounding the Himalayas are already facing a crisis of fresh water shortage, especially in the dry months). Agriculture that depends solely on rain will be mostly unaffected by the effects of retreating of Glaciers, but such areas are very few worldwide and do not contribute to the major chunk of farmland. Areas affected will be those that depend on perennial rivers. During the dry seasons there will be a shortage of freshwater from glaciers, making the land dry and unsuitable for agriculture. Total agricultural output may reduce, leading to a shortage of food grains. The one of the main regions affected would be the Indo-Gangetic plains.

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There are many places across the planet that depends solely on the constant flow of water from melting glaciers for the production of electricity. Once this flow of water is reduced or stops, the production of electricity will stop too. Absolutely no nation can do without electricity, and will force such places to adopt different sources to produce electric-

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ity, most of them that will pollute the earth, and possibly even increase global warming. The same situation of rapidly melting ice glaciers can have two opposite effects; draught and flooding. Places where the glaciers on higher altitudes are melting rapidly, will lead to a sudden increase in water input to rivers, causing floods all along the river. This excess water could also lead to the formation of new lakes which will keep on increasing in size. This is a serious cause of worry, since the water contained in these lakes could be tremendous, and the bursting of such lakes could cause a major catastrophe all around, destroying everything in its path. Water from melting glaciers on higher altitudes will be emptied into the sea as rivers. A lot of water that melts on sea-level glaciers gets emptied directly into the sea. The sea level is rising constantly at a rate of approximately 1mm to 2mm per year. Melting glaciers have a part to do with this rise. The faster glaciers melt across the globe, the more will be the increase in sea level. The effects of this will be of unimaginable magnitude. Coastal regions across the globe will have to relocate due to flooding, soil erosion, and contamination of underground fresh water with salt water.

There are many animals, birds, and fish that depend solely on glaciers for survival. Certain animals need the temperatures of glaciers for survival. Some bird species depend on fish that are found in fresh melting waters of a glacier. With an increase in sea water temperature, and rising sea levels, sea-plants that these fish thrive on will be lost, reducing the number of fish, which inturn will make survival of many bird species difficult. Corals require sunlight for photosynthesis to survive and thrive. As the sea level rises, enough sunlight will not reach these corals, deteriorating their quality and even possibly killing them in time. Fish that depend on these corals for food will not survive. This will have an effect on the people who fish for survival in these areas. Many people would have heard of DDT and many such pesticides that were banned worldwide years ago. Most of the pesticides got airborne and were finally deposited in cool areas containing glaciers. Up to a few years ago, these harmful chemicals remained trapped in the layers of glaciers. Rapid melting of these glaciers is now releasing these chemicals back into the environment, in many lakes and rivers formed by these melting glaciers. The effects of melting of glaciers are not confined only to one part of the planet; it is currently affecting the entire planet. Every continent on Earth is feeling the effects of rapid melting of glaciers. Global warming is worsening the situation. We cannot stop the glaciers from melting, but let us all do whatever we can (however small or big) to help reduce global warming. It will help make Earth a less hazardous place to live in.

Maitri - Indian Base (ANTARCTICA) “Let the clean air blow the cobwebs from your body. Air is medicine.” - Lillian Russell (1862-1922)

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Vinit Pathak Being a Photographer by Passion, Nature has always been an inspiration for Vinit, it has the beauty which one can never possibly describe in words, thus with his photographs he tries to capture the very essence of Nature and give it the well deserved justification. He can be contacted at vinit_viceroy@ yahoo.co.in and/or at facebook.com/vinit.viceroy

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Reflections Of Piha Beach

“The supreme reality of our time is… the vulnerability of our planet.” - John F. Kennedy

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NZ Ferns Most popular Icon of Kiwi Culture

Sunset from Mount Eden

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Bridal Viel Waterfalls - Waikato

Beautiful Takapuna Lake

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Raglan Beach at its complete Glory during a Spectacular Sunset

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GIBBON APES

Scientific (genus) name Hylobatidae

Christina Bush

has been featured by National Geographic, Animal Planet, ABC’s Extreme Home Makeovers, The International Anti-Fur Coalition, The Paw Project and many other organizations around the globe. A lifetime supporter of animal protection and education, she works with groups all over the world using her imagery to help save and improve the lives of animals everywhere, both in the wild and in captivity. This is a very rewarding way for her to turn tremendous value into her passion for wildlife, photography and art. Visit her photo-gallery at http://www.christinabush.com

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ibbons apes are rare, small, very slender, long-armed tree dwelling apes native to most of Southeast Asia. They inhabit the tropical and sub-tropical rain forests in the countries of China, Burma, N. Sumatra, Cambodia, Borneo, Java and Vietnam. These small apes have hairless faces, dark eyes, small nostrils and jet black skin. They have fluffy, dense fur with color variations from very dark to light brown shades and anywhere in between black and white. The color of infants of some species are different from the adults. Although rare, there are a few completely white gibbons. There are two main groups of apes, the Great Apes and the Lesser Apes. The great apes include gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and bonobos. Gibbons make up the “lesser apes” group, the largest group of all the apes. According to the Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita, California, there are 15 living gibbon species, which are categorized into 4 genera: Nomascus, Symphalangus, Hoolock, and Hylobates. There is only one subspecies of gibbons, which are called the Siamangs and are the largest of all the gibbons apes. The Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus), found

