One face can wear many masks. The International Mask Exhibition in the capital’s Select City Walk by Nav Siddhartha Art Group saw 300 depictions of masks by artists from across India

It was almost surreal walking amidst 300 faces staring back at you. Some with stunning features, others with bold colours almost screaming for attention. But a closer look reveals that all the creations have the same face

Curator Asurvedh, president of city-based Nav Siddhartha Art Group, shared, “Our intention was to get maximum artists involved in one exhibition. This is our second show on masks. The first was held in Lalit Kala Akademi this January. We have artists from Jammu to Kanyakumari. Yes, the face is same, and every artist has given his/her interpretation. This face is made on a fibreglass surface, which is a permanent medium. It’s not just a painting, but also a sculpture. There was limitation on size of the mask but no limit on the creativity, this is what we told the artists.

A mask can hide an emotion and also bring a hidden emotion to the surface. Artist C.B. Harit, who works as a graphic artist in Doordarshan, found the exhibition unique and said, “It’s very heart-warming to see wonderful faces by junior and senior artists sharing the same space.” Harit’s face wore a golden mask hiding its eyes from the world. He said, “We all hide behind our positives and negatives, but beyond all this we are one. Everyone is trying to protect their purity inside.

Arup K. Biswas, who paints on global warming, chose to depict water crisis. His mask showed buckets extended from a rope going inside a face. He said, “The title of my mask is Quest. It’s open to anyone’s interpretation, but one meaning can be that we’re all caught up in materialistic things. Life is meant to be enjoyed, leaving crisis behind. The true reservoir of knowledge is inside of us, we just have to look within.

A true artist is never short of time. This is what two art teachers shared. Ramesh Yadav painted a Rajasthani woman with her son and a cow on the mask. He talked about the inner strength of women from the desert. “I have a feeling of affinity with Rajasthan and I wanted to show its courageous women,” he said

Dalip Chandolia, an arts teacher at G.D. Goenka, said, “My mask represents force of nature owing to the mythology that a turtle is holding entire nature together. I want to depict that if a turtle can hold nature, why can’t a man be sufficient in himself? He has the power to do so much more

The Asian Age, 1st May 2012

The ongoing Buddhism festival, The Inner Path, explores aspects of the faith practiced worldwide, through an array of films.Team Viva report

Richard Gere narrates the tale of the Nangchen Nuns, in Blessings, a film that explores the Tibetan Buddhist monastic system, and changing dynamics of women within the order. The film also incorporates historic black and white file footage of the Cultural Revolution that overtook China during the late sixties, when all Nangchen nunneries were destroyed

And there is The Second Buddha by Benoy Behl, which tells the tale of Guru Padmasambhava, complete with masks in place

These are some glimpses of Buddhism at The Inner Path, a festival of Buddhist films, philosophy and performance. The festival brings together various interpretations and aspects of Buddhism, ranging from Tibetan and Korean, to Indian and Japanese traditions

Films like Renunciation Abinikmana, made by Hector Kumarasiri, from Sri Lanka, talk about the classic conflict— a monk trapped between spirituality and worldly attachments. The film showcases conflicts he must undergo, when he/she takes on the journey of renunciation and spirituality

Amongst White Clouds, is a film made by Edward Burger, an American residing in China for nine years. His film talks about Chinese Buddhism. Or Chan Buddhism. as its known

He shot around monasteries in the Zhongnan mountains of China. These have been the abode of many teachers and students, living reclusive lives, away from mainstream society, since the time of the Yellow Emperor

“My film reflects my own spiritual journey. It could be that of any spiritual practitioner. I also focused on my relationship with my teacher,” says Edward. He worked on the film for about two years

“Buddhism forms a big part of Chinese culture. The rituals and traditions are integral to daily life. We don’t hear much about the Chinese aspects of Buddhism.

Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche, was made during 1991. The film is about Choenzey, a monk at the Tibetan monastery in Karnataka

When a highly revered high Lama dies, Choenzey is sure that he will be born again. “Choenzey finds a four-year-old who was recognized by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. The film is about the bond between the young disciple and his master,” shared Sarin

She added, “This was one of the first films about the Rinpoche’s reincarnation. We wanted to look at the subject in a more human way. Not clichéd and exotic. We did it long ago. Since then we have made many more film on Tibetan culture, history, and political struggle”

The festival ends today at Azad Bhavan

The Pioneer, 1st May 2012

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.…” So said Winston Churchill

For a city which has been built and rebuilt over centuries, Delhi's architectural landscape offers a rich history and a glorious range of designs to be explored by photographers. Surprisingly over the years not many works on “architectural photography” have been publicly displayed

Now there is one in the genre by veteran photographer Madan Mahatta, who has captured a host of buildings constructed in the Capital between the late 1950s and the mid-1980s. Titled ‘Delhi Modern: The architectural photographs of Madan Mahatta', the exhibition at Photoink in Jhandewalan that opened on April 26 will continue up to June 21

Ram Rahman, the curator of the exhibition and a photographer himself, believes Mr. Mahatta's photos “…are not only a landmark in our photographic history, but also possibly the best document of an extremely important and fertile period in our architectural history”

The photographs, according to Mr. Rahman, are a vivid reminder of a time when the government (many of these were commissioned by State agencies who were one of the biggest builders at that time) and the political class still believed that architecture had a symbolic and hugely important part in creating and physically embodying the visionary dreams of a new nation aspiring to build a democracy with Indian roots

Even at the ripe age of 75, Mr. Mahatta, the owner of the famous Mahatta Studios in Connaught Place, is palpably excited about the public display of his works. He shares the experiences he accumulated while capturing through his viewfinder angles and avenues of many a concrete landmark. Though only his architectural pursuits are going to be on display, the seasoned photographer is as animated about the moments of history that he lived through, capturing their images in his camera for posterity. He recalls how he climbed on top of India Gate to shoot Jawaharlal Nehru's funeral procession in 1964, and when he was invited to Bhutan to photograph the coronation ceremony of the king

Mr. Mahatta's enthusiasm is as catching and fetching as the 70 architectural photo prints that will be on display from this week

All black-and-white, with tones that speak of an expert hand, the snapshots include buildings such as the New Delhi Municipal Corporation, the Life Insurance Corporation of India, the World Health Organisation, the Hall of Nations, India Habitat Centre, and even the interiors of the Escorts factory.
His work from the ‘50s to the ‘80s features other interesting structures like Asiad Village, the Syrian Orthodox church, an aerial view of the Palika Parking spot, various blocks of IIT-Delhi, and some residential areas

Reminiscing about his early days, Mr. Mahatta goes back to the early 1950s and recounts his close association with the buildings that he photographed and the architects who designed them. “Most of the publicity was through word of mouth”. He fondly remembers architects of iconic buildings: Joseph Allen Stein -- who conceived India International Centre and India Habitat Centre -- and others including Edward Stone, Habib Rahman, C.P. Kukreja, Kuldip Singh, Raj Rewal, Ram Sharma, and Charles Correa. His close association with some of the architects reflects in the exhibition where photographs show J.A. Stein climbing up the stairs of the Ford Foundation building, architect Raj Rewal's house and a picture of Ram Sharma

Though Mr. Mahatta is known for taking photographs of buildings only after they were completed, he has taken a few when they were under construction. One of the toughest challenges he faced was while shooting high-rise constructions. “Tilting the camera made the buildings converge with the skyline, resulting in an exaggerated view,” he explains

On how architectural design has changed in Delhi over the years, the septuagenarian says, “It's all vertical now. Earlier it was mostly horizontal. The spaces which were earlier spread out have shrunk.” However, he does not take on architectural assignments anymore. The last major project he handled was the Parliament Library for architect Raj Rewal

Although he has been using colour in photography since the very start of his career, it is black-and-white that he finds more fascinating to work with. “Black-and-White photography is the translation of colour using light and doing that needs a lot of skill.” And this is one of the many skills Mr. Mahatta displays

The Hindu, 1st May 2012

To preserve Jorasanko Thakurbari, the ancestral house of Rabindranath Tagore in north Kolkata, the West Bengal government is planning to convert it into a museum.

While kicking off the bard’s week-long 151st birth anniversary celebrations here, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said

they were mulling how to convert the mansion — where Tagore was born and spent most of his childhood — into a museum

“This (Tagore’s house) should be converted into a museum to preserve our cultural heritage for the coming generations,” Banerjee said

The Hindustan Times, 1st May 2012

From the Trimurti of the Elephanta Caves to the Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath… now you won’t have to travel miles to see your favourite works of art. A group of students have come together to recreate replicas of India’s priceless historical treasures — all under one roof.

Students of fine arts from Patna Arts College, supervised by Muhammed ‘KK’, senior superintendent of the Archeological Survey of India, have come up with a Replica Museum near Siri Fort Auditorium in South Delhi, which boasts of the Yogapatta Narasimha statue from Karnataka’s Hampi, the fasting Buddha from the Central Museum, Lahore, and many other such fascinating historical works of art. Opened to the public on May 2011, the latest additions to the museum are statues of emperors Ashoka, Akbar and Shah Jahan.

At present the museum has copies of 30 of the rarest sculptures from distant Indian states and Asian countries — each regarded as masterpieces in terms of artistic creativity.

KK, who is also the mastermind behind the concept, says, “In 2010, I thought of bringing copies of these masterpieces in one place. I realised that it is impossible for most arts enthusiasts to visit distant countries and have a first hand experience of various works of art.”

KK first selected 100 rare sculptures from India and 50 from various Asian countries. At the outset he earmarked some space in the existing Children’s Museum near Siri Fort Auditorium for the museum. The biggest challenge was to look for artists who could make close-to-actual copies of the sculptures and turn his dream into a reality. And students of Patna Arts College lived up to his expectations.

Terming it as one of the toughest tasks of his career, 25-year-old Pankaj Kumar, a fourth-year student of the bachelors of fine arts course, says, “The biggest challenge for us was to make a replica of historic works from photographs. The ASI did not have the requisite funds to take us to various places where we could go personally to examine the rare art works. As a result, we worked day and night for almost six months and created replicas of approximately 30 statues.”

Another young artist ,Vijay Kumar, who just finished his masters in fine arts from Jamia Millia Islamia after graduating from the Patna Arts College, says that most of these statues are thousands of years old and have damaged parts. “For instance the original statue of Deedar Lakshmi, more than a thousand years old and displayed at Patna Museum, has a broken nose and hand. But we had to do our creative best to conceal some of the flaws.”

Even the Ashoka Pillar at Sarnath originally had a wheel that was placed over four lions seated back to back. This is missing in the real statute but the students have successfully recreated it in the replica.

Apart from artistic challenges, scarcity of funds was a major problem. The students earned very little in terms of remuneration. “The cost of creating one replica comes anywhere between Rs. 4 lakh to Rs. 6 lakh but with the help of these students, we made recreations possible for a mere Rs. 90,000,” explains KK.

“Each student got Rs. 500 for a day’s work,” says Gopal, another fine arts student.


The Hindustan Times, 2nd May 2012

The Nainital district administration and Corbett National Park authorities have started work to raise awareness among owners of resorts around Corbett regarding the recent Government order banning sound amplification in resorts within 500 metres of the national park

It is worth mentioning here that following a directive of the Uttarakhand High Court on a Public Interest Litigation filed by a local NGO, the State Government had ordered a ban on sound amplification in resorts within a specific area around Corbett in April this year. In its PIL, the Ramnagar Himalayan Yuva Gramin Vikas Sansthan had appealed the High Court to mitigate noise that is adversely affecting wildlife in Corbett, famous for its tiger population and rich flora and fauna.
The PIL had also raised concerns about resorts near the national park where parties and marriage functions generate noise detrimental to wildlife. Though municipal areas are excluded from the prohibition, all resorts within 500 metres of the national park will not be allowed to generate noise levels exceeding 50 decibles in the daytime and 40 decibles during the night

Corbett warden UC Tiwari who is also the member secretary of the task force headed by Nainital Sub District Magistrate, to ensure implementation of the Government order, told The Pioneer that the resort owners have responded positively to the decision

“While interacting with us earlier, the resort owners said that they were unaware as to the sound limits allowed. We were to demonstrate the levels of sound which can be generated in the resorts during the day and night on Monday but the demonstration was deferred to Tuesday”, he said

The Pioneer, 2nd May 2012

International museum expert Vinod Daniel tells Shailaja Tripathi that the museum renewal programme undertaken by the government should emphasise technological advancements

More for musuemsThe Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad.—Photo: M. Subas There is still time left for our museums and other repositories of culture and heritage to become interactive spaces pulsating with energy. And with a concrete museum renewal programme undertaken by the Ministry of Culture, the possibility of a turnaround seems real. So, at a time when the issue remains a primary concern both for the State and individuals and organisations active in the field, to have several technology companies come on board and discuss the latest in museum technology was a well-thought idea

Companies like Glasbau Hahn and Pest Control of India recently convened a forum at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, “Innovative Museum Technologies from Germany”, with speakers reflecting on key aspects like museum display cases, lighting, security, pest management, audio guides and flexible exhibition design

Better tech needed

Vinod Daniel, international museum expert, Chairman of AusHeritage (a network of Australian cultural heritage management organisations) and keynote speaker at the event, said that out of the technologies commonly used in the museums of the West, barring a few related to sound, like audio guides, hardly any have made it to Indian museums

“For instance, they don't spray chemicals but follow nonchemical methods of pest control. Fibre optic lighting is a norm there, but here museums tend to use too much lighting,” says Vinod

The practice of climate control, he adds, is also not visible in many spaces except the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya “where too it is done for little parts in the museum. Even the fire suppression system is not really used here...

With the renewal programme underway, Vinod hopes for these gaps to be filled. However, technology's role should not be overestimated, he feels. “What's most important is what a museum wants to convey and how the technology can facilitate that. Something like special display cases devoid of oxygen, which are quite common today, were a rarity some years ago,” remarks Vinod

Content is king

Unlike earlier, the curator is no longer the sole authority on the collection in terms of knowledge. Technological interventions, Vinod feels, have ensured an equal participation from the audience and in several places they, with the help of social media, can alter the information in case they find it missing or incorrect

“But, as I have said earlier and many times before that, finally it is the museum directors and curators who have to decide how they want to tell a story. The content will also be a crucial factor in this case. For a gallery full of stones, you needn't worry about the fire suppression system but what you should have is a good lighting system in place.”According to Vinod, one of the few museums in India that has kept pace with changing times is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai. “In terms of collection, India has it all. Quite a balanced collection. When it comes to heritage sites, we have a living environment.“The renewal programme is also a good opportunity for the government to look at the human resource aspect of it as well. Part of the funding needs to be diverted towards staff upgradation in these places… We need to impart skills to the people who will be enabled to use technology with creativity ,” he said.

