WHO says 13 million lives can be saved by cleaner environment

A recently released WHO report shows that 13 million people or 10% of deaths in 23 of the 192 countries studied happen because of unsafe drinking water and indoor air pollution caused by the burning of wood, cow dung and coal.

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,date:2007-06-14~menuPK:34461~pagePK:34392~
piPK:64256810~theSitePK:4607,00.html

“ Arctic Tale” to be released on July 25th

Arctic Tale, a new film produced by National Geographic Films makes a dramatic attempt to sensitize the public to global warming. The film does this by portraying the life as experienced by a young male polar bear named Nanu and a female walrus cub named Seela. The suffering that Nanu and Seela undergo will hopefully make the general public more sensitive to the dangerous consequences of climate change.

The film is distributed by Paramount Vantage and premiered at the Silverdocs documentary film festival on June 18th. Directed by Adam Ravetch and his wife, Sarah Robertson, the film's team of script writers include Linda Woolverton and Al Gore’s daughter Kristin.

source : http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12972

America’s common birds are vanishing…

The Audobon Society has reported a significant drop in the population of 20 of America’s common bird species. Analysis of bird population data shows that the numbers of Northern bobwhite and Evening Grosbeak have fallen by 82% and 78% respectively.

The figures are equally depressing for many of the other common bird species too!
You can read the full report here at http://www.audubon.org/bird/stateofthebirds/CBID/

Wildlife paradise discovered in Southern Sudan

It’s tough to believe that war wrecked, poverty stricken Sudan has an abundance of wildlife but an exciting discovery made by Dr Michael Fay and his team show that southern Sudan is home to a treasure house of wildlife.

An aerial survey of Southern Sudan shows:
8,000 elephants
800,000 kob
250,000 Mongalla gazelle
160,000 tiang
13,000 reedbuck
8,900 buffalo
2,800 ostriches
4,000 Nile lechwe (the only place in the world where you can see them are in the Sudd swamps)

Plus lions, leopards, elands, Grant’s gazelles, roan antelopes, lesser kudu, hartebeest, giraffes, crocodiles, hippos, and beisa oryx were all seen.

The survey was carried out by
Dr Michael Fay, scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
Dr. Paul Elkan, director of the WCS Southern Sudan Country Program, and
Malik Marjan, a Southern Sudanese Ph.D. candidate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Says Dr Michael Fay, "We estimated more than 800,000 kob in Southern Sudan. If you were a gold miner and hit a vein of gold, like we found in kob, you would have found El Dorado. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that this kind of abundance in nature existed in a region after 25 years of civil war, virtually unknown to the world at large."

The team started flying on Jan 17, 2007 and in just 150 hours of survey time were able to cover 58,000 square miles (150,000 square km).

Areas surveyed were: Boma National Park, Jonglei region and Southern National Park.

The project was undertaken by The Ministry of Environment, Wildlife Conservation, and Tourism, Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS).

Additional funds were given by USAID/Sudan and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

For this discovery and for exploring the wilderness of Africa, Dr Michael Fay gets the 2007 Lindbergh Award.

The explorations included:

A 15 month, 2000 mile expedition, called Megatransect where Dr Fay traveled from the rainforests of Congo to the sea shores of Gabon. He documented all the large animals, plants and signs of human impact that he saw on the way.

A 600 000 mile expedition called MegaFlyover where he flew across Africa’s wild habitats. That’s when he discovered the wildlife treasure house.

source: http://www.wcs.org/353624/wcs_megascientist

India sets up weather station at glacier in Himachal Pradesh

The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) has set up a weather station at the Chhota Shigri glacier in Himachal Pradesh to monitor climate change. The weather station’s Integrated Sensor Suite (ISS), has a warning and recording system to track changes in weather.

source : http://www.indiaenews.com/sports/20070616/56363.htm


Two Sloth bear cubs rescued

The UP Forest department, Delhi based NGO – Wildlife S.O.S. and One Voice Association – France worked together to resuce two endangered bear cubs from smugglers in Baliya district of Uttar Pradesh.

