Enviro Concerns

Mumbai abloom with rare palms

2007-06-03T20:34:00.000+05:30

Date:03/06/2007
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/03/stories/2007060300932200.htm

— Photo: PTI

A Talipot palm in Mumbai.

Mumbai: One of the world's largest palm trees, the Talipot, or Corypha umbraculifera, is abloom in different parts of Mumbai. They have flowered at the St. Francis d'Assissi Church compound in Borivali, Mazgaon, Goregaon, Vile Parle and at the Jijamata Udyan, the local zoo.

"This species... needs around 50 or 60 years... to bloom," plant taxonomist Dr. Suchandra Dutta said here on Saturday. "According to calculations... they produce about 12 million flowers, which contain more than 500 kg of seeds."

Once it bears fruits, the plant dies. It gradually uses up all the nutrient reserves accumulated in the trunk over the decades.

The Talipot is monocarpic, flowering only once when it is 30 to 80 years old. It takes about a year for the fruits to mature. There will be thousands of round yellow-green fruits, measuring to 3-4 cm in diameter. Each will have a single seed.

The flower is native to the Malabar coast and Sri Lanka, and is Sri Lanka's national tree. — PTI

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Whale shark in danger

2007-05-15T19:28:00.001+05:30

THE SPECIAL REPORT: Veraval: caught in a net

Whale shark in danger

D P Bhattacharya

Ahmedabad, May 12: ONLY a few months ago, fishermen in the coastal areas of Gujarat had pledged never to kill the whale shark again. But their harpoons are out again and once more they are ready for the hunt. That they had once ripped open their nets to release the "big fish", they remember.

The cry of "save the whale shark" rings only somewhere in the distance, muffled by a dire need for money.

More than Rs 90 crore as diesel subsidy for boats has been lying pending with the Gujarat State Fisheries Department for three years now. Money, the fishermen say, they could use after they gave up hunting the whale shark, which was sure to fetch a high price in the market.

"We had promised Murari Bapu not to hunt the whale shark," says Jitubhai Kuhada, president of Veraval Samast Kharva Samaj. "But if the government does not take steps to improve our condition, we'll have to apologise to Bapu and begin killing whale sharks again," he says.

While earlier, fishermen could get diesel at subsidised rates, they have been getting the fuel at full market rate for the last three years now, says Kishan Varidum, president of Shree Akhil Gujarat Machhimar Khamandal and Shree Kharva Sanyukta Machhimar Boat Association. "We had been promised that we would be paid later," says Varidum.

"We are yet to get a part of the money for 2005-06 and the entire amount meant for 2006-07, which comes to Rs 91 crore," he says, "On paper, they have declared quite a few schemes, but none has percolated to the fishermen..."

"A whale shark fetches as much as Rs 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh. It is way more expensive for us to let it go. Once a whale shark is caught we have to go to a forest official for verification and then release it. This costs us more than Rs 30,000," says Vasram Solanki, president of Bedia Koli Samaj Boat Association. "The Forest department gives us Rs 25,000 to release a whale shark, but even that money takes a lot of time to come".

Meanwhile, sources claim that clandestine killing of whale sharks is still on. "A few sharks are being hunted even now, though discreetly. But gathering evidence is difficult," they say.

Says P N Roychoudhury, Principal Secretary, Forest and Environment: "We have rewarded a few fishermen, who cut their nets to release whale sharks. But if they find the reward inadequate, it is really unfortunate... If worse comes to worse, the department will intensify vigil along the coastline and tie up with Coast Guards to keep a tab on fishermen. Cases where sharks are harmed will be dealt with a firm hand."

Gujarat Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Bhupendrasinh Chudasma assured that he will look into the matter of subsidy and expedite the release of money. "We want to pay them as early as possible but the money comes from the Centre," says Chudasma.
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Polo Forest Reserve - Volunteer Training Camp

2007-05-06T05:39:00.000+05:30

Hii,

I'm just back from the camp.... it was hell fun for me. What I learnt?

Lots of eco-games,
Teaching tactics,
Handling kids/participants of all ages(i'm not perfect with BIG ppl....i like kids),
Organisational Setup,
Volunteer Responsibilities,
lot lot lot more....

What I need to do?

Document it all. So, I'll be putting a link here on the blog to another blog or an additional note where I will document all this stuff. Only way I can achieve this would be going through the timetable all over.... gonna be a helluva job... but still gotta do that.... as its a must for the future use of the knowledge and its conversion into wisdom....

and i'll do tht.... i'm a bit more disciplined now??

may be yes. thanks to the super-strict, sturdy, moustached guy called Mayur Mistry(with a stick in his hand....lol). jokes apart, i'm greatly happy after the learning experience with Mayurbhai.

China to lift ban on tiger parts sale???

2007-04-26T10:15:00.000+05:30

China's tiger farm lobby wants sale ban lifted
IANS[ MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2007 11:00:47 AM ]

KATHMANDU: India and Nepal are likely to be great jeopardy with the news that China's powerful tiger farm lobby is stepping up pressure on the government to lift its 14-year-old ban on the sale of tiger parts, wildlife experts have warned.

"Fifty years ago, China had the highest number of wild tigers," says Susan Lieberman, director of WWF International' s Global Species Programme. "Today, the number has come down to about 20, which are increasingly moving towards the Russian forests in search of safety."

Traditionally, China has been the biggest consumer of tiger bones, hunting down the big cats for their bones, which the Chinese believe have medicinal qualities.

Though the Chinese government banned the trade in tiger parts in 1993, wildlife experts say new illegal markets are opening in the communist republic with restaurants, boutiques and gift shops advertising tiger meat dishes, fur robes and even wines said to have been made by dipping tiger carcasses in rice wine.

In a bid to circumvent the ban, individuals with and without government funding began establishing tiger farms in China. Some tiger products available in China claim they used tigers that died of natural causes in the farms. Currently, over 100 tiger farms, which have nearly 5,000 captive tigers, have begun pressuring the government afresh to lift the ban.

This month, the Global Tiger Forum, an inter-government group comprising countries with tiger populations, met in Kathmandu to plan its strategies where an official from the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China began lobbying for lifting the ban.

"There is considerable need for tiger bone to cure diseases like rheumatic arthritis," says Jia Qian, the official. "Legalisation of the use of farmed tiger bone may meet the market demand and significantly reduce illegal trade by cutting down its price."

However, 30 organisations around the world, which have united under the International Tiger Coalition to oppose the lobbying, say tiger farming will boost poaching of the big cats since many consumers think the wild tiger's potency can't be found in the tame ones.

Between 1999 and 2005, nearly 650 kg of tiger and leopard bones were seized from China, India and Nepal.

Since both India and Nepal are not traditional consumers of tiger or leopard bone or skin, it is assumed that the caches were intended for China. This month, the smuggling of precious red sandalwood from India to China via Nepal exposed the existence of a well-organised international smuggling network with the security and customs officials of all three countries on its payroll.

"If China lifts the ban on tiger trade, Nepal and India's wildlife will be endangered," says Lieberman.

"Instead of lifting the ban, the law enforcement agencies of countries sharing a border need to collaborate and share information to curb smuggling."

Source: http://economictime s.indiatimes. com/News/ International_ _Business/ Chinas_tiger_ farm_lobby_ wants_sale_ ban_lifted/ articleshow/ 1942156.cms

Laurie Baker, I salute!

2007-04-26T10:00:00.000+05:30

Master Builder

The moral origins of Laurie Baker’s art

Amrith Lal

Laurie Baker, who passed away in Thiruvananthapuram a few days ago, is relevant for a world that is threatened by global warming. His futuristic vision of India, encapsulated in his buildings and ideas of architecture, emphasised efficiency in the use of materials and energy, improvisation and adaptation of local craft and artisanal traditions, and the needs of millions of homeless. The hundreds of houses, churches and public buildings he designed and constructed offer a rare example of an equitable and sustainable architecture.

Baker has spoken about the influence of a Quaker upbringing and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi in his life. In an autobiographical essay, he recalled how Gandhi took fancy to the Chinese shoes he had made of cut waste clothes when they met the first time. Gandhi invited him to come and work in India after the war. One can deduce from the encounter that Baker shared some of Gandhi’s economic ideas even before they had met in person. The Quaker roots had inculcated in him an appreciation of labour and austerity.

One does not know if Baker shared Gandhi’s interest in the British philosopher, John Ruskin. However, there is an imprint, conscious or otherwise, of Ruskin in Baker’s work, especially the ideas expressed by the former in his writings on the Gothic. Ruskin suggests three rules to test the desirability of a product: One, never encourage the manufacture of any article not absolutely necessary, in the production of which invention has no share; two, never demand an exact finish for its own sake, but only for some practical or noble end; three, never encourage imitation or copying of any kind, except for the sake of preserving records of great works. These, we can see, formed the core of Baker’s work ethic.

The contribution of Baker to Gandhian praxis is similar to that of the economist J C Kumarappa. Unlike with Kumarappa’s formulations on the village industries, Baker’s ideas found a wider audience. As in the case of Kumarappa, it was Gandhi who gave a political orientation to Baker’s professional skills. Baker’s experiences within the Quaker community may have prepared the ground for him to relate to Gandhi and understand science in moral categories. His pacifism was also shaped by the belief that the science which disrupted the order of life negatively ought to be shunned. He was always supportive of campaigns that sought to expose the false science of our times. He wrote with equal passion on the need for an essential architecture and the immorality of a nuclear bomb. The aesthetic and wholesomeness of his buildings and concepts were a reflection of his philosophy of life. In the essay,Architecture and the People,Baker summed up his work practice in four points. One, he had a clear idea of his clients and their needs. To him, they did not exist as social and economic categories; they were not high income groups or tribals, but people with names and personalities. He once said that he could recall the names of all those for whom he had built houses. Two, no one has the right to waste money, materials and energy in a country like India. Three, people have the ‘‘inherent and inherited ability’’ to know what good architecture is. Architects, he felt, could and should learn from ordinary people. Four, design has to be organic; it has to be transferred from the field to the drawing table and not the other way. He wrote that, ‘‘good or bad design, or good or bad taste has little to do with colour, or form, or texture, or costliness — but that has only to do with honesty and truth in the choice of materials and the method of using them’’. His concepts of architecture and design were not utilitarian; he only reiterated that utility and aesthetics can comfortably coexist.

There is a fundamental critique of the way knowledge is currently understood, acquired, valued and practised in Baker’s work. He did not respect the hierarchies implicit in the use of modern knowledge. He acknowledged traditional wisdom and was constantly learning and adapting it in his work practices. The divide between thought and manual labour was for him a false one. He designed his buildings in such a way that they would ‘‘fit in with the local styles and not be an offence to the eyes of the people’’. The housing projects Baker undertook for the poor were in sharp contrast to the government housing projects. His homes were lived in whereas the sarkari concrete huts ended up being used as cattle sheds and storehouses.

In one sense,Baker was a lucky man.Gandhian ideas of social and economic reconstruction were on the retreat by the time Baker began to build. Baker’s low-cost architecture was in sharp contrast to the promise of big science. However, he found a powerful backer in C Achyuta Menon, the communist leader and chief minister of Kerala, and the Archbishop of Thiruvananthapuram when he settled in Kerala in the 1960s.

The Baker model of a low-cost housing revolution to address the needs of the poor found a lot more takers among a moneyed elite in the later years. The joke about the upwardly mobile Malayalee seeking a Baker model house with an exorbitant budget explains the complex nature of his acceptance among people. People may have only bought in to the form of his architecture, and not the vision behind it. A construction company offered tributes to him with a frontpage ad in a leading Malayalam daily on the day his death was reported. Of course, the master builder would have smiled at the irony.

Text Source: TOI Editorial , A'bad Edition, 21 April, 07.

Of architectural truths and lies

2007-04-26T09:47:00.000+05:30

Pictures of his works are arbitarily placed.

Laurie Baker

When I am designing a new building, there are a few basic principles that guide me.

The first, of course, is that I want to get to know my client and what is in his mind. If he merely wants to show off or flaunt his wealth, I don't take him on. Otherwise, I enjoy getting to know him (or her, a family, an institution or even a Government department).

If it is to design a house, I want to know the client's eating habits. Do they all eat together at regular times? Or is it a smash-and-grab affair? I also want to know about the bedroom. Do they merely use it to sleep in? Or does he do his writing in one cor ner (like me) and his wife do her sewing or embroidery in another corner?
I always want to see, right at the beginning of our association together, their building site. Not only do I want to know what sort of a site it is (is the land level or sloping?) and what trees there are, but I also ask whether they desire a good view, a garden and whether they keep animals. I want to know about the water supply and from which direction the breeze and rain come from. And I have to always keep in mind that it is they who are going to use the building and not me.

Then I have my own principles, which I am unwilling to abandon. I dislike falsehood and deceit. A building should be truthful. As a typical example, I can think of many "big" buildings, say, in the Thiruvananthapuram Central road.

One building that immediately comes to my mind is three or four storeys high - it is a reinforced concrete frame structure, and between the columns and beams there are windows and brick-work. The bricks are plastered and painted all over. The front of the building, facing the main road, is covered all over with bits of flat stone, to look like crazy paving. So the whole building is actually deceitful - it is a concrete-and- brick structure, but neither material is visible.

I am, of course, asked what I would have done for such a structure. First of all, I would not have used a reinforced concrete frame structure. I would have used brick, and this is perfectly capable of carrying four storeys. Brick has a variety of colours, and I would want it to be seen and not covered over with plaster and paint. If the client must have his crazy paving, I would have put it on the ground.

I rarely build high-rise buildings. Once I did one - the library at the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram. Eight-storeyed, it did need a frame structure. This is visible and forms part of the design. Brick was the obvious wall-making material. So between the concrete, everything is brick. After 25 years, the building is still clean and looks new, with no stains and dirt as is invariably seen on plastered walls after a very short time.

On the subject of material, I would like to mention what I consider as one of the most foolish architectural lies that anyone can imagine - build a brick building, then plaster it all over and paint bricks on the plaster to make it look like a brick building! How stupid can we be! There are several such prominent buildings in Thiruvananthapuram.

My next principle is to use locally-available material. If the area makes good bricks, use them. If I want to build in an area full of laterite or stone, I would use it. This is not only economical, but the building would also look as though it belongs; it would not sport an imported look.

Also connected with local material is the whole aspect of local traditional plans, designs and building techniques, which have evolved over hundreds of years. Unsatisfactory design and usage have been abandoned and ideal material and designs have, by trial and error, remained and coped with the local terrain, climate and cultural patterns of living. So why abandon these for expensive, unsuitable energy-intensive material, merely to look "modern"?

In Kerala we have fierce sun and heavy rain. So the typical logic al, effective roof is a huge umbrella to protect the interior and the walls. This is just pure common sense. So I don't want to leave off the overhanging roof, the kind that our ancestors built, for the sake of "looking modern".

As far as buildings are concerned, we are a poor country. There are probably between 40 and 50 million families here without homes. So to me it is not only foolish but wicked to waste material. So one of my main principles is to avoid waste. Plaster costs approximately 10 per cent of the cost of a "normal" building and once plastered, your client is committed to an annual expenditure for upkeep and painting.

Plaster may be necessary in a few areas, for example in a bathroom or a kitchen. But not all over both sides of every wall. So why go on doing it everywhere all the time? Windows are costly, a gate is just as effective in a corridor or staircase. Do you need all the doors that are usually built into a house (each one, which necessitates unnecessary use of timber and paint, costing several thousand rupees)? In a master-bedroom with its attached bathroom, is the door necessary? Do you have to lock yourself in the bathroom? Wouldn't a curtain be adequate?

The other big principle is to avoid as much as possible energy-intensive material (that is, material that requires a lot of fuel in their manufacture) . India just does not have enough "energy" (i.e., fuel). Our coal is concentrated in the East and is not plentiful for the whole country. Iron ore, we have mountains of it, but we don't have enough fuel to convert it into all the steel we use. We have very little oil and have to import it from the Gulf.

