A new sub-station was inaugurated at Masjid Moth near Chirag Delhi on Tuesday. The sub-station, constructed by Delhi Transco, is expected to significantly reduce power problems of areas in south Delhi.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit inaugurated the sub-station. She said: "The demand of power in Delhi is increasing every year at the rate of around 8% per annum. The power demand, which was 3097 MW in July 2002, has crossed 4823 MW on May 18, 2011. Delhi Transco has successfully supplied this power to the people of Delhi. There will not be any shortage of power during the summers."

Transco was initially allotted land at Siri Fort for a 220 KV sub-station but the project met with resistance from ASI. The present site of 5.51 acres was allotted to Transco in September 2004 and also met with resistance from local residents. Work on the project started on September 26, 2006.

Times of India, 1st June 2011

photographer Sunil Gupta reiterates that the lens is now looking ‘bookwards’

Sunil Gupta , 57, recently launched yet another photography book titled Queer, published by Vadhera Art Gallery and Prestel in Delhi. He will soon launch it in London. From large coffee table tomes to small pocket-book varieties, books on photography have become popular collectors’ items. A year back Dayanita Singh brought out a self-titled retrospective book, that was also recently launched in Spain. In the pipeline are books we will cherish for a long time. The big daddy of photo books from India, Raghu Rai will soon have two more tomes, one on trees, and the other on forgotten frames from Bangladesh. Whereas, fashion and lifestyle photographer Amit Pasricha’s India At Home, will release next year.

A variety of photographers are investing time and money in the production of photography books, which have a good chance to become artwork themselves. Anyone who has made a name for themselves at least have one photo book to their credit. “In today’s age of software, internet and digital prints, production of a photo-book has become an easier process,” says Rai.

The photo book has a hallowed history. The earliest example lies in the Alkazi Art Foundation in the form of photo journals that the British brought out in the 1930s and ’40s. The boom in photography has led to a wide range of books. From collectors’ items like Singh’s Sent A Letter and Pasricha’s Monumental India that can cost up to Rs 10,000, to affordable photo magazines like Camera Work, that have been brought out by Gupta and Gill and PIX (a new photo magazine) by Rahab Allana.

Gupta recalls that his relationship with books began even before he took up the camera. “As a young man growing up in an India that was not gay-sensitive, I found my best companions in books because they were private. When I began to take photographs, the next logical step was to preserve and present them in books,” says Gupta who has over 10 published photo books. Queer documents a range of Gupta’s work, from the early days as a queer diaspora artist living in London in the ’80s and ’90s to his latest series Sun City 2011, a gay photo-fantasy set in a Turkish Bath House in Paris.

“The book format lends itself very well to photographs since, unlike other art forms like painting and sculpture, which may only be represented by photographs of the artwork; a photography book comes as close to owning the actual artwork as one can get,” he says.

Singh echoes a similar sentiment. That’s why she began making hand-made photo-dairies for her friends and later developed them into a mini-exhibition that got boxed in Sent A Letter, a collection of seven small accordion books. After that we saw several books from her — large coffee table varieties, Myself Mona Ahmed, Privacy, Go Away Closer and her small diary-sized catalogues for Dream Villa and The Blue Book. “My purpose in creating these books is to make my work accessible. And have a mini-exhibition,” says Singh.

However, Pasricha believes that the book cannot replace an exhibition. “For me a photo-book doesn’t rival an exhibition, even though the books I produce are large sized. Mounted and framed and on the wall is the way I like my photos,” he says. “But, a book immortalises your work for at least 10 to 15 years. It is a document accessible to generations and travels across borders,” he adds.

His next book, resembles mounted photos. “They will appear framed and butter paper in-between the pages will ensure you see one picture at a time,” he says.

Indian Express, 1st June 2011

Visitors view Ajmer through a black and white lens. To the faithful, it is a blessed place on account of the Dargah of the revered saint Khwaja Moin-ud-din Chisti. But what about for those who are not spiritually inclined? Well, then Ajmer can be taxing. Especially at this time of the year, when the town in Rajasthan is chock-a-block with pilgrims attending the annual Urs at the Dargah.

I found that walking down a narrow lane, as part of a crowd comprising a few thousand people, towards an even more constricted space when temperatures hover close to fifty degrees centigrade is an ordeal. Add to that the effect of every alternate shop in the lane playing raucous folk music at full blast and it is enough to numb the brain, never mind the impact on the ear drums.

But, for those who get taken along to Ajmer with their families, there is good news: there is a middle path to escape into. It begins exactly at the main entrance to the Dargah. Turn right at the gate and walk straight into the narrow lane. Ten minutes of walking and a high wall looms to the right. This is the stone platform housing the Adhai-din-ka-jhopra, a mosque raised by the Slave dynasty ruler Qutab-ud-din Aibak at the end of the 12th century. That's a name that features in every school history book!

The name of this structure literally means 'Two-and-a-half-day shed' based on the legend that it was built in that period of time. This seems a bit exaggerated given the fact that the mosque was built with the material salvaged from a temple that used to stand at this site. It must have taken at least that much time just to demolish the temple before building the mosque.

The Times of India, 2nd November 20111

It is said Ganga never leaves the ghats of Benaras, now Varanasi, because of its love for Baba Vishwanath. It flows close to the ghats to wash the sins of the paapi, paving the way for their salvation.

But it seems that with time, the moods of this mighty river have also changed. The Ganga no longer touches the embankment of the ghats and mounds of sands proclaim the sorry state of this holy river.

Locals can best tell the difference time has made. Rama Shanker Chaurasia (45), a tea vendor at Dashaswamedh Ghat, said, “It is really shocking to see the state of the Ganga. The depletion is perceptible in last four to five years. It used to wash the feet of Baba Vishwanath earlier; now, not only has the river moved away from ghat but has also become more polluted.”

Chaurasia is a native of Handia but his family shifted to Varanasi when he was four. Since then, he has seen different moods of the river in the holy city but he clearly recalls how Ganga never deserted its ghats, even in the summer.

He recounts the horrifying tale of floods in the 1990s, when the river inundated Godaulia, the main market. People used boats but their reverence remained undiluted, for all its mighty fury.

Ganga is more than just a river, a lifeline for the people of this holy city. It is revered as a goddess. Ganga Maiyya ki kasam is the common refrain to prove one’s innocence.

Its current form is all the more painful for people to see. “It is no longer the same Ganga ...it has changed. Lagta hai Ganga Maiyya humse ruth gayin hain,” rued Chaurasia, casting a vacant look at the river, whose course is punctuated with mounds of sands.

Eminent river expert Prof UK Chaudhary of the civil engineering department, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), said, “The prevalent trend is shocking and dangerous for the existence of river.”

He cites two reasons for the Ganga moving away from ghats.

“It is a natural process that sands would collect on both sides. Due to excess collection of sands on the convex side (across river), pressure is seen on other side,” he said.

The second reason is man-made. “Though the area between Assi and Nagva ghats is known as a stable zone, sedimentation began due to human intervention. Earlier, the slope of bank was mild but when Assi ghat was constructed in the mid-1980s, excess mud was thrown into the river, despite protests. This added gradients in the slope of the ghats and thus, the river started shifting from there,” Chaudhary said.

Not many agree with this. Locals blame Tehri dam for the plight of the river in Varanasi. Badal Prasad Jaiswal, who runs a cycle repair shop at Rajendra Prasad Ghat, said the construction at Tehri Dam has slowed down the flow of river.

Hira Nand Pandey, a priest of Tripura Bhairavi Ghat, said the water of the Ganga was diverted through canals without giving it a thought. “Actually, there is no water. A portion of it was stopped at Tehri while the rest was diverted to other areas,” he insisted.

Author Prof Kashi Nath Singh in his book, the Sunny Doel-starrer ‘Mohalla Assi’ which is under production, said, “No ‘tapus’ (mounds) were visible and the adjoining areas often faced flood. But the condition has changed. The river has not only shifted its course but the water quality has also deteriorated. It has now turned black. Earlier, people used to drink this water, but today they hesitate even to take a dip.”

Eminent vocalist Padma Bhushan Pt Channu Lal Shastri, who has presented hundreds of programmes at the ghats in the last half century, said a lot of efforts were being made by many — including leading environmentalist and Mahant of Sankatmochan temple Prof Veer Bhadra Mishra — but the truth was that the river was turning dirty. Reciting several lines of a poem, he appealed to people to save the river.

At Manikarnika Ghat — the famous cremation ground where the light in the pyres never die down — incharge Rakesh Dom struck a somber note. He said, “We are waiting for the Bhagirath who would save the Ganga this time. If we can not save Ganga in Benaras, the existence of this holy city would come to an end ... We will be doomed.”

Pioneer, 2nd June 2011

This could be the city's best kept royal secret. The cover was blown off one of Vadodara's biggest land deals involving the grand Laxmi Vilas palace, its residents - the royal Gaekwads - and builders from Rajkot when the municipal corporation sat down to discuss a low cost housing scheme.
Apparently in 2002, the royal family sold off the palace property estimated at 6.5 lakh sq metres (nearly 160 acres) to Rajkot's realtors. This surfaced in the general board of Vadodara municipal corporation where there were objections to build a public garden on 66 acres of palace land, reserved for low cost housing. The palace, running into some 700 acres, is not only a heritage property built by Sayajirao Gaekwad III, but is Vadodara's biggest lung with thousands of trees in its compound.
The urban poor housing scheme goes back to March 2001 to a legal dispute pending in Supreme Court. Maharani Shantadevi Gaekwad had unconditionally offered 66 acres for a housing scheme for poor as a solution to end the matter. The government took hold of the land in June 2001. The late Maharani Shantadevi was mother of scion Ranjitsinh, Sangramsinh and Mrunalinidevi.

Pioneer, 2nd June 2011

Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday announced here that his Ministry would establish a unique bio-cultural park, the first of its kind in India in Bhubaneswar.

Addressing the inaugural function of the new gallery on North East Biodiversity in the premises of the Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH) here Ramesh said that the proposed park would be set up in 10 acres of land within the next two-and-half years.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been requested to provide suitable land for the purpose. The park, he said would have different varieties of aromatic flower plants associated with different culture and having reflection of various religions in our secular traditions.

Various varieties of flowers used by tribals, Buddhists, Jains , Sikhs, Muslims , Christian and Hindu cultural and religious traditions will be planted in the park, he said adding that the park would be developed by the Union Government and after three years , it would be handed over to the State Government for management.

Stating that India has a very rich diversity of wild plant and animals and is considered as one of the mega diverse country out of seventeen mega diverse countries of the world,

Ramesh said that his Ministry was keen to develop the biodiversity hotspots and different ecosystems of Odisha highlighting the proposed biodiversity projects in Odisha, he said that MoEF would take appropriate steps to protect the important biodiversity of Odisha including Olive Ridley turtles and wetlands of this coastal State.

Inaugurating the North East Biodiversity Gallery in the RMNH premises, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the north eastern region comprising the seven sister States and Sikkim were endowed with pristine biological diversity which should be exhibited to the people "The new gallery in fact, added a new feather to the RMNH", he said.

Stating that nature has endowed Odisha with rich biodiversity, Patnaik called upon to formulate strategies on integrated management for sustainable development, capacity building for conservation and management, research and monitoring , public awareness , community participation in conservation, cooperation and funding. Calling upon to work hard to achieve the goal of sustainable development encompassing economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability, the Chief Minister said.

Pioneer, 2nd June 2011

No ramps at building; varsity employs architects to redesign colonial-era structure

The Delhi University will remodel the Viceregal Lodge to make it more accessible to the physically handicapped. The colonial-era building, which houses the Vice-Chancellor’s office among others, was restored between December 2002 and October 2004, when Deepak Nayyar was the Vice-Chancellor.

The idea has originated from the Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC), mandated to work among students belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Class and Persons With Disabilities.

“We have employed a team of architects to redesign to the lodge. The Engineering Department of the University is also involved,” said Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) at the EOC, C Nisha Singh.

“There are no ramps; there are lots of ups-and-downs, including stairs. We want to make it easier for someone to get around,” said Singh. The Viceregal lodge is also the venue for some of the most prestigious events of the University, including the convocation.

“Even I have to be lifted up when I visit the building,” said Komal Kamra, member of the EOC and associate professor of Zoology at the SGTB Khalsa College, who uses a wheelchair.

Five Viceroys stayed in the Viceregal Lodge between 1912 and 1931 while the present-day Rashtrapati Bhavan was being built. Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, is said to have proposed to his wife Edwina in the very same room that is now the University Registrar’s office.

The EOC will also remodel two of its three vehicles to accommodate wheelchairs. “As soon as the registration for physically handicapped candidates are over, we will send the two TATA Wingers for remodelling. They will then be able to accommodate two or three wheelchairs,” said Kamra. As of now, students who use wheelchairs have to be lifted into the vans of the EOC, and the wheelchairs have to be folded into the vehicles.

The EOC picks up and drops about 100 students from their hostels to colleges on an average working day. “We pick up students from hostels located as far away as Rohini and drop them in all the colleges in North Campus, along with Satyawati, IP and Lakshmibai colleges,” said Nisha Singh.

Express News line, 3rd June 2011

Unseen slices of India's history will shortly be accessible to the public through the massive digitisation project Nehru Memorial Museum & Library has undertaken.

Controversies and criticism have been regular visitors to Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML) along with the steady flow of students, researchers, scholars and historians in the recent years. Amidst this noise, NMML had embarked upon a mammoth project of digitisation of significant archival material pertaining to our history, specifically in the context of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and it's possible that not only Professor Mridula Mukherjee's detractors but even those who witnessed the developments purely as outsiders see the digitisation project led by her as a laudable venture.

However, if you keep the rocky past of the institute at bay, the project of restoring and preserving such valuable holdings indeed seems to be a fine one. It's massive, one knows but the enormity of it becomes clear when Mukherjee tells you that just 30 years of Amrita Bazar Patrika, one of the most important English dailies of the days of the freedom struggle, that have been digitised so far mean 90 lakh pages. She further reveals that there are 8,000 rolls of microfilms of the paper still left to be done. “Thirty thousand photos have been done and there are 200,000 photos more.”

Digitisation is a crucial part of the large-scale upgradation that the institute is at present going through and Mukherjee seems to have completely seized the opportunity to democratise the space by making it more accessible and user-friendly to a cross-section of people. “What about a poor scholar who might be a Ph.D but can't afford frequent trips to NMML to research his subject,” she explains.

Putting a few catalogues, books and journals online was easy, according to Mukherjee, but creating an archive of material the NMML way is unique. The way the documents have been scanned makes them searchable. While in international libraries, Mukherjee informs, either one can do headline search, or full text search but in this case, the latest technology employed will enable people to reach the material via both the routes. Citing an example, Mukherjee says, you can gain access to the letters Vijaylakshmi Pandit wrote from the various countries she was posted as diplomat, just by typing ‘a woman's life' as her experiences not just as a professional but also as a woman are communicated in these letters.

While half the screen will be taken up by the original document, the other half, that is the metadata, will have information related to the document. The pictures uploaded on the website are available in different formats so that if someone needs to print a photograph in a book can also use it.

Controversies and criticism have been regular visitors to Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML) along with the steady flow of students, researchers, scholars and historians in the recent years. Amidst this noise, NMML had embarked upon a mammoth project of digitisation of significant archival material pertaining to our history, specifically in the context of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and it's possible that not only Professor Mridula Mukherjee's detractors but even those who witnessed the developments purely as outsiders see the digitisation project led by her as a laudable venture.

However, if you keep the rocky past of the institute at bay, the project of restoring and preserving such valuable holdings indeed seems to be a fine one. It's massive, one knows but the enormity of it becomes clear when Mukherjee tells you that just 30 years of Amrita Bazar Patrika, one of the most important English dailies of the days of the freedom struggle, that have been digitised so far mean 90 lakh pages. She further reveals that there are 8,000 rolls of microfilms of the paper still left to be done. “Thirty thousand photos have been done and there are 200,000 photos more.”

Digitisation is a crucial part of the large-scale upgradation that the institute is at present going through and Mukherjee seems to have completely seized the opportunity to democratise the space by making it more accessible and user-friendly to a cross-section of people. “What about a poor scholar who might be a Ph.D but can't afford frequent trips to NMML to research his subject,” she explains.

Putting a few catalogues, books and journals online was easy, according to Mukherjee, but creating an archive of material the NMML way is unique. The way the documents have been scanned makes them searchable. While in international libraries, Mukherjee informs, either one can do headline search, or full text search but in this case, the latest technology employed will enable people to reach the material via both the routes. Citing an example, Mukherjee says, you can gain access to the letters Vijaylakshmi Pandit wrote from the various countries she was posted as diplomat, just by typing ‘a woman's life' as her experiences not just as a professional but also as a woman are communicated in these letters.

While half the screen will be taken up by the original document, the other half, that is the metadata, will have information related to the document. The pictures uploaded on the website are available in different formats so that if someone needs to print a photograph in a book can also use it.

The challenges

Real challenge that confronted Mukherjee was what to select from the huge repository comprising millions of pages. “Whether we charge people who are accessing it, what kind of pictures, information can be made public, who do you reach out to…are still some of the issues that we are thinking about,” says Deepali Pal, senior media co-ordinator, NMML.

The archival material has been uploaded but is not accessible to the public just as yet as NMML is still in the process of taking feedbacks from different sections of people — journalists, scholars — doing stress tests to make it foolproof.

Hindu, 3rd June 2011

The World Bank has approved $1 billion as credit and loan to support India's efforts to clean up the Ganga river.

The sprawling river basin accounts for a fourth of the country's water resources and is home to more than 400 million people.

The $1.556 billion National Ganga River Basin Project with $1 billion in financing from the World Bank group, including $199 million interest-free credit and $801 million low-interest loan, was approved by the Bank's board of executive directors earlier this week and will be implemented over eight years.

The project will support the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) in building the capacity of its nascent operational level institutions so that they can manage the long term Ganga clean-up and conservation programme, a statement by the World Bank said.

Apart from dedicated operational-level institutions at the Central and State levels, the Project will help the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) to set up a state-of-the-art Ganga Knowledge Centre to act as a repository of knowledge relevant for the conservation of the Ganga.

While NGRBA will fund investments (in sewage treatment plants, sewer networks and the like) that are critical for reducing pollution in the Ganga, it is the cities and municipalities that will have to be responsible for managing and maintaining them in the long run. The project will help build the capacity of city-level service providers responsible for running these assets and also modernise their systems for doing so.

The project will also help strengthen the Central and State Pollution Control Boards for monitoring the pollution in the Ganga better by modernising their information systems and providing staff training. The project will also finance the upgradation of the Ganga water quality monitoring system, as well as carry out an inventory of all the sources of pollution that affect water quality in the Ganga.
One of the reasons why earlier efforts to clean the Ganga did not take root was the lack of public participation. The project will help the NGRBA devise and implement communications programmes to encourage people to participate in the clean-up programme.

Hindu, 3rd June 2011

To save Hindan river, environmentalists, social activists, members of the National Jal Biradari and other citizens, including the city mayor and federation of RWA, took out a candlelight march in the city. The march took place at around 6.30 pm between IMT Gate to the residence of the Vice Chairman of the Ghaziabad Development Authority before proceeding to the residence of the district magistrate in Raj Nagar.