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only on Hainan Island and off the coast of China, is considered to be the most endangered known primate. There are only approximately 20 individuals left on the island. Also nearly extinct is the Hainan gibbon’s closest relative, the Cao Vit gibbon from the Pu Mat National Park in Vietnam, which has about 100 individuals remaining. Unlike the Great Apes, gibbons are monogamous and mate for life. Less than 6% of all primate species (of more than 300) are considered monogamous. They reproduce at around 12-13 years old and after a seven month gestation period usually give birth to a single hairless baby. Twins births sometimes occur but are rare. Adults weigh between 20-30 pounds and stand around three feet tall when upright. The largest species of Siamangs can weigh up to 40 pounds and be a bit taller than the other species. Gibbons live in small, stable family groups consisting of a mating pair and their immature offspring of juveniles under seven years old. The life expectancy for gibbons is around 35-40 years. In the wild, a gibbon family has a territory of about 30-50 acres in the old-growth areas of the rain

forest. These very social animals are small and light-weight with arms longer than their legs and they have no tail, a feature distinguishing apes from monkeys. They have four times the strength of a human being and can recognize themselves in a mirror, a very unique trait. Females are the dominant animal in the family group. They nurture their young and wean them at around one year of age. The young gibbons eventually venture out from their mothers at around age six or seven. In most species, males and females are the same size but are often sharply distinct in their coloration. Unique to the family, the basal part of the thumb is freed from the palm, allowing for superior locomotion through the trees. Gibbons do not build nests like the great apes. They sleep sitting up with their arms wrapped around their knees and their head tucked into their lap. These apes are omnivores that forage through the forest during the day eating lots of fruit, leaves, flowers, seeds, tender plants, and tree bark. They also enjoy eating insects, birds, bird eggs, spiders and have a particular craving for figs in the wild. They are most active during the day, especially in the early morning hours. They are the fastest and most agile of all treedwelling, non-flying animals and are known for being acrobatic masters. They are arboreal and live in well-defined territories high in the treetops. They love to swing all over the jungle 200 feet up in the branches above and can swing for distances of up to 50 feet at speeds as high as 35 miles per hour, moving swift as a bird with fluid grace. Because they are so agile while moving in the trees, almost no predators can catch them. When on the ground, they walk on two legs. They cannot swim and avoid completely avoid the water. Gibbons are very strongly territorial displaying piercingly loud whooping and hooting calls each morning, resonating their vocal chords with beautiful song. Often they are referred to as the “songbirds” of the primate family and the most musical of all the land mammals. Their loud vocalization

can be heard for up to a mile away and is used to announce location, defend territory and maintain bonds within the family unit. The adult pair, sometimes joined by practicing juveniles, sing duets. Each individual gibbon can be identified by his or her song. Duets are usually sung for less than half an hour each day, but males may call on their own for two hours or more. Siamang gibbons, the largest and darkest species of gibbons, have a louder call and can be heard up to two miles away.

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The plight of the small apes receives virtually no media coverage and several species have never been studied in the wild, filmed or bred in captivity. Many consider gibbons to be the “Forgotten Apes”. Gibbons face a wide range of threats to their demise, including habitat loss, poaching, the exotic pet trade, and use of their body parts in the manufacture of traditional medicines. Gibbon conservation attracts less funding than that of the great apes and, unfortunately, their natural habitat is being destroyed at the alarming rate of 32 acres per minute. As human populations continue to increase in Southeast Asia, along with the accelerating habitat destruction from logging and agriculture, there has been a devastating effect on every species of gibbon. Each of the species of is threatened with extinction and some of them direly so. A recent survey by Conservation International about one of the rarest subspecies, the Yunnan white-handed gibbon, concluded that the populations in southernmost China have been completely extirpated, and it is unknown whether they still survive anywhere else. If gibbons are to survive the next few years, the highest priority must be given to establishing and enforcing protected areas in suitable habitats for their remaining populations. Breeding centers and broad-based campaigns of conservation education, as well as stricter and better-enforced management of their land and the exotic pet trade will be needed to prevent the extinction of these exceptional primates.

‘We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.’ Native American Proverb

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Col Ashwin Baindur

t a time when the people of the world cannot agree what to do about climate change and when England is completely covered with snow as if replaying the events of the 2004 film ”The Day After Tomorrow“, it is pertinent to remember the words of a very famous Native American, Chief Si’ahl(anglicised as Seattle). Chief Si’ahl (c. 1780 – June 7, 1866) , the leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes in what is now the American state of Washington, allegedly wrote the letter in the 1800s to the United States Government. It is less important to know whether he wrote it or not, than to know what is said in it.

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But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land?

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The earth is what we all have in common. - Wendell Berry

One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

Chief Seattle, whose letter warns us of the need to hold nature dear in our hearts.

Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt?

Chief Seattle’s letter “The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people. We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.

A minimal footprint on nature - Native American girls gathering berries.

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.

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This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

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The end of living and the beginning of survival. When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left? We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother. If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.

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As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth

One thing we know : there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We ARE all brothers after all.” This letter, a famous speech and many quotations (including the title of this post) are alleged to have been quoted by Chief Si’ahl.

“Because we don’t think about future generations, they will never forget us.” - Henrik Tikkanen

waterworries Namrata Shenoy

ater is the most important element, without which life is unimaginable. Life on earth can in fact be credited to water itself. Most of our daily activities as well as our survival need water! Clean water is every individual’s basic right. We need water to drink, cook, clean, bathe and other domestic purposes. We also need water for a lot of manufacturing purposes such as the manufacture of paper, coffee, sugar, drugs, etc. A lot of water is needed for a lot of things!!! That’s why we have a water crisis today.