Cement uses a lot of energy to be produced from limestone and calcium, whereas lime from the same basic material and with an ultimate strength as good as cement, uses almost no fuel at all. We all cry out about the destruction and depletion of our forests for timber. Forests can be replaced, but not the iron ore and the limestone. So which is the more "eco-friendly" ?

Source: http://www.hinduonn et.com/folio/ fo9908/99080300. htm

India-Northeast-Rhinos Poaching

2007-04-26T09:44:00.000+05:30

Wildlife authorities at a national park in India's northeastern state of Assam have sounded a maximum alert with poachers killing six endangered one-horned rhinos since January, including two this month, officials Monday said.

"Six rhinos poached in about 100 days, including two of the beasts killed in the past week, is a matter of grave concern. A security alert has been sounded," park warden Utpal Bora said.

The 430 square-kilometer (166 square-miles) park, 220 km east of Assam's main city of Guwahati, is now home to the single largest population of the one-horned rhinoceros.

As per latest figures, some 1,855 of the worlds estimated 2,700 such herbivorous beasts lumber around the wilds of Kaziranga -- their numbers ironically making the giant mammals a favourite target for poaching.

"We are certain that the recent cases of hunting the rhinos for their horns were done at the behest of a very organized international poaching syndicate who has pumped in lot of funds to attract shooters to kill the animals," the warden said.

"We have mobilized all the resources available and have stepped up security in the park. The local villagers have joined us in our fight against poaching," another park ranger said.

Organized poachers kill rhinos for their horns, which many believe contain aphrodisiac qualities, besides being used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of South Asia.

Rhino horn is also much fancied by buyers from the Middle East who turn them into handles of ornamental daggers, while elephant ivory tusks are primarily used for making ornaments and decorative items.

Profits in the illegal rhino horn trade are staggering, rhino horn sells for up to 1.5 million rupees per kilogram in the international market.

The fresh incidents of poaching come at a time when park authorities believed the endangered one-horned rhinos were charging back from the brink of extinction.

"There was a time when poachers slaughtered about 50 rhinos annually in the early 1990s. But things have slowed down in recent years due to stepped up vigil and now all off a sudden we see a spurt in poaching again," Bora said.

Five rhinos were poached last year, while seven were killed in 2005.

According to government estimates about 500 of the beasts were killed by poachers during the past two decades.

Source: http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-16/0704167270184913.htm

2007-04-14T10:03:00.001+05:30

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2007-04-14T09:58:00.001+05:30

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't
matter, and those who matter don't mind."

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An hymn to Morning

2007-04-08T17:10:00.001+05:30

An Hymn To The Morning

ATTEND my lays, ye ever honour'd nine,
Assist my labours, and my strains refine;
In smoothest numbers pour the notes along,
For bright Aurora now demands my song.
Aurora hail, and all the thousand dies,
Which deck thy progress through the vaulted skies:
The morn awakes, and wide extends her rays,
On ev'ry leaf the gentle zephyr plays;
Harmonious lays the feather'd race resume,
Dart the bright eye, and shake the painted plume.
Ye shady groves, your verdant gloom display
To shield your poet from the burning day:
Calliope awake the sacred lyre,
While thy fair sisters fan the pleasing fire:
The bow'rs, the gales, the variegated skies
In all their pleasures in my bosom rise.
See in the east th' illustrious king of day!
His rising radiance drives the shades away--
But Oh! I feel his fervid beams too strong,
And scarce begun, concludes th' abortive song.

Phillis Wheatley

Trawling Industry threatens Turtle Nestings

2007-04-05T17:12:00.000+05:30

Not so shocking & anger inviting piece of news.

Trawling, Industry Threaten India Turtle Nesting

April 04, 2007

By Simon Denyer, Reuters

DEVI, India -- The scattered carcasses of dead turtles bake on the hot sand. Scraps of the white shells of turtle eggs surround a hole where stray dogs have dug up a nest. Until a decade ago, this beach on India's east coast used to witness one of nature's most spectacular sights -- the mass nesting of tens of thousands of Olive Ridley turtles on a single night.

Not since 1995 has that happened. These days just a handful of turtles come to the beach at Devi to nest, and its status as one of three main nesting sites for the Olive Ridleys in India's coastal state of Orissa is under threat.

Orissa is one of the few remaining mass nesting sites for the Olive Ridleys in the world. But the situation on its other beaches is not much better, with turtles falling victim to government neglect and rapid industrialisation. Fewer turtles than normal arrived this year at the nearby beaches of Gahirmatha, where a marine sanctuary has failed to check illegal fishing by trawlers, and the construction of a large port nearby presents a major environmental threat.

No mass nesting has yet been seen on the southern beach of Rushikulya, and time is running out if that beach is not to witness its third "no-show" in just over a decade. At the same time more than 8,000 carcasses have been washed ashore since November, most caught and drowned in the nets of trawlers fishing too close to the shore, conservationists say. "Because of an increase in human activity in the sea and along the coast, the very survival of Orissa's sea turtles is at stake," said Biswajit Mohanty of the Society of Orissa.

Greenpeace says more than 120,000 turtles have been washed up dead on Orissa's shores in the past 12 years, most caught in the nets of trawlers which the law says should not be there. Total deaths may have been significantly higher. The trawlers also scatter the turtles as they gather in offshore waters to nest, and rampant trawling is thought to be a major reason for the demise of Devi.

But although turtles enjoy the same level of protection under Indian law as tigers, Mohanty said there was simply no enforcement or political will to protect them. A single gill net was found to contain 265 dead animals a few years ago. "Boats are seized, nets are seized, but then they are released after a couple of months," he said. "Not a single conviction has taken place."

Other factors are at work too. The forest department may unwittingly have contributed to the demise of Devi when they planted casuarina trees on the beach in a bid to protect nearby villages from cyclones. That narrowed the beach and made much of it unsuitable for nesting. Natural erosion of the beach at Rushikulya, steepening the incline, may have discouraged landings this year.

But at Devi, traditional fishermen hate the trawlers every bit as much as Mohanty. They say their catch has fallen sharply since trawlers came and is worth perhaps half what it was five years ago, while more expensive fish like pomfret and hilsa have all but vanished. They eagerly show Reuters how easily their flimsy nets rip, showing they present no danger to the turtles, unlike the multi-fibre nets of the industrial boats. "We want the turtles to remain, because wherever there are turtles there are fish," said 32-year-old Jagabondhu Behra.

This is evidence, Greenpeace says, that it is not a question of pitting people against turtles. Some areas like Gahirmatha need to be protected to allow fish stocks room to recover, but in other areas a balance can be struck. In 2004 the Supreme Court recommended that trawlers be kept at least 20 km (12 miles) away from nesting beaches, but traditional fishermen be allowed closer to shore.

The rules, which strike a balance between conservation and livelihood concerns, are supported by Greenpeace but ignored by trawlermen. "There is no reason to subscribe to the defeatist attitude that the problem cannot be tackled unless either turtles or fishermen are sacrificed," said Sanjiv Gopal of Greenpeace.

Challenged on the subject, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said he was unaware that laws meant to protect turtles were not being enforced. The response failed to impress campaigners who say they have been petitioning him on the subject for years. Yet there is another and potentially even more serious threat to the Olive Ridleys' future in Orissa.

The state, one of India's poorest, is rushing to industrialise and exploit its vast mineral wealth. Plans are advanced to open seven new ports, including what could become the biggest on the east coast at Dhamra, just 12 km (7 miles) from the Gahirmatha sanctuary. Oil exploration has also begun off the coast, before studies have been completed of the effects on turtle migration. This year just 140,000 turtles nested at Gahirmatha, Mohanty said, compared to 230,000 the year before. "We are very convinced turtles will eventually abandon the nesting beach," he said. "They are never going to adapt to that level of disruption."

Source: Reuters
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Tiny animal halts billion dollar mine

2007-04-01T19:43:00.000+05:30

EXTINCTION THREAT

Tiny animal halts billion dollar mine

Michael Perry

Sydney: A blind spider-like animal has stopped development of a multi-billion-dollar iron ore mine in Australia. This is after an environmental body rejected the project fearing that the tiny cavedweller would become extinct.

Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) rejected the proposal by Robe River — a unit of mining giant Rio Tinto — to develop the iron ore mine near Pannawonica in the Pilbara region after the company unearthed troglobites there, which measure just 4 millimetres (0.16 in) in length.

A troglobite is an animal that lives only in the dark parts of caves. It has adapted to life in total darkness and may have no eyes or pigmentation, using feelers to explore its way through the dark.

Troglobites are unable to live outside their pitch-dark world due to risk of death from exposure to ultraviolet light. Even short term exposures to sunlight can be fatal.

“Extensive research and sampling conducted by the proponent has identified a number of new species of troglobitic fauna,” EPA chairman Wally Cox said. An EPA report into the project found 11 species of troglobites in the area and said mining would extinguish at least five of them. The EPA judged that a proposed mining exclusion zone at the site would be inadequate to protect the tiny animal or aboriginal heritage in the area. “There is also concern over the long term structural stability of the landform post-mining,” said the EPA report. Rio Tinto said it would appeal against the decision. “It is a significant project, so we will appeal,” a spokesman said, adding, “This decision is a part of being in the mining business. We support the EPA process in general.”

Robe River already mines iron ore in nearby areas in the Robe River Valley. It currently produces 32 million tonnes per annum of ore, but the existing deposit will be exhausted by 2010. The new iron ore mine, with an expected life of 10 years, is planned as a replacement mine and is predicted to produce 220 million tonnes.

REUTERS

Chernobyl-based birds avoid radioactive nests

2007-03-29T23:51:00.000+05:30

Chernobyl-based birds avoid radioactive nests

00:01 28 March 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic

The nest boxes were all in the Red Forest, a few kilometres from Chernobyl’s reactor 4 which exploded in 1986 .

The nest boxes were mounted on trees, between 1.5 m and 2 m above the ground. Pied flycatchers (B) were more picky about avoiding nest boxes with higher levels of background radioactivity than great tits (A) .

Birds in Chernobyl choose to nest in sites with lower levels of background radioactivity, researchers discover, but how they can tell remains a mystery.

Anders Møller at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France, and Tim Mousseau at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, US, erected more than 200 nest boxes in the Red Forest, about 3 kilometres away from the nuclear reactor that exploded in 1986.

Using these artificial nests, they studied at the nesting habits of two species of birds – the great tit Parus major and the pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca – between 2002 and 2003.

Moller and Mousseau wanted to see if either species would differentiate between nesting sites that had high and low levels of background radioactivity. The patchy distribution of background radioactivity in the area (due to the fact that radioactive material from the explosion did not settle uniformly) meant the nest boxes could be in very similar locations, with similar food supplies, but have widely varying levels of background radioactivity. Levels at some nest sites were as much as 2000 times natural levels elsewhere in the world.

Deformed sperm

The researchers found that both species had a definite preference for nest boxes with low radioactivity, with the pied flycatcher seemingly more sensitive than the great tit (see chart, bottom right).

Previous research done by Mousseau and colleagues (Trends in Ecology and Evolution, DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2006.01.008) showed that higher radioactivity results in lower levels of antioxidants and also deformed sperm in barn swallows around Chernobyl. It therefore makes sense for birds to avoid more radioactive sites.

"It is not entirely clear exactly how the birds are able to tell which boxes are most contaminated", says Mousseau, adding that determining this will be very difficult without experimental manipulations.

Wildlife boom

A spokesperson for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told New Scientist that the study is interesting, but points out the unexpected benefits of the Chernobyl explosion. Reports show that the large human exclusion zone around the site has led to a boom in animal populations, including eagles, wolves and bears.

"Whatever effect the radioactivity is having, it seems to be less of a threat than human activities, such as agriculture," said the spokesperson.

"There have been few rigorous scientific analyses of background radiation and the natural abundance of species," responds Mousseau. "But every rock we turn over, every survey we do, we find some previously unreported effect of background radiation."

Immigrant influx

Mousseau believes that the reports of sustained animal populations around Chernobyl mask fluctuations within the populations.

He says studies he has carried out looking at where the barn swallow populations in Chernobyl come from suggest that "the populations are mostly sustained by immigrant birds", rather than birds returning to their nesting sites as they normally would.

So an overall picture showing constant population size could hide the fact that the local population is dwindling but being constantly replenished by neighbouring ones.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society: B (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.0005)

Source URL: http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11473?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn11473

Rare species spotted in JNU's biodiversity park

2007-03-27T23:44:00.000+05:30

New Delhi, March. 25 (PTI): The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here has of late got a strange occupant that is catching the attention of zoologists.

A palm civet, an endangered species more commonly known as 'musang', was first spotted in the campus by Surya Prakash of the varsity's Life Sciences Department.

Prakash, who spotted the species last Friday, said it was interesting to find the animal in the national capital.

"I spotted the animal during the day, though it is a nocturnal creature, but what is more interesting is to find it in Delhi. It's an endangered species and Delhi is not listed in the places where it is found," he told PTI.

According to the Wildlife Institute of India, the palm civet is found in parts of Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam and Andhra Pradesh.

"The JNU campus is full of fruit trees and has human habitation. This is the natural habitat for the palm civet and that could be the precise reason why it was found here," Prakash said.

Of late, the university has found a place in the capital's listed birding destinations. Its lush green campus is home to 125 species of birds and 40 species of butterflies.

Some rare species of birds that can be spotted there are Yellow Wattled Lapwing, Sirkeer Malkoha, Golden Oriole, Black Francolin, Alexandrine Parakeet, Plum Headed Parakeet, Yellow Crowned Woodpecker and Flameback White Capped Bunting Horned Owl.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200703251121.htm

Butterflies' migration to halt Taiwan's traffic

2007-03-26T20:06:00.000+05:30

By The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan will cordon off part of a highway to create a safe passage for a massive seasonal butterfly migration in the coming days, an official said Saturday.
The milkweed butterflies — which are indigenous to the island off China and have distinct white dots on purple-brown wings — migrate in late March from southern Taiwan to the north, where they lay eggs and die.

Milkweed butterflies migrate in late March from southern Taiwan to the north, where they lay eggs and die. Taiwanese officials are going to great lengths to ensure safe passage this year.

The young butterflies then fly south every November to a warm mountain valley near the southern city of Kaohsiung to escape the winter cold.

Conservationists say Taiwan has about 2 million milkweed butterflies.

To protect the migrating butterflies, a 600-yard stretch of highway in southern Taiwan's Yunlin County will be sealed off in the coming days as the migration peaks, said Lee Tai-ming, head of the National Freeway Bureau.

Authorities will set up nets to make the butterflies fly higher and avoid passing cars, Lee said.
He said they will also install ultraviolet lights to guide the insects across an overpass.
Taiwan began the laborious task of tracking down the butterflies' 180-mile migration paths in recent years.

Taiwan originally had more types of milkweed butterflies, but the largest became extinct decades ago when they were routinely caught and made into specimens for sale.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

Sounds like Sci-Fi.... No! Its Nature's Wonder

2007-03-09T01:20:00.001+05:30

Sea squirt fragment regenerates entire body

01:00 06 March 2007
From New Scientist Print Edition.
Rowan Hooper

Salamanders have a cool trick if they lose their tail: they simply grow a new one. Yet they are some way off the top of the league when it comes to such running repairs. Some creatures can regenerate an entire body from mere fragments of the old one.

It was thought that only simple beasts such as jellyfish and sponges have this talent. Now sea squirts (Botrylloides leachi), the closest invertebrate relative to vertebrates, have been found to do it, too.

Inhabiting shallow coastal waters, sea squirts form colonies of genetically identical individuals. Ram Reshef and Yuval Rinkevich of the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and colleagues took fragments of blood vessels from the animals and watched under a microscope.

Out of 95 fragments they examined, 80 underwent whole body regeneration (WBR). Cells first grouped into hollow spheres, then cell layers in-folded and organs developed until after two weeks an adult sea squirt had grown, capable of sexual reproduction.

“To think that even one attached blood vessel survives storm damage and regenerates the entire colony,” says Reshef. “What an advantage this provides!”