In a memorandum the protesters demanded that the bridge be constructed on pillars not on an artificial embankment and an enquiry be conducted to determine whether the artificial embankment was created to benefit any vested interest related to real estate.

The march organiser Vikrant Sharma said “The march was organised to protest killing of the river and to caution Ghaziabad residents about the disaster waiting to happen after the construction of Karhera bridge on an artificial embankment that would stop the natural flow of the river water and, cause a flood in addition to the loss of huge environmental values”.

Pioneer, 3rd June 2011

Addressing the conflicting issues of wildlife versus tourism, Environment Ministry on Thursday came out with guidelines to develop and monitor the fragile ecosystems and cope with tourist pressure with emphasis on generation of local livelihood.

Defining ecotourism as “responsible travel to natural areas” the Ministry stated that the purpose of these guidelines is to conserve the environment and improve the well-being of local people.

According to the Ministry, most wilderness areas across India are fragile ecosystems while being major tourist attractions. However, unplanned tourism in such landscapes can destroy the very environment that attracts such tourism in the first place. Hence, there is a need to move towards a model of tourism that is compatible with these fragile landscapes.

Clarifying its stand on protected areas, it stated that any core area in a Tiger Reserve from which relocation has been carried out, will not be used for tourism activities.

Pilgrim sites which are invariable located inside Protected Areas must be designated as sacred groves, with strict building and expansion controls, in accordance with the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the Environment Protection Act, 1986. All transit camps and places of stay for such pilgrimage must be restricted to nominated days in a year.

Pioneer, 3rd June 2011

The government has directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to launch a massive public awareness campaign to sensitise people about the law on the preservation of ancient monuments.

Culture Minister Kumari Selja said the ministry and the ASI required to tell every citizen so that the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains, Amendment and Validation (AMASRA) Act is not perceived as a threat or impediment, a statement by the ministry of culture said Friday.

She was addressing a meeting of the central advisory board of the ASI here.

"The AMASRA Act has been amended in March 2010. The amendments are in the interest of better protection and maintenance of the monument precincts. In the amended form, this act will be a useful tool in the preservation of monuments and heritage and will ensure that they receive much needed attention from both public and administrators alike," she said.

She urged the ASI to "launch a massive public awareness campaign and sensitise citizens to the provisions of the act."

"We need to co-opt the willingness of every citizen so that the enactment is appreciated by them in the larger context and not perceived as a threat or impediment to their existence," the minister said.

Times of India, 3rd June 2011

At a time when the Queen of Hills is fast losing her classic British charm to unbridled random concretisation, Rokeby Manor has recently been converted to an enchanting retreat.

One of the finest jewels in Mussoorie’s majestic history and one-time home to the legendary ‘Pahari’ Wilson has been restored splendidly to its original Victorian heritage.

Standing grand at Char Dukaan, slightly above St Paul’s church, the magnificent edifice with its 2-acre estate has a history as intriguing as its English architecture. Rokeby Manor was built in 1840, by a distinguished captain christened GN Cauthy, borrowing its name from Sir Walter Scott’s elaborate poem on gallant battles near the original Rokeby Castle in England.

From him, the mansion passed on to Lt Col Reilly, who also owned Ralston, another villa in Mussoorie.

In 1878, Frederick ‘Pahari’ Wilson acquired both the estates for a mortgage of Rs 25,000 from Reilly. Wilson minted his own gold coins and carved out his personal haven along the headwaters of the Ganga, at Harsil, harvesting timber and introducing apples to the Himalayas.

This romantic Raja of Harsil — who also became the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s classic tale The Man Who Would Be King — is recounted to have spent some memorable years at Rokeby with his Garhwali wife Gulabi, before his son Henry sold the Manor to JS Woodside, one of the founders of the Woodstock School, for Rs 10,000. The imposing dwelling of the controversial entrepreneur became a boarding house for young missionary women learning Urdu and Hindi at the Landour Language School.

After passing through more hands and bearing deterioration, in late 2010, this historic house has been reinstated to its original 19th century glory by hotelier Sanjay Narang, in full character. “Though the mansion was structurally sound, it had been neglected for many years so some basic renovations had to be carried out while retaining the original creation. For instance, the original Sal wood rafters were retained and reinforced where required with steel girders,” said Rokeby mentor Monish John.

The mansion is surrounded by a tea garden and a sprawling al fresco area called the Highlands.

Nestled in the most secluded and pristine area of the hill town, the historic edifice — with its views of the snow-clad Himalayas, dense deodar forests and the idyllic slopes — holds strong international appeal. The beautiful building, its elaborate brick arches, intricate stone walls, wooden beams and cozy fireplaces have been attracting travellers from around the world, including cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.

A visit to the newly restored Rokeby Manor is a delightful rewind into the stunning British opulence that bestowed upon Mussoorie its grandeur. And one hopes more heritage buildings that Uttarakhand boasts of are salvaged to their original splendour, be it by the Government or private entrepreneurs.

Pioneer, 4th June 2011

Ten years ago, Fardapur was an obscure point on the road leading to the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra. Today, as you plan your trip to this heritage site, situated 100 km from the city of Aurangabad, you may want to spend time at the Fardapur junction before moving on to the caves. Coming up at Fardapur, four kilometres from the foothills of the caves, is the Ajanta Visitor and Exhibition Centre (AVC), which promises to help tourists appreciate the caves better.

The project, undertaken by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) with a soft loan from Japan International Co-operation Agency, is an effort to provide tourists with an interactive medium that tells the story of these caves.

Vijay Sridhar Chavan, General Manager, Department of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra, says, “Work at the AVC is almost complete. It will make tourists’ visit to the Ajanta caves a wholesome experience.” The project, which is expected to be open for the public by the end of this year, is estimated to cost around Rs 61.6 crore.

At the AVC, an audio-visual set up will narrate the story of the caves. Spread over five galleries, perhaps the biggest attraction at the centre will be the cave replicas. The most important caves—shortlisted by a panel of experts recommended by UNESCO—will be recreated here. At present, cave No. 1, 2, 16 and 17 are being replicated, complete with the frescos that adorn the walls and ceilings of the caves.

The exhibition centre will have panels and audio visual guides that talk about the heritage and art in the caves. The contract for the project has been given to L&T and consultation work is being carried on by TCS and Oriental Consultants, Japan.

In Cave No 16 of the Ajanta caves, 26-year-old photographer Aneesh Bhasin is busy at work. Bhasin has been hired to create replicas of the frescoes at the caves for the AVC. Bhasin spends around four hours with every painting—clicking pictures and mapping them. “I have to follow the ASI guidelines on using light. It is so dim inside and everything has a yellow tinge, but I have been able to capture the paintings well. In fact, we are going to get some test prints done next week to see how the entire thing looks,” he says.

Apart from the work at the AVC, the Archaeological Survey of India, Aurangabad Circle, has undertaken major conservation work at the caves and has hired consultants to manage visitors. After a recent meeting, the ASI proposed a buffer zone around the area for the upkeep of the monument. D Dayalan, Superintending Archaeologist, ASI, Aurangabad, says, “Water seepage in these caves was a major issue that we have almost solved.”

Pioneer, 2nd June 2011

The colour, green, has become synonymous with Trinamul Congress, so much so that city dwellers identify the colour more with the party than with environment.

The city is yet to come out of the poll hangover, it seemed today, as the green lights used to lit Victoria Memorial to commemorate World Environment Day, was mistaken as a late celebration of chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee's victory in the election.

Victoria Memorial was lit green from 6.00 pm to 6.30 pm today by Tata Steel as a part of its nationwide environment awareness campaign ~ Greenfection. It would be lit green again tomorrow from 8.30 pm to 11:30.

A number of people, who were out on a stroll to enjoy the cool breeze in the evening, were at first taken aback when Victoria Memorial that remains spotless white on other days was seen green. As they overcame the initial surprise, they thought perhaps it was done to mark the victory of Trinamul Congress in the Assembly election.

Mr Ajay Ghosh, a student of Calcutta University, on being asked why Victoria Memorial was lit green said confidently: “We had seen morphed photographs of green Writers Buildings. But since the building is red in colour, green light wouldn't have looked good. Lighting Victoria green was obviously a better idea,” he said. Such edited photographs were widely circulated over Internet before and after the Assembly elections.

Mr Raju Singh, a tonga owner, was heard telling his passengers: “Today it's only the Victoria Memorial. Wait and watch how Miss Mamata Banerjee reforms the whole state.”

Mr Suman Haldar, a resident of Nadia, who had come to visit the Victoria Memorial with jis wife and daughter and was heading towards Rabindra Sadan after the gates of the memorial were closed. Seeing the memorial lit green, he said: “This is not good. It is a heritage structure. At least this should have been kept away from party colour.” On being told that Victoria Memorial was lit green to commemorate World Environment Day, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Tata Steel employees, wearing T-shirts with Environment Day one-liners, were seen only near the main gate but that too failed to convince people that Victoria Memorial wore green today for the environment and not for Miss Banerjee.

The Statesman, 6th June 2011

AT A TIME WHEN THE BYGONE ERA GIVES WAY TO THE NEW-AGE, THERE ARE PROFESSIONALS WHO WORK TO KEEP THE OLD WORLD CHARM AS IS, REPORTS ANJANA MOHAN

Time leaves its imprints on historical artefacts and works of artistic value such as paintings and manuscripts. They deteriorate with time due to environmental factors and their inherent nature and hence, it becomes imminent to conserve these invaluable treasures. Heritage conservation is a practice that helps enhance longevity of cultural objects.

Dr V Jeyaraj, director, Hepzibah Institute of Heritage Conservation says, "Heritage conservation encompasses the restoration of damaged historical works to their original pristine state. It broadly has two components of cultural heritage - movables like seals, manuscripts and the likes and immovable or architectural conservation which would generically involve working on monuments and wall paintings. The work could be both on-field and off-field depending on the nature of the artefact."

The work of a heritage conservator entails systematic preservation of the work. "The first step for a heritage conservator or restorer is to understand the composition and technique with which the cultural object was created. The conservator then identifies the signs of deterioration by examination and records the condition of the object. Once the mechanism of the deterioration is determined, a remedial treatment plan is finalised, taking into account any adverse effect it may have on the original object. The final step involves implementation of the remedial conservation treatment, which would generally include removing dirt and corrosion from the surface, structural repairs and finally, re-touching of the piece. Documentation of each step and adherence to basic guidelines of heritage conservation such as non-falsification of original object, introduction of materials that are similar in nature and behaviour to the original object, are critical," says Anupam Sah, Head of Art Conservation, Research and Training at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay Museum Art Conservation Centre.

Heritage Conservation is an inter-disciplinary field and hence, it employs a wide variety of professionals, as for instance, restoration of a manuscript would employ persons who have a thorough knowledge of the chemistry of the material and also those who are knowledgeable in the script and material employed in writing the script. The premier qualification is a Masters degree in art conservation. The pre-qualification degrees could be either a Bachelors in Fine Arts or Science or a postgraduation in Museology and Conservation. A background in civil engineering or architecture is ideal for someone looking to work in restoration of monuments like dilapidated structures and frescos. Numerous institutes offer courses in heritage conservation like the Masters in Ancient History and Architecture offered by several including the University of Mysore, University of Allahabad and the Kurukshetra University. The National Museum Institute of History offers more specialised courses like Masters in Conservation and Masters in Museology." Apart from the formal qualifications, a good hand at drawing, sensitivity towards history and culture and a scientific bent of mind are some of the personal qualities that one must possess so as to do justice to this profession", believes Namita Jaspal, the chief conservator, Heritage Restorers.

THERE IS A WIDE VARIETY WITHIN THE FIELD DEPENDING ON THE MEDIUM ONE WISHES TO WORK WITH.

Namita says, "A conservator can be working on any of the diverse media, depending on their specialisation. It ranges from paintings on paper, canvas, wall or wooden panels; archival material like documents, manuscripts, books; to others like sculptures, archaeological monuments, ceramics, metal objects etc. In a nutshell, the work entails dealing with any object of heritage or cultural value." One can even go further and work on the conservation of the intangible heritage. For those who are interested in recent developments in the field, they could specialise in conservation of new media such as digital repositories, video and film.

Workplace for a heritage conservator could be heritage sites, archaeological sites or in conservation labs of museums, in archives and libraries, art galleries and painting conservation labs. Those who gain sufficient expertise in the field as practitioners can start their own private practice. "Monetarily, a government job for practitioners will be governed by the government rules. Those who practice on their own can scale their income on the basis of the projects undertaken. The job is greatly rewarding in terms of intellectual yearn and monetary stability. Presently, both the public and private sectors are taking equal interest in the profession. Some of the places that one could work at are museums, national archives and Archaeological Survey of India, National Research laboratory for the Conservation of Cultural Property (NRLC), National Gallery of Modern Art and Private Conservation Studios," adds Anupam Sah.

Heritage conservation is a great career for anyone with the passion for cultural history and a penchant to uncover the beauty of the bygone age. With increasing emphasis on the need for heritage conservation due to its aesthetic and monetary value, an expert in the field could scale great heights.

Pioneer, 2nd June 2011

Lakshmi Bandlamudi, a New York-based psychology professor and a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow, has spent six months in India examining the evolution of the 'Mahabharata', the longest epic in the world.

Using her interdisciplinary book The Dialogics of Self, The Mahabharata and Culture: The History of Understanding and Understanding of History', as a foundation, Dr Bandlamudi, a native of Andhra Pradesh, set out to explore how this ancient text, which has influenced the Indian culture for over 5,000 years, evolved and how it is interpreted by the Indian people.

"Unlike the epics of the western work, which are seen as very different and remote, this major Sanskrit narrative of ancient India is a living text that gives birth to variations," said Dr Bandlamudi, who is a professor at LaGuardia Community College.

"What you call the ancient past and epic text is not simply frozen in time and space, but, instead, flows. It picks up all the fragments of history. So history itself has a history."

The Pioneer, 6th June 2011

The tradition of frugality in Indian everyday life has been well documented. Whether one goes by objective measures like the savings rate or by experiential and anecdotal accounts, the Indian penchant for frugality is well known. In many ways, cultural life in India foreshadowed the concern for sustainability and conservation that is now the defining issue of our times. The middle class in India recycled whatever it could, saved rather than spent, and squeezed every single drop of value out of things and managed to lead a life of reasonable contentment regardless of the constrained nature of ones circumstances. In a world struggling to come to terms with a more ecologically sensitive view of human progress, are there any lessons we could draw from the Indian experience
It is important to recognise that the Indian ability to lead a life rich with meaning while using few resources is not an isolated characteristic, some sort of national trait, but the result of an elaborately constructed design system, where the individual parts fit together in a larger grand design, which is itself defined loosely enough for it to be sustainable. The notion of sustainability implicitly acknowledges the importance of systems to be self-regenerating and self-correcting, and the Indian example is evidence of that. It is possible to think of the Indian system as one that was not predicated on growth meaning was not derived from making material progress in ones lifetime. An individuals success was eventually defined in terms of the fulfilment of responsibilities towards others rather than through personal acts of achievement.

In very broad terms, the design system relied on two pillars the valorisation of frugality and value extraction on the one hand and the creation of extravagant meaning that was not contingent on the use of greater resources on the other. As part of the first pillar, a world was constructed where we learnt to respect all forms of the material, regarding its very presence as proof that it was useful. Any formed material, be it a broken toy or a battered box, till such time as it stayed in a defined material form, was deemed possible to use in some way or another, either in the way it was intended or in an invented way. In addition, the very idea of compromise was seen positively, as the only way to cope in a world full of scarcity. The ability to celebrate imperfect solutions and understanding the power of time in dismantling all forms of perfection was not merely an act of cultural artifice but a philosophical belief that has underlined the transience of everything, including perfection.

It is the second pillar however, that made what would have been a universally shared way of coping with scarcity into a deeper, more sustainable culture of frugality the ability to deliver meaning and worth without linking it primarily to acts of consumption or even notions of linear progress. Basic needs of identity were guaranteed one could be lowly born, and pay the price for that misfortune but one was always somebody with a defined place in the world. Many forms of social currency were developed that allowed for the expression of who one was and wished to be without the involvement of money or anything material. Intricate hierarchies served to both fix a persons station in life as well as to provide enough headroom so as keep the system from imploding. The use of rituals and symbols made it possible to create a layered delivery of complex meanings without actually performing the actions themselves. Signifying intent ritually could substitute the performance of the actual action. Everything had a ritual answer you could buy forgiveness, appease ancestors, contrive auspiciousness, all by performing symbolic actions in a highly encoded way.

The outcome, that of a lifestyle that is rich with frugality is thus a consequence of a cultural ecology, and not some well-intentioned individual set of actions. It is no ones case that the way forward is by going back and trying to relive the days gone by. But it is important to acknowledge that for conservation to succeed in a sustainable way, a new culture is needed. Saving a species here or a habitat there may make us feel temporarily better, but without a self-regenerating culture of respect for the environment, individual actions will prove meaningless in the larger scheme of things. The urge to do something now is understandable, but given the vastness of the context, a little bit of good is worth very little. If anything, the belief that our actions can save the planet is nothing but an act of extreme arrogance, and rooted in a belief system that is the very opposite of sustainability needs.

That is the paradox at the heart of many attempts at conservation. Instead of acknowledging the near impossibility of developing an ecological understanding of individual cause and environmental effect, we act as if we know the answers. Self-conscious acts of conservation create vexed questions in their wake. When we protect a tribal settlement and their way of life from big business and its vested interests, are we freezing them into being cultural artefacts What constitutes an organic notion of progress is industrialisation not part of an organic process of a kind, given the nature of human civilisation And yet, if we were to set no boundaries on our ambition and greed, might we not destroy everything sooner or later

The problem is that we are trying to create an edifice of restraint on a foundation of greed. As long as we derive meaning from growth, and equate growth with material indices and conflate progress with acts of resource-intensive consumption, we will speak the language of sensitivity but use the grammar of conquest. The desire to Save a Tiger Today is part of the same culture that threatens the animal in the first place, and the desire to save this species is in part popular because the tiger is a tourist spectacle.

Perhaps the beginnings of an answer lie in acknowledging and indeed celebrating all that we don't know and cannot control or explain. Instead of locating all meaning in human acts of achievement, we need to find a way to create meaning out of what already exists. The environment may well be a burning political, social and economic issue today but what it really needs to be is a cultural question. We need to design a system that reconciles some key needs of today with a sustainable delivery of meaning. We need an inspired cultural design that is deeply wise in its intent and ecological in its sweep.

The Pioneer, 6th June 2011

After the Government House (Rashtrapati Bhavan), the most imposing building of New Delhi, the Secretariat with its two arms — North and South Blocks — were the second most important buildings of the Capital to house the all important British bureaucracy. With the Capital’s chief . With the Capital’s chief architect Edwin Lutyens absorbed in the construction of Government House, the job of planning and building the Secretariat fell on Herbert Baker. The two symmetrical buildings were to accommodate the central Indian services and many other departments of the British Indian government.

Lutyens, who wanted the Government House to tower above New Delhi, wanted the Secretariat to be built at a slightly lower level. Baker, however, persisted that all three buildings be built at the same height on the Raisina Hill, so that the bureaucracy can rule India from an exalted position. Despite Lutyens objections, Baker prevailed.

Going with his imperialist streak, Baker not only planned the Secretariat at a height but also kept the stone walls unembellished to give them a solid look to portray British might and power.