We all would have noticed the water tanker- the one leaving a trail of water along its path., supposed to deliver water to communities in case of inadequate water supply. I would never want to be someone who has to stand in a queue, holding buckets, waiting to fill water just for a day’s bath and repeating this exercise every single day! Such is the case of almost a million helpless people in this country.

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India has been developing for several years now. Someday when it finally develops into a powerful country, I hope that there will be better water management in the country. The water supply and distribution systems being utterly mis-managed, it isn’t surprising to witness the unequal distribution of water everywhere. The second major issue is that there is just not enough water! Water crisis is turning out to be a nightmare as almost all major cities are facing a shortage of drinking water, let alone water for other purposes. There was a time, about a decade ago, when water was a resource

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available in plenty. Today, we merely get water for two to three hours. Water required or consumed is hard to calculate and to be able to supply everyone with adequate amount of water we must get our calculations right. While we can roughly calculate the water consumed, the actual figure would rarely match the estimated figure. The water system in cities today is extremely haphazard, calculations become next to impossible as illegal ground water extraction is a common means of meeting the water demand. Illegal ground water extraction, according to me is a water crime and strict action must be taken against those involved . I can explain this as a real-life example. Imagine me as a rich guy, still not having a continuous supply of water in my bathrooms and not knowing what to do. The municipality can only provide me with a limited supply of water. Solution-I buy a pump and fix it. I extract ground water every day. It is like eating a large share of the pie meant for everyone, alone. After a period, it depletes to such an extent that it

We are all aware of the demand and supply gap which seems to be growing wider every year. The rapidly growing population seems to be demanding more and more water. Supply on the other hand cannot be increased beyond a limit. Also the demand depends majorly on the type of lifestyle one chooses. Technology has had a major role to play by making water readily available in many cases, thereby leading to its excessive consumption and wastage. In villages, where miles have to be covered to reach a water source, it is a precious commodity and is used judiciously. The water system in cities can firstly be regarded as a capital intensive- it creates a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and secondly it is natural resource intensive, i.e. a huge pressure is exerted on the natural resources to meet our demands. Fast growing cities such as Bombay, Delhi and Bangalore are facing massive water problems. Over 2 billion people in our country alone do not have access to proper hygiene or sanitation. In 2006, CPCB came up with the following figures- we generate 33,212 million liter per day (MLD) of sewage but the installed capacity in the country can treat only 6,190 MLD of sewage, or 18.6 per cent. This means, that India has the capacity to treat only 20% of the total waste that it generates! Now, that certainly is miserable! The other 80% which is untreated makes its way to the rivers or other water bodies and ultimately into the human system! ‘Disease’ is the only word popping in my head right now.

Sadly, in older days, most water bodies had something known as the self purification process, which does not exist anymore. The reason behind this is that the quantity of waste dumped into the water bodies is too much to get intermixed, and eventually the water proves to be harmful. This has led to water bodies being converted into sewer lines or sewage canals. Also the waste water or water treatment in India is centralized. Sewage treatment plants are set up wherever land is available at cheap rates. Waste water has to be transported from the point of its generation to the treatment plant and then back to the point of its utilization. This makes the entire process expensive and time consuming. There are several other issues- reclaimed water, waste water treatment plants- their management, economical use of water, water tax, etc that I haven’t even brought up. Who will worry about them? All of us need to start worrying!!! I’m afraid we ‘will’ have to stand in that queue, holding that bucket in case no proper action is taken.

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cannot be replenished naturally. Now, no one can use it. That right there is an extremely dangerous situation and a lot of cities today are facing it.

These are issues that need focus. New and innovative methods of water consumption, transport and treatment need to be developed and encouraged! Any write up on water crisis would be incomplete without the famous lines that mock the realityWater water every where Not a drop to drink!!!

“We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” - Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

ong ago, we were part of nature – deriving from it, depending on it and succumbing to its varied moods. We used the resources nature gave us , to develop into a dominant race of species. With our superior intelligence we prospered and in our greed and obsession with becoming better than each other and everything else, we never realized when our actions started affecting that which had created us in the first place. The onset of the Industrial Revolution established the trend of using machines for our sustenance and survival. Long before we realized it, with development, our carbon footprint began to increase. Now we know how and why our actions affect nature, but we are too obsessed with development to check these actions. And let’s face it – we don’t even think it is justified that development of any kind should be stopped just because of environmental concerns. In the face of an industry which would strengthen a country, a forest falls.

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Practically, it is not possible to stop or even curb development. There is nowhere to go but up. Every country advances for its betterment and higher economic stablity. People need food, jobs and employment

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opportunities and therefore an increasing workforce can survive with more jobs and thus development. Add to this, an omnipresent desire to be better than our neighbors. The human race is unstoppable. It is not even justified to say that to slow down the process of degradation of the environment we must slow down development. However, even though development has been the major factor in the degradation of this environment, there are other ways to combat this degradation without any effect on development. Another factor which has led to the deplorable state of our environment is public convenience. Development is unavoidable but the fact that the environment is getting damaged due to our uncurtailed excessive convenience is truly lamentable. A person who uses the public transport system instead of a car which he or she can afford to buy is laughed at and called a miser. In time, the person is overcome by a sense of jealousy seeing his colleagues come into work in their private cars, and ultimately buys a car. What might one more car do, they think as do the millions who give in to convenience. All in all, the human race is pretty much

