Neermahal at Malegar in Tripura has a stunning look and captivates the visitor with its beauty and architecture. However, the grand palace, which is in near-ruins due to neglect and ravages of time, is all set for restoration.

The only palace of its kind in the whole of eastern region, Neermahal was built by the Martin and Burn Company in 1930 in the centre of the 5.3 sq km Rudrasagar Lake. It served as the summer resort of the erstwhile King Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur and still draws thousands of visitors every year despite the poor condition of the lake which has become shallow because of heavy deposit of silt.

The tracts of green fields edging the lake come alive with birdsong during the annual arrival of migratory birds. The 24-room palace is surrounded by weeds on all sides and the boats that ferry visitors to the palace are rickety, demonstrating all-round neglect.

A blend of Hindu and Muslim architecture, and about 400 metres long, the erstwhile king’s summer resort has provisions for private quarters (andarmahal) for the king and his family and retinue of servants. It also has a dance hall and an assembly hall where the king would meet the people. This floating summer palace of Maharaja took nine years to be executed to his specifications of luxury and beauty.

“The superb palace, which is in near-ruins due to neglect and the ravages of time, is surrounded by weeds on all sides and the boats that ferry visitors to the palace are rickety, indicating all-round neglect and disregard to the heritage palace,” said tourism expert Subhash Das.

“Neermahal presents a sad contrast to the Lake Palace in Udaipur, which attracts hundreds of tourists due to its grandeur and good maintenance. More than one third of the original area of Rudrasagar Lake is being used for the business and individual interests of some people,” Das added.

A lodge owner said: “Neermahal was given its name by none other than Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Its tranquil ambience in the lap of nature appe¬als to people. Time has come to restore it to its old glory.”

The utter neglect by the authorities concerned is evident as a light and sound show was installed in the palace in 2003 by a Finnish company at a cost of Rs 1.20 crore is defunct for the last ten months. “The system developed some fault and there is no one to repair it,” an official of the state’s tourism department said.

He said Neermahal had three generators in the 30s as the king wanted his summer palace to be well lit. Now, only the platforms on which the generators stood remain.

In the past five decades, the administration’s compulsion to keep the local farming community happy has also led to a degradation of the lake with water

being pumped out to assist paddy cultivation after every rainy season.

“Large parts of Rudrasagar Lake have been encroached upon, despite being home to Neermahal,” said Arun Nath, secretary of Mukta Manch, a body of environmentalists, intellectuals, educationists and writers. “We have urged both Central and Tripura governments to protect the heritage site but nothing has been done.

Two brick kilns and paddy fields have sprung up in the area of Rudrasagar Lake, which was declared India’s 13th national lake in 1993,” he added. Rudrasagar Udbastu Fishermen Samabay Samity Secretary Satyaban Das said: “It was in 1960 that a decision was taken to have agriculture around the lake along with fishing. The agricultural land was distributed among 600 families but it was not a permanent decision and now we believe it is not right.”

The earning from tourism (primarily from boat rides) during 2011-12 was Rs 24 lakh, while only about Rs 18 lakh was earned through fishing, Das said.

As for agriculture, he said paddy is cultivated in 1465 acre around the lake, which reduces to mere 360 acres in the dry season. In all, paddy worth nearly Rs 2 crore is cultivated, but the loss on account of tourism is huge when the potential is considered on the whole.

Tourism and Urban Development Department Secretary Ashutosh Jindal said: “The state government has decided to develop Neermahal as a mega destination of tourists. A consultant is being engaged for preparing a detailed report on how to carry out the revival of the palace to be sent to the Ministry of Tourism,” he said.

Jindal said the state government is also taking an initiative to reclaim the water area as far as possible and the district magistrate had been assigned the task. A technical committee had also been constituted to assess if the palace, built in the Mughal style of architecture, needed retrofitting and renovation, he said, adding that based on the assessment of the committee, work would be taken up by the Public Works Department.

“It was planned to construct a road around Rudrasagar Lake, which would provide a defined boundary to it. The Tripura Government has also taken up development of two resorts on its banks with a total capacity of around 180 rooms,” the official said.

A 23-member parliamentary team, headed by Sitaram Yechuri, visited the palace in February, 2010, to inspect the decay and suggest measures to revive it. The team had noted that the water level of the lake came down due to massive siltation and improper maintenance and recommended desiltation and revival.

Every year boat races and water sports activities are organised in a grand manner in July or August.

The Indian Express, 1st December 2013

A few metres from the Maharaja Fatehsinh Museum is a roofless space with wooden Venetian blinds. Parts of its wooden roof are on the floor. This ruin was once the studio of Raja Ravi Varma.

The then diwan of Baroda state, T Madhavrao, invited Raja to paint Maharaja Sayajirao III's investiture painting in 1881. Varma had no formal training in painting, having been denied an apprenticeship by the royal court artist of Travancore, when he was 13 years old.

"He came here with his painting of Sita bhoomipravesh in 1881 and impressed the maharaja," says Manda Hingurao, secretary of the Maharaja Fatesinh Museum, which has the largest collection of Varma's works in the country.

According to her, he was the first artist in India to have painted with live models and the Gaekwads were the first to let their women be painted. Which is how this museum and the palace have Varma's oil portraits of the Gaekwads.

During his 10-year stay on the palace premises, Varma did some 45 paintings of which 24 are on display at the museum. The rest are at the Lukshmi Villas Palace, some in the private area.

The Gaddi hall, which is the seat of the maharaja, has huge portraits of goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati. Other works on display at the museum are those of mythological characters Nala and Damayanti, Radha and Madhava, Arjuna and Subhadra, Bharata, Shantanu and Ganga, Shantanu and Matsyagandhi, Vishwamitra and Menaka, among others.

Now that the dispute over the palace has been settled, Samarjitsinh plans to convert it into a hotel. There are also plans to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the palace next year.

Now that the matter of inheritance has been settled, Samrjitsinh is drawing up plans for the future. "The way forward for this palace is to turn it into a hotel," he says. There are also plans to celebrate the palace's 125th anniversary next year.

Deccan Herald, 1st December 2013

Bird watching was not something Ankita Sharma, who works with an insurance company, used to be keen about. But it happened during a trip to Ranthambore Wildlife Sanctuary. “We were waiting to spot a tiger for some time, when I started noticing the colourful and amazing birds around. Seeing them flying in groups was a spell binding sight. Since then I make it a point to go for birdwatching on a free weekend,” she says. Contrary to the belief that birdwatching is a long and boring experience, meant for old people, many city youngsters are packing their bagpacks and cameras to visit nearby sanctuaries since it’s winter season and many migratory birds pass through the city precincts. Freelance photographer Madhurima Sil is famous in her group for uploading beautiful birds pictures on facebook and twitter. “Thanks to the increasing interest in professional photography, many youngsters are now into birdwatching since they make for amazing pictures. This is how it started for me also. I now have discovered 20 different bird species around my home,” she puts forth.

Migratory season is a great time for birding in and around Delhi because apart from the 30 odd resident birds that we have here, the regions hosts around 230 species of birds. Beautiful and vibrant birds including famous Siberian Cranes, Ruff, Black Winged Stilt, Yellow Wagtail, White Wagtail, Wood Sandpiper and many more pass through India in this season.

Sharad Khanna, founder and CEO of Indian Wildlife Adventures, shares, “Being a suitable habitat owing to a lot of water bodies, Delhi region acts as a pit stop for migrating birds that visit from all over the world, travelling thousands of kilometres. We offer birdwatching packages ranging from one day visit to four to five days, if you’re looking for some specialty birds. The places of interest for a day trip are Sultanpur National Park, Dadri Wetlands, Okhla Bird Park, Bharatpur, Aravali Diversity Park and so many others. In fact Delhi Zoo is also a significant place to go for birding during this season.” For longer trips, there are options like Sariska, Ranthambore and Taal Chhaper.

An IT professional and a wildlife photographer Sachin Dixit’s favourite bird is Indian Roller. “During mating season, to impress a potential partner, the male Indian Roller takes a high flight before taking a sudden dive, which is a spectacular view for any birdwatcher. For those who does not find birdwatching very exciting, I believe you should try to club it with wildlife trips to make the whole experience memorable,” says Sachin, whose other favourites include Greater Flamingo, Eurasian Wigeon and Black Tailed Godwit.

Abhijit Menon-Sen, a veteran birdwatcher shares, “Anyone living in Delhi has an amazing birdlife available at doorstep and need not really look for hotspots initially. There are hardly any places in Delhi, where a little patience isn’t rewarded by some wonderful sightings. Get out and start observing birds, no matter where or when. There’s a tendency, especially with new bird-watchers, to to spot ‘exotic’ birds. But you can’t become a good bird-watcher without being familiar with the common ones.”

The Asian Age, 2nd December 2013

While a number of exhibitions have been held in the past on the Mughal Empire, giving a peek into the lives of Mughal royalty, the ongoing exhibition “Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire” gives a lot more than just a peek. It allows one to take a walk in the past, being able to imagine, and feel, almost each and every aspect of the Mughal Empire and its culture, as the title suggests. A facsimile edition of the much-acclaimed original show curated by the British Library, London, the exhibition is brought to the capital city by Roli Books in collaboration with Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts. John Falconer, the lead curator (visual arts) of British Library (London) shares, “No doubt, there have been a number of major exhibitions on Mughals in the last few years, but this exhibition is perhaps unique in presenting a wider picture of Mughal life, beyond a simple art historical show. The inclusion of cook books, treatises on household management, scientific texts, etc., allow us a much broader understanding of the Mughal Empire than has been presented in previous shows.” The richness of the exhibition can be gauged from the fact that the artworks cover a variety of subject matter – from the scenes of courtly life to the illustrations of works of literature, from some rare photographs (like that of Emperor Bahadur Shah II awaiting trial) to some rare maps. Even Shah Jahan’s recipe book “Notebook of Fragrance” and Bahadur Shah’s marriage contract to Zeenat Mahal are on display. Interestingly, the exhibition comes to the centre of the Mughal Empire on the one-year anniversary of the original exhibition in London. “It is just a happy coincidence and was not specifically planned. Once the exhibition was opened in London, we began discussions about making it available to a South Asian audience. The British Library’s exhibitions are always planned with the aim of making our collections accessible to the widest possible audience. With this particular exhibition, focused as it is on the Indian subcontinent, we were anxious to make it available to a wider audience in Asia for whom it would have a particular relevance and interest, but who would not be able to view it in London. The two venues in which the exhibition has so far been seen – Kabul and Delhi – were considered particularly appropriate, since the first Mughal emperor Babur is buried in Kabul, and Delhi, of course, was for a long period, the historic centre of the Mughal Empire,” adds John. To give a wider picture of life during the three and a half centuries of Mughal rule, the exhibition is divided into thematic sections that cover the administration, foreign relations, poetry and literature, the place of religion and science. John Falconer says that serious thought was given by the specialist curators to select the exhibits that reflect the full range of creative achievements of the Mughals in all these fields. Sharing about his favourite artworks on display, he adds, “My own particular favorites are the two magnificent natural history drawings – of a pangolin and a crane. These paintings, produced by Indian artists for European patrons, are particularly beautiful examples of items that are both scientific studies and stunning works of art and artistic technique.”

“Of the emperors, I have a particular fondness for Babur, whose character is seen through his own memoir, the Baburnama, which reveals his fascination and endless curiosity about the natural world and natural history,” he concludes.

The Asian Age, 2nd December 2013

The headquarters of Alfandega - as the customs administration was known in Goa during Portuguese rule till 1961 when it was liberated and came under Indian control - has been converted into the country's first museum for customs and central excise and displays some rare items seized from smugglers since Independence and before.

The two-storey Blue Building, as the Portuguese had named its customs headquarters in Panaji, is a heritage structure built in 1800. The Blue Building got its name from a major commodity traded during Portuguese rule from its port in Goa, Indigo dye. This building remained the customs headquarters till 2002 when it was shifted to a new building.

Among the most valued seized items the museum has sourced from customs warehouses and other museums across the country include the gold-gilded idol of Jambala which was smuggled into India from Nepal and was seized by customs officials in Gorakhpur.

V P C Rao, commissioner of customs and excise in Goa, said the museum has on display a priceless, handwritten copy of the Ain-e-Akbari, which was seized by customs officials in Patna a few years ago while smugglers were trying to take it out of the country.

"The heritage gallery explains through handcrafted models the gradual evolvement of customs and moves over thousands of years going back to Indus Valley civilization, where at a well-appointed dock in Lothal (now in Gujarat), tax was collected from ships coming into the port," Rao said.

The museum, which cost Rs 7 crore, is being built in two phases with the second phase nearing completion. The first phase was inaugurated by then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. While the ground floor displays various artifacts and wildlife pieces and modus operandi adopted by smugglers, the first floor gallery is for central excise and narcotics items.

How smugglers use opium to manufacture heroin and other drugs, a lab showing how these drugs are tested by excise and customs officials, a gallery depicting opium fields, a salt hedge which was built by the British across the country primarily to collect salt tax and a diaorama depicting the Dandi march and breaking of the salt act are prominently displayed.

Rao said in January, the museum will be complete and opened by the government for public and would also be put on the international tourist circuit.

The Times of India, 2nd December 2013

Six months back, news channels flashed the discovery of 11 gold coins, thought to be belonging to the Gupta era (320 AD-550 AD), at Ahiran, 265 km from Murshidabad. The discovery made headlines in newspapers, but the ASI remained unaware of the fact. Last week, ASI director (eastern region) Phanikant Mishra made enquiries from his juniors if they knew about the coins and when the answer was negative, wrote a letter to Murshidabad SP Humayun Kabir demanding to know what had happened and why he was not informed. Meanwhile, the 11 gold coins, each weighing about 10-12 gm, have been kept in an aluminium tiffin box at Suti Police station in Murshidabad.

“We are worried about the safety of these priceless objects and we have written to the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums to take them from here but they did not do anything so far,’’ Humayun Kabir told The Indian Express.

It was the directorate under the Department of Information and Culture of the state that first rushed to the place when the coins began to be found on May 31 at Ahiran village where NH-34 was being expanded. Soil dug out of mounds at Sealkali in Mirzapur, 15 km away, was brought to lay the road. On May 31 a village woman first saw a coin and took it home and as news spread people came and more coins were found. The police were informed and a team from Suti police station raided the village at Ahiran and recovered 11 coins. However according to unofficial reports, at least 30 coins were recovered and some of them were smuggled out to Bangladesh which is just 10 km away. “After we got to know about

The Financial Express, 2nd December 2013

A talk and an exhibition compel R.V. SMITH to examine the various traces of Mughal culture in today’s Delhi

Mughal culture has not totally disappeared from Delhi, remarked London-based British writer and historian Dr. Rosie Llewellyn Jones during a recent visit. She thought it was something unique to the Capital as most cities in Europe had put their past behind while embracing the new. As if to bear out her statement, an exhibition called “Mughals : Life, Art and Culture” was inaugurated at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in Janpath last week, courtesy the British Library, London, IGNCA and Roli Books. The showpiece at it is a facsimile of the acclaimed treatise, “Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire”. It contains an extensive collection of illustrated manuscripts and paintings, “from scenes of courtly life, including lively hunting parties, and formal portraits of emperors, to illustrations of works of literature” which have never been published before. Among the exhibits are Shah Jahan’s recipe book (he was a great gourmet in his youth); “Notebook of Fragrance” (the Mughals had a large assortment of scents); an 18th Century manuscript, “Book of Affairs of Love” by Rai Anand Ram Mukhlis (which has one illustration of Mohammad Shah Rangila making unconventional love), “Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi” by Sir Thomas Metcalfe (the Scottish Nabob), illustrated for him by the great painter Mazhar Ali Khan; a route map from Delhi to Qandahar (once part of the Mughal empire); a riverfront map of Agra (when the Yamuna flowed near the Agra Fort) and a bird’s eye-view of the Red Fort (a citadel that surpassed even the Camelot of King Arthur). Besides there are Mughal miniatures and the only portrait of Bahadur Shah Zafar taken by Capt Robert Tytler and Charles Shepherd in 1858 as he lay ill on a stringed charpoy after the recapture of Delhi by the British, his hookah by his side.

But to go back to what Dr. Jones said, a walk down Chandni Chowk will confirm that quite a lot of Mughal culture is still preserved as though by a wave of a fairy’s wand. The shop from where Ghalib bought his bottle of Old Tom near the Fountain may not be there, nor Faiz Nehar but Ghantewala Halwai, whose sweets were savoured by Mughal emperors from Shah Alam to Zafar, is still popular. Parantha Gali, where the descendants of the owners and their servants (all from the Chambal region) who fought during the Uprising of 1857, alongside the rebel sepoys, ply their trade despite the challenge from fancy sari emporiums, still talk of the “Ghadar” as though it was a yesterday occurrence.

In fact, one milkman in the gali had up to 1970 a lathi in his shop which was wielded by his great-grandfather those days. The sugandis or perfumers stock the ittars fancied by the Mughal begums from the days when Nur Jahan’s mother, Asmat Begum, discovered ittar-e-gulab. The chat and kulfi enjoyed by the Bankas, the Dulcimo Macaroni of Delhi, who got the name from their slanted, dandy angular walk, have not lost popularity either despite the ice-cream craze. Zeenat Mahal may be in a shambles but Hakim Ahsanullah Khan’s haveli and that of Lala Chunna Mal are intact. However the old sabeel or waterhut mentioned by Ahmed Ali in his “Twilight in Delhi” is now fitted with taps for wayfarers to quench their thirst at the entrance of Ballimaran, as the bearded men who poured out water from long-stemmed “lotas” are dead. But some sakkas or water-carriers, whose forebears provided water to Mirs and Mirzas, besides the hoi polloi, are still around in front of the Jama Masjid, jingling their cups as they did at Kashmere Gate, when the Mughal freedom-fighters badly needed water for drinking or to wash their wounds before the dying Brig-Gen Nicholson did so. The hoteliers of Matia Mahal claim to have Mughal recipes as an ancestor of Karim’s had worked in the royal kitchen at the Red Fort, when Mirza Fakru, Bahadur Shah Zafar’s eldest son, distributed bread to the royal residents and acquired the sobriquet of Mirza Chapati. That was around 1857, when the prince died.

The descendants of Nabbu Mian, another cook from those times, serve kakori kababs at Al Kausar, which they claim are prepared according to the secret recipes left behind by him in 1896, and the kin of Maseeta, Ghalib’s famous kababia, may still be found in new Mina Bazar. The walls of Kashmere Gate are pocked with the marks of the cannonading by the British and the remaining skeletal part of the Delhi Gate wall continues to have the sentry tower set up during Shah Alam’s reign in 1804, when Col. Ochterlony defended the Walled City from the attacking Marathas of Jaswant Rao Holkar, who wanted to seize the emperor.

The Phuwwara, which came up on the spot where the bodies of Mughal princes shot by Hodson lay for days, is now part of Bhai Mati Das Chowk and the Kotwali where Guru Tegh Bahadur met his end during Aurangzeb’s reign, continues to evoke memories though it is now part of Gurudwara Sis Ganj, along with Majestic Cinema. The old mohallas of Daryaganj, behind Golcha Cinema, have hardly changed and Tehraha Bairam Khan, where Sir Syed Ahmed Khan lived before going to Aligarh (he returned to see the damage to his ancestral house after the so-called Mutiny), continues to have bharbhooja (gram roaster), sabzi and butcher shops as of old. So wherever you go in these parts you cannot shake off the feeling that Mughal era life and culture lingers even in the 21st century and the ongoing exhibition only highlights this undeniable fact.

The Hindu, 2nd December 2013

The National Green Tribunal on Monday directed the Union environment ministry to clarify its status on implementing the River Regulation Zone policy so that rampant encroachment activities over floodplain areas are prohibited. The principal bench of the tribunal directed the ministry while hearing a case related to unauthorized constructions on Yamuna and Hindon floodplains in UP-NCR.