With four levels, each with about 1,000 rooms, the North and South Blocks were made spacious enough to house the many departments and then leave some more room for future expansion in the inner courtyards. The space, however, fell short in a few years and hutments were created to cater to growing demand for room.

Like the Government House, the Secretariat buildings, too, were built with cream and red Dholpur sandstone, with the red sandstone forming the base. Baker stuck to conventional classical architectural style but incorporated many Indian style forms and motifs as well. The most prominent of these were the chhatris and jaalis.

The buildings are arranged to form two squares, the first on the eastern ends where the main entrances are located and the other two near the gate of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Broad corridors connected the different wings of the buildings and wide stairways connected the four floors. While the walls are mostly sparse, going with Indian architectural style, most of the decoration is found on the roofs. The centre of each building is marked by a dome.

Another feature of the Secretariat are the four dominion columns in front of the four main gates, given by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. By the time these columns were unveiled in 1930, it was believed that India too would become a British dominion very soon. India, however, became independent in the next 17 years and the Secretariat became the seat of power of a sovereign India.

Tale of ‘twin’ towers
Before he got the assignment to plan and design New Delhi with Edwin Lutyens, Herbert Baker had made a mark by constructing government buildings in South Africa. The Secretariat — North and South Blocks — designed by Baker clearly showcases the influence of his earlier work than original styles.

The Secretariat, in fact, looks like a long lost brother of the Union Building in Pretoria, South Africa, built by Baker.

Like the Secretariat’s two blocks, the Union Building is marked by two identical wings with two towers. The colonnaded balconies too, are an exact copy of the Union Building. The major difference between the two is that while the North and South Blocks are separated and face each other, the two wings of the Union Building are joined by a semi-circular colonnade.

Also, while the Secretariat roofs are open as per Indian style, the roof of Union Building is covered with red tiles.

The Hindustan Times, 7th June 2011

“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come,” said Rabindranath Tagore. Quotes from the past are almost always eerily true and Tagore must have had a glimpse of the future to think of a quote so apt, so true and so real.

The great visionary died 150 years ago but the poet lives on. The author of our National Anthem wrote well over 60 collections of verse, almost 100 short stories, several novels, plays, dance-dramas, over 2,500 songs and essays on religion, society and literature. To mark the 150 {+t} {+h} death anniversary of this prolific writer, Penguin India is now bringing out a special collection of his works titled The Penguin Tagore Bookshelf.

In Home and the World ( Ghare Bhaire), a woman is torn between her husband and his childhood friend. This was originally published in Bengali around 1915 and created a controversy due to Tagore's critical tone against the ideology of nationalism. Although Tagore found politics morally repulsive, he found himself participating in the national movement by contributing songs and addressing public rallies. Speeches delivered by Tagore during World War I can be found in Nationalism with an introduction by Ramachandra Guha.

A Grain of Sand: Chokher Bali, made more famous subsequently by the movie featuring Aishwarya Rai, has adultery as its theme.

Penguin is also offering an omnibus titled C lassic, which contains Tagore's most popular novels in translation including A Grain of Sand (Chokher Bali), The Shipwreck (Noukadubi), Gora, Quartet (Chaturanga) and Home and the World (Ghare Baire).

Despite the immense popularity of his novels, Tagore essentially was a poet and his poems are known for their haunting quality. Gitanjali, considered Tagore's best, has been newly translated by William Radice and promises to be true to the poet's original structure and style. Also translated by Radice is S elected Poems showcasing Tagore's other bests.

Writings on the great man himself include a biography, Rabindranath Tagore: The singer and his song, by Reba Som which maps out the musical journey of the poet and has translations of his most evocative poems. An autobiography – My life in My Words – provides an insight into the author's mind.Tagore also wrote for children and his first ever complete translation of He (Shey) containing nonsensical verse and illustration is available. The list is exhaustive and covers an entire range of subjects that Tagore based his writings on. The entire collection is on display now at the British Council Libraries and includes exciting contests for members.

The Hindu, 7th June 2011

The Rajasthan Government has started consultations with operators of private hotels around Ranthambhore National Park in Sawai Madhopur and Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar to finalise the quantum of cess to be imposed by the end of the year, as directed by the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment.

According to official sources, the Tiger Task Force headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had initially suggested a flat 30 per cent cess on private hotels, which fall within five kilometres of these forests. But later it relaxed the same, owing to opposition and allowed the State Governments to decide the quantum of cess as per the local conditions. But at the same time, the Centre said the cess should be enforced by the year-end.

As per the guidelines issued by the Ministry to develop eco-tourism, funds generated from the proposed cess would be used for upkeep of these parks and sanctuaries.

Sources said the Central Government would soon start month-long consultations with the State Governments to decide on putting a ban on the entry of tourists in the core areas of these forests.

Alarge number of hotels have come up around Ranthambhore during the past decade. Some of them are very close to the national park. Despite its efforts, the Govt failed to check the mushrooming of the hotel industry, as sighting of tigers is attracting a large number of foreign tourists.

Around Sariska the magnitude of the problem is far less. Sariska has only five tigers and sighting of them is not as frequent as in Ranthambhore, where their number is about 35.

The Pioneer, 7th June 2011

The “Sonar Tori” (golden boat) may not have been able to do its one-time run between Kolkata and Dhaka last year to mark Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary. But yet another train, Sanskriti Express, which also showcases the life and times of Tagore, is all set to embark on a similar journey in August this year.

And if all goes as planned by the Indian Railways’ heritage and culture committee, headed by eminent theatreperson Saoli Mitra, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be at hand when a function is held in Dhaka to greet the train’s arrival along with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed. Other Indian dignitaries who are likely to be present include Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and West Bengal’s new chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

It was during Ms Banerjee’s tenure as railway minister that the idea of both “Sonar Tori” and Sanskriti Express was first conceived. But while the Sanskriti Express took off, Sonar Tori’s one-time run from Kolkata to Dhaka had to be cancelled after the Bangladesh government sought postponement when the Indian Railways sent it dates for the scheduled run.

As per the broad cultural programme drawn up by the railway panel, a five-day programme is scheduled to be held in Bangladesh — the city is not specified though in all likelihood it will be Dhaka. In India too a similar programme spread over five days is planned in Bolpur, close to Santiniketan, the home of Tagore’s beloved Visvabharati.

On the anvil both in Bangladesh and in Bolpur, West Bengal, are performances by Indian and Bangladeshi artistes — plays, Rabindrasangeet performances, dance dramas and poetry.

While the travelling exhibition on board the Sanskriti Express offers a glimpse into Tagore’s life and work, the railway committee has suggested that two more coaches be added to this train. The aim is to use these coaches to provide information about the time that Tagore spent at Shilaidaha Kuthibadi, which is now in Bangladesh. It was during his visits to Kuthibadi that Gurudev is said to have written his best-known works — such as Sonar Tori, Chaitali, the poems of Naibedya and Kheya, and the songs of Gitanjali.

The Asian Age, 7th June 2011

Over 700 waterbodies in the capital are getting another chance at survival. Delhigovernment has formed an apex body, headed by the chief secretary, to catalogue and mark progress of restoration for each listed waterbody in the city. A steering committee under this body will monitor progress in monthly meetings.

"The matter has been handed over to the environment department for the first time. The chief secretary was overseeing restoration of waterbodies even earlier, but now a more focused plan has been drawn up. Both the apex body and steering committees will have representatives from various civic agencies, Delhi Jal Board, NEERI, IIT, School of Planning and Architecture and Delhi University," said Vinod Jain, director, NGO Tapas.

As per the new plan, the environment department will be responsible for filing regular action taken reports. The chief secretary has asked for a detailed database to be built for each waterbody that will include photographs, mapping, demarcation, progress of work and detailed description. "This information will be used to plan rehabilitation of waterbodies looking at areas like encroachment and waste disposal, status and possibility of revival, greening of boundaries and catchment areas, sustainable development, desilting, involvement of people, corporates and local agencies in sustainable ecological development of area and water harvesting," said a government official.

Jain added that due to a multiplicity of land-owning agencies that were responsible for revival of these waterbodies, there was no quality-control check on how work was being carried out. "The Hauz Khas lake was one such example of a waterbody that was in a mess even though revival work was being carried out. In several cases the waterbodies were simply being concretized. Now the steering committee will keep tabs on the work and intervene when it feels that the agency concerned is not doing its work properly," said Jain.

At present, the irrigation and flood control department has the most number of waterbodies - 476 - under its jurisdiction. DDA has 118, followed by DSIIDC with 89, Archaeological Survey of Indiawith 15 and the forest department with 12. CPWD and PWD have four and two, respectively, whileIIT and MCD have one waterbody each under their jurisdiction.

The Times of India, 7th June 2011

Until the Tippagondanahalli tank was constructed in 1933, the Hesaraghatta tank was Bangalore’s main source of water. The project was started in 1894, under the patronage of the then Maharaja of Mysore, writes Poornima Dasharathi

Hesarghatta in Bangalore North is around 25 km away from the city, off the NH4. It is home to a huge tank, several government institutions, poultry farms and a few decades back, Protima Bedi’s austere dance school, Nrityagram.

Though the chief attraction today is Nrityagram, Hesarghatta kere held that position until the Eighties and had once been the major source of water to the City.

As we drive through Outer Ring Road that leads to Tumkur, there are plenty of stalls selling fruits, condiments and small hotels where you can stop for a quick bite.

A few kilometres further, we cross Chikkabanavara railway station. It reminds me of the Srirangapatna railway station, charmingly small and simple. The urban scene is increasingly greener and unspoilt by realty boards yet. On either side are cultivable lands, plantations and farm houses. The nagara (urban areas) ends and gradually the hallis (villages) start. Soladevanahalli, Tharabanahalli, Kumbarhalli, Hesarghatta, Aivarkhandapura, Siluvepura and the list goes on.

There’s an old BWSSB pump station at Soladevanahalli that can still be used for whatever water the Hesarghatta tank can provide. The building is off set from the main road and looks easily a hundred years old. With arched windows and doors and a pink bougainvillea creating a flowery porch, it’s very charming and quiet.

As we go further, we can see a few defence establishments. The board on the main road leads us to the Hesarghatta tank bund. A set of stairs leads us upwards. The huge area, mostly dry, has some water body. A group of fishermen are trying their luck for the day.Some birds also have the same intent. I could spot a horde of magpie robins, kingfishers and a few Brahminy kites with my little knowledge of bird species.

Hesarghatta is home to many water birds and this is a good place to some serious avian photography.

The making of the tank
An anecut or bund had been constructed around 1532 AD. ‘Epigraphica Carnatica’ informs us of a Vijayanagara inscription that states that an anecut was built on the banks of the Arkavathi river and a Chandramoulishwara temple was constructed near the anecut. An agrahara was formed here and since then, this place was renamed as Siva Samudra Agrahara.

The making of the bund and the renaming must have been during the time of King Achutaraya of the Tuluva dynasty of Vijayanagar rulers. B L Rice writes in the Mysore Gazetteer that the King Achutaraya, pleased with Kempegowda I, liberally bestowed twelve hoblis (settlements), one of which was Hesarghatta.

The tank served irrigation and domestic water for the settlements around it. It was only in the late nineteenth century that it was expanded and comprehensively redone to supply the first protected water supply to Bangalore.

In his book, ‘Bangalore through Centuries’, Fazlul Hasan colourfully narrates the entire Hesarghatta project. He credits the then Maharaja Chamarajendra Wodeyar and Dewan K Seshadri Iyer for taking the cause of providing water to Bangalore.

The project started in 1894 cost Rs 20,78,641, a big amount in those days! A brick aqueduct brought water from the kere to Turabanahalli. Here the water was filtered and chlorinated. It then flowed to Soladevanahalli reservoir from where steam pumps were used to pump it up to Chimney Hills. From here the water flowed to the Jewel Filters at Malleswaram and was then distributed to the entire city.

Water flowed into homes in both City and Civil and Military Station (cantonment) in mid 1896. Until the Tippagondanahalli tank was constructed in 1933, this reservoir was the main water source for the city.

The then Dewan K Sheshadri Iyer and the then chief engineer of Mysore M C Hutchins played a key role, in the development of the Hesarghatta water supply scheme which came to be called the Chamarajendra water works. The reservoir with a catchment area of 474 sq km, with 184 tanks in its upper catchment used to supply 36 million litres per day of water explains S Vishwanath, one of the key advisors to Arghyam, an NGO working in the water and sanitation sector.

Today, a water tanker provides water to the houses just behind the bund. A decade-old well in one of the homes has been dry for a few years. Vishwanath explains that there is a necessity to understand the changes in the catchment of the Arkavathi and look at reviving the river and regenerating flows.

Other institutions
Many government Institutions dot the area around the kere. There’s a Horticulture Research Institute, a Central Duck Breeding Farm and the Government Aquarium. The institutes that rose here due to availability of water now are probably facing difficult times now.

The people who visit the spot today typically come to see Nrityagram and round it off with a sumptuous lunch at a restaurant opposite. Walking along the tank bund, I just hope one day, I can see the entire kere, brimming with water, just like it might have been until the Seventies.

Getting there and around
One has to drive on the Outer Ring Road towards Tumkur. Don’t take the flyover, but drive under it until you get the Hesarghatta cross. Driving is less hectic once you turn off the Tumkur road traffic onto Hesarghatta Main road.

The Deccan Herald, 7th June 2011

A City artist has documented the death and struggling rebirth of the 200-year-old Jakkur Lake, through photographs, videos, video-interviews, archiving and exhibition

The video showcases the gradual demise of the 160-acre lake in northeast Bangalore due to the onslaught of human greed and poor planning by civic agencies.

The video installation-cum-exhibition titled ‘Focusing the urban rural margins - Jakkur Lake’, being held at Barl, 69/3, Mission Road, is on till June 15. It can also be viewed online at http://surekha.info/negotiating-routes-jakkurlake.

urekha, an acclaimed artist and resident of Sanjay Nagar, has been visiting the lake area for the past 10 years as her husband Anil Kumar is a native of Jakkur.

Effluents
She has seen the lake brimming with aquatic life, and over a period, losing its sheen, thanks to the effluent discharge, illegal sand mining, and dumping of debris among other things.

When the Lake Development Authority and the Bangalore Development Authority decided to revive the lake, Surekha decided to videograph it to record the visual transformation.

The documentation done from 2008 till now shows the lake bunds being encroached upon, the fish perishing due to depletion of oxygen, and the birds slowly disappearing. It also shows how the lake is being saved.

The BDA, through a contractor, has got the lake dewatered, desilted, fenced, created three artificial islands, walk path, food courts and a few other facilities.

But, there is no free access to people, even to the nearby villagers, unlike earlier. In the last few months, migratory birds have begun revisiting the lake, which has been spruced up in the last one year at a cost of Rs 21 crore.

The consolation is the water body has been saved and a sewage treatment plant installed to let only treated water into the lake, said Surekha.

The exhibition also displays the works of five young artists who have adopted different modes to show their concern for nature.

Kushal Kumar, a native of Doddaballapur, has displayed a life-size cardboard cellphone with a computer screen to show how mobile phone towers have contributed to the dwindling number of sparrows.

Naganagouda Patil has displayed a handmade toy farm equipment to show how farmers have lost land around the lake. The present lake is more of ornamental value, while the original was a multipurpose one.

20,000 birds
Harish Bhat, an ornithologist, said from the year 2000 onwards, he and some of his friends had been keenly studying 14 lakes, including Jakkur, in north Bangalore.

He said at least 20,000 birds used to throng Jakkur lake some years ago. But the number has come down drastically now. A lake should not be just a water storage point, but it should be in the shape of a saucer to maintain a good eco-system.

“The periphery of the lake has been encroached upon. Lakes are interconnected. Hence, even if a lake is saved and its catchment area is not devoid of encroachments or pollution, then it will be just a water body,” he said.

The Deccan Herald, 7th June 2011

If there is one iconic structure that anyone around the world can identify Delhi with, it is the India Gate. Christened 'All-India War Memorial' at birth, the India Gate initially received much less attention than its much bigger counterparts — Government House (Rashtrapati Bhavan) or the Secretariat. In fact, some quarters of the British government wanted it to serve a more utilitarian purpose than just being a war memorial.

The memorial was designed by Edwin Lutyens, who had considerable experience of building similar memorials in Britain and Europe. It is dedicated to nearly 70,000 Indian soldiers who died during World War 1, at the north-west frontier and in the third Afghan war of 1919. The names of the martyrs are etched into the sandstone monument.

It is believed that the central vista from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate is inspired from the Avenue des champs-élysées and the war memorial itself is copy of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The layout of New Delhi consisted of hexagonal lines, at the apex of which was the Rashtrapati Bhavan, joined by North and South Blocks and a grand vista culminating at the India Gate.

The foundation stone of the memorial was laid on February 10, 1921 by the then Duke of Connaught and the structure was finally inaugurated a decade later in 1931, by the then Viceroy Lord Irwin, amid much fanfare.

Initially, there were plans to have a half-spherical urn atop the memorial from which smoke would bellow throughout the day.

More than a war memorial, India Gate is now more of a hangout zone for Delhiites. In fact, the central vista and lawns around the All-India India Memorial were a hit with the crowd from the day it was inaugurated. Delhiites would come out on the lawns around Princes Park (the India Gate C Hexagon) for their evening stroll and the place would be packed on Sundays and holidays.

The memorial was designed by Edwin Lutyens, who had considerable experience of building similar memorials in Britain and Europe. It is dedicated to nearly 70,000 Indian soldiers who died during World War 1, at the north-west frontier and in the third Afghan war of 1919. The names of the martyrs are etched into the sandstone monument.

It is believed that the central vista from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate is inspired from the Avenue des champs-élysées and the war memorial itself is copy of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The layout of New Delhi consisted of hexagonal lines, at the apex of which was the Rashtrapati Bhavan, joined by North and South Blocks and a grand vista culminating at the India Gate.

The foundation stone of the memorial was laid on February 10, 1921 by the then Duke of Connaught and the structure was finally inaugurated a decade later in 1931, by the then Viceroy Lord Irwin, amid much fanfare.

Initially, there were plans to have a half-spherical urn atop the memorial from which smoke would bellow throughout the day.

More than a war memorial, India Gate is now more of a hangout zone for Delhiites. In fact, the central vista and lawns around the All-India India Memorial were a hit with the crowd from the day it was inaugurated. Delhiites would come out on the lawns around Princes Park (the India Gate C Hexagon) for their evening stroll and the place would be packed on Sundays and holidays.

n 1971, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was added alongside the tomb of Unknown Soldier. The shrine is a black marble cenotaph with a rifle placed on its barrel, crested by a soldier's helmet. A soldier each from the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force guards the gate and tomb for 24 hours.

Lawns, vista made it a crowdpuller
A major part in the axis of the imposing sandstone structures of New Delhi — Government House, Secretariat and All-India War Memorial — was played by the Central Vista and the lawns around the memorial. It was the tree-lined vista that brought some much-needed greenery and life to the heavy masonry and cold sandstone that flanked it.

Though Lutyens wanted the Princes' houses to line the wide vista, Lord Hardinge insisted that they rather have trees. The famous lawns around India Gate has not only hosted generations of Delhiites looking for an open space under the sky to relax but to also protests and dharnas of all hues till about two decades ago.