destined to dig its own grave. We have created a life of comfort and convenience which is slowly destroying life itself, much like an alternative imagery of an Ouroboros which eats itself to survive. A faint beam of light however, still permeates through all this smog. After innumerable frantic signs from the environment of its degradation and misuse, the human race has finally realized the consequences of this lavish life. The environment has officially been assigned an endangered status and measures are being taken to protect it. Laws are being made, misbehavior to the environment vehemently punished, multi-nationals are putting in a lot of money into environment-friendly products and procedures. Above all, a lot is being done to spread awareness to the general public. This fairly recent phenomenon does not compensate for the centuries of damage to the environment and the effects of development. It is however, a new start. What lies largely untapped until now is the individualistic power. Everyone hears of global warming, recycling, saving tigers and saving coasts but when individuals are

asked what they have done for the environment, they have no substantial answer. The maximum the general public has done for the environment is that they have replaced their light bulbs with energy efficient CFLs and that is probably because they liked the white light better than the yellow light and it was cheaper. What we need now is an intrinsic knowledge of what we have done to the environment and what we can do to protect it from further damage, instead of a system to force it upon us. We all know the fate of most laws and regulations. It should come to us naturally to refrain from littering, to recycle, and conserve electricity and water. For those who have passed by the stage of learning, it is already too late. They need to be forced to care about the environment. But them to whom the importance of things in this world still is not hierarchically arranged, they need to be taught that preserving the environment is the most important of all things. Like Captain Planet said “The power is Yours”.

“There’s so much pollution in the air now that if it weren’t for our lungs there’d be no place to put it all.”

- Robert Orben

photo: akshay madan

thesilverlining

a former student of NIFT Bangalore and now a student of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She is just someone who is interested in the well being of the planet and specially the preservation of its varied flora and fauna. She firmly believes that a little done by everyone for the planet can amount to a lot collectively.

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Rini Tarafder

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swapnildeshpande

Swapnil Deshapande is an engineer by profession based in Alibag near Mumbai. His love for photography is well depicted through his serene photographs and can be contacted at swapnildes@gmail.com.

COMMON LEOPARD

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VALLEY BENEATH THE BLUE SKY

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Naman Khanduri

15 years old studying in St. Josephs Academy, Dehradun. With writing as his passion, he utilizes it for his concerns towards the environment and can be reached at NK.NamanKhanduri@facebook.com

mid growing concerns about the environment, no one wants to leave any stone unturned in doing their bit. Including Bharti Airtel. Besides their silent campaigns and efforts towards environmental concerns and issues, a unique initiative, of paperless billing, has been taken by the giant. Airtel has been supported by its customers in taking this welcome initiative.

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Airtel started paperless billing for its customers quite some time ago, and a substantial share of the customers opted for paperless billing. The number of Gujarat circle customers registered for e-bill has gone up from 5% last year to 30% in the current year. Also Airtel has been constantly encouraging more paper bill customers to opt for e-billing and e-transactions. “This green initiative was designed to promote mobile phone usage as an efficient tool to generate e-Bills, e-Payments and e-Transactions, thereby saving tonnes of paper as well as save time and reduce fuel consumption.” says the company. In the prepaid segment, Airtel has considerably reduced the size of its recharge vouchers to reduce use of plastic as well as paper.

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To popularise paperless billing among Airtel customers, customer care center executives request customers to opt for paperless billing every time a customer dials in to the Airtel customer care centre. Additionally, Airtel customers who opt for e-bill receive an itemised bill absolutely free of cost. Mr Shivan Bhargava, COO, Bharti Airtel, Gujarat Circle said, “Paperless billing seems to be catching on as consumers become more aware of the convenience and environmental benefits of e-billing. The aim behind this green initiative is to talk about environment, save paper and conserve nature.” Apart from being environment friendly, e-bills are transmitted in a much more secure format, where a user receives intimation on his / her specified email address as well as a SMS on his / her mobile phone with a password which will help the user to view and pay the e-bill. Following Airtel’s lead, all other telecom giants should also switch over to the “e”-mode, which is more “e”co- friendly, “e”conomical and “e”fficient. Let us all support Airtel in this great initiative. Its time to go “e”!

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social entrepreneurship

Green Corporate

Lizu Matta

LizuMatta is a SOIL Gurgaon alumnus, and has a passion for entrepreneurship and leadership. She’s currently working as an HR Consultant People Strong HR services Pvt. Ltd. and can be reached at mattalizu@gmail.com.

ocial entrepreneurship is about bringing about social change on a large scale. Social entrepreneurs tackle existing problems that have been overlooked and create value from these to bring a significant change in the standard of living for people living below the poverty line. Social entrepreneurs are change agents and will inevitably bring about a revolution in society through their ventures. In the past, NGOs used to make a difference to the lives of the less fortunate. But the problem was that they didn’t have enough funds/resources to bring about impactful changes in society. Then came the social entrepreneurs, who took it upon themselves to revolutionize things. Social entrepreneurship requires having a social objective as the focal point of the venture. The objectives can address a range of areas including

education, healthcare, culture, microfinance etc. with the aim of providing tangible societal benefits. While business entrepreneurs aim to generate profits, social entrepreneurs aim to improve social values. They are very different from non-governmental organizations in the way they think, operate and look at results. They are built keeping in mind a vision, so that they can provide sustainable and long-term profits for society. They recognize when a particular section of the society is stagnating and offer innovative ways to break the rut. They investigate things that don’t work and alter the system to solve the existing problems. They see problems as opportunities while others might see problems as impossible challenges. They think for society as a whole and consider all the people as their stakeholders regardless of whether they are associated directly or indirectly with them. They look at providing holistic solutions/alternatives for the problems afflicting people in general.

