Hapur-based Sardar Hussain lends freshness to Mughal wood carving.

Surrounded by eager participants who show off their handiwork, Sardar Hussain has a beatific smile on his weather-beaten, bearded face as he patiently explains the nuances to the youngsters at one of the intensives at the recent SPIC MACAY’s International Convention. That the shilpa guru is the fourth generation craftsman who has mastered the Mughal technique of wood carving and is the recipient of many a National and international recognition (UNESCO Seal Of Excellence Award) for his craft sits easy on his fragile shoulders.

Mughal carving, as the name suggests, is a tradition that traces back to Persia and was aimed at royal palaces. So, the work itself is a smooth marriage of intricate floral patterns on a grand scale. Sardar Hussain’s family began small but over generations, things have changed. He came into prominence when he was conferred the National Award for making wooden blocks in 1981. He says, “Traditionally, we made blocks but soon we realised that it was not a perennial source of income. So, I reinvented the craft by exploring and expanding the vocabulary during the Golden Age Exhibit at the Festival of India in 1985. I manufactured a wooden box and a round block. I used that block as a lid. I tried a similar thing with square boxes and blocks. What I also did is to use brass inlay on the carved works. And viola! a new craft was born.”

Today, Sardar Hussain runs a thriving export business called Sajawat Handicrafts in his hometown in Chhipiwara, Hapur District of Uttar Pradesh. He is assisted by his sons, both also National Award winners. And among their clients are Fab India and CCI. Says Hussain, “We work with designers from these outlets and create articles according to their requirements. That way we are sure of our work reaching customers.” Taking about the craft itself, he says, “The most important aspect here is the finish. The end product is a reflection of your skill and unless that is in places, the piece falls flat.” The wood used is mostly sheesham but the artisan also uses mango wood these days. “The advantage of mango wood is that its texture allows for it t be painted in different colours.”

Today, Sardar Hussain’s oeuvre includes jewellery boxes, pen stands, brightly hued hand mirrors, bangle boxes, wall hangings, photo frames and of course, blocks. Though he does workshops off and on, he feels “What is needed today is for the youngsters to take to a craft with sustained interest. And keep at it till they perfect it. That is somehow lacking today.”

And yes, the wizened craftsman has kept pace with technology, thanks to his children. His entrepreneurial venture is accessible on the Internet (sajawathandicraft.com) and he can be contacted at [email protected]

-The Hindu, August 1, 2014

A few wetlands in the country have reportedly been impacted due to various developmental activities and urbanisation, said Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

He however informed that country has a total of 7,57,060 wetlands covering an estimated area of 15.26 million hectare, which is around 4.63 per cent of the geographical area of the country.The Space Applications Centre (SAC) Ahmedabad has prepared a National Wetland Inventory Atlas on 1:50,000 scale using Indian Remote Sensing Satellite III data of pre- and post-monsoon seasons during 2006-11.

He said that for conservation and management of wetlands, the centrally sponsored scheme - National Wetland Conservation Programme (NWCP) was implemented till 2012-13.However, to have a better synergy and to avoid overlap the NWCP has been merged with another scheme National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA) for holistic conservation of lakes and wetlands, he said. He said that under NWCP, 115 wetlands in 24 states and two UTs have been identified for conservation and management.”So far an amount of Rs 133.64 crore has been released to the concerned states for undertaking various conservation activities,” he said.Javadekar said that to regulate certain activities within the identified wetlands, the government has notified the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules in December 2010.

Replying to another question in Rajya Sabha, Javadekar said that over 2,000 cases were pending before the National Green Tribunal till March this year 2014 since its commencement in July 2011. 4,741 cases were transferred to NGT, of which 2,678 cases were disposed until March 31, 2014 and currently 2063 cases were pending.

As per preamble of the NGT Act, 2010, the NGT has been established for the effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forest and other natural resources including enforcement and giving relief and compensation for the damages to persons and property.

-The Pioneer, August 1, 2014

The government's recent report announcing an increase in forest cover looks more like a case of the state agency playing the slippery slope of statistics. Wednesday's landslide in Maharashtra's Ambegaon and last year's flash floods and landslides in Uttarakhand may in reality indicate a trend likely to recur across the country - as over the years huge tracts of 'dense' forests having the capacity to hold soil and protect slopes have been lost.

Most of the increase in forest cover has been in 'open forest area'. This is non-dense forest, barely enough to be considered a green patch that may reap ecological benefits decades later. Forest Survey of India (FSI) records show the country increased its forest cover by 57,791 sq km in past 20 years but 45,376 sq km of it is 'open forest area' category. Environmentalists call it a recipe for disaster as India keeps clearing 'dense' forest cover having the capacity to hold soil/ protect the slopes for various projects.

Referring to Pune and Uttarakhand disasters, environmentalist and CSE chief Sunita Narain said, "It's become far more important to protect forests and mountains. Climate change will see more extreme weather events in future. We have to adopt new technology to construct roads and implement other unavoidable projects so that slopes of the mountains are not affected." She emphasized that the indiscriminate clearing of forests was a matter of grave concern. The environment ministry's records show impending loss of dense cover in many parts, mostly in mineral-rich Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. While 2.43 lakh ha of forests had been cleared for various projects under the UPA regime (2004-13), proposals to clear 3.30 lakh ha of forests are pending before the new government. This, in addition to the total 11,89,294 ha of forest land diverted to for 23,511 projects in different states since 1980

Afforestation efforts by states and UTs across 20.7 lakh ha over the past 14 years are not seen as being beneficial in the short-term. Compensating loss of old dense forest area with new plantation and roadside trees is not seen as a solution. New forest covers will take ages before becoming the stabilizing factor that will prevent natural disasters. Forest campaigner of Greenpeace India Nandikesh Sivalingam said, "Forests are a major stabilizing component that protect soil and water and reduce floods and landslides. Deforestation and forest degradation due to reckless infrastructure development, agriculture and mining are primary causes for landslides."

Questioning the environment ministry's current view on faster clearances for infrastructure projects, he said, "Increasing frequency of clearances makes it clear that mismanagement of environment is damaging not only the economy but also human lives". Disaster management expert Sq Ldr (retd) Krishan Mitroo agrees, "Time has come to stop playing with nature. If you want to go for development, secure the hills first by adopting scientific methods."

-The Times of India, August 1, 2014

A book on the winged visitors of Rashtrapati Bhavan captures the beauty and splendour of the avian world.

On a leisurely Sunday morning in June last year, Thomas Mathew, Additional Secretary to the President, was in his lawn reading when he heard koels call. He rushed to his 600 mm lens camera, which often sits in his lush green garden, to capture the male and the female koel on a peepal tree. The shiny, black-feathered male with blood shot eyes was transferring a seed beak-to-beak to his female counterpart. A rare photograph of its kind is one of the many highlights of Mathew’s book The Winged Wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan, which was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan last week.

Over 111 species of birds, including avian migrants who visit the 330 acres of land, engaged in their everyday acts, have been photographed in this book (Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Rs 2,850). “Bird habitats are shrinking and if the trend continues, we would be telling our grandchildren that once there was a bird called koel. There is need to preserve nature for them,” says Mathew.

Mathew’s inspiration came from an observation by President Pranab Mukherjee, who said that the bird habitat in the Rashtrapati Bhavan should be documented. Mathew began his search across the Mughal Garden, the Dalikhana and the forests in the main estate, which had more than 5,000 shrubs and trees. His childhood hobby of spotting birds only made the task easier. “My deep interest in studying birds developed during childhood. I often visited my mother’s village in Kerala, which had a variety of birds. I would get a parrot and a myna every time I returned from my holidays,” he says.

A red-wattled lapwing juvenile appears tiptoeing in a vegetable garden of Dalikhana in one of the photographs. “I call it the ballerina,” says the author. The book concludes with photographs of birds beating the Delhi heat “Bird Style”, captioned with funny titles. So a photograph of brown-headed barbet with water dripping out of his orange beak has been titled “Did I gulp too much?” while a black crow enjoys a bath in a vessel as it says “My black absorbs too much heat”.

-The Indian Express, August 2, 2014

Heavy rainfall, flattening of the ground around the halfway mark of the hill for cultivation and excessive deforestation are the three causes for the landslide in Malin village of Ambegaon taluka, a preliminary report by a team of experts from Geological Survey of India (GSI) that visited the site said.

In addition, use of heavy machinery over the past two years to level the land for cultivation contributed to the crumbling of the hilltop, the experts added.

They noticed cracks in the ground in places where soil had eroded and was washed downhill. This was an important indicator of a landslide, which the villagers had failed to grasp, the experts added. Deputy director general of GSI, Nagpur region, A K Saha, told TOI on Friday said the ground cracks were visible to the GSI experts and they appeared perpendicular to the direction of hill slope.

"These cracks are a result of improper drainage system of rainwater. The flattening of land would have affected the water drainage resulting in the cracks. These observations are preliminary. In-depth implications of the observations would be prepared once the team does a detailed study," he added. On Wednesday when the landslide occurred, a team of experts from GSI was rushed to the spot. However, till Thursday morning, the experts were not able to reach the spot as police had cordoned off the area 12 km ahead of the village. "After contacting the district administration, the experts reached ground zero and surveyed the affected area and reported the three causes of the landslide," Saha said.

He said, "The slope of the hill was flattened almost halfway for agricultural purpose to such an extent that the hilltop had become unstable. The experts have also reported excessive deforestation disrupting the ecology of the hill. Added to this was the damage caused by use of heavy machinery over two years."

Landslide experts and environmentalists had also made similar claims and blamed abject carelessness of government officials in measuring and levelling the land for the Padkai scheme implemented under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in this area that led to the landslide. Under the scheme, hill slopes are flattened and trees are cut down to develop cultivable plots.

The director general of GSI from Kolkata and Saha will survey the surrounding areas of Malin on Saturday and Sunday and identify vulnerable zones so that they do not face a similar fate. Saha said, "Once we visit the area, we would be able to study the surrounding region and recommend immediate steps to be taken by the government to protect the villagers."

-The Times of India, August 2, 2014

The tourism ministry's 3D projection mapping at India Gate is set to be scrapped. Sources said the ministry was looking at relocating the project to Mumbai's Gateway of India after the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC) raised objections to implementation of the project and suggested that an alternative site be found. Ministry sources said it wasn't possible to pick another site in Delhi as India Gate would have been ideal for projecting images depicting the culture and history of each state.

While the final decision is yet to be taken, the ministry held a meeting with the central public works department to discuss the fate of the project. "The project was meant to revitalize the whole India Gate area. We planned to carry out the mapping only after peak hours and display one iconic image representing one state on the monument. It would have been free entertainment for passersby and each image would have displayed for a few minutes to allow people to have a look while driving by without becoming a distraction. If objections are coming in already, we will just move the whole project elsewhere,' said ' a top ministry official.

The ministry was initially considering the project in all major cities. "Jammu & Kashmir has asked us to implement the project in Nehru Park in Jammu. Other states are also warming to the idea. The 3D images being portrayed will be a tribute to every state and its rich cultural heritage,'' added the official. The project at India Gate was first floated by the ministry earlier in the year. A detailed presentation was sent to DUAC for the go-ahead. "There will no audio system. The show will have 50 clips of one minute each, and each clip will be displayed on India Gate. The clips will be projected at different intervals in the evening depending on the approval by the tourism ministry. The ministry's approval for script as well as permission for creating the content will be taken in advance. The timings will also be set by it. Local and traffic cops will supervise the traffic and security, and no permanent/semi-permanent structure will come up,'' said a description of the project.

The art body had its reservations. "India Gate is an important structure of the hexagonal complex in Central Vista. Any such proposal will have to factor in the pedestrian movement and the sensitivity of the place with regard to traffic flow on peripheral roads. It's better to have such projections a series of structures in elevation or on a street facade at an appropriate place instead of an individual free standing structure like India Gate,'' said a DUAC member.

-The Times of India, August 3, 2014

GSI team finds cracks on the ground during survey of Malin

Amid a debate over the causes of the landslide that devastated Malin village, 120 km from here in Ambegaon taluk, a preliminary report by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has pointed to deforestation and levelling of ground for cultivation as the primary reasons.

“Relentless rain naturally was the trigger. But the use of heavy machinery to flatten land for agriculture may have aggravated the crumbling of the hilltop. We observed that the slope of the hill was flattened almost halfway,” said Ashim Kumar Saha, Head of the Department (Central Region), GSI.

Mr. Saha, who, along with a team of experts, has been surveying the affected area over two days, said cracks were observed on the ground where the soil was washed downhill during the “earthslip”.

“Prima facie, the cracks imply an improper rainwater drainage system. Only a detailed report can tell us what caused the tragedy and only then can we come up with recommendations,” he said.

While agreeing that human activity had aggravated the landslide, a city-based geologist, Satish Thigale, marked out prolonged seismic activity in the Western Ghats as a systemic cause.

“Over time, seismic vibrations loosen the soft upper layer of the soil in high areas such as Malin which receive heavy rainfall. If, according to reports, there is evidence of land tampering using earthmovers, then the cracks in the soft soil spell doom for inhabitants during an ‘earthslip’,” he told The Hindu.

He, however, ruled out the suggestion that a windmill project in Khed, 50 km from the disaster spot, had a direct bearing on the landslide and the project had destroyed the stability of the hills in the area. Suresh Talekar and Dhananjay Kokane, activists, have lodged a complaint at the Ghodegaon police station, charging Agriculture Department officials with culpable homicide for having allegedly allotted 20 plots to people for agriculture, undermining the stability of the hill, which brought on the tragedy.

-The Hindu, August 3, 2014

Self-trained artist Manohar Devadoss reveals his secrets on perspective.

A few years ago I worked on a book of historic homes in Chennai. Sketches of the various residences accompanied the text. After the release of the book, an architect friend whose work I admire, met me and said that while the book was fine, some of the sketches lacked a sense of perspective. The conversation then turned to artists who in her view had the best sense of that. And she unhesitatingly placed Manohar Devadoss at the top of the list. There are many lists on the top of which Manohar Devadoss would find himself; indeed if a compilation of the world’s most positive thinkers was ever made, he and his late wife Mahema would like Abou Ben Adhem lead all the rest. How else can you explain such joy of living despite her having been quadriplegic for over three decades and he having practically nil vision owing to retinitis pigmentosa? Manohar is an accomplished artist, who despite failing vision, kept churning out some of the most amazing sketches of whatever took his fancy — pastoral scenes, the rocky landscape surrounding Madurai, temples, churches, people — one of my prized possessions is a sketch of a tribal girl that he did several years ago. For that matter, I treasure every note, letter or document that comes from Manohar, for it will have some drawing in it — a butterfly, a bamboo shoot or a star. All of these sketches of his are marked by his flawless sense of perspective. The angle from which the artist has seen the object that is featured is as accurate as that of a camera. This is best seen in Manohar’s works on buildings, perhaps the finest compilation of which is his fourth book Multiple Facets of My Madurai. The work under review is his fifth. From an Artist’s Perspective, sponsored by Ranvir Shah’s Prakriti Foundation, has Manohar revealing his secrets on perspective. A self-trained artist, he arrived at this knowledge not by reading books but through painstaking trial and error, the first awareness being kindled by seeing railway trains moving at high speeds even as he watched them from close by. The book is ideal for engineering students, draughtsmen, artists and amateurs wanting to draw. It combines theory with practice . How I wish text books in schools and colleges would have this fluidity and ability to capture our attention in full. The book is written in such a personal fashion that you can almost hear Manohar’s voice speaking to you through the lines of text. It has usually been Manohar’s habit to declare at every book launch of his that this was his last work. And I have always predicted that there will soon be another. In any case most of his books go into multiple editions and this one should be no exception. I sincerely hope that engineering, architecture and art colleges of India make a beeline to purchase this book for their libraries or even better, make it a part of their course curriculum. The book is available for sale exclusively from Manohar’s residence. Those interested can contact him at 044-24982484. The work is priced at Rs.280 and proceeds from the sale, as in all of Manohar’s works, go to charity.

-The Hindu, August 3, 2014

The Central Zoo Authority has issued a licence cancellation notice to A N Jha Deer Park in Hauz Khas. The park, run by Delhi Development Authority, is popular among joggers and walkers but has been allegedly flouting norms related to the upkeep of deer. Inbreeding — which causes genetic defects — is rampant here; it also doesn't maintain records of animals, according to CZA.

If DDA fails to curb these deficiencies and successfully plead for an extension of its licence period before the ministry of environment and forests within 30 days, the park may close down. It has been issued a licence cancellation notice on July 22, senior CZA officials have said.

In a reply to a question in Lok Sabha, environment minister Prakash Javadekar named A N Jha Deer Park among 10 zoos that have been issued show-cause notices. "We have been noting deficiencies in the park's maintenance for long. This time, the ministry decided to cancel their licence ," an official said. "They had been issued notices for checking the genetic health of animals. Male and female deer are not kept separately which leads to inbreeding. The deer population is also too high compared to the foliage," Brij Kishore Gupta, evaluation and monitoring officer, CZA, said.

The notice also mentions intrusion of stray dogs in the park and the scant presence of directional signage. "Even the standoff barriers between visitors and deer are missing," said another official.

DDA, however, denied the allegations. "We have maintained proper signage and take care of the deer. If there are any deficiencies, we will look into them," said a DDA official. They did not have any record of how many deer there are in the park.

-The Times of India, August 3, 2014

Work on construction of the New Delhi District Court complex at Rouse Avenue will hopefully begin soon and Patiala House may in a few years breathe easy. That's where the courts are located now. This shall hopefully begin the process of restoring the India Gate hexagon and the palaces of the princes to their original glory and planned land use.

It is worth reminding ourselves about the history of these palaces. In 1920, when the Lutyens' plan was drawn up, the Central Vista was envisaged as a grand sight which would have the seats of power on Raisina Hill at the eastern end and a circle of princely palaces at the western end, around the hexagon where India Gate now stands . While the larger princely states got plots around the hexagon, smaller kingdoms were accommodated in smaller plots on the radial and peripheral roads around it .