In 1936, when King George V died, Lutyens designed a memorial to him 500 feet away from the war memorial, set on a pedestal placed in a circular pool of water, with four slender pillars holding up a cupola under which was placed a white marble statue of the late king. He felt that from here, the King’s spirit could survey the city.

The statue stood under the canopy till 1968, after which it was shifted to the Coronation Park in north Delhi, the site of the proclamation of New Delhi as India's new capital. There have been plans to install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the pedestal but nothing materialized.

The Hindustan Times, 8th June 2011

The magnificent display of architectural opulence by the imperial rulers in New Delhi was not just limited to the Viceroy’s House, Secretariat buildings and the All-India War Memorial. British India’s new Capital had several other splendid buildings that assimilated architectural motifs from all over
the world. Princes’ palaces such as Hyderabad House (now the venue for official banquets hosted by the Union government), Baroda House (the present-day headquarters of Northern Railways) and Jaipur House (National Gallery of Modern Art) at the India Gate hexagon are among other such marvels.

In fact, Hyderabad House, which Edwin Lutyens designed for the Nizam of Hyderabad, was the fourth most splendid building in the city. As the layout for the new Capital was being worked out, various maharajas expressed their desire to build their palaces in the new Capital — much like the Boyars in St. Petersburg. The Viceroy was only too happy to oblige, as he felt that giving them plots to build their palaces would help the British government secure their commitment to the new Capital. Besides, the need for residences for maharajas in the new Capital also arose with their induction into a Chamber of Princes in 1919. The maharajas had to come to New Delhi every year to attend the Chamber’s meetings.

The maharajas wanted to build their residences in close proximity to the Viceroy’s house. But the imperial government was not quite comfortable with the idea. As Robert Grant Irving writes in his book, Indian Summer, “Official opinion at first favoured excluding rajas’ villas from the capital boundaries altogether, relegating them to the city environs. Geoffrey de Montmorency cited problems liable to arise concerning sanitation, noise and dust, traffic control, and discipline of unruly retainers.”

Finally, the princes were allotted plots —almost eight acres each—in the Princes’ Park at the end of the King’s Way, albeit not as close to the Viceroy’s house as the maharajas wanted. Among the few lucky ones to get plots in the coveted Princes’ Park around the statue of King

George V were the rulers of Hyderabad, Baroda, Patiala, Jaipur and Bikaner.

Princely rulers were entitled to be saluted by the firing of an odd number of guns between 3 and 21 — the greater number of guns indicating greater status. While the Nizam of Hyderabad and Gaekwad of Baroda were entitled to 21-gun salute each, the Maharaja of Jaipur was entitled to 17-gun salute. The Nizam of Hyderabad was also styled ‘His Exalted Highness’

These plots were allocated on the condition that the design of their residences would have to be approved by the government. The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Gaekwad of Baroda commissioned Lutyens to build their palaces in the new Capital. While many Indian rulers, especially the Nizam of Hyderabad, believed to be the richest man in the world at that time, wanted his new home in New Delhi to be as grand as The Viceroy’s House, Lutyens was quite conscious about not creating any building in New Delhi that could challenge the grandeur of the Viceroy’s House. No wonder then the only major motif he borrowed from the Viceroy’s House for the princes’ residences was a comparatively small dome in the centre that symbolised the power of Indian princely states.

Royal residences in the Princes’ Park included Baroda House, Bikaner House, Hyderabad House, Jaipur House and Patiala House. For most royal residences, Lutyens used a butterfly shape, part of the reason being the awkward, wedge-shaped plots on the hexagon at the end of the King’s Way (Raj Path). The butterfly-plan ensured that the front door faced the approach road on the hexagon, while the wings merged harmoniously with the adjoining roads. Of all the princely residences, Bikaner House was the least grand designed, as it was more like a bungalow than a palace.

These princes’ residences were occupied for only two-three weeks in a year, when the maharajas came to New Delhi in the month of February for the meeting of the Chambers of Princes and ‘Delhi Week’. The princes would arrive in their fancy cars with royal pomp and show, which often led to traffic chaos. The maharajas stayed in their palaces around India Gate. Those who did not have their own palaces, lived in hotels such as Maiden’s or the Cecil Hotel in the Civil Lines.

The largest and grandest of all palaces in New Delhi — a building that suited the status of the Nizam of Hyderabad as Exalted Highness and richest man in the world those days. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, it cost a whopping £200, 000. The majestic mansion had 36 rooms.

Lutyens designed Hyderabad House in the shape of a butterfly — a plan that he had first used for Papillon Hall in Leicestershire in 1903. Later, he went on to design several butterfly-shaped Edwardian country houses for the rich and famous in England.

The main architectural feature of Hyderabad House is a dome with an entrance hall beneath which symmetrical wings radiates at an angle of fifty-five degrees. Its round arches flanked by rectangular openings to the height of the impost was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, a city where Lutyens stayed in 1909. For the first floor windows of the grand place, Lutyens chose a combination of rectangular and round arches that were inspired by the Uffizi to the Arno in Florence.

The majestic building that boasts of courtyards, archways, obelisks, large flower containers, grand stairways, marble fireplaces, fountains, had a pre-dominantly European character with some Mughal motifs. Hyderabad House also boasted of a zenana — quarters for women in purdah. This is what Viceroy Lord Hardinge noted on his visit to the Hyderabad House in 1931: “The Zenana comprised a circular court with around 12 or 15 rooms round it, each the size of an ordinary horsebox and with only one window close to the roof. A rough bed was the only furniture. There were six tiled bathrooms, but no baths, only taps of hot and cold water under which each lady has to sit! There seemed to be no means of mixing the hot and cold water, as it pours on to the ladies!”
The Nizam’s sons disliked the building and found it too western in style for their taste. They could not quite figure out what to do with urns, obelisks, and the palladian gates. No wonder, they seldom used the building.

Baroda House
Situated next to Hyderabad House, this was another magnificent building in the imperial Capital designed by Edwin Lutyens. He designed Baroda House on a train from Bombay in 1921, and it took 15 years to build it. But unlike the Nizam of Hyderabad who wanted Hyderabad House to be an amalgamation of both Mughal and European architecture, the Gaekwad of Baroda , who was educated in England, wanted his palace in New Delhi to be Anglo-Saxon in style. This is what Robert Grant Irving’s book Indian Summer has to say about the Gaekwad of Baroda and his palace in New Delhi, “…Surrounded by Englishmen, he was educated to be a model of Victorian rectitude and progressive politics.

After his first wife died, he wed a Maratha whose ‘Brindian’ sophistication equalled his own, and they enjoyed 50 years of happy married life. Unlike other native rulers, he kept no mistresses and hence Lutyens made no provision for a concubines’ zenana. The House at Princes’ Place excluded an atmosphere of British affluence: its furnishings were comfortably Anglo-Saxon and its plumbing American, as in the sprawling palace at Baroda...”

The grand Baroda House was known for its terraces, grand corridors, cooling arcades, beautiful gardens and well-ventilated salons and richly done up living rooms. Gaekwad led a very westernised lifestyle. His palace in New Delhi had a French cook and bandmaster; the stable master was Irish, and the valet and maids English. Table linen was imported from Belfast, and dinner sets came from Bond Street in London.

“Scarlet-liveried servants offered guests whisky or hock with seltzer at breakfast, champagne and port in the evening. The Maharaja had hired Britons to run his army and police force, his hospitals and colleges; it was only fitting that he employed the Viceroy’s architect, an Englishman celebrated this country house designs,” writes Irving in his book.

Jaipur House
Jaipur House (National Gallery of Modern Art) is located diametrically opposite Hyderabad House. Like other princes’ residences, the building was also designed in the shape of a butterfly with a central dome. But very few people know that it was British architect Charles Blomfield, who designed the building. It was designed in a mix of neo-classical and Art Deco style. The butterfly-shaped building has two symmetrical ‘wings’ radiating from the central court.

Two similar wings radiate towards the back facing the gardens. The façade of this comparatively austere palace is marked by two levels of small, vertical, slit-like windows. A continuous sunshade or ‘chajja’ in redstone caps the entire façade. The building has arched openings framed by Rajput columns.

In 2009, the building had a new wing that quite remarkably sits in perfect harmony with the old building. The design of the new building is based on a first prize-winning entry of the national design competition held in 1984 for designing the New Wing. The design was the outcome of a collaboration between three young architects — AR Ramanathan, Anurag Gupta and Snehanshu Mukherjee.

“A couple of years back, a team of Lutyens Trust visited the building and they called it one of the best maintained Lutyens’ buildings in New Delhi,” says Prof Rajeev Lochan, director, National Gallery of Modern Art, which is housed in this erstwhile palace of Maharaja of Jaipur

The Hindustan Times, 9th June 2011

CBRI inspects bridge, MCD deliberating whether to repair the fault or undertake full restoration

A Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) team on Wednesday, inspected the Janak Setu which had sagged close to 7 inches on Monday. While both the CBRI and the MCD have not set a date by when the bridge will be operational again, the authorities say the restoration process will take a few months.

Deep Mathur, MCD spokesperson said, “A MCD team inspected the site on Tuesday. The findings of both the MCD and the CBRI will be compiled and only then will we get a clear picture. Restoration, however, is a complex process and will take a few months.”

The MCD is now deliberating whether simply to repair the fault, which occurred on Monday, or undertake a full restoration of the Setu. “A restoration plan worth Rs 7 crore was already in the pipeline for two months. We are looking at whether to carry on with that plan, or to make changes to the breach,” Mathur said.

The Indian Express, 9th June 2011

“There is not too much to say about our domestic life at Simla. To me it seemed one long round of large dinner parties, balls and festivities of all kinds. My husband did not at Simla, go out for the long early rides of which he had once been so fond, and which he still kept up when he was in Calcutta…” The wife of Sir John Lawrence, the Governor-General and Viceroy from 1864, has been thus quoted in Raaja Bhasin's “Simla: The Summer Capital of British India” (Rupa Publications). It was Lawrence who took the decision to move the administration to Simla but then soon developed an aversion to the overdose of social events like balls, parties and picnics. Bhasin builds an engaging account of Simla, the picturesque hill town which became the vibrant summer capital of British India, through such anecdotes, gossip and information. This is the revised edition of the book Bhasin had written 20 years ago, but the one which is “exhaustive with very substantial changes”. “In a manner of speaking it is not completely new but yet it is,” says the Simla-based writer, whose other book on the subject was “Shimla On Foot – Ten Walks”.

And even though the book contains definitive history in which every piece of gossip is qualified and then cited, Bhasin feels it makes for a light-hearted interesting read not just for those who are interested in history in general. “Why I took up this particular subject was I felt that whenever Indian writers write about Indian history which is connected with the British, they are not sure what to play out.”

The journey of Simla is traced through the personal records of the British officers who were eyewitness to the town's transformation into a most preferred locale for many of them.

In the chapter ‘The Early Years', the author mentions soldier-poet-artist-explorer George Francis White and his observations on the houses, gardens, fruits and flowers of the area. The writer notes “that the Annadale Fancy Fair, the Theatre and Assembly rooms — practically all major and minor aspects of early Simla life find at least a passing mention under the observing eye of his remarkable traveller.”

In the same chapter, the author relates an incident pertaining to Lord Dalhousie when he became the Governor-General. On his way to Simla, Dalhousie came across the inhuman system of ‘begari' in which the labourers were employed to carry the Governor-General's records. The money was paid to the labour overseers who were expected to pay the labourers, which didn't happen, and as a result the labourers remained unpaid. Dalhousie resorted to abolition of the system through improvements made to the road between the plains and Simla.

Simla's popular association with Rudyard Kipling, in whose famous book “Kim” the hill station is mentioned on account of Lurgan sahib — who trains the protagonist in espionage and owns a jewellery shop in Simla — is brought out in the chapter ‘Rudyard Kipling's Simla'.

Kipling's Lurgan sahib, notes the author, was based on A.M. Jacob, one of Simla's most mysterious characters.

To dig out information on his favourite town, the author conducted extensive research which included visits to the old library of Simla which nobody, the author says, really looked at, personal sources, and personal interviews with people. The book also includes some rare images of the time, like that of Lord Curzon in his viceregal robes, the viceregal staff picnic in the 1890s near Annandale, Mahatma Gandhi in a rickshaw, or crowds lining the road near the Viceregal Lodge during one of the Simla conferences in the 1940s.

The Hindu, 9th June 2011

Government is mulling over an option to ban Jantar Mantar in the Capital as 'dharna' or protest site for good, citing an existing law to save protected monuments in the country.

Sources said since Jantar Mantar is one of the protected monuments, the government can invoke the existing law that prohibits any such gathering within 200meters of the historical structure.

"The matter is being examined thoroughly, looking into each and every provision of the existing law. A decision may be taken in this regard soon," said a source, adding the government, in that case, will identify another site in the national Capital, where people can gather for peaceful protest march or 'dharna'.

The Times of India, 9th June 2011

The only species named after India, the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), and one of the world’s heaviest flying birds is close to extinction, global wildlife watchdog International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN) has said. Their number has fallen to less than 250 from about 1,000 in 2008 and over 20,000 to 40,000 after India’s independence. Therefore, the IUCN has upgraded the bird, weighing around 15 kg, found in India and Pakistan, from endangered to critically endangered, meaning that if corrective steps are not taken the bird will vanish.

Asad Rahmani, director of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), said there was an urgent need to start Project Bustard on long term basis.

The environment ministry has a programme for endangered species such as GIB but not on the scale of the ones for tigers and elephants. Rahmani said breeding of Australian and Kiro Bustards have been successful and India should a breeding programme on similar lines.

The job many not be easy as a study by experts in 2011 of the DNA in 63 samples from 5 states found very low genetic diversity suggesting a historical population reduction and said attempts to breed them in captivity have failed.

In the last two decades, green habitats of the Great Indian Bustard have been converted into agricultural lands or degraded by excessive cattle grazing. The grassland in Madhya Pradesh has got submerged in Indira Sarovar Dam and in Rajasthan lost to excessive grazing. There have also been some incidents of poaching.

The Hindustan Times, 9th June 2011

The Viceroy's House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) atop Raisina Hill forms the epitome of New Delhi, the new imperial capital. But it is the pristine white bungalows set amidst sprawling lawns and dense trees that form the basis of the British plan of building the new capital as a garden city, a concept in vogue in Europe in the 1910s

The team of architects, led by Edwin Lutyens, turned to detailing only after the layout plans for the city were finalised, with the axial orientation (from the Viceroy's House to the All India War Memorial) surrounded by lawns and water ways dominating the design. The primary elements of the garden city were the residential buildings for senior officials, which came to be known as 'Lutyens' Bungalows'.

"The brief to the architects was," points out AK Jain, author of a recent book 'Lutyens' Delhi', "to retain one-third area as green space. Thegarden city concept was chosen as the planners felt a crowded city was not the answer to any metropolis."

Lucy Peck points out in her book 'Delhi - A Thousand Years of Building': "There was also the question of architectural style. Advice came from all sides: was it to be English, Renaissance or Mughal? The great English Arts and Crafts architect Voysey got closer to the right answer saying that 'considerations of local conditions, especially climatic and traditional character, were the premises for fine buildings'."

That set the tone for the design. Moreover, the population density was planned to be 15 persons per acre at the most, compared to the 1,500 persons (approximately) per acre in the Walled City area.

Most of these bungalows are single -storied except at a few places such as North and South Avenues and one-odd here and there, such as Teen Murti Bhavan, which was originally designated for a very high-ranking official.

The bungalows were planned on large plots ranging from two acres to 10 acres. Verandas on all sides and high ceiling helped beat the Indian summer heat while the sprawling green lawns and curved drive ways lent a spatial element. They were painted pristine white, hallmark of the classical architecture.

The important aspect was that the building's height was not allowed to go above the tree line.
All these bungalows showcased colonial architecture with the constructed portion of about 7% of ground area and a number of out-houses.

"The open spaces and greenery around the bungalow remind me of my home at Khunti district in Jharkhand. Apart from this, the verandas on all sides and the high ceiling help in proper ventilation. All this help in create a pollution free environment," says Karia Munda, deputy speaker of Lok Sabha, who has been staying at 1, Sunehari Bagh Road bungalow for last 1 ½ years.

Says Ratish Nanda, a conservation architect, "New Delhi is probably the only city in the world where the centre of the city is 4 degrees Celsius cooler than the peripheral areas."

"The bungalows are spread over just 1.8% of entire Delhi's area but these very green spaces contribute immensely to the ecology of the city," adds Nanda, who was instrumental in working up the proposal for getting the Capital’s Lutyens' Bungalow Zone on the World Monument Fund watch list.

The Hindustan Times, 10th June 2011

History might act a divider, it can also unify. Banking on such a hope for unity between India and Pakistan, Routes2Roots, a Delhi-based NGO, recently brought the play “Dara” from Pakistan for a show here. Presented by the well-known Pakistani theatre group Ajoka, meaning contemporary, the play “Dara”, mounted at the Kamani recently, tookthe packed auditorium down the memory lane right into the courts of Moghul king Aurangzeb.

The play was about the lesser known story of Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, who was imprisoned and later executed by his younger brother Aurangzeb. “We have tried to bring out Dara's poetic side, his love for painting and Sufism besides his other aspects,” said Shahid Nadeem, the writer and director of the moving play. Having worked for over five years on the construction of the play, he said it was difficult to stage such stories. “History has different ideologies. So it often requires a lot of extensive research before we showcase such a play. We, for instance, read rare books, some were in Persian, on the subject and visited various Moghul sites in India, like Nizamuddin, Old Delhi, Agra, etc. and also went to the Sarmad's shrine. The information on Dara was not easily available. It took us a lot of time to put it together.”

Highlighting Dara's teachings of major religions and his scholarly works which provide a base to his love for peace and unity, the play progressed through his glories to the tragic period, concluding it by bestowing a dignified position to Dara in history.

Nadeem, commenting on the theatre scene in Pakistan, admitted that “it is not that vibrant as here.” He explained, “There are two kinds of theatre there. One, which is the commercial theatre, has stand-up comedy, etc., and the other is the theatre for social change. It touches the heart of the audience and acts as a medium to strengthen unity and promote peace in the society.”

Making the play even more significant was the estranged yet so cherished relationsthe two countries share. “We have performed at several places but I find no great difference in the people, cultures and tastes of the two countries. Of course, back home there are more connoisseurs of Urdu. So we put in simpler words in the dialogues here but that is it. I feel the same here as in my homeland,” said Sarfaraz Ansari, who essays the role of Aurangzeb.

Lending support to the show with their presence were Shahid Malik, High Commissioner of Pakistan, and former Union Minister Jaswant Singh, who on being asked about the play, commented, “I wish I could tell you how much I liked it. But, I don't have the balance to scale my liking of the play. I liked it very much.”

Trying to forge better relations and promoting peace and unity, Routes2Roots, after showcasing “Bulla” and now “Dara”, plans to take an Indian play, “Mirza Ghalib”, to Pakistan soon.

“It is the war for peace. These historical plays would surely be a source of inspiration for a more peaceful and better world,” said the founder of Routes2Roots Tina Vachani.

The Hindu, 7th June 2011

Incessant digging next to Purana Qilain central Delhi is not only an eyesore for visitors but also a bone of contention between the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the agency concerned.

Though permission for any kind of construction or digging activity within 100 metres of protected monuments has been stopped by ASI following the setting up of the National Monuments Authority, the newly notified Act allows work for essential services like laying of underground sewer lines, power cables and water lines.