The bench issued the order after it was informed that a draft report on river regulation, which has been prepared by an expert group, is in the final stages of approval by the Union environment ministry. The ministry has been given till January 10 to present the report to the tribunal. During the proceedings of the case held earlier, the tribunal had directed the states of UP, Delhi and Haryana to clarify their stand on delineation of floodplain areas within their jurisdiction.

While UP irrigation department and Noida Authority submitted to the tribunal on Monday that their reports on floodplains have been finalized and would be submitted within a short period, Haryana was directed to submit its report before the next date of hearing scheduled on January 10.

The Times of India, 3rd December 2013

Manipur's famous tradition of ritual singing, drumming and dancing and Bangladesh's traditional art of Jamdani weaving, that is also famous in India, are set to be declared intangible cultural heritage of humanity. 

According to Unesco, intangible cultural heritage includes oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festivals, knowledge and practices concerning nature. On December 4, the world inter-governmental committee for the safeguarding of intangible heritage under Unesco will meet at Baku to enlist new entries in the world register, with Manipur's Sankirtana being India's only entry up for consideration. 

The meeting will be chaired by Abulfas Garayev, Azerbaijan's minister of culture and tourism, in the presence of 800 delegates from approximately 100 countries. Unesco's Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was adopted and ratified by 157 states exactly a decade ago. 

Sankirtana of Manipur is included in the National Inventory prepared by India's Sangeet Natak Akademi. The Akademi's archives hold approximately 40 hours of video of Sankirtana performance including 25 solo performances and 18 group performances and 22 hours of audio, which includes 15 solo artists and four group presentations. 

In addition, about 5,000 colour and black-and-white photographs are also available in the Akademi. 

Sankirtana is practised primarily by the Vaishnava community of the plains of Manipur. According to the Akademi that nominated it for world inscription, Sankirtana has two main social functions. 

It acts as a cohesive force within Manipur's Vaishnava community, bringing people together in the temple, on the streets and the home on various festive occasions throughout the year. It says: "At a time when communities around the world exhibit a tendency to break up under the pressure of economic forces, the importance of such an instrument of cohesion cannot be overstated. Secondly, Sankirtana's social function operates in the security it provides to its large population of professional practitioners. This ensures continuing recruitment to the art and its transmission to generations of artists". 

"The inscription would bring it worldwide focus. In the absence of wider recognition, Sankirtana may well fall prey to the logic of show business which runs contrary to the spirit of the art. The government of India has adopted various schemes for the protection of the art. These provide financial assistance to professional groups and individuals, support for research projects, as well as fellowships and scholarships to talented artists". 

At the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy, Imphal, established in 1954, Sankirtana is one of the main subjects on the curriculum. The India's National Academy for Music, Dance, and Drama has conferred awards on more than 30 gurus of Sankirtana. 

The theology and lore of Krishna is central to these performances. The core of Sankirtana practice is to be found in the temple, where it narrates through song and dance the lives and deeds of the Lord. The Times of India, 3rd December 2013

They're just nine years old — but Delhi school children Rani and Shweta are making waves after their film Phoolwati Amma won in the Little Director category at the 18th International Children's Film Festival. Speaking withPratigyan Das, the directorial duo spoke about filming their school's oldest employee, how they overcame shyness at the Festival — and jumped on some sofas too: Please tell us about your film?

It's a documentary capturing the life of Phoolwati, the oldest employee and sweeper of our school. Phoolwati talks about her life in the school and her attachment to us.
It's a simple movie but has a lot of emotions.

How did you develop the idea?
We were given the task of making a movie on the theme of 'Heritage of our school' by INTACH which sponsors this project. Initially, we thought of making a movie on one of the oldest trees of our school — while we were discussing this with our teacher, we saw Phoolwati Amma sweeping floors.

So, we asked whether we could make a movie on people, especially Phoolwati Amma as she's the school's oldest employee and she loves us a lot.
Our teachers liked the idea.

How did Phoolwati react?
Amma was very happy. She's retired now, so we went to her home and showed her the movie. She saw it with her family and got emotional.

How were you trained?
Our team was given training by INTACH on how to handle a camera and prepare a schedule. We attended movie direction workshops. Our teachers and principal helped at every stage.

First, we thought of narrating our film as a story. Then we decided Rani should interview Amma to give this a personal touch. Our movie starts with a shot of Amma at work, followed by an interview, ending with students giving her gifts at her farewell.

How was the Festival?
We were very nervous when we reached. Students attending were from major schools. We didn't know how to speak with others. But our teacher told us to overcome our fears and be our natural selves. We did what she told us and slowly became confident.

The award function was memorable — we couldn't believe our film won as there were so many good films! We were asked to speak in front of a large gathering. We remembered our teacher's words to be our natural selves. People asked us questions in English — we told them to ask us in Hindi and answered in Hindi.

We were also overawed by the hotel. The beds and sofas became our playground — we jumped repeatedly on them! The mix of hot and cold water at the same time from the bathroom taps was beyond our imagination. The food was also new — we hardly knew any dish's name!

But it was great fun. And this platform helped us not to be scared at any moment.

Please tell us about your families?
Rani's father is a sweeper, her mother is a maid. She has a younger brother. Shweta's father works as a security guard, her mother is a housewife.

Would you like to make more movies?
We'd certainly love to go into direction.

What stood out at the Festival?
A film called Tomato Chor was very good, about a boy stealing tomatoes and how he's reprimanded by his friends.

Urban Development Minister Azam Khan has brought the century-old Rampur fort under a new scanner by pointing out its dire state and suggesting for its "immediate demolition".

In a letter to Rampur District Magistrate N K S Chauhan, Azam has claimed that the fort, "situated in the heart of the city," is spoiling Rampur's beauty by blocking sunlight.

"Poore shaher ki sundarta ko dhoop aur roshni sey rok raha hai, Rampur walon ke liye prakop ke taur per mehsoos kiya ja raha hai (the fort is spoiling the city's beauty by blocking sunlight, which is being construed as a wrath for the residents of Rampur)," Azam wrote.

While confirming that such a letter has been received, Chauhan, however, refused to comment. Sources reveal that the letter has been sent to Rampur's Municipal Board for further action.

The letter is a major step towards what Congress MLA Nawab Kazim Ali Khan aka Naved Miyan had termed "Azam's conspiracy to demolish a building of national importance".

But the minister, while asking for demolition of two of the gates owing to their dilapidated condition, argues against attaching any historical importance to the fort. "They are neither historical nor symbol of honour. They are in poor state and can lead to accident. After the Public Works Department has conducted its survey, they should be demolished without delay," his letter reads.

Azam has also claimed that rooms attached to the two entrances are used in carrying out illegal activities, although the letter does not specify what sort of activities. He says it is essential that these gates be demolished.

After the abolition of the privy purse, while the Nawab family retained the Noor Mahal palace, the fort was handed over to the government. The credit for beautification and strengthening of the Rampur fort goes to Nawab Hamid Ali Khan who constructed the magnificent Durbar Hall in 1905 which now houses the Rampur Raza Library. The fort also houses three colleges on its premises besides several government offices.

The Supreme Court has asked Uttarakhand government to return within six months the land illegally occupied by about 784 families inside Corbett National Park to the state forest department.

The land was temporarily given to the irrigation department in 1966 for use during the construction of Ramganga Hydel Project in then undivided Uttar Pradesh.

Once complete, the land was to be returned to the forest department and it had been agree all structures for housing the workers and staff will be made of mud for easy demolition.

But over the years, outsiders occupied these structures, when the workers and staff left after the dam's construction.

Currently, 784 families live in the New Kalagarh Irrigation Colony on the southern boundary of the tiger reserve. After the apex court ruling, they face eviction.

"This is a great victory for Corbett wildlife," said Ashok Kumar, the petitioner and vice-chairman Wildlife Trust of India.

Allahabad high court in August 1999 ruled on Kumar's petition that all encroachments shall be removed by December 15 the same year. But implementation of the judgment got stalled when the dam went to UP and the colony fell on Uttarakhand side during the state's creation.

In 2003, the SC's Central Empowered Committee (CEC) heard an application on the issue and ordered a site inspection.

By April 2004, the CEC produced a list of recommendations, based on an assessment by the Bombay Natural History Society, which primarily argued for the removal of all encroachments within three months.

It also recommended shifting all non-essential facilities such as the Engineer's Academy and other structures out of the Reserve area within six months, demolition of all walls, fencing, garden furniture to ease movement of animals and the relocation of all non-essential operational staff to the legal colony outside the national park within six months as well.

The Hindustan Times, 5th December 2013

Controversy has erupted over the decision of Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to allow capture of critically endangered forest owlets around Melghat Tiger Reserve (MTR) in Maharashtra for research project by Wildlife Research & Conservation Society (WRCS), Pune. Apart from figuring in the red list of IUCN, the bird also figures in Schedule I species under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972.

According to experts, “Research related to breeding biology of this bird, diet, ranging pattern, distribution and unwanted detailed education/awareness will prove disastrous for this rare bird. However, some State forest officials besides the MoEF and NTCA gave permission for research work in the buffer zone. However, the research team wants to conduct research in the core areas as well.

According to sources in MoEF, that research project titled ‘Study of ecology, distribution and population of critically endangered forest owlet (Heteroglaux Blewitti) had been recommended in Melghat Tiger Reserve.

The team had earlier studied the bird in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh. The team had sought permission to capture 50 forest owlets using the services of expert trappers of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). The MoEF had allowed capture by non invasive method.

“There were differences right from the word go,” said the sources. While the Field Director of MTR had not supported the project, CCF (Territorial), Amravati had granted permission for research work in the buffer area. The NTCA too had approved the project in the buffer area and sought comments on exclusion of research in core area of MTR. The WRCS however wants to conduct studies in core area.

According to chief wildlife warden Sarjan Bhagat, “The technical committee has already rejected research in core area and there is no change in my stand, despite WRCS perusal.” He added MoEF has approved the project and now ball is in the NTCA court.

While there is a discrepancy in thought between the several agencies of forest department at rthe state and centre, the issue has however been taken up strongly by Kishore Rithe former member of National Board For Wildliffe, says the project should not be allowed even in buffer.

“A forest owlet doesn’t know what is buffer and what is core. Buffer has been created for tigers, not owlets. Already a lot of research has been done on owlets and people have obtained PhDs. Now what more they want to do,” he shot back.

The Pioneer, 5th December 2013

The fountains of Safdarjung's Tomb will flow again. Archaeological Survey of India has bared the buried drainage system next to the southern fountain that will help them restart these. 

Safdarjung's Tomb has four fountains on each side of the mausoleum closed for years. Senior ASI officials said the fountains were in working condition. The idea of activating the fountains has been gestating for several months but, in a recent excavation project at the site, the team unearthed a buried drainage system adjacent to the southern fountain after an approximately four-centimetre excavation. 

The existence of the drainage system was a revelation and it has thrown light on the functioning of Mughal-era fountain systems. "When the fountains are running, the spillover would accumulate in the drain and circulate around the fountain tank before going back to the main water tank. We have come across just one drainage, but there are chances that each of the fountains could have a drainage system. We are still trying to assess that," said Delhi circle chief Vasant K Swarnkar. 

Out of the four fountain systems at the monument, ASI officials say that right now only one—opposite the main entrance— will be made functional. 

Depending on finances and availability of water, the feasibility of making the others functional will be examined. 

Unlike the fountain system at Humayun's Tomb where the water used in the fountains is recycled, fresh water is utilized here, said experts. 

New pathways are also being laid around the fountains in lime concrete. Officers said that the current earthen pathways add to dust in the air. 

With less than four months to go for closing of the current financial year, a number of other conservation works in Safdarjung's Tomb have got the attention of ASI. These include replacing missing railings on the main plinth and plaster work in the mausoleum facade and installing jaali windows to prevent birds from going inside the tomb and polluting the area.

The Times of India, 6th December 2013

Antiquities dealer Kapoor sold it to museum for $650,000

A criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan District Attorney in the Supreme Court of New York has put to rest doubts, if any, about the illicit trade of antiquities stolen from Tamil Nadu.

It confirms the hitherto reported cases and brings to light a new one.

The document filed in the court said Subhash Chandra Kapoor, U.S.-based antiquities dealer extradited to India and now lodged in a Chennai prison, sold stolen bronze sculptures not only to a museum in Australia but also in Singapore.

The complaint says Kapoor and Aaron Freedman, long-time manager of Kapoor’s gallery, have dealt in stolen antiquities for more than 15 years. It specifically accuses Freedman of arranging to ship stolen antiquities, including two idols of Nataraja and three idols of goddess Uma to and out of the U.S. Freedman also arranged for false provenance certificates for illicit property, contacted prospective buyers and laundered stolen antiquities.

Citing a spokesperson of the District Attorney’s office, Chasing Aphrodite, the blog site that tracks looted antiquities, has reported that Freedman has pleaded guilty to all criminal counts brought against him.

The Hindu had reported that Kapoor sold the 11th century bronze Nataraja idol, stolen from the Sripuranthan temple in Tamil Nadu, to the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. The criminal complaint filed in New York, made available to The Hindu by Jason Felch of The Los Angeles Times, with whom this correspondent has been collaborating on the case, has confirmed this.

The document states that sometime between November 2006 and January 2007, the Nataraja idol stolen from Tamil Nadu was shipped to the U.S. Later in October 2007, Freedman and his co-conspirators “arranged for sale and transport” of the sculpture to the National Galley of Australia, pricing it at US $5 million.

The new fact to emerge is that Kapoor and Freedman were also involved in the sale of another stolen idol to the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) in Singapore. According to the complaint, a 1,000-year bronze idol of Uma Parmeshvari was stolen from a temple in Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu and was illicitly transported to the U.S. In February 2007, Kapoor sold the sculpture to the ACM for US $650,000 and shipped it to Singapore.

No reply from museum
The Hindu, which has been following this case, wrote to the museum authorities in Singapore in July, enquiring about the provenance of the Uma Parameshvari sculpture. However, they did not reply. The Hindu contacted the museum again to get its response to the recent developments. Until this story went to print, the museum did not reply to the email that followed a telephone conversation.

In addition to these sculptures, the complaint said, Freedman was also involved in laundering another Nataraja idol and two more goddess idols that were together priced at $9.5 million. He was also in possession of a stolen Yakshi sculpture priced at $15 million.

The Hindu, 6th December 2013

After Greater Noida, the neighbouring Gurgaon is set to create night safari in the city to boost tourism in Millennium City. Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) on Friday said it will acquire 1,300 acres land in different parts of the city for establishing night safari destination centres.  

Gurgaon is known as developed city in Haryana with a large number of MNC and IT hubs, including BPOs and KPOs(Knowledge Processing Outsourcing).

“We will provide people different kinds of entertainment facilities in the district. We are planning to utilise unused places for revenue generation by developing it for entertainment to attract domestic and foreign tourists,” said Praveen Kumar, HUDA Administrator.

The initiative has been taken under State tourism department under which food courts, different types of playgrounds for adventure as well as conventional gaming, amusement parks, bio-diversity parks and other artificial and natural resources will be developed to attract people and enjoy the city’s nightlife.

Night safari has been quite successful in developed nations. Singapore has developed such an area over 40 hectare land with 1,000 animals and 115 different species. The Gurgaon night safari destination will be different from Singapore.

“I have directed concerned officials in the department to earmark places and draw detail project reports as per geographical locations. The completion of this project will rank Gurgaon as the first city in the country to have such a facility,” Kumar added.

Kumar has however, not pointed out which places are going to be designated but sources inform that villages which HUDA had adopted in the past might be chosen.

The Arawali region will not be earmarked for this purpose as it will violate forestry norms set by Supreme Court against encroachment.

UNESCO Heritage status for buildings designed by French architect Le Corbusier in Chandigarh would be pursued as part of transnational dossier along with five other countries. With the deadline for submitting the dossier for the year 2014 already having been missed, the Administration would now pursue the case for 2015.

UT Adviser KK Sharma and Chief Architect Sumit Kaur attended a meeting of representatives of different countries held at Paris recently. The Administration would now be approaching the Union Ministry of Cultural Affairs to hold a meeting in Delhi so that the other concerned ministries could be consulted about the issue.

Five countries —France, Switzerland, Belgium, Argentina and Japan— have already prepared a dossier on the works of Corbusier. It is now proposed that Chandigarh could be made a part of this dossier. The Capitol Complex comprising of the Secretariat, HC and Assembly as well as the Le Corbusier Centre and the Leisure Valley would be considered for inclusion in the dossier for getting heritage status.

Sharma said, "The most renowned buildings designed by Le Corbusier are in Chandigarh. Inclusion of the same in the dossier would also make the case of the other countries stronger. We would soon be holding a meeting in Delhi and take on board all stakeholders. Getting UNESCO status for the buildings would attract more tourists and give a boost to tourism in Chandigarh."

Over the years several violations have crept into the buildings in the Capitol. Changes have been made in the interiors. Sharma said that when the case of Chandigarh is pursued it would be argued that since the buildings are in use, there is a need for changes to be made to keep these usable. This should work in Chandigarh's favour as not many buildings designed by Corbusier are being used.

Consent from the governments of Punjab and Haryana have already been sought. The buildings in question are occupied by the two states. The UT Administration had in the year 2006 taken up Chandigarh's case for being given heritage status. However, the consent from the Ministry was not received. From then onwards, Chandigarh has not been able to pursue its case. Even for making a bid for 2015, the dossier has to be submitted by July next.

The Pioneer, 7th December 2013

The Manipuri Nat-Sankirtana, an art form conceived by the famous Manipur king Bhagyachandra Singh in the 18th century, has entered Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Sankirtana - the ritual singing, drumming and dancing of Manipur - has been selected for inscription on the Representative List of the Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The decision was taken on December 4 at the ongoing eighth session of the Unesco Intergovernmental Committee in Baku, Azerbaijan. The committee consists of representatives from 24 countries.

Quoting Unesco, Manipur government officials said the representative list serves to create awareness on intangible heritage and provides recognition to communities' traditions and knowhow that reflect their cultural diversities.

The intergovernmental committee said Sankirtana satisfies all the criteria for inscription on the representative list. The art form is transmitted from generation to generation through formal and traditional education. Sankirtana music and dance reinforce the social and spiritual cohesion among the Vaishnavites of Manipur, it added.

The committee said inscription of Sankirtana on the representative list could contribute to the visibility of the intangible cultural heritage, while encouraging intercultural dialogue and promoting respect for cultural diversity. It also proposed safeguarding measures like research projects, documentation, awareness-raising activities and education programmes with the involvement of the bearers of the art and national institutions.

Sankirtana is the fourth Indian art form recognized by Unesco as intangible cultural heritage. It is also included in the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage maintained by Sangeet Natak Akademi, and has been extensively documented.

Kutiyattam (Sanskrit Theatre), Vedic Chanting and Ramlila are the other masterpieces of oral and intangible heritage recognized by Unesco.

Sankirtana encompasses an array of arts performed to mark religious occasions and various stages in the life of Manipuri Vaishnavites. It is practised at the centre of temples, where performers narrate the lives and deeds of Krishna through songs and dances. In a typical performance, two drummers and about 10 singer-dancers perform in a hall or domestic courtyard encircled by seated devotees. The dignity and flow of aesthetic and religious energy is unparalleled, moving audience to tears and frequently to prostrate themselves before the performers.

Sankirtana brings people together on festive occasions throughout the year and establishes and reinforces relationship between the individual and the community through life-cycle ceremonies. It is a vibrant practice promoting an organic relationship among people as the entire whole society is involved in its safeguarding, with the knowledge and skills traditionally transmitted from mentors to disciples. It works in harmony with the natural world, whose presence is acknowledged through its many rituals.

The viability of the art form is ensured by social support that has kept the art alive through centuries. Every Manipuri Vaishnavite is involved with the form, either as a performer or patron.

The Times of India, 8th December 2013

A wetland in northeast Delhi, running along Pushta Road, is being used as a landfill. Heaps of non-biodegradable waste is being dumped into the wetland which supports a variety of migratory and local birds.