In other animals, the signals that trigger WBR are transmitted from a central point, but in sea squirts they arise from multiple locations. Reshef suggests the discovery may help illuminate regeneration abilities that have been lost or suppressed in vertebrates.

Journal reference: PLoS Biology (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050071)

Source URL:http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11311?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn11311

Survival of the fittest, physically? or mentally?

2007-03-09T01:17:00.000+05:30

'Chastity belts' block rival sperm in female spiders
12:12 06 March 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi

Some male spiders up-and-leave right after sex for good reason – they risk being eaten by their female partners if they linger too long. In the process of making a swift exit, many leave part of their genitalia inside their mates.

Now a new study reveals that detaching part of the genital organ is not a means to help the male escape a murderous attack. Instead, the abandoned genitals act as "chastity belts" and block the entry of sperm from competitors into the female.

Gabriele Uhl at the University of Bonn, Germany, and colleagues watched wasp spiders (Argiope bruennichi) mate. During the act, a male must insert one of its two sperm-carrying organs, known as pedipalps, into the female’s genital openings. After delivering the sperm, the tip of the pedipalp becomes stuck inside the female, forming a plug in her reproductive tract.
To find out if leaving behind part of the pedipalp helped the males escape death, researchers compared the damage to this organ during first-time sexual encounters with damage sustained in subsequent encounters.

Evolutionary benefit

The experienced males monitored in the experiment had mated once before and only had a single remaining pedipalp intact. These males would enjoy no evolutionary benefit from surviving after mating a second time because they have generally lost both of their pedipalps at this point, and can therefore no longer inseminate females.

According to Uhl, if detaching the pedipalp did offer a survival benefit, one would expect to see it happen more among virgin males, which could mate again, than experienced males, which could not. But the researchers found an equal amount of pedipalp damage among these two groups.
They therefore concluded that detachment of the pedipalp tip cannot significantly enhance a male spider’s chance of escaping attack by his mate.

Uhl’s team also found that a pedipalp tip left inside a female affected how long she copulated for in subsequent encounters. Normally virgin females mate for about 16 seconds, but those with a pedipalp plug mate for only half as long.

This is important because female spiders are more likely to deliver the offspring of those males with which they copulate longest, Uhl says.

She concludes that the pedipalp plug acts as a chastity belt to prevent sperm from competing spiders from entering the females. Uhl's group has also found other types of wasp spiders with a similar "plugging mechanism".

Journal reference: Behavioral Ecology (DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ar1074)

Source URL :http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11319?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn11319

Save a life by donating your baby's cord blood

2007-03-04T16:41:00.000+05:30

BY LAURAN NEERGAARD
Posted Monday, February 26, 2007
Source URL :http://www.dailyherald.com/health/story.asp?id=285342

Flyers in upscale doctors' offices portray it as the hot new baby-shower gift: a registry where friends and family chip in almost $2,000 to start privately banking a newborn's umbilical cord blood, just in case of future illness.

That idea of biological insurance is a long shot that most mothers-to-be can safely ignore, say new guidelines from the nation's pediatricians that urge more parents to donate their babies' cord blood - so that it might save someone's life today.

The guidelines come as the government begins setting up the first national cord-blood banking system, aiming to prevent some 12,000 deaths a year - if public banks can compete with marketing-savvy private companies that now house the bulk of the world's preserved cord blood.

Cord blood is rich in stem cells, the building blocks that produce blood - and the same stem cells that make up the bone-marrow transplants that help many people survive certain cancers and other diseases. But cord blood has some advantages: These younger stem cells are more easily transplanted into unrelated people than bone marrow is, and they can be thawed at a moment's notice, much easier than searching out a bone-marrow donor.

There should be plenty for both private and public banking, says an optimistic Dr. Elizabeth Shpall of the public M.D. Anderson Cord Blood Bank. After all, cord blood from most of the nation's 4 million annual births is thrown away.

Chief hurdles: Improving consumer awareness - and the small number of hospitals that allow donations.

Her own work illustrates the industry's stark socio-economic contrasts: At Houston's Ben Taub General Hospital, Shpall finds the mostly Hispanic mothers-to-be not only unable to afford private banking - few have even heard that cord blood has a medical use.

Armed with a $3 million federal grant to improve much-needed minority donations, she is working with Spanish-language TV and radio programs that in a few months will begin telling Houston moms about their cord blood choices, and which hospitals allow donations.

Her message: "Unless you have a family member with cancer, it's unlikely you would ever need it, and you would be doing a service to humanity to donate it."

Today, about 50,000 cord blood donations are stored in more than 20 public banks around the country. The new National Cord Blood Inventory aims to triple that number, enough that virtually anyone who needs stem cell treatment could find a match - especially minority patients who today seldom can as most bone marrow donors are white.

Private banks have an estimated 400,000 units stored.

What's the controversy? Deciding who really needs to store a child's own cord blood for later use. Private storage costs $1,500 to $1,900 up front, and about $125 a year thereafter, although some offer special programs for lower-income families.

Guidelines published last month by the American Academy of Pediatrics say:

• Parents should consider private storage only if an older sibling has cancer or certain genetic diseases that cord blood is proven to treat.

• Everyone else should consider donating their child's cord blood. The odds that a child would need an infusion of his or her own cord blood later in life are slim, between one in 1,000 and one in 200,000.

Private banks vehemently disagree, arguing that as scientists learn more about stem cells, the blood could create personalized treatments for heart disease or other more common killers.

"That's still considered very experimental," counters Dr. Mitchell Cairo of Columbia University Medical Center, who co-authored the new guidelines.

Also, doctors don't even know if cord blood remains usable after being stored for decades.

Still, last month Illinois doctors reported the first apparent success in treating a child's leukemia with her own cord blood - something usually impossible because that blood so often carries the cancer-triggering genetic defect.

The report has expectant parents calling Advocate Hope Children's Hospital to ask if they, too, should store their babies' cord blood, says Dr. Ammar Hayani, who performed the transplant only after genetic testing showed that patient's cord blood was defect-free.

"It's probably overadvertised by some of these companies as this biological insurance. That's probably overdramatization of its potential," says Hayani, who advises parents of the pediatric academy's guidelines. "But I think parents need to know" both sides' arguments, he says.

About 11 states have recently passed legislation to try to increase the information that expectant parents receive about their cord blood choices: store it, donate it or discard it.

It's no different than how families choose between public or private schools, says Steve Grant of Cord Blood Registry, which began offering the baby-gift option last year after noticing grandparents putting up the money.

"The competitive nature seems misplaced to me," he says. "Family banking is not in any way detracting from the ability to build a public system."

Flyers in upscale doctors' offices portray it as the hot new baby-shower gift: a registry where friends and family chip in almost $2,000 to start privately banking a newborn's umbilical cord blood, just in case of future illness.

That idea of biological insurance is a long shot that most mothers-to-be can safely ignore, say new guidelines from the nation's pediatricians that urge more parents to donate their babies' cord blood - so that it might save someone's life today.

The guidelines come as the government begins setting up the first national cord-blood banking system, aiming to prevent some 12,000 deaths a year - if public banks can compete with marketing-savvy private companies that now house the bulk of the world's preserved cord blood.

Cord blood is rich in stem cells, the building blocks that produce blood - and the same stem cells that make up the bone-marrow transplants that help many people survive certain cancers and other diseases. But cord blood has some advantages: These younger stem cells are more easily transplanted into unrelated people than bone marrow is, and they can be thawed at a moment's notice, much easier than searching out a bone-marrow donor.

There should be plenty for both private and public banking, says an optimistic Dr. Elizabeth Shpall of the public M.D. Anderson Cord Blood Bank. After all, cord blood from most of the nation's 4 million annual births is thrown away.

Chief hurdles: Improving consumer awareness - and the small number of hospitals that allow donations.

Her own work illustrates the industry's stark socio-economic contrasts: At Houston's Ben Taub General Hospital, Shpall finds the mostly Hispanic mothers-to-be not only unable to afford private banking - few have even heard that cord blood has a medical use.

Armed with a $3 million federal grant to improve much-needed minority donations, she is working with Spanish-language TV and radio programs that in a few months will begin telling Houston moms about their cord blood choices, and which hospitals allow donations.

Her message: "Unless you have a family member with cancer, it's unlikely you would ever need it, and you would be doing a service to humanity to donate it."

Today, about 50,000 cord blood donations are stored in more than 20 public banks around the country. The new National Cord Blood Inventory aims to triple that number, enough that virtually anyone who needs stem cell treatment could find a match - especially minority patients who today seldom can as most bone marrow donors are white.

Private banks have an estimated 400,000 units stored.

What's the controversy? Deciding who really needs to store a child's own cord blood for later use. Private storage costs $1,500 to $1,900 up front, and about $125 a year thereafter, although some offer special programs for lower-income families.

Guidelines published last month by the American Academy of Pediatrics say:

• Parents should consider private storage only if an older sibling has cancer or certain genetic diseases that cord blood is proven to treat.

• Everyone else should consider donating their child's cord blood. The odds that a child would need an infusion of his or her own cord blood later in life are slim, between one in 1,000 and one in 200,000.

Private banks vehemently disagree, arguing that as scientists learn more about stem cells, the blood could create personalized treatments for heart disease or other more common killers.

"That's still considered very experimental," counters Dr. Mitchell Cairo of Columbia University Medical Center, who co-authored the new guidelines.

Also, doctors don't even know if cord blood remains usable after being stored for decades.

Still, last month Illinois doctors reported the first apparent success in treating a child's leukemia with her own cord blood - something usually impossible because that blood so often carries the cancer-triggering genetic defect.

The report has expectant parents calling Advocate Hope Children's Hospital to ask if they, too, should store their babies' cord blood, says Dr. Ammar Hayani, who performed the transplant only after genetic testing showed that patient's cord blood was defect-free.

"It's probably overadvertised by some of these companies as this biological insurance. That's probably overdramatization of its potential," says Hayani, who advises parents of the pediatric academy's guidelines. "But I think parents need to know" both sides' arguments, he says.

About 11 states have recently passed legislation to try to increase the information that expectant parents receive about their cord blood choices: store it, donate it or discard it.

It's no different than how families choose between public or private schools, says Steve Grant of Cord Blood Registry, which began offering the baby-gift option last year after noticing grandparents putting up the money.

"The competitive nature seems misplaced to me," he says. "Family banking is not in any way detracting from the ability to build a public system."

Taming the wild

2007-03-02T23:32:00.000+05:30

Tough GM salmon lose their nerve in the 'wild'

Some genetically modified fish appear to undergo a personality change when they leave laboratory conditions for a more natural environment, according to new research.

Transgenic fish that behave ferociously in a bare tank, appear meek under more natural conditions, meaning it will not be easy for biologists to predict the ecological consequences of escaped GM animals.

Salmon genetically engineered to overproduce growth hormone can put on up to 25 times the weight of wild salmon and could provide "aqua-culturists" with a faster way to raise fish to market size.

However, lab tests suggested that transgenic fish are more aggressive predators than wild salmon, raising concerns that they could harm native fish if they escape into the wild.
Stream tanks

Fredrik Sundström and colleagues at Canada's Center for Aquaculture and Environmental Research, Fisheries and Oceans, in Vancouver, tested whether the GM fish would have the same superiority in more natural conditions.

When they raised the fish in stream tanks complete with gravel, large rocks, logs and natural food items, they found that the GM fish still grew a little faster and ate a little more than unmodified fish, but their advantage was much smaller than when the fish lived in a simple metal tank and ate food in pellet form.

That does not mean escaped GM fish would not cause ecological damage, says Sundström, only that biologists will need to work harder to answer the question. “You can’t use fish reared in the lab to predict what will happen in nature,” he says.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0608767104)

Dreamer

2007-02-24T04:53:00.001+05:30

What about Earth?

2007-02-24T04:39:00.001+05:30

The Circle Of Life

2007-02-24T04:27:00.000+05:30

Evolving Thoughts: Evolution and the conservation of biodiversity

2007-02-20T22:20:00.001+05:30

hershal_pandya@yahoo.com has forwarded you a post from ScienceBlogs.com

Evolution and the conservation of biodiversity

A paper out in Nature 15 February, uses a novel technique devised by one of the authors, Dan Faith, called Phylogenetic Diversity (PD), to assess the biodiversity and conservation value of endangered species and regions in terms of how unique they are in evolutionary history.

Continue reading "Evolution and the conservation of biodiversity"

Let's fReShEn uP

2007-02-19T01:43:00.001+05:30

Its been long since we talked of actual activism,
So that we may do.

Its been long since we sowed,
So that we may reap.

Its been long since we planted a kid,
Whose tender leaves quiver in wind,
Who has immense faith in us,
That we will shelter it against storm.

Let's Freshen Up!

The migrating butterflies

2007-02-14T21:17:00.001+05:30

Source:

The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2007/02/11/stories/2007021101161800.htm)

The migrating butterflies

Nivedita Ganguly

An interesting annual phenomenon under study

VISAKHAPATNAM:
The iridescent, velvety wings flutter around in swarms: the seasonal visitors are here again. For a few years now, during the period December-February, a throng of butterflies have made their appearance in pockets of Visakhapatnam district. Environmentalists and nature-lovers are monitoring the phenomenon.

"We have been observing this peculiar behaviour of the crow and tiger butterflies," says Prof. M. Rama Murty of the Dolphin Nature Club, a founder-member of the biodiversity park at the RCD Government Hospital here.

A recent study by environmental organisations showed that the "tiger" and "crow" butterflies have a tendency to migrate in large groups from the Western Ghats to the Eastern Ghats during certain periods of the year. Such arrivals have been observed also in Bangalore, Tumkur and Mysore in Karnataka; Palakkad and Kannur in Kerala; Coimbatore, Udhagamandalam, Vellore and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, and Tirupati, also in Andhra Pradesh. It has been witnessed also in some wildlife sanctuaries.

The insects migrate in clusters and for a specific period remain rooted to a spot, where they copulate. "Interestingly, migration of butterflies is different from that of birds since the ones that return are not the original butterflies," says Mr. Murty. The long-distance migration can be attributed to a combination of climatic factors, food availability and breeding habitat preferences.

"The most obvious cause for migrations is a rapid expansion of the population of one or more species in an area leading to reduced food supply," Mr. Rama Murty says.
The migration route is yet to be determined. The groups consist of over 20 species .
The migration of the North American Monarch butterfly from Canada and northern United States to Mexico in autumn and the return journey in spring is well known. In India, larger-scale migrations occur in the Western Ghats. "In southern India, butterfly migrations have been documented in the Palni Hills and places like Assam and Rajasthan. Twenty-two species are known to migrate, travelling south in October during the rainy season," says Prudhvi Raj of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun.

But why do the butterflies flock to only certain plants? "The males, on emerging from their pupae, lack certain chemicals essential to the process of courting females. Butterflies need pyrrolizidine alkaloids for the production of these sexual pheromones and these are obtained from plants such as Crotalaria, Heliotropium and Senecio subdiscoideus," says Mr. Raj.
Some action patterns are observed, including `mud-puddling', wherein the butterflies land on wet mud and suck salt and other minerals and nutrients from the soil.

Copyright: 1995 - 2006 The Hindu
Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the consent of The Hindu

Snakes eat poisonous toads and steal their venom

2007-02-01T22:59:00.000+05:30

Toads on the Japanese island of Ishima seem to be losing their evolutionary battle with snakes. Most snakes, and indeed most other animals, avoid eating toads because of the toxins in their skin. Rhabdophis tigrinus snakes, however, not only tolerate the toxins, they store the chemicals for their own defensive arsenal.

Deborah Hutchinson at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, US, and colleagues, found that snakes on Ishima had bufadienolide compounds – toad toxins – in their neck glands, while those snakes living on the toad-free island of Kinkazan had none.

The snakes are unable to synthesise their own toxins, so they can only have derived bufadienolide compounds from their diet. Hutchinson’s team confirmed this by feeding snake hatchlings either a toad-rich or a toad-free diet. Toad-fed snakes accumulated toad-toxins in the nuchal glands on the back of the neck; snakes on a toad-free diet did not.