Work near this site for laying of electricity lines has been going on for the last several weeks and senior ASI officials said that it was likely to be finished in a few days. Till the work is completed, visitors to Purana Qila and Delhi Zoo are being greeted by a mess of concrete lying on the road, dug-up pavements and loose cables strewn around.

"The cables were already going through the area and the agency concerned had to undertake some work to rectify it. This cannot be avoided if people need power supply in their households," said officials.

The utility doing the work, transmission agency Delhi Transco Ltd (DTL), assured that the work would be wrapped up in two to three days. "We're in the middle of laying 200kV underground cables. This is an essential service and cannot be postponed. Where the cables have to be joined, we have to do digging at some depth as per approved plans. ," said a spokesperson for Delhi Transco.

The Times of India, 10th June 2011

The 551-year-old Naggar Castle and the 120-year-old plush 75-acre Palace Hotel, Chail, will soon be on the national and international heritage tourist circuit.A seven-member heritage committee of the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs has given in-principle approval for declaring these as “heritage buildings of national importance”.

The Naggar Castle and the Palace Hotel are being run as heritage hotels by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC). Now, these are set to figure on the country’s list of heritage hotels and properties. This, in turn, will propel the Kullu-Manali tourist and the Chail-Shimla circuits into the hitherto lesser-known elite tourism arena, giving Himachal a prized leverage in the high-end tourism market.

The British made the castle a hotel for dignitaries. Later, the state government took over it and has been running the 15-room heritage hotel since then. It houses a restaurant, Himachal dham, a museum and Jagatipat temple of Athara Kalrus, the 18 deities that are believed to govern religious destinies of people in the valley.

HPTDC general manager Yogesh Behl said, “The team gave in-principle approval for the heritage hotels after inspecting these recently. He said the committee would visit these hotels again for the final approval.

The Tribune, 11th June 2011

If you thought surgery is a modern era phenomenon, think again. Researchers have claimed that brain surgical practice was prevalent even 4,300 years ago — in the Indus valley during the Harappa culture!

Their claim is based on the surgical procedure, known as trepanation, discovered in one Harappan male skull kept in the Palaeoanthropology Repository of the Kolkata-based Anthropological Survey of India. The skull was discovered in the 1930s during excavations in Harappa.

“The first unequivocal case of ancient brain surgical practice, known as trepanation, was observed 4,300 years ago in a Bronze Age Harappan skull,” said AR Sankhyan, a palaeoanthropologist from the ASI in the latest edition of the Indian journal, Current Science.

After intensive study, Sankhyan, who collaborated with GR Schug, a bioarcheologist from the US-based Appalachian State University, found that the trephined hole is just on the right superior temporal line at the terminus of the traumatic line.

“A clear rim of 3 mm width at the internal border of the hole is the evidence of osteogenesis or healing, indicating that the victim survived for a considerable time after the operation,” Sankhyan added.

Thus, trepanation was practised as a common means of surgery during the Bronze Age in the Indian subcontinent, which could have been a precursor to the later Ayurvedic surgical practices followed in ancient India as well, the researchers concluded.

In fact, such trepanations were found in a skull of Neolithic age which was recovered a decade ago from Burzahom in the Kashmir Valley—a first case from the Indian subcontinent which shows that the trepanation had been the oldest craniotomic surgical procedure practised by mankind since the Stone Age by way of drilling or cutting through the skull vault of a living or recently deceased person.

It was first noticed in Peru and later in Europe as well around 5000 years ago, and thought to have spread to Asia.

Scholars attribute different motives for trepanations in different regions and societies of the world, but a majority considers most of these as definitely surgical operations of therapeutic use either for repairing a fracture of the skull resulting from blows of sticks or stones, or for removing splinters and clotted blood, or for that matter, alleviating persistent headaches.

The Pioneer, 11th June 2011

Maintaining that the construction on around 700 hectares of land of the ambitious Lavasa hill city project in Pune was “illegal” and did not get environmental clearance, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on Friday directed the Maharashtra Government to take action against it. The state government has been asked to inform the MoEF on the action taken at the earliest.

In a letter to the Maharashtra Government, the Ministry said that during an appraisal of request for green clearance for the development of 2000 hectares Hill Station Township “it was found that constructions/developments in 681 hectare area was in progress without obtaining prior environmental clearance.

Noting that it had earlier issued show cause notices on November 25 last year and “final directions” on January 17 this year, the Ministry said the constructions/developments in the 681 hectare area “are violations” of Environment (Protection) Act 1986. The MoEF asked the State Environment Ministry to “initiate necessary action” under the Act “against the violation of Act.”

MoEF’s order to Maharashtra government comes even as it is getting ready to make its decision known on the phase-I of the controversial project on June 15 when the matter comes up in Bombay High Court.

The Ministry will take a decision on the basis of a report of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), which has recommended conditional approval to Lavasa Corporation, a subsidiary of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC).

Lavasa also issued a statement in New Delhi welcoming the Ministry decision. When asked about Lavasa’s statement welcoming EAC recommendations, Ramesh said, “Any welcome or criticism is, therefore, premature and could well be misplaced.”

Earlier in the day, HCC’s Chairman and Managing Director, Ajit Gulabchand, said in Mumbai that the Expert Appraisal Committee has recommended clearances for Lavasa’s first phase of 2,000 hectares-hill town project with “some conditions”.

The Ministry in December last had ordered status quo at the site by terming it “unauthorised” adding that Lavasa Corporation, the site developer had violated the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notifications. Lavasa had challenged this MoEF order in the Bombay High Court where the matter is still pending.

However, MoEF in January this year stated that it was ready to consider the project on “merits”, subject to fulfillment of certain conditions. Following this, the company had applied for grant of environment clearance for the first phase of the project.

The Pioneer, 11th June 2011

The Katoch royals of Kangra are resurrecting lost glory, built over centuries of art, culture and, wonder of wonders, plastic surgery, says Neeti Nigam

It seems we have fumbled on a potential patent long before Basmati — the nose job. The Katoch royal family of Kangra, which claims to be one of the oldest in the world, has references which say that its kingdom was scientifically advanced centuries ago to become a medical tourism hotspot for rhinoplasty.

Alexander Cunningham, the first Director-General of Archaeology in India (1861-85), once said: “The repair of noses still goes on in Kangra, although greatly fallen off since the end of the Sikh rule when amputation of the nose was a common punishment. But people still come from Kabul and Nepal for treatment.” French traveller GT Vigne, who visited India in 1833-39, has extensively described the Kangra method of rhinoplasty in his travelogue. This is not unbelievable, considering the fact that in 600 BC, Sushruta had mastered the art of nose surgery for those who were punished for adultery.

Then, there is a story of Bidhya, a Kangra surgeon, who reshaped a thief’s nose that had been chopped off on Akbar’s orders. When the man appeared in court, the Mughal emperor was surprised. He invited the surgeon and rewarded him with a jagir for his skill!

Royal guard
Kangra’s another lasting legacy is its fort, which, incidentally, is shaped like a nose! Situated on a hill above Kangra town, the royal family is today spearheading efforts to rescue the fort, which the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) says is the oldest in the country.

With 11 gates and 23 bastions, and protruding over the confluence of rivers Manjhi and Ban Ganga, forming a natural moat of sorts, the fort’s high walls were at one time impregnable. Looking up at the three-mile high ramparts, prince Tikaraj Aishwarya Katoch sketches his genealogy back to the Ramayana. “Lord Rama’s sons, Luv and Kush, were helped by the king of Trigarta (a Katoch) to fight Lakshman. In Sanskrit, kat means sword and och means high. A Katoch was, therefore, believed to be a good swordsman,” he adds.

Historically, however, the Katoch family is first referred to by a Greek scribe accompanying Alexander.

Prince Aishwarya stops us when we bend down to enter the Ranjit Singh Gate, asking us to put our right foot first. “My ancestors believed that if you enter the gate bending your head, an infiltrator hiding somewhere could cut your throat,” he says.

There were layers of security, indicating Kangra’s strategic worth. There’s the metal-plated Ahini Gate with iron spikes, the Jahangiri Gate built by Jahangir and the Andheri Gate wide enough for just two persons to go through a 15-ft narrow passage. Above the side walls are flat terraces where the Katoch army was positioned to rain down weapons on the enemy.

The fort has a long history of important battles. One of the first enemies to capture the fort was Mahmud of Ghazni in 1009 AD, who took advantage of the absence of the Katoch ruler. Such was the wealth that though Ghazni’s garrison had elephants and horses, he couldn’t take the whole of it back. And, he could loot only eight of the 21 treasure wells! In the 1890s, the British looted another five. Locals still believe that the fort hides eight more.

Stories of the kingdom’s prosperity even attracted Akbar, who first became an ally and then tried to confiscate the entire property. It was, however, Jahangir’s forces that could breach the fort after a 14-month siege. In 1627, when Mughal power was waning, Maharaja Hari Chandra started conducting guerrilla warfare to recapture the fort. But he was captured and his skin peeled off. In 1751, his grandson, Maharaja Ghambir Chandra, avenged his death by recapturing the fort. “I’ve heard heroic stories about how my ancestor took revenge by flaying an entire contingent of Mughal forces,” says prince Aishwarya.

As the Mughal empire declined, the Katoch kings consolidated their hold over Kangra for a short period under Sansar Chandra. The region was then occupied by Ranjit Singh of Punjab, followed by the British.

As we cross historical milestones, the climb gets steeper and we reach the Darsani Darwaza — the gate to the sanctum sanctorum. If the lead-up is progressively tortuous and daunting, the Darsani Darwaza is the antithesis, flanked as it is by two welcoming statues of Ganga and Yamuna and leading into the palace courtyard. There are three stone-carved temples — Lakshminarayan, Ambika Devi and a Jain temple. The 1905 earthquake destroyed much of the fort, especially the Lakshminarayan temple, but the intricate carvings exist to tell the story of exquisite craftsmanship.

As we enter the Ambika Devi temple, we find the priest performing the evening aarti. Regarded as the kul devi, the family performs an annual havan in front of the centuries-old idol. There is also a 5,000-year-old Mahavir idol, believed to have been made when the saint was alive. Hence, the temple figures prominently on the Jain pilgrim circuit.

Some wells and ruins of living quarters are all you see, but there’s silence in this heap of broken images of a rich past. I walk to the edge of the palace to get into a polygonal watchtower that offers a spectacular view of the Kangra valley. There is a separate balcony from which the royals used to enjoy the sunrise and sunset. I stand equally fascinated, drenched by the golden glow. They say Kangra belonged to him who owned the fort; I couldn’t agree more.

The open house
The Kangra royals have for long been trying to revive their culture and monuments. They have managed to recreate a slice of past glory at the Maharaja Sansar Chandra Museum, which houses a large collection of artefacts from the seventh century onwards. Close to the fort, it was recently inaugurated by His Holiness Dalai Lama. Raja Aditya Katoch believes that he and his ancestors are finally at peace. “The charm is coming back to this Valley. Every king prayed to a God for peace. The Dalai Lama is the devta of this valley,” he says.

To highlight the lost fine arts, traditions and the Kangra way of life, the museum has four galleries. We get a sense of entering hallowed portals as we spot the Katoch family tree predating the birth of Christ. The central gallery is a recreated Rajput durbar, Sansar Chandra’s silver throne being the showpiece. It is flanked by golden chairs meant for his princes and British residents.

The second gallery is the home of Kangra miniature paintings, almost a photographic documentary of the times.

One of the paintings of dancing courtesans in a royal court has names of all the nobles and dancers present at the occasion. “During Sansar Chandra’s regime, there was a renaissance of art and culture as he ensured peace and stability,” says Aishwarya.

The museum is a tribute to the royal family that will always be admired for its generosity. “There were plays enacted in the province about the chivalry and romance of my ancestors. There’s one about how Sansar Chandra fell in love with a woman of the Gaddi tribe during a tour of his kingdom. Her beauty enchanted him so much that he abducted her. She would sit by the palace window so that her husband could look at her while returning home from grazing sheep,” he adds.

Some horoscopes tumble down from the walls, pointing to the importance Katoch rulers laid to astrological predictions before any venture — be it commissioning a civil project or going to a war. Mughal coins with embossed calligraphy, Persian manuscripts, the royal costume gallery, which could be an inspiration to couturists studded as they are with precious stones and set in a mesh of silver and gold embroidery, and folk art represent the clutches of history that the royal family is clinging on to.

Prince Aishwarya points out to the silver furniture of Rajmata Shailendra Kumari, the princess of Tehri-Garhwal, as a reference point for talking about her legacy. “My great grandmother-in-law was a liberal who came out of the purdah. It was because of her that my mother-in-law could contest elections and become an entrepreneur,” says Tikarani Shailja Katoch, wife of prince Aishwarya. The prince himself momentarily forgets he is touring with guests and looks at the armour and artillery section with a boyish curiosity.

“As a kid, I was fascinated with stories of Sansar Chandra. At times, I even tried wearing his armour,” says Aishwarya.

An average day of a prince would start with morning exercises like wrestling and sword-fighting, followed by private lessons on all subjects, particularly those related to state affairs. By the evening, he would participate in cultural events. “All princes were taught to appreciate art, music, dance and food traditions since childhood,” says the prince.

There is a photograph of the adolescent Dhruv Chandra, the last ruler of the Katoch family (in 1947, he merged his state with the Union). Of the 52 children from nine wives of Jai Chandra, Dhruv was the only son who remained alive. “We fell victim to many conspiracies. Jai Chandra’s sons were killed, but his daughters were spared. To save Dhruv, his mother would dress him up as a girl. It was only when the British tried to take over the kingdom under the Doctrine of Lapse that his identity was revealed,” says the prince. For us, the museum is a revelation too.

Keep the faith
To make the most of our trip, we make a quick detour of the holy shrine of Vajreshwari Devi on way to the station. The temple, surrounded by a stone wall, is alive with the colour of the Navaratri celebrations. Believed to have been built by the Pandavas during their exile, it was plundered by Ghazni and subsequently restored by Akbar’s minister Todar Mal. “Later Maharaja Ranjit Singh repaired it and put the gurdwara-like dome on top. The 1905 earthquake ruined it completely and it was restored again in 1930. With the influence of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh architecture, it is today a shrine of religious harmony,” says the temple priest.

What catches our eye is the idol of Dhayanu Bhagat, a disciple of the Goddess. Legend has it that Dhayanu begged the Goddess to preside over the territory, now known as western Uttar Pradesh, for eternity. She agreed to follow him on condition that he would not look back at her during the entire journey. Curiosity got the better of him and he turned back at Kela Devi (Agra) to see if she was indeed following him. The Goddess deserted him that very moment. Dhayanu failed to convince her again and cut off his head as a sacrifice. “The site has become an oath stone. Make a vow here which you will never break,” says the priest.

A known shaktipeeth, Goddess Vajreshwari was injured here while killing Mahishasur. She cured herself by applying butter, a tradition celebrated on Makar Sankranti every year. There is also a shrine of Lal Bhairav; locals are scared to incur his wrath. They believe that neglecting him will expose them to earthquakes. “Fifteen days before the earthquake, the then priest noticed the lord crying. He has never cried after that. Now you can see him smiling which indicates this place will prosper,” adds the priest.

Kangra lives with mystic truths in the lap of the Himalayas. You, too, will be converted. The Pioneer, 12th June 2011

Chingas Sarai, near Rajouri, is built at the site where Queen Noor Jahan buried the intestines of her husband, Emperor Jahangir, to save the Mughal kingdom, writes Jupinderjit Singh

Tombs of kings, queens, soldiers and even lovers are found all over the world, especially in India, where kingdoms prospered and vanished. But have you heard about a tomb of an Emperor, built at a place where just one part of his body was buried? That too, an internal organ?

Visit Chingas Sarai, 25 km short of Rajouri town and about 130 km from Jammu, to behold such a unique relic of the Mughal era. Situated on the Jammu-Rajouri highway, near the Tawi river, this place is built at the site where Mughal queen Noor Jahan buried the intestines of her dead husband and Mughal Emperor Jahangir to save the Mughal kingdom.

Jahangir had died on way to Delhi from Kashmir in 1627. The queen could not let this news reach Lahore or Delhi. It could have led to power struggle between the heirs or claimants to the throne. She had to show the king alive but that meant preserving his body for several days. The physicians then found out a way. They removed the intestines as it slowed the decay of the body and prevented pungent smell emanating from it.

The embalmed body of the king, dressed in his usual attire, was made to sit on an elephant in such a way that he appeared hale and hearty. One wonders if the queen had not done this, would the Mughal era have ended early? Would the history of the whole subcontinent have a different story?

Nearly four centuries after this historical act, the site that later came to be known as Chingas, which means intestines in Persian, is finally available to tourists. The otherwise locked and abandoned historical monument that was in ruins has got a fresh lease of life now.

Thanks to the Jammu and Kashmir Archaeology Department, this one of its kind tomb is open to public now and forms the main base of the Rajouri-Poonch tourism circuit, which is being popularised by the opening of Mughal Road. A big board at the entrance of the sarai narrates the tale of the intestines, which has been established by historians over the years.

It is an excellent location where it is situated, beside the present Jammu-Rajouri road and in the valley of the snow- clad Pir Panjal ranges. It offers the first resting point to tourists on way to Shahadar-e-sharief.

Peerzada Muhammad Ashraf, Deputy Director, recalls that the sarai was lying abandoned and was in a dilapidated state for better part of the last two centuries. "It was in ruins. It collapsed before the vagaries of nature. People took away many bricks, and it was largely reduced to a garbage dumping site. But thanks to a project of the Centre, we began the restoration work in 2003, and now it is almost complete. People can visit it."

He revealed that the Mughal sarai was a well-planned building with two apartments — the residential complex and the open yard. Both the apartments have separate gateways and are also connected to each other internally. The residential complex was built within the walled enclosure and contains arched cells with openings towards the courtyard. Its gateway in the western wall comprises a central chamber with domed roof and a small guard's room on either flank. In the construction of the building, random rubbles and large pebbles were used.

He revealed about Rs 1crore was spent on restoring the pristine glory of the building. "The challenge was to give it its previous look. We have succeeded in it."

But there is a lot which needs to be done still. Most important is the creation of wayside amenities for tourists who stop over at this place. Presently, there is a cafeteria opposite the sarai, but its standard needs to be improved. Tourists would love to stay over at the place and trek down to the Tawi river. If some boating or fishing arrangements are made, the site could be a crowd-puller for not just outstation tourists but also for local residents for excursions or weekend trips.

Director, Jammu and Kashmir Tourism, R K Verma, told The Tribune some of the plans they have. "The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, has sanctioned three integrated tourism circuit development sites. This is one of the three and we would be soon developing a picnic spot in the form of a well laid-out garden at Chingas."

He said the work would begin soon. "Earlier, the land near the sarai was not in our possession. We have got it now and the blueprint for the garden with landscaping matching its setting with the Pir Panjal ranges would be developed," he added.

A garden, in fact, would be a tribute to Jahangir, who had special love for Kashmir. Most of the gardens in Srinagar were developed by him.

Tourists visiting Chingas can also visit Bafleaz, where, it is said, Alexander’s horse died. Besides, there are a number of pilgrimage sites like Mangla Devi and Budda Amarnath. Muslim tourists can visit Shahadar-e-sharief also. With the opening of Mughal Road — the ancient route on which Mughals travelled, and which was the main road connecting Srinagar with Delhi via Lahore — more tourist inflow is expected.