This year, birders are witnessing a particularly disturbing trend as migratory birds have not arrived yet and other birds too have deserted the wetland. The wetland, which was formed after the Yamuna flooded in 2008, is an ecologically rich zone as it is adjacent to the Garhi Mandu forest. The forest and wetland are a habitat for around 120 species of birds.

According to T K Roy, ecologist and advisor at Okhla Bird Sanctuary, regular burning of plastic waste at the wetland has led to the release of toxic fumes, which may have driven birds away. "Wetland birds need a lot of aquatic plants, insects and fish to thrive on. But this wetland has lost all that. Extensive fishing and chemicals from burning of non-biodegradable waste has destroyed the habitat," he said.

Roy, who had documented the avian fauna at the wetland, says that he has seen rare species like Oriental Darters or snake birds, Painted Storks, Black Necked Stork and the Ferruginous Pochard, but this year, only Cattle Egrets have been spotted.

"Cattle Egrets are used to living in such conditions. There is a lot of talk about creating man-made wetlands in Delhi but the government is not concerned about such a large natural wetland like this which needs very little maintenance," adds Roy. He feels the 4-kilometre long wetland should be notified, since it is near a forest, so that wetland and terrestrial activity can be nurtured together.

Ritu Singh, a scientist at Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage ( INTACH), says hundreds of wetlands have died a similar death in Delhi. According to her, there is no space for creating man-made wetlands in the capital. "The issue is not just ecological. It also severely affects water quality. Toxins from waste end up polluting groundwater. Soon, this wetland will become a cesspool too," she said.

Garhimandu forest is spread over 894.73 acres and is located on the eastern bank of Yamuna. It has been notified as protected forest under Section 29 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

The Times of India, 8th December 2013

The Goa government has lambasted the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) for trying to impose the findings of the K Kasturirangan-led working group on theWestern Ghats on the state administration. 

In a letter addressed to Union minister for environment and forests Jayanthi Natarajan, state forest minister Alina Saldanha said theKasturirangan group's data was not authentic and did not reflect the ground realities in the area of the Western Ghats range located within Goa's borders. 

The former Indian Space Research Organisation ( Isro) chief had been roped in by the MoEF to head a 10-member high-level working group to advise the Centre on the recommendations made by the Madhav Gadgil-led experts panel on conservation in the Western Ghats. 

The Western Ghats is a Unesco-recognized natural heritage site comprising a contiguous forested mountain range which stretches from southern Gujarat to Kerala. 

While the Gadgil report recommends stopping large scale economic activity and mining in the region, the Kasturirangan report opens up two thirds of the region for exploitation, at the same time recommending strict conservation in the remaining third of the Western Ghats region. 

Saldanha has now accused the MoEF of pushing the Kasturirangan committee report findings down the Goa government's throat, despite "strong reservations" expressed by the latter.

The Times of India, 10th December 2013

The controversy over Urban Development and  Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan’s alleged move to demolish the historical gate of the Rampur Fort and effort to steal a gold statue on that gate took an interesting turn when the Central Government intervened in the matter.

Central Ministry of Cultural Affair reportedly directed the Director General of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to take necessary action in this regard.

Congress legislator Nawab Kazim Ali aka Naved Mia, who, already, handed over a memorandum to Governor B L Joshi seeking his intervention to prevent Mohammad Azam  Khan from demolishing the historical gate of the Rampur Fort and stealing a gold statue on that gate, claimed that on his letter, Ms Chandresh Kumari, Union Minister for cultural affairs, asked DG ASI to take necessary action in the matter.

Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, the last link to the storied Mysore royal family, passed away in Bangalore Tuesday. Wodeyar, 60, was the only son of Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, the last ruler of Mysore and the first governor of the erstwhile Mysore state.

He has no children, and is survived by his wife, Pramoda Devi.

A cricketer, entrepreneur, fashion designer and cricket administrator, Wodeyar, found most success in politics. A gold medalist in political science at Mysore University, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Mysore four times – 1984, 1989, 1996 and 1999 – as a Congress candidate. Wodeyar also lost twice.

Despite his considerable electoral success, he rarely made an impact on politics either in Karnataka or in Delhi, as opposed to the achievements of his distant relative Devraj Urs, who shattered the Vokkaliga-Lingayat dominance of Karnataka politics by developing a new paradigm of backward caste politics in the 1970s.

Yet, Wodeyar enjoyed immense love and loyalty especially in the rural areas of Mysore region, which often translated electorally too. This was a testimony to the development strategies as well as social justice measures adopted by Wodeyar’s ancestors, thereby giving the Mysore princely kingdom the image of a modern progressive state.

These accomplishments of his family weren’t the only inheritance for Wodeyar. Even though he never sat on the throne, except on ritual occasions during Dasara, he was always referred to as the prince of Mysore. Apart from his title and royal privileges, Wodeyar also inherited substantial assets estimated at Rs 2,500 crore in an election affidavit by Wodeyar himself a decade ago.

But this inherited property was the source of significant legal trouble for Wodeyar. Along with his sisters, he often challenged the decisions of the Karnataka government, particularly with regard to the ownership status of the Mysore and Bangalore palaces.

Cityscape: The gateways that were once centres of pride and prejudice

The seventh city of Delhi, Shahjahanabad, was a self-contained world. Its denizens needed few things it did not possess. They seldom ventured out. The world seemed to have few delights beyond its fortified walls. Indeed, such were probably the treasures of the city that Shahjahanabad had 14 gates at one time. Made of red sandstone and mortar, they kept the residents safe, the empire strong, safeguarding it from any conqueror. Remember Delhi was never too far from an invasion – rights from the Hunas and the Mongols to the likes of Abdali and Nadir Shah and then the British.

Many of the gates of Shahjahanabad led to another city – Ajmeri Gate is said to pave the path to Ajmer and Lahori Gate to the modern Pakistani city. All the gates opened at dawn, closed at dusk. The royal palanquins and processions passed through them. The lesser mortals though often made do with a wicket gate or a khirkee. Occasionally, late into the evenings some people would sneak back home from Turkman Gate and Ajmeri Gate, having enjoyed a poetic soiree or a nautch girl’s performance. Incidentally, Turkman Gate was named Sufi Shah Turkman Bayabani who was buried near the place some 500 years before the gate came up. It is said the area was a bayaban (wilderness) before the Mughals and the saint drew his name from the stretch he occupied.

Restoration work by INTACH to start soon on Bharathiar’s memorial, says govt.

Celebrated poet Bharathiar’s birth anniversary was commemorated by government, literary and cultural organisations in Puducherry on Wednesday. But his only memorial in Puducherry which doubles as a research centre remains locked, as it has been for the last four years.

Floral tributes were paid to Bharathiar’s statue at the Bharathi Park and the Bharathi Manimandapam at Ariyankuppam on Wednesday. But admirers of the poet remained disheartened that the Mahakavi Bharathiar Memorial Museum and Research Centre remained closed for yet another anniversary. The centre at Number 20, Eswaran Koil Street, is believed to be the last residence of Bharathi during his ten-year stay in Puducherry, when he sought refuge in French India.

At the time of the poet’s death anniversary three months ago, various political and literary organisations, including the Tamil Progressive Writer’s Association raised their voice demanding the centre be opened to public. The centre was closed almost five years ago, when the building was declared unsafe and deemed in need of restoration.

A government order has been passed recently authorising the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to take up restoration works, sources at the Department of Art and Culture, told The Hindu . The funds estimated a total of Rs. 99 lakh have been sanctioned recently for the project. INTACH members said the team and resources to take up the project are at the ready.

But the restoration work is yet to begin as no advance payment has been made to the organisation for starting work, yet. The government order that authorised INTACH to take up the project did not have a provision for an advance payment, said officials at the Art and Culture Department. But an order is expected to be passed to sanction the preliminary payment soon. Works will start once the initial payment is made.

A mammoth project undertaken by IGNCA 20 years ago has resulted in an exhaustive multimedia DVD and an elaborate exhibition.

Don’t just land up at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) to see the Brhadisvara exhibition if you happen to be in Lutyens’ Delhi. Plan your visit so that you can enjoy watching this exhibition with as much love as it has been put up with. An elaborate affair, it can’t be covered in a jiffy by anybody genuinely interested in art, design, architecture, music, dance and in fact any aspect of culture. Given that IGNCA has been working on the project — a complex multimedia programme on Brhadisvara Temple — for 20 years, an outcome of this scale was expected. So, there you have “Tanjavur Brhadisvara Temple: The Monument and the Living Tradition”, an expansive exhibition accompanied by the launch of an interactive multimedia DVD and a set of seven DVDs which have the audio-visual documentation of the monument in Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu, that has been inscribed by UNESCO as a world heritage monument. The DVDs were launched simultaneously on the day when the exhibition was inaugurated, which was last week.

Covered in its entirety, the project looks at every possible aspect of the temple, considered an engineering marvel. “A temple is not about going and breaking a coconut there. A temple says so much and certainly this one. How did Rajaraja Chola, construct this wonder 1000 years ago when there was no machinery to aid his workers,” says R.Nagaswamy, former Director, Department of Archaeology, State Government of Tamil Nadu, and also the Chief Coordinator of the Brhadisvara Project.

Employing myriad means, the project, led by Nagaswamy and guided by Kapila Vatsyayan, seeks to explore what makes the structure as the finest achievement of Chola art and architecture. “For that we had to undertake scientific investigation of the temple for which in turn we had to involve a lot of institutions. Great planning was done before the construction. We wanted to understand how and why it was done. It is an engineering wonder which crystallised the whole concept of cosmos,” explains Nagaswamy, believed to be an authority on the subject.

The exhibition attempts to give glimpses of the mammoth project by displaying architectural surveys, measured drawings of the monument, photographs of thousands of sculptures and murals spread across the structure, digital reproduction of the inscriptions and audio-visual documentation of the rituals, customs and fairs in the DVDs.

While the Cholas constructed the initial lay out, it was subsequently worked upon by Pandyas, Nayakas and Marathas. Organised on a linear plan, the exhibition presents drawings of different areas of the temple complex which is handled even more in-depth in the DVD.

Access to the temple is through two pyramidal entrances, towers called gopuras, which were built by Rajaraja. The most striking feature of the temple is the vimana or the main sanctuary tower, standing over 65 meters in height and built entirely in stone. Consisting of the inner and outer wall, divided by a corridor, the sanctuary tower encloses the sacred chamber called garbagrham which has the Linga, the main deity of the temple. The circular structure of the Maati Ghar tries to recreate the garbagrham “in terms of position. The photographs of the murals and figures appear at the same position as they are found on the walls surrounding the sanctum sanctorum.” And then there is the Linga, which is exactly of the same size as the original.

The different shrines housed within the temple complex — Amman Shrine, Subrahmanya Shrine, Ganesa Shrine, Nataraja Shrine etc. — are equally well-documented. The DVD provides a virtual tour of the entire temple complex. A click on the shrine reveals to the visitor information about its architecture, its iconography and murals associated with it. Murals are divided into various sections — faces, animals and birds, jewellery etc. “So many figures that you will feel are nude aren’t nude actually, if you look closely. They are clothed in a very fine cloth, they wove at that time. So, our study gave us insights into various such things,” says Nagaswamy.

Scenes of Shiva Purana from the Nayaka period found on the inside walls of the inner ambulatory, Maratha paintings, portraits of Maratha rulers done during the reign of Serfojee in 1855, metal images of Shivakami and Shiva, Tamil inscriptions recording different aspects of the temple constructions — the measurements and even the gifts and grants made by Rajaraja and his family towards the temple — are just few of the treasures the temple houses in terms of art. Interestingly in the DVD, a click on the figures — various manifestations of Shiva — doles out information on the visual representation but also the shloka related to it. “There is an interview with Kitappa Pillai, the late artiste, who talks about the association between his family and temple, where they have been performing for years. At the time of Rajaraja, there were 400 dancers and 250 musicians which indicates that music and dance were intrinsic part of the temple life. Mahakumbhaabhishekam which happens after every 12 years is another integral part of the DVD. Then there are daily rituals and customs which make the temple a living tradition.”

Discharge of untreated water into various rivers has left 150 river stretches across the country completely polluted. The level of contamination in these stretches is so high that it cannot support any aquatic life.

These stretches are located in almost all parts of the country except Jammu & Kashmir and couple of Union Territories and northeastern states, including Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. 

However, rivers flowing through Maharashtra and Gujarat account for around one-third of all the identified stretches. 

The stretches are identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) through constant monitoring of water quality of 293 rivers. It is based on the BOD (bio-chemical oxygen demand) levels in water that shows the extent of organic and bacterial contamination. 

Details of the CPCB findings — shared by the Union environment ministry in response to a Parliament Question in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday — show that the maximum number of such polluted river stretches (28) are located in Maharashtra, followed by Gujarat (19), Uttar Pradesh (12), Karnataka (11) and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh (nine each). 

The Central pollution watchdog had first compiled its report on polluted river stretches in December, 2009, after testing water samples taken between 1995 and 2008. These stretches are being monitored constantly since then through a network of 1,429 water quality monitoring stations in states and UTs. 

The findings of these monitoring stations are updated and shared with states\UTs that are responsible for abatement of pollution in those identified stretches. 

Giving details of the findings, the minister of environment and forests Jayanthi Natarajan, said, "The ministry is supplementing the efforts of the state governments in abatement of pollution in identified stretches of various rivers in the country under the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) and National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) programme, for implementation of projects on a cost sharing basis between the Central and state governments". 

Statistics show that the states and UTs had collectively spent over Rs 1,756 crore to implement those river water-control projects in the past three years. The Centre had contributed Rs 1,113 crore towards the states' expenditure during the period. 

Various schemes are being implemented by states to minimize the pollution level. It includes interception and diversion of raw sewage, setting up of sewage treatment plants, creation of low cost sanitation facilities, setting up of electric crematorium and development of river front. 

Natarajan, in her written response in the Upper House, said, "The NRCP including NGRBA programme, presently covers 42 rivers in 195 towns spread over 20 states at a sanctioned cost of Rs 9336.87 crore". 

"Till date, sewage treatment capacity of 4814.80 million litres per day has been created under the plan," she added. The Economic Times, 13th December 2013

An alleged member of the Tatlu gang, which robbed people after luring them on the pretext of selling gold bricks from the Mughal era, has been arrested, the police said on Thursday.

Mohd Salim Khan (25), a resident of Bharatpur in Rajasthan, was arrested from near Rajokari flyover, NH-8, on Tuesday by the Delhi Police Crime Branch. Investigators have seized a pistol with two live cartridges from his possession.

“We had received information that Khan, the leader of the Tatlu gang, is involved in luring innocent people from Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir and other States by selling fake gold bricks at half rates, after projecting the same as genuine gold.
“Once their victims approached them with money, the accused person and his associates would rob them at gunpoint,” said ACP (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

Khan used to pose as Rahul Sharma, a poor labourer engaged in digging work at land acquired by the Archaeological Survey of India near Taj Mahal, said Mr. Yadav.

The accused used to lure his targets by saying he had discovered some ancient gold bricks from the Mughal era and was willing to sell the same at rates 50 per cent lower than the market rates.

The Hindu, 13th December 2013

Kalidasa, reclining among the lotuses, saw stories in the clouds. Amid the fountains of Fatehpur Sikri, Faizi wrote poems of love. Now, the poet will be looking out on the nodding pansies of the Mughal Gardens. And the backdrop will be the classical grandeur of the presidential estate. Writers, artists and scholars will now be invited for a month's stay at Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Pranab Mukherjee announced on Wednesday. The sylvan settings, it is hoped, will get the creative juices flowing.

For decades, the imposing presidential estate has been mysterious and aloof. Half hidden from view, only a few sections of the historic building were thrown open to a wondering public. President Kalam was called the "people's president", but in Mukherjee's tenure, there has been a further softening of the imperial facade. To mark his first year in office, Mukherjee inaugurated a library that would be open to the public and a school within the presidential estate. Rooms that were locked and shuttered for years have been opened up, renovated and made accessible to the public. What's more, this November, the walls of Rashtrapati Bhavan shook with rock n' roll music — quite a departure from the stately classical concerts it usually hosts. Imperial stuffiness is slowly being replaced by a demotic bustle. Last year, Mukherjee made it known that he would prefer a simple "sri" before his name instead of regal prefixes like "honourable" and "his excellency".

Inviting artists and writers seems to be another phase of the rashtrapati's renaissance. From being a remote symbol of state power, the presidential office could become a vibrant institution engaged with the cultural life of the country. Some might even say that Rashtrapati Bhavan is finally with it.

The Indian Express, 14th December 2013

Will submit its report within 10 days

The three-member expert committee constituted by the government to take evidence from the public on the K. Kasturirangan panel’s recommendations for protecting the Western Ghats will submit its report within 10 days.

The committee, which has Kerala State Biodiversity Board chairman Oommen V. Oommen as convener and comprises V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, executive vice-president, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, and P.C. Cyriac, former chairman, Rubber Board, completed its hearings, the last one with non-governmental organisations here on Friday.

Mr. Oommen said suggestions, concerns and complaints that were aired by the public during the hearings held at 27 sites from Aralam in Kannur to Amboori in Thiruvananthapuram would be assimilated soon. More than 35,000 people had attended the hearings.

A final report, based on the committee’s findings during the hearings and culled from over 9,000 memoranda submitted by individuals, NGOs, schools, public representatives, farmers’ organisations and so on, would be submitted within 10 days.

Answering a query, Mr. Oommen, who said large-scale, highly mechanised quarrying activities that were a threat to the Western Ghats had come to the committee’s notice during its visits, indicated that the committee might recommend another field survey to ensure accurate demarcation of land since there were complaints that some areas were incorrectly classified as ecologically sensitive areas.

The committee would do this after deciding on whether there was any unscientific classification in the Kasturirangan panel report.

Stating that they would discuss and include their views in the report on whether the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980 and the Environment Protection Act of 1986, if implemented in their full essence, were adequate for protection of the Western Ghats, Mr. Oommen and Mr. Cyriac also pointed out that there were several multi-storey constructions in sensitive areas such as Munnar in the State, whereas in other States, there were restrictions on such constructions.

The committee would also discuss the classification of environmentally fragile lands (EFL) and include its views in the report, Mr. Pillai said.

Two representatives each of the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishath and the Paristhithi Samrakshana Samithi, three independent agriculturists, and a retired government employee were those who turned up to air their views on the Kasturirangan panel’s recommendations during the hearing on Friday. The Hindu, 14th December 2013

At its prime, Nalanda had 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers from across the world and the education imparted here was free of cost. Somen Senguptahas more to say

In 1861, while excavating an enormous mound almost submerged in the ground and covered with wild vegetation in a nondescript village of Bihar, named Bargaon, a British archeologist suddenly found several plaques with an inscription written as “Nalanda Mahavihara Arya Vikshu Sanghasya”. Alexander Cunningham, the legendary director of Archeological Survey of India, soon announced that the travelogues of Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang were not mere a figment of imagination. Once there really stood a gigantic university called Nalanda.

Nalanda Mahavihara was the world’s first international residential university which flourished due to the patronage of various Indian kings as well as the rulers of Java and Sumatra. For more than 600 years, Nalanda played an important role in spreading education and ideas across Asia. In 1193, before it finally burnt down by barbaric Islamic invaders who had no respect for other religions, Nalanda was a giant institution. Indeed the word “naalam” means lotus or wisdom and “da” means “giver”. So, it means a place which provides wisdom.

History takes us back to the sixth century to remind us of one Kumargupta who was the first known patron of Nalanda. It, however, took the shape of a vibrant university during the reign of the legendary Harsha of Kannauj (606-647 AD). Last, it was backed by the Pala dynasty that ruled Bengal and Bihar. So, the university was funded by both Hindu and Buddhist kings in different centuries. Interestingly, the Palas provided patronage to three more universities — Vikramshila and Odantapuri in Bihar, and Somapura Mahavihar in Paharpur (now in Bangladesh). All these universities had a common network leading to regular exchange of student, teachers, books and many more. As per Tibetan sources, at one time Vikramshila gave a serious competition to Nalanda.