Hyderabad, Baroda, Patiala, Jaipur and Bikaner built their grand buildings while Mysore, Jodhpur and Jamnagar did not. Some of the smaller states - Kapurthala, Faridkot, Kota and Jaisalmer - also managed to construct official residences while a host of other states had to give up their rights as they did not build. After the formation of the Republic, the prince's palaces became state property. While Hyderabad House was converted into a guest house for state guests and Jaipur House was chosen to house the National Gallery of Modern Art, the other three were used to house government offices - Baroda for Northern Railway, Bikaner for the government of Rajasthan and Patiala for the district courts.

Patiala House has been abused the most. Lawyers have built chambers for themselves without any planning or approvals from the authorities. Sheds originally built to house garages got converted into offices, canteens, stores and lockups. The place is now a maze.

The Saket District Courts complex has shown what a modern court complex should look like. It's complete with car parking basements and isolation and segregation of litigants, judicial staff etc. In future, district courts will no doubt be better planned .

Patiala House should revert back to the land use envisaged for it in the 1962 Master Plan for Delhi. The Central Vista is the largest public green space in the city and the palaces around India Gate need to be developed for public use like museums, without inflicting cars, criminals, litigants and lawyers on them.

The resistance from the Patiala House lawyers is unfortunate but not entirely unexpected. Perhaps, the legal community should understand the value of public space in the capital city and not hang on to mistakes of the past.

-The Times of India, August 3, 2014

Heard melodies are sweet…but remembered melodies, like Habib Painter’s qawwalis, are all the spicier for the anecdotes that go with them

Among those who graced Delhi’s cultural scene 30 years ago was Rais Mirza, compere par excellence at mushairas, social singing contests, cultural performances and qawwali recitals. His wife Taramani was head of the Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan in Connaught Place and they lived in Srinivaspuri. That was the time when Charles Fabri, the Hungarian art, drama, music and architecture expert domiciled in India after an invitation from Rabindranath Tagore, had left Santiniketan and settled down in Delhi with his wife Ratna Mathur, an interior designer of note, and their cute son Christopher. He was art critic of The Statesman, whose Hindustani drama critic was Habib Tanvir, assisted by T.P. Jain. The latter went on to join Bollywood where he made a name for himself with his elfin face as a character actor. One used to meet ‘T.P.’ at Paranthe Wali Gali, where he lived and came out to drink an after-dinner “khullar” of milk, over which he discussed the plays he had acted in or reviewed.

However, whenever one met Rais Mirza, dressed in a sherwani and pyjama, with a tilted cap on his head, one felt as though a decadent Lucknow litterateur had somehow been transported to the 20th Century. There were many occasions when he excelled in his compeering but the most memorable perhaps was the one about a performance by Habib Painter, the near-legendary qawwal. Habib, born in 1915, had begun life as a billboard painter in Aligarh, much like M.F. Husain in Indore. His golden voice attracted a music lover whose patronage helped him to attain national status. He came to Delhi often with his troupe and earned great acclaim. Well, at the function alluded to, Rais Mirza sat on one side on the stage as Habib Painter rendered his Sufiana kalam and then reverted to some popular numbers, including one of village belles drawing water for their homes. In his nasal tone he made the audience tipsy as he sang the lines about the difficult access to the well (“Badi kathin hai dagar panghat ki”) which, after a pause, Rais Mirza explained as a unique heel-toe-and-hip-straining experience denied to women of other countries trying to fill pots and pails in times when piped water supply was not even a dream.

There are many qawwals, but Habib was different in that whatever he sang pulsated with nerve-tingling imagery. His love of music brought him into the limelight, especially during the Chinese invasion in 1962 when he sang for the troops. His efforts did not go unrecognised, for he was honoured with the award of Bulbul-i-Hind by Jawaharlal Nehru.

Habib was a simple man who combined Hindu and Muslim culture to bring home the message of integration. He did not sing only of the Kaba, the Koh-Qaf and the bulbul, but also of the child Krishna breaking the chatties of the gopis on the hillocks of Vrindavan. He sang for 50 years, and many of his accompanists became old with him because they preferred his company rather than the glamour of filmdom. Of them, Rafiq Ali went on to earn much kudos.

At a cultural programme in Delhi, Habib entertained the assembly with a qawwali based on the mythical belief of how Tvashtri created woman: “He took the lightness of the leaf and the glance of the fawn, the gaiety of the sun’s rays and the tears of the mist; the inconsistency of the wind and the timidity of the hare; the vanity of the peacock and the softness of the dawn on the throat of the swallow. He added the harshness of the diamond, the sweet flavour of honey, the cruelty of the tiger, the warmth of the fire, and the chill of the snow. He also included the chatter of the jay and the cooing of the dove, and lo, the first female came into being …” But to come back to that long lost evening, one was bemused to see Fabri, wearing his trademark three-piece suit and felt hat, complimenting the ladies, bowing to them and kissing their hands while the Rev J.D. Tytler (adoptive father of a political leader) audibly whispered, “Will someone stop the lech...?”. That was during a break when Rais Bhai had a sip of water, Habib wiped the perspiration from his face and film critic Amita Malik got busy with her vanity case. Afterwards Habib Painter left for a tour of East Africa, courtesy actress Mumtaz, but felt homesick and returned to his beloved Aligarh where he expired on Feb 22, 1987 aged 72, and was buried in a mud grave.

-The Hindu, August 4, 2014

On August 4, 1914, the British Empire declared war on Germany, making WWI a truly global war. As Britain observes the centenary of the war on Monday, TOI takes a look at one episode of 1915 that rattled Britain and her empire.

On February 15, 1915, the 5th Light Infantry Regiment of the Indian Army was getting ready to embark on a voyage to Hong Kong from Singapore. A little after 3pm, one sepoy Ismail Khan of C company fired at an ammunition lorry from the quarter guard near Alexandra Barracks. Soon, sepoys and VCOs (viceroy's commissioned officers) of four predominantly Muslim Rajput companies (there were some Jats and Lohias too from Haryana and Punjab) of the eight-company strong regiment mutinied, starting a week of chaos and bloodshed that has come to be known in history as the Singapore Mutiny.

A lot has been written about the mutiny ever since, but very few have been works of scholarship. Fewer still are the official histories of the event. But in India, there's a great deal of mystique surrounding this episode, which nationalists, historians and others, have linked to the freedom movement. They see some commonality between the 1857 Uprising and this one, and glorify this mutiny, without, of course, considering what the main actors of the event, the rebel sepoys, said in their testimonies to the courts of inquiry. They gave ambivalent statements, turned coats, played victims, and testified against men already dead in the mutiny or executed by firing squads. They did all this to exonerate themselves and men of their own caste/village from swift colonial justice. Even those sepoys who were identified as mutineers by others spun convincing tales to fool the court.

The Times of India had extensively reported the mutiny in 1915, calling it the Singapore Emeute. On March 2 that year, when the mutiny had already been put down and the inquiry was on, the first news of the mutiny had reached India. This paper had reported then: "A serious emeute has occurred among the 5th Light Infantry. One wing mutinied and killed Europeans on the road. The situation is now in hand. A large number of the other wing are coming and offering assistance."

The mutineers belonged to the right wing of the regiment. The left was primarily composed of Pathans (the sepoys, though, called themselves Hindustani Pathans) who also came from the same regions as the Muslim Rajputs—Punjab and Haryana, including areas that form part of Delhi NCR today. These men didn't join the mutineers, but ran helter-skelter in the melee and shut themselves in bathrooms/toilets and shops, with many escaping to the forest. It was a deja vu moment for the regiment, which, in its previous avatar as the 42nd Bengal Native Infantry regiment, had seen exactly four companies rebel during the 1857 Uprising and the rest staying loyal. That was the reason why the regiment wasn't disbanded after the Uprising was quelled. In 1915, too, the regiment would escape disbandment because of this reason, and would "honourably discharge its duty and salvage its lost reputation" in East Africa where they would fight the Germans.

But in the week that the mutiny lasted, the rebels killed 12 British officers and 14 European civilians, liberated German prisoners held in a jail (of whom 17 joined them and the rest stayed neutral), and got on board by persuasion or intimidation some men of the Malay States Guides.

On March 3, 1915, The Times of India had a clearer picture of the mutiny. "Further facts regarding the outbreak at Singapore have now come to hand which leave no doubt as to its serious character. The reasons for the disturbance are still somewhat obscure, but the trouble would seem to have originated in some discontent aroused in the 5th Light Infantry by certain promotions among the Indian ranks. This appears to have engendered the spirit of disaffection which was brought to a head by the impending departure of the regiment for Hong Kong. It is satisfactory to be able to record that even not more than half of the 5th Light Infantry, a regiment with a distinguished record of loyal service, were implicated," TOI had reported. That obscurity, as stated in the TOI report, has remained till date. The mutiny was quelled by the British by February 22 with Franco-Russo-Japanese help. After that, it was the time for conspiracy theories. Though there was little evidence on ground, the mutiny was linked to the Ghadar Conspiracy—efforts by the Ghadar Party to foment rebellion among Indian troops stationed abroad. The Ghadarites themselves took credit for it, though they got news of the mutiny only on March 2—the same day TOI carried the report—after the mutiny was suppressed. And they thought until April that Singapore was under rebel control.

Then there was the German conspiracy theory. At least one German prisoner took credit for inciting the Indian soldiers to mutiny. Plus the sepoys are believed to have received letters from their comrades fighting in Europe that the German king had converted to Islam and that it was not right to fight the forces of a Muslim king.

Then there was the more convincing theory of the sepoys rebelling due to their unwillingness to fight the forces of the Ottoman Sultan, the caliph of Islam. But the real factor may have been a combination of terrible lapse in communication and leadership on the part of the British (the CO of the regiment was particularly unpopular among the troops and officers, both Indian and British. After the mutiny, he was dismissed from his post and retired from the Army) and a greater desire among the Indian troops to escape the horrors of European war—the latter observation also made by Japanese historian Sho Kuwajima.

On July 5, 1915, TOI carried the government's explanation: "In view of the misrepresentations that have been made regarding the mutiny, we are authorized by the governor to state that no report whatever had reached His Excellency or the general officer commanding prior to the mutiny regarding any seditious tendencies in the 5th Native Light Infantry ... No charge of disloyalty had ever been made to the government against the 5th Light Infantry ... on the other hand, Government had received most positive assurances as to the loyalty of the regiment."

Yet the sepoys were only loyal to one another in their regiments, battalions and companies as in the case of the Singapore mutineers. They gave no call for freedom or anything of that nature. Nevertheless, in the immediate aftermath, there was disturbing talk about the loyalty of Indian troops, and the wisdom of trusting the security of big colonial possessions like Singapore to Indians was questioned too. But in a strange coincidence, exactly 27 years after the Singapore Mutiny, on February 15, 1942, 80,000 British-led Allied troops surrendered at Singapore to the Japanese of whom 40,000 were men of the Indian Army. Nearly 30,000 of them would eventually join (either voluntarily or under duress) the Indian National Army.

-The Times of India, August 4, 2014

The Modi regime should seriously look into salvaging the National Mission for Manuscripts. An autonomous status will be welcome. It’s a civilisational imperative

In 2007 it was largely because of the efforts of the New Delhi-based National Mission for Manuscripts that the collection of Rigveda manuscripts in the possession of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute at Pune saw inclusion in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's unique effort at preserving humanity's civilisational memory and expressions, ‘Memory of the World Programme’. Working ‘to guard against collective amnesia’, the programme, has over the years, developed a register of the world's priceless documentary heritages that are being gradually lost not only due to the vagaries of nature but also because of our callousness towards our past civilisational achievements and their records. This inclusion was not only a recognition of the work of the National Mission for Manuscripts but also indicated the necessity of bodies such as these for preserving priceless documentary evidences of our civilisational evolution.

Ever since its inception in 2003 during the previous NDA regime, the National Mission for Manuscripts and its team of dedicated epigraphists, scholars and researchers have systematically and determinedly persisted in their mission of preserving India's vast manuscript reserves — said to be the largest in the world. What makes the task of discovering and preserving Indian manuscripts more challenging is the fact that unlike in the West, manuscripts in India, as one of the erstwhile directors of the National Mission for Manuscripts pointed out, are scattered not only in institutional repositories but also in “private collections, in temples, in monasteries, in libraries and private households” as well.

A large number of Indian manuscripts that were siphoned away to Western repositories during colonial rule and later remain to be identified and documented — a task that is daunting not only by its magnitude but also by its legal and institutional intricacies. Vast epigraphical and manuscript reserves with connection to Indian civilisation also abound in the Southeast Asian region. A concerted and institutional effort to discover these and to develop linkages with organisations and groups working in this area in the region could go a long way in further enriching the Indian collection and offer an opportunity to re-forge some substantial cultural linkages and collaborations in the region. The ongoing work in this field by institutions such as the École Française D'Extrême Orient, may serve as an example of the pattern of institutional collaboration and that may be planned for these regions. Working against great odds, the National Mission for Manuscripts had, by the end of 2013, already succeeded in documenting around 37 lakh manuscripts and has succeeded in establishing a large number of regional centres across the country that coordinate in this vast mission of acquisition, notification and preservation. Under its preservation and digitisation programme the National Mission for Manuscripts team has through a herculean effort, conserved more than three crore pages of manuscripts and has digitised nearly two crore manuscript pages. These have been painstakingly preserved in the institutional server and DVDs with the object of establishing someday a National Digital Manuscript Library.

In a forward-thinking move and keeping in mind the dwindling generation of epigraphists and manuscript experts, the National Mission for Manuscripts's dynamic outreach programme, the brainchild of a group of young and energetic experts, has already managed to train around 400 scholars, through short courses and workshops, in the art of manuscript preservation and another 500 in deciphering archaic scripts and languages of India. Yet, despite such achievements, in the last 10 years the National Mission for Manuscripts has been allowed, by the previous regime, to wallow in uncertainty. It is ironical that the body has no permanent infrastructure, has not had a director for quite a while with the institution itself surviving on extensions. Budgetary allocations have drastically dwindled over the years severely hampering other initiatives and plans. What is more alarming is that despite a sanctioned strength of 51 posts only 30 posts have been filled up until now at the National Mission for Manuscripts. Perhaps the new dispensation could seriously look into salvaging the National Mission for Manuscripts, an autonomous status could be a first step - it is a civilisational imperative.

-The Pioneer, August 4, 2014

A smaller National Board for Wildlife, synergised with the government’s declared goals of speedy processing of environmental clearances, will deal an irreversible blow to our wildlife

With a new government that promises speedy decision-making — including time-bound environmental clearances — we also have a new form of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL). Shorn of the mandated numbers of expert members, this board appears to be committed to a leaner and meaner decision-taking body.

Many see this as an assault on the future of India’s varied and amazing wildlife. The Lion-tailed macaque from the moist forests of the Western Ghats, the secretive Great Indian bustard from the arid scrub of the Thar, and the tiger loping along the Central Indian forests are not just animals but forms of regional identity, whose breeding populations are mainly confined to our protected national parks and sanctuaries.

The NBWL considers proposals that affect these protected areas and their respective eco-sensitive zones. Mining, road development, land diversion, laying pipelines and other similar projects are considered by the board, which has governmental representation from tourism, defence or other ministries, as in current proposals.

Best interest standard

Shearing the NBWL of expert members — only three non-official members have been instituted, as against five non-governmental organisations and 10 expert members mandated by the Wildlife Protection Act — has been seen as an assault on the last “homes” of our charismatic and endangered species. An apex decision-making body that does not have the requisite number of different subject matter experts casts aspersions on our national goals of sustainable development and balanced growth. Last year, the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment (Centre for Environmental Law WWF-1 v. Union of India and Others), called for the establishment of “species best interest standard” for endangered species’ conservation. Stating that the protection of species should be free from profit, the judgment called for a fearless application of conservation plans with what it termed an “eco-centric approach” which would emphasise the species’ survival needs.

India has a variety of protected areas: some magnificent tiger reserves span different States; smaller State-level sanctuaries provide small but critical refuge to endemic and endangered species, and some protected reserves transform themselves with the seasonal migration of birds and turtles; from Kanha’s sal forests and Assam’s Kaziranga, to high-altitude wetlands in Tsomoriri, there are stunning catchments of water and soil and active carbon sinks.

An eco-centric approach emphasises that these ecosystems, and their wildlife, have an inherent right to exist at levels of ontology and altruism, untarred by how humans wish to exploit, manage or harness the natural goods from them. Indeed, our existing laws — the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the Forest Rights Act, 2006 — call for an identification of inviolate reserves and critical wildlife habitats. Primary forests, once cut down, cannot be replenished completely for at least another 50 years; rivers, once polluted or diverted, cannot be replaced in a mechanical manner.

Only 5.2 per cent of India’s terrestrial area is protected for wildlife and nature. Conservationists have always held that if over 90 per cent of India’s land mass cannot provide for our needs, it is unlikely that the last five per cent — meant to be shielded from extractive processes — will. Thus, fears that a smaller NBWL, synergised with the government’s declared goal of speedy processing of environmental clearances, will deal an irreversible blow to our wildlife, are not unfounded. However, there is even more to be considered.

Models of growth

For decades, the conservation of species was seen to be dealing exclusively with the tiger, lion, turtle and other species. Over a period of time, these conservation norms have evolved. The world has also seen the formulation of the concept of sustainable development, which proposes models of growth that consider leaving a cleaner environment for future generations. Currently, a working group under the United Nations framework is creating Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). These 17 working goals, following 2012’s ‘Rio+ 20’ summit, recognise the need for biodiversity and environment protection, arguing that safe, sustainable and healthy environments (or as an extension, states and countries) require strong biodiversity and nature conservation.

Even before these ideas came to light, India had its own National Biodiversity Targets which emphasise that environmental conservation is to be mainstreamed into our planning processes and development goals. While some may view this as idealistic, increasing evidence also shows that this is practical.

At a cost

Environmental degradation comes at a cost to the economy. If big projects march on without risk and sustainability assessments, they will come at a cost which we will start to pay sooner than anticipated.