“Rhabdophis tigrinus is the first species known to use these dietary toxins for its own defence,” says Hutchinson.

Fight or flight

What is more, when attacked, snakes on different islands react differently. On Ishima, snakes stand their ground and rely on the toxins in their nuchal glands to repel the predator. On Kinkazan, the snakes flee.

“Snakes on Kinkazan have evolved to use their nuchal glands in defence less often than other populations of snakes, presumably due to their lack of defensive compounds,” says Hutchinson.
Moreover, baby snakes benefit too. The team showed that snake mothers with high toxin levels pass on the compounds to their offspring. Snake hatchlings thus also enjoy the toad-derived protection.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas0610785104)

SOURCE URL

Congratulations to the Virgin Mother - Komodo Dragon

2007-01-31T18:59:00.001+05:30

January 22, 2007

Chester, England, United Kingdom

The product of a virgin birth, this baby komodo dragon is one of five hatchlings that made their appearance at the Chester Zoo in England this week.

Their mother, Flora, never had a mate and instead reproduced asexually (Read "Virgin Birth Expected at Christmas—By Komodo Dragon" [December 2006].)

This marked the second recorded incidence of asexual reproduction in a female komodo dragon, the other having taken place in April 2006 at the London Zoo.

Two more of Flora's eggs have yet to hatch.

Rhinos Back To Wild

2007-01-30T23:49:00.001+05:30

IFAW Releases Rhinos Back To Wild in India

(Assam, India – 30 January 2007) – IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare, www.ifaw.org) and its partner, WTI (Wildlife Trust of India), today announced the successful release of two one-horned Asian rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) back to the wild in India with support from Assam Forest Department.

The rhinos, female calves nicknamed Manasi and Roje, were rescued from the floodwaters that annually spill over the banks of the Brahmaputra River. The pair, both three years old, were rescued in the summer of 2004 and rehabilitated at the Centre for Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC). CWRC is located near Kaziranga National Park, in North East India, and was founded in 2001 through a collaboration between WTI, IFAW and the Assam Forest Department. CWRC was one of India's first multi-species rehabilitation centres and is designed to care for a variety of animals until they are capable of surviving release back into the wild.

"The rhinos will wear radio collars for post release monitoring," said Dr. Ian Robinson, who heads up IFAW's Emergency Relief team. "We want to do everything possible to assure a successful transition back to the wild for these animals."

The rhinos were translocated from CWRC, via an overnight convoy, to Manas National Park and released at an event attended by more than 100 onlookers, wildlife experts, and dignitaries including Abhajit Rabha, Director of Manas National Park and Ritesh Bhattacharjee, Field Director of the Manas Tiger Project.

"We are confident that the rhinos will do well in Manas as we are involving not just governments but also the local people," said M.C. Malakar, Chief Wildlife Warden of Assam. "The CWRC rescue centre has helped us rescue and rear more animals than before. I thank IFAW for setting up the rescue centre with WTI."

"Manas once supported a lot of rhinos, however certain problems wiped them out. Now, as these rhino calves are released, it is good to release them in Manas as it is conductive to rhino populations," said D.M. Singh, Director Kaziranga National Park. "Earlier we would rescue animals and take them to the zoo and that was the end. But now the CWRC rescue centre has made rehabilitation into the wild a possibility."

At Manas the two rhinos will be held in an enclosure and will later join a four year old rhino that was moved there last year. IFAW and WTI released that female rhino at the same location in February 2006. It was the first rhino in Manas in more than a decade. Wild rhinos in Manas National Park, a World Heritage site, once numbered more than 100.

"The enormous effort of veterinary doctors, IFAW, the staff of the forest department, and the WTI animal keepers at the CWRC rescue centre has made this possible," said Professor P.C. Bhattacharjee of WTI.

About IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare)
Founded in 1969, IFAW works around the globe to protect animals and habitats promoting practical solutions for animals and people. To learn how you can help, please visit www.ifaw.org

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0701/S00421.htm

No real attempt to save trees

2007-01-30T20:38:00.001+05:30

[ 17 Mar, 2003 2310hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
(situation isn't better four years later, actually worse!)

AHMEDABAD/VADODARA/SURAT: According to a scientific study, a tree with a life span of about 50 years generates Rs 3,75,000 worth of oxygen per year. It recycles Rs 4,50,000 worth of water and provides Rs 3,75,000 worth of soil erosion control and soil fertility.

It also provides Rs 7,50,000 worth of air pollution control and provides Rs 3,75,000 worth of shelter and home for animals and birds. Going by these figures, it is difficult to estimate the losses suffered by the environment in Gujarat on every Holi.

Approximately 30,000 Holi fires are lit across the state. And considering that 100 kg of wood go up in flames in each bonfire, the final figure touches a mindboggling 30,00,000 kg of wood and, in the process, taking toll of over 7,500 trees.

"These figures do not include the value of the fruit, timber and beauty the tree provides in its lifetime," says Gopal Jain of the Centre for Environment Education. However, the forest department officials argue that most of the trees used in the religious fire is 'desi bawal'. "The wood mainly comes from the farm forests," informs chief conservator of forest, Balaguru Swami.

According to N Nagori, former president of the Gujarat Timber Merchants' Association, a large chunk of the wood is brought from the Kheda district. It's mainly cut from the roadside.

Says Himanshu Nagori, president of the Ahmedabad Timber Merchants' Association, "The wood used during Holi is mostly useless." Haribhai Panchal of Sadvichar Parivar, an organisation which has been working hard to spread awareness on the issue, believes it's high time something has be done to save the environment.

"Thousands of tonnes of wood are burnt on Holi. Instead of having numerous Holis, we should have one symbolic fire. Can you imagine around four lakh kg of wood is burnt in Ahmedabad alone?" he says. Panchal recollects one instance when jail inmates had taken the Parivar's advice seriously and had a Holi fire using waste products instead of wood.

In Vadodara, if the authorities are to be believed, bonfires will consume as much as 2 lakh kg of wood.

"A housing society that has more than 100 houses would require almost 200 kg of firewood, whereas those with a lesser number of houses will utilise anywhere between 50 and 100 kg of firewood, on this day. The wood commonly used comprise neem, tamarind, gulmohar and banyan," says general secretary of International Society of Naturalist (Insona), GM Oza.

"According to a recent estimate, almost 100 to 200 kg of firewood is burnt by small as well as medium-sized societies in the city," says deputy conservator of forests, social forestry division IA Chauhan.

In Surat, at more than 300 places holika dahan will be organised and on average in each case, one to two quintals of wood would be burnt, according to chief fire officer G M Kotwal of the Surat Municipal Corporation.

Deputy forest conservator D B Patti told TNN that though vigil has been stepped up on the occasion to prevent ferrying of timbers from the forest region to the city areas, in almost all the cases, only fuel-wood, collected from fields or purchased from wood sellers, is used for the purpose.

Source URL : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/40597284.cms

Unique Sanctuary

2007-01-23T21:29:00.001+05:30

Unique sanctuary
pls keep patience....n read the whole article.....this sanctuary...is really unik!

By NDUNG'U NJAGA

THE KITALE CONSERVANCY- a 136-hectare botanical garden with over 850 plant species , has finally been opened to the public.

The garden is owned by career educationist Boniface Ndura, who says that a country's identity should not be determined by culture only but also the uniqueness of its vegetation.

The plant species in the garden are planted systematically according to families to facilitate learning and understanding by laymen.

All the species are indigenous, depicting distinct ecosystems in Kenya, from the tropical rain forest in Kakamega, the alpine meadows on Mt Kenya to the semi-desert areas like Garissa in the northeastern.

The park is 6km from Kitale town on the Kitale-Kapenguria highway.
Mr Ndura advocates the promotion and conservation of indigenous plant species in their diversity not only for ecological usefulness but also for "our ecological identity."

The botanical garden has a special focus on endemic and endangered species and the management argues that they need to be replicated elsewhere from their original habitats to save them from extinction through the genetic drifts that affect confined gene pools.
All the traditional uses of the plants are being studied and documented to preserve the rich ethno-ecology and wisdom, that Mr Ndura says has been accumulated over prolonged periods and should not be allowed to die with the few elders scattered in various communities.

Mr Ndura says his botanical garden is a sign of what commitment can do.
"Many institutions spend huge sums of money from donors but hardly produce anything worth the name," he laments.

He says the main reason conservation fails in Africa is because of the mentality that we must be "funded" to conserve our resources, arguing that conservation is a culture and attitude.
Western Kenya has only a few natural habitats set aside for conservation of either indigenous forests or natural populations of wildlife.

The main conservation areas are the trans-boundary Mt Elgon National Park and Saiwa Swamp, the smallest national park in Kenya. Both are managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
While private conservation is common in the savanna areas of Machakos, Laikipia and Naivasha, it is less so in western Kenya.

At Endebbess, there is the Delta Crescent Sanctuary, which was hitherto the only successful sanctuary of rare species like the Rothschild giraffe and white rhino. It is also a popular tourist destination, offering camping and horse riding.

Kitale Conservancy is the second significant private conservation initiative in the area.
Besides education its main purpose is offering recreational activities like boat riding, camping and nature walks.

Beyond the restaurant at the gate, the trail is lined with indigenous tree species from different ecosystems in Kenya and the management has documented their ecological and cultural significance to the communities where they originate.

The nature trail then winds through different habitats, among them a thick riverine forest along the Sabwani River, a tributary of the Nzoia. Then there aredry grassland and marshy land, all hosting the appropriate species.

From a conservation perspective, the most unique species are the De-Brazza's monkeys, the sitatunga and crested cranes.

The De-Brazza's monkeys is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN, or the World Conservation Union) as an endangered species in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda because its habitats are being eroded by cultivation and deforestation.

In Kenya, the species is found only in the west of the country, with pocket populations in Kakamega forest, Mt Elgon National Park and Saiwa Swamp National Park, 15 km from Kitale Conservancy.

IT IS SIGNIFICANT THAT KItale conservancy is the only private conservation area where the species occurs.

Although the monkey is shy, a patient visitor has a chance to spot it either on the nature trail along the river or near the restaurant at the main gate. The farm hosts a population of about 30 of this elegant species which are attracting researchers from different learning institutions worldwide.

The sitatunga is listed in literature as rare or locally endangered in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Lake Chad. It is the only amphibious antelope in Kenya, distinguished by its shaggy long legs with splayed hooves and spreadeagled stance. These are an evolutionary adaptation for living on boggy ground.

In Kenya, the sitatunga is found mainly on the shores of Lake Victoria and in minor pockets of western Kenya. Saiwa Swamp national park is the only protected area where sitatunga live and breed, though there is some conflict with neighbouring farmers.

The Kitale Conservancy has a 20-hectare wetland dedicated to sitatunga conservation and, with the assistance of KWS, the farm is now a sitatunga sanctuary making it the second private farm, after Lewa Downs in Nanyuki, to become a sitatunga sanctuary.

The Saiwa swamp is the only known protected area in Kenya where the Uganda crane and the black crowned crane breed.

The two cranes are unique in that they are virtually endangered due to loss of wetland habitats in the country, most of which have been reclaimed for agriculture.

While the conservancy's conservation credentials are unassailable, the farm has a controversial component.

Among the principal attractions is a set of livestock with bizarre genetic deformities.
Mr Ndura says he decided to offer sanctuary to these animals to save them from persecution.
Such animals are taboo in some communities, where they are killed immediately after birth, but Mr Ndura says they have a right to exist like other animals, adding that their presence on the farm offers great educational insight.

He says he has on several occasions hosted university students of veterinary genetics and some external scholars in the field who confess to having read about but never seen such evolutionary aberrations.

For Mr Ndura, the opening of the park to the public is the culmination of a dream nurtured since he bought the first 45 hectares of land in 1974.

He painstakingly bought more land to ensure a viable area for conservation and hopes to finally use the park to teach the public that "conservation" is not waste of agricultural land but a profitable land use as well."

http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/
Magazine/Magazine2201075.htm

Bihar Today : Endangered Garuda birds are breeding in Bihar

2007-01-23T21:24:00.000+05:30

Hershal has sent you a link to a blog:

Blog: Bihar Today
Post: Endangered Garuda birds are breeding in Bihar
Link: http://bihartoday.blogspot.com/2007/01/endangered-garuda-birds-are-breeding-in.html

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Bye to Baiji

2007-01-23T21:10:00.001+05:30

Source: http://www.fracturedearth.org/?p=224

i thought i would reproduce something i read in the ny times this morning.

Robert L. Pitman has spent 30 years studying the world's whales, dolphins and other aquatic mammals. He returned to San Diego, Calif., last week after a fruitless six-week expedition in which teams of five observers on two vessels scoured the Yangtze River from the Three Gorges Dam to Shanghai, seeking the last members of the rarest cetacean species of all, a white, nearly blind dolphin called the baiji, Lipotes vexillifer. The dolphin is now considered, at best, "functionally extinct." Dr. Pitman wrote this note in response to a reporter's question about the broader implications of this, the first apparent extinction of a cetacean in modern times.

but first, a photograph of Lipotes vexillifer. this is a snap of, as the nytimes says, one of the last known baiji, photographed in captivity before its death in 2002.

and now, on with what pitman says…

Locally, the Yangtze River is in serious trouble; the canary in the coal mine is dead. In addition to baiji, the Yangtze paddlefish is (was) probably the largest freshwater fish in the world (at least 21 feet), and it hasn't been seen since 2003; the huge Yangtze sturgeon breeds only in tanks now because it has no natural habitat (a very large dam stands between it and its breeding grounds). The whole river ecosystem is going down the tubes in the name of rampant economic development. There is a huge environmental debt accruing on the Yangtze, and baiji was perhaps just the first installment.
Globally, scientists have been warning for some time of an impending anthropogenic mass extinction worldwide. Previous bouts of human-caused extinctions were due mainly to directed take: humans hunting for food. What we are seeing now is probably the first large animal that has ever gone extinct merely as an indirect consequence of human activity: a victim of market forces and our collective lifestyle. Nobody eats baiji and no tourists pay to see it — there were no reasons to take it deliberately, but there was no economic reason to save it, either. It is gone because too many people got too efficient at catching fish in the river and it was incidental bycatch. And it is perhaps a view of the future for much of the rest of the world and an indication that the predicted mass extinction is arriving on schedule.
For the Chinese, I think that losing a half-blind river dolphin and a couple of oversize fish was a fair trade for all the money that is being made there now. China is an economic model envied by most of the rest of the world, and I think that many other (especially third world) countries will be confronted with similar decisions of economic development versus conservation of habitats and animals, and the response will be the same. From now on we will have to choose which animals will be allowed to live on the planet with us, and baiji got cut in the first round. It is a sad day. I know it is their country, but the planet belongs to all of us. We came to say goodbye to baiji, but after its being in the river for 20 million years, we apparently missed it by two years.
Sorry if I got a little emotional here, but the disappearance of an entire family of mammals is an inestimable loss for China and for the world. I think this is a big deal and possibly a turning point for the history of our planet. We are bulldozing the Garden of Eden, and the first large animal has fallen.
Robert L. Pitman, NOAA Fisheries Ecosysem Studies Program

stark, isn't it? "We came to say goodbye to baiji, but after its being in the river for 20 million years, we apparently missed it by two years." if you want to read more about the baiji, the mammal that accompanies 2006 into the history books, go here — the blog that the expedition maintained. on a related note. if you are looking for a good environmental history of china, try the retreat of the elephants by mark elvin.

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"That's the direction in which the world should progress according to me - the direction in which we finally become freed from the label of country and become global citizens. Instead of being global citizens then - we become the same thing we started out with - being humans."

-Tingal.

'Gujarati hospitality has winged visitors checking in'

2007-01-23T20:54:00.001+05:30

'Gujarati hospitality has winged visitors checking in'

Syed Khalique Ahmed

Ahmedabad, January 22: EVER thought why do migratory birds from Russia, Central Asian countries and even Iran and Iraq, wing their way to Gujarat in winter? If forest department officials are to be believed, 'Gujarati hospitality' to winged visitors, apart from variations in its habitat, are reasons that has them flocking in largest number to this coastal state.