The Hindu, 3rd May 2012

Madhya Pradesh has bagged the highest number of awards for tiger conservation. In the two-day meeting of the Field Directors of the Tiger Reserves (TR) that began on Wednesday various conservation issues including protection, extremist threat, phase-4 monitoring and compliance of effective management were discussed at length

A book on ‘Fundamentals in Wildlife Management’ written by Dr Rajesh Gopal, Member Secretary National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) was released by Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan on the occasion. Addressing the officials she called for expediting the deployment of Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) in the respective reserves

Talking to The Pioneer Joint Director National Tiger Conservation Authority informed that three tiger reserves from MP including Panna, Kanha and Satpura have been awarded under thematic areas of active monitoring, habitat management and village relocation respectively. Kaziranga in Assam, Dudhwa in Uttar Pradesh and Pakke in Arunachal Pradesh walked away with the awards for effective anti-poaching mechanisms. Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand was recognised for use of modern technology for monitoring. Sunderban in West-Bengal on the other hand received a pat on the back for effective management of man-tiger conflict

Henceforth the specific problems of certain reserves came up for discussion. While the issue of breeding failure of translocated tigers in Sariska, TR in Rajasthan surfaced prominently in the discussion, the looming Naxal threat in Palamau in Jharkhand was also deliberated upon. The discussions are to continue further

Later addressing the officials Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said that field protection continues to remain very high on tiger agenda by deployment of local workforce for raising the Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF). Pointing out that most States are lagging behind in this exercise, she further added that 100% Central assistance was also being provided to certain States as Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Odisha for the deployment of STPF, but the results are yet to show. She, however, applauded the efforts of Karnataka that has emerged the first State in the country to deploy Special Tiger Protection Force

Focusing on the restoration of the forest corridors and fringe areas of the tiger reserves the Minister reminded that the Centrally-Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger was stepped up in the last financial year. The State, Centre and civil societies have to work hand in hand for the effective utilisation of conservation funds

The Pioneer, 3rd May 2012

Though Dwarka is better known as a concrete jungle with its skyline filled with highrise buildings, the sub city has some wildlife too. This wildlife exists predominantly on the outskirts (where phase 2 is to come up). Sometimes, animals from here infiltrate into the residential areas as well

Many pockets of the sub city are still cultivated. At present, one can see many wheat fields ready for harvesting. This is where one can also see the neelgai (blue bull or the Asian antelope). “Once, a year ago, I was surprised to see a neelgai in the Sector 19 park. It must have found its way from the nearby open areas,” says Sanjeev Sharma, a resident of Akshardham Apartments

Rain water has collected in an open land near Sector 20 where there is a depression. It has become home for water bird species in the last one-and-a-half years. Among the birds seen here are spot billed ducks (around 100), common coot, little cormorant, common pochard, green bee eaters, drongos and pond herons. The sighting of peacocks and common sparrows is also quite common. “I had taken my daughter to see the fields. It was the first time she had seen something like this so closely. This area has always had a rich fauna. It will continue to be the same till the open areas remain, which may not be for too long.,” says Rajeev Awasthi, a nature lover who lives in Sector 12.

The Hindustan Times, 3rd May 2012

The Kamal Morarka Foundation for the Arts (KMFA) recently announced that it had successfully bid to acquire key cultural artefacts belonging to Mahatma Gandhi at the recent auction conducted by Mullock's in England so as to bring back home these precious items of Indian heritage and universal significance

The objects in question are one of his early pairs of iconic spectacles; a famous wooden charka he personally used; a prayer book signed by Gandhi; a wooden casket containing soil and blades of grass pigmented with Gandhi's blood, along with several letters and other documents pertaining to Gandhi's life

These items will be exhibited as the property of India by way of travelling exhibitions nationally and globally through various museums, starting with the forthcoming Osianama in New Delhi which will be inaugurated soon

The artefacts will be displayed at Osianama commemorating India's 65th year of political independence

The Hindu, 3rd May 2012

The Gilgit Lotus Sutra Manuscripts, discovered by cattle grazers in Gilgit in a Buddhist stupa in 1931, are set to be released in a facsimile edition in New Delhi on Thursday

The rare manuscripts, housed with the National Archives of India, date back to 5th-6th century AD and are perhaps the only body of Buddhist manuscripts discovered in India. This is not just the oldest surviving manuscript collection in India but also one of the oldest manuscripts in the world

The facsimile edition of the manuscripts, discovered in three stages in 1931, is the exact replica published in the form of a book designed to reach wider readership

The first set of the Gilgit Lotus Sutra Manuscripts was found in a wooden box inside a circular chamber of a Buddhist stupa in Gilgit in 1931, now in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Sources at the National Archives informed that the ancient manuscripts had managed to survive for centuries due to two vital reasons - the near-zero temperatures of the region and the fact that the manuscripts were written on the bark of the Bhoj (birch) tree that does not decay. Upon discovery, the manuscripts were sent to Srinagar where the reputed British archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein - knighted for his discovery of rare Buddhist manuscripts at the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in China in 1907 - studied them and announced the big find to the world

The Lotus Sutra is one of the most revered scriptures of the Mahayana Buddhism and represents the discourse delivered by the Buddha towards the end of his life. The sutra was originally written in the Buddhist form of Sanskrit in the Sharada script and known by its Sanskrit title, Saddharma Pundarika Sutra, which when translated in English means 'Sutra of the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma'. It is popularly referred to as the Lotus Sutra and was first translated from Sanskrit to Chinese by scholar Zhu Fahu (Dharmaraksha) in 286 CE. It is one of the most important texts discovered in the corpus of Gilgit manuscripts. All the texts in the Gilgit corpus throw significant light on the evolution of Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Tibetan literature

In 2006, the Gilgit manuscripts were unsuccessfully nominated for inclusion in the Unesco Memory of the World register.

The facsimile edition releasing on Thursday is the result of a joint project between the National Archives of India, Institute of Oriental Philosophy and Soka Gakkai, the UN-recognized NGO working for the spread of the Lotus Sutra

The Times of India, 3rd May 2012

The notes of Lord Krishna’s flute and the hymns of devotees chanting his name resound in your audio, visual and neural sonics creating an aura of peace that remains within your being long after a visit to Mathura and Vrindavan

Mathura is amongst the seven most holy cities in India and is mentioned in the epics. It was ruled by the Mauryas and later the Sunga dynasty and reached its cultural zenith under the Kushans

Located on the western bank of river Yamuna, Mathura lies about 50 km north of Agra and 145 km south-east of Delhi. About 11 km from Mathura is the town of Vrindavan. While Mathura is well-known as the janam bhoomi (birth place) of Lord Krishna, Vrindavan is where he is believed to have spent his childhood

A large number of festivals and fairs are held in Mathura and adjoining areas of Vrindavan Gokul throughout the year

Every year as the month of September draws close, the ancient cities of Mathura and Vrindavan vibrate with infectious buoyancy. Devotees throng the cities to celebrate Janamashthmi, the birth of Lord Krishna

Holi, the most colorful and exuberant of all Indian festivals, is celebrated in the region with much merriment, particularly so at the Bakal-Bihari Temple in Dauji village near Vrindavan

In Barsana near Mathura Lath mar Holi is celebrated before Holi itself. It is believed that Lord Krishna visited the village of Barsana and teased his beloved Radha there

Mathura and Vrindavan are preferred destinations of pilgrims as these cities are full of temples and the abode of Lord Krishna. Definitely worth a visit are the Govinda temple, an architectural wonder of medieval times, and the Shahji temple known for its sculptures and marble columns

The eastern wing houses the world renowned Basant Karma with its spectacular chandeliers and paintings. Vrindavan’s longest temple, the Rang Ji temple follows the South Indian architectural design and houses a water tank and a garden

The beautiful Iskcon temple attracts thousands of pilgrims and international tourists. The temple is adorned with exquisite paintings depicting the life of Lord Krishna. Vrindavan Dwarka Dheesh temple, Madan Mohan temple, Gopi Nath temple, Banke Bihari temple and Gita Mandir are amongst the most visited. The glass temple, the Nidhivan, and Seva Kunj are also favourite tourist spots

Another place of interest is the Jama Hasid, built by Nabir Khan in 1661 AD. It has 4 lofty minarets with bright coloured plaster mosaic. The Government Museum has a fine collection of rare regional antiques. Also don’t forget the Govardhan, a hill near the town of Vrindavan; it is believed that Lord Krishna lifted the hill on his little finger to protect his people from the wrath of the rain god Indra

Whether a first time pilgrim, or a veteran temple worshipper, the vibrancy of Mathura and Vrindavan offers everything you could pray for.

The Asian Age, 4th May 2012

South Delhi's green lung has become a major security concern for residents of nearby areas. The Jahanpanah City Forest, owned by DDA, has become home to anti-social elements with two bodies having been found there in the past two months and reports of at least five forest fires since February.

DDA says the Dakshinpuri and Govindpurisettlements are mainly responsible for the degradation of the forest. Piles of waste collect along the boundary wall adjacent to these colonies, while drinking, gambling and coke snorting are widespread. The forest's boundary walls are often broken down and tree stumps can be seen all across, indicating large-scale illegal felling.

Lt Col B N Pathak, a resident of Neelgiri Apartments in Alaknanda, says the forest has always been susceptible to encroachment and anti-social activity, but the situation has worsened in the past few months. "Agencies concerned are taking no action to control the situation. Even police patrolling is erratic. The present security guards are not even vaguely familiar with the forest and spend most of the day sitting in gazebos or guard houses away from the heat. I have seen people set a part of the forest on fire and run away," he said.

The forest has shrunk by about 50% in the past 20 years with its 800 acres eaten into by several encroachments. Even now, houses of the adjoining Dakshinpuri area have been built on the forest boundary wall and all their waste is dumped into the forest. Large parts of the area are littered with plastic bags, broken bottles and pan masala pouches. In a letter written by the Greater Kailash-II Welfare Association to the LG, residents have said despite an annual contract of 30 security guards, of which 10 are armed, illegal activities abound in the area.

"Barely a third of the guards meant to be stationed there can be seen. The forest is being used as a dumping ground and for open defecation; a bike has been stolen and construction of illegal structures continues unabated. People are scared to even venture into the forest alone," said a resident of GK-II.

A temple and a mazaar have also come up inside the premises for which demolition orders had been issued. However, DDA has so far only removed the additional area occupied by the temple.

A senior DDA official said there was constant pressure on the forest from the Govindpuri and Dakshinpuri sides. "Residents often pull down the walls to bring in cattle. There are houses along the wall and so much waste is dumped there that there was once a mound almost 12-foot high. We have to deploy our own people to clear the garbage. People set the forest on fire purposely and have attacked our guards on a few occasions, injuring them quite seriously," he said.

The official added that DDA doesn't have the staff strength to patrol the area, so the contract for security personnel had been given out to a private company. "We do not have powers to prosecute and have approached the police on several occasions for help. We have also spoken to MCD to get encroachments removed but nothing has happened so far," he said. The forest has nine entry points and not all are constantly manned by guards.

A senior police officer, said, "We have received a few complaints about petty incidents and keeping in mind some earlier incidents, patrolling has been increased in and around the area. We are making sincere efforts to keep the law and order in the area under control."

The Times of India, 4th May 2012

The Lesser Whistling Duck has come as an unexpected guest in at the Okhla Bird Sanctuary. The bird made a come back to the city earlier this week

The duck that is generally spotted across the wetlands of South East Asia has been giving Delhi a miss for the past five years. A flock of about 30 ducks are currently residing at Okhla Bird Sanctuary.
The Lesser Whistling Duck is breeding at the sanctuary. The bird is generally a winter visitor and is spotted at the foot hills of Himalayas and the upper mountain ranges in the summer month. This time it has made a come back in the summer

“It is very surprising that the bird has come back and that too in the summer season. This is definitely a positive change,” said conservationist TK Roy, adding the ducks are breeding and are expected to be around till the time the eggs are hatched. “The red tails of the male members of the group symbolises that it is in its breeding phase. It is expected to stay here for long,” added Roy

The red tail of the male is a peculiar characteristic of this duck, he said. The red tail of the male attracts the female and allows breeding of the bird

“If the birds breed here and the young ones are born at Okhla, chances are that they might become residents of the sanctuary. The duck is showing breeding characteristics and chances are that they will not fly to another destination during these days. It will be a delight for bird watchers,” the incharge of the Okhla Bird Sanctuary JN Banerjee said, adding that in the days to come, bird watchers will visit the sanctuary to see the guest

The Pioneer, 4th May 2012

Congress here today launched a campaign against illegal mining along the banks of Narmada river, even as the BJP workers showed black flags to the party MP Sajjan Singh Verma for using allegedly derogatory language about the river a few days ago.

Verma, along with Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee's Media Department Chairman, Manak Agrawal, came here on the invitation of religious leaders to launch a campaign to save Narmada river from illegal mining.

While Verma was talking to the party workers, some BJP activists arrived on the spot. They waved black flags and hurled bangles and slippers at him.

Congress workers shouted slogans against BJP and set afire an effigy of the State Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Later, when the ruckus died down, Verma announced that he will provide Rs 10 lakh from his MP fund for making the river pollution-free.

Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, Ajay Singh, condemned the incident at Amarkantak.

While state BJP Spokesman, Vijesh Lunawat, said that people of Amarkantak did not spare Verma for "disrespecting the holy river

The Hindu, 5th July 2012

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Thursday announced launching a National Heritage Mission to digitalise and restore all audio and video tapes of Indian films. She also said a museum of Indian cinema will be set up to mark the centenary of Indian cinema in 2013

For Heritage Mission already `500 crore has been set aside in the 12th Five Year Plan while the museum will be housed in the Films Division Complex in Mumbai, Soni said while addressing a glittering ceremony at which Vice-President Hamid Ansari conferred 59th National Film Awards

Since first full length feature film Raja Harishchandra was released on May 3, 1913, to commemorate that the Naitonal Film Awards Ceremony from now on will be held on May 3 every year, she said. Also the heritage building in Gulshan Mahal will be restored by December this year while new museum will be ready by May, 2013

Bengali cinema legend Soumitra Chatterjee, who was conferred the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award, said, “I’m really not in the frame of mind to say anything. I have always been in doubt about my work. I always thought that entertainment business was not worthwhile.

Popular actress Vidya Balan accepted her best actress trophy for The Dirty Picture. The best feature film trophy was shared by Umesh Kulkarni directed Marathi film Deool and Byari. Deool lead star Girish Kulkarni accepted the trophies for the best actor and best dialogue writer

Gurvinder Singh from Punjab won a Swarna Kamal and `2,50,000 for the best director award for his film Anhe Ghorey Da Daan, which also won awards for best cinematography and best Punjabi film.

The Pioneer, 4th May 2012

In a significant breakthrough, the Chhattisgarh Archaeological Department has claimed to have discovered 10,000-year-old rock paintings in the interior part of Naxal-heartland of Bastar. Senior archaeologist JR Bhagat, who is posted with state Culture and Archaeological Department, said the prehistoric murals had been found in the hilly and forested areas in Keskal block under Kondagaon district in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region. "Identification and classification of the rock arts found in the natural caves in three villages of Keskal block has revealed that the murals are 10,000 years old and of prehistoric origin. The discovery has removed the impression among a section of historians that Bastar was never a home to prehistoric settlements," Mr Bhagat told UNI here. The rock arts were found in the forested villages of Limdaraha, Ghodajhar and Singhanpura, located at distances of 13-25 km from Jagdalpur, headquarters of Bastar district. The identification and classifications of the archaeological remains were completed a couple of days ago. Geomorphologic features of the region have given indications that the area may have sheltered prehistoric sites. Mr Bhagat, who has been surveying in the area to locate prehistoric sites for the past 15 years, said he discovered the treasure trove of archaeological remains during his village-to-village survey in the area in February this year. The findings shed light on signs of prehistoric settlements in the region. The rock art sites are located in hilly and forested areas, where evidences of human activities since prehistoric period to modern historic period can be observed. However, he explained, the idea behind creation of the murals remained a riddle. Figures of male, female, animals, decorative pictures, geometrical designs, and palm and foot impressions dominate the murals. Movement figures such as a row of men marching in procession are also depicted in the paintings. Significantly, the animals illustrated in the murals are still found in the areas. "The murals are drawn in red cohered colours. It indicates that early men might have used hematite stones, found in abundance in the region," he said. Mr Bhagat added that Limdaraha site is located very close to a megalithic site. So, it indicates a megalithic artist may be linked to the rock arts found in the sites.