At its apex, the infrastructure of Nalanda was just unimaginable. It had 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers from India, China, Tibet, Siam, Persia, Korea, Java, Sri Lanka, Japan, Sumatra, Nepal and Greece. The education was free of cost as the revenue collected from 200 villages were meant for its expenses. Its campus was always agog with vibrant intellectual discussions and debates. All subjects that were relevant in that era — theology, logic, mathematics, philosophy, grammar, metaphysics, astrology, tantra, medicine, language, etc — were taught. The admission system was strict and a student was only allowed if he could satisfy the gatekeepers with his merit and intellectual vibes. One Nagarjuna was the first principal of this university. Vasubandhu, Asanga, Silabhadra, Dharmakriti and Aryadeva were some of the eminent teachers of this institution. Even Hiuen Tsang taught here after completing his education.  

There were 11 hostels with more than 3,000 residential rooms. It had a central assembly hall with various prayer halls and votive stupas almost everywhere. There were parks, pavements, rest halls and water canals flowing inside of the campus, which also had a central kitchen. A student’s room had stone bed, locker and book shelves with a provision of meditation. The central library was nine-storied and had some of the finest Buddhist and Hindu literary manuscripts. Such was the collection of this library that it took Muslim invaders six month to burn it down completely.

The decline of Nalanda started during the early 11th century when the influence of tantra engulfed Buddhism, especially in Tibet, Nepal, Bihar and Bengal. After the decline of the Pala dynasty, the Senas came to rule Bengal; they more sympathetic towards Hinduism. The final nemesis came in 1193 when Bakhtiyar Khilji, one of the generals of Qutb-ud-din Aibak, invaded east and destroyed Nalanda and Vikramshila. It is said most of the students and monks were burnt alive or beheaded .The entire complex was vandalised beyond imagination. The library building, with invaluable manuscripts, was set on fire. Only few were salvaged by some monks who fled to Nepal, Tibet and south India. Overnight a glorious history of 700 years was destroyed and buried.

People soon forgot this great institution, which was discovered as late as in the early 19th century. The rediscovery of Nalanda is a watershed in our history and we must be indebted to our former rulers for this. Ever since the university was destroyed, the entire area was deserted and soon the complex went under deep jungle. Even the name Nalanda was forgotten and a village named Bargaon came up. Around 1820, British geographer Buchanan Hamilton visited Bargaon village and found many Hindu and Buddhist stone images scattered all over the place. Based on his study, Sir Cunningham did scientific excavation in 1861. He explored countless number of inscriptions, coins, copper plates, statues, etc. 

This was followed by many other excavations — first in 1872 and then in a bigger way from 1915 to 1936. In each of these excavations, a plethora of artifacts like Buddhist and Hindu images, coins, inscriptions, copper plates, murals, plaques, university seal, murals, terracotta, etc, were found. Most of these are today kept at Patna, Nalanda and Calcutta museums. Post-Independence, between 1974 and 1982, another round of excavation was conducted in Nalanda.

What we see today is not even a pale shadow of its original glory. Yet, the central mound — known as temple 3 — built in the Kushan architectural style makes us euphoric. Apart from this, we find an amalgamation of two different architectural schools — classical Gupta and Pala. The huge central brick mound is surrounded with decorated votive stupas. It was built in seven phases. It was a typical Pancharatna style of architecture where the central building was surrounded by four subsidiary smaller temples in each corner. There is a large chamber which might have contained a Buddha statue. Most of the stupas are embellished with curving in stucco or terracotta. Buddha in various forms performing a penance-like lotus position or bhumisparsha is the main subject of all statues. Still almost every small chapel contains half-broken Buddha statue. The basement of ruined hostel with stone beds of the students in quadrangle cells and their recreation places are really amazing.

So in its town planning, Nalanda was a masterpiece. It is a testimony to the quality of life and wisdom that India offered to the mankind in an era when most of the contemporary civilisations were still in their primitive stages. No wonder, Nalanda is today an UNESCO world heritage site and a place one must necessarily visit.

The Pioneer, 15th December 2013

The barren Rann of Kutch was navigable during the Harappan times. Scientists and marine archaeologists from National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa have concluded that the sea covered the area where the Rann exists today.

Senior marine archaeologists and scientists A S Gaur, K H Vora, Sundaresh, R Mani Murali and S Jayakumar have noted in their recent research there is evidence of change in morphological conditions in the lower Sind area, which was responsible for the westward shift of River Indus. "This evidence shows that the gulf extended beyond the Rann and must have been navigable even during the early centuries of the Christian era. What's more, the Little Rann of Kutch was navigable even as late as 16th century AD."

There are 61 registered Harappan sites in the Kutch region including Dholavira, Navinal, Juni Kuran, Desalpur and Bedi. The study says, "Though Harappan society was primarily an agrarian society, the settlements in Kutch may have been a trading community. The movement of these people must have been a strategic plan under the expansion of Harappan domain in early stages of the civilization to occupy the coastal areas of Kutch for internal, as well as, overseas trade and also for the exploitation of the marine resources, closest available around the Gujarat coast.

"River Indus must have served as the waterway between Sind and Kutch, providing a direct and easier route to reach Juni Kuran or Dholavira or Pachchham and Khadir Island in the Rann of Kutch respectively. Kot Kori, Koonj Sor and Korohio Pir would have served as ports in the northern coast of the rann," the report submitted to NIO says.

"Thus, the environmental as well as morphological conditions must have been different than those existing at present. There are several evidence of change in morphological conditions in lower Sind area, which was responsible for the westward shifting of the River Indus," claims further. The scientists have proposed to carry out further research on the topic.

A massacre and a miracle, Pangti in the Wokha district of Nagaland has seen both within a span of a year. In October-November last year, this scenic village on the edge of the massiveDoyang dam reservoir was the site of a mass carnage. An estimated 1,20,000 to 1,40,000 Amur falcons were killed here by locals for food as the migratory bird made its customary stop in the district while flying back to Africa from its breeding grounds in Siberia. 

The birds returned this year — up to a million of them descending around the man-made water body in October and November. But not a single falcon was trapped and killed this time around, say conservationists and forest officials. If there's any such thing as a miracle in conservation, it has been achieved in this remote corner of India's North-east through the joint effort of NGOs and the state government. 

Asad R Rahmani, director of the Bombay Natural History Society — one of the agencies which worked with the locals to stop the hunting — says the turnaround was without precedent. "We haven't seen such results anywhere else. Credit should go to the Nagaland government that acted swiftly, with the chief minister himself getting involved," he says. 

The Amur falcon is an insect-eating raptor with an epic migratory route. It breeds in south-east Siberia and north China in the summer before flying back to south and east Africa ahead of winter. On its way back, the falcon halts at the Doyang reservoir. 

Bird experts say the October-November halt at Doyang is the largest congregation of Amur falcons in the world. "Though the reservoir has been in existence only since 2001, these birds have been traditionally coming to the area. Village elders say the sky would turn dark when huge flocks of falcons arrived," says Bano Haralu, a TV journalist-turned-conservationist , who is the founding trustee of the Nagaland Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation Trust (NWBCT). 

NWBCT was one of the organizations that recorded and publicized last year's mass killing of falcons. "Though hunting of the falcons has been going on for years, it had never reached the scale seen last year. Locals say the forest department did not issue a notification against the hunting till late into the season last year," says Haralu. 

Around 12,000-14 ,000 falcons were hunted every day, to be consumed by the locals and sold as meat. According to accounts , the birds' wings were broken and were kept alive in mosquito nets or cane baskets before being strung from rods and carried to markets. Many were de-feathered and smoked for longer shelf life. Each falcon fetched the hunter Rs 16-25. 

Zanthungo Shitiri, head of the local fishermen's union, admits that each hunter made anywhere between Rs 20,000 to 40,000 last season. "There were around 150 hunters, all of whom are local fishermen," he says. The massacre shocked conservation circles. It also came as a major embarrassment to India which had assumed the chair of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity at a meet held in Hyderabad in October 2012 — around the time the falcons were killed. Also, as a signatory to the Convention on Migratory Species, it is India's duty to provide safe passage to all migratory birds. 

NGOs and the state government got down to work. NWBCT, in association with BNHS, set up eco clubs among local children where awareness was raised about the falcon and its amazingmigratory habits. Haralu says the adults got sensitized through their kids. The church was involved in spreading the word. Other NGOs negotiated with the village council to stop the hunting. 

The government too stepped up vigilance. CM Neiphiu Rio himself visited Pangti village, home to the Lotha tribe, in November this year and appealed to the villagers to not hunt the birds. "This is probably the first time that the chief minister of Nagaland, where hunting is a way of life, has asked people not to hunt," says Neha Sinha, project in-charge of BNHS. 

Activists say the campaign needs to be sustained. Livelihood issues of the villagers — especially the diminishing returns from fishing — need to be addressed if they are to restrained from hunting. "Everybody loves this bird. But we've to look after our families," says Shitiri.

Rectangular-shaped exhibition halls connected by travelators, a world-class convention centre with room for 4,000 people, and slip roads and underpasses providing direct connectivity to the complex. These are part of the proposed Pragati Maidan redevelopment plan.

The plan is, however, facing objections from the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC). "...the commission is of the strong view that the Pragati Maidan complex is not a right place for putting up a convention centre... The existing iconic buildings must be retained and upgraded," DUAC chairman Raj Rewal has stated in a letter to the Lt-Governor and the Urban development ministry.

The complex was inaugurated in 1972 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

With the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) clearing the change in Pragati Maidan's land-use plan from 'district park' to 'international convention centre', the redevelopment plan has moved forward with the proposal to be tabled for Cabinet clearance in the next two months, sources said. The new convention centre is expected to be ready by 2017.

"We have nothing against upgradation of infrastructure but our issue is that any perspective plan for redevelopment of the complex could result in demolition of some iconic buildings and adversely impact the landscape of the area. The commission felt concerned as the complex is adjacent to Old Fort and has certain iconic buildings like Natural Science Museum, Crafts Museum, Hall of Nations, Nehru Complex designed by eminent architects. We are against demolition of such buildings," Rewal said.

Incidentally, Rewal was in Paris last month when a model of the Hall of Nations was on display in the Pompidou Centre there.

But the chairman and managing director of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) Rita Menon said there was a need for state-of-the-art infrastructure to attract international fairs from across Asia to Pragati Maidan. "At least 42 per cent of the halls are not put to use for exhibitions, except during the India International Trade Fair, which is a sheer waste of prime space," she said.

The Indian Express, 16th December 2013

Cityscape: Colonel James Skinner’s house in Kashmere Gate, a historically significant site, urgently needs repairs

Colonel James Skinner’s house in Kashmere Gate is in need of urgent repairs (172 years after his death), especially after a part (actually an outhouse) collapsed soon after the rains in October, resulting in the death of a woman and her little daughter and injuries to some other tenants. Part of the Bengali Club close by also collapsed, soon after as a further sign that the historic buildings in the area are in a bad state after encroachment and illegal constructions. George Heatherley, a relation of the Skinners, used to come every year from Perth to see the place where his family lived for long and spend Christmas and New Year in Delhi.

His death about two years ago meant the snapping of an old link. Now Prof. Sydney Reberio is the remaining chip off the old block. He lives in Sarita Vihar, far from Kashmere Gate, but still misses the ambience of the old haveli which once housed Hindu College and his uncle George. Skinner’s house was for long the Colonel’s winter quarters, though his main residence was at Hansi in Haryana, where his mansion still stands and where his great-great grandson Brig Michael Skinner and the latter’s wife (also a Skinner) used to spend much of their time when not living at their bungalow in Mussoorie. Brig. Skinner died some years ago and his children are probably in Australia, though Mrs. Skinner stayed on at the Hansi Estate. Hansi, incidentally, was also the place where Balban had retired till his recall by the Slave Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud to Delhi and his eventual accession to the throne in 1266.

Col Skinner’s attachment to the Kashmere Gate house was great. It gave him access to the Mughal court and to Akbar Shah Sani, the Emperor, besides the Rais (elite) of the Capital among whom he held a high place because of his connection with the British after he left the Marthas, notably Scindia. This residence was also dear to him because it was there that he generally met his dearest friend, the British Resident William Fraser. How he and Fraser enjoyed each other’s company has now become part of a legend. They spent time in planning hunting expeditions, sharing battle experiences and sexcapades, watching dances by the nautch girls and of course drinking long and deep, sometimes from afternoon to late evening when Fraser had to return to his mansion on the Ridge and on the way to which one night he was shot by an assassin hired by the Ferozepore Nawab Shamsuddin Khan. Fraser’s death in 1835 was a big blow to Skinner who really couldn’t get over it right up to his death on December 4, 1841. The grave he built for his friend in front of St. James’ Church is still there as a reminder of their friendship.

Skinner’s Church, as is well known, was built in perpetuation of a vow on the battlefield of Oniara, also in Haryana, in which Skinner nearly died. It is worth mentioning the incident in his own words: “The Oonehara Rajah soon became aware of the badness of our troops and crossed the river on the 25th of January (1800) … Two of the enemy’s battalions came up to attack me but I charged and drove them away.” Later Skinner found that of his 300 men, only 10 were now with him. Skinner goes on to say, “As I was going to follow (search for) them (the other 290 men), a horseman galloped up, matchlock in hand, and shot me through the groin. It was about three in the afternoon that I fell, and I did not regain my senses till sunrise next morning... I crawled under a bush to shelter myself from the sun. Two more of my battalion crept near me — the one a soobahdar, that had his leg shot off below the knee, the other a jemiadar (who) had a spear wound through his body. We were now dying of thirst, but not a soul was to be seen; and in this state we remained the whole day, praying for death. Night came on but neither death nor assistance. The moon was full and clear and about midnight it was very cold. So dreadful did this night appear that I swore If I survived to have nothing more to do with soldering … the wounded on all sides, including his brother, crying for water — the jackals tearing the dead and coming nearer and nearer to see if we were ready for them; we only kept them off by throwing stones and making noises, Thus passed this long and horrible night (Hijr ki raat). Next morning we spied a man and an old woman, who came to us with a basket and a pot of water and to every wounded man she gave a piece of joaree (jowar) bread and a drink from her water pot. But the soobahdar was a Rajpoot, he would receive neither bread nor water from her (as she was of a lower caste) so he preferred to die unpolluted”. “This was a woman whom the Colonel from then on regarded as his mother…”

This is a rare verbatim account, part of the Colonel’s memoirs written in Persian, which to one’s knowledge has never been published in any newspaper todate and shows the plight of the man when he vowed to build a church as a token of his gratitude. To do that he had to live close to the site he had chosen and hence the importance of the Kashmere Gate house to him. He would walk across from it to the under-construction church (opened in 1840) before returning for a cherished meeting with William Fraser. Shouldn’t this building, spread over more than 500 sq. yards, be restored and preserved by the Archaeological Department as a heritage site?

The Hindu, 16th December 2013

Delhi Urban Art Commission on Monday made a presentation to the urban development ministry on a bunch of city-level proposals to improve urban lifestyle and aesthetics. The proposals are based on studies on issues undertaken by the commission over the last six months. These are likely to be studied by local agencies for feasibility.

The issues identified by the commission include site-specific design for wards involving 25 studies, rehabilitation of unauthorized colonies where 20 studies were undertaken, bettering the 'vision' or look of the city, high-rise development along Metro corridors, rejuvenation of Delhi's gardens, promoting unified building bylaws, designing four prototypes for high-tech public toilets.

The studies have been funded by special grants. "The intention was not to step on the turf of other authorities but to direct planners to do studies on a three-dimensional basis which were hitherto being done two-dimensionally so that these may be adopted not only in Delhi but elsewhere," said an official.

The commission has zeroed in on several problem areas. These include parking shortage, dangling power cables, unauthorized colonies, neglected green areas, dilapidated heritage sites, and insufficient housing. Case studies have been done to explore how these problems could be solved.

A proposal is being drafted by UTTIPEC for mid-term review ofMaster Plan. A study with reference to Netaji Subhash Metro station where the land below is a vacant stretch has been done. Underground parking and developing green areas and parks are also a priority. "Green areas and parks can be interconnected and recreational activity introduced," chairperson Raj Rewal said.

The commission was careful about site-specific planning. While DUAC has been critical ofurban development minister Kamal Nath's views on Delhi's vertical growth, it said pointed out incentivized and site-specific FAR would go a long way in improving urban lifestyle. "FAR incentives should be given in site-specific cases. Private developers would be encouraged to come in at crowded markets. Higher FAR should be allowed in certain areas after looking at ground realities," said a senior DUAC official.

DUAC has invited bids for designing high-tech public toilets and the final prototype is expected to be ready in a month. "Master plan regulations may stipulate what can be done in the city but we are looking at ground realities," Rewal said.

The proposal includes rearrangement of the public transport network to connect more areas with Metro stations and buses routes, decongestion of roads by rehabilitating street hawkers, incentives for constructing green buildings and street-scaping.

The Times of India, 17th December 2013

Finally, Town Hall in Chandni Chowk will get a new look. The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has approved a plan toredevelop the 149-year-old building, which, till recently, was the headquarters of the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The iconic building will be converted into a museum-cum-recreational centre with a boutique hotel.

The proposal was passed in the house meeting of North Corporation on Monday and will be sent to the union ministry of tourism, which has agreed to fund the Rs 50-crore project. "We are hopeful of getting all the clearances in the next few months and the work will start soon,'' said Mayank Sharma, North Corporation's additional commissioner who is in charge of the project.

The redeveloped Town Hall building will house a museum, conference hall, library, meeting rooms, audio-visual rooms, children's gallery and restaurants. "Our plan is to give a complete tour of history to the visitors. We have carefully worked on every detail as we want it to meet international standards,'' said Sharma.

While the museum will be the key attraction, the 16,700sqm building will also have a craft bazaar, art galleries, open-air theatre and exhibition centres. Officials said all this will be achieved without altering the basic design of the heritage building. "The museum will showcase every aspect of Mughal lifestyle, from clothes and food to warfare. We are in touch with experts who will prepare replicas of all that is associated with Delhi's history,'' said Sharma.

Officials said the tendering process will start immediately after the corporation receives funds from the ministry. "We are hopeful of starting work in the next six months. The building is in a dilapidated condition and needs urgent repairs. We can start the redevelopment work after basic repairs are over,'' said an official.

MCD had also planned to redevelop Town Hall but the project couldn't take off.

The Hindustan Times, 17th December 2013

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for failing to designate eco-sensitive zones (ESZ) around the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, in spite of being given time to do so.

A bench headed by Justice P Jyothimani directed UP government to send a proposal on ESZ around the sanctuary to the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), by January 3, 2014, the next date of hearing.

The court said it "may have to pass orders in accordance with the law" if the government fails to heed its order. In case the government sends the proposal, "then the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and MoEF shall act on the proposal and take appropriate decision for the purpose of notifying the eco-sensitive zone".

Amit Kumar, in his petition, has sought prevention of the alleged illegal and unauthorised construction within the sanctuary's 10-km radius, which he claims to be an eco-sensitive zone. The builders have contended that since the sanctuary neither has a notified eco-sensitive zone nor a protected area, no clearance will be required from NBWL for any project coming up within 10 km.

Advocate Gaurav Bansal, appearing for petitioner Amit Kumar, alleged that the UP government has not sent its proposal as it is protecting the builders.

The order was passed after stakeholders in the case, including MoEF, NBWL and builders, contended that the UP government had not done anything till the NGT ordered it to send MoEF its proposal on ESZ. NGT issued fresh notices to Haryana and Delhi governments and sought replies.

The Indian Express, 17th December 2013

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for failing to designate eco-sensitive zones (ESZ) around the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, in spite of being given time to do so.