The Tribune, 12th June 2011

Ancient unprotected monuments vandalized in the guise of religion will soon be taken up for conservation and legal protection by the state government. This will happen in another few weeks.

The Delhi governments archaeology department and the INTACH Delhi chapter have identified a number of monuments in the Mehrauli area that will be conserved. Many of these have been encroached upon in the recent past.

The identified monuments are part of phase II of the governments collaboration with the conservation body INTACH to protect and conserve 92 heritage structures in the city. Some other monuments likely to be looked after are Baradari at Sadhna Enclave, three gateways at Badarpur and Dara Shikoh library building. The work will be taken up after the monsoons, in September and October.

Times of India, 12th June 2011

The Department of Forests, Kerala is planning to constitute a special rapid action force to face the threat of invasion by wild animals into human habitats and farmlands bordering jungles in the context of increasing incidents of intrusion by elephants, boars and leopards into villages and farms in the mountainous regions of the State.

The Chief Wildlife Warden has already submitted a recommendation to the Government for the constitution of such a force on the model of the Rapid Response and Rescue Force in the Kerala Police. The plan is to complete the setting up of the squad, which would be under the direct control of the Chief Wildlife Warden, within two months.

Sources in the Forest Department said the plan for constitution of such a squad was all the more relevant in the context of last week’s tragic incident in Mysore city in which a man was gored to death by an intruding wild elephant. They said at least a dozen people had lost lives in incidents of human-wild animal conflicts in Kerala this year.

The units of the these squads would be stationed mainly in five districts – Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad, Idukki and Pathanamthitta – that have witnessed the most cases of wild animal intrusion. Several areas with jungle borders in these districts have been witnessing frequent intrusions into farmlands by wild elephants and boars.

The places that have seen most animal intrusions in the recent past are Nilambur in Malappuram district, Kalladikkode, Kanjikkode and Malampuzha in Palakkad, Chekkadi and Thirunelli in Wayanad, Munnar in Idukki and Ranni and Konni in Pathanamthitta districts.

The main job of the rapid response team of the Forest Department would be to scare away intruding animals back into the jungles. However, the department also hopes to make use of their service in the area of rescue works at the time of incidents like elephants running amok during festivals.

Each squad of the force would have a Forest Range Officer as its head, a Forester and three Forest guards as members. The squad members would be provided with modern weapons and communication implements. There is also recommendation that the squads should be given the necessary number of vehicles.

The department is yet to decide whether to hold special recruitment for the constitution of the force or to set it up with available Forest personnel. There is already a Rapid Protection Force, with personnel from the Police Department included, in the Department of Forests for the conservation of jungles.

In the meantime, the Wayanad Wild Life Sanctuary authorities have constituted squads to scare wild elephants away and protect the life and property of settler farmers near the sanctuary. The squads have already started functioning in the forest ranges of Tholpetty, Sulthan Bathery, Kurichyad, and Muthanga.

Each squad has a forest official and three forest watchers, who have been provided a jeep with a driver and an electronic gadget and firecrackers to scare away elephants intruding into farmlands, according to sources in the sanctuary. People could contact the squads over the phone.

The special squads would monitor the places frequented by wild elephants near human settlements and take appropriate measures on time. The sanctuary authorities have also decided to mend the mud-filled elephant trenches on the borders with the help of local bodies.

The Pioneer, 13th June 2011

The Great Indian Bustard, a bird species once found in abundance across the grasslands of India, is facing the risk of extinction.

The 2011 Red List of birds, released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has enlisted the bird in the Critically Endangered category, the highest level of threat. The population of the species is estimated to be just 250.

Hunting, habitat loss and fragmentation have reduced the number of this species, which was found in large numbers in the grasslands of India and Pakistan. But their population is now restricted to small and isolated fragments of remaining habitats, says the Birdlife International, which prepared the list.

The BirdLife International “coordinates the categorisation and documentation of all bird species for the IUCN Red List.” According to the 2011 assessment, 1,253 species are considered threatened with extinction. These include albatrosses, cranes, parrots, pheasants, and pigeons. The larger-bodied species and those with low reproductive rates are more likely to be threatened, the report says.

The Bustard species has been classified as critically endangered “as it has undergone an extremely rapid decline owing to a multitude of threats, including habitat loss and degradation and disturbance. It now requires an urgent acceleration in targeted conservation actions in order to prevent it from becoming functionally extinct.”

The birds have unmistakable, large, brown-and-white body with black crown and wing markings. The males have whitish neck and under parts with narrow black breast-band. The females are smaller, with greyer neck and typically no breast-band. The population of the bird was estimated to be around 300 in 2008. The population viability analysis lends some support to a predicted decline of over 50 per cent of the species in the next 47 years if no additional conservation actions are taken, the report cautions.

In India, the bird is now restricted to Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Earlier it was distributed from Punjab east through Orissa and south to Tamil Nadu, says P.O. Nameer, South Asian coordinator, in situ, Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, IUCN.

Besides the Bustard, the list has enumerated 15 species from India as critically endangered and 16 as endangered ones. There are 55 vulnerable ones and 65 near-threatened bird species in the country. Some of the critically endangered Indian varieties include the Himalayan Quail, Pink-headed Duck, White-bellied Heron and Christmas Island Frigatebird. The vulture species found in India namely the White-backed, the Indian, the Slender-billed and the Red-headed are also in the critical list, says Dr. Nameer.

The list has classified 189 species worldwide as critically endangered, 381 as endangered with very high risk of extinction and 683 as vulnerable with high risk of extinction. It has also listed 843 species as near-threatened. A total of 2,096 species were treated as global conservation priorities. The threat status of 62 species could not be properly assessed following deficiency of data.

The Hindu, 13th June 2011

Preserve Naggar Castle, Chail Palace

It is indeed heartening that the 551-year-old Naggar Castle is being given due importance by it being recognised as a heritage building of national importance. The castle has a rich past, which deserves preservation. The 75-acre Palace Hotel, Chail, which is younger by three decades, too, has a rich past, although the main palace suffered extensive damage in a fire many years ago. Heritage buildings, especially in the hills, need special attention since they are vulnerable to fires. A number of important buildings in Himachal Pradesh have been gutted in the recent past. Neglect, largely because of apathy and lack of funds, has often contributed in the state losing out on its heritage. It is now widely recognised that the government alone is unable to maintain heritage buildings, even when they are converted into hotels.

In order to attract elite tourists, the destinations, their maintenance and the service standards need to be impeccable. Public-private partnership models also need to be encouraged so that they become attractive tourist destinations. Of course, care must be taken in making the process of selection of the private partners transparent and fair, so as to prevent controversies of the kind that bedevil several such projects in the country.

The recognition for these properties will also give a fillip to the region, and serve to the Kullu-Manali tourists and the Chail-Shimla circuits. However, the government needs to ensure that proper facilities are provided and information about these places, as well as other palaces of interest near them, is properly documented and widely circulated.

Punjab and Haryana too need to take a cue from their neighbouring state to identify, recognise and develop heritage buildings into attractive tourist destinations so that not only are the buildings preserved but also the heritage that they represent is kept alive in the minds of the visitors. Preserving tangible heritage also helps to keep alive its intangible aspects which keep alive the ethos of the people.

The Tribune, 13th June 2011

Visitors to the Humayun’s Tomb can look forward to entering a premises that closely resembles its original state, with extensive restoration being carried out for walls for the World Heritage Site.

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) is working on restoring the western and southern enclosure walls, which collapsed in the 19th and 20th century. Craftsmen are following conservation methods that mirror those practised in 16th century during the construction of the monument.

Officials said Mughal emperor Babur had built several walled gardens along the banks of Yamuna. The Humayun’s Tomb, too, was built along the Yamuna and set within a garden enclosed by 6-metre high arcaded walls on the northern, southern and western sides. The east side was kept open to allow uninterrupted view of the river.

Each wall had either a gateway or a pavilion at the centre. Walkways were made above the walls. The walls were arcaded to provide an aesthetic enclosure, while economising on material.

The AKTC is restoring the 42 arched bays that had collapsed. Officials said they are using random rubble stone masonry in lime mortar, just as the original builders used during construction. To restore the arches, the arch profile is first created using bricks stacked on one another in exactly the same manner as depicted in the Mughal chronicles such as the Akbarnama.

“Enclosure walls were very significant to Mughal tomb-gardens, which aimed at representing paradise. For decades portions of the Humayun’s Tomb enclosure were in a state of collapse giving parts of the complex a ruinous, uncared-for appearance. The conservation work by master craftsmen on the walls will significantly enhance the historic character and allow better watch and ward,” said Ratish Nanda, project director, AKTC.

The lime mortar is also prepared in a traditional manner, with a lime grinding wheel set up on site. It takes up to three months for the mortar to set, after which the bricks are removed. The reconstruction of collapsed portions of the wall started in October last year and is expected to be completed later this year.

“(We have) included significant red polychromy in order to match the red-white contrast achieved at the Tomb. This would require removal of the 20th century cement layers and re-plastering with lime mortar,” said Nanda.

“Works on the main mausoleum are also being carried out. At present, the damaged stone on the lower façade is being carefully repaired or replaced,” he added.

The World Heritage Site has been at the centre of conservation activity, as part of a larger urban renewal project being carried out by the AKTC in association with the ASI.

K K Muhammed, superintending archaeologist, Delhi circle-ASI, said: “Nila Gumbad will also be reconnected to the garden following permissions from the Railways. The aim is to integrate adjoining monuments like Nila Gumbad, Bade Batashewala and Chhote Batashewala with the Humayun’s Tomb complex and develop it as a heritage zone.” Indian Express, 13th June 2011

A lake, in the vicinity of a temple built for the Pandavas and Draupadi in Sullia taluk, is surrounded by many legends, dating back to episodes from the Mahabharatha. The area also makes for a great getaway, reports Ronald Anil Fernandes

Temples for gods and demi-gods dot the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. The coastal region has umpteen structures dedicated to a plethora of gods and goddesses.

Apart from many temples dedicated to a variety of gods (devasthanas), the region is well-known for temples dedicated to demi-gods (daivasthana). The region has a temple dedicated to Koti-Chennaiah (also known as garadis), a temple for the sun god and one for Mahatma Gandhi too.

A unique daivasthana is the temple where the Pancha Pandavas and Draupadi are worshipped. Idols of the five Pandavas (Yudhishtira, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva) and Draupadi are worshipped at the temple.

All the six idols, a satya kallu (the stone of truth), yaksha peeta (the seat of yaksha) and 31 nagana kallu (various forms of the serpent god carved in stones) were found in the same area just a few years ago.

Localites chanced on the idols when they were working in an arecanut plantation. They found three stones dedicated to the serpent god. When they dug up the place, they found a total of 31 stones pertaining to the serpent god, two stones pertaining to the yaksha peeta, the stone of truth and six idols. Then they decided to hold an ashtamangala prashne following which a daivasthana was constructed in 2008.

‘Yaksha kere’
Though the Sri Krishna Yaksha Pandava Nagabrahma Kshethra at Keddotte (‘kedu’ means tank and ‘oate’ means a kind of bamboo) in Kunthoor village (believed to be the village where Kunthi lived), about eight kms from Alankar on Uppinangady-Subrahmanya road, was constructed in 2008, a lake located next to the Kshethra has a long history.

The lake, which once measured 60 acres, has today been reduced to 11 acres, because of silt accumulation. Localites Vishwanath and Shivaprasad point out that here is a belief that those who are suffering from skin diseases will be cured if they use the water.

Legend has it that when the Pandavas lived in the forest adjacent to the lake, a deer took away the stick used to make fire from a sage’s home (also in the forest) with its antlers. Then, he requested the Pandavas to trace the deer and get back the stick. The Pandavas followed the hoof marks of the deer throughout the day and strayed deep into the forest.

Yudhishtira , the eldest of the Pandavas, wanted to drink some water before carrying on the chase any further. Sahadeva, the youngest brother volunteered to fetch the water.

He spotted a lake nearby. When he approached the lake, he heard a voice (of a Yaksha) which told him that he would die if he drank water without answering his questions.

However, Sahadeva did not bother and drank the water from the lake and died. The other brothers too are said to have died in a similar manner. On seeing that all his four brothers were missing, Yudhishtira went in search of his brothers, to find them all dead.

However, as he answered all the questions that the Yaksha posed to him, he is believed to have brought back all his four brothers alive. Hence the name ‘Yaksha Sarovara’ (also known as Visha Sarovara).

There are other stories too pertaining to this lake, and according to one such story, there is a treasure in the lake and the snakes guard it.

Though the State government has promised Rs one crore to de-silt the lake and spruce up the area around it, villagers feel that it may require around Rs five crore to safeguard the lake and retain its historical significance.

Fear of submergence
Till not so long ago, Kurumbi Anekattu Parisaravadigala Horata Samithi President Padmanabha Gowda and the rest of the villagers were worried that the lake may be lost if the proposal to construct a dam across River Kumaradhara is implemented. Following the recent High Court order against hydel power projects in Western Ghats, their fears have been allayed.

The river, Kumaradhara, flows about one kilometre away from this lake and the region is filled with huge rocks. There is a long black mark on one of the rocks and villagers believe that it was an impression made by Draupadi’s saree when she dried her saree there.

Perabe Gram Panchayat’s Vasanth Gowda said that a lot of fish (kari meen) are found in the lake at certain times of the year. Apart from the many legends around the lake, the surroundings of the ‘Yaksha Sarovara’ (Visha Sarovara, Keddotte) as well as the banks of River Kumaradhara, make for a great place to unwind. You can lose yourself in the backdrop of the lake and the chirping of birds and the sounds of the breeze.

The region once ruled by Ballals and later occupied by Malekudiyas is today peopled by local Gowdas. There are 14 houses in the vicinity and all the families are related to each other.

How to get there
Travel via Uppinangady (60 kms from Mangalore and 300 kms from Bangalore) and take a turn towards Subrahmanya. You will reach Alankar, a small town, about seven kms from the highway (NH-48). Continue on the same road for about four kms till you get a small board that indicates the way to Keddotte. If you travel for four kms on the bumpy, mud road in the dense forest, you will arrive at a fork.

The path to the left takes you to the Yaksha Sarovara and the daivasthana while the one on the right takes you to River Kumaradhara. Take the help of local people, or chances are you might get lost in the forest.

Deccan Herald, 14th June 2011

The Andhra Pradesh Archeological Department has either excavated or stumbled upon several ancient artifacts in Kurnool district.

P Chenna Reddy, director in the department of archaeology and museums, said bronze images of Tandava Krishna, Tirumangai Alwar, a slate stone image of Veera Bhadra, a bronze bell, prabhamandala (the symbolic ring of fire encircling Nataraja’s image) and gold coins had been discovered in the Sanjamala mandal of the district.

The archeologists have in all unearthed two lots of ancient artifacts in Sanjamala and Alvakonda villages. Similarly, workers at a construction site stumbled upon a copper vase at a depth of one metre during the construction of a house at Racharla in Peapally mandal in the district. There were 20 gold coins, each weighing 3.40 gms, in the vase.

Each of the coins has images of Lord Vishnu with four hands flanked by Goddess Sridevi and Bhudevi. These coins belong to the Vijayanagara period (16th -17th century). These are generally termed as “spherules” (commemorative) in nature issued probably on festive occasions. The gold coins are on display at the Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy AP State Museum in Hyderabad. Another treasure trove consisting nine golden ornaments has been received from the Jupadu Bungalow mandal. It included a “talibottu” and other gold ornaments weighing 194.60 grams. It was found by a labourer in the fields of Boya Ramanaidu of Parsumanchala village.

Kurnool is also home to pre-historic rock paintings at Ketavaram. Over 100 figures were drawn on the flat surface of basalt rocks, possibly with acidic pen or iron red oxide. Several archaeologists who visited the site grouped them as the art of Mesolithic to megalithic period ranging from 6,000 BC to AD 200.

Deccan Herald, 14th June 2011

The Subramanyapura Lake is on the death row with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) turning a blind eye to builders letting sewage into it.

As that was not enough, a private housing society is dumping debris into the lake to widen the tank bund for its convenience.

A mere three years ago the lake was known for its crystal-clear waters, but many private multi-storeyed apartments that came up in the vicinity dealt it mortal blows, letting untreated sewage directly into it, making it the most polluted water-body in the City.

The lake is full of water hyacinth and other weeds and the water stinks to high heavens.
Environmentalist Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group said he had complained to the pollution control board and Lake Development Authority, but to no effect.

“There is a conspiracy to kill the lake systematically so that the land sharks can grab it. The government authorities too have turned a blind eye to the rampant encroachment around the lake,” he said.

According to him, water hyacinth grows in the lake only if sewage is let directly into it.
He held the builders responsible for the pathetic state of the lake for not treating the sullage and letting it directly into the lake.

The concerns of local residents over the pollution of the lake are now intensified with the dumping of truckloads of soil into it by the builder of a residential project coming up on a hill adjacent to the lake.

When contacted, BBMP Chief Engineer (Lakes) Satish said he had received complaints and would inspect the lake shortly Deccan Herald, 14th June 2011

Just as water is best appreciated in summer, stories about step-wells are best read in the dry season. Especially when the step-wells in question are not merely holes in the ground but richly decorated historical structures that were not just a perennial source of water for the people around but also a power statement for those who built them.

Step-wells like the Rani-ki-vav at Patan in Gujarat, the Chand Baoli at Abhaneri in Rajasthan's Dausa district and the Rudabai step-well at Adalaj in Gujarat's Gandhinagar, to name but three, are iconic in their size and design. Rani-ki-vav is named after its patron-builder Queen Udaymati, wife of Solanki King Bhimdev (1022-63) and is believed to have been completed in the second half of the 11th century.

Patan, now a small town dwarfed by Ahmedabad, was the capital of the Solankis and was called Anahilvada. The step-well is laid out in an eastwest direction, the main well being in the west and the entrance in the east. While the well itself is dilapidated, the staircase and the walls of the stepped corridor are intact.

The ornamentation on the walls on both sides runs the entire length of the structure and is rich, with a mix of mythological figures, geometrical shapes and floral designs. On the walls and the niches are a pantheon of gods such as Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Surya, Ganesh, Kuber, Indra and others, many with consorts. While the place is no longer in use as a step-well, the richness of detailing on these figures still draws people.

Closer to Ahmedabad is the stepwell at Adalaj. As in the case of the vav at Patan, this one too is believed to have a woman as its patron-builder. Ruda, after whom the step-well is named, was the consort of Vaghela chief Virasimha. An inscription in the well dates it to 1499. Unlike the well at Patan, the Adalaj vav is built in a north-south direction and has three entrances that come together in a platform at the first level underground.

The well has a stepped corridor, which descends underground with four pavilions across five levels. Almost as richly embellished as the vav at Patan, the recurring motif here is of fighting elephants. There are fewer gods and goddesses and the most significant icon is that of a lion built into a niche on a pavilion. The lion, which carries a trident on its back, is believed to represent the goddess Durga as her celestial vehicle.

Economic Times, 15th June 2011

The Indian government has signed a $1 billion loan with multilateral lending agency, the World Bank, to help support the cleaning of the Ganga river.