The Asian Age, 4th May 2012

I first saw the interior of the building of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study when I was about 11

Set amidst Shimla’s stately cedars, this was the resplendent former Viceregal Lodge and for some six decades, India had been ruled from its thundercloud office where “every pigeonhole contained a potential revolution and every office box cradled the embryo of a war or death

” The Institute’s director’s son was a classmate and I was his guest. In the inner recesses of the huge castle-like pile of stone, the man taking us around showed us the escape route to be used by the viceroys of India in an emergency

I examined the hooks where freedom fighters were suspended and peered into the prison cells where Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and other stalwarts were locked up while music played and silk and satin bedecked people swirled in the ballroom above.

Till the late 1880s, the residence of the Viceroy of India in Shimla was a large country cottage named Peterhof

Some of the most memorable of Viceregal extravaganzas were hosted by Lord and Lady Reading. One of these was the grand Chinese ball when the Lodge was transformed with home-made dragons and other Far Eastern motifs

Dressed as a mandarin from ancient China — complete with a steel-embossed leather coat and a gold and silver helmet — it was the Maharaja of Patiala who carried the day

After Independence in 1947, the estate passed into the hands of the President of India and the spectacular edifice was renamed “Rashtrapati Niwas”

In the years that the place grew dusty and mouldy, a substantial amount of pilferage also took place

Till quite recently, the PWD would auction priceless furniture (which went for a song). Once, at someone’s house, I remarked on the unusual pieces of carving that decorated a wall

These were pieces of pews from the Viceregal Chapel that he had salvaged from a chowkidar’s winter-night bonfire

In 1962, Professor S. Radhakrishnan became President of India. Under his and Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision, on October 6, 1964, the Indian Institute of Advanced Study Society was created and a year later, the Institute was formally inaugurated by Professor Radhakrishnan at Rashtrapati Niwas

The focus has shifted, expectedly, from the magnificent estate to the library, the studies and the seminar room

The old ballroom, dining room and the Council Chamber where much of the India of today was sown, is part of the library

A decade and a half ago, when I was at the Institute, in early November a window had inadvertently been left open in the library and a leopard stepped in from the surrounding woods to check out the shelves

The next day I was told the good news that he had spent some time prowling the corridor outside my room

For all that, some parts of the building and estate have refused to move on and one may still wonder from where Cinderella, accompanied by a ubiquitous aide, will emerge.

The Deccan Chronicle, 5th May 2012

A prominent businessman from the city on Friday announced that he has acquired 29 items of Mahatma Gandhi memorabilia at a recent auction in the UK. “I am delighted to acquire the items, which are of national interest. I would happier had the government acquired them,” Kamal Morarka, former Union minister and publisher, said. Morarka plans to bring the memorabilia, which he acquired through a leading auction house, to India soon

“I am not aware if customs duty will be charged on these items,” he said here. Asked how much he paid to acquire these items, Mr Morarka said the amount exceeded a hundered thousand pounds

“It would not have been a big expenditure on part of the government to spend `80 to 90 lakh to acquire these items at the auction,” he said

The memorabilia includes blades of grass and soil pigmented with blood of Mahatma Gandhi and retrieved from Birla House in Delhi, where he was assassinated in 1948. The purchase was done through the Kamal Morarka Foundation for the Arts. The sale was done by Mullock’s, a Shropshire-based auctioneer

The items include one of Gandhi’s early pairs of iconic spectacles, the famous wooden “charkha” (spinning wheel) he used, a prayer book signed by Gandhi and also several letters and other documents pertaining to Gandhi’s life. Asked where he intended to display the items, Mr Morarka said, “I would be happy if the government displays them in a national museum in Delhi. The purchase is not a commercial decision but an emotional one,” he said

The Asian Age, 5th May 2012

Overpowered by stench, Mehrauli's citizens have launched their own drive to clean up the filth in Delhi's first city. They hope it will shame the authorities into action

Tired of asking the civic authorities to clean up Mehrauli and the area around the Qutub Minar, a World Heritage Site, that could well lose its claim to fame and history if the profusion of litter and garbage is not removed, residents of ward 7 and 8 of Mehrauli have taken up the job themselves to collect and burn garbage

The operation, which began on the last Saturday of April, will continue every Saturday till the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and those responsible for keeping the area clean are shamed into finding an alternate garbage site to the one in ward 7 which has one of the finest views of the Qutub Minar, says a member of the Residents Jhaadu Brigade. Earlier, there were two garbage dumps in Mehrauli but now there is just this one in which the refuse of entire the entire area is deposited. Pigs, cattle, dogs and even street urchins, collecting plastics and polythene, make forays into the dirt piles hoping to find food and plastics

The overpowering stench from the dump forces the residents to keep their windows shut throughout the day and night. Yet their homes have the most amazing views of not just monuments but the green canopies of the keekar(Prosopis Juniflora) that abound in the forest areas. Peacocks, kites and an abundance of birdlife can be found in these green lungs of Mehrauli

The importance of keeping Mehrauli spick and span cannot be overemphasized, says eminent photographer Raghu Rai, who moved into the area some 10 years ago because of the fabulous view of the Qutub Minar, the historical gullies and a landscape that dates back to the 11 century

Gurmeet S. Rai, conservation architect, who also lives in the area, says the Mehrauli zone is both historically and culturally important. It is home to tangible as well as intangible bonanza of Delhi's heritage

One of holiest shrines of Delhi, the Dargah of Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, the well known disciple of Moin-uddin Chisti of Ajmer Sharif, is in the heart of Mehrauli. People going to Ajmer Sharif on a pilgrimage start their journey at Nizamuddin and stop at the Dargah of Qutub-uddin Bakhtiar before proceeding further

The Department of Tourism, Delhi, through INTACH, Ms. Rai says, is preparing the nomination dossier to inscribe Delhi as a World Heritage City. The archaeological park in Mehrauli is one of the core areas of the six heritage zones in Delhi's Master Plan. In fact, she says, Mehrauli is the first city of Delhi. Lal Kot Qila, on the northern side of the Qutub Minar, Qila Rai Pithora, another fortification wall of the area, Balban's tomb, Gandhak ki Baoli, dating back to Mughal ruler Aurangzeb's time and several other monuments have enriched the cultural significance and heritage of Mehrauli. Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the Mughal rulers, started the Phool Walon ki Sair from Mehrauli, adding to the cultural plurality of the area

However, all this history and culture is overshadowed by the garbage and stench of the dump and the litter — plastic bags, left over food and construction material. The Archaeological Society of India, the MCD (south), Delhi Development Authority and the Forest Department have jurisdiction over different chunks of Mehrauli. Removal of garbage is the responsibility of the MCD

The DDA has no cleaning or garbage removal wing so if someone chucks a plastic bag full of potato peels or even sanitary napkins into the DDA land, there is no one to remove it.There are also a lot of encroachments in the area. The garbage and littering of Mehrauli is not just a problem of the residents alone. It is a problem of Delhi and those interested in conserving heritage spaces and keeping Delhi clean and green. They should express solidarity with the Mehrauli residents and begin simultaneous campaigns elsewhere!

The Hindu, 6th May 2012

Delhi's 100-odd urbanized villages can now hope for more development. In a meeting held on Saturday afternoon, Delhi cabinet ministers proposed a separate fund for development work in these villages under the Rural Development Fund

Villages like Mehrauli, Munirka Gaon, Shahpur Jat, Hauz Khas, Katwaria Sarai, Yusuf Sarai and the like fall in the category of urbanized villages

"In today's meeting, there was a discussion on the proposal that urbanized villages should get separate funds. They have also demanded that sale and purchase of properties should be allowed in unauthorized colonies," said A K Walia, urban development minister

According to sources, transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and labour minister Ramakant Goswami were the ones who raised the issues. The meeting, however, remained inconclusive and will continue on Tuesday

Another issue that dominated the debate was that of work in the unauthorized colonies. According to sources, most ministers want work in unauthorized colonies to start at the earliest

"Ministers also said that the government may consider giving ownership rights to property owners living in resettlement colonies in the city. Also, the issue of regularizing the 1,200-odd unauthorized colonies was discussed in the cabinet meeting with the minister demanding that the aerial maps of 2008 should be taken into account for regularizing them instead of 2002 data," said a government source

On Friday, Walia had also taken up the issue with the Union minister Kamal Nath in a meetin

The Times of India, 6th May 2012

Gujarat is all set to get its first 'Golden Temple'. Barely 125 km from Ahmedabad, the Gopinathji Dev Mandir, popularly known as Gadhada Swaminarayan Mandir, has got gold-plated spires

Around 70 kg of gold worth nearly Rs 21 crore has been used to plate the spires

The temple, managed by Gopinathji Dev Mandir Trust, will be open to public on May 6

The Times of India, 6th May 2012

What good is tea to a coffee-drinking man in India's south? Even if it is fine-leaf Darjeeling, even if it is anointed the country's national drink? Does it mean that all of us have to look at the beverage with new-found reverence? And does it really change the fate of the gardens where it grows? The answers to all of these will be negative. That didn't, of course, stop Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia from recently announcing that he would pitch for tea to be given 'national drink' status. It is not mere coincidence that the declaration came at Jorhat in Assam, India's so-called tea capital. This could be more politics than prudence. In some cases, though, where things have been given the exalted position, neither politics has helped and nor prudence come to play. Take the story of the national aquatic animal - the poor river dolphin. Its numbers, in fact, are frightening. Only some 2,000 remain in India now; down from 3,500 in the 1980s in the Gangetic delta region alone, according to the World Wildlife Fund. A notification in May 2010 making it the national aquatic animal was done to help government projects aimed at saving it. But nothing m u ch h a s changed for the mammals, a large number of which is disappearing because of sheer pollution in some of India's biggest rivers

What goes on in the world of national symbols and what constitutes its making is sometimes simply quite bizarre. A quick look at the list of 14 officially recognised national symbols (india.gov.in) makes one wonder why some of these - the national calendar is Saka Samvat (we're in the year 1934-1935 according to it), seen and mentioned only in government documents - are called so in the first place, and what good has come of it. The national river, Ganga, is so dirty at places that the water you cup in your hands is just liquid disease. National animal tiger hasn't fared any better. Despite Project Tiger having been launched in 1973, the population of the big cats dwindled to 1,706 in March last year from 3,000 two decades back

So why is a 'national' tag given to any entity? Is it to save it (dolphins?) , to recognize its popularity (lotus?) , to honour its place in our civilization (mangoes?) or to help it economically (hockey?) "It's all quite amazing," says R Jayakumar, a Hyderabad-based writer. "Coffee gives me my first kick in the morning. That's true for all my friends and relatives in south India. How then can we identify with tea as the national drink?

Rajendra Singh, the 2001 Magsaysay award winner who quit the National Ganga River Basin Authority in March citing the government's failure to save the river, says that one has to understand the politics behind the 'national' nomenclature . "When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared Ganga as the national river on November 4, 2008, his party reaped its benefits in the 2009 general elections. The word national, especially in the context of a river like Ganga, means a lot to Indians as it has been an integral part of our civilization for centuries. But the government is rendering it meaningless.

What is a national symbol then? Social scientist Shiv Visvanathan says Ahluwalia's tea proposal is not in tune anymore with India's composite culture. He has a point. How much resonance does hockey as the national sport have in the football-playing north-east ? And for all practical purposes, it is cricket that is our "national" obsession. Most people, both in this country and coming from abroad, would have to be forgiven if they think it is cricket, with all its frenzy and fanaticism, that is blessed with the noble-sounding prefix. Moreover, many argue, in these modern times when every state is articulating its distinct cultural, historical and linguistic identity , does making anything 'national' really help

Artist and activist Ram Rahman says the idea of national symbols was born in the initial decades after Independence. "That was when the idea of the 'Nation' and 'Unity in Diversity' was being projected as a natural extension of the mobilization of different parts of India in the freedom struggle. Symbols like the tiger, and hockey, in which we excelled internationally, were easily understood by the masses and helped in creating a unified notion of culture.

Indian hockey, for example, was at its peak then. It had won six Olympic gold medals between 1928 and 1956, and Dhyan Chand was its most successful star. But this is no longer the reality. Rahman says, "As we matured as a nation, our identities became more complex. Now, simple symbols of the nation make no sense and anyone who thinks they do is delusional.

Olympian Dhyan Chand's son Ashok Kumar, who hit the winning goal in the 1975 World Cup win against Pakistan, sums up the 'national' debate when he says, "It doesn't really matter." In post-liberalization , post-millennial India, is it time to get a fresh list of national symbols

The Times of India, 6th May 2012

To highlight the decaying monuments of Farrukhnagar in Haryana, artist P. K. Roy has come out with three dozen paintings which will be displayed at a week-long solo exhibition at Lalit Kala Akademi here beginning May 17

For the upcoming exhibition, the Haryana-based artist has judiciously used watercolours, pen and ink to depict the architecture of the Mughal era

“I have been working on this project for some years now. First, I wanted to showcase the rich architectural heritage of this town which is not a sought after place for tourists. Secondly, I want some organisation to come forward to preserve the monuments which are badly in need of repair. Whenever I had free time from my teaching work at Jawaharlal Nehru Vidyalaya in Gurgaon, I would travel to Farrukhnagar to depict the decaying monuments on canvas.

Roy, who has been studying history of this place, says: “Built during the Mughal era, Farrukhnagar is a small town which falls under Gurgaon district. It was a famous and important place at the time of the Mughal kingdom... It was also famous for producing salt, manufacture of guns, weapons, locks, keys and knives. Due to the production of good salt, the town was linked by rail by the British. The reason Farrukhnagar flourished was its salt trade over a number of years.

An interesting piece of history is that some of the locals of the place were expert manufacturers of guns and different types of weapons

Born in a nondescript village in the North-Eastern State of Tripura, Roy was obsessed with art from an early age. To fulfil his long-cherished ambition of becoming a professional artist, he got himself enrolled with Government Art and Craft College in Agartala

The Hindu, 6th May 2012

Delhi and Singapore have very little in common geographically. The only thing linking the two was their dependence on rivers running through their midst. Yamuna turned into a sewage carrying channel and continues to be one. Singapore's river was probably in a worse state till the 1970s. And that is where the similarity ends.

In a period of 10 years and at a cost of about Singapore $300 million, the city managed to clean up the river completely and turn it into a matter of pride. The water is sparkling clean and devoid of any stench. Where no fish existed earlier, over 200 aquatic species have been documented now. It has become the heart of the city's recreational pursuits while the land along the river has been put to commercial and residential use.

The river had been at the heart of Singapore's trade and commerce, providing an important transportation channel to and from the city, since the city was founded in 1819. "The main sources of water pollution in the river were squatter colonies, backyard industries, street hawkers and vegetable wholesalers, and pig and duck farms...waste water was discharged directly into the river...By 1977, the water in the Singapore river was black, foul smelling and devoid of aquatic life. The river was dead," says a report by the Asia-Pacific Forum for Environment and Development (APFED).

In 1977, prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had the environment ministry draw up an action plan. This included resettlement of more than 16,000 families living in squatter colonies in public housing estates and relocation of 2,800 polluting industries to industrial estates.

Till here, the story of the Yamuna and the Singapore river follow a similar trajectory. In the past decade or more, Delhi government has drawn up plan after plan to clean the Yamuna. In November 2000, the urban development ministry made a strong case for removal of slums from the river banks as they were a major cause of pollution. By 2004, thousands of families had been 'relocated' to remote corners. That, however, made little difference, and by 2006, the river was even more polluted.

While Singapore's resettlement plans included providing the relocated families with proper sewage networks, Delhi's slum-dwellers found themselves without even the most basic of facilities. "Some 610 pig farms and 500 duck farms were either phased out or relocated to other areas. Polluting industries and trades were also re-sited to other areas with proper pollution control facilities," says the APFED report.

Delhi, meanwhile, failed to take a comprehensive view of the problem. Singapore set itself a deadline of 10 years and met it; Delhi failed completely. "One agency or department should have been made responsible for overseeing the river cleaning work. In Delhi, there is Delhi Jal Board carrying out projects under the Yamuna Action Plan, DDA developing the city without any concern about water and sewage and the municipal corporation dealing with waste management. There is no co-ordination between the agencies. DJB has spent crores of rupees already and is now looking at the interceptor sewage system as a last resort. This too was to have been partially constructed by 2010 but will now not be ready before 2014," said Vinod Jain of NGO Tapas.