Rules mandating inviolate areas can be considered charismatic and burdensome in equal measure. But they also protect catchments of our reserves which we will need for the future of our development. Can growth, at any cost, actually pay the costs of environmental risk, resource scarcity and calamity? Most of our rivers originate from, or flow through, our 45 tiger reserves. Forests, protected in large measure by the umbrella of sanctuaries monitored by the NBWL, are agents that stabilise microclimate, bringing rain and flood control. As events preceding last year’s Uttarakhand flash floods showed us, construction on the flood plains of Himalayan rivers — technically deemed ‘eco-sensitive zones’ —is entirely possible. It may not however, be wise. Development is not just about human creation, but about the development of social and health indices of which a clean environment is an integral part. The question of a smaller NBWL, sans subject experts thus, is one that is related to our fundamental right to life and a clean environment.

The NBWL should be reconstituted in consonance with the Wildlife Protection Act, not just for the sake our animals, but also for our own identification as a proud nation with a proud natural heritage. The constituency of nature exceeds the constituency of people and animals, and protecting it, with the help of technocratic expertise and without haste, suits both democratic processes and our own development as Indian citizens.

-The Hindu, August 4, 2014

Purana Qila, Red Fort, Salimgarh. Not only are these monuments under protection of Archaeological Survey of India but each also has a site museum displaying artefacts found mostly during various onsite excavation projects. The museums, however, do not record high footfall and ASI is now getting ready to implement a new set of guidelines to improve the aesthetics, display and visitor services there.

The draft guidelines for ASI museums are a result of a workshop on 'best practices for archaeological site museums' held last November. It was attended by 34 participants representing ASI museums from across the country.

"Participants reviewed the ASI museum document of 1915 and made a series of presentations. In five working groups, participants stated that the museum must ensure the preservation and protection of their collections and spread knowledge and understanding of the site and museums to the public," said a source. The draft guidelines serve as a checklist to ensure they observe minimum standards of excellence.

It has divided the functions for museum management in six categories. In the first category of research and dissemination, collecting and preserving data and archival material, supervising the mapping of the present site and its landscape and producing digitized documentation of museum collection for purpose of preservation, conservation and interpretation have been talked about.

The draft emphasizes national and international training in latest techniques of conservation for ASI museum personnel, setting up of well-equipped science labs for analysis and in situ conservation of objects. A section on interpretation and presentation advises maintaining brand identity of museums, visitor mapping and developing storylines and limited narratives that will best communicate the significance of the site and museum collections.

Encouraging and nurturing visitor interest in museums and its collections is a must. To improve visitor amenities, it is necessary to conduct regular studies on visitors' interests, age groups, countries and languages, publicize the site to a wider audience, provide clean drinking water and have a museum shop with appropriate merchandise. Good administration and management entails ensuring employment of professionals and continuous upgrade of staff skills.

The broad guidelines are applicable to period museums as well though specific additions and interpretations are required to aid the visitors' understanding of the period. "In other words, people should have an experiential visit to such museums which is evoked through good lighting, sound, music, recorded material, interactive spaces and audio-visual footage to enhance the experience," said an official.

ASI period museums showcase collections from the 17th-19th centuries or are conceptual museums such as the Swatantrata Sangram Sanghraylaya at Red Fort which deals with India's freedom struggle and the Lucknow residency museum showcasing the mutiny of 1857. "Such museums may or may not have archaeological objects but are pertinent in terms of more recent collections that encapsulate the period and the lifestyle of people at the time," said an expert.

-The Times of India, August 4, 2014

The Telangana Government has decided to organise Independence Day celebrations at the historic Golconda Fort here, it was officially announced here on Monday.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, accompanied by Legislative Assembly Speaker Madhusudanachary and Legislative Council Chairman K Swamy Goud visited the Golconda Fort and its surroundings on Monday to select an appropriate place to organise the event, an official release issued here by the chief minister’s office said.

The Chief Minister himself selected the spot for the flag hoisting ceremony near Rani Mahal inside the fort. The place can accommodate about 10,000 to 12,000 people, the release said.

He suggested that Telangana’s native art forms be put on display at different high rise constructions inside the fort, it said. The Chief Minister directed that arrangements be made to organise state functions like Independence Day and Republic Day inside Golconda Fort on a permanent basis, the release said.

The aim of conducting the Independence Day function inside Golconda Fort is to highlight Telangana’s rich cultural heritage, the release quoted the chief minister as saying.

Independence Day celebrations at Golconda Fort would be similar to State functions held at Red Fort in Delhi, it said. Golconda Fort, one of the biggest fortresses in the Deccan plateau, was built on a 400-feet high hill. It has three lines of massive fortification walls, one within the other, which rise to a height of over 12 metres.

The outer most wall overlooks a deep moat all around, covering a vast area of the town, with a circumference of seven kilometres. It has eight imposing gateways and is buttressed with 87 bastions, rising to a height of around 18 metres.

-The Pioneer, August 5, 2014

The local civic body’s plan to redevelop and restore the 150-year-old Town Hall building in Chandni Chowk will get back on track after months of delay, senior officials said on Monday.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation and INTACH had prepared an ambitious blueprint to return the heritage structure to its past grandeur.

“Due to the delay in the Budget this year, the funds for the plan had been had been held up,” said a corporation official. The Union Ministry of Tourism had in February cleared the Rs.50 crore project, but because of the Model Code of Conduct being imposed for Lok Sabha elections, officials said, work orders could not be issued.

Senior officials will meet on Wednesday to take the plan forward. The Town Hall, which has become rat-infested, used to house the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

-The Hindu, August 5, 2014

Malin, the village in Pune district that was flattened by a landslide last week claiming more than 130 lives, has brought the focus back on the management — or mismanagement — of the Western Ghats.

The torrential rain on July 30 perhaps would not have brought down a side of the hill had it not been weakened by quarrying, levelling and de-forestation — activities banned in Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA).

Malin was located in one such area along the 1,600 km-long Western Ghats and notified as an ESA; this was not enforced. It encapsulates the approach to managing the Western Ghats: governance deficit.

Both the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) and High-Level Working Group (HLWG) reports, however contentious, drew maps of what kinds of development can and cannot be carried out in the Ghats but their recommendations have been drowned out by manufactured controversies and political machinations in the states concerned.

“The warning signs are out there, the reports cautioned us, but there has been little action to protect the Western Ghats,” said Dr Satish Thigale, a geologist familiar with the Ghats region in Maharashtra.

The WGEEP, chaired by ecologist Madhav Gadgil, identified the Western Ghats as an ecologically sensitive zone and created three categories of protection with certain activities allowed in each.

The HLWG, chaired by Dr K Kasturirangan carved out 37% of the Ghats as Ecologically Sensitive Zone; even this would have protected a massive 60,000 hectares if not the entire stretch.

The WGEEP report called for the setting up of a Western Ghats Ecology Authority (WGEA), a statutory national authority. The HLWG advised strengthening of the existing legal and institutional framework in each state.

In the high-pitched debate, neither has come to pass. The MoEF stance on governance has been either confusing or negligent so far; now minister Prakash Javadekar “appears to be led by the pro-development lobby,” experts said.

“Every state has a different ideology and has allowed land-use changes in many stretches. But the Ghats don’t belong to states; they are national, even international, heritage. Javadekar must set up a proper governance regime, not undertake one more study,” said Dr Jay Samant, noted environmentalist.

In the absence of protective action on the ground, the Ghats continue to be endangered. Malin-like devastation may not be an exception.

-The Hindustan Times, August 6, 2014

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, warned by UNESCO that it could lose its status as a world heritage site, has found fresh hope of restoring the link that can help retain that status.

New Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda has written to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, according to Darjeeling MP S S Ahluwalia, who adds Gowda has sought her “cooperation” in restoring the disrupted service. The Centre would allocate the funds, while the ministries of railways and road transport (the road too needs repair) would have to work jointly on the project, the MP says quoting from the letter, dated July 23.

Built between 1879 and 1881, the 81-km, high-altitude line ran the famous Darjeeling “toy train” between Darjeeling and New Jalpaiguri and remains the only Indian railway with the UNESCO world heritage tag. It has fallen into disrepair, with landslides in Paglajhora in 2010 having dismantled 8 km of the tracks. The service continues between Mahanadi and Darjeeling at one end, and between New Jalpaiguri and Gayabari at the other.

Last year, UNESCO warned the West Bengal government and Darjeeling Himalayan Railway that the world heritage site tag would be withdrawn unless the service was restored. Subsequently, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was allocated Rs 88 crore for restoration but the link between Mahanadi and Gayabari remains suspended. The road between those two points, too, has been snapped. Ahluwalia then took it up again. “I wrote to the railway minister explaining the situation. He has responded and also written to Mamata Banerjee to cooperate in the restoration, and to the road transport ministry for support in rebuilding the road between Mahanadi and Gayabari,” said Ahluwalia.

DHR sources said restoration work had started after the warning but was stopped due to bad weather and labour problems in the area. North Bengal Development Minister Gautam Deb said, “We requested the central government to start restoration and allocate funds. The UNESCO team’s report said it was a highly seismic zone and the track could not be restored unless the road is rebuilt first. But the Centre did not make any effort.”

Former minister of state for railways Adhir Chowdhury blamed the state government: “After Railways allotted Rs 88 crore, the Bengal government failed to use the funds.”

According to Narendra Mohan, area manager of DHR, a pair of “jungle safari” trains runs between NJP and Gayabari while four pairs of trains run between Mahanadi and Darjeeling almost regularly. Chartered trains run on the operational track on request.

-The Indian Express, August 6, 2014

The Centre’s plan to develop the Ganga as waterways for commercial activities would give a “death blow” to the river that is already struggling for survival, feels experts and activists who have been working for the revival of the holy river.

They agitated over this “unpragmatic” move and have even threatened to launch agitation if this project is not scrapped.

“The Ganga is already dying a slow death due to severe pollution and upstream check of its flow. The government is now talking of constructing dams at every 100 km. Between Varanasi and Hooghly, which is around 1,600 km stretch, there will be 16 dams…This will kill the living river…It will be converted into 16 huge ponds, each with 100 km and 600-800 metres dimension,” says Prof V.N. Mishra, who teaches in IIT-BHU and heads the Sankat Mochan Foundation, a trust that works for cleaning and revival of the Ganga. Incidentally, Prof. Mishra, who is also the ‘Mahant’ or head priest of famous Sankat Mochan temple, was is Delhi in June this year when Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announced plans to develop inland waterways in the Ganga from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Hooghly in West Bengal via Bihar and create multi-purpose terminals for commercial use. This Rs.6,000-crore project will be the part of Rs.1-lakh crore ‘Clean Ganga’ project that the Modi government plans to undertake.

‘Struggling for survival’

“I was horrified to hear how the government was planning to kill a river which is already struggling for its survival…Has the government studied the adverse environmental impact the river will suffer? What will happen to its aquatic life that is already struggling for survival? What will happen to the mandatory ecological flow in order to call it a river? Are we trying to force a model similar to Suez or Panama canals on the Ganga? All these questions need to be answered,” he says. Warning that any further human interference with the flow of the Ganga would be disastrous, Prof. Mishra, who plans to petition Mr. Modi against the move, says: “The Ganga is the lifeline of 40-crore people, so leave it alone. Just make efforts to clean it…By just ensuring

that not a single drop of sewage water and pollutants go into the river, we will address 90 per cent problems of the river.” Echoing similar sentiments, U.K. Choudhary, an ex-IIT-BHU teacher and a well-known expert in river engineering, says 90 per cent the holy river is “killed” when it reaches the plains, and the rest when its free movement is further controlled. “Dams and barrages block the flow of the river…The originality of the river is lost as it passes through these dams. More the dams, more the quality of water is degraded, which is harmful for river’s survival and all those dependent on it. It is high time we stop further degradation of the river and focus solely on improving its quality,” he adds.

-The Hindu, August 7, 2014

With the aim to promote themselves as world class tourist destinations, the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli on Wednesday unveiled their new projects and plans to popularise themselves among domestic and foreign tourists.

Their new logo – ‘Small is Big’ – was released by Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism and Culture Shripad Y. Naik and MoS Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju here.

It summarises the idea of all Union Territories – that while they are small dots on the map, they have so much more to offer in the form of culture, heritage, wildlife, architecture and natural wonders.

In connection with this, a new publication titled ‘Vision 2020’, encompassing tourism projects and investment planning with planned completion dates, was also released.

The budget outlay for the two Union Territories has also been increased for implementation of these projects which include water front development and establishment of state museums.

An International Sports Complex at Saily, with world class facilities for sports like football, cricket, table tennis and archery is also a part of the project.

“Our aim is to make Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli among the most exciting and activity-filled destinations in the world. Our marketing campaign will present the Union Territories at their finest,” said Bhupinder S. Bhalla, Administrator of these Union Territories. (The writer is an intern with The Hindu)

-The Hindu, August 7, 2014

Sending out a clear indication of new challenges and priorities, the Narendra Modi government has decided to change the names of several key ministries.

The ministry of environment & forests will be known as the ministry of environment, forests, and climate change. Prime Minister Modi is already the author of a book on climate change called Convenient Action: Gujarat’s Response to Challenges of Climate Change.

Underlining the importance of the salvaging and ship-breaking industry in India, the ministry of shipping will become the ministry of shipping and ship-breaking. Incidentally, Alang in Gujarat, which recycles about half of all ships salvaged around the world, is considered the world’s largest ship-breaking yard.

The ministry of water resources has been renamed the ministry of water resources, Ganga rejuvenation and river development, a clear indication that cleaning the Ganga is high on the government’s list of priorities.

The government has decided to hand over the skill development department to the sports and youth affairs ministry, which will now be known as the ministry of skill development, entrepreneurship, youth affairs and sports.

“Skill development is a dream project of the Prime Minister and we are all set to take up the new challenge,” a top ministry official told HT.

-The Hindustan Times, August 7, 2014

The minister maintained that the said decline in NCR of Delhi has been 15.43 per cent.

There has been a decline in natural conservation zones (NCZ) like forests, water bodies and waste lands in the National Capital Region, Urban Development minister M Venkaiah Naidu stated in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

As per analysis done in 2012 by National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) along with the National Remote Sensing Centre, using satellite images, there has been a decline in NCZs vis-à-vis those contained in the Regional Plan 2021, notified in 2005, Naidu said.

The minister maintained that the said decline in NCR of Delhi has been 15.43 per cent, while it is 43.88 per cent in case of Uttar Pradesh, 25.97 per cent in case of Haryana and 11.18 per cent in Rajasthan.

The four participating states of NCR—Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan — have been sent notices under Section 29 (2) of the NCRPB Act, 1985, he said.

“Notices have been sent to all four states seeking a response on the reason for decline in natural conservation zones. We will decide on the future course of action once we receive their replies. The board may direct the concerned participating state or union territory to stop such activity (that reduces NCZs) and can withhold financial assistance to the concerned participating state or the union territory,” a senior government official said.

Forest department officials also admitted that there has been a continued decline in the number of water bodies in Delhi. A survey released by Delhi Parks and Gardens Society (DPGS) has shown that of the 611 water bodies in the capital, 274 have already dried up many and as many as 190 have been lost forever and cannot be revived.

However, Sanjiv Kumar, Delhi government environmental secretary, while maintaining that he hadn’t seen the data that Naidu had quoted said forest cover in Delhi has increased significantly.

“The work in Delhi has been good and forest cover has been increasing. I don’t know about the status of other participating states in NCR,” he said. He said previous studies had found that forest cover in Delhi has been increasing. The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2013 says of the nine districts in Delhi, five – east, northwest, southwest, south and west — have registered an increase in forest cover.

At 2.83 sq km, southwest Delhi has gained the maximum, Kumar said.

Responding to other questions, Naidu further said people living in slum areas of Delhi has declined by 2,44,365 between 2001 and 2011.

As per the information furnished by the minister, Delhi ranks ninth among 35 states and union territories with a slum population of 17,85,390 as per 2011 Census as against 20,29,755 in 2001.

-The Indian Express, August 7, 2014

Delhi appears to have seen a drop of around 30% in foreign tourists. According to the latest footfall figures of the Archaeological Survey of India, based on ticket sales at the three world heritage sites in the city — Qutab Minar, Humayun's Tomb and Red Fort - there has been a sharp decrease in ticket sales to foreign tourists (who pay more than Indian tourists) in 2013-14, upsetting a trend of a steady rise since 2010 Commonwealth Games.

This has got the tourism industry worried with several industry experts attributing the sharp decline in foreign tourist arrivals to the adverse publicity attracted by Delhi after the December 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape which was reported in great detail in foreign capitals and created an impression — possibly exaggerated - that the city was very unsafe for women.

Two other reasons are attributed to the fall — one, recession in the west and, two, under-reporting of ticket sales at ASI monuments as has been hinted by CAG.

However, there seems to be a general consensus that the Nirbhaya case has badly hit tourism to the city. While ASI is worried by the trend, as it has invested heavily on promoting Delhi's history, this is also a setback for the state government which is pitching for the national capital to be declared a Unesco world heritage next year - a tag which Delhi can justifiably aspire for, dotted as it is with historical monuments. ASI sources said there was a drop is in both Indian and foreign visitors, although the fall in the number of foreign visitors is more pronounced. ASI also garners much bigger revenue from foreign tourists. Tour operators said that there are hardly any single women tourists to India. "Most of them now come in groups," said an operator.

In 2010-11, Humayun's Tomb saw 6,38,714 visitors (Indian and foreign) which increased to 12, 25,484 visitors by 2012-13, an increase of over 100%. But then the figure dropped to 8,83,411 visitors in 2013-14, a drop of 29.3%. Similarly, Qutab Minar saw 30,91,609 visitors in 2011-12 which increased to 35, 56,162 visitors by 2012-13 which then dropped to 32,84,826 visitors in 2013-14. The drop in visitors is not just at the world heritage sites. The trend was visible across all Delhi's ticketed monuments, including Jantar Mantar, Purana Qila and Safdarjung Tomb.

Senior ASI officials sought to emphasize recession as a key factor for the drop. "Recession has played a huge factor in reducing the number of foreign visitors to India. Even at the Taj Mahal in Agra, visitor intake has dropped by 11%. We are trying to understand why tourists were shying away all of a sudden," said a senior ASI official. But they conceded that the Nirbhaya case has also played a substantial role in reducing foreign tourist visits to the national capital.