The number of avian visitors to the State this year is reported to be higher than the last year though no bird census is being conducted this year.

According to a survey conducted in 2005, over 20 lakh migratory birds had visited over 20,000 big and small wetlands and water bodies in the State during winter that year. The number swelled this year owing to 'good health' of State's wetland, courtesy good monsoon last year and water released in some of the wetlands and lakes through a network of Narmada canals.

Another reason for the migratory birds making the State their temporary home during winter is 'safety'.

"People in Gujarat are hospitable to birds and avoid 'shikar' (hunting ) as compared to other states, which is one of the major reasons why birds home in on Gujarat for winter," says Pradeep Khanna, Principal Chief Conservation of Forests (Wildlife).

Variation in its ecological habitat and food availability for avians in its wetlands, particularly, along the coastal belt too draws in largest number of migratory birds.

If wetlands along the coastal belts provided small fish as food for migratory birds, variation in agricultural practices attracts avian friends, especially in Saurashtra region that's dotted with thousands of small checkdams.

According to Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife Research and Training) H S Singh, winged visitors like common cranes relish groundnut the most, hence the reason for the climb in the number of cranes visiting Gujarat, mainly Saurashtra with largest tracts of land sown with groundnut.

The migratory cranes feed on the groundnut seeds leftover in the fields after cultivation.

Moreover, there's also high degree of tolerance towards birds in Gujarat due to food habits of the people in the wetland areas.

Moreover, Gujarat has the largest area of wetlands and accounts for 37 per cent of the total wetlands in the country.

Out of 139 international bird sites in India, 11 are in Gujarat.

Among them, Nalsarovar near Ahmedabad, Khijadia and Charkala in Jamnagar, Salt Pan near Bhavnagar, Thol lake, Wadhwana in Vadodara, Flamingo city in Great Rann of Kutch with variations in their habitats attract largest number of migratory birds.

According to forest officials, winged visitors this year were almost widely distributed throughout the State as all the water bodies were brimming and provided good habitat. Few waterbodies, where water level went down, was filled with water from Narmada river.

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

Wildlife officials release smuggled turtles in Uttar Pradesh

2007-01-12T21:31:00.001+05:30

Wildlife officials release smuggled turtles in Uttar Pradesh

Etawah (Uttar Pradesh), Jan 8: Wildlife officials in Uttar Pradesh released over 1600 endangered turtles today, which were being smuggled to West Bengal for consumption and trade.

The turtles were seized here from poachers, who were taking the consignment in jute sacks to West Bengal.

Police have arrested six persons in the case while two managed to flee. The arrested men have been booked under stringent anti-poaching and wildlife Laws.

"We surrounded the place where the accused were staying. We have recovered 34 sacks with 1654 live turtles and five sacks with dried turtle skins weighing 38 kilos. They are sold for a heavy price in the international market and retail for 10,000 rupees per kilo. The skin is used in medicines and other things," said O.P.S. Dhaka, a Police official.

Water bodies and rivers in Etawah are among the major breeding grounds of turtles.

"The trade in these turtles begins in winter in Etawah and continues till March. The people who collect them from rivers and other water bodies, do so for their skin and even for live trade. In winters, trade is usually for live turtles while in summer, it is for their skins," said Rajeev Chauhan, General Secretary of Society for Conservation of Nature, after releasing the turtles to Chambal River.

The Government has banned their trade under the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act, but the huge profit margins and tax laws have allowed poachers to rule the roost.

Thousands of fresh water turtles are caught every year for food. The worth of the turtles in international market was not immediately known. Each turtle weighed about two to two and a half kilograms, and was meant for consumption. Their flesh is considered a delicacy in eastern India.

They are also smuggled out of India to buyers, who use them to make medicines and tourist souvenirs.

According to studies, only one out of every 1,000 hatchlings normally reaches adulthood.

The reptiles are mangled by fishing trawler propellers, or suffocated in fishermen's gill nets. They are also killed by pollution, and by poachers, who hunt them for their meat.

--- ANI

URL :http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=76342

Hooorraay! First Vulture Chick! wow

2007-01-12T21:28:00.001+05:30

A first: Vulture bred in captivity
Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, January 7
There's a reason for vulture conservationists to rejoice, the New Year's dawn, wrapped in fog and cold, brought with it the first white-backed vulture chick born in captivity at the Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre, Pinjore.

In a programme that has put Haryana on the world map, the birth of the chick has brought with it the hope of saving vultures from imminent extinction. "The chick came as a New Year gift for the centre. This is the first success we have seen since the project of the Forest Department along with the Bombay Natural History Society began in 2004. There is a great need for in-situ as well as ex-situ conservation of vultures," Haryana Minister of Forests and Tourism Kiran Chaudhary says.

The wildlife officials, too, have reason to smile. "The egg was laid on November 10 and came from a pair of vultures from Haryana. We kept the development under wraps because two eggs were laid last year as well. However, both did not hatch much to our disappointment. We were slightly skeptical about this one also since our birds are still young," says Chief Wildlife Warden R.D. Jakati.

On the first day of the year, the officials, keeping a tab on the egg, noticed the vulture pair moving around frantically. "We were expecting a chick but were not sure if it was born since the nest is too low down. Finally, three days later, we saw some movement in the nest. Sunk low in the nest among the twigs, we saw something rise and take food from the parent vulture's beak. That's when the birth of the baby was confirmed," Mr Jakati states.

While nobody has seen the chick with naked eyes, the baby is being monitored only through the CCTV installed near the nest. "Nobody was allowed near the cage housing the nest since the egg was first noticed. The CCTV is our only window to their world. However, the CCTV does not allow zooming in which made watching the movements difficult especially when we are all excited about this birth and want to see and know as much as we can," he maintains.

While the chick will be able-bodied in a month's time, it will be able to take care of itself in three month's time. "Till then, we are keeping our fingers crossed. However, the New Year has got off to a good start and we are hoping our luck will carry through the year," another official, closely associated with the programme, says.

The programme was established as a vulture care centre in August 2001 when injured and dying vultures were brought for care. It was upgraded to a breeding centre in 2004 when the reason for the death of the birds became known. Diclofenac, the killer drug, was banned last year.

This is the first birth of the vulture in captivity. At the Centre, efforts are on to breed the white-backed, slender bill and long-billed vulture. All three are facing extinction with nearly 90 per cent of the vulture population already dead.

While Haryana is the first state to have agreed to shoulder the responsibility of breeding vultures in captivity, another breeding centre was set up in West Bengal last year.

Tree Nuptials offer solace

2006-12-19T22:04:00.000+05:30

Tree nuptials offer solace

GG2.NET NEWS [06/12/2006]

HUNDREDS of people are flocking to a remote Indian town to offer prayers to two trees that were 'married' off in a bid to keep evil spirits at bay, officials said on Wednesday.

Alarmed by a string of accidental deaths, murders and burglaries, local people decided it was time the trees, one a banyan tree which had wrapped itself around the trunk of the other, tied the knot.

More than 250 people gathered in English Bazaar, in West Bengal state, on Tuesday for the ceremony as priests chanted hymns and decorated the conjoined trunks of two 25-year-old trees with colourful cloth, streaks of vermilion and garlands.

'There was an evil eye casting a spell and a few senior government employees had planted two trees here to bring peace but could not organise the marriage ceremony as they died from illness,' Gouranga Mandal, a local official, told agencies.

'The trees only can save us,' added Lakshmi Das, a 30-year-old housewife, who presented the trees with two saris and other wedding gifts.

http://www.gg2.net/viewnews.asp?nid=4762&tid=breaking_news&catid=Breaking%20News

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Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore, And the individual withers, and the world is more and more. -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Let's Celebrate- THE BLACK DAY!!!

2006-12-16T18:04:00.000+05:30

By CHARLES HUTZLER,

Associated Press Writer Wed Dec 13, 2:11 PM ET

BEIJING - A rare, nearly blind white dolphin that survived for millions of years is effectively extinct, an international expedition declared Wednesday after ending a fruitless six-week search of its Yangtze River habitat.

The baiji would be the first large aquatic mammal driven to extinction since hunting and overfishing killed off the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s.

For the baiji, the culprit was a degraded habitat — busy ship traffic, which confounds the sonar the dolphin uses to find food, and overfishing and pollution in the Yangtze waters of eastern China, the expedition said.

"The baiji is functionally extinct. We might have missed one or two animals but it won't survive in the wild," said August Pfluger, a Swiss economist turned naturalist who helped put together the expedition. "We are all incredibly sad."

The baiji dates back 20 million years. Chinese called it the "goddess of the Yangtze." For China, its disappearance symbolizes how unbridled economic growth is changing the country's environment irreparably, some environmentalists say.

"It's a tremendously sad day when any species goes extinct. It becomes more of a public tragedy to lose a large, charismatic species like the river dolphin," said Chris Williams, manager of river basin conservation for the World Wildlife Fund in Washington.

"The loss of a large animal like a river dolphin is often a harbinger for what's going on in the larger system as whole. It's not only the loss of a beautiful animal but an indication that the way its habitat is being managed, the way we're interacting with the natural environment of the river is deeply flawed ... if a species like this can't survive."

Randall Reeves, chairman of the Swiss-based World Conservation Union's Cetacean Specialist Group, who took part in the Yangtze mission, said expedition participants were surprised at how quickly the dolphins disappeared.

"Some of us didn't want to believe that this would really happen, especially so quickly," he said. "This particular species is the only living representative of a whole family of mammals. This is the end of a whole branch of evolution."

The damage to the baiji's habitat is also affecting the Yangtze finless porpoise, whose numbers have fallen to below 400, the expedition found.

"The situation of the finless porpoise is just like that of the baiji 20 years ago," the group said in a statement citing Wang Ding, a Chinese hydrobiologist and co-leader of the expedition. "Their numbers are declining at an alarming rate. If we do not act soon they will become a second baiji."

Pfluger said China's Agriculture Ministry, which approved the expedition, had hoped the baiji would be another panda, an animal brought back from the brink of extinction in a highly marketable effort that bolstered the country's image.

The expedition was the most professional and meticulous ever launched for the mammal, Pfluger said. The team of 30 scientists and crew from China, the United States and four other countries searched a 1,000-mile heavily trafficked stretch of the Yangtze, where the baiji once thrived.

The expedition's two boats, equipped with high-tech binoculars and underwater microphones, trailed each other an hour apart without radio contact so that a sighting by one vessel would not prejudice the other. When there was fog, he said, the boats waited for the mist to clear to make sure they took every opportunity to spot the mammal.

Around 400 baiji were believed to be living in the Yangtze in the early 1980s, when China was just launching the free-market reforms that have transformed its economy. The last full-fledged search, in 1997, yielded 13 confirmed sightings, and a fisherman claimed to have seen a baiji in 2004.

At least 20 to 25 baiji would now be needed to give the species a chance to survive, said Wang.

For Pfluger, the baiji's demise is a personal defeat. A member of the 1997 expedition, he recalls the excitement of seeing a baiji cavorting in the waters near Dongting Lake.

"It marked me," he said. He went on to set up the baiji.org Foundation to save the dolphin. In recent years, Pfluger said, scientists like the eminent zoologist George Schaller told him to stop his search, saying the baiji's "lost, forget it."

During the latest expedition, an online diary kept by team members traced a dispiriting situation, as day after day they failed to spot a single baiji.

Even in the expedition's final days, members believed they would find a specimen, trolling a "hotspot" below the industrial city of Wuhan where Baiji were previously sighted, Pfluger said.

"Hope dies last," he said.

___

On the Net:

The baiji.org Foundation: http://www.baiji.org

___

AP writers Lindsay Holmwood in New York and Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report.

URL : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213

/ap_on_sc/china_dolphin_extinction

http://hershal.blogspot.com

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore, And the individual withers, and the world is more and more. -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Winged visitors protecting farmers crop in Bhal region of Gujarat

2006-12-15T23:49:00.000+05:30

Winged visitors protecting farmers crop in Bhal region of Gujarat

Gandhinagar, Dec 8. (PTI): Farmers of Bhal region of Gujarat are very happy these days welcoming hundreds of winged visitors who have come from eastern Europe and are busy protecting their crops.

These visitors are of three varieties of migratory birds known as Harriers, which have come from far off places of Eastern Europe to escape the harsh winter there to the warmer climate of Bhal region of Gujarat near Bhavnagar district.

These migratory birds protect the crops of the farmers by eating up those insects which are detrimental to the crops, according to a senior forest official.

"These Harriers birds are one of the best friends of the farmers because they are voracious eaters of insects including grasshoppers, locusts and other insects which destroy the crops", said the Deputy Conservator of Forest Uday Vora.

The three varieties of Harriers include Pallid Harrier, Montague's Harrier and Eurasian Marsh Harrier which relish insects that eat the crops.

In fact, the capacity of the Harriers to devour the insects is so large that they can together eat up 15 milion insects during their sojourn.

These birds, which are known as raptors, also hunt small animals, rodents and small birds.

One can see nearly 2500 of Harrier birds in the Bhal region which incidentally is the worlds largest roosting ground for these birds.

One of the biggest advantage of the Harriers to the farmers is that their presence reduces the dependence of the farmers on the pesticides.

"The usage of pesticide becomes very less in these regions because these raptor birds eat up the insects. As a result, the farmers do not have to buy large qauntities of pesticides to kill these pests", Vora added.

This not only saves them a considerable amount of money but also helps preventing excessive pollution of the soil because of pesticides, Vora added.

Thus, the birds play a very vital role in conservation, he said adding that at times the birds are killed by the people because of their ignorance.

For instance, in certain parts of China, people used to kill a particular type of sparrow thinking that it was harming their crop when in reality it was actually eating up the worms and insects that damaged their crops, he added.

In Bhal region, in the vicinity of Velavadar Black buck sanctuary one can see more than 2000 Harrier birds hopping in and around the grasslands and the fields of farmers.

URL: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/015200612081010.htm

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Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore, And the individual withers, and the world is more and more. -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The bat with the incredibly long tongue

2006-12-08T21:09:00.000+05:30

A rare South American bat turns out to have a spectacularly long tongue. At up to 150% the length of its body, it is proportionally the longest of any mammal.

The bat appears to have evolved its incredible tongue in order to feed exclusively from a tubular flower found in the "cloud forests" of Ecuador.

Nectar bats’ tongues have tiny hairs on the end, which they use to mop up nectar and pollen from within flowers. The plants gain from this relationship by depositing pollen on the bat’s head, which it spreads from flower to flower.
Anoura fistulata is only the size of a mouse, but its tongue is around 8.5 centimetres long – more than double the tongue-length of similar nectar bats. Compared with its body, a tongue of this size is second only to the chameleon in terms of vertebrates, and it is the longest of all the mammals.

“It’s like a cat being able to lap milk from two feet away,” says Nathan Muchhala of University of Miami, Florida, US, who first discovered the species in 2003.

Close to heart
Such a small animal has had to evolve a way to store the tongue. “I had all sorts of theories, such as perhaps the tongue folded up inside, or coiled, or maybe its lower lip was critical somehow,” says Mucchala.

It turned out that the tongue extends down into the bat’s chest, and its base is between the heart and sternum. When extended, it stretches by up to three times its stored length.

Muchhala measured the bats’ tongues by training them to drink sugared water from a tube, which was approximately the diameter of a McDonald’s drinking straw.

The straws resemble a flower from the region, called centropogon nigricans, which has a funnel-like neck called a corolla, at the base of which is its nectar.

Competitive advantage
This flower is unique because it relies exclusively on fistulata to pollinate it. Most plants in the region have evolved so all nectar bats can feed from them, but this flower’s neck is too long for other bats to reach down with their tongues.

Such a close co-evolutionary relationship is rare, says Muchhala. It occurs in other species – some plants have evolved so that only hummingbirds can feed from them – but this is the first known example of a flower pollinated by only one species of bat. The flower gains an advantage over other species of plant in the region because it does not have to compete with them to attract the nectar bats.