In Singapore, the project was launched under the environment ministry while a high-level working committee comprising various government ministries and statutory boards was set up to look into the implementation and monitoring of the various action programmes. The success of the project is also attributed to the involvement of grassroots and civic organizations, business community and NGOs.

Once the sources of pollution were eliminated, the government set down to develop the riverfront. The river was dredged, quay steps along the river waterfront repaired, the walkway along the river tiled and turfed and large-scale plantation carried out. To merge the riverfront with the cityscape, a 3-km stretch along the Kallang basin was given facilities like piers, shelters and benches.

The project to clean the river officially drew to a close in 1987. From then on, the government took up aggressive development of the riverside and conservation of the river. Before the start of the new decade, the riverside started getting dotted by what now defines Singapore's skyline. A central business district with modern skyscrapers, shopping centres, condominiums and hotels lined the waterway. The government also took up conservation of shophouses, buildings and bridges. In 2007, work on the Marina Barrage, a reservoir at the mouth of the river, drew to a close. Constructed at a cost of Singapore $226 million, Singapore's 15th barrage stores water for the city and acts as a flood control measure.

In April 2006, the Public Utilities Board launched the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters programme. Under this, Singapore's massive network of drains, canals and reservoirs is being converted into clean waterscapes and being integrated with its parks and gardens to create new recreational spaces.

The Times of India, 7th May 2012

Delhi Metro’s ‘Heritage Corridor’ has hit a roadblock once again. The Phase III project is stuck in a deadlock between the National Monument Authority (NMA) and the Delhi Metro with the former insisting on a “structural impact study” to be conducted by IIT in Delhi or Roorkee

However, Delhi Metro wrote to the NMA last week informing that both the institutes have refused to conduct the study citing lack of expertise

Anuj Dayal, spokesperson of Delhi Metro, said, “Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) and our team of general consultants, comprising American and Japanese experts, are in the process of conducting a social impact assessment. These experts have worked on several international Metro projects that came up in the vicinity of monuments.

The NMA, however, insisted that a competent organisation such as the IITs should carry out a “structural impact assessment” and look at aspects such as the impact of vibrations during construction of the corridor and also after the line is operational

Delhi Metro’s ambitious Central Secretariat to Kashmere Gate corridor was among the first projects taken up by the NMA, set up in 2011 to look into projects coming up in the vicinity of protected monuments across the country

The upcoming corridor, an extension of the Badarpur line, runs into the ‘restricted zone’ of several protected monuments such as Red Fort, Khooni Darwaza, Delhi Gate and Sunehri Masjid

Pravin Srivastava, member-secretary of NMA, told Newsline, “We had suggested that Delhi Metro should engage institutes like IIT-Delhi or -Roorkee to conduct the study. Both the institutes have done several structural impact studies for the Archaeological Survey of India — one of them being the impact study of aircrafts flying over Qutab Minar.

Srivastava said a meeting with Delhi Metro officials will be held this week to discuss the issue

Meanwhile, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is carrying out preliminary work on the corridor awaiting a final nod from the heritage body

DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh said permission is required only for sections that fall within the restricted areas of the protected monuments and that construction work on sections which are beyond the restricted zone can be carried out

Officials, however, maintained that tunnelling work is done at a stretch and piecemeal construction cannot be done on the underground section.

The Indian Express, 7th May 2012

A day after the Hindustan Times highlighted the dilapidated condition of the Capital's only archaeological park — the Mehrauli Archaeological Park — near Qutab Minar, the authorities have swung into action.

park, has called for an inspection by officials from agencies concerned on Monday

Officials from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Delhi government's department of archaeology would also be present during the inspection

"We would discuss the measures for restoration of the park and set a deadline for its implementation," said a senior DDA official

Spread over 100 acres, the park houses over 80 monuments and ruins from all periods of Delhi's history -- spread over the past 1000 years

The park had been turned into a dumping yard and fed up by the indifference of the authorities, residents from nearby areas had taken up a cleaning drive at the park on Saturday

Lagan Rai McPereira, a resident of Mehrauli, said, "We are happy that the agencies have finally taken a note. The residents should also have a sense of history and care for monuments.

"We hope the park would become an heritage tourism destination," she said

Stating that a boundary wall on the western periphery of the park would be erected to stop people from dumping their garbage and trespassing, the DDA official said, "A cleaning drive would be initiated immediately by the horticulture department. The problem of encroachment in the park would also be checked. An open drain that flows through the park would be taken care of at the earliest.
The Hindustan Times, 7th May 2012

the site witnessed three coronation durbars — in 1877, 1903 and 1911 — and hence was named the Coronation Park

The historical venue is now in line for rechristening, as experts feel ‘Coronation Park’ is “inappropriate” and “glorifies” a British event

A four-member expert committee has been set up by the Delhi Development Authority, which owns the plot, to scout for a new name for the park

Last week, the panel was asked to examine “the need for renaming the park” and, thereafter, also to find a “suitable name for it”

The expert committee has already been entrusted with the responsibility of vetting the storyline of a permanent exhibition that is proposed to come up at the interpretation centre in the Park

The panel comprises M Varadarajan, former secretary, Ministry of Culture, and eminent historians such as Mushirul Hasan, Director General of National Archives, Narayani Gupta of Jamia Millia Islamia and Shahid Amin of Delhi University

“There have been talks in the academic and culture circles that the name ‘Coronation Park’ is inappropriate and glorifies a British event. The committee members are an authority on the history of Delhi. They have lived here for years and have studied the evolution of the Capital,” A G K Menon, Convenor, Delhi Chapter of INTACH, which has been engaged to redevelop the Park, told Newsline

Menon said the members will soon go on a site visit to see how the park has been redeveloped. “The team was set up last week and, once they have visited the site, will meet to discuss the new name

Professor Mushirul Hasan said, “Some places have to be renamed because the people or events after which they were named are no longer relevant to our country. Renaming of places is not unjustified and, in this case, we will try and reconcile our past with our present.

A permanent exhibition will also be set up at the site in North Delhi. Exhibition designer Siddhartha Chatterjee and his team have been working on a storyline that will deftly avoid glorifying the Durbar or the Raj. The exhibition will dwell less on the three durbars held at the park and more on the evolution of New Delhi as the Capital. The storyline will vetted by the expert committee so that “no wrong message” is given out

A 31-metre flagpost has also been constructed, towering over the obelisk, for hoisting the Tricolour. Sources in the DDA said the park is slated for reopening this Independence Day but with work going on at a slow pace, it might get delayed

The Indian Express, 7th May 2012

An impressive collection of photographs of India, dating more than a century ago, have been discovered in a shoebox in an Edinburgh institute. However, identity of the photographer is a mystery

The rare and fragile glass plate negatives, which date back to around 1912, show life on the subcontinent at the high point of the British Raj and mostly detail life in Kolkata, which was a major commercial hub

The plate-glass negatives were found by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland in Edinburgh

“The 178 negatives were found in a shoebox for a pair of grey, size 9, Peter Lord slip-on shoes, and were stored in their original five-by-eight-inch plate boxes,” the commission said. The negatives had been wrapped in copies of the Statesman newspaper dating from 1914

“As the negatives were still wrapped in newspapers from 1914, it is possible that they were transported back to Britain from India at this time, and have remained unopened until now,” the commission said

However, the commission does not have any details about the provenance of the rare photographs. “Among the theories are that the photographer was a British civil servant headquartered in Kolkata, or was connected to the jute trade, as many Scots were at the time.,” the commission said

“We don’t know for sure how the negatives came to be in our collection. We receive archive material from countless different sources, from architectural practices to generous donations from the public, and sometimes take large amounts of material in at once, and often documentation for historical deposits does not exist,” RCAHMS architectural historian Clare Sorensen said

“Over time all this new material will be inspected and catalogued as part of our collection and then made available to the public. It’s fantastic that a small shoe-box contained such a treasure-trove of photographic imagery, but in some ways it’s not unusual. Our experience as an archive has shown us that some of the most interesting discoveries can be made in the most unlikely of places,” she added

The commission approached John Falconer, curator of photographs at the British Library, who correctly identified some of the locations

The 178-photograph collection includes images detailing celebrations for the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Calcutta in 1912, the only visit by a British monarch to India as Emperor of the subcontinent. The photographs show Kolkata’s buildings lit up at night in tribute. The collection also includes photographs of ships arriving at the Chandpal Ghat, the main landing place for visitors to Kolkata along the Hooghly river; and pilgrims gathered for a religious festival on the Maidan in the centre of Kolkata

The collection also includes photographs of Britons playing tennis and socialising as part of their day-to-day lives in India in the early 20th century. The photograph collection can be viewed online at.

The Asian Age, 8th May 2012

The culture sector has not been accorded the priority it deserves, the Parliamentary Standing Committee has said in its report on the demand for grants by the Ministry of Culture

The committee notes “the apathy of the government towards the cause of preservation and promotion of our ancient culture” and points out that the allocated outlay for the year was less than 1/3rd of what was proposed by the ministry

“The committee recommends that the Ministry of Culture certainly deserves better treatment in allocation of funds in view of its importance,” says the Ministry of Culture report

Against the projected demand of Rs 2,916.43 crore for 2012-13, the ministry has been allocated only Rs 864 crore. The ministry had planned to implement a host of schemes — preservation and conservation of monuments by ASI, new scheme for reviving libraries, celebrating centenaries, new schemes by National Archives among other things

The committee notes that the 70 per cent cut effected on the ministry’s demand means that either the ministry’s projections were unrealistically high or the “Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance did not accord the importance this ministry deserves”

The Indian Express, 8th May 2012

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation will meet with the National Monument Authority (NMA) over the latter's demand for a structural impact study to be carried out on the heritage corridor that forms part of Phase III of the constructions

“The meeting could be held next week,” said NMA member-secretary Pravin Srivastava, adding that the NMA has seen the reports submitted by DMRC on the issue but it requires further discussions. However, the matter was not discussed when NMA met on Monday evening, he said

“We had asked DMRC to use either IIT-Delhi or Roorkee to conduct the study but they wrote back to us stating that neither is willing to do so,” said Mr. Srivastava. “We had asked that IIT be consulted because it is a government institution,” he added

During the planning stages, the “heritage corridor” of the Delhi Metro has come under scrutiny by conservation experts since the proposed line is adjacent to important heritage sites such as Jantar Mantar, Delhi Gate, Khooni Darwaaza, Ferozeshah Kotla, Sunehri Masjid and Red Fort. Objections were also raised about the vibrations caused by the metro

The Delhi Metro maintained that a social impact assessment was being conducted by Rail India Technical and Economic Services and a team of general consultants comprising American and Japanese experts. “The date for the meeting has not been set,” said DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal
The Hindu, 8th May 2012

It's difficult, maybe impossible, to truly explore Delhi from the confines of a tour bus or through the rehearsed words of a guide. As the city evolves, it's only natural that the ways of viewing it also adapt. Driving home the point is the Segway tour, which started recently to not only give tourists and locals a new perspective on seeing the city, but also a way to experience the "rich man's bicycle".

It's a simple enough machine - electric, with two self-balancing wheels, a raised platform to stand on, a steering frame, and handlebars - albeit one that costs about Rs 5 lakh. With a few minutes of practice, it's even easier to operate - just lean forward to move ahead, turn the frame to change direction, and pull back the handlebars to brake.

"It gives a higher platform to stand on, better access to places where it is difficult to take a car or bike, and has a zero turning radius. It has a speed of 20-25km per hour, and in a single battery charge covers up to 38 km," says Ankur Bhatia, executive director, Bird Group, which conceived the project here.

They just have a single 45 minute route for now - bookings for which can be made online after May 11 - but plans are underway to start new ones. Bhatia is quite confident of the response, as he says such tours are successful in over 500 cities worldwide, and there is no reason why they wouldn't be here.

Still, there are some logistic concerns. "Delhi doesn't have pavements, and the traffic here isn't regulated either, so we will conduct only morning tours," he says. Since the machine has, until now, not made an appearance on the streets of Delhi, it doesn't fail to grab eyeballs either.

These tours have just begun, but a recent spate of innovations has completely revolutionized tourism in the city. No visit to Delhi can be complete without a journey to the old city - in its labyrinthine alleys and narrow bylanes are countless of stories just waiting to be discovered. But what gives the old city its charm also makes it harder to access - cars and buses cannot pass through, and the area is too big to explore on foot in a single trip.

"We would always make it a point to visit the old cities whenever we travelled abroad, and that made us realize that we had hardly ever been to Old Delhi because of the immense chaos and confusion," says Ritu Kalra, who co-founded 'When in India' rickshaw tours with Taruna Nagpal in September last year, combining the spirit of the old city with one of Delhi's most infamous modes of transport.

"We researched the area for about six months to decide a route, and got special rickshaws made with sofa seats, seat belts, pedestals to get on and off, canopies, coolers for beverages, and first-aid boxes," says Kalra. In less than a year, they have organized several routes - some of which can be customized - covering different aspects of the potpourri that is the old city.

When Dutchman Jack Leenars moved to the city, he took it upon himself to see the real streets of Delhi, by cycling through the back lanes in the early hours of the morning. Few people tagged along initially, but it took off and resulted in 'Delhi by Cycle' tours. Their website says the tours are all about the street experience - nothing is beautified, hidden, or avoided - complete with hot cups of masala chai on the way.

"Cycles tours are popular worldwide as they give a street experience of the city, and give access to hidden corners, lanes, and markets. Apart from tourists, I get a lot of locals who also want to explore the city they live in," says Leenaars, a former foreign correspondent.

They have about 60 bikes, but run tours in small groups of eight for a more "personal experience". They're not alone in the sentiment. The rickshaw tours take only up to ten people a tour, while Segway tours don't take over five.

For larger groups, especially those who want a break from typical tourist buses, the HoHo bus service is probably the next best thing. There are no frantic horns by a waiting bus driver and no fear of missing the group either; for Rs 300 a day, people can get off at a stop for as long as they want.

"We modelled the buses on those that ply in European cities like Rome, Paris, and London. They are air-conditioned, low-floor, CNG operated, and have LCD screens and trained guides. Since there is a HOHO every half hour from 8am to 8pm, tourists can hop on and hop off at any stop," says G G Saxena, managing director, Delhi Tourism.