"Women tourists preferred to skip Delhi after the incident. Then a number of tourists also planned visitors to elsewhere in India instead of Delhi," said an official. Sources in ASI also pointed out that the number of visitors with free access to ticketed sites was also increasing. When questioned on the reduction in footfalls, ASI officials said: "As per the lIU report there is decrease in foreign visitors. May be due to recession or due to safety concern after Nirbhaya incident. It is also noticed a significant increase in permitting free entry of foreign and Indian delegates approached by different ministries as well as departments and organizations."

Experts say that reduction in footfalls could also be partially due to manipulation in the ticketing system, which is still done manually at all ticketed monuments. The CAG report 2013 pointed out that manual checking of tickets in centrally-protected monuments was prone to errors and manipulation. To overcome this, ASI has been proposing to start e-ticketing at all monuments, with first priority in world heritage sites. While ASI did a trial run for e-ticketing at Qutab Minar last October, it is yet to implement it any other protected monument.

-The Times of India, August 8, 2014

The accidental discovery of a human skeleton wearing what appears to be a copper crown with carnelian beads has generated a lot of curiosity in Chandayan village of Baghpat district. Beads of carnelian, a semi-precious stone, are generally associated with the Harappan civilization. However, a crown has never been found in any of the Indus Valley civilization sites.

Amit Rai Jain, director of Baraut-based Shehzad Rai Research Institute told, TOI on Thursday, "Diggers at a brick kiln at Chandayan village, 38 km from Baghpat, struck upon a human skeleton, a few pieces of terracotta pottery and a copper crown attached to the skull."

The news spread like wildfire and a crowd of onlookers and treasure-hunters gathered at the site in no time. "By the time the police force could reach the site, villagers had ransacked the area in search of a possible treasure. What all we could gather were a few broken pieces of the crown and a few teeth," Jain said.

An Archaeological Survey of India team that visited the site is, however, cautious on the issue. AK Pandey, superintending archaeologist, ASI, said, "Unless we do a thorough survey of the area and find related material which is generally found at Harappan sites, we cannot say with certainty that the discovery really relates to the Harappan age." The ASI team will again be visiting the site in mid-August. Jain said, "Dr Rakesh Tiwari, DG, ASI, has taken up the project and will soon dig out trial trenches at the site."

Dr AR Sankhayan, former senior anthropologist with Anthropological Survey of India, is optimistic though. "Initially, the discovery appears to be of copper age and is quite similar to what we found at the ancient burial site in Sinauli village, 20 km from this site. The excavation was undertaken by the ASI in 2005, during which Harappan age pottery and skeletons were unearthed. Because of the proximity of this site to Chandayan village, the link can be established. But even in Sinauli, no crown was found." Dr RS Bisht, former joint director general, ASI, who is credited with maximum work on the Harappan culture, said it was "indeed a beautiful crown but a bit of research is needed to establish its connection with Harappan culture."

At present, the crown and set of teeth are in the possession of Satish Jain, an amateur archaeologist and a member of Paelio Research Society. "We will soon be sending the stuff to the Kolkata office of Anthropological Survey of India where the age of the skeleton will be ascertained," he said.

-The Times of India, August 8, 2014

At Hirapur in Orissa, a ninth century temple resonates with mesmerising silence and simultaneously speaks of its history through the rubble scattered around. Such is the magic of Choushatti Yogini temple, says SOMEN SENGUPTA

After crossing a narrow bridge over an dried up river, our car started negotiating with the bumpy road ahead. The little human habitation that the dusty area contains does not show any prosperity of Bhubaneswar town from where this place is hardly 15 km. I was searching for a small sandstone temple which is extraordinary and exceptional — both in its archaeology and origin. At Hirapur, a ninth century temple resonates with mesmerising silence and simultaneously speaks of its history from every rubble scattered around. Such is the magic of the Choushatti Yogini temple.

The practice of worshiping a yogini is a part of a tantric cult that engulfed both Hinduism and Buddhism from the seventh century. Yogini temples that came up at a few places in Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in that era are the culmination of this cult. It was the time when necromancy and black magic became a supplement to worshipping Matrika or Mahamaya. As the dedicatory stone tablet is missing from the temple, the actual date and founder can never be known. However, it is assumed that the temple was built in the ninth century by the royal family of Somavansi who were worshippers of tantra. One figure of a yogini is missing. Local believe that the missing yogini is now worshipped in a village named Yamuna Kuda, but serious scholars of archaeology do not buy that.

The Choushatti Yogini temple was not known to the outside world till 1953. On January 24, 1953, Kedarnath Mohapatra, a famous archaeologist of Orissa, explored it while camping nearby. Based on information collected from local people who secretly practice necromancy, Mohapatra found a treasure of Indian archaeology. It was nothing but a coarse sandstone built circularly open to the sky; a temple with a 30 feet diameter and surrounded by an eight-feet high circular enclosure. He found 60 small fine-grained black chlorite stone statues carved in perfection and placed in the inner wall of the circular pavilion. He also found more statues in a chandi mandap inside the temple. They all represented female versions of many Hindu gods. This was just an amazing discovery and soon the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) took over the temple.

As I march towards the temple, I saw the outer part of the enclosure first. It is not the yogini inside but the nine Kattayani statues that grabbed my attention. Collectively known as naba kattayani, these statues are made of light yellow sandstone. They are placed in various postures on the outer circular wall like sentinels of the temple just before the entrance. Some of them look like warriors.

It is amazing to note that all of these figures are standing on a male head accompanied by two or three animal figures like dogs or jackals. Their height varies between two feet six inches to two feet eleven inches.The first and last figures hold a weapon in their hands. Others hold decorative objectives. All the Kattayanis are well-dressed except the last one, which is nude. In the courtyard, two sentinel figures known as Dwarpala are present. I carefully placed my head under a low roofed vestibule path to gain entry to the main temple. On both sides of the vestibule entrance, two defaced naked male images with their sunken bellies are found. Their bodies are emaciated. They sport skull garlands and there are some small figures around them who are equally devil looking, called Kala Bhairav and Bikala Bhairav.

They are carefully carved with exclusive distinction and every single female statue tells a story. Here most of the statues are either defaced or partly distorted, hinting at an attack by intolerant people.

My attention was drawn towards the most exceptional yogini named Chamundi placed in niche 56. She was skull faced, showing her breast and rib bones. Standing in a trivanga dancing position, she sported a skull garland around her neck, and her face gave an expression of ruthlessness. The priest took me to niche 38 where I found Ganeshani, the female form of Ganesha. Defaced by barbarians, this elephant-headed figure is a replica of Ganesha statue.

Next to that stands the most beautiful yogini of the temple called Bindabalini. Mounted on a rat, this partly broken statue holds a bow and arrow. Her standing posture is more like that of a dancer than a warrior. At niche 26, stood a lion-faced female statue —the female version of Narshima. Worshipped as Singhamukhi, this figure has a unique hair style known as jatamandal and she holds a pot in her hands.

I saw Yamuna in niche 4. This four-handed female figure stands on a tortoise and holds a skull cup in her hand. Next to her is another yogini named Narmada. Surprisingly, she is wearing a skull garland and drinking blood from a human skull. In one of the niches, there is a figure with a musical instrument in her hands. Known as Saraswati, this four-handed figure stands on a snake. And she has a moustache too!

The biggest statue of the row is known as Mahamaya. This ten-armed image is sadly covered with clothes and metal ornaments placed by daily visitors. So, it’s archaeological beauty is no more visible. Being the biggest statue of this temple, this is the most famous among local people. In fact, the temple is known as Mahamaya temple and almost every day people offer flowers, oil and vermillion to it.

At the chandi mandapa, all the male bhairava statues are unique and interesting. They all are well-dressed but their genitals are exposed. All male statues are placed in such a way that they look directly at the yogini statues on the inner wall of the temple. Of the four, a male statue has only one leg; he is known as ekapada bhairav. Mounted on a full bloom lotus, the figure is decorated with a head gear and has a weapon in hand. Next to this is another male figure with ten hands, seated in a vishwaopadmasa posture. His genital is also erected upwards and a man is found sleeping under his pedestal. Two more ten armed bhairavas are found near other pillars. Both are decorated with various gears and ornaments. While one statue in sleeping posture is found under one’s feet, another is found resting a leg on his lap.

The history of Orissa has witnessed the evolution of religious practices. Be it the oracle of Hinduism or entry of Vajrajana Buddhism and again the wave of Vaishnava cult, every saga left its footprint on the architecture of temples and monasteries. In that population, this temple stands isolated yet majestically. Its exceptional archaeology and religious expression is rare and adds a magical touch to the ambience.

Taken in by the temple’s beauty, I did not realise that the sun was slowly heading west and its golden rays were casting shadows on the walls of the temple. As I turned my back to the temple, I felt the same satisfaction that one can feel after dusting out a hidden gem.

-The Pioneer, August 10, 2014

The forest department — a year after zeroing down on five species to accord heritage status to one tree from each of them — has failed to do much with the process of identifying the trees.

Apart from this, sources said that there had been no movement on the promise of officials to declare all trees of two-three species as reserve trees to protect and help augment greenery in Delhi, which is under assault from a breakneck pace of infrastructure development.

Between 2011 and 2013, Delhi’s forest cover has gone up by 3.61 sqkm, but tree cover outside forests has gone down by 2 sqkm, a latest forest survey of India report says.

Delhi’s chief conservator of forests AK Shukla said, “The tree heritage project got stuck for certain reasons. We’re on the job; the department will finish the task shortly.”

In 2008-09, The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), a non-profit organisation, started working with the Delhi government and framed criteria for identification of heritage trees.

“Municipal corporations and other land-owning agencies, which deal with horticulture, had to be taken on board. The government had to act and we had to follow it up, but nothing much happened after that. It’s time we got serious about conserving our natural heritage,” said INTACH member Samar Singh.

Singh, a retired IAS officer and former secretary general, WWF India, cautioned the government should not restrict identification of heritage trees only to a set of species. “You may find a tree worthy of the heritage tag outside the five species. You should accord the tag to trees which are old, grand and have some historical connect, like maybe with an event or a building. Species should not be the sole criterion,” he said.

SD Singh, CEO of Delhi Parks and Garden Society, said that once the trees are identified, they can be used to promote eco tourism and push wider conservation.

Concerned over little progress in the project, civil society grouping Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has already written to top government authorities, including the Lieutenant Governor, the chief secretary and Delhi Development Authority.

“There are a number of very old trees standing within the campuses of old forts and monuments which deserve a heritage status and special protection measures. There might be few even within the campus of Raj Bhavan as well as the British period buildings including Rashtrapati Bhavan,” Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan’s convener Manoj Misra has written.

“It is well known that the ancient city of Delhi has been making efforts to find a place on the UNESCO’s list of world heritage cities. But heritage is not just non-living monuments (that Delhi is littered with) but also living ones like its ridge, its water bodies (baolis and johads) and the river Yamuna,” he said.

-The Hindustan Times, August 8, 2014

Issues such as linguistic diversity and cultural or religious identities, which seek to divide us, actually contribute to our cultural and civilisational heritage. The positive spillover is not just into the neighbourhood, but across the world

The current debate on linguistic abilities of our civil service aspirants highlights not only the challenges posed by India’s huge cultural and ethnic diversity, but also its contribution to what is calledBharatiyata — so much a part of being Indian. Often forgotten in this debate is India’s contribution to global cultural and linguistic diversity and world heritage, through the inscription of its sites on the World Heritage List of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. As a member of the UN World Heritage Committee, India is currently seeking international recognition for several projects including the cultural landscape of Majuli Island (on the Brahmaputra river and larger in size than Belgium), the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Chandigarh as the jewel in the crown of Le Courbusier project. India is also supporting and working with the Government of Mauritius for recognition of the International Indentured Labour Route Project.

Another important Indian initiative is the ongoing effort to revive the two- millennia Spice Route. Traversed by sailors and traders of bygone times, it is one of history’s most significant and enigmatic trade routes. At the centre of this legendary route was Kerala, but other States, notably Gujarat, were also part of this Spice Route. The scent of these spices enticed the world, including Vasco da Gama, who passed away in Kerala. His journey to the Malabar coast, renamed the Spice Coast, was a defining moment in history since it established connectivity between India and Europe and brought the colonisers to India. It laid the foundation for the foreign settlements of the Portuguese and the Dutch, who were then pushed out by the British when the latter established their definitive presence.

The Spice Route resulted in a confluence of major religions, culture and civilisation in these parts of India. After the Egyptians, the Ethiopians and the Greeks, came the Romans and the Chinese searching for these exotic spices. Along or before them came the Jews, in 587 BC and 70 AD, the Christians with the landing of Apostle Thomas in 52 AD and Islam in the seventh century AD with the Arab traders, making this region a true melting pot of culture and civilisation. For this reason, the Spice Route project initially seeks to establish a museum which will connect the tourists and the travellers to the heritage of the past and the flavours of the present. The Spice Route re-establishes India’s maritime trade relations with 31 countries, and seeks to rekindle interest among modern travellers in this ancient maritime route. This project has attracted the attention of the United Nations, international advisory bodies and countries which had historic ties with the Spice Route such as the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom.

The Government of Kerala has recently presented its ambitious Spice Route project to selected representatives and/or Ambassadors from 31 countries, which were part of the ancient sea trade route. The aim is to chalk out a strategy to revive this ancient route that linked India to Asia, North East Africa and Europe.

Apart from the Unesco, the World Tourism Organisation has pledged support to the project. The project is aimed at sharing this heritage among the 31 countries along the ancient route. The initiative is expected to bring in a substantial number of foreign tourists to India to trace this historic journey. The centre-piece of the project is the Kochi-Kodungallur belt in central Kerala, where the ancient spice port Muziris was located and where merchants from West Asia and the Mediterranean region came by sea and land. Evidence points to the spice trade between Muziris — a port that flourished two millennia ago — and the West, before it mysteriously disappeared. Excavations which have commenced in search of Muziris will conclusively demonstrate that this ancient port which, according to the first century annals of Pliny the Elder, could be reached in 14 days from the Red Sea ports of Egypt, was the main hub of the Spice Route.

On July 6, Aapravasi Ghat was inscribed on Unesco’s World Heritage List with India’s support. It represented the most significant surviving manifestation of the indentured labour system that existed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Established after the formal abolition of slavery in 1834, Aapravasi Ghat marks the point in Port Louis, Mauritius, where indentured labour, drawn mainly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and also from the southern States of colonial India, would be received. They would then either stay on in Mauritius to work in the sugar plantations or to sail further to destinations such as Guyana, Suriname and the Reunion Island, to name a few.

In the years between 1834, when slavery was abolished, to the early 20th century, more than two million indentured labourers travelled on this route, also known as ‘Coolie Route’, to Mauritius and other destinations. This route represents the development of a new system of a contractual labour. Its conservation is an important part of upholding the civilisational heritage, traditions and values that these people carried with them from India to far off destinations. This movement of labour also resulted, a century later, in the evolution of multi-cultural societies in these host countries as the workers never returned to their homeland.

The International Indentured Labour Route Project is being developed for approval by the World Heritage Committee. This project, when adopted, will represent a significant contribution to the Memory of the World Register, similar to the Slave Route. It will also highlight India’s contribution to the cultural diversity of its diaspora spread worldwide, including its oral traditions, such as the Bhojpuri language and songs which are still sung in Mauritius, Guyana, Suriname and all over the Caribbean. They recall the memories of their great motherland, India, and keep alive the cultural traditions brought 150 years ago to these countries.

As an active member of the prestigious World Heritage Committee of Unesco which oversees the conservation and protection of world heritage sites globally, India has been working in close cooperation with the Unesco and other international advisory bodies including International Council on Monument and Sites, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and International Centre for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Properties. It is hoped that some of these projects cited above will win approval through this process.

The above serves as a candid reminder that issues such as linguistic diversity and cultural or religious identities, which seek to divide us, actually contribute to our cultural and civilisational heritage. The positive spillover is not just into the neighbourhood but across the world. This has been increasingly recognised and respected. The international attention and interest in our heritage demonstrates the wisdom of the old Sanskrit saying: “Na ratnanan vishyati mrigyatehi tat”. It means: “The diamond does not seek, it is sought after”.

(The writer is India’s former Permanent Representative to Unesco)

-The Pioneer, August 11, 2014

The Directorate of Education (DoE) has started celebrating ‘Mega Cleanliness Drive Week’ from August 7 till August 14 to mark the Independence Day celebrations. As part of this drive, the Delhi Government on Sunday issued instructions to all the city schools to join hands in making ‘Delhi clean and green’ as part of the I-Day week celebrations.

“During this week, it would be ensured that there is a special cleaning of classrooms and campus areas that come under the Directorate of Education. The schools will also organise class-wise drawing, poster making, slogan writing competition on the theme of ‘clean and green Delhi’,” said an official from the Directorate of Education.

Further, to educate the society about cleanliness, students would also hold prabhat pheries and rallies’ around the school campus and nearby areas. The students would also display banners and posters during these rallies. Meanwhile, the schools have been directed to hold classroom and school decorating competitions on the theme of ‘cleanliness’ and ‘Independence Day’. The schools have been specially instructed to involve the School Management Committee, Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and Local MLAs in the programme.

On this occasion, the students would plant saplings in the school premises for making the school green. “Besides, children would be playing the role of famous leaders along with personification of different aspects of nature — like trees, clouds and rain, river, oceans, marine animals, extinct and endangered animals — during a parade. “During the week, the schools would prepare a collective presentation on class-wise themes wherein students will walk in a parade, dressed as per the allotted themes such as animal, bird, insects and reptiles,” the official said.

Additionally, condemnation of unserviceable items like dual desks, old furniture, electrical items, old exam copies, books, newspaper material and science items etc would be conducted. Separate guidelines are being issued for condemnation and auction for disposing off the aforesaid material

-The Pioneer, August 11, 2014

The step is part of trial runs of Phase-II of the Ganga Water Scheme.

Noida Authority is planning to supply an additional 192 million litres per day (MLD) of Ganga water in 124 sectors from August 15, a measure aimed at providing relief to thousands of residents who now make do with groundwater, which is hard.