A National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) has been set up under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with chief ministers of the five states through which the Ganga flows, including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, being members of the NGRBA.

Nine other expert members will be nominated to the NGRBA whose objective will be to ensure that by 2020, no untreated municipal sewage or industrial effluents will be discharged into the river.

The project has been designed keeping in mind the lessons learnt from the earlier unsuccessful Ganga action plan and the international experience of river clean-up efforts such as the Rhine and Danube.

“What has set the NGRBA apart from earlier government initiatives is that the local municipal body, the state and Central governments will have equal share in planning and managing this initiative,” minister of environment Jairam Ramesh said at a press meet.

Another agreement for credit of $ 15.6 million and $8.14 million grant was inked between the government and the World Bank is for the Biodiversity Conservation and Rural Livelihood Improvement Project (BCRLIP)

The BCRLIP will be implemented in two biodiversity rich landscapes, namely the Little Rann of Kachchh in Gujarat and the Askot lascape in Uttarakahand.

The objective is to conserve high-value biodiversity areas while simultaneously improving the livelihoods of dependent communities. This will help expand conservation action beyond protected areas.

Asian Age, 15th June 2011

From making slippers out of plastic water bottles to setting up small wind turbines to run computers in remote village schools, the Take Care Take Charge (TCTC) campaign has galvanized citizens across the country to devise effective green ideas that can power sustainable living.

Responding to the call for green ideas as part of Times of India-Garnier's Take Care Take Charge initiative, green innovators have sent in more than 300 ideas since the campaign started on World Environment Day earlier this month.

June 30 is the last date for submission of ideas while the top six ideas will be shortlisted in each city —Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad where the campaign is taking place — on July 8. The six national finalists will be chosen on July 18 and the winning idea announced on July 22. On July 24, The Times of India and Garnier will celebrate Take Care Take Charge Day, on which TOI readers will be invited to make their own contributions to save the environment and share their stores with us.

If you want to submit an idea, or are just looking for more information, please visit www.takecaretakecharge.in or sms TCTC to 58888.

Of the ideas received so far, many revolve around exploiting renewable energy sources of wind and water, from ocean waves to mountain breezes.

Talking about his idea of powering school computers in Addagal, a village 80km from Bangalore, its maker Diwakar Reddy says, "Won't it be great if all schools can install wind turbines? It will also encourage children to go green and practice sustainability.

Then there's Shanker Mohanan's two-in-one idea. He suggests attaching a pedal to chairs at the workplace which an employee can use when he/ she wants to stretch their muscles or is bored. The pedaling will not only be exercise but will be circuited in such a way that it runs a compressor with the pressurized air stored in a canister. This, in turn, can be a cooling agent.

As per Mohanan, "The power generated per employee can be as low as 0.1 Watts but imagine with a larger workforce." If these take the wind out of conventional energy, Navneet Jain goes chemical in creating smog-eating cement that can decompose pollutants, rendering harmful chemicals redundant..

Apart from individuals, several NGOs have pledged support to the campaign and the call to make July 24 Take Care Take Charge Day. Taking care and taking charge need not be grandiose either. In a simple but effective move, a Mumbai-based group plans to clean Juhu Beach.

Commenting on the need to go green as a nation, Kartikeya Sarabhai, director, Centre for Environment Education and a partner in the TCTC campaign said, "The challenge of development is not how to get there but how not to. The current paradigm of development is unsustainable and we need to take charge and not imitate."

The Times of India, 15th June 2011

Rajasthan is planning to shift the sambhar population in Delhi's Golf Club to one of its sanctuaries.
The Rajasthan Board for Wildlife standing committee, which met here on Monday, cleared a proposal from the Delhi Chief Wildlife Warden in this regard. The move comes after the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun, recommended Rajasthan as “suitable place” for re-locating Delhi's ungulates.

The meeting, presided over by Rajasthan Minister Forest and Environment Ramlal Jat, decided to procure the sambhar population of the Golf Club, numbering 40-50 in an area of 120 acre, to Kumbalgarh Sanctuary in Bhilwara. The sanctuary, which surrounds one of the finest forts in the country, was also the recipient of 24 sambhars re-located from Sariska last year.

The Sariska Tiger Reserve is among the sanctuaries with maximum concentration of ungulates in the country. The Kumbalgarh Sanctuary, though a fine forest, does not have an adequate prey base for major carnivores such as tigers and leopards. “We are in the process of re-building the prey base in Kumbalgarh. We may consider shifting more sambhars and spotted deer from either Sariska or other sanctuaries to Kumbalgarh and Kailadevi sanctuary in future,” Rajasthan Forest Force head R.N. Mehrotra told the meeting.

The members also discussed a suggestion for further re-location of the deer population in the State's sanctuaries and parks as their presence is uneven. “The Keoladeo National Park has excess deer population, while the Kailadevi Sanctuary is devoid of their presence. We may pick up 50 sambhars from Sariska and an equal number of cheetals from Keoladeo Park for re-distribution,” said Mr. Mehrotra.

The Forest authorities also informed the meeting that a surge in the population of spotted deer was noticed along the banks of the Chambal river in Kota-Jhalawar districts in the recent census.

Among other things, the meeting cleared a proposal for declaring eight new conservation reserves — Shakhambhari, spread over Sikar and Jhunjhunu districts, Beed Jhunjhunu in Jhunjhunu district, Gudda Vishnoi near Jodhpur, Shahbad in Baran district, Gogolav in Nagaur, Hamirgarh in Bhilwara and Beed Fatehpur in Sikar — under Section 36 A of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The members also cleared a proposal to declare 114 hectares of land at Rotu in Nagaur — which has a good presence of black bucks — and Budda Johad Shri Jambeshwar in Sriganganagar, as community reserves. Mr. Jat on the occasion suggested declaring Khejrali, the historic conservation site near Jodhpur, as a community reserve.

The Hindu, 15th June 2011

Five days after the environment ministry asked the state government to initiate action against Lavasa Corporation for environmental violations on a portion of its hill city project in Pune, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday indicated that the option to “regularize” the irregularity would be examined.

An expert appraisal committee of the MoEF had earlier observed that construction had been undertaken without environmental clearance on 681 hectares of the land. Observing that this was a violation of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, the ministry last week asked the state government to initiate action against Lavasa. In the same order, the ministry also agreed to grant post-facto environmental clearance for development on 2,000 hectares of the project by imposing 34 riders.

Even as the state environment department has sought an opinion from the law and judiciary department on the nature of action that could be taken against Lavasa, Chavan hinted that his government was in favour of “regularizing” the illegality if permissible.

“Lavasa was a big development project in the state,” said Chavan. The chief minister suggested that the option of setting right the irregularity by imposing a penalty was under consideration. “Action does not always imply demolition,” he said, replying to a question on whether demolishing construction carried out without environmental clearance was being considered too. Chavan added that environmental clearance for the 2,000 hectares could be granted after Lavasa fulfilled the 34 pre-conditions laid down.

Earlier in the day, Ajit Gulabchand of the Lavasa Corporation held meeting with Chavan at the latter’s chamber in Mantralaya. Interestingly, NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule also met Chavan minutes after the Gulabchand meeting. Sule at one point held shares in Lavasa.

The Times of India, 15th June 2011

Thanks to some timely laws, the 19th century hill station of Landour has remained unspoilt by modern constructions, and is the perfect place for a quiet sojourn and leisurely walks, says Jayshree Sundar.

If Mussorie is the queen of all British-era hill stations, Landour named after its Welsh counterpart 'LLanddowror' , is surely its crowning glory. Nestled in the lower Western Himalayas, 9km above bustling Mussorie, it's a quiet and pristine place that stands still in time. If ever there's an ideal spot for a peaceful, and stress free break, this is it, as I realised.

I also found that, like most places, the history of Landour, determines its present. It was built by the British in 1825 as a sanatorium for their army officers. A narrow strip of barracks called 'Sisters' was where the nurses stayed to look after the convalescing soldiers. Today this is the Sister's Bazaar area.

A walk down there revealed a quaint 'Town Square' that had a post office and a bank - and was called Char Dukan -as it has just four shops, of course! One of them is the 1913 built Anil Prakash store, which sells the most delicious, preserves, chutneys, cheeses and jams, but more on that later.

A further walk down I couldn't but stop and gape at the breathtaking snow-clad mountains. On a clear day, I was told, one could see Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. Little wonder that it became a favourite eyrie of the British ever since the first home at Landour was built in 1825 by Captain Young who named it Mullingar, harking back to his Irish ancestry.

As more and more British officers gravitated to Landour for rest and recreation, in 1924 the Cantonment Act was passed which deterred any construction from taking place, and separated Mussorie from Landour. What was created then remains till now and new construction is rare. Landour, thus, is like a time capsule of a bygone, genteel era...

A walk around the Chakkar in the shape of an eight took me along the arterial route of Landour. This is roughly a 5km walk which is so beautiful, I wanted to do it twice a day! Along this route I reached Lal Tibba, the latter being the local word for peak. There, a binocular has been thoughtfully placed for breathtaking views of the valley abound. And further down is the Kellogg church.

Created in 1903, it is open all day,with service on Sundays and, at the risk of sounding corny, it is rather boxy! In the compound is the famous Landour language school, created in the late 1900s. As I made my way round the church, I could hear the sound of classes being taken in Hindi and Urdu. International students apparently go there to learn North Indian languages.

Taking a turn and walking along the ridge I could see the massive campus of the famous Woodstock school, built in 1850. Beautifully maintained, it has an enormous charm because of its picturesque heritage buildings.

Taking a sweeping look at the hilly vista I was captivated by the flora and fauna. No part of the hills were brown.Green Christmas ferns and creepers grew everywhere, and wild daisies in white and baby pink carpeted the open ares. I glanced appreciatively at beautiful heritage homes with evocative names like Hollymount, Fairview, Wolfsburn and Dahlia Bank ...

A favourite pastime seems to be to sit there at Tip top store or Anil's cafe and have delicious bunomelettes, waffles, pancakes, and ginger-lemon tea, while watching life go by! But at any point no more than 20 or 30 people wandered around the shops or sat at the little tables under the trees, so one cannot say it was bustling by our big-city standards!

Hugging Char Dukan is the breathtakingly beautiful St Paul's church, consecrated in 1840. It has been restored to its former glory, so stepping inside is a wonderful experience as the stained glass and the Indo-Gothic columns are grand once again.

SERENE & TIMELESS
While there is a fair variety of hostelry there to choose from, including cottages and even B&Bs, my pied a terre in Landour was the stately Rokeby Manor. Now newly converted into a hotel, it was built circa 1840 by a Captain G N Cauthy , but passed through many hands before being restored and reopened. While the staircase is absolutely original, much of its old world charm is thanks to thoughtful renovation.

While it is supposed to be an ideal place for a seminar or offsite, I thought it was just the spot to just be! Indeed, sitting on the deck at Emily's, having a wonderful dinner, overlooking the twinkling lights of Mussorie town and Dehradun, I could imagine why the British thought this place to be ideal for R&R. How right I was...

A laughing thrush chirped that it was morning, time to wake up to a hot cuppa and see the sun rise. I wakened to take in flowers I never get to see down in the scorching plains like hydrangias and rhododenrons, mountains lilies, nasturtiums and antirrhinums. I had the time to see a colored beetle walk across and a giant red flying squirrel scurry into a bush.

No matter how much one longs to just curl up with a good book, with the mountains and fresh air for company, it is equally difficult to resist a walk down to Landour Bazaar and browse in the antique shops, or buy some Tibetan jewellery. Where else would one have the luxury of sitting down leisurely and ordering slippers and shoes, which are then custom-made in a couple of days!

I nipped in to see an art exhibition at Woodstock school, but I could have done a myriad of other relaxing things from just chatting with the friendly and gentle locals to flagging a cyclist with freshly baked cinnamon bread and pick up a loaf and stand, or gaze at the orange sun drowning in a purple sky.

A dekko of the local provision stores revealed a wealth of local Garhwali spices, and even rhododendron juice. And I think there is no better place to get mouthwatering, locallymade peanut butter, a throwback to the time when American missionaries came to Landour a century ago.

And, on a more contemporary note, when resting my tired feet at the charming Chhaya cafe which is run by an allwoman team (and works for the upliftment of women) I was amazed at the range of lovely salads, hummus and pita breads and veggie platters. Down the road, at the Clock Tower Cafe, apart from delicious pastas and pizzas, there was graffiti on the walls,and posters of rock stars.Very cool!

There are interesting places to see, not far from Landour as well. For instance, there is the lonely haunted house at the peak of a hill. It's a good trek and picnic spot now that (legend has it) no one has stayed there for over 70 years! It is said that at night,lights are seen from the windows and people are heard laughing.

A trip down to Hathipaon to the home of Sir George Everest - after whom the mountain is named - or to Witches hill, so rich in phosphorous that on stormy nights sparkling lights can be seen, are well worth a visit, as is the century old Cloud's End cottage, with its museum.

Higher up is Dhanaulti with its dense forests and close by is the Hindu temple of Surkanda Devi at 9,500 ft. Below Landour, going past the crowded Kempty falls is Sanjii Village. This is a perfect example of a very well run rural outfit. It's in the tribal belt and is self sustaining, harvesting corn and wheat alternativelty to make a living.

The pradhan of the village, incidentally, is Delhi university educated and along with his Canadian wife is doing his best to improve the villagers' lives. The village is spotless and charming, with dried corn hanging from every home in bunches, highlighted against their blue and green walls. I even picked up some dolls, soaps and oils being made by the villagers.

At the end of my trip, the clean mountain air and the serenity left me totally relaxed and de-stressed, as did Landour's promise that it will not change anytime soon...

The Economic Times, 16th June 2011

Experts demand ‘Project Bustard’ on lines of Project Tiger

Once hunted down by falcons (falconry being a favourite sport of Arab princes and sheikhs ) for “aphrodisiac value” of its meat, the Son Chiriya (golden bird) or the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) today figure in the critically endangered “red” list of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Worse, the erstwhile haven of the Great Indian Bustard — Karera Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, where experts such as Dr Salim Ali and Dr Asad Rahmani carried out researches on these birds — is under the process of getting denotified.

According to experts, these flagship species of grasslands, largely endemic in India, are already extinct from almost 90 per cent of its former range, with less than 300 left in the wild.

Raising alarm bells, they have called for setting up ‘Project Bustard’ on the lines of Project Tiger and Project Elephant for the conservation of these birds and the restoration of the grassland habitat. The Government should react promptly on the GIB being declared as ‘critically endangered’, they said.

The GIB, which happens to be the largest of the bustard species, is a favourite of the Arab elites, along with its migratory relatives Houbara Bustards. These large birds weighing about 18 kg and standing one metre tall were preyed upon by trained falcons that swooped on them, broke their necks or blinded them.

Falconry, the ancient sport of hunting with the use of falcon, was prevalent in the Middle East. Arab falconers would make regular visits to Pakistan, Afganistan and northwest India in search of bustards.

“Hunting, destruction and mismanagement of habitat, disturbances caused to breeding, over grazing of livestock, conversion of grasslands into agriculture and various developmental projects are among the major reasons that caused near extinction of these birds,” says Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

Grasslands are most neglected ecosystems in India and under-represented in the protected area network in the country. They are in fact relegated to the status of “wastelands”.

The bustards can ideally be considered indicators of grassland ecosystems and by conserving them and their habitats, a very large number of species dependent on healthy grasslands will also be protected,” he feels.

Hence, the need of the hour is to start Project Bustard and save all the four Bustard species namely, the Great Indian Bustard, the Bengal Florican, the Lesser Florican and the migratory Houbara Bustard (Macqeen’s) from imminent extinction. This can be the only long-term solution which would also look into the long-term conservation of grassland biodiversity of nation, feels Dr Rahmani.

Today, the bird is restricted to only 6 Indian States, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. A few birds have survived in Pakistan, but their future is uncertain due to lack of protection. Out of the nine sanctuaries where it was found, Karera (Madhya Pradesh), Sorson (Rajasthan) and Rannibennur (Karnataka) have already lost their birds.

“The denotification of Karera is just a tip of iceberg —- the major problem with grassland sanctuaries is that they were established on revenue land that included private agricultural areas or common grazing lands. Out of 202.21 sqkm in Karera as much as 146.66 sqkm is private land, feels grassland conservationist Dr Pramod Patil.

The respective State Governments ignored the ‘settlements of rights’ proceedings in these sanctuaries which left them with virtually no control over the land. Therefore, it was not easy to protect the habitat or to do any habitat improvement by the Forest Department who were in charge of managing these protected areas.

PM Lad, former Chief Wild life Warden of MP, and authority on bustards, says development of core areas for bustard breeding is necessary to increase their population. As the bustard live in marginal agriculture areas, support from the local people is necessary for any long-term conservation planning. In sanctuaries such as Karera, where core areas could not be protected, a gradual decline in the bustard population has occurred.

The Pioneer, 16th June 2011

Environmental degradation and growing scarcity of natural resources has marred India’s remarkable economic growth, a World Bank report said today.

The report also said the scale of responses from environmentalists and media needs to be further enhanced in order to address the green challenges facing the country.

“India’s recent remarkable growth has been clouded by a degrading environment and growing scarcity of natural resources,” said World Bank’s Project Appraisal Document on National Ganga River Basin.

“A rapidly growing population and dynamic economic development have been accompanied by extensive and unplanned urbanization and industrialization, the expansion and intensification of agriculture, and the destruction of forests,” it said.

The report was made public a day after the government signed a $1 billion loan agreement with World Bank for cleaning the River Ganga.

The Bank said a 2009 State of the Environment Report for India stressed the major concerns and costs associated with serious land degradation, loss of biodiversity, deteriorating air quality in cities, increasing water scarcity, and generation of large quantities of hazardous waste from industries.

“The share of the most polluting sectors in India’s exports has increased dramatically during the last decade, and a growing pollution footprint is negatively impacting human health and development outcomes,” it said.

Indian Express, 16th June 2011

India may lose the tag of having world’s most primitive nomadic --- Jarawa of Andaman – with the government deciding to reverse its 2004 policy of preserving their uniqueness. Jarawa migrated from Africa centuries ago and lived in isolation in forests of Andaman till 1998 when some of them ventured out to visit nearby towns. Dependant on forest produce for food and clothes, they caught attraction of researchers and tourists. But reducing forest habitat and inbreeding have shrunk their population to below 350 from over a thousand in 1950s.

To protect primitive lifestyle of Jarawas, the tribal affairs ministry in 2004 notified a policy of not making any attempt to bring them to the mainstream of the society and have minimum government intervention.

The government’s policy did not work as Jarawas interacted with neighbouring settlements mainly due to Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) constructed about 50 years ago and got exposed to the outside world.

“They have started chewing tobacco and eating rice and sugar. They are sharp, intelligent and confident. Their articulation is clear and self assured. The effort to protect the Jarawa tribe (as enshrined in 2004 policy) from external influences is therefore an exercise in futility,” a proposal of Andaman and Nicobar Island Administration says.

The Island Development Authority chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday agreed with the proposal and asked the union territory administration to increase exposure and interaction of Jarawa with the modern world. “We will have to work in educating Jarawa tribe to integrate with the modern society,” a senior government official said.

Unlike the NGOs, who claim that Jawara still continue their primitive ways, the administration says they don’t live in “splendid isolation” anymore.