Once the Games ended, the fleet of 14 buses - with a capacity of 650 adult passengers - naturally lost out on customers, but they are slowly coming back now. "We have started renting out the buses to schools for about Rs 7,000 a day, and also provide snacks. Each bus can accommodate about 50 children," says Saxena

The Times of India, 9th May 20122

In 1912, Calcutta was fussing over itself in preparation for a historic royal visit. Landmark buildings like the General Post Office, Royal Insurance building, the now demolished “new” Bengal Club, a shop called H.Hobbs & Co at 4 Esplanade East were all lit up. After all, King George V and Queen Mary were visiting the city after attending Delhi Durbar, and the dressing up was a tribute to the then Emperor and Empress of India

Exactly a century later, 178 glass plate negatives dating back to 1912-1914 that reflect upon those times in Calcutta have recently been found at Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinburgh. The fragile negatives give a fair idea about the preparations for the royal visit, as also of life in Calcutta. While one photograph shows a street market at what was possibly Babu ghat, another shows a horse-drawn coach, besides a few bright night shots of well-lit buildings. One photograph, in fact, is of a building decorated with bulbs, which form the words: “Long Live the King Emperor”

The negatives in their original 5x8 inch plate boxes were found in a size 9 Peter Lord shoe box, hidden away in the negatives store at RCAHMS. Wrapped in sheets of The Statesman, dating back to 1914, these delicate negatives are intact. They are now kept in protective storage. “It’s fantastic that a small shoe box contained such a treasure trove of photographic imagery, but in some ways it’s not unusual. Our experience has shown us that some of the most interesting discoveries can be made in unlikely places,” said Claire Sorensen, RCAHMS Architectural Historian, in an email interview

Apart from Sorensen, John Falconer, Curator of Photographs at The British Library, has also been working on the set of photographs. An RCAHMS official said that Falconer has identified a few locations and remarked on the high quality and beauty of the images

Interestingly, 1911-1914 was also the time when the Indian capital was being shifted from Calcutta to Delhi. In a way, these photographs also tell the story of a mystery photographer, who, besides clicking everyday life — men in dhotis working at dhobi ghats, grain-sellers, sweetmeat shops, grazing cattle, painted elephants, little children with donkeys, sweet-sellers and street shops — has also captured British officials playing tennis, ships passing by at Hooghly, military groups lined up on the riverside and families of British officials posing for group pictures

Though there is no concrete plan of exhibiting the photographs as of now, the negatives have been digitised and put up online for viewing. “Over the time, all this new material will be inspected and catalogued as part of our collection — undergoing conservation work where necessary — and then made available to the public,” concluded Sorensen

The Indian Express, 9th May 2012

After the arrival of Lesser Whistling Duck in the sanctuary last week, Whiskered Tern, popularly known as Ganga Cheel, was spotted in the Okhla Bird Sanctuary on Monday

The tern which is a coastal bird is likely to breed at the Okhla Bird Sanctuary this season

The whiskered tern is a bird of South and South East Asia and is also spotted in some parts of Africa. The tern is generally a coastal bird and moves to inlands, marshes and wetlands in the summer months during its breeding season. In India, it breeds in the lower level of Kashmir Valley, the Gangetic plains and parts of Assam

However, this time after a gap of about eight years, the bird has come to the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, that too during the peak summer months. “In summers, the bird generally moves to inland and wetlands and breeds in the marshy habitat. But this time it is breeding at Okhla,” said conservationist and bird watcher TK Roy

Among those spotted in the capital, the male have started showing sighs of breeding. “During the breeding season, the head, tail and under parts of the body gets black, while the rest of the body has a grey colour. The bird spotted at Okhla has the similar colour pattern on their bodies,” added Roy. The bird is likely to breed at Okhla this year

But what is worrying the bird lovers is that the soaring temperature in the national capital region is not favorable for the bird to breed and with the mercury rising steeply the water level of Yamuna at Okhla is also reducing. This will in turn create scarcity of fish and other aquatic feed for the birds

The management of the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, meanwhile, is planning to clean the lake this summer and does not plan to open the gates to allow more water flow into the sanctuary. “It is a routine process each year, when we clean the water of the various impurities that get mixed into the water,” said the incharge of the bird sanctuary JN Banerjee. Banerjee says that it is important to clean the river before the rainy season and this is done every year. “This time, we are having unexpected guests at Okhla. We are planning to write to the agriculture department to allow some water in the area so that the birds can breed and nest at the sanctuary,” Banerjee said

The Pioneer, 9th May 2012

The government is set to enact a law to protect the rich biodiversity of the country and also to safeguard Indian agriculture from bio-terrorism and inflow of dangerous pests from outside. The proposed legislation, Agricultural Biosecurity Bill-2012, is high on the agenda of the Union Cabinefor its consideration, which will meet on Thursday

Confirming this, sources in the government said, the proposed legislation would be on the lines of similar law in place in New Zealand, Australia and the US. The legislation seeks to establish an authority to replace existing plantation protection advisers

The new law will ensure streamlining of plantation quarantine issues. Issues like pesto-diseases and threats of bio terrorism and disaster either man made or natural would also be addressed by the proposed legislation

The bill also seeks to put in place a combined authority to look after all aspects of biodiversity, which include a number of issues like combating transfer of diseases from animals to humans and from humans to animals

The proposed authority, as per the bill, would be empowered to make decisions on all matters listed under the legislations in a bid to ensure prompt response for any crisis. The bill will address biological, physical and chemical contaminants in carriers, which could be a threat to biodiversity

The Deccan Chronicle, 9th May 2012

The Delhi high court on Tuesday warned civic authorities it would summon the city's environment secretary if its directions on construction of special permanent enclosures on the Yamuna bank are not taken seriously.

Justice G P Mittal pulled up the civic authorities for failure to build the enclosures for immersion of idols and other items during festivals to ensure the river doesn't get choked.

HC was hearing a petition by V K Jain who runs an NGO 'Tapas'. Jain informed HC that despite its 2006 order and assurances by MCD for construction of 13 special permanent enclosures, only four temporary enclosures have been constructed so far.

The court has already sought an explanation from Delhi government, DDA and MCD as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for not complying with its orders to stop pollution of the river.

Jain has alleged that every year, MCD makes temporary enclosures during the festive season but the condition of most of them is pathetic.

He alleged the government authorities were passing the buck and cited information obtained through an RTI query. "Last year, in response to an RTI submission, MCD and DDA said that the work did not concern them as it was not part of the Yamuna Action Plan," the petition says. In 2006, the court had directed MCD to make special permanent enclosures on a PIL seeking direction to maintain the river Yamuna clean and pollution free.

In 2009, the agency had given an undertaking to the court to complete the project by 2011, but the agency failed to comply with it.

The Times of India, 9th May 2012

Over 2,500 refugees from Myanmar have landed right in front of the 13th century tomb of Sultan Garhi — an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monument — at Rangpuri area near Vasant Kunj

The development at the tomb — the first monumental Islamic tomb in India — prompted

ASI to lodge a police complaint even as the Rangpuri village panchayat passed a resolution on Tuesday for an agitation if they did not move away. Registered as 'asylum-seekers' by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), these families from Northern Rakhine state of Myanmar landed in Delhi a month ago and had camped in Vasant Vihar

"Following complaints from people in Vasant Vihar, they voluntarily shifted to another location," said Nayana Bose, associate external relations officer, UNHCR. They started reaching the tomb from Sunday evening and trickled in till Monday too. Zia-ur-Rehman, from the group, said, "We demand a valid 'refugee' status. There is a meeting on May 15 (and) we plan to stay here till then.

Col (retd) Devinder Sehrawat from Delhi Gramin Samaj said an agitation would be launched after May 15. Heritage lovers too are appalled at the choice of location. "Their problem is genuine but how they put up at a protected monument? Why can't these people be sent to Burari grounds?" fumed Sohail Hashmi, a heritage activist

ASI's Delhi circle chief DN Dimri said they had lodged a police complaint on Monday. Police have been deployed at the monument

The Hindustan Times, 9th May 2012

March 20 is being observed as World House Sparrow Day, to draw attention to the dwindling numbers of the once-ubiquitous House Sparrow. It is the ability of the bird to adapt to and make the most of its proximity to human beings that has perhaps been its strength and its failing today, observes M B Krishna

“Where have all the sparrows gone?” is the most frequently heard question about the sparrow today. Go to the Bangalore International Airport for example. You can see sparrows galore, and often in comic action. Sparrows landing on the smooth floor, slipping and ‘skating’, one leg going one way and the other going another. Well, you might even get addicted to watching them while you wait for your flight!

But to think of it, where have the sparrows come from at all? Our common ubiquitous House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is part of a forty-member family, distributed almost worldwide and closely related to the 140-member Munia family. They are essentially birds of the open country, like savannas and grasslands, and now crop fields.

Our association with the House Sparrow is itself thought to go back to the times when humans started cultivation or agriculture, when we got them closer to us. The association then evolved, and we now have them in our homes making themselves warm and cosy! Fossils of early sparrows (Passer predomesticus) found in a then much wetter Palestine show that our contemporary House Sparrows have evolved a thinner and longer beak. Maybe an adaptation to slightly different conditions with more insects.

Today our House Sparrows continue to be essentially grain eaters, feeding freely on insects, but also adapting to products of our civilisation. In fact, I know of a particular household in Bangalore where the sparrows around developed a taste for Mysore-pak and kesari-bhath for generations (theirs! not ours), almost following the lady of the house and begging for morsels every evening along with much longer addicted generations of Ashy Wren-Warblers (Prinia socialis). This ability to adapt to and make the most of our proximity and resources has perhaps been their strength, and today, the House Sparrow’s failing.

On the drop in sparrow numbers

There have been many theories put forward for the almost worldwide decline of the House Sparrow. The most plausible one says that sparrow chicks, especially for the first few days after hatching, require insect food for their survival. When their parents are not able to find these insects to catch and bring back, disaster ensues. This results in an overall sparrow decline since there would not be any new recruits into the population.

If we look at our own cities where we see this dramatic decline in sparrow populations, it is not too difficult to hypothesise where all the problems could have occurred.

Compared to the times when our parents saw sparrows in abundance, we have altered the cityscape dramatically. Gone are the old houses with courtyards in front and backyards, yes, those quaint backyards, where broken rice would be separated from full rice, and peas would be separated from their pods. These activities gave sparrows an opportunity to pick the fallen bits and morsels. Then again, the architecture itself has changed.

No longer are sparrows able to find the tiny little nooks, crannies and holes where they used to build their nests. And for most hole nesting birds, finding a suitable hole to build a nest in is a major housing nightmare! It is a logical extension of thought to see why insects too are not able to find a home in our cities of today. There is just no greenery they can live on. And even if there are plants around, they are so heavily sprayed or coated by the chemicals we dump into the environment, or the pollution that we cause. And it is no wonder that sparrow parents cannot find insects for their chicks.

Blame it on our urban spaces

Our cities are also becoming increasingly noisy. Scientists and birdwatchers are now reporting that some diurnal birds are even shifting their singing sessions to the night. All to be heard! So if you ever hear your neighbourhood birds shifting their singing to the night, please remember, your noisy neighbourhood and the lights burning in the night have to do with it!

I’ve not heard reports of sparrows chirping in the night, but be warned, if you ever manage to retain the sparrows in your neighbourhood, and they start chirping in the lighted up night, its your kin which is forcing them to do night shift!

Sparrows are known to be quite parochial, often spending all their lifetimes in a local neighbourhood. They are perhaps loath to move and unlike the ever increasing Blue Rock Pigeons (Columba livia), do not move out much to feed either. Pigeons are much larger and fly out great distances to feed, and are not affected by the kind of insect food problems that sparrows face.

They produce a pre-digested slurry called pigeon-milk which they regurgitate for their chicks. Sparrows have not evolved this. If we take the dramatic decline that sparrows show in Bangalore, they are not alone. Many more species have shown dramatic declines in their numbers. Habitat degradation and loss have taken their toll in not only on populations but in the variety of species as well.

Had common-sense prevailed, rather than development based on cash flows into the parallel economy, we would have retained much more greenery and bird-life in Bangalore!

The Times of India, 10th May 20122

Climate change will be an additional stress on Indian forests, especially in upper Himalayan stretches, which are already subjected to multiple challenges including over-extraction, livestock grazing and human impact, a government report said here on Wednesday.

India's second National Communication to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, released by environment ministerJayanthi Natarajan said that the assessment of climate impacts showed that at the nationallevel, 45 per cent of forested grids are likely to undergo changes. In the report, a digital forest map of the country was used to determine spatial location of all the forested areas.

This map was based on a high-resolution mapping, wherein the entire area of India was divided into over 165,000 grids. Out of these, 35,899 grids were marked as forested grids - along with the forest density and forest types. Vulnerability assessment showed that sensitive forested grids arespread across India. "However, their concentration is higher in the upper Himalayan stretches, parts of Central India, northern Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats," said the MoEF report towards fulfillment of reporting obligation under the convention

The Times of India, 10th May 2012

 The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is considering a proposal to recommend recognition of the famous Lord Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati as a monument of national importance in view of its archaeological, epigraphical and historical background and cultural significance.

The proposal is being considered by the ASI and it is likely to make the recommendation to the Union Ministry of Culture, K K Sharma, Deputy Superintending Archaeologist of ASI, said.

He, however, said a timeframe cannot be put on when the proposal is likely to be made formally to the government as the process takes time.

Declaring the ancient temple, located atop the Tirumala hills, as a protected monument by the ASI would go a long way in conserving its archaeological value and heritage, Sharma said.

The matter could be expedited if the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), the governing body for the temple, agrees to the proposal for making the temple as a protected monument, he observed.

The ASI feels that dismantling of the historical thousand pillar mantapam at Tirumala and the gold-plating of the outer walls of the 'garbha griha', where inscriptions exist, as per the 'Ananta Swarnamayam' scheme are against archaeological norms.

Separately, the ASI, in an RTI reply to B K S R Ayyangar, a social activist based at Eluru in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, has favoured several steps to ensure the temple's protection.

The petitioner had sought information over action initiated by the ASI regarding recognition of Lord Venkateswara Temple as a monument under ASI.

In the reply, the ASI said the temple may be considered for protection by ASI as a monument of national importance and also talked about dismantling of the thousand pillared mantapam as a violation.

Further, it favoured that any activity at the temple which is related to the archaeological aspect be informed to the Archaeological Survey of India and Department of Archaeology and Museums, Andhra Pradesh to review the pros and cons as well the archaeological norms thoroughly and recommend the necessary inputs for execution.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) may provide a space for archaeology by nominating the Director General or representative of ASI and Department of Archaeology and Museums as a member in the Trust Board which takes policy decisions for the benefit of devotees and the temple to prevent any action violating archaeological/heritage norms at the policy level itself, the ASI said.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam may provide the fund for protecting cultural heritage and monuments which are in need of attention, it said.

Observing that the temple is visited by about 50,000 devotees per day on an average and about four lakhs during festivities, the ASI commended the way TTD is dealing with all aspects of the temple administration.

It is necessary to have an archaeological wing to review and recommend suitable procedure in view of archaeological norms wherever necessary, ASI said.

"The archaeological wing is to be adequately equipped with technical team headed by a Director. The decision for betterment of the facilities for the devotees are to be reviewed there only to avoid delay. Since, a museum also exists behind the main temple all branches are to be brought under the archaeological wing. This may solve the problem of violating the laws to some extent," it said

The Asian Age, 10th May 2012

In 2008, the Delhi government's archaeology department signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH)Delhi Chapter for conservation of 92 monuments. Four years on, the project seems to be stuck in limbo. So far, not a single monument has received final notification and 48 have made it to the preliminary notification stage. Out of these, at least 30 monuments have received objections from the public that need to be resolved. What's worse is that the three-year pact expired last year and is awaiting renewal

The project was conceived way back in 2008 to bring the government's attention to relatively obscure monuments in the city and restored before the Commonwealth Games. Fifteen monuments, including Bara Lao Ka Gumbad and Gol Gumbad, Darwesh Shah ki Masjid were conserved and turned into prime tourist attractions and another list of monuments that needed to be protected was drawn. Bringing them under the protection of the government was important so that they receive similar attention like the 174 centrally-protected monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). However, conservationists claim that the delay in notifying these monuments is only making them more vulnerable to vandalism or encroachment. "Many of these monuments are located in congested lanes and crowded areas. They can only be protected against encroachment if they are notified as soon as possible. The delay will only exacerbate problems," said a source

Of the 48 monuments that have received preliminary notification, many have been encroached upon and their facades have been damaged. Bagichi Ki Masjid in Mehrauli is one such example. It has been taken over by locals and painted white and green. Two Mughal-era wall mosques located in Mehrauli Archaeological Park also have been painted over

"Notification of monuments is a long-winded procedure. Revenue details for each monument have to be verified and authenticated before the nod for final notification can be given," said a senior official. Manpower shortage in the archaeology department is another plausible reason for delay in notification. Sources in the government, however, said that the final notification would take place within the next two months after necessary approval from the LG. "We are hoping that the 48 monuments are notified soon," said a source

The Times of India, 10th May 2012

The National Monument Authority (NMA) on Tuesday cleared the Northern Railways' proposal to replace the 150-year-old Loha Pul on the Yamuna — an essential connectivity for entire eastern India. This is also the first big-ticket infrastructure project cleared by the NMA. The proposal,

pending since a decade, had faced a number of hurdles since its conceptualisation as the site is next to Salimgarh Fort, part of the Red Fort complex, a World Heritage Site

Heritage authorities had stalled work for the piers in 2006 as the then alignment meant cutting across additional portion of the fort wall. Besides, an amendment in the archaeological act in 2010 banned any new construction within 100 metres of a protected monument

The railways roped in Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage for study of cultural and heritage impact and the latter proposed the alternative alignment. According to its report, the new alignment joins the existing line before it touches the fort wall

Terming it "essential" in public interest, the NMA meeting cleared the project on the condition that construction will happen beyond 100 metres of the protected wall

"We also suggested to convert the Loha Pul into a showcase of 'industrial heritage' once the new bridge is ready," said a member, who attended the meeting. Railway officials said the wells constructed in 2006-07 are strong enough for the piers to be erected on it

"The work is likely to take about 1 ½ to 2 years once the tenders are opened," said Dharm Singh, chief administrative officer (construction projects) of northern railways. An official said whether or not the old bridge would be used for vehicular traffic later remains to be seen

The Hindustan Times, 10th May 2012

BOOKMARK Scholars Dinanath Pathy and Eberhard Fischer set out on a difficult task to decode the iconography of anasara pati paintings of Puri and South Orissa.