The step is part of trial runs of Phase-II of the Ganga Water Scheme.

“The trial run will continue for a month during which we will test a network of 100km-long pipelines that has been laid to supply the water from Ganga to various reservoirs across the city. Currently, Noida residents are supplied with 48 MLD of Ganga water, which is then mixed with groundwater to dilute its hardness and also to fulfill the city’s daily needs of around 215 MLD. This arrangement was part of Phase-I of the scheme, which has been in effect since 2005. With Phase-II, we are hoping to minimise the use of hard groundwater across Noida,” an official said.

According to officials, Ganga water will be tapped at Masuri village in Ghaziabad and then transported to a plant 17 km away. After that, it will be transported to various treatment plants before being piped to reservoirs across the city. “Phase-I of the scheme cost around Rs 120 crore. Phase-II will cost around Rs 520 crore. Under Phase-III, which will cost around Rs 250 crore, an additional 90 MLD of Ganga water will be supplied to residents,” an official said.

By 2021, the daily need for water in Noida will be about 590 MLD, of which around 425 MLD of Ganga water will be required so that the water quality is suitable for use.

“Currently, there is no shortage of water in Noida. But its quality is poor, which is why this scheme was launched. Since we don’t want to run out of groundwater because of excessive usage and want our our children to drink sweet water, we are doing what we can,” he said.

-The Indian Express, August 11, 2014

On December 22, 2011, when the only originalpandulipi (manuscript) of Sri Ramcharitmanas (also referred to as the Ramayana) dated Samvat 1704 (1648 AD) and a few precious articles of its writer, Goswami Tulsidas, were stolen from the Hanuman temple in the Akhara Goswami Tulsidas on Tulsi Ghat, the Mishra family was shocked. Its then ‘Mahant’ or head priest, a noted environmentalist and professor at IIT-BHU, Veer Bhadra Mishra, had to face charges of theft conspiracy.

It led to massive search operations by the Varanasi police, which was ‘informally’ aided by the CBI and the intelligence agencies as it was feared that these rare articles could be smuggled abroad. It took seven months before the police recovered all the articles — the rare pandulipi of Sri Ramcharitmanas, the piece of Goswami Tulsidas’ boat and a few ornaments of the temple — from two people in Varanasi. “But this theft changed everything…The articles that were so far available for public viewing were safely locked only to be taken out once every year to celebrate the Tulsi Jayanti,” says Professor V.N. Mishra, son of Professor Veer Bhadra Mishra, who is now the ‘Mahant’.

Perturbed by all kinds of insinuations that his family had to face and the national and international media coverage, the Mishra family decided to make foolproof arrangements for safety and security of all articles related to Goswami Tulsidas in the temple where the great saint lived, even as they faced pressure from top government officials to hand over these items for greater safety. “My father thought how could he hand over the articles to the government when his family has been the custodian for centuries. So we brought a special fire and bullet resistant safe that weighed three quintals and placed it inside the temple. All the precious articles were then placed safely.”

Those seven months till the police recovered the rare manuscript of Sri Ramcharitmanas led to an interesting development. “As the chances of recovering the original manuscript dwindled with each passing day, I decided to collect as many manuscripts of Goswami Tulsidas works as possible, including Sri Ramcharitmanas, from whatever source I could,” says Dr. Vijay Nath Mishra, a leading neurologist and younger son of Professor Veer Bhadra Mishra.

-The Hindu, August 11, 2014

The house on Raisina Hill, better known as Rashtrapati Bhavan, is also home to over a hundred species of birds. Amidst the thick foliage and shielded from prying eyes these birds were a well-kept secret, even from those who lived within the peripheries of the expansive Presidential Estate, until now, when these winged residents have been caught on camera. Rohit Kumar, who has lived on the Estate for the past 25 years, recalls seeing the "usual" kinds — the pigeons and the mynas — and the only "exotic" species he could identify were the shrilly parakeets and peacocks in their resplendent colours. Sometime last year he was shown pictures of "unusual" birds and what stumped him was that they had been living in his neighbourhood all this while. "I didn't even know all these birds can be found here," he says sheepishly. Of course, now he is a bird spotter and runs to alert his "boss" each time he sees a new visitor.

The "boss", Dr. Thomas Mathew, is the Additional Secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee, who has spent countless hours crouching behind shrubs, sitting in the sun, patiently waiting for his subjects to make an appearance and then oblige him with a pose. He too works on the orders of his "boss", the President, to capture and collate information about the birds that find a habitat in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. "The President is a nature lover; while observing the birds here one day, he said we should put together information on the birds that are found around us. And that was my brief," says Dr. Mathew, who credits Secretary to the President Omita Paul for providing the necessary encouragement to keep going.

"I was, after all, doing all this in addition to my official duties and Ms. Paul was clear that the book had to be ready in 12 months," he says. The brief has been fulfilled and the President was recently presented a copy of the 339-page 'Winged Wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan', a compilation of breathtaking pictures and accompanying anecdotes about 111 species that roost within the expanse of the Presidential Estate. With each picture, the author has not only included information on the birds but cited the exact time and location of where it was shot. For several months, aided by a battalion of gardeners and office staff, Dr. Mathew combed the entire 330 acres of the Estate, scouting for birds among the many parks, gardens and thicket.

"Delhi is the world's second-most bird-rich Capital after Nairobi," he says, and proceeds to regale with stories of how he captured a hitherto unseen courting dance of the koels and how a bee mistook the colourful crest of the flameback for a flower and tried to perch on it — all these stories have been told visually in the book through meticulously shot frames.

The bird spotting exercise has also given the President's Office cues on how to turn the Estate into an ideal habitat for attracting more species. "A lone bluethroat made a rare appearance in 2002 in the Estate; this year we spotted several of them," points out Dr. Mathew, adding that work has begun on how to offer the birds a better, friendlier habitat within the Estate.

"We want to make sure this place remains an oasis for the birds. In the past two years more than a thousand fruit bearing trees have been planted, we are thinking of creating an ecosystem where the birds can catch fish. The Secretary has already given instructions on how to revive the water bodies near the Dalikhana as the President is keen that this Estate remains a haven for birds, beyond human encroachment," says Dr. Mathew, readying his camera for the next click.

-The Hindu, August 12, 2014

Standing in Mughal Garden under the afternoon sun, it took the West Bengal-based artist less than ten minutes to sketch the Rashtrapati Bhavan on canvas. Complete with the columns and the tricolor fluttering on its central dome, Jogen Chowdhury points out that the details are missing in the hurried work. "It's a mere impression. It also shows I can work fast," says the artist. "The environment is inspiring. Imagine waking up listening to a peacocks every morning and seeing such massive greens," he says.

It's a sound he has woken to for 15 years. The 75-year-old was an art keeper at the President's home from 1972 to 1987. He is again a resident at the estate, as the first artist-in-residence, under the initiative announced by President Pranab Mukherjee in December. "The initiative is an attempt to encourage established as well as young and upcoming writers and artists by facilitating them a stay close to nature in the picturesque and serene surroundings of Rashtrapati Bhavan," reads an official statement. With his previous experience at the venue, a recent entrant in the Rajya Sabha and known to Mukherjee, Chowdhury seemed like a natural first.

Walking down the marble floor, the Santiniketan-based artist seems at home here — he recognises some staff and also the corridors. The room where he worked is now assigned for other duties, but his portrait of VV Giri is in the presidential collection. A portrait of the current incumbent is also underway. "I don't like making portraits, but I really admire him," says Chowdhury.

He also recalls his meeting with Indira Gandhi fondly. "She took active interest in the display at Rashtrapati Bhavan. She used to give advice when we had important state guests. I remember when Queen Elizabeth was visiting, we put a large painting of the Taj Mahal behind her bed," remembers Chowdhury.

During his stint as the Art Keeper — a post that has now transformed into Art Director — the artist had also initiated an inventory and also made purchases, including a set of Binod Behari Mukherjee's works. "At that time we could just walk around. I used to walk into Ashoka Hall for programmes, now that seems impossible," says the artist known for his bold lines, cross-hatchings and distorted human figures. His themes have varied from social concerns to the elephant god Ganesha, political satires and more erotic depictions.

The luggage back from the 15-day residency will not comprise any large work, but Chowdhury is making "layouts" in his sketchbook. More political and social satires can also be expected, with the artist making frequent notes in the Parliament. His attendance record? "Around 20 of 30," he says, adding, "Tendulkar is not very interested in politics, I am keen to bring a social change and work for the people."

-The Indian Express, August 12, 2014

A rare 1,300-year-old stone Durga that disappeared from a small temple in Kashmir at the height of militancy in the mid-1990s has been located at the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart in southern Germany.

Two experts from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) visited the Linden-Museum this May, and the ASI last week submitted several documents to the museum through New Delhi's embassy in Berlin in order to make India's claim over the idol "absolutely watertight", officials said.

The museum has, however, said that "a lot of research" needs to be done before the "rightful owner" of the Durga is identified. Officials said the 8th century idol was stolen from a temple in the Tengpora locality of Srinagar, and is suspected to have reached the alleged antiques smuggler Subhash Kapoor, who might have sold it to the Stuttgart museum.

Kapoor was arrested in Frankfurt in 2011, and extradited to India the following year. His trial for smuggling antiques began in Chennai in March 2014.

ASI Additional Director General B R Mani told The Indian Express, "The registration number of 'Tengpora Durga' procured from the state government was sent to the museum. We have also provided them with a copy of the FIR lodged with the J&K Police after the theft… Pictures of the idol published in earlier issues of Indian Archaeology, A Review, have also been provided." Mani said a copy of the report submitted by Superintending Archaeologists Sunanda Srivastava and K C Noriyal, who had visited the museum in May to physically examine the piece, had also been sent to the German authorities.

"We have absolutely no doubt the idol belongs to India, and Germany must return it under the 1970 UNESCO Convention on Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, of which it is a signatory," Mani said. Sources said India first took up the matter of the idol with Germany in January 2013, after Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, who was at that time New Delhi's ambassador to Berlin, arranged a meeting between the Indian side and Germany's Ministry of Science, Research and Art. According to Mani, the ASI was first tipped off about the Durga's whereabouts in 2011 by Rakesh Kaul, a US-based Kashmiri Pandit industrialist whom Subhash Kapoor had allegedly tried to "cultivate" as a client.

Kaul told The Indian Express over the phone from New Jersey that he had come in touch with Kapoor after he moved to New York in 1997. "Kapoor had come to the US in 1974. He started a store, Art of the Past, in Manhattan, and quickly established himself as a leading dealer in antiquities. He tried to cultivate me as a client and, frankly, I was stunned by the quality of the pieces he had. I first saw the Tengpora Durga then," Kaul said. a leading authority on ancient Indian and Himalayan art and culture. Kaul was co-chairman of an exhibition on the arts of Kashmir, which had been curated by Pal.

In 2010, Pal — who had been honoured with the Padma Shri the previous year — published a book of essays titled Godess Durga: The Power and The Glory, which had a picture of the Tengpora Durga on its cover. Pal sent Kaul a copy, Kaul said.

"I was as intrigued by the murti as Pal… The murti is a dynamic energy centre, and has been part of the Kashmiri Pandit culture. In the 1990s, this piece, like many others, was taken out of the temple and picked up by someone in the trade. It eventually landed up in Kapoor's New York store. Pal, while casually walking around the store one day, spotted it. Since he had documented it in his book, he confronted Kapoor, who said it might be a case of mistaken identity and promised to do the needful," Kaul said. However, some months later, Kaul said, Pal visited the Linden-Museum to deliver a talk and, while he was being given a tour of the museum's assets in the building's basement, he saw, "to his horror", the Tengpora Durga.

"The then curator of the museum's Indian department, Dr Gerd Kreisel, informed Pal that Kapoor had sold them the piece, along with all necessary paperwork and invoices. He (Pal) immediately got in touch with me, and I flew down to India in 2011 to inform ASI officials about Linden-Museum being in possession of the idol," Kaul said.

Despite repeated attempts, Pratapaditya Pal, who is based in the US, could not be reached for a comment. Among the documents submitted to the museum by ASI is the "eyewitness account" of Asian arts scholar John Siudmak, who has claimed to have seen the Durga in the Tengpora temple before it was stolen. Siudmak's account makes the ASI's case "extremely strong", Director (Antiquities) D N Dimri told The Indian Express.

Siudmak was in charge of the department of Indian and Islamic Art at auctioneer Christie's before becoming a private consultant. He has claimed to have seen the Durga in 1990 in the "village of Tengpura" along with the great oriental scholar, Prof Simon Digby, and Assadouleh Beigh, who was at the time assistant curator of Srinagar's Sri Pratap Singh Museum, "who have now both passed away". "It was in a small shrine protected by an iron grill. Ironically, the villagers would not allow us to photograph the piece since they thought that this would result in it being stolen. Beigh supplied me with the photograph that was used in my PhD thesis. At the beginning of the militancy, I was informed that it had been stolen, and I sent copies of Beigh's photograph to Martin Lerner (MET) and Stan Czuma (Cleveland) to alert them. Dr Pal was also informed and certainly knew about it in 1994 since he was one of my examiners," Siudmak is learnt to have written in an email o Rakesh Kaul.

The ASI is learnt to have perused this communication. Siudmak was travelling at the time of filing this report, and was unable to give a comment. Linden-Museum director Dr Inés de Castro told The Indian Express by phone from Stuttgart: "We do not know at the moment how the piece has gone out from the country (India) and how it landed up in Germany. The team of Indian archaeologists who visited Linden have said they believe the piece must be returned. But we will take action as per German laws. Right now, Germany has taken no official position on this matter. Germany too has lost a lot of Holocaust heritage but never got it back. Both sides need to do a lot of research to establish the claim of the rightful owner."

-The Indian Express, August 12, 2014

On Tuesday, Delhi-based NGO Toxics Link released a study identifying 16 pollution 'hotspots' in the city, where pollution — through illegal waste disposal, segregation, severe soil, water and air contamination — is proving to be fatal for residents.

In a first-of-its-kind study, the NGO covered 51 industrial clusters and identified 16 of them as pollution hotspots on parameters pertaining to industrial processes used, use of chemicals, discharge and emissions, disposal methods, and occupational health and safety. Some of these hotspots, like Mayapuri where the leak of radioactive Cobalt 60 killed one and impacted an unknown number due to radiation, have already underscored the severity of the problem.

But while the geographically varied hotspots have their own unique set of challenges, the commonalities linking these places require urgent "identification of remedial options", immediate "implementation of remedial measures" and continious "long-term monitoring", says the study. For instance, unsafe working conditions such as "unguarded machinery, slippery floors, inadequate fire precautions or poor ventilation" along with "issues related to storage, use and disposal of chemicals or hazardous materials", "high temperature processes" with no emission control and the severe lack of proper "waste disposal" was found in virtually all polluting units.

Moreover, units "working on plastic processing, pickling or lead acid battery recycling, had very poor ventilation" while e-waste units and landfills employed young children and women as cheap labor — exposing them to health hazards. Another unique challenge for combating pollution in Delhi, the study found, was to address trans-boundary pollution in the city. For instance, lead acid battery pollution is caused by illegal recycling units in Prem Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. But these units draw water and power from Delhi and the pollution affects both states.

"The hotspots are spread across Delhi, and the toxic releases could be gradually poisoning the entire city inhabitants. Most of the times the diseases caused by such environmental pollution remain undetected, resulting in much greater damage to the body," Priti Mahesh, chief programme coordinator,Toxics Link, said.

Moreover, a number of these units are located in residential areas, claims the study. Satish Sinha, associate director, Toxics Link, notes that, "as per the Master Plan Delhi (MPD) 2021, all polluting industries need to be shifted out of Delhi by 2021. Though a lot of efforts have been made, the problem persists. In 2011, MCD was supposed to close down around 22,000 industrial units, but not much seems to have been done."

The study notes that such apathy on behalf of government bodies isn't uncommon. For instance, the State Environment Report for Delhi, 2010, identified the existence of a number of metal and textile industries as a source of pollution, but little has been done by the Delhi government in terms of stemming this pollution.

The study adds that "industries and factories were least bothered about the environment. For them, reducing costs is the main motive" and, consequently, while a number of them claim to be connected to effluent-treatment plants and many units claim that hazardous waste was being disposed off in a proper manner, the study found no documentary evidence of this.

-The Indian Express, August 13, 2014

SC was passed following the concerns over the loss of lives and property in the last year's Uttarakhand flash floods.

Almost a year after it restrained the central and state governments from giving any further environmental or forest clearance to hydroelectric projects in Uttarakhand, the Supreme Court Tuesday said the prohibition cannot be in force forever and advocated a "balance" between environmental concerns and economic development.

"Everything cannot be stopped just like that and in perpetuity. There was a natural catastrophe and the restraint order was passed. Environmental concerns and economic propensity have to be balanced now. We have to strike a balance," said a bench led by Justice Dipak Misra.

The court said: "Care and precaution have to be utmost while examining the feasibility of each hydro power project but to scrap all 24 projects could not be the intention of the court order. The judgment never said don't ever give the clearance. The real question would be which are the projects that can go on without affecting the environment."

The August 2013 judgment by the SC was passed following the concerns over the loss of lives and property in the last year's Uttarakhand flash floods. The court had also ordered a comprehensive study of the impact of such projects in the state after underlining that 24 of the total 39 proposed projects had been found to be significantly impacting biodiversity in two sub-basins of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers.

On Tuesday, the counsel for the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) told the bench that a consortium of seven IITs had submitted their report recently and that the ministry was actively deliberating over it. The counsel said IITs were roped in after the 11-member expert committee gave two dissenting reports over viability of the 24 projects.

The bench asked the MoEF to take a call within four weeks on having a policy to regulate hydro-power projects in Uttarakhand and also submit feasibility reports with respect to each of the 24 projects.

The court also made it clear that its 2012 judgment covered projects impacting biodiversity in the two sub-basins of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers and that the central and state governments were at liberty to decide on the clearances for other projects.

-The Indian Express, August 13, 2014

Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung on Tuesday launched a drive to plant 11 lakh saplings in the Capital this year. At a programme organised at Shastri Park metro station, Mr. Jung led dignitaries and students in planting more than 3,000 herbs near the station.