The finding is also an example of convergent evolution, where two unrelated organisms independently evolve similar traits as they adapt to similar environments, says Muchhala. Other animals such as scaly anteaters have evolved similarly long tongues, which they use to feed.

Journal reference: Nature (vol 444, p 701)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10721?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn10721

Rhino Revives

2006-11-30T08:53:00.000+05:30

Kaziranga's rhino fights back with villagers' support
Published: Monday, 27 November, 2006, 10:41 AM Doha Time

KAZIRANGA, Assam: India's endangered one-horned rhinoceros is charging back from the brink of extinction with forest wardens roping in villagers to combat poachers.

The sight of carcasses of two-tonne rhinos littering the Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam was common a few years ago, but rangers said wanton killings have slowed down.

"No one thought rhinos would survive till 2006 with 100 animals perishing every year – half of them killed by poachers and the remaining dying of natural deaths," park warden Utpal Bora said.

The 430sq km park is now home to the single largest population of one-horned rhinos in the world.

According to latest figures, 1,855 of the world's estimated 2,700 one-horned rhinos lumber around the wilds of this riverine game park, their numbers ironically making the giant, herbivorous mammals a favourite target for poaching.

Park wardens, however, have reported a downslide in rhino poaching in the past five years. Only four were killed so far this year, compared to the early 1990s when some 50 rhinos used to be slaughtered annually in the park.

Organised poachers kill rhinos for their horns, which many believe contain aphrodisiac qualities, besides being used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of South Asia. Rhino horn is also much fancied by buyers from the Middle East, who turn them into handles for ornamental daggers.

Profits in the illegal rhino horn trade are staggering.

A kg of rhino horn can fetch up to Rs1.5mn ($33,550) in the international market.

"Intensive protection mechanisms and a better intelligence network, coupled with support from local villagers living on the periphery of the park have helped us bring down incidents of poaching," Bora said.

Park officials last week arrested a poacher, while police seized a large cache of weapons believed to be meant for the rhino horn trading syndicate.

Until recently, many villagers acted as guides for poachers in Kaziranga, earning about Rs1,000 ($23) for showing them rhino tracks. But a series of anti-poaching awareness camps, set up by park authorities, seem to have won them over.

"The support from the villagers is unbelievable. The locals actually act as the first line of defence and tip us off whenever they spot suspicious looking people around the park," another ranger said.

Bhaben is a reformed man now - until recently he was involved with a rhino poaching gang here.

"I know I was not doing the right thing. At least the realisation dawned on me and when I think about my past, I really feel very bad. It would have been a nail in the coffin had the poaching activities not slowed down," said the middle-aged man who now takes tourists inside the park in his jeep.

Several villagers now earn a living by taking tourists on wildlife safaris inside the park, and others have formed vigilante groups to foil attempts by poachers to kill rhinos.

"Kaziranga is the source of livelihood for a majority of the people living in the vicinity of the park. From setting up eateries to resorts, hotels and guest houses, besides running jeeps for taking tourists, the locals are surviving on the park," said Arun Das, a young resident of the area.

"Who would come to Kaziranga if the rhinos are not there? It is for our own interest that we help the authorities in combating poaching." —IANS

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Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore, And the individual withers, and the world is more and more. -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Sariska on road to recovery

2006-11-30T08:51:00.000+05:30

JAIPUR: Sariska is being put on the road to reform. In an attempt to ensure safety of wildlife in the reserve, the Rajasthan government has decided to construct an alternate road, bypassing the one running through the reserve.

The bypass road will ensure that vehicles do not enter Sariska and threaten the wildlife, especially the tigers.

At present, a road linking Jaipur with Alwar via Thanagai passes through Sariska and heavy vehicles plying on it have been creating problems for the wildlife.

The vehicles increase pollution, affecting the animals. Now we have decided to construct a bypass to divert the vehicles from Narayanpura.

"It will also help us monitor wildlife movement more efficiently," a senior forest official said.

Sariska, spread over 881 sq km, has been in news due to disappearance of tigers. A March 2005 report by the Wildlife Institute of India said there were no tigers left in Sariska, whereas an official census conducted in 2004 had indicated that 16 to 18 tigers lived in the reserve.

But from the middle of the year, no tigers have been spotted.Enquiries revealed the national animal was killed by poachers. Even leopards were targeted. The forest department and state government faced criticism on this issue.

Following this, the state government had submitted a detailed project to the Centre for rehabilitation of tigers in Sariska, which was sanctioned in October. The construction of the bypass is part of this rehabilitation plan.

"The Centre has sanctioned the Sariska recovery plan. Once we get the funds we will start undertaking the operation," the official said.

The forest department, along with officials working on the tiger project, will discuss shifting of four villages located in the vicinity of the Sariska reserve.

Once the plan is implemented, tigers would once again be part of the reserve

URL: oops! google it out.

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Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore, And the individual withers, and the world is more and more. -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Musings

2006-11-23T20:48:00.000+05:30

Intelligence is the revolutionary factor in bringing cell phones instead stones and jeans instead animal skins. But it is somewhat sad that though we have gained intelligence, intellectuality is still scarce.

As far as rational thinking goes, nature is our mother. Shes far more subtle and serene than mankind has thought it to be. The physicists have gone chaotic and evolutionary biologists are still flapping hard to comprehend the complexity that lies beneath, at seemingly unfathomable depths below, the surface of reality.

On the grounds of spirituality and morality, it is necessary that we carry out sustainable harvesting of the natures bounties. Spirituality may defer from person to person but it surely, always, praises the serenity, charm & beauty of the living world around us. As far as morality goes, bouncing black bucks and swirling kites mesmerize all the sensitive souls and saving them for our coming generations becomes an ethic.

Essay Competition

2006-11-22T22:01:00.000+05:30

Dear All,

Greetings from SAYEN Secretariat!

SAYEN is pleased to provide you the opportunity to participate in the Asia and Youth Pacific Student Essay Competition on Sustainable Development. Please find the details enclosed in the attachment.

We request you to kindly send us your essays latest by November 26, so that we can compile everything and send it by November 30 which is the last date.

E-mail us at sayennfp@sayen.org

Regards,

Arpita Shukla

Asia and Pacific Student Essay Competition on Sustainable Development

The future of Asia and the Pacific region is in the hands of its young people. University students across the vast region are learning about the development challenges their countries face, including unemployment, illiteracy, disease, lack of adequate health care, and environmental degradation. Many students are acting to address these challenges in their communities. They have formulated ideas, often based on their own experiences in the places where they live, on how to overcome the problems holding the region back from achieving its full potential.

ADB and ROAD, with support of the Japan Special Fund, financed by the Government of Japan, invite university students to participate in the Asia and Pacific Student Essay Competition on Sustainable Development.

The rules are simple: just submit an essay on one of the designated themes via this website no later than 30 November 2006.

To be eligible, you must be a student at a university, between the ages of 18 and 29, and a citizen of one of ADB's developing member countries (DMCs). Since the essay competition and Youth Forum are part
of the formal lead up to the Annual Meeting, which is being hosted in 2007 by Japan, Japanese citizens studying in Japan are also eligible.

Essays must be submitted in English (only) and no longer than 2,000 words in length. Students without easy access to the Internet may deliver their essays in hard copy to the nearest ADB field office, which will then submit them on the students' behalf.

The overarching theme of the essay contest is "Promoting Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific." Those entering the competition should choose one of three topics, which may be addressed from a
country or regional perspective. The essays can address the issues related to the regional public good based on the following 3 topics:

Topic 1: Do Economic Growth and Environmental Conservation go Together?

Essays written on this topic can explore issues related to energy, water resources, forest management, and/or desertification.

Topic 2: How Should we Develop Human Resources and Institutions?

Essays written on this topic can explore issues related to educational and vocational human resource development, governance, decentralization, civil society participation, globalization, and
traditional societies.

Topic 3: What are the Priorities for Industry and Infrastructure?

Essays written on this topic can explore issues related to globalization of economic structures, regional financial stability, agriculture and food security, urban and rural development, and cross-border infrastructure development.

A jury of distinguished individuals with a strong development background will judge the essays. Fifteen winners will be selected from across the five regions covered by ADB's regional departments - Central and West Asia, East Asia, the Pacific, South Asia , and Southeast Asia (see list of eligible countries here). An additional 10 winners will be selected from young adults studying at Japanese universities, including three Japanese students and seven nationals of ADB developing member countries.

The 25 winners will be awarded a certificate and be expected to join and participate actively in the Asian and Pacific Youth Forum on Sustainable Development. The costs of the winning essayists'
participation in the Youth Forum will be covered by ADB.

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Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore, And the individual withers, and the world is more and more. -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

In Chimp World, Males Find Older Females Sexier

2006-11-22T10:24:00.000+05:30

In Chimp World, Males Find Older Females Sexier

November 21, 2006 — By Maggie Fox, Reuters

WASHINGTON — Chimpanzee males prefer to have sex with older females, U.S. researchers found in a study published Monday that shows one of the biggest behavioral differences between humans and our closest biological relatives.

Male chimps will chase down and fight over the oldest females, while the youngest female chimps are forced to beg for masculine attention, anthropologist Martin Muller and colleagues at Boston University discovered.

"It's really dramatic because it's not just that the old chimps are avoiding the youngest adult females. They actually have a strong preference for the older mothers," Muller said in a telephone interview.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, Muller and colleagues said they studied chimpanzees living in the Kanyawara community of Kibale National Park in Uganda.

It is easy to observe their mating behavior.

"Chimpanzee copulations are frequently preceded by a series of male courtship signals (e.g., glancing with erect penis and branch shaking), after which either the male or the female approaches the other to mate," the researchers wrote.

They also collected the chimps' urine to test for various hormones that demonstrate fertility.

They were checking to see if chimpanzees behave like humans, their closest living relatives, who form long-term mating bonds and who value younger females.

This is most definitely not the case with chimps. The very oldest adult females were the most sought-after.

"The males fight over them more," Muller said.

"They don't have to do anything to get the males interested. The males find them. They follow them around. If you look at the very youngest females, the males will mate with them but it does take more work on the female's part."

SHOWING OFF

Also unlike humans, female chimpanzees actively advertise when they are fertile, with bright red swellings around the genital area. And unlike human females, chimpanzees apparently remain fertile their entire lives, although these wild Ugandan chimpanzees rarely lived beyond the age of 40.

Older female chimpanzees are more dominant socially and have access to better food. Muller said. "The females that have access to the most food are the most fecund -- the most likely to conceive in any cycle," he said.

Males may know that.

Older females may also be better mothers, the researchers guessed.

"The males do end up mating with all the females for the most part," Muller noted. But he said the study challenges common conceptions.

"Normally, I think peoples' default assumption is, 'Well other animals, they must also find young females attractive,"' Muller said. "And people assume that young females are more fertile than older females."

But female chimpanzees do not experience the rapid decline in fertility that is seen in human females after their 20s.

Humans may prefer younger females because of marriage and other "long-term pair-bonds," something that is nonexistent in the promiscuous world of chimps. Human men seeking progeny may need to start with younger prospective mothers, Muller said.

"Chimpanzee males may not find the wrinkled skin, ragged ears, irregular bald patches, and elongated nipples of their aged females as alluring as human men find the full lips and smooth complexions of young women, but they are clearly not reacting negatively to such cues," the researchers concluded.

Source: Reuters

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Website : http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11699
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"Take this tip from nature: The forest would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best."

Bernard Meltzer

Campaign to Plant One Billion Trees in 2007

2006-11-16T22:49:00.000+05:30

Kenyan Nobel Prize Winner Launches Campaign to Plant One Billion Trees in 2007

November 08, 2006 — By Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press

NAIROBI — A Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner called on people around the world to plant 1 billion trees in the next year, saying Wednesday the effort is a way ordinary citizens can fight global warming.

Wangari Maathai, who in 2004 became the first black African woman to win a Nobel in any category, urged participants to ensure the trees thrive long after they are planted.

"It's one thing to plant a tree, it's another to make it survive," said Maathai, who founded Kenya's Green Party in 1987 and focused on planting trees to address the wood fuel crisis here.

Maathai said the campaign is meant to inspire ordinary citizens to help the environment.

"This something that anybody can do," Maathai said Wednesday at the U.N. conference on climate change, which has drawn delegates from more than 100 countries to Kenya.

Scientists blame the past century's 1-degree rise in average global temperatures at least in part on the accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere _ byproducts of power plants, automobiles and other fossil fuel burners.

Africa is the continent expected to suffer most from shifting climate zones and droughts, like the one now in its fourth year in East Africa.

Destroying trees through burning contributes to global warming, releasing about 370 million tons of greenhouse gases every year _ about 5 percent of the world total _ scientists say. Planting trees can offset climate change in part because they absorb carbon dioxide.

The tree-planting project, organized by the United Nations Environment Program, shows that "action does not need to be confined to the corridors of the negotiation halls," said Achem Steiner, UNEP's executive director.

The project calls on participants _ including individuals, schools and governments _ to sign up on UNEP's Web site and register the trees they planted.

Also Wednesday, some climate conference participants said the results of Tuesday's midterm elections in the United States were a good sign for environmental issues. The U.S. _ the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases _ has rejected mandatory emissions cuts, saying they could hamstring the economy and because poorer countries are exempt.

On Tuesday, Americans swept Democrats into power in the House of Representatives for the first time in a dozen years and largely dismantled the GOP Senate majority.

"President Bush still has two more years in office so it's very unlikely that the U.S. negotiating posture will change," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

But, he said, the fact that Democrats, many of whom support emissions caps, took control of the House means climate and energy issues will be prominent in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Source: Associated Press

Contact Info:

Website : http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11611

Glorifying the rural life

2006-11-16T22:48:00.000+05:30

Hats off to Ms. Chanda Shroff !

The painstaking and beautiful craft of hand embroidery dates back several thousand years. One of its traditional homes is Kutch, a corner of the Indian state of Gujarat. Known for its intricate and diverse styles, Kutchi embroidery has, since the 1960s, suffered a decline due to a modern emphasis on speed and profit, and a growing reliance on machinery and synthetic fabrics. An Indian woman, Chanda Shroff, aged 73, has worked tirelessly and voluntarily for almost four decades to reverse this decline.

http://www.rolexawards.com/laureates/laureate-88-shroff.html

Three wild elephants electrocuted in Assam

2006-11-16T08:25:00.000+05:30

Guwahati, Nov 13: Three Asiatic wild elephants have died of electrocution after a high tension wire fell on a herd in Assam, wildlife officials said Monday.

A forest warden said an elephant herd Sunday strayed into the Behali tea plantation, about 230 km from here, and tripped over an electric pole.

"The high tension wire first electrocuted a full-grown female elephant and immediately two of her calves tried to rescue her and in the process all the three died," Chandan Bora, divisional forest officer, told IANS by telephone.

The herd of about 35 elephants was moving in the area for quite sometime causing large-scale depredation to paddy fields and damaging village huts.

"It was a touching sight when the rest of the herd surrounded the dead elephants and were literally in tears, trumpeting at times and licking them frequently ," the warden said.

The herd retreated from the accident site after sundown Sunday.

"We have ordered an investigation to probe if the electric wire fell on the elephant herd after the animals tripped on the pole or was it an intentional ploy by villagers to take revenge as the herd had damaged their properties," Bora said.

Deadly turf wars between humans and hungry elephants in Assam have reached alarming proportions.

Shrinking forests and encroachment on elephant territory by people have forced the animals to stray from their habitats into human settlements in the quest of food.

Elephants have killed nearly 240 people in Assam in the past five years while 265 elephants have died during the same period, many of them victims of retaliation by angry humans, said a wildlife department report released last month.

Satellite imagery shows that between 1996 and 2000, villagers encroached on some 280,000 hectares of thick forests in Assam, according to authorities.

The attitude of people towards elephants has become less tolerant as the pachyderms have become an increasing problem for villagers. Villagers often poison the marauding elephants, while in the past they drove them away by beating drums or bursting firecrackers, said officials.