A case for replacement(from left:) Painters creating an anasari pati; an anasari pati triptych; the wooden triad

How is it that every visual tradition in India traces its roots to the epics, rituals and customs? In Rajasthan, Bhopas of the nomadic tribe of Nayakas roam across the Thar narrating the story of Pabuji, a Rathore chief hailed as an incarnation of a Hindu god from the long scroll paintings made on a cloth called phads, illustrating Pabuji's life

Rathwas in Gujarat invoke their revered Pithora Baba thanking him for fulfilling their wish during a nightlong ritual. Over a night of singing, dancing and feasting, the villagers make a pithora painting on the front wall of their house

These two are merely a drop in the ocean for thousands and thousands of such traditions thrive in this land

Even as some of us continue to be baffled by the bond art and Indian wisdom and thought share here, scholars like Eberhard Fischer and Dinanath Pathy have moved to the next level grappling with some specifics. “In The Absence of Jagannatha: The Anasara Paintings Replacing the Jagannatha Icon in Puri and South Orissa” (Niyogi Books) is a work in this direction. Introducing many of us to the amazing ritual of ‘anasara' practiced in Puri and South Orissa, the authors raise some pertinent questions in the context of art history and evolution of the visual vocabulary

The tradition of Anasara paintings goes back many centuries and is still practiced by the temple authorities in accordance with the set rules. It's a triptych on cloth, painted annually by painters exclusively entrusted with the task by the temple authorities. The paintings depicting Narayana, Bhuvaneswari and Ananta replace the three deities or the wooden triad of Jagannatha, Subhadra and Balabhadra for a brief period after the wooden icons are given a bath (post hati vesa). It's believed that after the bath, the deities fall ill and need time to recover. The anasara pati paintings then replace the wooden triad in the temples in Puri and for the next two weeks the daily offerings are given to them instead of the wooden statues, which are being repainted and repaired, having their colours washed away during the bathing ceremony or the snana yatra/ snana purnima

Come ‘navajaubana darshan' in the month of June/July, or the ceremony of viewing new youth when the wooden figurines reappear, the anasara pati paintings vanish. They are not used anymore after this occasion and author Dinanath Pathy has a problem with the fact. “They are just thrown. The state can do so much with these paintings…use it to boost tourism and so much more….It's a treasure which is being wiped out,” points out Bhubaneswar-based Pathy, who aims to raise awareness about this unique art form through the book. “The artists will also get encouraged because the incentive they get in monetary terms is a pittance. Why they still do it is because of the status the responsibility gets them in the society. Also, when they die, the fire comes from the kitchen of the temple which is a big thing for any devotee.

According to him, in Puri, there are three designated painter families who have been carrying out the task for decades. Master painter Narayana Maharana was assigned this job several decades ago. One whole chapter is dedicated to these exemplary artists throwing light on their life and struggles. “Most of them, in fact, live in sad conditions barring a few like Budha Maharana, who is doing well because of his work in Oriya television and films.” He had requested that his uncle Harihara Maharana act unofficially as his substitute

Fischer and Pathy have time and again harped on the fact that very few changes have taken place in the visual vocabulary as it was strictly controlled by the temple authorities but in spite of the strict control by the temple authorities, the language has evolved and the authors take note of these. One whole chapter delves into the iconographic and stylistic differences in anasara pati paintings from Puri workshops or badas as they are called. The writers compare anasara patis produced over the span of about 30 years and the iconographic changes in the ritual paintings, to give a sense. “One major change we noticed was that earlier the image of Subhadra/Bhuvaneshwari was more close to Balabhadra/Ananta in anasari patis whereas now it is more close to Jagannatha and holds lotuses unlike earlier.

As they examine the co-existence of two different iconographies — the tribal look of the wooden deities and the classical anasara patis, the writers are inevitably drawn to the discourse on the other aspects of the paintings like “under what conditions might these painted ‘classical' triptychs have been invented and made to stay.” In the book Pathy and Fischer hint at the role of temple authorities at play. They suggest that in order to attract non-local pilgrims from different parts of the country, they might have taken to more identifiable forms, but Pathy doesn't really say it. “It's not easy to talk about such things…these are very touchy subjects…

The Hindu, 11th May 2012

Officials have begun a wildlife survey in the Aravalli hills area on Thursday. Such a survey was last conducted in 2007. “About 15 officials were deployed in Manger and Bhadkal areas of the Aravalli hills on Thursday for the survey,” Del Chand Sagar, a senior wildlife official

said. Transit and trailing lines are being carved in 10-15 sq km area for the survey, he said. “On Thursday, points were identified and painted on the specified transit and trailing line,” he said

“As such a survey is not so easy, we resume our survey after a gap of one week after carving out transit and trailing lines,” the officials said. “On the transit line, atleast two persons will observe movement of animals. Pug marks of the animals on the trailing and transit lines will also be observed,” the official said

The officials said that Aravalli hills area in Faridabad has been separated into three beats for the survey

The Hindustan Times, 11th May 2012

Paucity of staff is taking its toll on the public image and performance of many major national museums in the country

Unhappy over the Government’s non-seriousness towards museum’s affairs, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has highlighted poor manpower situation in atleast eight important museums of the country where of a total of 2,313 sanctioned posts, only 1,746 posts have been filled

Among these, Delhi-based National Museum and National Gallery of Modern Arts (NGMA) are the worst hit due to staff crisis, said the panel led by Rajya

The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) under the Culture Ministry maintains 44 museums and has opened site museums at six places at the heritage monuments across the country

Taking serious exception to the staff crunch which has hampered the museums working, the panel in its report submitted in Parliament recently, said that “existence of such a large number of vacant posts and that too for a long time, let alone the requirement, shows our (lack of) seriousness with the museum’s affairs.

How the museums are being looked after with such a depleted manpower could be anybody’s guess. The committee recommends that the Ministry should take immediate steps to fill up all the vacant posts in fixed time schedule to ensure their smooth functioning enough to make them attractive to visitors

On the status of the premier National Museum in Delhi, it said that while there was no dearth of funds for it, vacant posts for years, lack of trained personnel, poor upkeep/maintenance, closed galleries for longer period and lack of close coordination with other agencies have afflicted its working

The Pioneer, 11th May 2012

The controversy over the camping of Myanmar refugees in a protected area in Delhi has several dimensions, the most important being that the land is home to a 13th Century mausoleum for Altamash's son, the second to be built in the Indian subcontinent

The first monumental mausoleum built in the Indian subcontinent belongs to Qutub-ud-Din Aibak, built in 1210, it is to be found at the bustling Anarkali Bazar in Lahore. The second, the Mausoleum of Nasir-ud-Din Mahmood, the eldest son of Altamash (Iltutmish) built in 1231 is located opposite Pocket C of Vasant Kunj in Delh

Nasir-ud-Din Mahmood was governor of Bengal, then known as Lakhnauti, and was killed there, his body was brought to Delhi and Altamash started building the mausoleum to his beloved son. What stands today is an incomplete structure because the octagonal platform atop the grave was clearly meant to be built over. Had Altamash not died within five years of his son's death a dome would probably have come up above the platform with a cenotaph as is the pattern repeated in all monumental mausoleums

The structure that looks like a small fortress with its four bastions, one at each corner, is popularly known as Sultan Garhi. This is a corruption of the original Sultan-e-Ghaari (the king of the cave) so called because the original grave is located in a kind of a crypt that one has to climb into

Over the centuries the mausoleum has come to be venerated by the local population as the shrine of a Sufi or Peer. This conversion of a dead prince into a Sufi is strangely responsible for the preservation of this remarkable structure and is now the cause of its encroachment and this is the dilemma that conservationists face in preserving what are known as living monuments

The graves of Nasir-ud-Din's brothers Ruknuddin Feroze Shah and Muizzudin Bahram Shah, a stone inscription that mentions the building of a water tank in 1361 and a mosque probably dating to the time of Firoze Tughlaq and the ruins of an old village that was inhabited till 1947 are other structures that lie scattered about this 30 acre piece of land under the protection of the ASI

The village that grew around the mausoleum was a Muslim majority village and those that lived in the ruins that lie scattered were either consumed by the madness of the times or those who were lucky escaped, virtually by the skin of their teeth. The mausoleum remained because it had come to be venerated, both by the Hindus and the Muslims

Post 1947 the locals, now almost exclusively Hindus, continued to flock here every Thursday, gradually as things settled down some Muslims too started coming here and so an ASI protected monument, recently preserved through ASI-INTACH joint effort, was gradually being turned into the shrine of a non-existent Sufi. Some had even begun to present the joint ownership as a fine example of communal harmony

It would have continued to lead its obscure existence, probably one day quietly turning into a shrine just as many other monuments have in Delhi, turning into temples or mosques or Sufi shrines with local politicians lending support to encroachers and conservationists eventually reconciling to losing one more part of a heritage that no one seems to be too worried about. This well established routine has however been disrupted through the intervention of a new player, the arrival of more than a 1000 refugees from Myanmar, the erstwhile Burma

Why the refugees from Myanmar are camping here is a strange story of callousness and apathy that this city exhibits on a fairly regular basis. The Myanmar refugees were initially camping in front of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Vasant Vihar. They were demanding that they be recognized as refugees and be given that status, the UNHCR was taking his time, such bodies always do.

Meanwhile, the residents of Vasant Vihar, who did not like so many hungry and ill clad people crowding their neighbourhood complained. The voices of the complainants were heard with alacrity. Such voices are always heard with alacrity. Had the same alacrity been shown to solve the problems of the refugees they would have been taken to a place where they would not be exposed to the elements, but the idea was to remove them from Vasant Vihar and then when they were out of sight things could go back to routine.

Unfortunately things show no signs of going back to normal, the villagers who venerate the non-existent Sufi have threatened action if these people are not moved out by May 15 and they have been promised results by that date. Meanwhile, an uneasy peace prevails with a police picket in position keeping the curious away and no one seems to be asking the questions that need to be asked.

Who told the Myanmar refugees about this place, who told them that they could shift there, who arranged the shift, who gave the permission. Did anyone bother to ask the ASI or the National Heritage Commission? Is this another encroachment being orchestrated with the poor refugees being innocent pawns, just as poor migrants have been used on earlier occasions in other parts of the city.

The Hindu, 12th May 2012

Tracing the source of Katha, one of Yamuna's several tributaries.

It merges with the Yamuna River near Ramra village in the newly created district of Prabudh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. Called katha nadi, it first came to our notice during the monsoon of 2008 when flood waters in the Yamuna were back flowing into it.

Local people in Ramra have fond memories of Katha being a perennial river not very long ago. But whether it was a true tributary of the Yamuna in its own right or was a relict channel of the Yamuna itself remained disputed till recently.

Trying to trace its journey on Google map, we repeatedly lost it due to dense cloud cover obscuring a significant area of its probable track. Later as we surveyed the Eastern Yamuna Canal (EYC) for the Katha's course, people en route could not help us locate the site where the EYC could have crossed it. One probable reason, we reckoned then, could be that if it indeed is a tributary, then its origins could be a site short of the route taken by the EYC in western U.P.

Our hopes were rekindled in early April when determined querying of seniors in Ramra, notably Sohan Pal, informed us of a possible origin from a johad (village pond) in Harpal village — close to a place called Islampur in Saharanpur district. This was a firm lead since many such tributaries indeed are known to have their origin in perennial ponds and kunds.

Armed with the knowledge about Harpal village, we first reached Islampur which sits on an irrigation ‘minor' of EYC. Could this ‘minor' be the original Katha? Soon this assumption was laid to rest as it was found to be too straight in its behaviour to be the bed of a natural river.

We then reached Harpal, but where was the johad giving life to the Katha? Had it been a wild goose chase? Undeterred, we called up Mr. Singh in Ramra whose information led us to an influential local farmer, Madan Pal, in village Landha. Unfortunately the gentleman was in grief on account of the recent loss of his son, yet he readily agreed to help us locate the Katha.

Interestingly, although he knew where Katha's river bed and track was and led us to it, he was not sure of the site of its origin.

Ultimately it was the chance questioning of a passerby on bicycle that provided us confident leads to the Katha's source in a johad in Nayagaon aka Nayabans village, which was not far from where we were then.

Guided by Mr. Pal, we soon reached Nayagaon. A distinct elevated catchment-like formation draining into an almost dried low land with watershed from three directions was unmistakable. But could just a low land be the promised johad ? Curiosity led us up the path of a seemingly eroded channel of a stream, moist due to thick vegetation standing on its either side. Finally, the sight on the top was indeed what we had been seeking for many months now.

A typical village pond with old to very old trees of peepal and ber straining themselves over the water body, which obviously had seen better days but still retained its charm enough to attract large number of egrets, few black-winged stilts and a large number of kingfishers on a mid-April noon.

The farmer with his fields next to the johad informed us about it never going dry, although evidence was tell tale about it slowly but surely being encroached upon on the sides by vested interests, a situation which is sadly true of most old water bodies across the rural landscape, both in U.P. and Haryana.

Later, a search on Google map for the village and the johad confirmed our hunch that the Katha's origin lay just 2 km short of the path taken by the EYC and hence there existed no point of crossover between the two.

We left Nayagaon with mixed emotions and with plans to return during the monsoon months to assess the true extent of discharge from the johad into the Katha, and to determine the best way forward to involve the local people all along the length of river in its restoration and rejuvenation

The Hindu, 12th May 2012

Climate Change is going to have an adverse impact on India’s forest cover as well as the wheat production in the future, a government report to the United Nations has said.

In its second National Communication on Climate Change to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, India has painted a grim picture of the impact of climate change. Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan published the report Wednesday.

The report assesses that 45 per cent of the country’s forest grids will undergo changes thanks to climate change. In the report, a digital forest map of the country was used to determine spatial location of all the forested areas. This map was based on a high-resolution mapping, wherein the entire area of India was divided into over 165,000 grids. Out of these, 35,899 grids were marked as forested grids — along with the forest density and forest types.

Vulnerability assessment showed that the sensitive forested grids are spread across India. “However, their concentration is higher in the Upper Himalayan stretches, parts of Central India, northern Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats,” said the report prepared by the Environment Ministry.