Through a concerted campaign to plant more trees, Delhi is seeking to increase its green cover, which has seen a marked increase in the past near two decades, according to official data.

Include RWAs The L-G's drive seeks to include residents' associations, civic bodies and students in an effort to replenish the Capital's lungs and keep the city clean.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Jung said: "The government is committed to making Delhi the greenest Capital of the world and a jewel in the crown of the forest conservation strategy of India."

Meanwhile, in Kingsway Camp, Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi led the drive by planting saplings in the New Police Lines. The Delhi Police has its own target of planting 10,000 trees in barracks, police stations and residential enclaves of the department. "Police colonies and our institutions have always taken up aforestation and this is one of the best ways to mark Independence Day," he said.

-The Hindu, August 13, 2014

Purely technological solutions like the ambitious river-linking project, do not understand or prioritise those who are affected by these projects

Since taking office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been busy outlining just how exactly he will make the acche din (good days) roll in for

India and Indians. And central to the government's vision of a sujalam suphalam mataram is the river interlinking project. The interlinking project aims to link India's rivers by a network of reservoirs and canals that will allow for their water capacities to be shared and redistributed. This, its votaries claim, is an engineered panacea that will reduce persistent floods in some parts and water shortages in other parts besides facilitating the generation of hydroelectricity for an increasingly power hungry country. Three components

While the interlinking project may be one of the flagships of Mr. Modi's acche din, its provenance goes all the way back to the British Raj. One of its first proponents was the British engineer, Arthur Cotton who suggested linking the Ganga and the Cauvery for purposes of navigation.

Cotton's proposal was shelved but the plan to connect rivers has come up repeatedly in post-independence India. Since the 1980s, the interlinking project has been managed by India's National Water Development Agency (NWDA) under the Ministry of Water Resources. It has been split into three parts: a northern Himalayan rivers interlink component, a southern peninsular component and an intra-State rivers linking component. The NWDA has studied and prepared reports on 14 projects for the Himalayan region, 16 projects for the peninsular India component and 36 intra-State river

interlinking projects. While several governments have toyed with the idea before shelving it (including the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance), Mr. Modi seems all set to go ahead with it. Ms. Uma Bharati, the Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, has informed the Lok Sabha that three interlinking projects — the Ken-Betwa link, the Damanganga-Pinjal link and the Par-Tapi-Narmada link — are set to take-off.

But the most crucial questions about these projects remain unanswered. Will the interlinking project really be the magic wand to reduce water scarcity as is being claimed? Whose experiences of scarcity and struggles for livelihood will it resolve? And what will be the financial and, most importantly, the ecological costs of that process?

For example, the Ken-Betwa river link is currently set to benefit the States of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The cost of the project,

budgeted at over Rs.9,000 crore, is expected to transfer surplus water from the Ken to the Betwa basin through a 221-kilometre long canal. But there's more to the cost than meets the accounting eye. It will also result in the flooding of 8,650 hectares of forestland, including a part of the Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh. For some, drowning a few tigers here and there does not seem much of a price to pay for more water and more electricity, but what of the communities who depend on these lands for their livelihoods? Of course there is that old logic that people must be displaced for the greater good of the country, but would the lives of these people get magically transformed for the better after they have been resettled? Perhaps the question to ask then is whose thirst for water will be quenched by this process. Or, must the more vulnerable sections of the Indian population subsidise the rich and powerful once again? Portraying water scarcity The interlinking project offers us an expansive view of how "development," ambitiously championed by the Narendra Modi government, can be

ecologically and socially disastrous. For, at the heart of the project lies a technocratic fantasy of ending water scarcity through the power of hydraulic engineering. Writing about water scarcity in Kutch, Gujarat, Lyla Mehta has shown how water scarcity is often portrayed as something

that is natural, rather than humanly produced. She raises the rather crucial point that the naturalisation of scarcity within political discourse mostly benefits powerful actors and mega projects; that the water scarcity crisis must also be seen as a crisis of unequal access to and control of a finite resource. Purely technological solutions like the interlinking project are myopic precisely because they do not adequately study, understand or prioritise the socio-economic and long-term well-being of those families — "Project Affected Peoples," as the Ministry of Rural Development calls them — who are affected by these mega projects. Is the crisis of water scarcity and livelihood in contemporary India about to be solved for landless farmers, tribal communities and seasonal labourers or is it only going to benefit the consumptive desires of elite and middle class families?

In a recent article, prominent environmentalists Vandana Shiva and Sarika Malhotra argue that the interlinking projects have no hydrological or

ecological soundness. Their study of the Ken-Betwa link and the Sarda-Yamuna link points to the false government claim that the links will deliver water to drought-prone Bundelkhand. Instead, the drought season they argue, occurs when both the Ken and the Betwa have reduced flow due to the fact that they emerge from the same Vindhyanchal range. As for the Sarda and the Yamuna, both these rivers flood at the same time because they both emerge from the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand.

Ms. Shiva and Ms. Malhotra claim that since the estimated cost of the project was Rs.5,60,000 crore in 2002, the river interlinking projects are not just ecologically but also economically unsound, effectively constituting a gigantic waste of public money. In fact, developmental feats that claim to tackle water scarcity ironically do not pay any attention to the many alternatives for water conservation, such as organic farming, water harvesting and other local initiatives, which can be more effective and less ecologically destructive in mitigating scarcity in drought prone areas. Effects on cultivation

In South India, an environmental impact study by the Centre for Water Resources and Distribution Management (CWRDM) claims that the State of Kerala has several reasons to oppose the Pampa-Achankovil-Vaipar interlinking project aimed at diverting water to the water-starved Vaipar basin

in Tamil Nadu. The study claims that the interlinking project is based on false data provided by the NWDA. Instead of there being surplus water in the Pampa and the Achankovil rivers, as claimed by the NWDA, in reality both rivers are water-deficient. The study further claims that the link will have detrimental effects on rice cultivation in northern Kerala's Kuttanad region, and could potentially create an ecological disaster for both the Vembanad wetland system and the biodiversity of the Western Ghats. It is no wonder then that Ms. Maneka Gandhi, a Union Minister in Mr. Modi's cabinet, has stated that India's river-linking projects are extremely dangerous, and will end up killing the very rivers that they seek to link.

In the context of the interlinking project, one is also reminded of a comment by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on the significance of confluences to Hinduism. Commenting on a passage from the Mundaka Upanishad, he notes that the meeting of rivers, and of a river with the sea, reminds the Hindu mind of the individual soul uniting with the infinite universal soul, shaking off all names and forms. But if the Upanishad points towards a sacred geography etched on the bodies of rivers that travel across our subcontinent representing an age-old, everyday relationship between the

natural world and us, the interlinking projects instead present a deeply anthropocentric and commoditised view of riparian environments, and of their relevance to the Indian subcontinent. And while the interlinking projects stand in stark contrast to Hinduism's long-standing reverence for the river, it is deeply ironic that it is being heralded in by a political establishment that seeks to identify itself continuously with Hinduism. (Parvathy Binoy is a doctoral candidate in geography at Syracuse University, U.S. E-mail:[email protected])

-The Hindu, August 14, 2014

The contamination is made worse as many of these units are located near residential areas in the city.

Industrial pollution, in varying forms ranging from lead acid battery recycling to landfill sites, has been affecting Delhi's residents in adverse ways, as noted by a study of pollution hotspots by NGO Toxics Link.

The most worrying aspect, the study notes, is the manner in which such pollutants seep into the soil, lacing groundwater with heavy metals and other pollutants.

Pollution-generating industries, examined in the study — such as lead acid battery recycling, landfill sites, dyeing industries operating without effluent treatment plants, thermal power plants — were all found to have an adverse impact on ground water. For instance, the study notes that during recycling of lead acid battery in Prem Nagar, "the acid was haphazardly dumped on the ground in a waste pile or into the nearest water body," leading to chances of percolation of lead oxide into ground water.

The study further says thermal power plants can also cause groundwater contamination "due to leaching of heavy metals present in fly ash". The study also identifies the lack of a "leachate collection system" at landfills as a "major source of groundwater contamination".

"Around the Okhla sanitary landfill (SLF) pH was found to be below 6.5, indicating that groundwater has turned acidic. Underground water samples near landfill sites at Okhla, Ghazipur and Bhalswa have been checked and found to be unfit for drinking purposes," the study notes. Contamination is also caused by releasing untreated dyes into the water. Untreated water from a number of dyeing units in Delhi was found to be "directly

released into the drain or thrown openly on the ground nearby" thus releasing dyes containing lead, cadmium, caustic soda — which may eventually make its way back into the ground water, the study says.

The contamination is made worse as many of these units are located near residential areas in the city. "In 2011, MCD was supposed to close down around 22,000 units, but not much seems to have been done till now," Satish Sinha of Toxics Link said.

Doctors said the health risks of groundwater contamination were multi-fold. "It is possible that someone might be feeling the adverse effects of groundwater contamination, particularly the presence of heavy metals, without realising it. Problems ranging from body aches to neurological problems can occur due to long term exposure," Dr S Chatterjee of Apollo Hospital said.

-The Indian Express, August 14, 2014

Call it the Modi effect, the pleasant weather or the extended weekend, Delhiites celebrated Independence Day this year with much more excitement and fervour than ever before. People started with wishing each other on Whatsapp and Facebook right from the morning, while youngsters woke up early to listen to the Prime Minister's speech at Red fort — live on TV. The excitement showed as people walked into Rajiv Chowk Metro Station with the flag painted on their faces; some even had tatoos. Families planned 'kite parties' with friends and relatives. Dads cooked lunch while women dressed up in the three colours of the national flag to commemorate the day.

Perhaps it was excitement of four holidays in a row or simply the lingering Modi mania, but Independence Day was celebrated like a long-awaited festival on Friday.

"My daughter had dressed up in a white salwar suit and orange and green dupatta for a celebration at her office a day before. So I thought why not celebrate at home too. We invited friends over for kite-flying on Friday afternoon and there was a strict dress code," said Ranjana Mehta, a school teacher, living in Moti Nagar.

The pleasant winds added to the festive mood as the national flag at the ramparts of the Red Fort fluttered in full glory. With temperatures remaining at comfortable levels, people thronged public places like Connaught Place and the India Gate lawns to celebrate the country's 68th Independence Day. The Delhi administration's week-long campaign to make the occasion popular also seemed to have hit the bull's eye. "August 15 each year has always been just a national holiday. But this time, there were celebrations in public places. We had started talking about it a week in advance and now with a new Prime Minister, who is quite a crowd-puller, things were more exciting," said Ishan Shukla, a 22-year-old

engineering graduate from Vasant Kunj, who had set an alarm on the previous night to wake up in time for Narendra Modi's speech. He was supposed to go to his friend's place for lunch whose father was making some tricoloured pasta. Delhi Metro also started its services as early as 4:30 AM and gave complimentary travel coupons to commuters from all stations to Kashmere Gate and Chandni Chowk who travelled to attend the Independence day function at the Red Fort.

Patriotic songs being played in the metro sta-tions added to the mood . Many people were already upbeat about the windfall of holidays starting with the Independence Day and ending with Janmashtami on Monday. "Many people did go out of the city for a quick vacation. But then there was a lot to do in the city this time. It's the efforts of the authorities that have paid off I guess," said Japneet Kaur, who loved the peacock created with flowers by NDMC near Chanakyapuri. She even took a selfie with the 'leafy' peacock. Kaur was not the only one to be smitten by the

installations all over the NDMC area. All through the day, people parked their cars near the roundabouts to click pictures with the national flag made with flowers. "It was the best profile picture I could get on August 15," said Nana Sharma, a 23-year-old software engineer. There were a few glitches with hundreds of tripping incidents reported because of kite strings touching electric wires. The average restoration time was between 10-15 minutes.

-The Hindustan Times, August 16, 2014

The Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu and the Rani-ki-Vav in Patan found their way into the UNESCO World Heritage List — the first in 10 years for two Indian sites to qualify.

India was incredible in all respects at the 38th session of the World Heritage Committee meeting in Doha recently. First, it achieved the inscription of The Great Himalayan National Park and the Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen's Stepwell) in Patan, Gujarat, on the prestigious World Heritage List. Second, it was one of the best prepared and most articulate delegations present; and finally, it had a fantastic new transnational project, highly praised and endorsed by none other than Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General, up its sleeve.

Seated beside the Indian delegation in the enormous and spectacular Qatar National Convention Centre, I held my breath as the advisory body ICOMOS read its evaluation report on the Rani-ki-Vav. Just a few months ago, I had visited the richly sculptured subterranean water monument built circa AD 1050. Commissioned by Queen Udayamati in memory of her husband Bhimdev I, founder of the Solanki dynasty, the well in the town of Patan, northern Gujarat, was excavated in the late 1980s by the Archaeological Survey of India. Nothing prepares you for the first sight of the magnificent monument with its intricate sculptures and the engineering ingenuity that must have gone into its planning and construction.

Support for the inscription of the Rani-ki-Vav on the World Heritage List was unsurprisingly unanimous. When the chairperson of the 21-member Committee struck the gavel to pass the decision, I wanted to jump up in the air but I rose as dignified as possible to congratulate the Indian delegation, its members flushed with pride and surrounded by a mob of international delegates.

After The Great Himalayan National Park went up on the World Heritage List with a clean chit by the advisory body IUCN, Ruchira Kambhoj, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to UNESCO-Paris, told me, "India now has seven natural properties and 25 cultural sites, taking the total up to 32, on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is a matter of great pride for us. After 10 years, India has achieved a double inscription: one in the cultural category and one in the natural."

Yet, India has far fewer sites of the latter category on the list. Apparently that lack is being addressed. Dr. Vinod B. Mathur, the director of the Wildlife Institute of India, said that in the last 10 years the Indian government, the Ministry of Environment in particular, has been working strongly on the natural heritage conservation front. Nominations for natural sites are in place for the next four years and these include the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat and Khangchendzonga National Park in Sikkim. "UNESCO is setting up the first centre in the world dealing with natural heritage for management and training at the Wildlife Institute of India. This is for the Asia-Pacific region and the Wildlife Institute is at the forefront of it. In a few weeks time we will have the centre up and running," he said.

India's ambitions extend further. To a packed hall comprising a rapt audience, Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray, chairperson of the National Monuments Authority, talked about its latest project that goes far beyond the borders of India — as far as the shores of Africa. Mausam/Mawsim: Maritime Routes and Cultural Landscapes will be a transnational nomination under World Heritage. Dr. Shikha Jain, the director of Development and Research Organisation for Nature, Arts and Heritage (DRONAH) and consultant to UNESCO, New Delhi, said, "The project aims to explore the multi-faceted Indian Ocean 'world'-collating archaeological and historical research in order to document the diversity of cultural, commercial and religious interactions in the Indian Ocean — extending from east Africa, the Arabian peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka to the Southeast Asian archipelago. The project will open up strong possibilities for all these regions to work together to prepare the nomination dossier." The fact that Irina Bokova made a surprise appearance at the presentation and endorsed the project in glowing terms was a shot in the arm for the ebullient team.

It is 42 years since the birth of the World Heritage Convention in 1972. Today, it is possibly the only international legal instrument that unites such a staggering number of countries — 161 have ratified it — towards a common purpose: protection not only of their own heritage but also of one another's. At its core lies a profound philosophy: the inter-connectedness of nature, culture and the entire world.

However, Dr. Kishore Rao, the director of the World Heritage Centre, faces with several challenges: the politicking that goes into inscriptions, the loss of personnel and expertise in the natural heritage sector, and the difficult financial situation with the US not paying its dues over the Palestinian issue. The host of this year's meeting, Qatar, came to the rescue by donating $10 million to an emergency fund set up to protect World Heritage Sites. "Protecting World Heritage is our answer to extremism," said Irina Bokova.

And that's not all. World Heritage and an understanding of it can be the answer to several issues confronting us today. If the Rani-ki-Vav in Patan, Gujarat, can be tapped to integrate well-being and development, and if the Great Himalayan National Park serves as a model for nature management, India will have further endorsed Bokova's words that World Heritage is "our ally against poverty and climate change". And India will have proved to be incredible yet again.

-The Hindu, August 17, 2014

Marodphali from the Hibiscus family is a small tree that is usually a bush that inhabits dry, rocky sites.

The fruit is cylindrical and spirally twisted giving it the name 'screw tree' and the beautiful red flowers attract birds and butterflies. It flowers in the months of July and August and new leaves sprout in March.

This tree that grows in moderately dry water conditions is number 48 of 'Pradip Krishen's list of 100 most suitable trees for Delhi (NCR)', which was launched here on Saturday.

Gond folklore attributes the rarity of the 'dahi-palash' tree, which is 14 on the list, to it being cut down indiscriminately by British to make the bark unavailable for healing the wounds of Gond soldiers. Some on the list have featured in the Mahabharata, while others have been used as wood ash in cave paintings.

"What is better than trees that drop their leaves during the winter months to let some sun in and those that put on some leaves in summer to provide shade?" asks Pradip Krishen, the author and environmentalist, after a short convincing talk at the launch on going "native" when it comes to planting trees in the Delhi-NCR area.

Mr. Krishen, a self-proclaimed 'native plant gardener' was warning against the obsession with 'evergreen trees' and drove home the point that "native trees work best because they have evolved over millions of years to adapt to particular conditions found here".

Stating that the Delhi-NCR area is made up of several micro-habitats and the list of 100 trees caters to these different habitats, he said, "Strangely all the civic authorities seem completely unaware or do not care about ecological importance."

Founder member of INTACH, O.P. Jain, who unveiled the booklet, said, "This is a very appropriate and useful booklet. If you count the number of trees that are 'officially' planted in Delhi, it will turn out to be a large number, but we don't know how many of these would have survived." Deputy Inspector General of Forests Subhash Chandra said very little attention was given to green cover in the planning stage. "Lots of planning takes place inside offices and not on site and with this emphasis on high growth rate we think we can buy trees but it takes years to grow. We plan to put in place guidelines which civic bodies will be asked to follow sincerely," he said.