Assam has India's largest population of Asiatic elephants, estimated at around 5,300, according to a wildlife census in 2002.

- IANS

URL: http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=49792

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"Take this tip from nature: The forest would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best."

Bernard Meltzer

Lizards...yikes!, have personalities! isn't that great?

2006-11-11T22:29:00.000+05:30

Ewwww! that's what my mom says when she sees a lizard. And as a matter of being her son, i also found lizards... eeeewww! but now,,,,, I find them interesting and am trying to catch them by hands(strictly gloved!).

Here's an article that says.....lizards also, just like u & me have personalities!

Cheers!

Lizards have personalities too, study shows

13:35 08 November 2006

NewScientist.com news service

Roxanne Khamsi

They may be cold-blooded, but some lizards have warm personalities and like to socialise, a new study shows.

A behavioural study reveals that lizards have different social skills: some are naturally inclined to join large groups while others eschew company altogether. The discovery of reptilian personality types could help ecologists better understand and model animal population dynamics, say the researchers involved.

Scientists define "personality differences" as consistent behavioural differences between individuals across time and contexts. But there is a need for more research on these differences in wild animals, says Julien Cote of the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France. "Psychologists have explored the considerable range of non-human personalities like sociability, but mostly on domesticated animals," he says.

Scent of another

Cote and colleagues captured wild pregnant common lizards (Lacerta vivipara), and as soon as the offspring were born they were exposed to the scent of other lizards, to test their reactions. Over the next year the team monitored the newly born creatures to see how much time each spent in different areas of their enclosure.

Lizards that showed an aversion to other scents at an early age were more likely to flee highly populated areas of the enclosure, Cote's team found. These lizards were described as "asocial". In contrast, those that had been initially attracted to other scents often left sparsely populated areas of the enclosure to seek out areas of higher population density.

Understanding these personality differences in wild animals could give ecologists a more nuanced view of population dynamics, Cote says. "When studying and modelling how populations function, it is necessary to consider different kinds of individuals reacting differently to the environment rather than a unique behavioural response for all individuals."

Other experts agree that personality types could help explain why some animals might be more reluctant to leave a group and explore new turf. "If you have a personality by definition you are constrained," says ecologist Jason Jones of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, US.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3734)
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"Take this tip from nature: The forest would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best."

Bernard Meltzer

Neanderthal instincts

2006-10-27T17:20:00.000+05:30

Ancient human hunters smelt blood on the breeze

26 October 2006

Our ability to detect the characteristic metallic smell left on the skin after handling iron-containing objects like coins and keys may have evolved for a more gory purpose: to help our hunter ancestors track down wounded prey.

Fats on the skin break down to form volatile, strong-smelling substances called ketones and aldehydes when they come into contact with iron - whether it comes from the environment or from haemoglobin in blood - says Dietmar Glindemann, a chemist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg.

Glindemann and his team identified the chemicals after analysing vapours produced when seven volunteers rubbed metal objects on their skin. The strongest-smelling is 1-octen-3-one, the researchers report in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (vol 45, p 7006).

Glindemann then established that the same chemicals are produced by reactions between iron in blood and chemicals in the skin by rubbing his own blood on his skin and analysing the resultant vapour. He suggests that the ability to detect traces of the smelly chemicals allowed our ancestors to sniff out freshly wounded animals.

From issue 2575 of New Scientist magazine, 26 October 2006, page 16

Source URL: ttp://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225754.400?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19225754.400

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"Take this tip from nature: The forest would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best."

Bernard Meltzer

Best Wildlife Photos of 2006

2006-10-27T15:53:00.000+05:30

Animal Behavior Winner: "Turtle Grooming"
Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, 2006

This green turtle is getting a full-body cleaning and massage courtesy of local fish at Turtle Pinnacle near Kailua Kona, Hawaii.

U.S. marine biologist Andre Seale, who took this photo, says the protected green turtles that come here rarely have to wait long for such a treatment from the fish, though some get more attention than others.

"Not all turtles attract so many fish, perhaps because of the amount of algae that's growing on them," Seale said.

The algae-eaters are colorful yellow tang and goldring surgeonfish, a species found only around the Hawaiian Islands. Also indigenous to the region is the saddleback wrasse, seen underneath, which feeds on dead and damaged skin.

"The turtles go up for a gulp of air, then come back down again," he added. "It's a bit like a car wash for them."

___________________________________________________________

Underwater World Winner: "The Great Mimic"
Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, 2006

It might want you to think otherwise, but this rare sea creature is actually an octopus.

The Indo-Malayan mimic octopus, a species first described only a year ago, is a master of disguise. When Michael Aw of Singapore first spotted the animal while diving off Indonesia's Banka Island, the octopus was pretending to be an eel, he says

Swimming alongside it for an hour, Aw says the shape-shifting octopus went on to assume the appearance of a sole, a ray, and then a sea snake. Its repertoire of disguises—used for both hunting and hiding—also includes hermit crabs, jellyfish, and sea cucumbers.

In the photo, the 1.5-foot-long (0.5-meter-long) octopus is mimicking a feather star, an animal related to the sea star, or starfish, Aw says.

"I guess it was saying, Please leave me alone, I'm really not interesting," the photographer said.

___________________________________________________________

Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year: "The Dilemma"
Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, 2006

Bug enthusiast Rick Stanley, 17, was exploring rain forests in the Dominican Republic with a group of naturalists when he and a friend heard a loud squeak from above. Looking up, they discovered a distressed Hispaniolan tree frog caught in the jaws of a green vine snake.

While Stanley, from Washington, D.C., recorded the drama on film, his friend Rubio decided to play a more active role.

"He felt sorry for the frog and touched the snake so it would let the frog go," Stanley said.

"It's amazing to think that snake could have eaten the frog," he added, noting the difference in size between the would-be predator and prey. "I guess we'll never know."

Stanley, who plans to become a biologist, accompanied a U.S.-led expedition that he says turned up seven new species of longhorn beetles.

___________________________________________________________

Overall Winner: "Beast of the Sediment"
Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, 2006

This image of a massive walrus looming through clouds of mud while probing for food in Arctic waters was voted best overall photo in the 2006 Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Unveiled October 19 at the Natural History Museum in London, the winning images—five of which are included in this gallery—were chosen from 18,000 entries from amateur and professional photographers in 55 countries.

Göran Ehlmé from Sweden captured top prize for this face-to-face walrus encounter off northeast Greenland, where the tusked giants come to root out mollusks from the seabed using their bristled snouts and powerful flippers.

Ehlmé, who has filmed walruses for National Geographic Television, is the first person to photograph the animals feeding underwater. Diving with walruses is fraught with danger, and Ehlmé took the plunge only after spending many years studying their behavior.

"They are highly unpredictable and dangerous," said Ehlmé, who has been attacked by the marine mammals in the past.

"I think this one was in a bad, bad mood when he saw me. Appearing through the mud clouds, he looks like an angry god coming down from the heavens."

___________________________________________________________

Source URL: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/photogalleries/animal-photos/index.html

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New bird discovered in India

2006-10-26T20:44:00.000+05:30

New bird discovered in India

The Indian bird species has added another feather to its plumage. With the discovery of 'Bugun Liocichla' by Pune-based radio astronomer and bird watcher Ramana Athreya, it is for the first time that a new species has been detected in mainland India since 1948. Now the total count of Indian bird species stands at 1226. Lt Gen Baljit Singh (retd) records the new entry into the avian world

Bugun Liocichla belongs to the Asian
Babbler family

In the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pardesh, mid-way on the Tezpur-Bomdila-Tawang road in a forest tract of 218 sq km lies the little-known Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary. From near anonymity, it has overnight become the focus of worldwide excitement for ornithologists. On May 25 this year Ramana Athreya, a radio astronomer and an ardent bird watcher from Pune, discovered an Indian bird species hitherto unknown to science. The count of species, which stood at 1,225 for India since 1948, has now moved up by one digit.

In general, people are attracted to a bird either because of its brilliant plumage (the peacock) or its appealing song (the Blue Whistling Thrush). As far as the overall impact of colour is concerned, Ramana's discovery is so sublime that you can never have enough of it. Shades of red, black, flaming orange, yellow, brown, olive, grey, white, flesh pink and silver are deftly interwoven into a matrix, the ultimate in colour harmony.

The news of the discovery became public only in mid-September because many exacting demands had to be met to provide evidence. Ramana has provided all save one. He was very wise not to kill the bird for a "full museum specimen". He is to be congratulated for his courage and compassion to reject this one scientific pre-requiste because so far not more than 14 birds of the discovered species have been spotted. In any case, Ramana has irrefutable photographic evidence, sound recordings of the bird's song on tape, two feathers (one from the tail and another from the wing) and more than a dozen enthusiasts from the US and Europe as witnesses, who per chance happened to be with him on that fateful day. All evidence (of course, minus the witnesses) has been deposited with the Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai.

The black feathers on the head of the female (top) remain swept back, while the male (below) keeps them erect

The closed underside of the tail of the female (top) and the male (below)

What about the name of the bird? Well, it has been identified as a species from the Asian Babbler family. For the purpose of international convenience in usage, all birds are given a scientific name (in Latin) and an English (common) name. And, of course, they retain their vernacular (regional) name. Ramana very promptly named it Bugun Liocichla, which got Latinised as Liocichla Bugunorum. Buguns are the local tribe which cohabit the area with this bird. These tribesmen accompanied Ramana during all his ventures in that area. The name is both a token of Ramana's appreciation to them and the hope of a symbiotic relationship between the Buguns and the Liocichla.

For the present the bird has no common or vernacular name but in the fitness of things it would be just appropriate to call it Athreya's Babbler. There are very good reasons to do so. Firstly, there is the universal precedence in ornithology to assign eponyms to birds. For instance we have Jerdon's Double-Banded Courser, after Maj T. C. Jerdon of the Indian Army who had discovered it. To name just one more, we also have Tickell's Blue Flycatcher; Tickell too was from the Indian Army, a Lieutenant Colonel.

More than all other considerations, this is the only bird of India's 1,226 species that has been discovered by and whose scientific text has also been written by an Indian, Ramana Athreya. Do we need to labour on this aspect any more?

Now what takes Ramana, a graduate from IIT Kanpur (1989), a radio astronomer of international standing, currently on the rolls of the National Centre for Astrophysics on the Pune University Campus, to the Eaglenest in W Kameng? To begin with, it was to spend a short holiday with his wife, who was pursuing a field project in Kameng for her doctoral thesis. Birdwatching has always been a passion but when in January 1995 he first saw a pair of birds all he knew was that "they did not fit any description in S.Ali & S.D. Ripley's Complete Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (1987)". The next sighting came after 10 long agonising years in January 2005; a flock of six at 3 p.m. and of another four at 3.45 pm. In collaboration with two friends from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun, and with permission from the government, they attempted to mist-net a specimen between January 23 and 28, 2005, but did not succeed.

He returned to the site in March and April this year and over four different days saw 14 of these birds. On May 21, he attempted and succeeded in mist-netting one bird. Unfortunately, the bird escaped after just three photographs. Ultimately on May 25, Ramana's luck held when he netted one more. Now he created a complete photographic evidence, took bodily measurements with vernier calipers, made detailed notes and in less than two hours released the bird to join its kind. And the discovery became a fact of life from that moment!

Ramana first spotted this species in 1995

In 1994, the North-eastern Himalayas were listed among the dozen biodiversity rich hot-spots of global significance. Once Ramana saw the Eaglenest sanctuary, he conceived a project to document its biodiversity, coopt the tribes (Bugun and Sherdukpen) as partners in conservation of biodiversity and in return provide them with alternative socio-economic sustenance such as eco-tourism. Funded by the Ruthford Foundation, the project was launched in November 2003. Birdwatchers from the US and Euorpe proved most eager for recreation of this kind. Ramana has already successfully conducted one such group in collaboration with the locals in 2004 and two in 2006.

All proceeds from this eco-tourism venture have gone to the Village Tribal Council, which has pledged to keep the project going. Ramana in the meantime has obtained funds from the Ford Foundation for creating tented accommodation for visiting groups. Indian professional and amateur ornithologists have been offered a "vacation-for-conservation" plan where participants are charged tariff at zero-profit, provided experienced guide gratis and all this is in return for simply documenting the flora and fauna of Eaglenest.

When Ramana Athreya had first seen the Bugun Liocichla in 1995 and then could not spot it till 2005, he "began to doubt what I had seen". And now whole of India sees and rejoices in having a spanking, cuddly new bird, just 2mm bigger than the familiar Red-vented Bulbul.

Source URL: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20061021/saturday/main1.htm

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"Take this tip from nature: The forest would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best."

Bernard Meltzer

Trouble in Darwin's paradise

2006-10-12T23:18:00.000+05:30

In the pantheon of evolutionary icons they have prime status - for biologists they are the closest thing to Mecca. Now the Galapagos islands are facing a two-pronged attack.

On one side are the rats, goats and other alien species that have made the islands their home, to the detriment of local flora and fauna and on the other, the hordes of eco-tourists descending on the equatorial paradise.

Last year around 126,000 people visited the Galapagos, and cruise ship companies have recently added the islands to their destinations. Felipe Cruz of the Charles Darwin Foundation, dedicated to conserving the islands, believes the Galapagos should not be used in this way.

"We don't want cruise ships in the Galapagos, we don't think it's sustainable," he says. The ships leave local people and the environment to deal with their laundry water and sewage waste. Second, the larger numbers of tourists visiting the same areas will disturb the wildlife. Third, the chances of bringing alien species or disease is greatly increased.

Cruise ships, however, are coming. The Ecuadorean government allows twelve 500-passenger cruise ships to visit the Galapagos a year. So far the only one has been the 698-berth MV Discovery, operated by Discovery World Cruises of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which visited in May. Classic International Cruises, based in Lisbon, Portugal, has the Athena, which is scheduled to visit in 2008. Cruz says the ships bring their own food with them and don't deal with local people, so the tourist money doesn't filter into sustainable tourism.

Pirates used the islands as hideouts until the 19th century, introducing many non-natives such as rats, pigs and goats. Leonor Stjepic of the Galapagos Conservation Trust in London says the potential ecological impact of mass tourism poses a similar threat. "It is very difficult to perform adequate quarantine checks on a large ship with lots of people and luggage," she says. "West Nile virus has already been detected in Colombia. Imagine the devastation if that - or avian flu - came to the Galapagos."

When asked about the ecological risk to the islands, Classic International Cruises told New Scientist they will comply with the rules set by the Ecuadorean government and the Galapagos National Park Management as far as protecting the islands is concerned.

Stjepic insists that cruise ships are not a good thing for the islands. "It goes beyond environmental impact assessment. Even now we get invasive species, such as thrips, and blackberry, which has devastated the daisy trees in the highlands of Santa Cruz."

Managing the Galapagos is difficult, but there are successes. Most notably, Project Isabela, which eradicated thousands of goats that had devastated many of the islands in the archipelago.

Even large islands like Santiago and Isabela, each home to almost 100,000 of these alien invaders, are now goat-free. "The success of this project has acted like a catalyst, giving us confidence to take on other huge challenges in Galapagos," says Cruz.

Later this year the island of Pinta is to be the setting for one of the boldest. One hundred giant tortoises from nearby Española will be released onto Pinta's volcanic slopes. There is only one surviving Pinta tortoise, Lonesome George, and he was moved to the Charles Darwin Research Station on the island of Santa Cruz in 1972. His closest living relative - the Española tortoise - will act as a stand-in for him and his long-dead ancestors. "This is the first time that conservationists in the Galapagos have attempted to replace one species with another," says Cruz.

The tortoises should fill a hole in Pinta's ecological make-up. "In the absence of a dominant herbivore, the structure of the island's vegetation is changing," says Ole Hamann, a botanist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who has worked on Pinta since the 1970s. "Tortoises will open up the vegetation, making room for light-loving herbs and grasses."

Next for eradication are the non-native rats. In 2003, conservationists announced that around 200,000 Norwegian rats had been removed from Campbell Island, some 700 kilometres south of New Zealand. It was the most successful rat eradication scheme to date and the technique used, an aerial drop of poison specific to rats, is due to come to the Galapagos soon.