Social Entrepreneurship makes use of business practices such as business planning, project management, marketing and sales for advancing social causes. As we move forward, we’ll keep you updated on the latest in Social Entrepreneurship.

“Modern technology Owes ecology An apology.” -Alan M. Eddison

tribals and their sustenance The Symbiotic Relationship

Tribals in India and elsewhere in the world share a close and symbiotic relationship with the Forest. These forests are the lifeline of the tribal people who completely depend on the forest and its goods for their sustenance. Since these forests provide them livelihood, it is quite natural for the tribal people to respect and even revere them. For instance, The Gonds in Gadchiroli in Maharashtra who have protected the forests for long time. However, the truth is that since the colonial rule, the basic rights of tribals have been denied and taken away by the government. It is quite natural when we remove the very people who have been linked with the forest for centuries it would definitely affect the ecosystem of the region. So through this article we would like to share the policy framed by the government to protect the tribal people. 1.) Supreme Court’s View on the Subject: The Supreme Court in Animal and Environment Legal Defence Fund v Union of India, 1996, observed that: ‘while every attempt must be made to preserve the fragile ecology of the forests and protect the tiger reserve, the tribal rights formerly living in the area to keep body and soul together must also receive proper consideration. Undoubtedly, every effort should be made to ensure that the tribal’s when resettled are in a position to earn their livelihood.’

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The Preconceived Notion:

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It was previously believed that the tribals are the main reason for the depletion of forests and thereby they should be not be allowed to live in the forests. However, this view was completely false. Today we know the role played by the tribals in protecting the forests. This view and the rights of tribals were also been discussed in the National Forest Policy, 1988 released by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Adhideb Bhattacharya and Ankit Srivastava Final year students at the University of Petroleum Studies (UPES), Dehradun. They harbour a keen interest in Indian Wildlife and Environmental Laws as well as Oil and Gas Laws.

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Protecting Tribal Rights

When the preconceived notion was finally broken the government came up with the new law providing the tribal people rights by framing ‘The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forests Rights) Act, 2006 and the ‘Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2008’. Under the ‘Scheduled Tribes Act, 2006’ the government provided the individual or community: 1.) The right of ownership, access to collect use and dispose of minor forest produce which has been traditionally collected within or outside the village boundaries. 2.) Community rights. 3.) Right to hold and live in forest land under the individual or common occupation for habitation or self cultivation for livelihood.

Right to protect, conserve or manage any community forest resource which they have

been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use etc. While under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2008 the government has proposed to create a special fund under the public accounts of India which shall be under the control of Central government and managed by the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority. The main purpose of the fund is to utilize the money for meeting the development, maintenance and protection of forests and wildlife and expense of the authority. The above Bill is yet to see the light of the day and we don’t see the bill turning into law anytime soon.

Conclusion

It is important for the government to protect the tribal rights because this in turn helps us protect both the flora and fauna of the ecosystem. In case they are resettled the government needs to provide them with adequate means to carry out their livelihood. The Supreme Court has stated in various judgments about the need for the protection of tribal rights and the need to progress towards development and maintain a balance between both of them while delivering the judgments on the same. However, there is a thin line dividing the tribals from the forest area which has to be taken care of and unless the government strongly enforces the present law and comes up with stringent law protecting the forest area and the rights of tribals, we are afraid that the tribals will be blamed for the depletion of the resources again, whereas the case would be entirely opposite.

“Man is a child of his environment” - Shinichi Suzuki

Organizational Update

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n the calendar of IYCN, August was a month marked with collective initiatives from a section of people determined to bring about sustainable living on the planet through various activities dedicated to preserving our environment.

Go Green Live Green Campaign by IYCN-Hyderabad

The shining Hyderabad team of IYCN showcased an incredible outreach from youth community, turning up in large numbers for their Go Green Live Green Campaign at People’s Plaza grounds near Necklace Road, Hyderabad. The campaign rolled out in partnership with HMDA (Hyderabad Metro Development Authority) on 13th of August with the theme of “Environment Protection and Lake Conservation’. It was aimed at spreading a message to people for adopting green lifestyle and values.

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To grace the occasion, eminent Guests of Honour, Mrs. C.S.Rama Lakshmi Garu who is serving in Indian Forest Services (IFS) as Commissioner of Sericulture along with Mr.K.Babu Rao Garu, retired as Scientist from IICT and Mr. Akbaruddin Garu, an IFS officer and OSD on special duty for HMDA’s Buddha Purnima Project were present. They embellished the event by delivering resource talks on various topics as youth responsibility in environment protection, lakes and their protection as well as current issues of climate change and its impact on our economy. The event was distinguished by numerous activities such as a Green pledge and a Green walk of about 1 km accompanied by a few participants on cycles as well.

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Climate Leadership Workshop in New Delhi

To build a force of young voices demanding a planet that depends less on fossil fuels, 350. org along with CLeaIN (Climate Leaders India Network) and IYCN successfully organized the second Climate Leadership workshop in New Delhi from 29th July to 31st July. It invited participation from young activists of different regions across the nation to be the torch-bearers for improving the planet by building a strong team of future climate leaders. There was a field visit organized to the Yamuna Flood plains where an interactive learning session with the local farmers was held. It provided deeper insights to the problems faced by them due to muddled and irrational government policies that led to poor farmers being evicted from their lands, harming nature’s harmony by destroying natural habitats and biodiversity via undesirable construction. Its success can be gauged by seeing the strong team that has been built and that is geared up for “Moving Planet” happening worldwide on 24th September!