"If we are able to make a garden or a park then it will reduce the need of one hospital. It will be a better, sensible society with less stress and greenery that is uniformly distributed."

The text for the booklet, which has been neatly divided based on 'simple' and 'compound' leaves of trees and the water dependency levels in the NCR area, has been written by Padmavati Dwivedi, founder, Compassionate Living.

The booklet offers an insight into flowering seasons of trees, the months in which new leaves appear, and interesting trivia.

-The Hindu, August 17, 2014

The art of beautiful writing called calligraphy, once a major source of income for many who could literally paint words in different languages, has now fallen on bad times. Delhi has less than 30 calligraphers, most of whom have either switched to other jobs such as teaching. Some still make both ends meet through the art. However, most who have switched to other jobs, have not given up altogether because of what they believe is its "magical spell".

Mohammad Mohsin-ul-Haq, who does English calligraphy and runs a coaching centre at Malviya Nagar, spoke about how the government patronage for this art has declined in real terms. "The Central Government has not changed the rate of writing degrees or university certificates in calligraphic style since 1960s and 70s. It still pays Rs.33 for one degree or a certificate. To earn those Rs.33, we have to spend Rs.250 to Rs.350 to reach the centre on our own with our quality ink and qalam . If these degrees or certificate are given to us in small lots, the intermediaries often take a commission of around Rs.5 per degree."

Mohsin makes wedding and greeting cards to stay in touch with calligraphy, his passion. These days he is designing a calligraphic emblem for a Germany-based garment designer.

Those who have been into Urdu calligraphy have been the worst sufferers because most of them used to work in Urdu newspapers/media houses. And when computers came, the Urdu/calligraphic font software were installed and most calligraphers went jobless.

Says Qamar Dagar, who runs Qalamkari, a small organisation to promote calligraphers: "The calligraphic art is dying because of people's ignorance. They have the impression that calligraphy is done in Arabic and other far Eastern languages and it is only used in religious scripts like the Quran and the Bible. The beautiful inscriptions on the Islamic monuments like the Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar further strengthen this impression. Furthermore, calligraphy is an abstract art which is beyond many people's understanding. This is also a reason that people fail to understand how beautiful this abstract form of writing is."

Abu Bakr, another calligrapher of repute, however disagrees. He says it is due to its richness that the old art form is finding new followers. "It is such a beautiful art of writing that vice-chancellors, judges, professors and school principals in Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Egypt learn it as a hobby after their retirement and some even while at work. Therefore calligraphy is still flourishing in these nations. Even the queen of Iran is learning it. But in India, people have restrained it to decorative arts like toghras(wall hangings of Quranic verses) or some Arabic writings. Calligraphy, however, exists in all the languages of the world and is a beautiful visual art." Mr. Bakr has been involved in calligraphy for over 33 years. "It has given me my food and it still does." He writes Quran in different calligraphic styles which foreign nationals buy from him "without bargaining unlike Indians."

While Mohsin suggests the government should start a scholarship for calligraphy courses and provide work in the same filed, Ms. Dagar says the government alone cannot be blamed for its fading glory. "The future of calligraphy can be brightened only though dedicated public-private partnership."

-The Hindu, August 18, 2014

Though no longer on the map, Majestic Theatre brings back many memorable incidents.

Majestic Cinema is long gone, having become part of Gurdwara Sisganj, but its memories remain. Atop the cinema used to be an idol of Lord Krishna playing the flute and at Janmashtami time people, who generally ignored it throughout the year, made it a point to venerate it. They did not go up to the high point where it stood but flocked near the Northbrook Fountain with joined hands to make their supplications. It was only after that that they went to the Gaurishankar temple to pay ritualistic homage while the dancing girls found their partners at the flower-sellers' stalls.

Majestic came up in the beginning of the 20th Century as a threatre (with an actors' gallery) at which the Parsi Theatre group was prominent among the performers. Once, the bhishtis sold their mashaqs (water-skins) and the dhobis their bullocks to buy tickets for a show that was billed as the greatest at that time. Among the performers (if memory serves right) were Prithviraj Kapoor, Zohra Bai, Sohrab Modi and Mehtab. In those days the theatre groups used to come from Bombay and Calcutta to perform in the city which had just regained the status of the Capital of the country. Chandni Chowk was the main business, religious, political and cultural centre and many of note lived in it.

During Janmashtami, after a visit to Jhandewalan temples, women and children particularly visited the jhankis or tableaux depicting the birth of Krishan Kanhiya. While making their way back home to the blowing of conch-shells, they did not forget to cast one last look at the idol that graced Majestic Cinema. Now few remember the Flute Player of Vrindavan perched on high and one often wonders whether the idol was saved or went down when the Majestic façade was demolished?

Haji Zahur, who used to sit every evening at his hotel in Urdu Bazaar with equally old friends 50 years ago, would relate incidents connected with Majestic Theatre. One of the dhobis who had sold his bullock to watch the big show was confronted by his wife with a donkey saying, "From

tomorrow you will have to take the clothes for washing to the Yamuna in a cart drawn by this gadha". The dhobi, who was drunk, embraced the donkey and with tears asked it to get back the bullock. His wife burst out laughing, remarking, "Two of a kind are trying to undo a blunder." The dhobi, however, got back his bullock by taking a loan which he repaid in instalments. On hearing this, Maulvi Sahib disclosed that a bhishti who had sold his mashaq to hear Zohra Bai Ambalewale sing, was confronted by his father in Saqqe Wali Gali, where the water-carriers lived, with the question: "What will you earn and feed your family from tomorrow?" Bhishti Ramzani was so full of remorse that he bought a new waterskin after pawning his wife's ring. Arshad, a hotelier who was also a poet, wrote a poem on another theatre bai and took it to her personally at Fort View Hotel in Chandni Chowk where the actors were staying. He got her framed picture in return. Arshad Sahib used to garland it until his infuriated second wife sold the picture to the kabari and got a severe beating for it.

Another friend of Haji Zahur, Ustad Zahooro went to meet his hero Sohrab Modi one evening and found him rehearsing at the hotel with young Mehtab. He had taken Ballimaran's shammi kababs and roomali roti with him. The actor was pleased with the gift no doubt, as he was a great gourmet and invited the Ustad to attend a free show in the first class the next day. Thus did Delhi continue to be excited about the theatrewallahs until they went back and sanity returned to the city. However, when the theatre became a cinema house it was youngsters like Ahmed Ali's character Asghar who defied family elders to watch late night shows. While returning from one of them, a barber named Kaley saw a ghost (sic) under the street-lamp in his gali and started getting epileptic fits until he was cured by an exorcist of Matia Mahal. But perhaps the most romantic incident is about Robin Haldar seeing a girl at the evening show, falling in love and finally marrying her. Their son went on to become an actor.

Such are the memories of Majestic days that still enliven the evenings in some Old Delhi homes, more so at Janmashtami time. The author is a veteran chronicler of Delhi.

-The Hindu, August 18, 2014

The renovation of Delhi's Coronation Park is all set to miss another anniversary of the British Raj shifting the imperial capital to the city.The work still remains incomplete of Coronation Park which hosts century-old statues of British Emperor King George V and other royalty. Situated on Shanti Swaroop Tyagi Marg, just two kilometres from Kingsway Camp in North Delhi, the Coronation Park is getting readied to become a telling reminder of the city's history.

The site marks the place where the declaration to shift British India's capital from Calcutta to Delhi was made, and the coronation of King George V as Emperor of India on December 12, 1911, took place. The park complex previously housed a Coronation Pillar or the obelisk and five statues mounted on pedestals, one of them being the tallest built statue of King George V.

Top officials of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) admitted that the deadline is expected to miss again of renovation of Coronation Park.

The sprawling compound was in a state of disorder, with building material scattered around. The work on pavements is still going on and cement had been applied only recently on some of them. The unleveled ground was full of puddles, formed after the rains, rendering it unfit to walk.

The statue of King George V transplanted here a few decades earlier from Princes' Park adjacent to India Gate, seemed to be in a state of decay. One statue's face had crumbled, leaving it without any features. Another looked soiled, the colour white acquiring a sooty hue. The boundary wall too did not encompass the entire perimeter of the park, leaving it open to vandalism and theft. The authority has started renovation of Coronation Park in 2012 in collaboration with Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) on a restoration and redevelopment plan for the park. The plan spelt out restorative treatment for the statues and the obelisk, and the building of a restaurant, interpretation centre, amphitheatre, children's play area and parking lot in the 55-acre compound.

-The Pioneer, August 18, 2014

The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has made rooftop solar panels mandatory to partly meet the shortage of power in the city. Initially, the focus would be on installation of solar panels on the rooftops of new buildings, but the step would eventually be extended to all buildings in Gurgaon.

The step comes on the heels of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) setting up four new substations in Gurgaon to overcome power shortage. Sources said henceforth, the MCG will clear a building plan only if it has provision for installation of solar panels on its rooftop. A senior official in MCG's engineering department said the municipal corporation was in talks with the Ministry of Renewable Energy to put in place the final plan regarding the provision of rooftop solar panels in buildings.

"This is a step towards conserving energy, which is the need of the hour. Also, this will allow residents to use this form of renewable energy instead of having to depend on other non-renewable sources of electricity," the official said. According to the official, all commercial buildings in Gurgaon which operate 24×7 will have to install solar panels on their rooftops as they consume maximum power.

Considering that solar panels are expensive, in order to get more and more housing societies to install them, the MCG is planning to provide tax rebate of 5-6 per cent on property tax. HVPN is already planning to upgrade its transmission network to overcome power shortage. The company plans to set up four new sub-stations in Sectors 4, 20, 33 and 57.

The demand for power in Gurgaon is rising by 15-17 per cent every year. In the first week of June this year, the demand crossed 1,650 MV. The existing infrastructure can only handle a load of about 1,700 MV, lending urgency to the task of power infrastructure upgradation. Gurgaon's power demand is likely to cross 1,900 MV by 2015.

-The Indian Express, August 19, 2014

Dr. Vaneet Jishtu is on a mission in Himachal, where invasive species are edging out native plants

As you drive up the Kufri-Chail Road from Shimla near Munda Ghat at a height of 1,700 metres, the untrained eye will only see the slopes dominated by blue pine.

But taxonomist Dr. Vaneet Jishtu is quick to spot the odd white oak among them. "Blue pine is an invasive exotic species which is edging out the local oak," he points out.

It is not only indigenous species like the oak that are being edged out but also the rich treasure of medicinal plants, notably the eight plants or 'Ashtavarga' that is part of the Ayurvedic formulation Chyavanprash.

Dr. Jishtu says that in Himachal Pradesh, all the eight constituents of 'Ashtavarga'— Jeevaka, Rishbhaka, Meda, Mahameda, Kakoli, Kshirakakoli, Riddhi and Vriddhi — were fairly common till the turn of the 19th century.

Henry Collect records in his Flora Simlensis, published in 1902, that 'kshirakakoli' or Lilium polyphyllum, one of the Ashtavarga constituents was a common undergrowth of the deodar forests. Similarly, the seven other species were commonly found in open grasslands, shrubberies and in the forest undergrowth. It is surprising that in a matter of just about 110 years, wild populations of Lilium polyphyllum have almost vanished from the State, he said.

"It was after investing in large-scale surveys that I was able to locate a few areas where these herbs occur. I am also trying to grow them in ex situ conservation plots near Shimla. Since, the population of these ashtavarga species has dwindled and very few people recognise them, the companies manufacturing Chyavanprash or other formulations must be using their substitutes," he pointed out. Revival project

Dr. Jishtu has an 'Ashtavarga project' which aims at reviving these eight herbs. A scientist at the Himalayan Forest Research Institute, Dr. Jishtu's arboretum at Potter's Hill grows local species like the Indian maple and medicinal plants. His aim is to have at least 150 species which reflect the rich biodiversity of the Himalayas, where he has been trekking for the last 20 years. In Himachal Pradesh, 47 medicinal plant species are on the Red list and 11 species are critically endangered.

While blue pine or Pinus wallichiana is an invasive species, it is very much native to the region, Dr. Jishtu said. It tends to be invasive under favourable conditions, like openings in the forests, where it replaces the original forest species. The pretty yellow and white flowers which have covered much of the hillsides and roadsides in Shimla are also an invasive plant from South America (Solanum chacoense, a species of wild potato).

Such non-native species highly reduce the plant diversity of the region and as a result, indigenous plants are in danger of being wiped out, he said.

-The Hindu, August 19, 2014

he ailing waterbodies in city suburbs will soon get a fresh lease of life as the Water Resources Department (WRD) is studying the possibility of developing them into eco-tourism spots. In a bid to rejuvenate the waterbodies, the department is inviting suggestions from voluntary organisations for their comprehensive development. As a pilot project, it will take up the waterbodies in Madhavaram, Ambattur and Korattur with technical assistance from voluntary organisations. The problems plaguing the lakes and steps to restore them were discussed at a recent meeting between the representatives of the department, Care Earth Trust, a city-based biodiversity research organisation, and Chennai City Connect, a WRD official said, adding that the waterbodies were losing their character thanks to rapid urbanisation. Jayshree Vencatesan, managing trustee of the Care Earth Trust, said the waterbodies were shrinking because of an overgrown vegetation.

-The Hindu, August 19, 2014

Guwahati Development Minister Ajanta Neog today told the Assembly that the State Government had allotted the controversial land falling in the Silsako wetland to the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering and Applied Nutrition, on January 19, 2000, much before the enactment of the Guwahati Water Bodies (Preservation and Conservation) Act-2008, and that the absence of any retrospective effect in the Act created legal hurdles in demolishing the Ginger Hotel that was constructed on a part of that plot.

The minister also said that the Government had no detailed list of 'big buildings' constructed on wetlands. She further added that the Act, which was enacted during Himanta Biswa Sarma's tenure as GDD Minister, contained loopholes.

Himanta Biswa Sarma (Congress), while asserting that the entire ongoing eviction would amount to very little unless three big buildings – Ginger Hotel, the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering and Applied Nutrition, and the OKD Institute of Social Change and Development – sitting right on the mouth of the Silsako wetland were demolished, urged the Government to acquire the three buildings by paying the necessary amount (in case they did not violate the Water Bodies Act) and demolish the structures.

"It also needs to be looked into whether a plot given to a government institute likeInstitute of Hotel Management, Catering and Applied Nutrition can be given on sub-let to a private party for commercial purpose. Even if the big buildings standing on Silsako are legal, the Government should acquire and demolish them in the greater interest of prevention of urban floods in the city," he said.

Aminul Islam (AIUDF) alleged that the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering andApplied Nutrition which was given 20 bighas of land, had encroached upon more than the allotted plot. Moreover, he added, the institute's centre on the plot was not functioning.

The minister, in her reply, added that the Bhaskar Baruah Committee was looking into various aspects of the land-related anomalies concerning the eviction drive

-The Assam Tribune, August 26, 2014

While rangoli may have adapted to the new trends with time, its cultural significance remains unaltered. It still signifies a rare synthesis of joy, faith, protection and beauty, observes Usha S.

Shravana masa, as we all know, is the beginning of a new season of festivals in every household. Most homes celebrate this long season with poojas, participate in public religious functions, wear new attires, meet friends and relatives, and exchange sweets and gifts. There is also another custom that steals focus during this season of festivals - rangoli, the art of drawing designs and patterns on the floor.

The laborious process of drawing rangoli by hand is now vastly replaced with using templates of different designs and shapes.

Also, various designs are printed on a synthetic sheet with glue on one side, which can be fixed at the desired spot and can also be retained for a long time. However, as B P Bayiri, the late and great rangoli artist, maintained, there is no alternative to the rich tradition of drawing rangoli by hand. Of late, fluorescent-coloured glues, and coloured kundans and small beads are available for decorating it.

Here, the sketch is drawn on a white paper and it is enlarged to the required size. A thick transparent polymer sheet is placed and coloured glue is spread along the outline and kundans and beads are glued as desired. With this, many complicated designs and the forms of various deities are also made ready, giving the rangoli a three-dimensional look. While rangoli may have adapted to the new trends with time, its cultural significance remains unaltered.

Rangoli or Rangavalli remains one of the popular art forms of sand painting, where

finely ground coloured powder, rice and flowers may be used. Ranga means colour and avalli means a row. This assumes different names in different parts of our land: it is alpana in

Bengal, aripana in Bihar and madana in Rajasthan. The name rangoli is popular in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka. It is chowka purana in Uttar Pradesh, kolam for Tamilians and Keralities, and moggu for those who speak Telugu. Its origin is traced back to legends recorded in Chitralakshana, the earliest Indian treatise on painting. In our ancient culture, the concept of art, God and life are integrated with one another, which is rather well exhibited in a rangoli. Even in our ancient epics and literatures, there have been several references to this art form that revels in beauty above all else.

Rangoli, though a compulsory custom during special occasions, is also drawn on ordinary days in most Indian households across the country. This is a form of offering pooja to the gods. Shakti pooja is performed by drawing different types of mandalas,

depending on the pooja to be performed. Even while performing navagraha pooja, the nine planets are identified with nine different types of grains and colours and are arranged in

accordance with their positions in the mandala. Even auspicious functions, like welcoming a newborn into the family, or a wedding calls for a hase rangoli beneath the seat where the people to be graced will sit. It is also drawn in front of the banana leaves spread for the lunch offered to guests. Rangoli has come to signify a rare synthesis of joy, faith, protection and beauty.

Usually, a floor is used as the base. However, even the walls may be utilised for drawing rangoli. Traditional motifs for rangoli are inspired by nature. Peacocks, swans, flowers, fruits and creepers are commonly used.

Traditionally, the colour used is supposed to be natural dyes made from the bark of certain trees. Today, synthetic dyes are more

commonly used, as they are available in a wide variety of bright colours. To give the same three dimensional effects, different-sized grains, cereals and pulses are used. Normally, the design employed is of specific geometric shapes: lines, dots, circles, triangle, swastika and the like. Interestingly, there are no broken lines in a rangoli pattern, for it is believed that evil spirits may enter through the gaps otherwise.

-The Deccan Herald, August 27, 2014

For centuries, the Silk Road was a set of important trade routes connecting the ancient civilizations of China and India with those of Central Asia and the Mediterranean.