A bench headed by Justice P Jyothimani directed UP government to send a proposal on ESZ around the sanctuary to the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), by January 3, 2014, the next date of hearing.

The court said it "may have to pass orders in accordance with the law" if the government fails to heed its order. In case the government sends the proposal, "then the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and MoEF shall act on the proposal and take appropriate decision for the purpose of notifying the eco-sensitive zone".

Amit Kumar, in his petition, has sought prevention of the alleged illegal and unauthorised construction within the sanctuary's 10-km radius, which he claims to be an eco-sensitive zone. The builders have contended that since the sanctuary neither has a notified eco-sensitive zone nor a protected area, no clearance will be required from NBWL for any project coming up within 10 km.

Advocate Gaurav Bansal, appearing for petitioner Amit Kumar, alleged that the UP government has not sent its proposal as it is protecting the builders.

The order was passed after stakeholders in the case, including MoEF, NBWL and builders, contended that the UP government had not done anything till the NGT ordered it to send MoEF its proposal on ESZ. NGT issued fresh notices to Haryana and Delhi governments and sought replies.

The Indian Express, 17th December 2013

While the forests of Odisha comprising the tiger landscape still stand with their impressive sal, they could soon be ‘empty'. The revival of tigers in Satkosia is vital to sustaining a stable, breeding ‘source’ population of tigers that can feed on these forests

The tragedy of Sariska, and the Panna debacle — the local extinction of tigers caused largely by a breakdown of protection systems, an apathetic Government and mostly, the cancer of denial — had shocked the country. It stirred our conscience and galvanised society and the Government to take action. The Prime Minister set up a Tiger Task Force, and in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, backed by the Centre, made tremendous efforts in trying to revive the parks. Accountability is yet to be fixed, though. The efforts have paid off. Yet, even as we struggle to shed the shame of Sariska and Panna, history is repeating itself in another tiger reserve — Satkosia in Odisha, where the tiger may be locally extinct, or at best, close to it. Worse, rather than make efforts to revive this tigerland, the State seems intent to write the reserve and its tigers off.

I remember my first visit to Satkosia in 2007, a few months before the sanctuary was notified as a tiger reserve. It was a reserve with low tiger density even then, still, my visit there yielded pugmarks of a tigress and her young. I encountered elephants, and fair herds of chital, sambar, and many a wild boar. The staff were buoyant, vigilant and protective about their tigers. My next visit was in 2010, and I was shocked to see the change — none of it good. Protection was perceptibly weaker, motivation sagging. And the tigers? Not one pugmark...

The 2010-2011 report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority-appointed Management Effectiveness Evaluation team, of which I was a part, had warned of the precarious status of the reserve and the tiger even then, pointing out that the reserve suffered from “poor protection, little wildlife orientation, no monitoring and suffering from neglect and apathy.”

The warnings were not heeded and, not unexpectedly, the situation in Satkosia deepened into a crisis. In March this year, State conservationists reported that “virtually no signs of tiger breeding had been witnessed in over three years in the reserve.” Said Bhubaneswar-based conservationist Aditya Panda, who is associated with Satkosia, “The reserve has not recorded any tiger breeding in at least three years. It appears that the relict tiger population of the reserve is crashing because of a skewed sex ratio, with no breeding tigress surviving. Prime areas like Labangi, Raigoda, Tulka, Puranakote, etc which earlier used to report frequent signs of tigers, are reporting scant, or nearly nil signs of tiger presence.”

The media took up the issue, and the park management fumbled, conceding to the near extinction of tigers. Acting on the reports, the NTCA sent an appraisal team, but its report is yet awaited even as the crisis in Satkosia deepens.

It gets worse. Even as this tragedy played out in the reserve, a young male tiger was found to be roaming in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar. The tiger is remarkable. In spite of wandering in dense human-dominated landscapes for over seven months, he evaded any conflict with humans, with only a single instance of cattle-killing, that too within the Chandaka sanctuary which abuts the city. Yet, the tiger was captured and locked up in a zoo. Desperate to escape, he scaled the 18-foot high chain-link fence of his enclosure, only to be caught again a month later, this time confined — and languishing — in a more ‘secure’ cage.

The tiger is believed to be originating from Satkosia, having roughly followed the course of the Mahanadi river, a fact corroborated by the visiting experts from Wildlife Institute of India and the NTCA. They advised that Satkosia had good quality habitat and sufficient prey base to act as a suitable release site for the tiger. But Satkosia does not want its tiger. The State prefers the tiger in the zoo to rejuvenate its gene pool of inbred captive tigers rather than revive and secure Satkosia.

Evading responsibility, the Regional Chief Conservator of Forests, Angul, who holds additional charge as Field Director, Satkosia, Mr Pandav Behera, wrote to the Chief Wildlife Warden in a letter dated November 25, asking for the tiger to be released elsewhere, in “absence of manpower and other such infrastructure.” He also confessed to the near-extinction of tigers writing that, “tiger pugmarks in the reserve were becoming difficult to obtain” and that a “tiger scat collection exercise in the reserve had drawn a ‘nil’.”

Even as I write this, news comes in that under pressure not to cage the wild tiger, the State intends to release the tiger in Similipal. Why? Similipal has its own stable, breeding tiger population, and reintroducing this tiger will most likely end up tinkering with the existing social structure of the local tiger population, which could prove disastrous. And why not Satkosia, where such an effort is crucial? Shouldn’t Odisha work on making Satkosia secure for its tigers? Or is there another motive altogether in its refusal to do so, given that the State now proposes to de-notify over 159 sq km from Satkosia Gorge Sanctuary which forms a majority of the tiger reserve?

Is Odisha dismantling its tiger reserve? Satkosia cannot be written off. The State must shed its apathy, and commit to conserve, and secure Satkosia. The first step toward its commitment is welcoming its tiger back-with all that it entails. Six years into its inception, the reserve is still to have a dedicated Field Director, and one must be appointed on priority.

Villages within the core area must be relocated. Most villages within the core are desperate to move out, for instance, Raigoda, which occupies prime tiger real estate, has been petitioning for relocation for over a decade. The people here are in desperate situation with no access to basic facilities, no means of livelihood. They have virtually given up agriculture because their crop is continually raided by elephants, wild pig and deer. Augmenting staff, their training and capacity building plus wildlife orientation should be taken up. special efforts must be taken to strengthen protection so as to augment prey abundance, which has possibly taken a hit due to hunting in the past.

Reviving Satkosia is critical for the tiger’s future in Odisha. Satkosia is connected, through stepping stone corridors with the Similipal Tiger Reserve. It forms a crucial ‘bookend’ of a massive 13,500 sq km tiger landscape that spans the heart of Odisha. This landscape comprises many forests — Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Ghumsar — once legendary for their tigers. Today, while the forests still stand with their impressive sal, it is feared they could soon be ‘empty forests’. The revival of tigers in Satkosia is vital to sustain a stable, breeding ‘source’ population of tigers that can ‘feed’ these forests.

(The writer is trustee, ‘Bagh’ and Conservation Partner, WCS-India. She is a former member of the National Board for Wildlife)

The Pioneer, 18th December 2013

CITYSCAPE -Far from the madding crowd of Old Delhi, discover older Delhi

‘Hunuz, Dilli door dast’. Once Nizamuddin Auliya said these words to Tughlak king, Ghayasuddin, who was on his way to Delhi after a military campaign. The king could never reach the Capital; Dilli indeed proved ‘door’ (far). But look a little closer at the southern part of the city. It is both ‘door’ and old. In fact, older than Old Delhi!

It came up some 400 years before Shahjahan built the Walled City. Today, it accommodates Quwwatul Islam Masjid, the oldest mosque in North India, besides of course the world famous Qutub Minar. Right adjacent to it is the tomb of Iltutmish, the man who ruled over the city for over a quarter century following the death of the founder of the Mamluk dynasty, Qutbuddin Aibak, who is regarded as the first Sultan of Delhi. The area itself was once a city proper with Mehrauli – the Abode of Mihir Bhoja – drawing its name from that of the founder.

It is also the part that has space for Ghayasuddin’s tomb and indeed Tukhlakabad, the city school students know of thanks to Mohammed Bin Tughlak’s much derided decision to shift the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad.

All that is in the past. Today, the area is home to sprawling shopping plazas, cinemas, residential apartments. Yes, they are all in Older Delhi! And to think, people call Shahjahanabad Old Delhi! Ah, the twist of fate!

TEXT: ZIYA US SALAM

PHOTOS: MONICA TIWARY,

MEETA AHLAWAT

The Hindu, 19th December 2013

The Okhla Bird Sanctuary has tremendous potential. But this potential will remain largely unrealised if the authorities fail to pay enough attention

Caught in Delhi's frenetic whirl, few notice some of the quiet stretches in the capital's periphery where nature still remains pristine. One such haven is the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, perhaps the only one of its kind in India located at the heart of a massive, expanding urban sprawl. Though spread over roughly four square kilometres — which makes it small compared to some of the country's other sanctuaries — it, according to Mr TK Roy, an ecologist familiar with the area, is home to 145 species of birds, including 22 species of water birds and 44 species of terrestrial birds that are resident. The presence of seven species categorised as ‘endangered’ and one labelled as ‘vulnerable’ has been recorded. There are, besides, 25 species of aquatic, and 110 of terrestrial, plants.

Unfortunately, the sanctuary, which came into being in 1990, and which has Delhi on one side and Uttar Pradesh's New Okhla Industrial Development Area on the other, faces a multiplicity of problems. Its principle protection on the side of Delhi is supposed to be a tall fence. People, however, cut or sneak through it at will to defecate and urinate and sometimes poach. Ignoring remonstrances, villagers in Uttar Pradesh regularly push through herds of buffaloes to graze. Mourners at an adjacent crematorium sometimes spill into the sanctuary or bury their dead inside the latter, disturbing avian life. The staff — one field range officer, two guards, one sailor and seven temporary muster roll employees — are powerless to prevent any forcible entry. The police are reluctant to intervene.

Much worse happens during Chhat Puja and when Kanwariyas are on the march. During the former, worshippers are allowed to enter the sanctuary and collect water. The explosion of crackers, which are stealthily brought in, mainly by children, despite a ban, terrifies the birds. The Kanwariyas stay in camps along the periphery but come in whenever they like to use the outlying areas of the sanctuary as a latrine. Apart from the disturbance their loud presence creates for around a month, they leave behind a huge mess which spreads pollution and takes days to clear.

Uttar Pradesh’s Irrigation Department, which owns the land on which the sanctuary is situated and is in charge of the maintenance of the Okhla Barrage, reportedly causes much greater damage. Locals allege that when it does its repair work, water drains out and the entire area is dry, without any thought of the havoc it wreaks on the birds which are forced to fly away. The eggs left behind get destroyed and the chicks, which cannot fly too far, if at all, die.

The damage was not so severe in 2011 and 2012, when repairs were done in May. This year, however, these were undertaken from the beginning of October, a critical time for the arrival of winter birds from Siberia and elsewhere, and virtually the entire sanctuary area remained dry for about a month. The result was devastating. Indignant locals argue that Irrigation Department officials responsible, whose action threatens endangered and vulnerable avian species besides a wide variety of others, are guilty of violating the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, should be tried and punished.

Even if this does not happen, the repairs must be undertaken in consultation with Uttar Pradesh wildlife authorities to minimise damage to the sanctuary's ecology. Also, the Delhi Government must take measures to prevent unauthorised entry from its side. As Mr Ishwar Chandra Singh, the Field Range Officer pointed out, an urgent need is a buffer area which most sanctuaries have around them to protect the core area. One hopes the messages get through. The Okhla bird sanctuary has immense potential. It will be a pity if it is not realised.

The Pioneer, 19th December 2013

President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday laid the foundation for a ceremonial hallceremonial hall and transit accommodation that are to come up at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Ceremonial Hall will be an extension of the existing auditorium and is meant to be an indoor space for organising State functions during inclement weather. The proposed hall has been designed to hold a Guard-of-Honour by 90 defence personnel, including the Army band. The hall will also have facilities for media coverage of such functions.

"This hall will be able to hold 'at-home' functions for about 2,000 guests. The building will be built in accordance with universal access principles as well as 'green building' norms,'' a statement released by the President's estate said.

"This hall will come into use especially during bad weather, since Durbar Hall and Ashoka Hall cannot provide the services and accommodate guests on such a large scale,'' a Central Public Works Department (CPWD) official said. The project is likely to cost Rs 25 crore and is expected to be ready for use by August next next year.

The transit accommodation, which is called 'Peacock Suites', will have 16 fully furnished suites in two-storey blocks. "Eight of them will have two bedrooms, while the other eight will be one-bedroom suites,'' the official said.

The designs of both the building conform to the guidelines mentioned under the Comprehensive Heritage Conservation Master Plan of the Estate prepared by INTACH. Officials said the buildings will be constructed without a single tree being felled and without any damage to the environment.

CPWD has been entrusted with the maintenance and upkeep of President's Estate. "Plans to construct a museum on the history of India's presidents is also underway,'' an official said. The suites will cost Rs 6 crore and the project will be ready for use by August 2014 .

After missing several deadlines, theConnaught Place redevelopment project has finally come to a close. And New Delhi Municipal Council and the market association are planning a grand inauguration of the refurbished area in the last week of the year, most likely on December 30. A series of events, including a shopping carnival and concerts, are on the cards.

After a gap of two years, New Delhi Traders Association will host a two-week long shopping festival. "It used to be an annual feature but we had to forgo it because of the renovation. Business was slack as the entire market was dug up. We are now hopeful of a rebound," said NDTA president Atul Bhargava.

While the details of the entire event are still to be worked out, the association has planned a vintage car rally on December 29. "We want to bring alive the area's history. CP was constructed between 1930 and 1933, which is why we thought of organizing a vintage car rally. Apart from this, we are planning music concerts,'' said Bhargava.

NDMC is also planning a Sufi concert. As it is Christmas season, traders are hopeful of a good footfall. The shopping carnival will be from December 23 to January 8. Major events, including concerts and vintage car rallies, are planned in the last three days of the year.

According to NDMC officials, the redevelopment work of CP is over and Engineers India Limited, consultant for the project, has handed over the area to the civic agency. The civic agency is carrying out landscaping work and basic maintenance. NDMC has recently floated tenders to hire a housekeeping firm for CP. "We are in process of finalizing the contract. Till then, our staff will carry out basic maintenance work. EIL handed over the area to us in November. Now, basic work related to facade is left which will be completed in the next few days," said a senior official.

Though some work is still pending, traders aren't complaining. As they have suffered a lot in the last few years, they now want footfall to increase. The civic agency is working on a proposal to improve transport between CP and the automated parking lot at Baba Kharak Singh Marg.

"More and more people will use this parking lot. We are studying a few proposals to improve connectivity between the parking facility and CP," the official said.

NDMC and the market association are planning a grand inauguration of the project in the last week of the year, most likely on December 30.

The Hindustan Times, 19th December 2013

After years of deliberations, the Union Ministry of Culture has finally agreed to nominate the city of Chandigarh as a probable World Heritage Site, a transnational nomination included as part of the famous French architect Le Corbusier's many works.

While City Beautiful heads to UNESCO as a transnational nomination, the imperial city of Delhi and the ruins of Nalanda will be India's nominees to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Register in 2015 and 2016 respectively, officials from the Union Ministry of Culture said.

While the Chandigarh administration has been pushing for the city's case since 2006, its dossier on the proposed nomination did not cut any ice with the Ministry of Culture earlier. In 2006-07 Chandigarh came up on the tentative list drawn up by UNESCO but in 2010, decision on it was deferred again. India along with France, Belgium, Argentina and Switzerland will be sending a transnational nomination for the architectural works of Le Corbusier.

The nomination documents for Chandigarh terms Le Corbusier's work in Chandigarh as an essential link in the series formed by his other works in France, Switzerland, Belgium, etc. that are to be included in the proposed 'Trans-border Serial Nomination of Le Corbusier's Work'. Chandigarh is also comparable with other 20th century cities such as Brasilia, The White City of Tel Aviv and Le Havre - the city rebuilt by August Perret, all inscribed on the World Heritage List, the 2006 nomination description on Chandigarh had said.

The Indian Express, 19th December 2013

A latest report by WWF and CEEW highlights that innovative renewable energy applications like solar food dryers and milk pasteuriser will be the future of India. By Karan Bhardwaj

If you Google news for renewable sources of energy, the recent headlines highlight Scotland’s landmark achievement of 40 per cent of renewable energy, or Australia’s improving figures in this sector or Catalonia (Spain) being declared as energy independent. Back home, there’s no such great news except for the fact that things are moving on, getting better and renewable sources of energy are welcomed in rural as well as urban areas with equal enthusiasm. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission Phase 1 (JNNSM) is poised to make India a leader in solar power as its growth agenda increased the installed capacity from around 30 MW to more than 2,000 MW. However, when we think of renewable sources of energy, imagination is confined to switching on lights and fans. A latest report by WWF-India and Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) jointly details 14 renewable energy applications covering four different energy sources — biomass, cooking stoves, solar space heating and cooling systems.

“The potential of renewable energy to transform our lives and ways of living is underestimated and under-appreciated. By examining its applications beyond simply switching on lights and fans, we can begin to broaden our technological horizons, deepen the foundations of business models offering a range of additional energy services, strengthen the financial ecosystem to support decentralised energy, and most importantly, fuel our imaginations to develop solutions for everyday challenges,” said Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of CEEW.

The report has applications like solar/wind desalinator, food dryer, water purifier, geothermal cooling system, wind water pump and solar aerator. “Take water pumping for instance. Largely water pumps are used in agriculture. There are more than 26 million pumps in the country. Of them, 16 million run on electricity, which is not regular and rest on diesel, which is a polluting and expensive fuel. Even if you replace half of them by solar pumps, then you have significant reduction in carbon dioxide and millions of liters of diesel saved. In urban areas, commercial buildings consume lots of energy to maintain the normal ambience (coolers and heaters). If you have efficient building design using solar and geothermal cooling system, then you can save electricity consumption with reduction in carbon footprints,” he said.

Arunabha was shocked to see the growing impact of this energy. One of his recent visits in the tribal villages in Karnataka landed him into a farm labourer’s home who has installed solar panels on his mud hut. “There is a tradition of wearing clean, crisp clothes in South. This guy has two shirts and three lungis. But he had to spend Rs 50 every month on detergents since his shirts would often get dirty by the fumes of kerosene stove. So he took a loan and installed the solar panels and now his laundry expenditure has come down significantly,” said Ghosh highlighting the lifestyle transformation that brings with the energy forms. The last two years have seen an increase in geothermal cooling system, solar ambient cooling system, improved cook stores, where biomass is used but the efficiency is better than traditional choolahs. In coming days, milk pasteurisers and food dryers can take a big shape. “We know how much of food is wasted rotting in godowns. So food dryers can help in desiccating the fruits and vegetables,” he said.

Unfortunately, renewable sector is considered risky when it comes to technology. Also, there is a lack of robust system to financially support the companies that are investing in this sector. “The biggest challenge is to create an interesting business model around that technology. Because this is off the grid and decentralised, there is no long term contract that you find with utility. So we have to become innovative. Revenue model is important. Is it s one off payment or pay per use? Can we use prepaid cards for renewable energy like we do for cell phones? Is it based on getting through franchise or company set up its own centres in cities?” he said.

The Pioneers, 20th December 2013

Connaught Place has slipped two notches to become the world's seventh costliest office destination due to slowdown in the realty market and fall in rupee's exchange rate, property consultant CBRE has said.

Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) is at the 15th position, while Nariman Point stood at 32nd. Occupancy cost of CP stood at USD 156.65 per sq ft per annum. CBRE Prime Office Occupancy Costs survey provides data on office rents and occupancy costs as of September 2013. In the previous report, CP was ranked 5th, Mumbai's BKC was at 11th and Nariman Point 26th.

Commenting on the report, CBRE south Asia chairman and managing director Anshuman Magazine said, "In India, the drop in rankings is reflective of the slower Indian real estate market coupled with rupee depreciation recently".