‘Naya Swaraj’ Cycle Rally

With the growing concerns of climate change, a unique cycle rally ‘Naya Swaraj Cycle Yatra’ highlighting need for transitioning our farming practices into organic/sustainable ones and reducing dependency on fossil fuels has been organised by a group of young people from ‘Yes of Peace’, IYCN and 350.org. The spiritually awakening 20-days’ journey commencing 2nd September, 2011 will see 30 enthusiastic cyclists covering a distance of 850 Km from Sewagram to Mumbai across various towns and villages. Through the untold stories by local farmers in the villages, it aims at providing deep insight into issues concerning climate change, its causes and impacts in Maharashtra, generating awareness among farmers to carry out sustainable farming practices and ultimately pushing the Maharashtra government to adopt policies promoting clean and renewable energy sources and reducing consistent use of fossil fuels.

“Environments are not just containers, but are processes that change the content totally.” - Marshall McLuhann

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dehradunchapter Promoting Transparency and ensuring Accountability through RTI icare leads the way. It was on 21st April 2011 that the Dehradun chapter of icare, conducted the first of its kind - “RTI Awareness Programme” among the school students. Since then in the bid to promote transparency and ensuring accountability in the current administrative system icare has conducted the campaign with over tens of schools across the Doon valley namely Doon International, Pine Hall, Carman to name a few. It is notable to mention that the RTI Campaign since its inception has seen over 500 students being made aware about the effectiveness of the act which has been instrumental in exposing corruption be it the ever famous Delhi CWG 2010 or the Adarsh housing land scam in Maharashtra. The act

is one of its kinds which provides the students an opportunity to seek information from the various govt. Departments and a recent ruling by the Supreme Court ensures that University answer sheets are subject to disclosure and constitutes within the term information.

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The CEO of icare-India, Yudhishter Puran Singh stated, “So far people were helpless and could only curse the inefficiency and effectiveness of the system and be a mute spectator. But because of RTI Act, we have a right to question the government, inspect their work & files, take copies of government documents and make them answerable and thus accountable for the same”. Another cause of concern for me is the fact that legal awareness in our country is quite poor and as responsible stakeholders the onus is on us to give the youth a fair chance to lead the change, change that we all wish to see

making a difference in the society you all are a part of. It’s a real honor for me working with a team of such dedicated youngsters and kudos to Ankit and his team for taking stringent steps towards ensuring accountability and transparency in the current administrative machinery.

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but not many are willing to be a part of it. But with the support extended to Anna Hazare by the youth we are all hopeful things will change for the good in the times to come. The Youth Ambassador of icare, ‎Silky Jain asserted that, “I firmly believe that nobody can stop you from performing good deeds, and no power, leave aside politicians, can be a hindrance. If you believe in a cause, perform your individual duties and the rest shall take its own course and this is precisely what members of icare have done in the past few months through the RTI campaign. She further stated that “you could study in the best of colleges across the country, be as talented as anybody else but what matters eventually is how you are able to contribute towards

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Organizational Update

Ankit Srivastava, Divisonal President- Dehradun Chapter stated, “The RTI Act is the common man’s Brahmastra. It provides freedom to every citizen; secure access to information under the control of Public authorities. It also enables the common man to closely monitor the functioning of all the departments under the purview of either the Central or State Government. Monika Singh member of icare briefed about the experience in this campaign, “The program had a vision to reach out to the youth and explain them the importance of being aware of the constitutional right and give them a chance to be a part of the change. The students have over the past few months filed many RTI’s and thus are aware about the simplicity of the Act. Thus through this campaign icare has been able to address various problems of the people to the departments concerned. Thus we are enabling the people and mainly the students to combat corruption as the Act empowers the citizen of our country to actively participate in the governance of the society and give a befitting reply to corruption.

“Environments are not just containers, but are processes that change the content totally.” - Marshall McLuhann

Mould it like Ganesha The Hindu, August 31, 2011 The call for an eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi touched a crescendo this year with many groups showing the way.

Hyderabad is getting back to basics with a lot more enthusiasm this year. The persistent call to go green, bring home an eco-friendly Ganesha and break free of artificial colours and Plaster of Paris idols has struck an unmistakeable chord this year. Scour different areas of the city and you’re sure to stumble upon makeshift stalls in different colonies stocking clay idols in different sizes.

Get your hands dirty

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The last few days also witnessed a number of workshops where enthusiastic participants were taught to make their own clay Ganesha idols. G. Padma, project officer, National Green Corps, has seen the make-your-own-idol movement getting bigger each year. The National Green Corps, which has facilitated the participation of school children from 400 schools in the city through workshops from August 22 to 31, also reached out to other districts this year. “It’s been a daunting task with very few volunteers at NGC but a very rewarding one at that. Some of the school children who were trained in the previous years didn’t require fresh orientation. They helped by teaching other children. In addition to workshops, we also sent five-feet tall clay idols to 22 districts,” she says.