With cruise liners and mass tourism, however, enforcing adequate quarantine measures will be very difficult, says Stjepic. At the end of this month, there will be workshops to look at ways of capping the number of visitors to the islands. One obvious way is to put the price up, from the $100 entry fee currently charged, to $500.

From issue 2573 of New Scientist magazine, 12 October 2006, page 8-9

My comments:

"Should leave nature alone...if one cannot care for it"

Promiscuous queen bees make healthier hives

2006-09-29T18:54:00.000+05:30

00:01 28 September 2006
NewScientist.com news service
John Pickrell

The queens of bees, ants and wasps that indulge in the most promiscuous and lengthy sex marathons produce the healthiest colonies, a new study reveals.

Honeybee queens that mated with multiple drones were shown to foster bee hives with wider genetic variation. This variation meant they were much better able to fend off a debilitating disease, researchers found.

For many social insect queens, mating is a costly activity. In honeybees, for example, it involves her flying many kilometres from the hive to rendezvous sites with male drones – the longer she stays to mate, the more precious energy she expends, and the greater the chance there is that she will be devoured by predators.

This has made experts wonder why the queens of some species of social insects indulge in multiple sexual encounters, while others make do with a single male. Ideas include that the resulting genetic variation could help improve the division of labour in a colony, or that multiple mating might simply be a strategy to collect more sperm.

(In the picture:Queen bees, such as the one marked with a numbered tag, foster healthier colonies by 'sleeping around' (Image: David Tarpy))

Hotbed for life

But perhaps the most convincing theory is that queens that take many lovers produce colonies that are better protected against disease. "Insects living very closely in nutrient-rich environments are hotbeds for micro-organisms – they need mechanisms to protect against disease," says apiculturalist (bee expert) David Tarpy at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, US.

To test this theory, Tarpy experimentally inseminated honeybee queens (Apis mellifera) with the sperm of either one or 10 drones. Twenty-four "multiple-mate" queens and 25 singly-mated queens were then encouraged to set up colonies in bee hives kept by Tarpy's colleague Thomas Seeley at Cornell University in Ithaca, US.

Once these colonies were established, Seeley sprayed them with water tainted with American foulbrood disease, a highly virulent infector of bee larvae.

The hives were tested for spread of infection five and nine weeks later. Though no colonies had completely escaped infection, the researchers found that colonies fathered by single drones were significantly weaker and were experiencing more intense outbreaks of disease.

Wipe out

The findings strongly suggest that multiple mating increases a colony's resistance to parasites, Tarpy says. "Honeybee queens are hedging their bets by mating with many males," he says. The resultant offspring would have a wider range of disease resistance and susceptibilities, meaning they are less likely to be wiped out in one go.

"This is convincing evidence that multiple-mated hives seem to suffer less disease," says Francis Ratnieks, who heads up Sheffield University's Apiculture and Social Insect Laboratory in the UK. "There are lots of ideas in this area, but not many good experimental studies."

The finding could have wider implications. Honeybees are thought to be directly responsible for about one-third of everything eaten in the US, due to service they provide as pollinators, says Tarpy. They are therefore worth an estimated $20 billion annually to the agricultural industry. Many of these are domesticated bees, and some are artificially inseminated.

Though honeybees naturally take 10 to 20 mates – beekeepers could help ensure hives are steeled against the ravages of disease by ensuring queens are as promiscuous as possible, perhaps through artificial insemination, says Tarpy.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3702)

Silky-footed tarantulas don't come unstuck

2006-09-29T18:41:00.000+05:30

27 September 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition.
Michael Reilly

They have a deadly bite, but a soft footfall. Tarantulas, it turns out, can spin silk with their feet.

To crawl vertically and cling upside down, most spiders use minute claws and pads on their feet or "tarsi". These work on rough surfaces, but may fail on smooth or dirty ones. While this is not a problem for small spiders that can survive long falls, for a heavy tarantula a slip could be fatal.

To figure out how tarantulas make their way safely up vertical surfaces, Adam Summers of the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues analysed the footprints of Costa Rican zebra tarantulas (Aphonopelma seemanni) as they climbed a glass wall. This revealed that the spiders left fragments of sticky silk a few micrometres in diameter and up to 2.5 centimetres long.

On looking closely at the spiders' feet the researchers found microscopic spigots that resembled the creatures' abdominal silk-producing spinnerets (Nature, vol 443, p 407). "With all the work that's been done on spider feet it's amazing to find something like this. Somehow it has been missed before," says Summers.

“With all the work that's been done on spider feet it's amazing to find this. Somehow it has been missed before”The discovery of these structures raises an interesting evolutionary question, as abdominal spinnerets are widely considered to be the remnants of ancient appendages. "It is thought that abdominal spinnerets could be vestigial legs," says Todd Blackledge, who works on spider silk at the University of Akron in Ohio. The spinnerets have jointed segments and have been shown to move in sync with the legs when spiders walk.

So far Summers and colleagues have found foot spigots only in tarantulas, so it is possible that they are a relatively recent adaptation to supplement the claws and pads. Identifying the genes involved in tarsal silk production will help determine whether they evolved to increase traction, or if they were co-opted from an organ with some other function. Testing these hypotheses will require detailed surveys of all spider species, says Summers, looking for any that might also have silken toes.

From issue 2571 of New Scientist magazine, 27 September 2006, page 12.

River

2006-09-28T22:45:00.000+05:30

A small village on the bank of the river
The clear water could make you shiver
But soon the pollution
Caused it's execution
Now the river is a black, dirty sewer!

-Anonick.

Visit Anonick's Blog

I lament

2006-09-25T23:36:00.000+05:30

Snowy cotton mounds?
No!,white fluffy clouds.
Behind them the pink sky
Gives a tone-a bit shy.

Orange splashes here and there,
Absolute beauty at a wrongwhere!
Headlights and the running ants,
"Money,Money!", the greedy chants.

Not even a second, to look up to
Nature's show, its colours and hues.
I lament, while watering the plants;
Lovely sky and the echoing chants.
--
http://hershal.blogspot.com

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
-Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Thanks TOI

2006-09-25T23:15:00.000+05:30

Thanks to Times Of India for quick response to this grave matter.

RETAIN GREEN

Chopping trees for garba? Bad idea

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: Chopping trees inside your society to make space for garba? Bad idea! Volunteers of environment NGOs are doing the rounds around societies and they would report felling of trees to civic authorities, an offence that could attract fine.

A complaint against Goyal Intercity society block 'A' has already been registered by a volunteer of environment NGO Tarumitra, Hershal Pandya, with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), for lopping off all branches of 14 trees.

"Some 14 fully grown trees inside the society compound have been reduced to 10-15 feet of naked trunks to make way for residents to do garba. The society took no prior permission and I reported the incident to the AMC," says Pandya.

AMC officials have warned residential societies to desist from chopping or badly pruning trees without permission. "I will look into this complaint and if the residents have lopped off branches, they will be fined. Mild pruning is permissible, but you cannot lop off branches this way," says general manager of AMC's parks & gardens department, IP Kakkad.

While the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation itself has been chopping a number of trees as a part of its roadwidening exercise, many residents, too, are known to mercilessly cut trees within their societies without realising that they are committing an offence.

"We have reported two incidents of tree felling in the city recently, including a huge Neem tree chopped at Chandralok Apartments in Shahibaug and 4-5 trees cut in Swaymbhu Apartments near AMA," says Bhavna Ramrakhiani of Ahmedabad Community Foundation.

The AMC started a 'green hotline' after a number of such incidents were reported earlier this year.

--
http://hershal.blogspot.com

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
-Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

2006-09-25T00:33:00.000+05:30

Black roses,
Sad Moses,
Bright smoke,
Glistening coke.

No more kisses,
Masked-beaked noses.
Exaggerated picture is,
Reality can-be this!

Lovely, chirpy, green nature,
Holds in-it-a beautiful future.
Let's save it, conserve it, re-kindle it,
Dark-is murdered, when-a candle is lit.

Ruthless Tree Cutting - For Navratri

2006-09-23T19:32:00.000+05:30

I was pretty shocked to see people cutting down trees to nothing but a naked trunk.

Fourteen Trees in a row, standing naked and in front of them, a stage for band to play during navratri.

This is a scene in Goyal Intercity A, Nr S.A.L. Hospital. They are a set of ten-storeyed buildings with people of the upper strata living there.

It was a very sad thing to see uneducativeness of so called literate people.

:-(

I have already complained to the municipality and also informed the press. I hope they bring up the issue and enlighten the darkened minds.

May God bless them with some knowledge and love for nature! Else there is no stopping to the increase in gloom spread over the world........alas!.....i hope........may God......

--
http://hershal.blogspot.com

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
-Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Lions Dying in Indian Zoo after Failed Experiment

2006-09-23T19:24:00.000+05:30

Just a note :-) I think the Indian culture and Indianness shows up in this article.

Lions Dying in Indian Zoo after Failed Experiment

September 18, 2006 — By Palash Kumar, Reuters

CHANDIGARH, India — Twenty-one lions are dying in a zoo in north India after a cross-breeding experiment to boost the park's attractions went disastrously wrong.

In the 1980s officials at the Chhatbir Zoo in the northern city of Chandigarh, bred captive Asiatic lions with a pair of African circus animals, resulting in a hybrid species.

Within a few years it became obvious it had not worked.

The offspring found it hard to walk, let alone run, because their hind legs were weak. And by the mid 1990s the big cats -- which live for up to 20 years in captivity -- showed symptoms of failing immune systems.

But it wasn't until 2000 that the breeding programme was ended, and the male lions given vasectomies, by which time the zoo had 70 to 80 such lions.

Their number dwindled slowly, with disease killing some and some dying of wounds inflicted by other lions.

Authorities say they are waiting for the population to "phase out" before they can start breeding pure Asiatic lions.

"But the effort here is to help them die with dignity," said Dharminder Sharma, a senior zoo official. "We give them all the facilities to live a happy life in their last years. Some of the old lions are even given boneless meat."

Last year the zoo opened a special enclosure, away from the main exhibit area, where it keeps lions who have become too feeble to defend themselves.

It has been dubbed an "old age home" for lions.

Ailing Lakshmi and Lajwanti now live in these sheds, which have a small caged courtyard.

Both are hybrid and are extremely weak. They can barely stand up or walk. Their only activity is a small but painful walk to eat their meals. However, if challenged, they can still muster a spine-chilling roar.

In August, Lakshmi stopped eating. Doctors at the zoo put her on a drip and fed her glucose through water.

"Those were nervous times for us," said Sharma.

"We tried very hard to keep her alive and eventually succeeded when she slowly started to eat ... Even if they are meant to die, it doesn't meant we kill them by not treating them," he added.

Asiatic lions are found only in India and, at present, there are about 300 of them in the Gir national park in the western state of Gujarat.

In the mid-20th century, their numbers were less then 15 as they were vigorously hunted by the Maharajas and princes for whom the majestic animal was the most coveted game. The population recovered after a breeding programme launched in the Gir sanctuary in the 1960s.

Source: Reuters

Contact Info:

Website : http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11267

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
-Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Lebanon Begins To Clean Ravaged Coast After Wartime Oil Spill

2006-09-23T19:21:00.000+05:30

Lebanon Begins To Clean Ravaged Coast After Wartime Oil Spill

September 22, 2006 — By Henry Meyer, Associated Press

BEIRUT — Shovel-wielding volunteers sifted through oil-stained sand on a beach where tourists once swam, now emptied by a massive spill caused by Israeli bombardment. Two months later, only 3 percent of the oil has been recovered.

"It's going to take a year before it's back to normal," said Commander Christian Nedelec, the head of an eight-person French team that has been helping the Lebanese government clean up the slick.

Lebanon's tourist and fishing industries remain battered by what has been described as the country's worst-ever environmental catastrophe, which erupted when Israeli warplanes struck the Jiyeh power plant in mid-July, spilling up to 110,000 barrels of fuel oil into the clear Mediterranean waters.

Less than 3,500 barrels have been cleaned up. Lebanon couldn't start any offshore operation for weeks, waiting for Israel to lift its naval and air blockade on Sept. 8.

Around two-thirds of Lebanon's picturesque and rocky Mediterranean coast has been fouled by the oil slick, which extends about 95 miles and has reached Syria's shoreline to the north.

"The timing is quite essential with an oil spill. The more you wait, the more it spreads," said Luisa Colasimone of the United Nations Environmental Program.

On Sunday, 20 volunteers were cleaning up the black gunk that tarred the 1.1-mile-long beach, Ramlat el-Baida -- Arabic for "white sand." The only public beach within about 60 miles of the capital, it is usually crowded with locals and tourists on summer weekends.

Tarek Moukaddem, an 18-year-old student, has come six or seven times to help clean, traveling by bus from his hometown north of Beirut.

"I usually spend all my time here. I'm here to clean it so I can come here with my friends and swim next summer," he said.

The airstrike at Jiyeh destroyed six fuel tanks at the plant. Israel said it hit the site, 12 miles south of Beirut, as part of a broader campaign against infrastructure used by Hezbollah guerrillas. Many Lebanese accuse it of hitting the station and other sites with few ties to Hezbollah simply to punish the country and force the government to take action against the guerrillas.

Israel insists the circumstances of the spill are unclear and it has not accepted responsibility.

"It's not clear that Israel was directly responsible for the oil slick. We certainly did not intentionally attack the oil containers," said Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev.

That explanation is of scant consolation to Mohamed Itani, a Beirut fisherman who not been out to sea in his boat since the spill, and is struggling to support his 7-year-old twin sons and his wife, who is expecting a third child.

The 35-year-old sat idly drinking tea, looking despondently at the thick, black sludge that has blocked the mouth of the small fishing port.

Along the length of Lebanon's coast, usually visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, more than 30 sandy beaches and rocky coves are covered with oil.

Lebanon's archaeological heritage also has suffered. Some 25 miles north of Beirut in the ancient Phoenician port city of Byblos, whose history stretches back 7,000 years, famous ruins were blackened by the slick.

The oil seeped into the foundation of the medieval harbor wall, staining the stones of the two ancient towers at the port's entrance. U.N. experts warn that the site will have to be cleaned for 10 weeks with hand brushes -- before winter to prevent permanent devastation.

It is marine life that could suffer the worst consequences, because in the Mediterranean, currents don't come in enough often from the ocean to sweep away pollutants.

Lebanese waters are known as a passage for migrating schools of fish, particularly tuna. The oil, which sank to the bottom of the sea, where it threatens plants and fish that live on the sea floor, could resurface unless treated and contaminate the coast for years to come.

It could take up to 10 years for the ecosystem of the eastern Mediterranean to recover fully, according to the country's environment minister, Yaacoub Sarraf.

Several Mediterranean countries including France, Spain and Italy have sent teams to help the Lebanese navy in coping with the oil spill, whose cleanup could cost $100 million.

Lebanon, meanwhile, plans to sue Israel for damages, though it has not said how much it will claim.

Rick Steiner, an American oil spill expert who worked on the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster and has been advising the Lebanese government, says Israel should pay $1 billion, including lost revenues from fishing and tourism.

------

Associated Press writer Steve Weizman contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

Source: Associated Press

Contact Info:

Website : http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11305
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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
-Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Taru Mitra Gujarat

2006-09-23T19:01:00.000+05:30

What is this Taru Mitra Gujarat?

"Taru Mitra" in gujarati,sanskrit and hindi means "Friends of Trees"

We are a group of citizens concerned about the environment of the state and largely, the earth.

We are based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and our present activities revolve around the city of Amdavad.(thats in gujarati!) Our activities are also related to "Trees". We are engaged in stopping of Tree-cutting, growing more trees and in environmental education.

For more details on our group, please visit: Taru Mitra Gujarat Website

On this blog:

I intend to post News & Articles related to the Global Environment and Indian scenario"

'Gujarati hospitality has winged visitors checking in'

Syed Khalique Ahmed