Members of the raiding team included :

• SDO Rasda Range - Mr. Kewal Prasad
  Range officer- Baliya - Mr. Gokul Prasad
  Dy Ranger - Arun Kumar Rai
  Conservator of Forests - Mr. C P Goyal, IFS
  Deputy Conservator of Forests - Dr. R.K.Singh, IFS.
  Plus forest guards who worked under their guidance
  

source : http://www.iar.org.uk/news/2007/jun07-2.shtml

Word Bank lends US$63 million for livelihood project in Bihar

The World Bank has cleared US$63 million to help improve the livelihoods of 2.9 million people living in 590,000 households. Called Jeevika, the rural livelihoods project will be implemented in the districts of Nalanda, Gaya, Muzzafarpur, Madhubani, Khagaria, and Purnea. The project is specifically targeted at helping the women.

Talking about the project, Parmesh Shah, World BankLead Rural Development Specialist and project team leader says, “These communities will be provided skills and tools to develop social accountability mechanisms to enable transparency and good governance within the institutions of the poor. This will also help in building effective service delivery partnerships with local governments.”

You can read more about this project here at : http://www.worldbank.org.in/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=295584&menuPK=295617&Projectid=P090764

NGOs in Agra honor green journalists

Wildlife SOS, International Animal Rescue and Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society got together to honor Agra’s green journalists on World Environment Day.

Chief Guest Dr R S Pareek, famous Homoeopath and President of the Agra Citizens’ Council, said, "Every small effort counts. If each one of us on a daily basis thinks of doing one small deed to save the environment, be it saving a drop of water from being wasted or reusing a polybag or a waste piece of paper, we can all contribute to saving our planet from extinction".

Certificates of appreciation and mementos were given to the following journalists:

• Hindi print media

Rajeev Saxena (Dainik Jagran)
Ram Kumar Sharma, Sanmay Prakash and Anshu Pareek ( all from Hindustan Times)
Dr Surendra Singh (Amar Ujala) and
Raj Kumar Sharma (DLA)

Special focus on Agra city’s cultural and historical heritage

Mahesh Dhakar (Hindustan Times) Adarsh Nandan Gupta (Dainik Jagran) and Kumar Lalit Bansal (DLA)

• Photo journalism
  Brajesh Kumar Singh (DLA)
  Aslam Salimi (Dainik Jagran) and
  Vishal Khandelwal (Agra Plus)

• Television
  Rishi Dixit (Sahara TV)
  Jasvir Singh Jassi (Moon Cable Network) and
  Shashi Kant Upadhyaya (Sea Cable Network).
  
  
  Source: http://www.iar.org.uk/news/2007/jun07.shtml

Three major forest fires blaze through Himachal Pradesh in June, 2007

Places affected:

• 2000 hectares of reserve forests in Shimla and Solan districts of Himachal Pradesh
  
• A Large forest fire that lasted for a week was reported from Bogria forest near Nahan

• Another fire was reported from Cant and Ram Kundi districts of Himachal Pradesh.

Forest fire in at the LOC in Kashmir

• A forest fire that extended for 25-29 km on both side of the Line of Control (LOC) was reported from Kashmir. Critically affected areas were Compartment numbers 130,131,144,145, 205 and 206 at Balnoi, Malikpur, Gollat, Sona Wali Gali in the Mendhar sector.

Sources: http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/media/2007/06/news_20070611_ind.htm
http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/media/2007/06/news_20070605_in.htm
http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/media/2007/06/news_20070612_in.htm

Punjab and Haryana's green initiatives

Three new protected areas in Punjab

The Forest and Wildlife Preservation Minister of Punjab, Tikshan Sood outlined the bondaries and location of the three new protected areas as below:

Kathlaur-Kushlian Wildlife Sanctuary – that includes forests of 346 acres in Kushlian, 1550 acres in Kathlaur and adjoining area of villages Raipur, Bahadurpur and Jaswa in Tehsil Pathankot, District Gurdaspur.

Keshopur Miani Wetland Community Reserve - of 850 acres of Panchayat area of Miani, Keshopur, Matwa, Dalla and Magarmudian in Tehsil and Gurdaspur district.

Lalwan Community Reserve – that covers 3167 acres of village Lalwan, Tehsil Garhshankar, District Hoshiarpur.