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The AP Pollution Control Board has taken clay idol stalls (the idols priced Rs. 5 onwards) to every neighbourhood possible and Hyderabad Goes Green opened online bookings well in advance. For those who still find it tough to step out and buy clay idols, FM channel Radio City asked listeners to send Text Message to get an idol delivered home. Big FM, on its part, urged listeners to donate old newspapers to help the channel make an idol from paper pulp. Want a dash of colour? Ethnic stores and a few stalls sell clay idols with natural dyes. As you soak in the festive cheer, take pride in going ecofriendly. That’s the way the festival was meant to be, before we succumbed to Plaster of Paris and chemical dyes.

A student paints an idol with natural dyes Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

Privately run institutions such as Treasure House and Kalanidhi Art School also conducted clay modelling workshops for children and adults, teaching them the nuances of creating idols with different textures of clay. Elsewhere, the Society for Awareness and Vision on Environment (SAVE) has been doing its bit for the last few years. “Since 2006, we’ve seen the number of people wanting clay idols growing. This year has been particularly heart warming. As opposed to last year when we made 500 five-feet clay idols, we sensed the spurt in demand and made 1000 idols. All of them have been booked. We also made 15,000 idols of nine-inch height for domestic use, which we are giving away for Re. 1 each,” says SAVE coordinator M. Surendranath. At the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority nursery, Erragadda, SAVE volunteers urge people to immerse idols in their homes rather than lakes.

Rhino killed by poachers in Kaziranga National Park JORHAT, August 30, 2011 A female rhino was killed by poachers in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and her horn taken away on Tuesday thus raising the toll of slain rhinos to nine this year in the State. The forest guards deployed in the Burapahar southern range of the 430 sq km KNP heard gunshots around 1.30 am and they immediately

replied with bullets, Park authorities said. An encounter ensued but the poachers decamped with the horn of the slain rhino, they said. The forest guards informed the Park authorities through wireless and additional patrolling parties were rushed from the headquarters.

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“Our focus is on taking the eco-friendly message to people who want larger idols for pandals since those will be immersed in the lakes,” adds Surendranath.

On launching a search operation, the carcass of the slain rhino with four bullet wounds and its horn cut and removed was recovered around 4.30 am, the sources said. The horns of the Indian rhinos are preferred over African rhinoceros horn as they fetch five to ten times higher price selling for up to Rs 1.5 million per kg in the clandestine international market, forest department sources said. Rhino horns also find a market in the Middle East where they are used as decorative handles of ornamental daggers, they added. The Great Indian Rhinoceros, found in Kaziranga and the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary near Guwahati, is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and Appendix I of Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Both the legislations prohibit domestic and international trade in the species. Meanwhile, the Assam government has recently entrusted the CBI to investigate the sudden increased incidence of rhino poaching in KNP, Pobitaora which has the highest density of rhino population in the world and Orang National Park where rhinos were translocated from KNP. Altogether 1,855 of the world’s estimated 2,700 rhinos are inhabitants of the world famed Kaziranga National Park.

“Every day is Earth Day.” - Author Unknow

HELLISHEIDI (ICELAND) August 28, 2011 A system to clean massive amounts of contamiDeScientists warn against looking for a climate fix Sometime next month, on the steaming fringes of an Icelandic volcano, an international team of scientists will begin pumping “seltzer water” into a deep hole, producing a brew that will lock away carbon dioxide forever.

The researchers caution that their upcoming 6-to12-month test could fall short of expectations, and warn against looking for a climate “fix” from CarbFix any year soon. In fact, one of the objectives of the project, whose main sponsors are Reykjavik’s city-owned utility and U.S. and Icelandic universities, is to train young scientists for years of work to come.

Chemically disposing of CO2, the chief greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, is a kind of 21st-century alchemy that researchers and governments have hoped for to slow or halt climate change.

A scientific overseer of CarbFix — the man, as it happens, who also is credited with coining the term “global warming” four decades ago — says the world’s failure to heed those early warnings, to rein in greenhouse-gas emissions from coal, gasoline and other fossil fuels, is driving scientists to drastic approaches.

The American and Icelandic designers of the “CarbFix” experiment will be capitalising on a feature of the basalt rock underpinning 90 per cent of Iceland — It is a highly reactive material that

“Whether we do it in the next 50 years, or the 50 years after that, we’re going to have to store carbon dioxide,” said Columbia University’s Wallace S. Broecker in an interview in New York. The world is already storing some carbon dioxide. As a byproduct of Norway’s natural gas production, for example, it is being pumped into a sandstone reservoir beneath the North Sea. But people worry that such stowed-away gas could someday escape, while carbon dioxide transformed into stone would not.

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FUTURISTIC VISION: A researcher conducts indoor experiments simulating the CarbFix test planned to begin in September.

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The experimental transformation will take place below the dramatic landscape of this place 29 km southeast of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital. On an undulating, mossy moor and surrounding volcanic hills, where the last eruption occurred 2,000 years ago, Reykjavik Energy operates a huge, 5-yearold geothermal power plant, drawing on 30 wells tapping into the superheated steam below, steam laden with carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.

CarbFix will first separate out those two gases, and the CO2 will be piped 3 km to the injection well, to combine with water pumped from elsewhere. That carbonated water — seltzer — will be injected down the well, where the pressure of the pumped water, by a depth of 1,600 feet, will completely dissolve the CO2 bubbles, forming carbonic acid. “The acid’s very corrosive, so it starts to attack the rocks,” explained University of Iceland geologist Sigurdur Reynir Gislason, CarbFix’s chief scientist. The basalt rock — ancient lava flows — is porous, up to 30 per cent open space filled with water. The carbonic acid will be pushed out into those pores, and over time will react with the basalt’s calcium to form calcium carbonate, or limestone. CarbFix’s designers, in effect, are radically speeding up the natural process called weathering, in which weak carbonic acid in rainwater transforms rock minerals over geologic time scales. The CarbFix team, beginning work in 2007, had to overcome engineering challenges, particularly in the inventive design and operation of the gas separation plant. They have applied for U.S. and Icelandic patents for that and for the injection well technique. They plan to inject up to 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide over 6 to 12 months and then follow how far the solution is spreading via tracer elements and monitoring wells. Eventually they plan to drill into the rock to take a core sampling.