The Times of India, 20th December 2013

Traditional Japanese washoku cooking methods, Korean kimchi-making, millennia-old Georgian wine-producing techniques and the Mediterranean diet were among 14 new entries added to Unesco's "intangible heritage" list.

Envoys picked the new listings of traditional

cultural activities worthy of preservation at a meeting in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, Unesco said in a statement late Wednesday.

They include the traditional use of the abacus in China and a Christian festival in the French region of Limousin that involves holy relics being paraded before worshippers once every seven years.

South Korea hailed the addition of "kimjang", the making and sharing of the country's traditional kimchi dish.

The foreign ministry said it would seek legislation to ensure that kimjang remains "part of our precious cultural heritage and as a part of South Koreans' lives".

Kimchi, a spicy dish of picked vegetables, is so much part of Korean life that a festival and even a museum are devoted to it.

"I can't live without kimchi," wrote one online commentator in response to the listing.

Japan warmly welcomed the addition of its washoku cuisine.

"I feel genuinely happy..." said prime minister Shinzo Abe in a statement.

"Together with the Japanese people I want to pass on to the next generation our cherished culinary culture."

Other additions are Belgian horseback shrimp fishing; the annual pilgrimage to the mausoleum of Sidi Abd el-Qader Ben Mohammed in Algeria; Taureg Imzad music; Jamdani weaving in Bangladesh; the Cirio de Nazare religious festival in Brazil; Sankirtana music from the Vaishnava people in India; a central Italian Catholic procession; an Orthodox holiday in Ethiopia and a Kyrgyz epic poem.

A naming tradition common among the people of Western Uganda and Mongolian calligraphy also made the list.

Established in 2008, the Intangible Cultural Heritage list comprises some 100 traditional events from around the globe and is designed to "help demonstrate the diversity of this heritage and raise awareness about its importance", according to Unesco.

The Hindustan Times, 21st December 2013

Tamil Nadu has often been categorised as the state of temples, some huge ones at that. Except for a couple of well known hill stations not much is heard about spots that are endowed with a natural beauty.

But hidden away in the dry jungles or across the few perennial rivers that meander over the dry plains are some inconspicuous pristine locales that would astonish you. Some discerning travel is surely required to fish out such spots. Since Tamil Nadu a state with a warm climate, the winters are the right time go.

The surroundings of Tirunelveli far down under are an exception to the general assumption that it an arid landscape, as I discovered on a recent sojourn. In fact, the destination was a temple of course, the little known but revered shrine of Sri Adi Varahaswamy at a bustling rural town of Tamil Nadu.

The place was Kallidaikurichi, hardly 70 kilometres short of Kanyakumari, but a long long road journey from Bangalore. The temple is simple enough, though the corridors and courtyards were ambiently spacious.

The visit and rituals were quicker than expected leaving me with ample time to explore the surroundings. At the suggestion of a local, I decided to visit the Manimuthar Dam and a waterfall by the same name.

Hidden beauty

Only 14 kilometres away, the village of Manimuthar was quite close. But on reaching the desolate village I found to my surprise that the dam was another three kilometres further away and there were no vehicles to hire. Even as I rued having come here without an arrangement, an employee of water board appeared like a godsend and offered to take me to the dam.

As I followed a path to the bund, a couple of urchins joined to show me around. The few steps brought me to the top and a huge water body lay before me. The Manimuthar Reservoir spread like a sea with a chain of blue hills in the distant west. A long bund went right from below my feet endlessly like a ribbon of green along the blue lake. The lee side of the dam was a bed of green lawns and a garden.

But located in such a remote place, I wondered how many did make it here. As I took a walk in the other direction, an embankment with a large sphere captured my attention. A shapely cluster of boulders rested on a side and the narrow steps led to a viewpoint at the top.

As we climbed up, the little ones enlightened me that this was called MGR Parai, named so after the late popular matinee idol, M G Ramachandran, as it was on this very rock that not less than six to seven song sequences of him were filmed. The view from the top was even more astounding.

Forest experience

The hills far away had a cover of dense forest. I later learnt that these are part of Western Ghats tapering down and the forest is part of the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve.

The Manjolai Hills rising to about 1,500 metres was the origin of Manimuthar River, which would join Tamraparni River from Agasthyamalai further down. The other attraction of Manimuthar Falls lay five kilometres into the sanctuary. The forest officials at the check post were indeed helpful and sent their jeep to take me to the falls.

So thankful to them. The drive through scrub jungle on winding road was exciting and as we reached the falls, I was overwhelmed by the enchanting falls, pristine and unspoilt. The wide river tumbling over boulders branched out into lovely cascades in a timeless state. The indescribable beauty of the falls was just amzing.

As the evening drew closer, I was back with a sense of fulfilment having stumbled upon these charming locales.

The Deccan Herald, 22nd December 2013

When Rajini Sarma Balachandran tried reconnecting to her roots, sari gave her an artistic opportunity to do so. Now she creates unique, thematic sari designs inspired by the sari heritage of India. Furniture art is also her speciality, writes Hema Vijay.

Can sari be a canvas for contemporary art? Well, so far, sari has remained cut off from serious art and design, even as it continues to revel in the glorious craftsmanship of our country’s fantastic textile heritage. But artiste Rajini Sarma Balachandran’s work on saris, which she refers to as jari, has perhaps unfolded them into a new horizon.

Ironically, jari came into being for personal reasons, propelled by emotional needs. Rajini, who studied graphics and sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, had lived in New York for a few decades as a successful expatriate artiste before she relocated to hometown Chennai, a few years back.

She voices, “I had never really relinquished India. There was always a sense of feeling rooted and yet separated from India.” Coming back to Chennai after 45 years of living in the US, she found that the India she had known and lived in had vanished. “I came back with a suitcase of memories and found that it didn’t fit into reality. Moreover, I had also become cultured to a way of thinking that was western and cut off from the Indian stream of thought. I badly wanted to belong and felt I didn’t... and I panicked,” she says.

This was when she reached for sari, and it became her magic touchstone to reconnect with the past.

Incidentally, before settling down as an artiste, Rajini had completed her doctorate in political science at New York University and went on to teach at Rutgers University, Drew University and Trenton State University for about a decade, after which she decided to turn back to art. She started by training at New York’s Parsons School of Design, New York Studio and Arts Students League.

Then began a period of creating art panels using casein, egg tempera, gold leaf techniques etc, after which she moved on to graphics, furniture art and to sari art. Rajini has also served as a member of the Asian Advisory Council to the Governor of New Jersey. A living garment “For me, a sari is associated with memories... like my mom wiping away my tears with her sari’s pallu, my grandma spreading out hers to fan my face, me wearing it as a bride... I decided to take a sari safari into the core of India,” she narrates. This took Rajini into obscure villages and weavers’ homes across the country, and into the throbbing hubs of the sari industry, and she found herself drenched in a riot of colours and weaves. In the process she found some emotional solace.

This is perhaps what prompted her to use sari as a canvas for her art. “I am intensely emotional, and a sari’s canvas is a medium for expressing my emotions, my lived experiences, thoughts and feelings. It doesn’t hurt or talk back; it just receives,” says this artiste. She adds, “Besides, there are no known sari designers, even in the realm of the very, very expensive Kancheevaram saris. It has obviously been ignored by creative artistes though craftsmen have kept the torch burning.”

Being a painter, she worked on the sari in terms of composition, colour and pattern and re-invented herself as a ‘sari warrior’. “The philosophy behind jari is that creative endeavors should reflect your sensory experiences and lived world,” she asserts. Rajini creates imagery on the sari through textile elements and printed dyes, the way artists wield paint and brush.

Rajini is not oblivious to thefabulous textile heritage that the country enjoys. She dips into it, using it as a language and a tool for art, creating six yards of art that can be worn. Of course, sometimes such a confluence does fall into the realm of kitsch art, when you see a mix of traditions, weaves and motifs from Assamese tassar and Varanasi silk to Madhubani, Kalamkari and Kancheevaram and more. But to her credit, Rajini doesn’t confine herself to creating a sari as a costume. By harnessing it as a canvas, she makes each of her saris a work of wearable art.

The rules of the textile game are not dispensed with either. For instance, her Kancheevaram designs have classical rigour. They have creativity within boundaries, much like Carnatic music, even though they may sport rudraksham beads, temple architecture, kolam grids, Tibetan art, Chinese flames or free-style fine art. The structural logic is retained while versatility is introduced. She also has a reverence for Rukmini Devi’s Kalakshetra saris, which she designed at a time when Indian markets were flooded with insipid printed textiles from Manchester and Lancaster mills.

“I also realised that if sari has to survive, it must cater to future needs. Luckily, this quintessentially Indian living garment can be tucked differently to look prim, sexy, trendy, functional... It is a garment that can adapt to various climates and functionalities...” she muses. Thus began Rajini’s designs for the intriguing corporate sari range, which have been inspired by a range of templates from striped three-piece suits to Tamil Nadu’s traditional garment — veshti.

The idea seems to be this. A graceful woman can move like a Bharatanatyam dancer in a creatively patterned sari as exquisitely as in a Bharatanatyam costume; and she can look imposing in a corporate nuanced Kancheevaram sari, as effectively as she would in a three-piece suit.

The furniture art foray began for utilitarian reasons. “When I was living in New York, at one point of time, we could not afford to buy arty furniture. So I decided to work on plain furniture and convert them into art,” she informs.

Using the technique of decoupage, a form of collage art, Rajini inlaid art prints on furniture such as tables, chairs and wardrobes, storage containers and elaborated upon the prints with her own art, which eventually transformed the furniture surface into a seamless mix of exotic art. For instance, Rajini has created a wardrobe that sports extrapolations from Raja Ravi Varma paintings, chairs with Ajanta frescoes, mirror borders with classical art work, quaint containers and trunks with eclectic art prints.

Thematic furniture art “There is an anecdote behind those chairs,” Rajini says, gesturing to a set of three chairs, on which we sit and chat. These chairs have a complex inlay of prints and imagery. In Ibsen’s masterpiece, Doll House, there is a narration of an old couple waiting to receive visitors, but nobody comes. Rajini shares candidly, “As a first generation South Asian immigrant artiste in the US, I was in a similar state when I started out, and my studio and gallery hosted empty chairs for quite some time. That was when I decided to fill up these three chairs — with Ajanta frescoes, Pahari miniature paintings, and I peopled the third one with Rajasthani paintings.”

The Deccan Herald, 22nd December 2013

Rock art represents thousands of years of history and human creativity, and Indian rocks too form a rich archive of this art. The challenge now is to understand and interpret their meaning, writes Giridhar Khasnis.

He was the world’s first visual artist. The rock artist faced unimaginable hardships and daily struggles for survival in a largely hostile environment. Yet he found time, strength and motivation to create ‘works of art’ by scratching hard surfaces and colouring them with available pigments — thousands of years ago!

As one looks at the images of rock paintings made in different time points and different countries, one wonders about the tools employed by the rock artist. What were his impulses, concerns and circumstances? What did he want to represent and why? How did he manage to surmount the many challenges in creating his images? Fascinating questions that have mystified and triggered the imagination of archeologists, scientists, scholars, researchers, art historians, and philosophers alike.

“Rock art represents the most important archive that humanity has on its past,” says Italian scholar and archeologist Emmanuel Anati. “The study of rock art has started long ago, but with every generation, there are some new issues. Now the main issue is not just about describing and dating but of understanding.”

Anati emphasises that rock art is part of our culture; it adds a new dimension and deeper understanding of a culture acquired by awareness of thousands of years of human creativity. “Rock art is going to provide thousands of years of history that was never written before. It gives awareness, it gives pride, it gives the knowledge of identity of different ethnic groups. And it provides a kind of mosaic of the human kind.

Study of rock art provides clues about researching mind and spirit of man in his artistic production.”According to Anati rock art was not done by men merely to embellish rocks. “It was done to convey messages to other people, to Gods, to the spirits that are inside the rock. What we want to do is to understand, read and to decipher the meaning of rock art. This process is opening up a new age for human history.

Until now, we were talking of history from the beginning of writing, but rock art is writing before writing. So, if until now human history was covering the last 5000 years, by studying rock art we may have a human history covering the last 50,000 years.”

Portraying life

The rock artist principally portrayed the life around him. Through his paintings, he wrote his own stories, expressed his beliefs and gave vent to his feelings. He included divinities and ancestors who were worshipped. He incorporated spiritual symbols and religious/ mythological texts. He enthusiastically showed human figures, wild animals, vegetation and nature.

Presenting himself as a hunter using spears, sticks, bows and arrows, he brought bulls, bison, elephants, wild boar, fish, lizards, scorpions, snakes and a range of birds into his creative landscape. Frequently, he applied to his paintings pigments derived from naturally occurring material. In doing so, he brought an exceptional grace and elegance to his paintings.

One can also see a rare sophistication and liveliness along with a sparkling sense of movement and flowing naturalism in rock paintings art.

Experts believe that rock art served different purposes. “We are very lucky that it is rock art and not paper art, or art made on some perishable material (like cloth, bark of a tree or even on human bodies), which did not last long,” says an anthropologist. “It is a tremendous heritage, but it is only a small part of human creativity of the past.”

Threat to rock art

The importance of studying rock art has been acknowledged by various countries world over. There is also a growing concern about rock art archives that are fading and facing damage by natural causes and vandalism. The biggest threat for rock art, unfortunately but predictably, comes from the modern human.

The need for multidisciplinary research, management and decision-making has been emphasised by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other international agencies. Many prehistoric rock art venues have been declared as World Heritage sites by UNESCO.

New and newer rock art sites are being discovered across the world. Archaeologist and long-time rock art researcher Dr Lawrence L Loendorf feels that a newly discovered rock art site should receive careful attention and in fact, be treated like a crime scene. “It has been recommended that access to the site be prohibited until archaeologists have had the opportunity to meticulously examine the site surface for clues that might be relevant to an understanding of the rock art.”

Another aspect of rock art is that it is notoriously difficult to date, unlike bones and tools dug up from the ground. It was commonly held that Chauvet cave paintings in France with images of bears, lions and horses were the world’s oldest paintings; they were believed to be at least 37,000 years old. But in June 2012, National Geographic News and other agencies reported that a study team had considered eleven subterranean sites along northern Spain’s Cantabrian Sea coast, and concluded that the cave called El Castillo had the oldest paintings, which were more than 40,800 years old!

There is a fair amount of controversy about these assertions, but no one disputes that the rock artist did leave his inerasable marks of creativity many thousands of years ago.

Indian rock art

India, with its variety of elements, is among the richest countries of rock art. It is estimated that the country has the third largest concentration of rock art in the world, after Australia and Africa. The recognition of Indian rock art as an archaeo-historical source is said to date back to 1868, but it was the discovery of Bhimbetka, the spectacularly rich rock art site in Madhya Pradesh, in 1958 that generated wide interest. Today there are many rock art sites in remotest places of the country hidden beneath dense woods or inaccessible mountainous terrain. According to cultural anthropologists, the whole India is carrying ‘the heritage of rock arts that are a rare book of knowledge of the days of antiquity.’

An interesting exhibition currently on at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore, provides a glimpse of rock art of India and abroad. Organised by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and Archaeological Survey of India, ‘The World of Rock Art’ exhibition unfolds images of a representative collection of important traditions of rock art. The five-city travelling exhibition (Varanasi, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar, Pondicherry and Bangalore) is part of the IGNCA’s efforts to create awareness about the first creative art of mankind. The show concludes on January 3, 2014.

The Deccan Herald, 22nd December 2013

A team of forest officials headed by Kagaznagar Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) P. Ramesh has brought good news for conservationists.

Vultures in the Murliguda beat deep inside the Bejjur Forest Range have begun breeding, which means the habitat is safe for critically endangered scavenger birds. The team was lucky to get a photograph of the birds. The forest officials, who had camped close to the Pala Rapu cliff, reached the habitat of the vultures before sunrise. They spotted five birds, all long-billed vultures, soon after sunrise.

Mr. Ramesh said the spot is perfect for birds but there is scope for further improvement. According to the village people, the population of vultures close to the Pala Rapu had fallen suddenly about three years ago, he said.

Madapa Srikanth, the Gond Upa sarpanch of Kammarguda gram panchayat which is close to the vulture habitat, said the birds faced danger owing to effluents being released in the Peddavagu by the Sirpur Paper Mills. “The consumption of polluted water from Peddavagu finished hundreds of birds some three years ago,” he said.

“Another interesting aspect is that these vultures do not consume carcasses even if available in the vicinity of Pala Rapu. They seem to be visiting another vulture habitat situated in Sironcha in Maharashtra for food,” reveals M. Ram Mohan, Bejjur Forest Range Officer.

He also said this phenomenon necessitated the provision of food for birds locally. Other members of the team are Deputy Forest Range Officer S. Venugopal, Murliguda Forest Beat Officer Laxmi and base camp watcher Bakkaiah.

The Hindu, 22nd December 2013

The 40-day period of harshest winter in Kashmir Valley, known as 'Chillai-Kalan', began today with a cold morning, even as the weather office predicted snowfall later in the afternoon.

"We are expecting light to moderate snowfall in the higher reaches of Kashmir Valley like Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Shopian, Kupwara and Pahalgam later this afternoon," Sonam Lotus, Director of the MeT Office here, said.

There is also a possibility of light snowfall followed by rain in Srinagar during the night, he said. Srinagar recorded a minimum temperature of minus 3.9 degrees Celsius, almost a degree down from the previous night's minus 3.0 degrees Celsius.

The ski-resort of Gulmarg recorded a low of minus 7.0 degrees Celsius, same as the previous night. The mercury in Pahalgam hill resort, which serves as a base camp during the annual Amarnath yatra, settled at a low of minus 5.6 degrees Celsius, as against minus 7.3 degrees Celsius the previous night.

Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir Valley, recorded a low of minus 3.2 degrees Celsius, compared to the previous night's minus 4.8 degrees Celsius. Kokernag, in south Kashmir, which recorded a low of minus 4.1 degrees Celsius the previous night, registered an increase of two degrees in the night temperature to settle at a low of minus 2.2 degrees Celsius.

Kupwara in north Kashmir also recorded a rise of two degrees in the night temperature as the mercury settled at a low of minus 3.1 degrees Celsius compared to the previous night's minus 5.2 degrees Celsius.

Leh remained the coldest place in the state and registered a temperature of minus 12.4 degrees Celsius, against minus 11.2 degrees Celsius the previous night. The nearby Kargil town registered the same minimum temperature as the previous night's low of minus 11.2 degrees Celsius.

Chillai-Kalan, which begins with Winter Solstice on December 21, is the period when the chances of snowfall are maximum and most frequent. The winter games at the skiing resort of Gulmarg are also held during this period.

This year, however, the cold wave in the Valley began earlier than the normal period of 'Chillai Kalan', with the high altitude areas including Gulmarg recording the first snowfall at the fag end of October.

Though 'Chillai-Kalan' would end on January 31, the winter continues after that. The 40-day harshest period would be followed by a 20-day long "Chillai Khurd" (small cold) and a 10-day long "Chillai Bachha" (baby cold).

The Deccan Herald, 22nd December 2013

For Lakshmi Sharath getting lost was a blessing as it paved the way for her to witness a Theyyam performance for the first time

One of the best ways of exploring a town is to get lost. I was staying in a small village somewhere in between Kannur and Thallassery, on the shores of the Ezhara Beach and we were looking for more virgin beaches in the vicinity. The only “drive in beach” in India, called the Muzhappilangad Drive in Beach was closed to vehicles because of the heavy monsoons. However we walked on the flat surface of sands as cyclists attempted stunts and asked us to try biking on the four km stretch of firm flat surface of sand.

It was a cloudy day and the beaches were crowded. We drove along, turning into smaller villages and hamlets, finding posters of Malayalam stars while Che Guevara looked on from every street corner. Our journey had a destination — Thalassery but I wanted to drive through the villages and we promptly got lost. And that was how I landed in a very tiny hamlet to see a Theyyam performance for the first time.