The policy has also caught the administration in a dilemma as it wants to curb freedom of Jarawas to interact with the outside world and enrich their knowledge. Therefore, now the administration has sought a change in policy to empower Jarawa to integrate with the modern world.

The core of the issue is the supreme court’s order in 2002 asking the administration to close Andaman Truck Road for vehicular traffic as its contravene the exclusive right of Jarawas in 1,200 kms of the forest area. The road was constructed in 1960s to extract timber from Jarawa reserve which the court in 2002 termed as illegal.

Although the administration has sought modification to the order, the authority on Wednesday decided to wait for the supreme court’s decision on the issue. The administration has filed a petition asking the court to modify its decision to close the road in 2002.

Even as IDA headed has taken a decision, NGO Kalpvakrish had served a legal notice to the administration and environment ministry asking why the court order has not been implemented so far.

Hindustan Times, 16th June 2011

Water scarcity during past decade nearly finished the UNESCO heritage site

Water woes of the celebrated bird sanctuary, Keoladeo National Park (KNP), Bharatpur, may come to an end soon if the Rajasthan Government accepts a recommendation from the State's Board for Wildlife to reserve a share of water from the Panchana dam in the neighbouring Karauli district. The natural flow of water to the 29-sq-km sanctuary, a unique wetland declared a heritage site by the UNESCO, remains blocked after the Gambhiri River was dammed at Panchana a few years back.

Since 2004, the park has been facing severe water shortage after opposition by local farmers to the release of water to the park which is the nesting and breeding ground for a large number of birds.

Though a series of steps, including construction of a canal – Govardhan drain – to carry the flood waters of the Yamuna during the monsoon period to the park and channelizing waters from the Chambal, are underway, experts say that only an assured supply of water from a source like Panchana would mitigate the water shortage of the park.

So far work on 1 km of the Govardhan drain was complete and on a daily basis 150 metre area is being covered, State's Additional Chief Secretary for Environment and Forests V. S. Singh informed the Standing Committee meeting of the State's Board for Wildlife presided over by Minister for Environment and Forests Ramlal Jat here the other day. The Centre has sanctioned Rs.50.67 crore for the project. Yet, even die hard optimists do not dream of getting the drain ready to catch the flood waters of the Yamuna in the current monsoon.

Water released last year
In the year 2010, following the intervention of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, 200 million cubic feet (MCFT) water was released from the Panchana dam for the park. The first meeting of the Board for Wildlife, presided over by Mr. Gehlot that year, had also favourably considered ensuring a share of the Panchana dam water for KNP as it was against norms of natural justice that the water which used to flow down to the Bharatpur region and the park was dammed.

The recommendation from the Standing Committee is for an annual commitment of 200 MCFT water from Panchana and for providing an additional 62.5 MCFT from the drinking water project for Bharatpur for which the source would be the Chambal River. As such KNP needs 550 MCFT water a year while its availability had remained an average 300 MCFT for the past 11 years.

The Standing Committee also has recommended expanding the area of the Taal Chapar Blackbuck sanctuary in Churu district by acquiring 1257.56 hectares of land of the three adjoining villages – Surwas, Devani and Beed Chapar – under Section 18 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Taal Chapar spread over an area of 719 hectares, often witnesses over crowding of the Blackbucks.

“The sanctuary is small and during the rainy season the animals face acute problem of space as the area gets inundated,” Dr. Singh pointed out.

The Hindu, 16th June 2011

“A Breath of Fresh Air” is a notable document on the biodiversity around Indian Oil refineries, writes Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty

The cover image of a crimson sunbird perched precariously on a tree branch on what looks like a wet monsoon morning, is alluring enough. And then the name, “A Breath of Fresh Air”, adds to your temptation and you pick this colourful picture book which to any reader clearly looks like a celebration of nature. Run your fingers through it and what you find is an impressive string of images — of birds, both local and migratory, water bodies brimming with tranquillity and herbs and plants in varied hues. The over-100 page tome in the shape of a school goer's drawing book, documents the flora and fauna of the eco-parks spread around 10 refineries of the lubricant giant, Indian Oil. It comes with an exhaustive list of the winged creatures exclusive to each refinery.

What's equally engaging is the text that couples the pictures, say for instance, the lore behind how its Digboi refinery — India's first and Asia's oldest, gained its name. The story goes that when the first oil well was dug in this remote area in upper Assam in 1889, the British handlers kept on shouting to the labourers to “Dig-boy-dig” till they unearthed crude oil; this shout later was jumbled together to name the refinery township Digboi.

Fills in N. Shiva Kumar, an Indian Oil employee and the book's editor, “To bring alive the times, I have also added a picture of a hunted tiger near the refinery to the chapter on Digboi. The area was then a sheet of steaming impenetrable forests teeming with wildlife and the employees lived in a typically colonial frontier life with shikar and fishing.”

An ardent birder, he says the idea for the book was given to him by the birds themselves. “It so happened that I was posted at the Mathura refinery and noticed innumerable land birds and water birds freely roaming within the premises of the high security refinery. Being an avid amateur ornithologist and with a hobby like wildlife photography, I was pleasantly surprised that the 1,000 odd acres of the refinery had plenty of tall trees and lush green patches have become perfect habitats for wild birds.” Kumar soon reached out to a senior scientist from Bombay Natural History Society (Kumar is a life member of BNHS) to take a look at the rich bird life in the refinery. Over 100 birds were sighted and a small pocket booklet on the birds of Mathura refinery was published in 1997. “The Breath of Fresh Air” is an extension of this initiative.

FIELD VISITS
For this book, Kumar crisscrossed the refinery campuses for about a year, photographing birds and plants, which ran up to 294 species of birds and 284 species of plants. To insert details of the flora and fauna recorded in the past, he took help from the company's Environmental Cell too. He also bestows credit for it to the book's foreword writer, Anand Kumar, the director of Indian Oil's R& D centre at Faridabad, who has been instrumental in setting up many eco-parks in the company's refineries.

“Many bosses came and went without showing any interest in pushing the idea. Finally, Anand Kumar allowed it to hatch in 2009,” states Kumar. The book, he categorically states, also silences the criticism that Indian Oil faced with its Matura refinery years ago. It was accused of being a potent environmental threat to the Taj Mahal then. Kumar's book underlines, “To demonstrate its commitment to keep the Taj Trapezium Zone unpolluted, the refinery planted more than 100,000 trees in the Taj reserve forest near the monument. The polishing pond of its treatment plant, which is the last point where the cleaned effluent is stored, has become a haven for nesting birds during the monsoons. The BNHS, which surveyed the area during the 1995-96, found painted storks, spoonbills, egrets, herons, kingfishers, cormorants, ducks and lapwings nesting here.”

He signs off with a hope in the heart, “I would be happy if a second edition of the book with even more details can be brought out by Indian Oil to drive home the point that any industry cannot only manufacture petroleum products and not give back to nature from which it has profited.”

The Hindu, 16th June 2011

Though traditional miniature art has its share of patrons in India, not many miniature artists have gained national recognition. Grouped together according to the imperial or regional schools that they belong to, the names of individual masters rarely surface at art exhibitions. This may now change, as an attempt is being made to showcase these artists on an international platform. At the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, an exhibition titled ‘The Way of the Master — The Great Artists of India, 1100-1900’ brings together over 240 miniature masterpieces by more than 40 Indian artists. “This was an outcome of extensive research. An attempt has been made to identify the individual artist by the flourish of his brush, relying on painting techniques and specialisations, apart from information collected from oral histories, temples and pilgrimage records,” says BN Goswamy.

The Chandigarh-based art historian has been working on the exhibition for over three years, with Milo Beach from the United States and Switzerland-based Eberhard Fischer.

Sourced from 25 prestigious collections from the world over — including Royal Collection of Windsor Castle, Delhi’s National Museum, the Golestan Palace in Tehran and the Institute for Oriental Manuscripts, St Petersburg — the works on display range from early illustrators of Jain and Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts, to the painters of the Sultanate period. If Basawan, Keshavdas, Mansur and Abu’l Hasan represent the Mughal era, at the another end of the gallery are Pahari masters such as Kirpal, Manaku and Nainsukh. To make the experience of visiting the exhibition enriching, the museum has touch-screen information panels, apart from display of earth colours and natural pigments, brushes and implements used by the artists.

Indian Express, 16th June 2011

The BJP Government in Karnataka has decided to oppose UNESCO’s World Heritage site status to 10 sensitive eco-zones in the Western Ghats.

Karnataka Forest Minister CH Vijayashankar said the heritage site tag hampered development work and that the State Government would not get any financial benefit by the UNESCO decision.

According to Government sources, the UN body has short-listed 10 sites in the Western Ghats, rich in bio-diversity, for inclusion in the World Heritage list. But in a sudden unwarranted development which has contra-repercussions to the rich bio-diversity of the Western Ghats, the State Government has decided to do away with heritage citations.

Addressing a Press conference here, Vijayashankar told the mediapersons, “There is no benefit from the tag. We have to protect and develop the areas, while the UN body doesn’t give any grants. The international body has no laws, guidelines or schemes. Moreover, once these areas are declared as World Heritage sites, we won’t be able to take up any developmental activities. Why should we allow someone else to control us?”

According to Forest Department sources, of the identified sites five each are at Talacauvery and Kudremukh — Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, Kudremukh National Park and Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary, reserved forests of Someshwara, Agumbe, Balahalli, Padanalkad and Keerthi. The heritage tag is for in-situ conservation of biological diversity of the most important and significant natural habitats.

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), on behalf of UNESCO, had written to the State Chief Wildlife Warden asking for the management plan for the 10 sites for nomination. However, the Minister felt that, with the heritage tag the Government would lose control over forest and its activity.

According to Praveen Bharghava, an environmental activist representing an NGO, Wildlife First, this move is not in the best interests of the region. He felt the Government must be under pressure by the mining and timber lobby to exploit the forest wealth. He said the State Government could take such a decision as the matter under the Union Government’s purview.

The 10 forests are part of UNESCO’s list of 39 natural sites for nomination as heritage sites in the Western Ghats spanning four States. These include 19 sites in Kerala, six in Tamil Nadu and four in Maharashtra.

The Pioneer, 16th June 2011

The city's iconic Cyber Tower has been the backdrop for many Tollywood songs but with the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project set to redraw the city's skyline, the landmark building is set to have an obstructed view. The 30-75 feet high Metro corridor will run across the existing over-bridge in front of Cyber Tower.

Like the Cyber Tower, there are many other landmark structures in the city that will lose out due to the Metro, say citizens' groups adding that the city will lose it's flexibility to face the future due to the Metro. The elevated Metro Rail project, which is the largest infrastructure project in the city's history, will be a replica of the Delhi Metro and will cover 71.16 km above ground.

Citizen's groups have labelled it "the undoing of the city" as the Hyderabad Metro Rail corridor will often run parallel to many heritage sites, including the majestic Assembly building. The entire project will be an elevated corridor along the central meridian of roads with two parallel tracks of rails and 66 stations. The elevated track will be at a height of 35 to 50 feet and at three places in the core city it will be as high as 60-70 feet due to existing flyovers.

The Metro will run through some core heritage areas and open spaces like the Assembly, Public Gardens, Moazzam Jahi market, Sultan Bazaar, Parade Grounds, Secunderabad Clock Tower etc. and will be going over flyovers at Punjagutta, Nalgonda Cross Roads and Greenlands. It will intersect at Ameerpet, Koti and Patny thus requiring large-scale construction of pillars, corridors and stations. At these intersections the heights of the stations will go up to 60-70 feet. The Metro corridor will also cross railway lines at eight places including the Secunderabad Railway Station. The thriving IT industry, which has triggered a frenzy of construction in HI-tec City and Gachibowli, will have the Metro Corridor III running from Nagole to Shilparamam with 23 stations in between.

"The space below the elevated stations (66 of them) will become tunnel-like structures with darkness even during the day. They are likely to become areas concentrated in pollution, noise and of insecurity and crime at night. While physically defacing the city, the elevated Metro Rail will also cause irreparable damage to the social life of the city," said convenor of Citizens for Better Public Transport, Prof. C. Ramachandraiah.

Corridor II — JBS to Falaknuma (14.78 km) — is witnessing the most protests as it will pierce the shopping corridor of Sultan Bazaar, Badichowdi (affecting 183 shops), Kachiguda (60 shops) and Chikadpally (250 shops). Sultan Bazaar is 25-40 feet wide and the project will need 100 feet of space.

The flower-fruit market of Jambagh between M.J. Market and Koti, will also have to be demolished completely in Corridor I (Miyapur- L.B. Nagar). Also on Corridor III, the road from Greenlands-Ameerpet-Madhuranagar-Yousufguda-Krishnanagar, will face large scale demolitions. Buildings adjacent to four flyovers in this corridor (near Patny, Paradise, Begumpet Airport and Begumpet Railway Station) will be completely razed to make space.

"Parts of Hyderabad's history will be erased forever with large scale demolitions in the core city areas of Narayanguda, Kachiguda, Badi Chowki, Sultan Bazaar, Mir Alam Mandi Road, Shahalibanda, Greenlands, Ameerpet, Yusufguda, Sultan Bazaar and Badi Chowki. Several historic landmark buildings of distinct architecture and high heritage value like the old pedestrian shopping areas along narrow roads from Kacheguda Cross Roads through Badi Chawdi, Mir Alam Mandi Road (Purani Haveli Road) and Sultan Bazaar will have to be demolished for Metro Rail construction," the convenor added.

Meanwhile, managing director of Hyderabad Metro Rail, Mr N.V.S. Reddy has dubbed the project as an "urban rejuvenation" and said will redesign efforts to transform Hyderabad into a people-friendly green city. "The corridors are not just smooth viaducts but will have stations at almost every kilometre. These will be huge buildings, 200 m long and up to five floors in height. As a result, our roads are going to be a series of tunnels through which we have to drive. Every kilometre of our busiest roads is set to turn into a traffic junction, with cars halting, autos hovering, buses stopping and hawkers crowding the space and totally blotting out the skyline. Our city is going to change with the project making a strong visual intervention in the cityscape and it does not seem a pleasant one," said architect and core committee member of Intach (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage), Mr G. Shankar Narain.

The roadmap of Hyderabad's Metro Rail poses a survival threat to the city's oldest markets and it has been targeted for some time now with activists and shopkeepers opposing the proposed alignments in various locations. The Metro will be passing in front of about 27 heritage precincts of the city out of 137 listed by the HUDA (Hyderabad Urban Development Authority) earlier. The routes are also going to affect about 44 buildings that have been identified as potential heritage buildings (as per the Heritage Cell of Forum for a Better Hyderabad, a civil society organization).

"All along and across the Metro route, future options of traffic infrastructure like flyovers, underpasses, foot over-bridges etc. will be closed forever. The city will lose its flexibility to face the future," added Mr Narain. The project cost is pegged at `12,132 crore and the estimated traffic demand is likely to be about 15 lakh passengers per day in 2014 which will go up to 22 lakh by 2024.

Deccan Chronicle, 21st June 2011

The Delhi High Court has stayed Archaeological Survey of India's(ASI) permission to a private construction company to construct a building within the prohibitory area near the historical monument Humayun Tomb. "The construction company is restrained from carrying out any further construction and MCD is directed to ensure the compliance of the order," said Justice G P Mittal in a recent order. The court has issued a notice to Delhi government through counsel Shobhana Takiar, MCD besides ASI and sought their replies by July 18. The court was hearing a petition filed by one Vijaylaxmi, a resident near the Humayun Tomb in Nizamuddin (East) in South Delhi, who alleged the Director, Monument, of ASI, through a letter on June 8, permitted the private construction company, which is violative of its own undertaking submitted earlier to this court not to allow any unathorised construction within 100 meters of the tomb. The petitioner also referred to the high court's previous judgement in 2010 prohibiting any illegal construction near the monument to save it from any kind of damage. The court's judgment was based on an undertaking given by ASI not to allow any unauthorized constructions near the tomb. Earlier, the court had passed the order while hearing a PIL alleging MCD and ASI were not taking any step to remove illegal construction of properties near the monument.

The Statesman, 22nd June 2011

The Arab world should propose more natural sites for the U.N.'s World Heritage list after having only two new ones listed in the past 15 years, a conservation group said on June 21.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has said in a report that the Middle East and nearby regions have the fewest natural World Heritage sites. Only four are listed, including Banc d'Arguin National Park in Mauritania, Ichkeul National Park in Tunisia, the Socotra Archipelago in Yemen and the Wadi AlHitan in Egypt.

Jordan has proposed the Wadi Rum protected area for designation as a cultural and natural site at the meeting of the World Heritage committee in Paris, which runs until June 29. It is one of 37 sites up for designation.

"The Arab states are home to an exceptional natural wealth and diversity, with striking desert landscapes and marine areas," said Haifaa Abdulhalim, IUCN's World Heritage officer in the Arab states. "The process of nominating natural sites in the Arab region needs a major overhaul if we want to see more of them on the World Heritage list."

The report also found the 18-state region does far less to monitor and promote natural sites like marine reserves and desert landscapes than for cultural sites like pyramids and ancient fortifications. It found that 12 states had 35 sites which have potential to be listed but so far haven't been nominated.

It found that 91 per cent of states had inventories of cultural sites but nothing similar for natural sites. Also, cultural institutions in these countries "were not well equipped" to manage natural sites, and environmental ministries have often been locked out of the nomination process.

The report also reviewed management of natural sites that are already on the World Heritage List and found many face serious challenges.

In Banc d'Arguin, for example, more effective measures are needed to control the risk of accidental oil spills which may threaten the park's wintering waterbirds and mammals, including the critically endangered Monk Seal.

In Socotra, often referred to as the "Galapagos of the East," the unique vegetation and ecosystems have been under increasing threat due to the development of infrastructure and tourism. "By continuing to improve the management of these sites and by increasing cooperation between countries to support them, World Heritage Sites in Arab States can greatly contribute to conservation and sustainable development in the region," said Mariam Kenza Ali, an IUCN World Heritage conservation officer.

The Hindu, 22nd June 2011

To decongest the crowded Karol Bagh market, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has decided to block cars from entering the Ajmal Khan Road. But before it does that, the civic body has planned to make the area pedestrian-friendly.

Fresh footpaths, streetlights and furniture will be put up in the area. "Work will begin in two weeks. To facilitate the work, one carriageway of the road will be shut. Half the carriageway will remain open for traffic," said a senior official of the MCD.

Another official said the project has been approved by the authorities concerned, such as the Traffic Police. "In the first phase, only one way traffic will be allowed. In second phase, no parking will be allowed on the stretch," he said.

There are plans of a multi-level parking lot near Shastri Park.

According to officials of the MCD, the market associations are also coordinating with the agency. The area had seen some improvement before the Commonwealth Games

when fresh tiles were placed on the footpaths.

However, due to excessive traffic on the route, the MCD felt the need to decongest the area.

As the parking facility will be shut at Ajmal Khan road, an alternative parking space will be available at other sites, including near MCD office at Rajinder Nagar, near Tibbia College and on Desh Bandhu Gupta road.

"Pavements in bylanes will also be re-developed, appropriate signboards will be installed. Old streetlights will be replaced with beautiful lamp posts. The entire area will be given heritage look. Separate lanes for cycle-rickshaw will also be created. New toilet blocks will be built," said another senior official of the MCD.

All cable will also be laid underground.

Indian Express, 22nd June 2011