Ageless The Georgian National Dance Company Sukhishvili is one of the groups performing in the Silk Road Arts Festival.

Now those roads lead to Hong Kong, as that city hosts the Silk Road Arts Festival (www.silkroadfestival.gov.hk), an array of music, dance, theater performances, lectures and workshops that aim to introduce a new audience to the legacy left by that famed cultural and commercial exchange.

The festival, which runs from October 9 to November 8 in various locations, begins with a musical and costume extravaganza, "Splendors of the Tang Dynasty" (the opening event is sold out). Star power will be further provided by the renowned Japanese musician Kitaro, who will unveil a new musical work composed specially for this festival.

More eclectic offerings include 'New & Old Myths of Tuva,' featuring throat singers from that remote region; 'Buddhist Music: Treasures From the Silk Road,' performed by ensembles from three different monasteries; a performance by the Georgian National Dance Company Sukhishvili, intriguingly described as "a potent combination of mystical grace and virtuosic feats producing a magical encounter with ethereal women and heroic warriors."

In addition, the 'All About Silk' lecture will focus on the making and trade of silk, and many of the festival's performers will also be hosting lectures and demonstrations to discuss their crafts. For those seeking more active participation, workshops will be given on Kazakh and Uighur dance and Persian percussion, as well as a class from the contemporary dance group Shen Wei Dance Arts.

A selection of films offers some intimate portraits of lives along the Silk Road. The series includes the China-Japan co-production 'The Silk Road'; 'Azur and Asmar,' an animated tale from France; and 'Ashik-Kerib,' a surrealist romance from Georgia.

For more information and a full schedule, visit the festival's website. Ticketing and registration are currently available through www.urbtix.hk or by calling (852) 2734-9009.

-The Deccan Herald, August 27, 2014

The tourism sector has for far too long been an elephant in the room: Everyone recognised its potential but not enough was done to harness it. Out of 1.035 million international tourist arrivals in 2012, India received 6.58 million. In terms of international tourism receipts of $1,075 billion, India received $17.74 billion (1.65%), shockingly low for a country of this size, diversity and heritage.

For every unit of investment globally, travel and tourism directly employs six times more than automotive manufacturing; five times more than the chemical industry, four times more than the mining industry, and a third more than the financial services industry. In India, a spend of $1 million in this sector supports 407 jobs as compared to communication services (381 jobs), financial services (329) and manufacturing (315). In 2013, travel and tourism investment in India was `1,938.7 billion (6.2% of total investment), which generated 22,320,000 jobs (4.9% of total employment). The gross contribution, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry, was 7.7% of total employment (35,438,500 jobs).

Thus, the tourism sector in India is the most appropriate instrument for addressing the concerns of poverty, employment and regional imbalances.

If one were to distinguish between business and pilgrim tourism from leisure tourism, then tourism is largely confined to Kerala, Goa and Rajasthan. The efforts of several states to streamline their tourism sector are yet to attain critical mass. A concerted policy impetus alone can launch the tourism sector into the next orbit. In particular, we have to visualise the next level of the successful Incredible India campaign for communicating it on a broader scale globally, which is also an excellent vehicle for projecting soft power.

The first step should be to set an agenda and create a framework for the sector, which sustains nature, nurtures communities and provides unique experiences to the traveller. Kerala's Responsible Tourism (RT) initiative has been lauded worldwide and the Kumarakom RT project has won the Ulysses Award, the highest honour given to government bodies for shaping global tourism policies through innovative initiatives.

Second, the tourism ministry's approach to spread its resources across the country on small projects makes sense from an equity point of view, but the outcomes tend to get dissipated. Instead, investments should be made in a mix of big bang, impactful projects along with those that equitably distribute resources. We could start by picking five top destinations and transform them into world-class destinations in the next two-three years.

Third, India should seek a leadership role in international tourism bodies to create partnerships through key projects. The Spice Route project of Kerala Tourism and Unesco, which seeks to bring together 31 countries through their common shared heritage to create a fascinating voyage for the new age traveller on the lines of the Silk Route, could be one. Similarly, international partnerships can be built on our religious heritage like Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic circuits. Fourth, there should be full synchronisation between the government and the tourism industry.

Fifth, a strong framework for cooperation between the states should be created to increase a visitor's duration of stay. The game is not about getting a larger share of the pie but working together to increase its size.

Finally, both the Centre and the states should come together to rationalise the plethora of taxes to enable the sector to compete on the global stage.

Roadblocks like the coastal regulatory zone rules, which allow the development of commercial and residential complexes but not tourism properties, should be amended. After all, you cannot expect a tourist at a beach resort if she has to use a pair of binoculars to see the ocean. Suman Billa is a civil servant The views expressed by the author are personal

-The Hindustan Times, August 27, 2014

The sites and stones of British India are spread across Delhi. More than 60 years after Independence, Delhiites regard the reign as a little signpost of the past.

History lies in quiet repose some 1300 times over — that is the number of monuments said to be of national importance in the Capital. The British rule caused much angst to Indians but more than 60 years after

Independence, Delhiites regard the reign as a little signpost from the past. Be it the site commemorating the Royal Durbar of 1911 when King George announced the shifting of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi — the place came to be called Kingsway Camp in later years — or New Delhi set up by Edwin Lutyens with more than a dissenting opinion from Herbert Baker, Delhi seems comfortable with its imperial past.

As the Capital, Delhi did not have the best of beginnings. Lord Hardinge, who was to inaugurate the new city in December, 1912, came riding an elephant when a bomb was hurled at him; the umbrella bearer was killed, Lord Hardinge escaped with

serious injuries. His enthusiasm waned soon as did that of Lutyens-Baker who fell out over the niceties of the Viceregal Palace. These though proved minor irritants as the city kept its date with destiny: In came India Gate as a modern-day war memorial bearing the names of some 70,000 Indians who sacrificed their lives in the First World War. In 1971 was added the Flame of the Immortal Soldier or Amar Jawan Jyoti. Nearby, we have had a 73-foot cupola, inspired by a sixth-century pavilion from Mahabalipuram, under which was a fifty-foot tall statue of King George V. The statue was later removed to Coronation Park, in which we can find many other statue of the imperial regime.

Every brick in the Capital seems to have history written over it. Hey, but not every stone is say staid and profound. For proof, just go across to Ludlow Castle, for long a successful school. But back in the pre-Independence era, it was the place where the wedding party of Jawaharlal Nehru stayed as part of the festivities! Stones do speak. Some of them smile too.

-The Hindu, August 27, 2014

Delhi govt comes to the rescue of Paharganj's two mediaeval monuments ruined by apathy and encroachments for decades Paharganj's identity, for years, has been that of an area replete with budget hotels teeming with foreign tourists. But lost amid the din and bustle of this part of the capital are two monuments that spoke volumes for the strong architectural legacy left behind by two of Delhi's illustrious sultanates.Encroached upon and vandalized by locals for years, the Tughlaq-era baradari and Lodhi-era mosque on Qutub Road today are only a faint remembrance of a lost era. But there is hope for their revival.

The two buildings were recently taken over by Delhi government's department of archaeology. Officials believe that once these monuments are revived, these could become important tourist spots. tourist spots.

While the Baradari had been used as a godown for years, the mosque was overrun by commercial establishments--a garage and tea stalls.Officials said several rooms had been built inside the Baradari which were being used for multiple purposes including accommodation and storage.

Archaeologically graded A and B, the two monuments, however, were structurally sound though the facade had been damaged at several points. The rooms constructed inside the Baradari have now been razed. Only one still stands which will also be demolished in days to come. The work is being executed by Intach Delhi Chapter in keeping with an MoU with the government's archaeology department.

"The building is undergoing extensive conservation work. Repairs will be made to the facade which is damaged at several points and is falling apart. There is evidence of ornamentation on the arches which we will try to salvage as well," said an official.

The structure has five domes on the roof and one of the bigger challenges will be to remove tree branches and foliage which have come up there over the years. As some of the overgrowth originates from inside cracks in the monument's facade, this will have to be done carefully, without causing further damage, an official said. Opposite the Baradari, is a mosque where the unauthorized constructions are yet to be pulled down. A signboard declaring the name of a garage stands in the front of the mosque. The new constructions on the upper floor of the mosque can also be seen from the road.Officials said that work on the mosque will be taken up after the Baradari is restored.

The Paharganj Baradari and the mosque were part of a list of 50 monuments adopted by Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation during Commonwealth Games when the government had shifted its focus from grander, centrally-protected monuments to smaller-but-architecturally-striking historic structures.

At that time, SRDC had decided to conserve and maintain 50 unprotected sites including Jharna in Mehrauli, the garden of Mehram Khan near the domestic airport terminal, Bholi Bhatiyari ka Mahal near Karol Bagh and the mosque in Paharganj. However, in December 2011, SRDC handed these back to the state archaeology department with the management planning to concentrate only on Shahjahanabad area.

-The Times of India, August 28, 2014

After being directed to take a clear stand, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on Wednesday informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that it was "not processing" Madhav Gadgil's Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report for any further action.

In an affidavit filed in response to a petition by the Goa Foundation, the Ministry said all future activity would be based on the report of the high-level working group (HLWG) headed by K. Kasturirangan, the then member of the Planning Commission. The HLWG report was a subsequent report to the WGEEP report and the Ministry was examining and further processing the HLWG report, the affidavit said. The affidavit comes in response to an August 25 NGT order where the Ministry was asked to explain its position vis-à-vis the Gadgil report.

The affidavit said the Ministry had constituted the HLWG on August 17, 2012 to examine the WGEEP report in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion keeping in view the comments received from State governments concerned, Central ministries and stakeholders. The HLWG submitted its report on April 15, 2013. The Ministry issued a direction under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act on November 13, 2013 ordering immediate protection to the Western Ghats and maintaining its environmental integrity. A draft notification was published on March 10, 2014, declaring ecologically sensitive areas in the Western Ghats to which objections had been invited.

Raj Panjwani, counsel for the Goa Foundation, said the area which was declared ecologically sensitive came down from 1.29 lakh sq km to 56,825 sq km in the Kasturirangan report. He contended that the area which was left out also needed protection. The tribunal asked him to file objections to the draft notification delineating the eco-sensitive zones as per the Kasturirangan report. Mr. Panjwani said he had no objection to file the same. He said the concern was a large area was left out which needed protection.

Counsel for the Ministry said the government was open to considering extension of areas to be declared eco-sensitive and sought time to get back on whether this was possible. The next hearing will be held on September 9.

An Environment Ministry official later said the Gadgil report was not jettisoned and it was the basis for the Kasturirangan report.

The NGT on Monday asked the Ministry to clarify its stand on the Gadgil report which was opposed by most of the seven State governments since it restricted development in much of the Western Ghats region and had declared about 1.29 lakh hectares eco-sensitive. The NGT headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar had hauled up the Ministry for not taking a clear stand on the fate of the Gadgil report.

-The Hindu, August 28, 2014

As many as 10 out of 63 City lakes exist only on paper, and another 26 have nothing of their original identity, a Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) communique has revealed.

Emphasising the pathetic state of water bodies in Bangalore, once famed as the "City of Thousand Lakes", a list of 36 lakes sent by BBMP to the deputy commissioner (DC) of Bangalore Urban district has revealed that strategically located Sankey Tank in posh Sadashivanagar too, has not escaped encroachment.

As part of a series of letters written to the DC, the BBMP lake division wrote another letter on August 25, 2014 seeking the survey sketch of these 36 lakes, which have been partially or totally encroached upon.

It has also urged him to demarcate the boundaries of the lakes and remove the encroachment. Of the 63 lakes in the BBMP's custody, 10 lakes among the 36 lakes encroached upon exist only on paper and have lost their original identity.

A copy of the letter in possession with Deccan Herald says that the Sankey Tank, which is spread over 35 acres in government records has been encroached upon to an extent of one acre and six guntas. The area commands astronomical land prices.

Historic Kempambudhi Lake, built near Basavanagudi by the founder of Bangalore, Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, has been encroached up to four acres. Halage Vaderahalli Lake near Rajarajeshwari Nagar has lost six acres and nine guntas to encroachers.

The extent of Kaudenahalli Lake in the City in survey records is 55 acres but 32 acres have been grabbed by land sharks. Now, slums, posh houses, schools and playgrounds rub shoulders with the space meant to be a water body. The lakes which have disappeared from the face of Bangalore and exist only in government records.

These are the Chikka Kallasandra Lake and Ittamadu Lake in Padmanabhanagar, Byataguntepalya Lake, Lingarajapura Lake, Konena Agrahara Lake, Geddalahalli Lake near Dollars Colony off Bellary Road, Vijinapura Lake, Basapura Lake, Srinivagilu Lake and Binnamangala Lake.

While writing to the DC to evict encroachments from the lakes, the BBMP too did not bother to check the records for their extent.

In one instance, the BBMP mentions the area of Chikka Kallasandra Lake as nine acres and 10 guntas, whereas the revenue records show that it is spread over 12 acres and 26 guntas.

In this regard, a senior Palike officer said he would rectify these errors while writing another letter to the DC shortly.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Bangalore Urban DC V Shankar said he was aware of the lake encroachments and an action plan has been drawn up to free the lakes.

"We recently had a meeting regarding eviction of encroachment from lakes and other public land. We also have drawn a detailed plan and you will see the results from September," said Shankar.

BBMP?Commissioner M Lakshminarayana said the Palike lacks magisterial powers to evict encroachments. Once these encroachments are identified, Revenue officials should step in and clear them. Slum Development Board should also assist to rehabilitate the slum dwellers.

- The Deccan Herald, August 29th, 2014

Over the past 30-35 years, using aerial and satellite remote sensing data, palaeochannels (remnants of an inactive river or stream) have been systematically mapped to discover the course of Saraswati — a river that, as per Vedic texts, once joined the Ganga and Yamuna at the Sangam in Allahabad.

The agencies working on this include the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) in Jodhpur, Geological Survey of India (GSI) in Jaipur, Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad, Regional Remote Sensing Centre in Jodhpur, Rajasthan Groundwater Board, Central Ground Water Board and ONGC. Last year, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) carried out a project to plot the course of the Saraswati using satellite data.

Saraswati is believed to have had three tributaries: Sutlej arising from Mount Kailash, Drishadvati from Shivalik Hills and the old Yamuna. Together, they flowed along a channel, presently identified as that of the Ghaggar river, also called Hakra river in Rajasthan and Nara in the Sindh region in Pakistan.

Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti has said that there is considerable evidence to ascertain the course of the river and the government will try to "trace the route". Bharti has also instructed officials of the Central Groundwater Board to test water samples from a well inside the Allahabad Fort, a 16th-century building located close to the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna in the city. As per local lore, the Saraswati flows beneath the deep well, known as 'Saraswati Koop'.

"Ample scientific evidence from remote sensing to archaeological excavations reveals beyond doubt that Vedic Saraswati river was flowing in northwestern India, sub-parallel to the Indus River around 6000 BC. It became a seasonal trickle around 3000 BC due to climatic and tectonic changes in the Himalayan region," says Dr J R Sharma, chief general manager, ISRO, and Dr B K Bhadra, senior scientist at ISRO, who have both worked extensively on the project for decades. In a study initiated in the 1990s, it was concluded that Saraswati originated from Bandarpunch, or Har-ki-dun, a glacier in the Garhwal Himalayas and finally discharged into the Gulf of Khambat on the Gujarat coast.

Today, the Saraswati is represented by the Ghaggar river that flows on its palaeochannel in Haryana, according to ISRO. Around 14 wells were dug near it there, and when the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre carbondated the water, they found it was 8,000-14,000 years old. More than 100 years ago, British engineer C F Oldham reached the same conclusion and believed the Ghaggar river occupied the bed of a much bigger river, possibly the Saraswati.

Rajesh Purohit, Director of Allahabad Museum, says these are all hypotheses and that to establish the existence of the river, "more exhaustive research on the ground will be required".

Purohit, an archaeologist, has attempted to trace the existence of Saraswati for nearly 20 years. At Bhoresaida, a few kilometres from Kurukshetra, he found a dried-up river bed in 2006, nearly 80 feet below ground.

in a phenomenon known as "river capturing", where a larger river takes over a smaller one, changing its course and size. "Yamuna, in Vedic etymology, itself signifies the phenomenon of 'river capturing'. It is possible that some part of Saraswati was captured by Yamuna and brought east, while the remaining was taken over by Sutlej — the river on the western side of Saraswati's bed," he says.

The route mapped out so far, validated through collateral data such as geomorphic anomalies, drilling data of tubewells, age of ground water, archaeological data and old maps, shows the river originated in Kailash Mansarovar and emerged on the plains from the foothills of the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh. It then flowed through the Ghaggar valley in Haryana and the Thar desert, on to Hakra in the Cholistan desert (Sindh, Pakistan), before reaching the Rann of Kutch through the Nara Valley and emptying into the Arabian Sea.

Many references exist about the Saraswati river meeting the Arabian Sea along the existing Kori Creek. Recent investigations have revealed that more than one river helped build up the deltaic deposits in the Rann.

It has also been observed that many prosperous towns of Harappan culture (3000-1500 BC) existed along banks of what may have been the Saraswati. "The Rig Veda mentions seven rivers which flowed from the Himalayas towards the Arabian Sea. While Indus was the westernmost, Saraswati was the easternmost. In fact, at places it flowed parallel to the Yamuna, providing a region fed by two rivers, which allows for the possibility of a rich civilisation," says Purohit.

Professor S Ojha, a geography professor at Allahabad University, puts forward a similar theory. "Locally, the confluence point of the Ganga and Yamuna has been shifting. In fact, if you take a map of Allahabad and join the bandhs (embankments), they will virtually form a straight line ending up at Saraswati Ghat on the Yamuna, towards the west of the Allahabad Fort," he says.

"After all, why would a ghat on Yamuna be called Saraswati Ghat?" asks Purohit. He adds that he is unsure whether testing water from Saraswati Koop would be enough to establish the presence of the river. "Testing the water can only tell you how old it is. But how will you establish that water is from the Saraswati?" he says. However, he adds, the "idea is still worth pursuing".

- The Indian Express, August 31, 2014