Similarly, a one-degree-Celsius increase in temperature associated with increase in carbondioxide in atmosphere could hit wheat production in India unless “adaptation” strategies are adopted, the report said.

The report argued that in the absence of adaptation and CO2 fertilisation benefits, a one degree Celsius rise in temperature alone could lead to a decrease of six million tonnes of wheat production.

The Indian Express, 12th May 2012

“Did you do it?” ask the red-wattled lapwings as pollution and encroachment overtake their habitat and threaten their survival.Red-wattled Lapwings — dainty birds standing tall on slender yellow legs and a red fleshy wattle in front of each eye — grazing for insects and worms in ponds, pastures, forest clearing or dry waterbeds were a common sight in our country even until a few years back. Rampant air and water pollution and encroachment of natural habitats for the sake of development is proving damaging for the lapwing's population that has already witnessed a sharp decline and faces a bleak future

These birds generally nest on the ground and thus increased urbanisation is taking a toll on their natural environment. Their gradual disappearance could also affect human beings since the red-wattled lapwings help keeping harmful insects in control

Says Sharad Khanna of Indian Wildlife Adventures from Gurgaon: “It is a pity we destroy designated barren countryside as wastelands and overlook the multitude of living creatures thriving in it”

Once widely distributed across the Indian sub-continent, these birds have also fallen prey to the extensive use of pesticides and herbicides in agricultural lands presently

Dr. Bharat Jethva, alumni of Wildlife Institute of India and a senior naturalist and ornithologist presently based in Gandhinagar, says that in the past decade, especially in and around small and big cities, we have lost undisturbed open spaces. This has put the red-wattled lapwings in dire straits as their ground habitat has excessive human penetration. Being sensitive to disturbance, the lapwings may have taken to nesting on rooftops to prolong their progeny survival

The lapwings have an amazing technique of camouflaging their eggs on their ground nest to such an extent that they would remain undetected even if one is standing right in front of them. The female bird lays two to four blotchy brown eggs, which are half the size of chicken's eggs and perfectly match the gravel's colour, on the ground itself without any hint of straw or other nest-building material used by other birds.For an idle eye, these eggs on the ground are mere pebbles. This degree of difficulty in sighting eggs on an open ground obviously helps in dodging the prying eyes of predators

These alert birds are active and wide awake even at night. They spend their time running about in jerky short spurts, stopping abruptly to pick up insects. Their normal flight is unhurried — attained by deliberate flapping of the wings and seldom at great height from the ground. When threatened or protecting their young, they are very fast and furious

The characteristic loud calls rendered by them sounds like ‘Did-You-Do-It'. That's how the British, when they ruled India, spent their free time in observing birds and named this bird as Did-You-Do-It

The red-wattled has a stance that is proud and pronounced with watchful awareness. The birds have black-tipped red bill and the tail is tipped black and in flight, prominent white wing bars are seen. Males and females are similar in plumage but males have longer wing span

In ornithological parlance, Red-wattled Lapwing is Vanellus indicus and is usually found in pairs near ponds, pastures and dry waterbeds. It is also found in forest clearings and lawns looking for tidbits. Some local names includetiteeri (Hindi), titodi (Gujarati), erra-t?tuva /chitawa (Telugu), aal-kaati(Tamil, meaning ‘human indicator')

The breeding season is March to August and courtship involves the male puffing its feathers and shuffling around the female to mount and engage. They have been recorded nesting even on the stones between the rails of a railway track, the adult leaving the nest when trains passed. When nesting, both the male and female take turns to incubate eggs and the birds will attempt to dive bomb or distract potential predators. They even put up the trick of luring away the threat by enacting the broken wing display

To protect the eggs from the overbearing heat, the clever birds soak their belly feathers from the nearest pool to cool the eggs and provide water to the chicks as well. Interestingly, in some parts of India, it is believed that the bird sleeps on its back with legs skywards and an associated Hindi metaphor Titeeri se asman thama jaega! (Can the dim-wit support the heavens?) is used when referring to persons undertaking tasks beyond their ability or strength

The Hindu, 13th May 2012

An aerial survey of the Ganga river in Bihar on Saturday brought Union water resources minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar closer to the alarming severity of the siltation and pollution in the river and need for more urgent remedies

“I saw it (growing siltation) a very serious issue and we must take urgent measures soon to save the Ganga and reduce the constant threat of floods,” said Mr Bansal, whose survey of the river was in response to Mr Kumar’s request on April 17 for a personal familiarisation with the crisis. Along with Mr Kumar and Bihar water resources minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Mr Bansal had the aerial survey of over 500 km of the river from Chausa in Buxar district to Farakka Barrage in Bhagalpu

***

Growing industrial and urban pollution, constant siltation and natural erosion of banks are the foremost causes behind the holy river’s sad fate.

Boat capsizes,7 feared dea

Tanya Bagch

Kolkata, May 1

Seven persons, including a one-year-old girl, were feared drowned following a boat capsize in the river Hooghly at Konnagor in Hooghly district in the early hours of Saturday. The tragedy exposed the unlawful ferry service flourishing in the state

Police said the boat was carrying 19 pilgrims and two oarsmen from Sukhchar in North 24 Parganas district to Konnagar when it capsized near the Baro Madirtala ghat. The pilgrims were going to Shakuntala Kalibari for a religious ritual. Some local residents immediately jumped into the river and rescued 11 persons

On Saturday morning, one body, later identified as that Pampa Mondal, was recovered from the Shyam Mandir ghat in Khardah. Another body was found later in the day. The five who were missing are Mihir De, Rinki Sardar, Tapasi Sardar, Abhijit Mondal and a one year old baby girl Kakon Mondal

According to one of the rescued passengers, at the beginning, only seven persons had boarded the boat. “But the oarsmen insisted on taking more passengers and the number eventually went up to 19. However, as the boat reached the mid-stream, we found water gushing in through a hole in the boat. It triggered panic prompting some people to jump into the river before the boat capsized. My daughter was on my brother’s lap and I saw them both drowning,” said a woman
The Asian Age, 13th May 2012

The National Culture Fund (NCF), set up with much fanfare in 1996, has utterly failed in its aim to preserve and promote Indian culture with the help of public private partnership (PPP) owing to the dismal response from the PSUs and corporate sector

Data from the last three years show that only five PSUs -- Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC), Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), State Bank of India (SBI), and Shipping Corporation, have committed financial assistance, though not very huge, to the fund

“The scheme has failed to evoke response from the corporate sectors to donate liberally even though the Government provides income- tax exemption for donations,” a senior official from the Culture Ministry said. The NCF has Rs 19 crore in its corpus fund

The reluctance aside, the PSUs also double back on their donation promises many a times. Of a total Rs 8 crore promised by them in the last three years, a mere Rs 2 crore has been released so far

The NTPC has been the major defaulter. Against Rs 5 crore committed in 2009-10, it has released a paltry sum of Rs 50 lakhs for the conservation and development of environs of monuments in Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Odisha, the official pointed out

Similarly, the country’s premier bank, SBI’s record for meeting its commitment has been dismal. It has provided a token amount of Rs 20 lakhs against promised fund of Rs 75 lakhs for undertaking conservation, provision of amenities for tourists, illumination of the monument and professional advice for museums display at Hazaradurai Palace in Murshrabad in West Bengal

The major oil PSU, ONGC has promised monetary support of around Rs 90 lakhs in 2010-2011 to three projects related to Ahom monuments in Sibasagar in Assam, Delhi-based National Museum andfor the festival titled “Virasat” in Dehradun in Uttarkhand. It is yet to release Rs 15 lakhs out of promised fund of Rs 40 lakhs for the third one, said the official

For 2011-12, only SBI has come forward to fund two projects; namely construction of a toilet block in the Shore temple (Rs 25 lakhs) and landscaping and signages for groups of temples in Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu (Rs 54 lakhs.) It is yet to release the money for the second project

“In European countries, the upkeep of the monuments is with the help of such funds. But unfortunately corporate entities here are least interested in keeping the heritage of the Indian culture alive,” the official lamented

The Pioneer, 13th May 2012

Islam Haidu (25) was blessed with a child on Saturday night. Ideally, she should have been a happy woman, surrounded by her kith and kin, complimenting her on her achievement. But instead, Haidu found herself surrounded by the ruins of a mediaeval Delhi monument. And all her pride of motherhood was stymied by the prospect of eviction, or worse, deportation to her home country, Myanmar-a place she had left, seeking asylum in India

On Sunday, TOI found Haidu crying her heart out on the edge of the main road facing the upscale Vasant Kunj. Her child, unfed and unwashed, was clung to her, oblivious to its own bleak fate. In fact, it seemed fate itself had abandoned the hundreds of Burmese refugees taking shelter, now in the capital's wilderness. They sat on the road under the scorching sun with all their belongings but no morsel of food

They alleged that cops had asked them to leave in small groups or they would be packed off to the Myanmar border. Police, on the other hand, contested the claim and said they didn't evict anyone. Nevertheless, TOI found policemen blocking any refugee movement into the ridge that leads to the 13th-century Sultan Ghari monument

Even a delegation of students led by JNU students' union president Sucheta De was denied access to the settlement inside even though they had a valid letter expressing their intent to help the refugees. "How can they ask the refugees to leave like this? This is not the way," De asserted. The JNUSU members sat in a show of solidarity with the refuges at the entry to the monument all day to prevent any kind of eviction

Nearly 2,200 refugees have been living inside the monument since the last week of April after their fortnight long protest outside the UNHCR office in Vasant Vihar led to protests from residents there. But now, their stay here has also led to protests from four villages, including Rangpuri and Mahipalpur, which surround the monument. Even the ASI has lodged a police complaint against the encroachment and the space has been established as DDA land and hence government property

Zia-Ur-Rehman, a representative of the refugees told this correspondent that all they want is permission to stay on till May 15, the day UNHCR is supposed to consider their case. "Where do we go? We came to India to save ourselves from the atrocities back home in Myanmar. All that we want is refugee status or we should be sent to some other country where we can live with dignity. But instead we are being pushed form one place to another. Now we are even being asked leave this jungle where we have been struggling without water, food and shelter.Women are delivering in the open without any access to medical aid. Are we not human beings?" said Dildar Begum, a refugee

Meanwhile, Delhi chief secretary P K Tripathi has written to the Union home ministry on the issue and has sought a meeting with the Centre to find a solution. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit, too, has expressed concern over the matter

The Times of India, 14th May 2012

Delhi Metro's construction work at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg is being closely monitored by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)

With a verdict from National Monuments Authority (NMA) still awaited, Delhi Metro is not allowed to undertake construction work within 300m of protected monuments that fall on the stretch. DMRC, however, said they were at present only engaged in soil and utility testing and traffic diversions

Delhi Metro has been waiting for a verdict from NMA for almost a year. Preliminary work for their proposed Central Secretariat-Kashmere Gate corridor which goes via several protected monuments included initial investigations like soil testing, utility lines, among other things

But the work had caught the attention of ASI, which termed it unauthorized and issued notice in February at the IP estate police station to stop work. An ASI official said they got a reply to their notice from DMRC saying they had applied to NMA for permission to start work on the corridor

A source, however, said another notice was sent to DMRC after barricades were put up at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg a week back. Denying they had received any notice, DMRC officials maintained they were not undertaking construction work. "We are only involved with soil-testing and preparatory work at present. Only traffic diversions are in place. We are still waiting for an NOC from NMA,'' said a DMRC official

A source said there was immense pressure to grant NOC to the work under essential services as public utility. The state-level competent authority has given a positive recommendation but the final work can only come from NMA. An NMA official said they were examining the proposal and were holding another meeting with DMRC towards the end of the month

Till then no work can start in the underground corridor running via Janpath, Mandi House, ITO, Dilli Gate, Jama Masjid and Red Fort till the proposal was cleared by NMA

The Indian Express, 14th May 2012

The decade-old deadlock between Archaeological Survey of India and Northern Railway over construction of a new bridge near 16th-century world heritage site Salimgarh Fort is finally on the way to being resolved

An alternative realignment of the bridge, which will serve the dual purpose of protecting the national monument while allowing the railways to maintain its link with the eastern states, has been approved at several levels. The proposal is in the process of getting an NOC from National Monuments Authority. Through this alignment, the new line will join the existing railway line before the fort

The railway line connecting Shahdara to the Old Delhi railway station is more than 150 years old. The railways argued that it had to be replaced with a new bridge to maintain connectivity with the eastern states through rail. With the old railway line throwing up problems, the railways proposed to build a new bridge for which construction started in 2003. However, the work was stalled in 2007 when the ASI intervened. It objected to the construction of the bridge as it involved demolition of a portion of the monument's wall, though crores had already been spent on the project

It was imperative that a new bridge built as the old iron bridge, built in 1867AD, was no longer structurally sound. Moreover, over 150 passenger trains and numerous goods trains passed through this line. Intach was asked to come up with a solution. It proposed the railway track, which was earlier going through Salimgarh Fort, be shifted north and pass over the Yamuna through the realigned bridge. As the diversion is outside 100m radius of Salimgarh, the new construction will fall under the regulated zone. The plan was accepted by the railways and thereafter submitted. "The construction will be carried out 30m upstream and parallel to the existing road-cum-rail bridges over the Yamuna. According to the Survey of India's site plan, it falls 100m away from the outer wall of Salimgarh Fort,'' said an official

"Later on, the existing railway tracks, which pass through the protected area of Salimgarh Fort, will mostly be shifted to the recently constructed Ring Road bypass for connectivity with the new Yamuna bridge and construction of walls, piers, etc in the regulated area,'' said an official

The proposed site for construction was visited by the competent authority for Delhi, Vijay Singh, NMA officials and officials from Northern Railway earlier this week. While NMA officials have consented to the plan unofficially, they said a formal NOC would be granted shortly. Singh added that a number of recommendations had been made in his report. The Intach report talks about improving the environment around the monument, which has also been incorporated as a prerequisite for the NOC. "The part of the old bridge made by the British is still conspicuous by its architectural style but the new road passing along Salimgarh Fort for the Commonwealth gaidge looks shabby. There are some old buildings like a pump house, etc which are abandoned and dysfunctional along the wall of Salimgarh Fort on the eastern side and illegal rickshaw stands and parking sites are openly creating a chaotic environment,'' reads the report

Singh said improving the ambience around Salimgarh was critical. NOC will be granted to the railways, an essential public utility, as an exceptional case pending the framing of heritage bylaws for protected monuments falling on the proposed alignment. "The railways has been asked to incorporate elements of art & architecture of the Old British Bridge and Salimgarh Fort in the facade of the road under the rail bridge already constructed. The new bridge has to be constructed in a way that it improves the ambience around the bridge and Salimgarh Fort by removing encroachments, dilapidated and abandoned structures and checking undesirable activities,'' said Singh

The Times of India, 14th May 2012

Heritage How did the gurudwaras of Delhi come to be established? R.V. SMITH traces the stories surrounding some important Sikh shrines of the city

Only four Sikh shrines are listed officially by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) but according to the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee there are at least 10 of them. Among these, Dukh Bhurjan Gurudwara is housed in a building dating back to Tughlak times — more than 200 years before Sikhism became an established religion. The paradox lies in the fact that Dukh Bhurjan, the monument to one Woebegone, was earlier known as Mitthas tomb and converted into a gurudwara in later times. The building has a Tughlak period canopy, crowned with a finial. Its screens and open spaces have been walled up to make it look like a house of prayer. A similar fate befell the tomb of Itbari Khan Khwajasarai, near Akbar's mausoleum at Sikandra. It too has now become a gurudwara linked to a huge pond built by Sikandar Lodi, which subsequently came to be known as Guru-ka-Tall after Guru Tegh Bahadur camped there