Source: http://news.oneindia.in/2007/06/14/three-more-protected-forest-areas-in-punjab-1181833558.html


Punjab and Haryana go organic

The Haryana government has sanctioned a budget of Rs 3 crores to promote vermiculture while Punjab is focusing on neem as an organic pesticide.

Haryana plans to set up vermi-hatcheries in 25 centres at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh / hatchery and offer earthworms free to farmers. The government is offering incentives like organic farming certification.

With 12 lakh neem trees, the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology (PSCST) is all set to start pilot trials using 70 tonnes of neem. The initiative in Punjab has been supported by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers and United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

Sources: http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=241696
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=166657


Chandigarh to become India’s first eco-friendly, smoke free city

The Tourism Department of Chandigarh and the Chandigarh Administration are working hard to transform Chandigarh into an eco-friendly, smoke free city.

Eco-friendly projects in the pipeline include greening Sukhna Lake, increasing green spaces, restricting entry to Nepli and Kansal forests that envelope the city and lots of other green steps.

For a city that is already well known as India’s greenest, cleanest and well designed city, doing the eco-friendly, smoke free makeover will be just that small step that Chandigarh needs to take, to lead India’s urban eco-friendly initiatives.

Sources : The Pioneer, Saturday, 16 June 2007
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newsid=45431&newstype=local

Plants can spot family members and are more hospitable to family than strangers

Dr Susan Dudley, Associate Professor of Biology at McMaster University has made an amazing discovery. Plants happily share space and resources with family members. On the other hand with strangers of the same species, the plants turn fiercely competitive.

Dr Dudley and her research student Amanda File observed the behavior in a species of sea rocket whose Latin name is Cakile edentula.

Says Dr Dudley, "The ability to recognize and favor kin is common in animals, but this is the first time it has been shown in plants. When plants share their pots, they get competitive and start growing more roots, which allows them to grab water and mineral nutrients before their neighbors get them.

It appears, though, that they only do this when sharing a pot with unrelated plants; when they share a pot with family, they don't increase their root growth. Because differences between groups of strangers and groups of siblings only occurred when they shared a pot, the root interactions may provide a cue for kin recognition."

The team have published their findings in the current issue of Biology Letters

source : http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=4754

Palakkad district's rainforests are disappearing...

The forest department of Palakkad district has lost more than 15 000 acres of forest land due to encroachment.

Some areas that have been encroached upon include:

Corridors of Silent Valley National Park in the Mannarkkad Forest Division

Nelliampathy Hills adjacent to the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary

Akamalavaram in Malampuzha

Kinnakkara Sholayur in Attappady

Palakuzhy in the Alathur Forest Range

Mangalam Dam in Vadakkumcherry

River beds of the Bharathapuzha, Bhavani, Kalpathy, Korayar, Walayar too have been encroached.

Source : www.thehindu.com/2007/06/18/stories/2007061850590300.htm


Silent Valley National Park to be protected by buffer zone

Kerala State Cabinet has marked out a buffer zone of 148 sq km around Silent Valley National Park.

The buffer zone will be a sandwich made from three forest ranges : Mannarkkad, Attappady and Kalikavu regions

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/09/stories/2007060908770300.htm

Low cost check dam fills up tank in Tajpur village after ten year gap

A small check-dam that cost Rs 4 lakhs to set up across Bandi Halla rivulet on the border of Tajpur village and a 850-metre long diversion channel have helped fill up the Tajpur village tank in Bijapur after a gap of ten years.

All that was needed to fill up the tank that extends to 3.5 acres was just one shower of heavy rain.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/17/stories/2007061751960300.htm

110 villages in Andhra Pradesh to get water

The AP Government has cleared a Rs 699 crore lift-irrigation project on Udayasamudram that will cover 1 lakh acres in 110 villages.

The five constituencies include :
Nalgonda
Ramannapet
Bhongir
Nakrekal and
Munugode

source: http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jun172007/scroll200706177954.asp?section=frontpagenews

ATREE researcher's poster gets recognition at international symposium

ATREE Coastal Programme researcher and doctoral student Nibedita Mukherjee's poster was judged the best poster presentation at the International Symposium on Integrated Coastal Zone Management hosted by the Institute of Marine Research and held at Arendal, Norway, 11-14 June 2007.

source: email communication from Dr Ravi Chellam, Director & Senior Fellow, ATREE