It was a small Bhagavathy temple built on the banks of a river. Locals were sitting in the courtyard of the shrine, overlooking the waters, waiting in reverence. The ritual was to begin any moment and locals believe that God danced in front of them. I was told that this was a very short performance without much pageantry and would barely take an hour. I waited with bated breath as locals told me that the Theyyam artiste was God incarnated for the day and that the deity would answer their queries and bless them at the end of the ritual.

Soon the ritual began as a priest officiated. The drummers reached a crescendo as the Theyyam began, invoking the main deity of the temple through chants. The dancer then circumambulated the shrine and danced inside the courtyard, lost in a trance as devotees looked upon. It was over within a few minutes.

The priest then took charge as the Theyyam performer sat in the centre while a line of devotees stood in reverence waiting for their turn to speak to the deity. Some whispered their problems to him while he leaned close to their ears and advised them what the Goddess wanted them to do. Some were in tears while others asked for blessings. While waiting my turn, I learnt that there were more than 400 Theyyams in this region, each invoking a different deity and they were performed usually in shrines. Most of them would have elaborate make-up and costumes, and the rituals would last an entire night. Soon we were summoned. We were asked if there were any questions that we would like to ask the deity. We just asked for blessings and paid our respects. A gentle smile broke out on the Theyyam performer’s placid face as we stepped behind giving way for the next lot of devotees. “You are blessed,” he said as we prepared to leave. For a moment I felt that God was speaking to me.

The Hindu, 23rd December 2013

CCMB scientists isolate DNA from bone and sequence region of mitochondrial DNA

The first ancient DNA study in South Asia has revealed that a 400-year-old bone relic kept in St. Augustinian Church in Goa is likely to be a remnant of Queen Ketevan of Georgia (eastern Europe), who was born in a royal family in 1565 in the medieval period.

A team of investigators from the CSIR, the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), the Archaeological Survey of India and the Estonian BioCentre led by K. Thangaraj, CCMB, traced that the relic excavated from St. Augustinian Church complex in Goa, might belong to Georgian Queen Ketevan. The study has been published online recently inMitochondrion journal

In the medieval period, the Georgia was a vassal kingdom and the bone of contention between two mighty empires in West Asia, Ottoman Turks and Safavids in Persia with power having suzerainty over the Western region and the other over the Eastern region, a media release from CCMB said. During that period entire Persia and its surrounding region was under control of emperor Shah Abbas I (1587-1629), who led an army to conquer Georgia and took Queen Ketevan as prisoner.

For about a decade (1614 to 1624), the Queen remained in Shiraz as the prisoner of Shah Abbasi I. In 1624, the Persian emperor attempted to convert the Queen to Islamic faith. For resisting his wishes, she was tortured and strangled to death on September, 22, 1624.

Literary evidence

It said that as per literary evidences in Portuguese script, it was believed that in 1627 her right arm bone was brought to Goa by an Augustinian Frair and kept in a black box (stone sarcophagus) on the second window along the Epistle side of the chapel within St.Augustinian convent at old Goa. For almost 400 years, the remains of Georgian Queen Ketevan laid undisturbed somewhere in the St.Augustinian convent, the release said.

Considering the patriotic nature of Queen Ketevan, Georgian government approached India to search for the relic of the Queen. Since 1989, various delegations from Georgia visited India and have worked together with the ASI and tried to locate the relic within the ruins of St. Augustinian convent in old Goa.

Bone relic identified

After several attempts and a topographical survey within the Augustinian church, the window mentioned in literary sources was located by archaeologists of the ASI Goa circle assisted by a Portuguese student in May 2004. “During the excavation, we identified bone relic, but the evidence could not be considered conclusive, therefore we approached CCMB, Hyderabad for ancient DNA study, said Dr. Nizamuddin Taher of ASI.

The CCMB scientists have isolated DNA from the bone and sequenced selected region of the mitochondrial DNA. Based on the sequence variation in the mitochondrial DNA, they have assigned a haplogroup called ‘U1b’ to the bone sample.

“In order to find the distribution of U1b haplogroup in India, we have surveyed mitochondrial DNA sequence of 22,000 individuals from the sub-continent but none of them belongs to U1b haplogroup. However, two out of 30 Georgians, analysed have the same haplogroup, suggesting that the bone excavated in Goa is likely to be the remnant of Queen Ketevan of Georgia,” said Dr. K.Thangaraj.

CCMB director, Ch. Mohan Rao said the excellent power of collaboration in the fields of history, archaeology and genetics helped in solving the historical problem. Setting up the state-of the-art facilities with cutting-edge technologies would greatly help in solving such scientific mysteries, he added.

The Hindu, 23rd December 2013

Reminiscences What a time Christmas revellers had at The Cellar, says R.V. SMITH. Here instead of wine, the cheerful spirit matured

Whenever Christmas comes around one is reminded of the one spent at The Cellar several decades ago. It was located in the left-hand corner of Regal building at what once was an ordinary restaurant, whose manager was a genial Sharmaji — a great friend of sports scribes who congregated at the place every day to discuss their assignments. That Daniel, Ramu, Mahadevan, and Raghu later could always be found there was well known to their news editors and their pal Neel Batra, an ex-IAF PRO and a critic who could write not only on food (his “Eating Out” column was a hit), but on Western and Indian music and sports too. As a matter of fact, whenever a paper found that its regular critic or reporter for a particular assignment was missing, word was sent to the chief-sub to contact Neel at the Press Club. “He must be sleeping there, just wake him up before he gets up and goes to The Cellar”, was the NE’s usual refrain.

Neel always dressed up for X’mas, his coat buttons undone because of his bulk. He had migrated from Quetta during Partition and never married as (after his father’s death) he was devoted to looking after the family. His loyalty and expertise were the envy of many. When the old restaurant became The Cellar and then took on other avatars — The Tavern and The Deghchi among them — some of the sports fraternity found a new joint in the Coffee House at Janpath. Without Sharmaji they (unlike Neel) couldn’t really connect with The Cellar.

However there were others who were attracted to it, among them the lady teachers from England who came on deputation to St Thomas’ School, Mandir Marg, whose principal then (if memory serves right) was Mrs Jacob. Sam, a pipe-smoking Coorji journalist with a handlebar moustache, who was close to her, would bring the girls to The Cellar. One Christmas the group included Sally and Marion. Sally was tall and big-built with an attractive face, Marion short and demure, with a freckled face which became very red when she blushed. “They are feeling homesick,” confided Sam to a friend. Sally overheard the remark and countered it by saying, “Not really homesick but nostalgic about Christmas in England”.

“That’s true,” added Marion. “I miss the holly and the mistletoe, the silver bells, snowdrops and Old Father Frost.”

“Not snowdrops so much as snowflakes,” said Sally, “and the drinks that made your cold bones warm again as you sat by the hearth fire.”

Sam butted in to say, “I’ll give you so much rum that you’ll feel hot all over.” Sally shook her head, “I can’t trust you an inch,” she replied. “Moreover I have a bad tummy and may have to use your restroom when we leave after lunch.” Sam nodded. He lived in Janpath Lane at a cute little house which belonged to Balwant Gargi (a big name then in literary circles).

Just then, in walked a young journalist. “Where’ve you been old chap,” said Marion who had taken a fancy to him. “Oh, I went to the cemetery to see some Mutiny-time tombs,” he replied. “You do look morbid,” said Sally. “What a day to visit a cemetery of all places!” The youngster was one up on her. “Remember even a hard-boiled man like Thomas Hardy liked visiting the family graves on Christmas and once was surprised by a medieval-time ghost,” was his reply.

Marion caught the boy’s hand. “Really Ron, you do know quite a lot of English literature.” To which Sally added, “And about history too. I cannot forget the day at the Taj when I tried to outwalk, outrun and out talk him. But he outdid me, which left me looking silly. He cheered me up when we returned to Delhi and hosted me at the Paratha Gali. It made my insides burn, but the stuff was great.”

“Well, well,” said Sam, “let’s have lunch and go to Gargi’s house. He’s left the whole place to me.”

Lunch at The Cellar was special that day, though they didn’t serve turkey, and the pudding was just delicious. The group went Dutch to pay the bill and then walked down to Janpath Lane. Wonder of wonders, Gargi’s house was decorated with holly, mistletoe and silver bells amidst fluffy “cotton snow”. There was a beautiful crib with the Baby Jesus, his parents, the angels, the good shepherds and the Wise Men in a corner. Sam put on the music system and one heard “Jingle Bells”, “Santa Claus is coming to town”, “Silent Night” and the whole lot.

“Feels we are back home,” said Sally. “Why didn’t they decorate The Cellar like this and entertain us with Christmas music,” added Marion. “Tut, tut,” said Sam, “We’ll go to Standard’s in the evening, dance to the tunes of the jukebox and then, if you don’t like the dishes there, go to Micardo’s in front of Rivoli, for some exotic Chinese food.”

Everybody clapped, except Marion, who wanted to dine at The Cellar. “I like the quaint ambience there. It reminds me of Jamaica Inn,” she said. “Then we’ll go there again,” replied Sam. Sally and the others nodded. And sure enough that Christmas evening turned out great. The Cellar is no longer there but its memories abide. Ask Khushwant Singh’s kin, Malavika Singh, author of two delightful books on Delhi, and she’ll probably agree, for she was a regular at The Cellar, where instead of wine the cheerful spirit matured, especially at Christmas.

The Hindu, 23rd December 2013

A look at the list of water bodies in 10 zones uploaded recently by the Delhi government's Parks and Gardens Society points to the deplorable state of baolis and lakes in the city. Most of them have been encroached upon, dried up or concretized. Those that still hold water have sewage flowing into them.

For this report, data from four zones was considered by TOI. Out of 54 water bodies in the east zone, 18 are dry and 21 have been encroached or built up on. In the south zone, 44 out of 120 water bodies have been encroached upon and eight have sewage entering them. Only the central district boasts a high number of water bodies that have been developed and have a permanent flow.

Many water bodies are also "legally built-up", which means their land use has changed over time. For instance, the south zone has 12 such water bodies. The team that inspected these water bodies recommends rainwater harvesting at these sites. However, many have also been "illegally built-up", and the matter is either pending in court or remains in dispute. Over seven water bodies in the east district have been concretized in this way.

Delhi Parks and Gardens Society gathered lists of water bodies under various agencies over two years before holding ground survey for a precise idea of their status. "It was a tough process as we had to gather data from all agencies. But now that we have an overall idea, we can formulate a plan. For instance, those that have run dry need greening around them to rejuvenate them," S D Singh, chief executive officer, Delhi Parks and Gardens Society, said.

Strangely enough, several water bodies in all zones have simply run dry. "This is because of a low water table along with scanty and erratic rainfall. They will come alive once planting in the catchment area beings and they are freed of encroachments. We have also identified the water bodies needing sewage treatment and how many oxbow lakes have been formed," Singh said.

There are about 1,000 baolis and lakes according to the records compiled from different agencies. The northwest zone with 166 water bodies leads the pack, followed by the north at 156 and the south zone which has 120 water bodies.

TOI had earlier reported that 21 lakes had disappeared from Delhi since 1997-98. Most of these lakes, according to Ritu Singh, scientist at Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, disappeared because of encroachment by real estate projects. According to the 1997-98 data, there were 44 lakes and 355 ponds in Delhi.

The Times of India, 23rd December 2013

With the rhino population sharply increasing in Kaziranga, authorities in Assam are having a tough time keeping them confined to the national park and other sanctuaries in the state. Of the three rhinos that had strayed from Kaziranga last week, one has returned and one is under watch; but a third rhino, believed to be a calf, remains untraceable.

"It is not physically possible to keep the animals within the national park, especially during the dry winter season and high floods. Right now, fodder becomes scarce and the scent of ripe paddy and other crops naturally attract the rhinos into villages," said S K Seal Sarma, Kaziranga divisional forest officer.

Poachers, on the other hand, take advantage of the situation and target rhinos. "The common people also cause a lot of harm to rhinos by pelting stones and attacking them when they enter villages or paddy fields," Sarma said.

The forest officer said the three rhinos that had strayed last week swam across the Brahmaputra first to Majuli Island and then to Lakhimpur district on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, creating panic among villagers. At least half a dozen people were injured.

"While one rhino returned to Kaziranga, the second is currently under the watch of forest guards in Majuli Island. However, a third rhino, which we suspect to be the calf of the second rhino, has remained untraced for the last three days. Footprints suggest it had entered Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh," Sarma said. At least 20 forest guards and a few officers are keeping track of the animals.

Assam currently has a little over 2,500 one-horned rhinos, of which at least 2,300 are in Kaziranga National Park. The rhino population in Kaziranga increased from just about a dozen at the beginning of the 20th century to 2,329 according the latest census. Poachers, however, have killed at least 40 rhinos in Kaziranga and other parks in Assam this year; the highest in 13 years.

The Indian Express, 24th December 2013

Archaeologists have discovered remains of a 2,000-year-old mud-fort at Damroo, nearly 85 km from Raipur. “The surface findings have indicated that the site may date back to 1st century AD. The excavation of the site may throw light on the missing historical links between 1st century AD and 5th century AD of Chhattisgarh, known in archaeological parlance as dark period”, archaeological officer and director of Damroo excavation Dr Shivakant Vajpayee told this newspaper here on Monday. The site is located on the bank of river Seonath in Chhattisgarh’s Baloda Bazar district. Remains of a circular mud fort, with circumference of around 2.3 km and a height of 5 metres, were found at the site, which looked like a habitation that had come up in the 1st century AD.

A dried moat encircled the archeological site. “The surface exploration has yielded pottery, etc of the early period. Early historical antiquities like black slipped ware (BSW), black and red ware (BRW), and red slipped ware (RSW) have been retrieved from the site,” the archaeologist said, adding, “The surface findings indicate that it was an important early historical site of Chhattisgarh”. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had granted licence to Chhattisgarh archaeological department for exploration of the site in 2012-13. Following the surface findings, the ASI has recently granted permission for excavation of the site. The site came to light during a survey of mud-forts, a unique feature seen only in Chhattisgarh, by the culture and archaeological department of the Chhattisgarh government, last year.

The department had in 2010-11 conceived a project named “mud-fort survey”, with an objective to establish the authenticity of nomenclature of Chhattisgarh, which literarily means 36 forts, by making an in-depth study on historical and archaeological chronology of the state.

The Asian Age, 24th December 2013

It is no secret that most rivers in India are in serious trouble with the Ganga and the Yamuna leading the list. Despite having spent, with little results to show, huge funds in pollution control measures, authorities are at their wits end to meet the challenge. In such a gloomy scenario, senior BJP leaders, including Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, have often offered the Sabarmati riverfront development work carried out in Ahmedabad as a model for river restoration.

For a river to truly revive, the root cause/s for its demise must be addressed first. Often these causes relate to the disruption of a river’s longitudinal and lateral connectivity, which is essential to its health. Requisite actions include rejuvenation of catchment vegetation to revive aquifers that feed springs, waterfalls and streams all along its length and the restoration of its natural flows and flood plains (and associated water bodies) to revive the aquatic and riparian plants and animals that invest a living river with an amazing ability of self cleansing.

If this is what has been achieved in the Sabarmati, then kudos to the government for its efforts. But if not, then it is a farce.

Consider the facts: the Sabarmati, a 370-km long once-perennial river originates from the Aravalli hills near Udaipur in Rajasthan and meets the Arabian Sea in the Gulf of Khambhat. A dam constructed in 1978 on it at Dharoi, 165 km upstream of Ahmedabad, first dried up and then relentless pollution from Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar turned the river into one of the most-threatened rivers by 1990s.

In 1997, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) embarked on an ambitious riverfront development project. This project was inaugurated in 2012 and is now touted as a role model for other rivers in the country. This Rs. 1,100 crore project is actually an infrastructural development project focussed on a mere 10.5 km of the river in Ahmedabad.

Notwithstanding its recreational appeal, it cannot be called a river restoration project as it does not address the rejuvenation needs of the Sabarmati as a river system but caters merely to the water needs of a 275-m wide Sabarmati canal, fed by what many believe illegally from the upstream Narmada canal. Admittedly an attractive canal-front on borrowed water has been created in the city. But to call it a riverfront and offer it as a river restoration example is nothing short of a travesty.

Manoj Misra is the convener of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan The views expressed by the author are personal

The Hindustan Times, 25th December 2013

Residents downstream of the Tehri dam fear a repeat of 2010

More storage facilities should come up in Uttarakhand to store water and reduce floods in the State, according to a report of the committee, which was set up by the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), in the wake of the mid-June floods.

In July, the Committee members visited the affected sites in the State to assess the causes of the disaster. The report was finalised in October.

The Committee included members from the Ganga Flood Control Commission (GFCC), an organisation set up by the government of India for dealing with flood problems in the Ganga basin, the Central Water Commission (CWC), which provides flood forecast service for three stations in Uttarakhand, the India Meteorological Department (IMD), and the MoWR.

One of the Committee’s findings was: “It is evident that the existence of large storage in the Tehri dam was helpful in absorbing a substantial amount of flow in the Bhagirathi river. The flood situation …. could have been worse in the absence of the Tehri dam.”

Based on this, the report suggests that “action for construction of large storages, wherever feasible, on the Alaknanda river, the Mandakini river, and the Pindar river, which are headstreams of the Ganga, may be taken at the earliest.”

The report further states that “these storages could be operated in a manner as to provide opportunity for absorption of flood in an unfavourable condition. Possibility of storage on tributaries may also be explored.”

Role of Tehri dam

However, the report falls short of providing information regarding the role of the Tehri dam in checking the floods.

In the first week of August this year, around 50 villages above the Tehri dam was cut off because a bridge over the reservoir got completely submerged. As a result, the water level in the Ganga near Haridwar reached just about a metre below the danger level mark of 294 m.

The water from the Ganga entered the villages in Haridwar’s Laksar belt and flooded the agricultural land and houses in the area. People had to flee their homes and take shelter in some government buildings.

The situation was alarming and the residents downstream of the Tehri dam feared a repeat of 2010, when the water level in the dam rose dangerously, threatening villages in the vicinity.

While environmentalists were upfront in their view that breach of environmental norms during dam construction and the mushrooming of such structures aggravated the extent of disaster, the report does not touch upon the issue at all.

The report gives a biased view in favour of dams, by neglecting any observation regarding the role of dams in the State except the information in favour of the Tehri dam

“Flood situation could have been worse in the absence of Tehri dam”

Possibility of storage on tributaries should also be explored

The Hindu, 26th December 2013

Heritage activist Firoz Bakht Ahmed, who filed a public interest litigation in the Delhi High Court in 1997, which led to the restoration of Ghalib haveli, will conduct a session on “The Neglect of Ghalib and Urdu in Delhi”.

“Ghalib lived a life as deeply and humanly as any sensitive individual could have done. So, I am making a small attempt to create awareness about this genius whose poems in Persian and Urdu need to be read by the young generation. This would enable them to understand his philosophy of the need to live in peace and harmony. And what better way to commemorate his memory than to read his work in the haveli where he lived.”

For years, Mr. Bakht has been emphasising the need to breathe life into the monument. “Ghalib is in the heart of all the connoisseurs of poetry. However, what is to be lamented is that the memorial is now dead and defunct.”

The heritage activist said the need of the hour is to turn the dead monument into a living one by managing a reading room and a small chamber for teaching Urdu.

He feels a great service will be done to Ghalib if his translated poetry collections, especially in Hindi, can be put on display in the haveli. He also wants a tea stall to be set up in the haveli by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

“Unless Ghalib is brought closer to the local community, or people in general, merely celebrating his birth anniversary will have little efficacy,” he rues.

The Hindu, 27th December 2013

This is because new Environment Minister Moily has decided to invite comments from CMs

The new Environment Minister Veerappa Moily’s decision to invite comments from six Chief Ministers on the High-Level Working Group on the Western Ghats has put the final notification of the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) covering over 59,940 square km of the hills under indefinite suspension.