Most rediscovered species still on the brink of extinction SINGAPORE, August 22, 2011 At least 351 species thought to be extinct have been rediscovered over the past 122 years, but

most of them remain on the brink of extinction due to an extensive loss of habitat, according to a study by Singapore’s National University (NUS). “Most rediscovered species have restricted ranges and small populations, and 92 per cent of amphibians, 86 per cent of birds, and 86 per cent of mammals are highly threatened, independent of how long they were missing or when they were rediscovered,” the university said in a statement.

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Efforts on to lock away CO2 forever

will combine its calcium with a carbon dioxide solution to form limestone: permanent, harmless limestone.

The rediscovery of once-missing amphibians, birds, and mammals occurred mostly in the tropAPThe large-billed, Reed-warbler, one of the world’s least known birds, which was rediscovered after 130 years. File photo

ics, according to the study conducted by researchers from NUS together with colleagues from the University of Adelaide and Princeton University. But “under the current trends of widespread habitat loss, particularly in the tropics, most rediscovered species remain on the brink of extinction,” warned the study. “Rediscoveries, without aggressive conservation, likely represent the delayed extinction of doomed species and not the return of viable populations,” said lead researcher Brett Schefflers from the department of Biological Sciences at NUS. “In short, there is hope but we must step up rapid conservation efforts.” The 351 analysed species on average had been missing for 61 years before being rediscovered, said the study, adding that “this long duration makes conservation planning for missing species very difficult.” “Protected areas that have been put aside for a particular species that has not been seen for numerous years could have been converted for agricultural use,” said the study published in One magazine of the Public Library of Science.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

Gujarat set to increase mangrove cover by 120 sq km AHMEDABAD, August 22, 2011 Gujarat’s environment and forests department is aiming to bring an additional area of 120 sq km along the state’s coastline under mangrove cover by the end of the financial year 2011-12. “We aim to carry out plantation of mangroves in 120 sq km area by the end of this year. This will increase the mangrove cover in Gujarat from the present 1,080 sq km to 1,200 sq km,” said Additional Chief Secretary, Environment and Forests, Dr S K Nanda. The plantation would stretch along the 1,600 km coastline of Gujarat, he said. At the meeting of the State Wildlife Board (SWD) last month, Chief Minister Narendra Modi had stressed on the need of taking up a mangrove conservation drive in right earnest, sources said. He had asked the forest department officials to focus on two projects: Biodiversity Wildlife Conservation and Integrated Coastal Area Mangrove Protection.

According to the Forest Survey of India - 2009, the highest mangrove cover in Gujarat is found in Kutch district (775 sq km), followed by Jamnagar (157 sq km) and Bharuch(42 sq km). The coastal districts of Surat, Valsad and Navasari in south Gujarat have the lowest mangrove cover. Mangroves comprise several salt-tolerant plant species that grow along the inter-tidal zones of rivers and seas, or estuarine habitats and river-deltas. They perform a vital role in nutrient recycling, coastal protection and fish breeding. They also provide firewood, timber, fodder, fruit, medicinal herbs, etc. Mangrove forests are considered to be the most productive and bio-diverse wetlands on the earth, Dr Nanda said. The species can survive in hostile environment and exhibit a variety of adaptations, he said, adding they keep the marine-ecology healthy. But at present, mangrove forests are considered to be among the most threatened habitats in the world.

Gujarat’s mangrove cover is the second largest in the country, after West Bengal.

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The Gujarat Ecology Commission is also actively participating in the plantation drive. It has helped in regeneration of mangrove forests through a community-based approach.

A file picture of a grey heron on a flight over a mangrove forest in Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo: K.R. Deepak

“Be the change you want to see in the world”

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- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Gourmet goes to Punjab Muse gives a gourmet touch to one of the most cherished cuisines in the world. The butter chicken and chicken tikka masala have made their way from the streets of Amritsar and Patiala all the way to Times Square and Buckingham Palace. Come and cherish the great heritage of desi ghee and makhan.

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Just a word of caution, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget to exercise afterwards.

HOTEL INDERLOK, ANEKANT PALACE, 29 RAJPUR ROAD, DEHRADUN FOR TABLE RESERVATIONS 99279 66344

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asktheexpert

We at icare-india, will facilitate our readers to ask opinions from our Law Experts regarding the social and legal issues of the country. In our ‘Ask the Experts’ column we have Mr. Vaibhav Gangiwale, Associate, from Khaitan and Co., Mumbai and Mrs. Namrata Walia, Human Resource, Kocchar and Kocchar to offer insights and suggestions on various current issues. Mr. Vaibhav graduated from Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad in 2011. He has been actively involved with various research projects at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, Dehradun, National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, Indian Institute of Forest Management and M.P Human Rights Commission. While, Mrs. Namrata Walia is a regular columnist for ‘expressions’. She has a passion and flair for writing on societal issues of the country. She is pursuing her PHD from Mumbai in Psychology and currently working in Kocchar and Kochhar, New Delhi.

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