Before Mr. Moily took over, the Ministry already prepared the draft notification for declaring the ESA under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The declaration would have brought to halt any new mining and other polluting industries from coming up in the natural habitats of hilly terrain in the six States.

The Hindu accessed the draft notification which, sources in the Ministry said, had been approved and a Hindi translation was being awaited before it was put out for mandatory public comments. Under the regulations, the Ministry is required to receive comments from stakeholders including the State governments within 60 days. Subsequently, the Centre would have been obligated to make amendments, if found necessary, and enforce the notification immediately.

The move to invite comments from the State governments even before the draft notification is put out for public consultation has taken the process back to the drawing board. The draft notification for ESA has now been put on hold.

The Hindu contacted the Environment Minister’s office but was informed that he would not be available before January 1 for any comment.

The draft notification notes that in the areas listed in the annexure (comprising the ESA) “there shall be a complete ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining. All existing mines shall be phased out within five years from the date of issue of the final notification or with the expiry of the current mining lease, whichever is earlier.”

No new thermal power projects and expansion of the existing plants would be allowed in the ESA. “All new ‘Red’ category of industries and expansion of existing industries shall be banned.” The Red category refers to the types of industries listed by either the Centre or States as the most polluting in nature. The notification also operationalised all decisions that the Ministry had taken and announced while approving the High Level panel’s report.

Along with the draft notification, the Ministry had finalised orders to be sent to the State pollution control boards and environmental clearance agencies and the equivalent environment Ministry bodies, asking them not to give permission for setting up the banned industries if their proposals were received after the date of public release of the High Level Working group report – April 17, 2013.

The Ministry earlier ordered that any village-level drawing of boundary for the ESA would be done taking into consideration the inputs provided by the State governments. It clarified that agricultural and livelihood practices in the ESA would not be altered or impacted by the notification. It did not leave the door open for the State governments to alter what other amendments they can recommend in the type of activities that are banned or restricted in the ESA.

The Hindu, 28th December 2013

A priceless statue —- a 2,200-year-old Rampurva Lion Capital —- has been irreparably damaged during the ongoing renovation work at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, an incident which the authorities here tried to push under the carpet.

The statue, a perfect specimen of the evolved architecture of the Mauryan empire, was allegedly being shifted from one lobby of the museum to another using chains and pulleys instead of hydraulic lifts when the incident occurred.

The seven-feet long sculpture, weighing several tonnes, allegedly fell and broke into two halves during shifting. The museum authorities, to hush up the matter, joined the pieces using an adhesive.

"Is that the kind of repair work one expects from professionals?" asked G M Kapur of Indian National Trust For Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).

The Indian Museum is undergoing extensive renovation work ahead of its bicentenary in February next year. The Union ministry of culture has already sanctioned Rs 120 crore for renovation of the museum in the current financial year and another Rs 20 crore each for four successive years. The National Building Construction Company (NBCC) has been engaged to do the renovation work.

According to museum officials, the work is being done at a frenetic pace considering the February deadline. The work is being monitored by West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan, who is also the chairman of the museum's board of trustees.

Contacted, the Governor denied the incident. "Nothing has been broken as far as I know," he said.

Meanwhile, the museum authorities refused to comment on the issue.

"It is not our fault. Things are being blown out of proportion. Such accidents happen when such an extensive renovation takes place," said a museum official on the condition of anonymity.

P K Mishra from Archeological Survey of India said he was sad about the incident but refused to add anything more saying "when a burglary happens in your neighbour's house, you don't go to file FIR at the police station".

The Indian Express, 28th December 2013

Tower of Silence, the final resting place of 1,200 member Parsi community in Hyderabad, now has a solar concentrator to speed up decomposition of mortal remains due to dwindling numbers of vultures that used to devour flesh.

Vultures have been almost wiped out in India during the last 15 years and have not been sighted in Andhra Pradesh at least for three years now. Vultures dwindled as they had consumed cattle carcass which had been administered diclofenac drug by farmers to relieve them of pain. The presence of the drug in the carcass proved fatal for vultures.

Diclofenac is toxic to any vulture that feeds on the carcass of recently treated cattle. The drug was banned for veterinary use in India, Nepal and Pakistan in 2006, but it continues to be sold and used illegally today.

According to Ervad H Bharucha, head priest of Chenoy Fire Temple Zoroastrian scripture and tradition, a corpse is a host for decay. Consequently, scripture enjoins the safe disposal of the dead in a manner such that a corpse does not pollute the air, water and earth. “Although the 8,000-year-old system of disposing of our dead has not collapsed in the absence of vultures. If they resurface, we will be very happy,” Bharucha added.

“If the vulture population grows, we will do away with the solar concentrators. Vultures eat away the flesh in an hour or two but solar concentrators take a few days. While in the summer it is much faster, the duration gets prolonged in the winter,” says Omin Debara, a Zoroastrian.

Parsis here are divided on the use of solar concentrators. While some conservatives feel that leaving the body for nature is the right way to dispose of the dead, the liberal minded say that the community should move ahead due to disappearance of vultures.

Some are also proposing electric crematoria.

“We might be a progressive community, but we cannot disown our rituals. A majority of us would still like to be left at the Towers of Silence after death,” says Gulbanu Yadgar Chenoy, president, Parsi Anjuman.

However, a small number of Parsis has started burying the deceased. "Why not? When there are not enough vultures to eat the bodies, it is an insult to the dead to let their bodies rot for months,” says Farida Tampal, a Parsi and an environmentalist. But the priest at the Fire Temple at M G Road, Keki Dastoor will not have any of this.

“Cremation desecrates the sacred element of fire, burying defiles the earth and drowning pollutes the water,” he says.

Facing similar predicament, Bombay Parsi Panchayat has tied up with the Bombay Natural History Society to start vulture breeding centres in the Tower of Silence area in Mumbai.

Adding to the woes of the Parsi comm¬unity, which is shrinking, the ambitious vulture breeding at the centre located in the Nehru Zoological Park has not taken off. Conceived on the lines of the vulture breeding centre at Pinjore in Haryana, the Rs 41-lakh project funded by the Central Zoo Authority took off in 2010.

Nearly four years after the programme was launched, the results have not been encouraging. Dashing long-awaited hopes of breeding a chick that was born in captivity died due to a congenital birth defect at the vulture breeding centre in the zoo. Officials said it was crucial for the chick to survive as that would have initiated captive breeding of the endangered birds. Zoo authorities said that the post-mortem revealed that the chick’s elementary canal was missing.

After that the first egg laid in the breeding centre by a white backed vulture was damaged as it fell from the nest to the ground. “When the female went in search of food, the male vulture pulled out some twigs from the nest and the egg fell down,” said Shekhar Reddy, curator (in-charge) of the zoo park. Though experts said that once the first egg is lost, the birds usually lay a second one but that did not happen at the zoo park.

The centre in Hyderabad, currently operating in collaboration with the Centre for Cellular and Micro Biology (CCMB), has two male and three female vultures aged over 20 years. Officials said the breeding is likely to begin again in the next season starting October.

They said that this was the first time the egg was laid in the centre. As per the CCMB plan white backed vultures would be reproduced through artificial insemination. “To this end, the Central Zoo Authority is about to transfer a flock of vultures from Gujarat to the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad,” said CCMB Deputy Director S Shivaji.

Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction (SAVE), a consortium of like-minded, regional and international organisations, created to oversee and co-ordinate conservation, campaigning and fund-raising activities to help the plight of south Asia’s vultures says that just 15 years ago there were thousands of vultures, now they’ve almost completely disappeared. “Vultures might not be the prettiest birds, but does that make it all right for us to let them disappear,” it asks.

Three species of South Asia’s vultures have declined by 97 per cent and one of the species by 99.9 per cent. Their decl¬i¬ne has been quicker than that of any other wild bird. SAVE argues that in the absence of scavengers like vultures feral dogs have moved into carcass dumps increasing the spread of diseases such as rabies. Also, traditional sky burials of some Himalayan and Parsi communities cannot be carried out.

The Deccan Herald, 29th December 2013

Moving away from the usual nightclubs and shacks, PRATHAP NAIR takes a tour of the Goa lesser known

Portuguese colonial influence has left Goa with its magnificent churches, tenacious forts, exquisitely built expansive laterite-stone houses and cenotaphs strewn across the state serving as historical remnants of its culturally rich past. While the landmark forts and churches have long become tourist attractions, the grand old mansions and houses built centuries ago are still being preserved in certain pockets in Goa’s villages. Some of these houses are painstakingly restored after having fallen into destruction owing to natural causes. There are also relatively lesser known forts along the length and breadth of the state with little or no tourist footfall throughout the year.

One such mansion, Palácio do Deão, sits resolutely in its reclaimed glory by the Kushavati River in the town of Quepem, unperturbed by the hubbub of Goa’s tourist. Built in 1787 by a Portuguese nobleman who is also credited with the founding of the town of Quepem, the mansion has been meticulously restored by Ruben and Celia Vasco da Gama, who also accept visitors and conduct guided tours of the house along with a lavish lunch buffet of Indo-Portuguese cuisine prepared by Celia and served in a dining hall with ornate seating, overlooking the river.

Ruben walks us through the house explaining the displays — the oyster shell windows, the primitive mobile toilet, the restored domestic relics including iron boxes, mirrors, closets, utensils and antique furniture. The house also has a library with rare books, a dining area (where we were served lunch) and space were cultural events are held. The house features an architecture which is a combination of Hindu and Portuguese cultures, Ruben adds. The garden at Palácio do Deão is an ornate garden with beautiful display of terracotta figurines, stone ornaments, balustrades and ornamental vases.

We end our tour with a multi-course dinner preceded by a cocktail made with locally available ingredients — kokum syrup and feni. The lunch consists of quintessential Goan specialties with delicacies such as prawn curry and chicken vindaloo with a smattering of items borrowed from fusion cuisine such as batter fried prawn dumplings, squid canapés, ending with homemade bebinca — layered egg-yolk pudding popular in Goa.

It is past meal time in the afternoon when we reach our next stop, the Menezes Braganza house in the tiny village of Chandor in South Goa. Understandably, the minder of the house, a middle-aged woman, named Judith, has retired for a siesta. Goans take their siestas seriously. The resident maid, however, agrees to take us around elaborating that ‘madam instructs me to show around when there are visitors during lunchtime.’ Built about 400 years ago on a land donated by the king of Portugal, the Braganza house is exquisite with its ornate furniture, elaborate chandeliers, paintings, family portraits and other artefacts and a long passageway that overlooks a garden.

According to family legend and the minder Judith, who later came to explain the details of the house to us, the house was divided into two halves with two sisters occupying each half after inheriting the property. Entry is through a huge Portuguese-styled outer façade with dramatically large stairs leading to the houses. Each house has a separate plaque with names Braganza Pereira (East wing) and Menezes Branganza (West wing) and the entry is through respective doors. Judith tells us that the family is scattered all over now — other parts of Goa and Bangalore.

Judith maintains the house throughout the year and the family rarely visits during festive occasions. Though the garden looks like it could do with some pruning, the palatial mansion is well-kept and is a piece of history from the Portuguese era. As we walk around, gazing at the sagging ceiling, flamboyant entryways, wooden furniture and elegant China, the amorphousness of the living and the dying becomes evident.

The drive to Cabo De Rama takes one through vast expanses of sunburned grasslands, dried and golden brown, and undulating roads hugged by cashew trees on both sides. There is no traffic as far as the eyes can see and the signboard to Agonda is inconspicuous. We fill up on oranges and bananas sold by vendors on a deserted roadside who also sell the other staple, omelette pav.

Cabo De Rama has the distinction of being one of the oldest forts in Goa and has witnessed bloody history for having changed hands from the Hindu rulers to the Mughals to the Portuguese. The Portuguese captured the fort in the 1700s and renovated it by building a chapel and barracks. The fort now lies in a state of abandon but it was used as a prison till mid 1950s. After the Indian government annexed Goa in Operation Vijay, the fort became part of republic India. For a fort of historical significance, Cabo De Rama is desolate now. The church of Santo Antonio, however, is in use even now.

The entrance and the guardhouse, has been recently painted and the view of the fort from either side is spectacular. Though it requires negotiating sharp rocks, the sparse tourists that visit the fort attempt to get down to the rocky sea side on the western side to absorb the breathtaking views from close. We head out and finish our lunch at the sea-facing beach shack that’s served by its pleasant, chip-toothed owner Morano.

We spend the sundown at the Reis Magos fort that squats alongside the Reis Magos Church on the Mandovi River that’s on the other side of Panjim. Though the fort is conspicuous from Panjim, it is largely overlooked by the tourists, who flock to its famed counterparts Fort Aguada instead. When we reach, a Punjabi wedding is underway with celebrities like Ritu Beri in attendance.

The Reis Magos fort’s pathways are built with laterite stones, Portuguese style turrets and the prison cells are beautifully preserved. And with its large French windows offering stunning views of the sea and the sunset, there’s never a moment of lament for having travelled down the path less taken, abandoning the beaches and their shacks to the crowd.

The Hindu, 30th December 2013

With 174 protected monuments in Delhi and 3,667 nationwide in its care, Archaeological Survey of India has its hands full, suffering as it is of staff shortage and funding limitations. To assist in protection of heritage, National Culture Fund was established in 1996 under the union ministry of culture. But, barring Humayun's Tomb, NCF projects in Delhi are all in limbo.

Under NCF, it's possible for a donor to identify a project and monument as well as an agency for execution of the project. Many leading corporate houses and trusts are currently helping in conservation work at Taj Mahal, Jantar Mantar and Jaisalmer Fort.

But, in Delhi, NCF projects taken up with a lot of fanfare like Tughlakabad Fort, Qutub Minar and Lodhi Gardens have been stuck for the last several years. Besides, NCF is heading for change of guard as CEO Dr Shobhita Punja will step down later this month.

A source linked to NCF blamed interference by culture ministry and ASI's lackadaisical attitude for the stalling of NCF projects.

"In 2006, NCF took up several projects. But when architects and professionals got involved in 2011, all projects had to be revised as they were found unviable. Since then, corporates have been encouraged to participate and funding obtained from various sources to aid heritage conservation," said the source.

However, delay in utilizing corporate funds has led to many rethinking their decision to donate for conservation. Besides, the ministry, NCF, ASI and donors have rarely interacted, said sources.

"NCF was a brilliant conservation strategy. It involved both tangible and intangible heritage. All contributions to NCF are entitled to a tax rebate under Section 80G of I-T Act. But the implementation was so shaky it has proved to be a flop," an expert said.

The recent CAG report has indicted the ministry and ASI for poor progress of NCF projects. In Jantar Mantar, Apeejay Group contributed over Rs 16 crore in 2000 but the CAG report said, even after 12 years, the project lies incomplete. PEC Ltd committed Rs 25 crore for restoration of Wazirabad Gumbad in 2008 but ASI asked the project sponsor to change the monument to Yusuf Qattal tomb which went on to become one of the few restored under NCF.

GAIL adopted Tughlakabad Fort in 2009 and sanctioned Rs 30 crore, but the report says ASI used it for a different monument citing security concerns.

The Times of India, 31st December 2013

When Archaeological Survey of India and Intach's Delhi Chapter signed an MoU to conserve five tombs in Lodhi Gardens in 2008-09, it was hailed as a landmark move. The project was meant to be completed in a year. Five years on, only partial work in Phase I has been completed due to a falling out between ASIand Intach (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) over quality of work undertaken in 2010. Sources said ASI has decided to disassociate Intach from the project.

Initial dialogues to conserve the five monuments were held in 2005-06. In 2009, Intach and ASI signed the MoU even while Rs 1 crore from Steel Authority of India was routed to National Culture Fund. Bara Gumbad, Shish Gumbad and Mohammed Shah's tomb were to be conserved in Phase I. Phase II comprised Sikander Lodhi's tomb and Athpula. A sum of Rs 25 lakh was released to Intach to work on Mohammed Shah's tomb. It had just started work on Bara Gumbad when ASI put a freeze on funds alleging "sub-standard work".

Meetings were held between ASI and Intach to resolve this. As time passed, cost escalation became another sore point with Intach refusing to continue until project costs were revised. ASI blamed the trust for the rise. Intach convener A G K Menon alleged the entire episode was "motivated" and a retaliation by ASI to Intach's opposing views on conservation policy and ideology.

"We strongly object to any insinuations of incompetency or sub-standard work. ASI has been routinely inspecting the monuments and they never had any problems. But when it came to releasing the second instalment, they did a u-turn. They told us what they wanted altered and we complied. But subsequent inspections were held in our absence and 'joint meetings' hosted without us and now they are trying to malign our work. This is unethical. We have conserved 16 monuments with state archaeology department and ASI is part of that monitoring committee. No objections were ever raised," he said.

ASI has maintained the work was "sub-standard" from the start. ASI director-general ASI Praveen Srivastava said, "The project was given to Intach during Commonwealth Games. But their work was later found to be unsatisfactory and so it has been stopped for the last two years. As of now, Intach is no longer associated with the project and a final view on their involvement will be taken after a report from the superintending archaeologist. They were told to rectify certain errors and have apparently not done so satisfactorily."

This is not the first time a public-private partnership with ASI ran aground. Other NCF projects in Delhi like Jantar Mantar and Qutub Minar have been derailed as ASI could not see eye to eye with sponsoring bodies Park Hotel or Indian Oil Corporation.

"ASI doesn't exactly encourage public-private partnerships. They are reluctant to let go of control of the monument," a source said.

The Times of India, 31st December 2013

Dumping of non-biodegradable waste, burning of plastic and rampant fishing along the Garhi Mandu city forest, a natural biodiversity habitat on the left bank of the Yamuna, seem to have taken a toll on the population of water birds at the wetland in North-East Delhi.

Home to over 52 species of resident and migratory water birds last winter, the forest is now facing a steep decline in the number of birds. Eighteen species, including Greylag Goose, Northern Pintail, Red-crested Pochard, Grey Heron, Painted Stork, Red-wattled Lapwing and Black-headed Gull, which were seen last winter are no longer found in and around the forest.

The threat to the natural wetland has set alarm bells ringing for conservationists. Noted environmentalist T. K. Roy is contemplating approaching Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal because he wants the new dispensation to recognise this natural habitat and protect the forest’s fragile ecosystem.

“The newly installed Delhi Government has a number of pressing problems before it. But I would be approaching it since it is important that those running the administration in Delhi instruct senior forest officials to work in the area and have surveillance there. Unscrupulous fishermen are resorting to excessive fishing. This needs to be immediately stopped,” Mr. Roy told The Hindu .

This year, he said, out of 31 species of winter migratory birds, only six have been spotted.

Mr. Roy pointed out that the Forest and Wildlife Department had notified the Garhi Mandu forest under Section 29 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927. He said, unfortunately, the boundary of the forest where the wetland exist has not been notified. “The government needs to recognise this, notify the wetland and take care of it. Extending its forest coverage for a sustainable, healthy environment for human beings is the need of the hour.”

He said the forest is surrounded by a huge natural wetland accidentally formed by the Yamuna floods of 2008. The flood was a blessing in disguise and it resulted in supporting the forest ecosystem, he said and added: “The natural wetland is the breeding ground for more than 52 species of water birds, both resident and migratory, including the International Union for Conservation of Nature red-list categories threatened species..”

Mr. Roy, who is the Delhi coordinator of Wetlands International South Asia’s Asian Waterbird Census, alleged dumping of a huge amount of polythene and plastic by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation as well as locals along the banks and in the wetland. “Regular dumping of debris and filling the wetland by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation is just not right for our environment. As a result, the wetland are getting dried up and covered up for agricultural use.”

He said regular burning of dumped non-biodegradable garbage is causing air pollution and the left-over waste creates water pollution in the wetland. “Another cause of worry is regular fishing by the local fishermen and open thoroughfare and playground around the wetland.”

The Hindu, 31st December 2013