Historically speaking, Nanak Piyao Gurudwara near Rana Partap Bagh, G.T. Road, should be considered the oldest gurudwara since the founder of the faith, Guru Nanak, camped there in a garden whose owner built a shrine in his memory called Pau Sahib. The name Nanak Piyao was appended much later. Majnu-ka-Tila gurudwara, around which now a Tibetan locality has sprung up, is also of Guru Nanak's time as he met a dervish here who was commonly known as Majnu — one who had discarded the world to become a lover of God. Guru Hargobind (1595-1644) also camped at the site during the reign of Jahangir after his release from jail in Gwalior by the emperor, who thought it the best policy to establish good relations with the powerful Sikh sect at a time when Khusro and Shah Jahan (then known as Prince Khurram) were proving to be hostile. After Hargobind, Guru Har Rai's son Ram Rai stayed here during Aurangzeb's reign

Sis Ganj Gurudwara in Chandni Chowk marks the site of the kotwali where Guru Tegh Bahadur was imprisoned by Aurangzeb and later executed. Earlier several of his close companions like Bhai Dayal Das. Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Sati Das had suffered martyrdom at the emperor's hands. Tegh Bahadur had actually come to him as a mediator on behalf of the Brahmins, hundreds of whom had either been jailed or killed on his orders and whose pleas to Shivaji and the Rajpur rajas to save them had gone unheeded. It is said that after the Guru had been beheaded, there was a big storm (kali andhi), taking advantage of which a goverment contractor, Lakhi Shah, and his eight sons rode down to Chandni Chowk and carried away the Guru's body. The site where he was cremated is now known as Rakabganj Gurudwara. The head of Guru Tegh Bahadur was taken away by his disciple Bhai Jaita to Anandpur, where Guru Gobind Singh cremated it

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib was originally a palace of Sawai Raja Jai Singh of Amber. It was here that the child Guru Harkrishan (the eighth in succession) died of smallpox on 14 March, 1664 when Aurangzeb had been on the throne for only a few years. The palace came into the possession of Raja Jai Singh II in course of time and it was from here that the raja supervised the building of the Jantar Mantar in the reign of Mohammad Shah Rangila. He later handed over the bungalow to the Sikh community which had petitioned him for it, and thus it came to be known as Gurudwara Bangla Sahib

There are two shrines dedicated to the last Guru, Gobind Singh: Gurudwara Moti Bagh and Gurudwara Damdama Sahib. He was associated with these places during his visits to Delhi to meet his friend, Bahadur Shah I (also known as Shah Alam I, eldest son of Aurangzeb). His two consorts, Mata Sundari and Mata Sahib Devi have a gurudwara to commemorate them in Mata Sundari Road

Their samadhis in Bala Sahib gurudwara are also revered shrines, as is the gurudwara of Banda Bahadur in Mehrauli. Banda was executed along with his son during Farrukhsiyar's reign on June 19, 1716. The emperor who had persecuted him and his companions (500 of whom were killed) did not stay very long on the throne and was ousted and killed in 1719 by his mentors, the Sayyid brothers, who have come to be known as “the King Makers”. Was this how Banda Bahadur was avenged

The Hindu, 14th May 2012

The West Bengal Forest Department has decided to reintroduce pygmy hogs in the grasslands of the Gorumara National Park in north Bengal and is awaiting a response from the authorities concerned in Assam, which is home to the only captive population of the animal, listed as critically endangered by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Following feasibility study conducted by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) that has recommended introduction of the pygmy hog at Gorumara, the State Wildlife Board has decided to go ahead with the project, Chief Wildlife Warden of West Bengal S. B. Mondal told The Hindu on Monday.

“We have written to the Forest Department in Assam with a proposal. We propose that a few hogs from their captive breeding facility in Basistha near Guwahati be released into the wild at Gorumara,” Mr. Mondal said, adding that he was yet to hear from the forest authorities in Assam

Pygmy hogs – the smallest and rarest wild species in the world – have been listed as critically endangered in the IUCN red list because its population is experiencing a continuing decline with all its individuals living in a single sub-population.

Once found across the grasslands extending in a narrow belt south of the Himalayan foothills from north-western Uttar Pradesh and southern Nepal to Assam and contiguous areas in Bhutan, its population steadily declined till they could only be found in certain pockets of the Manas Tiger Reserve.

Efforts under the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme, a collaborative effort of the Central and Assam Governments and several NGOs, have enabled the successful conservative breeding and reintroduction of the animals at the Sonai Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary and the Orang National Park, both in Assam.

“The programme began 16 years ago when six pygmy hogs were captured from the Manas National Park. We have already managed to reintroduce 48 animals into the wild and with the release of 12 more hogs later this month, the number will go up to 60, ten times the number of founders captured from the wild,” said Goutam Narayan, a conversation biologist with EcoSystems-India, one of the NGOs collaborating on the project, to The Hindu over telephone.

Dr. Narayan pointed out that the pygmy hog is an animal that has disappeared from the grasslands of the Terai and Dooars region as well as several areas in Assam without any serious poaching threat.

“Nobody has gone and hunted it out for its meat or skin or horn – which has happened to other animals of the grasslands like the rhinoceros or the barasingha . This means that it is one of the most sensitive indicators of its habitat and could be a key species to ensure conservation of grassland habitat,” Dr. Narayan said.

The recommendations of the feasibility study for reintroduction of the species in Gorumara came after a two-year survey conducted by researchers at every camp within the Gorumara National Park.
Accordingly, certain areas within the reserve have been identified as preferable for their release, said Dr. A K Sanyal, one of the researchers.

“We had to ensure that sufficient food would be available for the hogs. Secondly we had to measure the microclimatic conditions to ensure that they will be suitable and finally we had to identify the possible predators that the animals might encounter,” Dr. Sanyal said, adding that leopards in the area had been identified as the major predators that the hogs will have to watch out for.

The Hindu, 15th May 2012

Mumbai-based Banoo Batliboi has organised a book sculpture show at The Aman on Lodhi Road, with Apparao Galleries, where she displays skill at folding the pages of abandoned books, to create objects like drums, waves, diamonds and hearts.

Batliboi would source the books from raddiwallahs. She has been doing it for two years.

“I usually ask for books that people have forgotten. For this particular series, I used volumes from the Franklin Library Series I found at an old book shop. They had been lying in the dark corner of a godown. Probably for thirty years. The books were bound in real leather, with a distinct cover design embossed in 22k gold.” She adds, “A matching satin bookmark is attached. The pages are gold gilded. And made of acid neutral paper. For longer shelf life. I haven’t changed the pages, or the cover.”

Banoo is self-taught. She developed this technique about 8-10 years ago.

“I was visiting a friend’s home. And I became fascinated by a book sculpture that she owned.
“Then I thought of doing it on my own. Initially, I did it for close friends, and stopped for five years. It was only couple of years ago, when I thought of gifting my brother, that the idea occurred again.”

Her style of doing the sculptures involves folding the papers without cutting or pasting.

And there are several criteria Banoo considers, while taking a particular book for her sculpture. “Each one takes hours to complete. It involves accurately folding pages. Developing a concept also takes time. I always try to present a subject from daily life. The covering of book remains same.

“And I usually opt for books in good condition With a hard cover. The paper has to be brittle. So it folds easily. And it should have at least 500-600 pages,” Banoo tells us.

With time she feels she has progressed with her style, as she is able to shape difficult designs. “I never learnt under anyone, and developed this over years. Initially, I was unable to create beautiful patterns and they were simple to look at. But with time, I created waves and ripples, that earlier seemed complicated. And now I make more sculptures in one month,” shares Batliboi.

As for the durability of her work, she says, “You have to be careful with these and clean them regularly with cloth. But it should be a gentle touch.” The show is on till June 10

The Pioneer, 15th May 2012

Cutting across political lines, Lok Sabha members on Monday joined hands to demand immediate intervention by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to save the Ganga and make it pollution-free at the earliest.

Initiating the debate, SP member Rewati Raman Singh demanded dismantling of all man-made dams on the Ganga. “I demand that the Prime Minister should intervene to save the Ganga which is not just a river but our lifeline and part of our culture,” he said. He warned that construction of dams in the Himalayas region could have devastating effects during natural calamities like earthquake or flash floods.

Endorsing his stand, BJP member Yogi Aditya Nath said unplanned development had turned the Ganga into a drain with polluted water. Despite two phases of Ganga Action Plan and Yamuna Action Plan being implemented, the level of contaminated water flowing into the two rivers had not decreased, he said. Congress MP Satpal Maharaj asserted that the pollution of the Ganga was a matter of great concern.

JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav demanded nationalisation of rivers to protect them from pollution and unplanned development.

The Indian Express, 15th May 2012

The Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary has good prey density and could serve as the next tiger reserve in Karnataka. A team of experts has found several prey species,scats, pug marks and other indications of tigers in the sanctuary, reports Subhash Chandra N S

With the State Forest Department worried about the safety of the spillover population of Nagarhole’s tigers, the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary adjacent to it seems to be the answer to the problems at Nagarhole.

Though smaller, the Brahmagiri sanctuary has a sizeable population of big cats. With good prey density, it is now tipped to be another tiger reserve in the State

The Nagarhole National Park and Tiger Reserve is at the foothills of the Western Ghats and spreads towards the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Kodagu district, closer to the Kerala border.

Located in the Western Ghats, the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary spreads over 181 sq km with two ranges, the Srimangala and Makoota Wildlife Range. Spread over 129 sq km of dense forest, Srimangala is the largest range with rich wildlife and the potential to become another tiger reserve in the State. The Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary is connected to Aralum Wildlife Sanctuary of Kerala along the southern border, while the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary is on the south.

The wildlife sanctuary has reported frequent tiger sightings, direct and indirect. It is presently believed to be home to five-six tigers. The evergreen region has a good prey density with a sizeable population of sambar, the tiger’s favourite food.

Camera traps in the forest range also point to the presence of tigers in the sanctuary. According to Range Forest Officer Srinivasa Nayak, a camera obtained from the Indian Institute of Science was installed in the Srimangala Wildlife Range in January this year, when a tiger from the Nagarhole National Park strayed out. “We were able to camera trap two tigers,” he said.

Nayak, entrusted with the task of tracking the tiger that strayed out of the Nagarhole National Park, says he could not track the tiger using a camera trap. He then requested his higher-ups to shift the camera to his range, which led to the surprising discovery.

Apart from tigers, the camera has also captured leopard, endangered Nilgiri martin, mouse deer and barking deer. The region, according to former dean of Wildlife Institute of India A J T John Singh, is also home to Nilgiri langur and lion-tailed macaque.

Tracking the tiger

A team of experts comprising former principal chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden (PCCF) B K Singh, John Singh and others, found several prey species and scats, pug marks and other marks of tigers in the sanctuary.

According to B K Singh, “The forest range is a good habitat with flora that helps the survival of herbivores, which, in turn supports bigger carnivores like leopards and tigers. It can definitely be a future hub for tiger conservation.” According to wildlife expert Sanjay Gubbi, Brahmagiri is an evergreen habitat interspersed with grasslands and has potential to hold good densities of prey and predators. “It holds good numbers of gaur and sambar, the principal prey for tigers in the area. It is part of the larger forest complex and is connected to Nagarhole Tiger Reserve through Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Tirunelli and Hilldale Reserved Forests in Kerala,” he said.

Pointing out that the postmortem conducted following complaints of cattle lifting and killing also establishes the presence of a sizeable population of tigers, he says, “When everyone talks of source-sink tiger populations, it is important to ensure connectivity between these sites. A classic example is the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve and Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary. Though Brahmagiri has all the characteristics to act as an excellent sink site and also provide connectivity to other protected areas to its north, an important point has to be first tackled. The small gap between Nagarhole and Brahmagiri has to be connected.”

Former PCCF Singh adds, “There are two coffee estates - Huvinakadu and Faith coffee estates - on the eastern parts of the sanctuary. Experts and NGOs are suggesting to us to acquire them to provide contiguity. The south-eastern border of the sanctuary has the Tholapatti range of Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary; on the east, it is connected to Mysore Elephant Reserve and on the west, it is connected to Talacauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and Pushapgiri Wildlife Sanctuary.

Building this connectivity will ensure that tigers, elephants and other animals are connected to northern Western Ghats in Karnataka.

If this critical issue is not addressed now, the forests of the Western Ghats will be permanently disconnected

The Deccan Herald, 16^th May 2012

The State has many well known waterfalls, big and small, but it is when you find a comparatively hidden one, that the fun really begins. B V Prakash visits Vajrapoha falls in Belgaum and calls it the ideal balm for frayed nerves.

Hidden in the forests of the Western Ghats near Khanapur in Belgaum district is Vajrapoha falls – an ideal balm for frayed nerves. But there is no easy, paved path to reach the falls; the only way is to wade across the river at least twice or thrice to reach the top of the falls. So one must wait for the proper time, when the river is shallow enough, to visit this idyllic place.

We decided the period just before the onset of summer was an appropriate time to begin this venture and so planned a quick trip to this spot. The falls are located deep inside the dense forests near the village of Jamboti. Jamboti is quite a scenic village and the kickoff point for the trip to the falls. The name, Jamboti, is linked with Jambavathi – the daughter of Jambavantha, the legendary bear. A sizeable population of sloth bears lived here once, for the variety of fruit trees and numerous caves. The forests are also brimming with other wildlife like the leopard, jackal, deer, mongoose etc, besides a countless number of birds and snakes. The flora varies as well, from moist deciduous forests to scrub jungles. But by and large, the forest is still pristine in spite of a few hamlets around it.

One requires permission from the forest department to visit Vajrapoha falls. After we arrived at Jamboti, we gave the local forest officials records of our particulars, as instructed by Girish Hosur, the Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) at Belgaum. We clearly memorised the landmarks and headed off down the muddy path. River Mahadayi, which originates at Degaon near Khanapur, flows north and west in a serpentine course before tumbling down suddenly into a deep rocky canyon, forming the Vajrapoha falls. Further down its course, it enters Goa and is referred to as Mandovi before it joins the Arabian sea. After toiling for seven kilometres, we reached the landmark, an old bridge, after which we took the road to the left. We walked for three kilometres more, before following a deviation to the right on a faded trail through a sparse jungle to reach the river. We rested a while before resuming our trek.

We hopped onto boulders and crossed the river at various vantage points. It took us another hour to unexpectedly reach the top of the falls. The slow flowing river suddenly gains momentum as it drops, gushing thunderously. The edge of the fall is a precarious overhang from where one can watch the water tumble down below. We carefully climbed to lower rocky platform holding on to roots and parts of the cliff.

The view was superb! The pure white band of water, dropping down approximately 200 ft, was an awesome sight worth the trouble of tracing it. It was good fortune that it was already evening because the mellow sunlight made tiny rainbows on the water. The falls make another small jump further down, but we did not go as it was risky and time consuming. We had a whale of the time and left before dusk.

Getting there

Reaching the Vajrapoha Falls involves a 12-km trek from Jamboti village which is well connected with Khanapur and Belgaum by rail and road. Permission from Forest department and a guide to show the way are essential. Extreme care has to be taken at the falls.

The Deccan Herald, 16th May 2012

As many as 32 tigers have died this year, even as latest official data showed an increase in the population estimates of the big cats. Of these, 18 were natural deaths, Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said.

Expressing concern over the endangered status of the tiger the world over, Ms. Natarajan on Tuesday said the Ministry was looking into the reasons for the deaths.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the first stocktaking meeting of the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP), Ms. Natarajan said poaching was one of the reasons. Other reasons include man-animal conflict.

New forest reserves

Delivering the keynote address at the meet, she spoke about the establishment of new forest reserves to ensure a safe habitat for tigers. “We are in the process of establishing more tiger reserves. Based on 2010 assessment, a new tiger reserve — the Kawal Tiger Reserve in Andhra Pradesh — has been constituted. In-principle approval has been accorded for declaring the Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu as a tiger reserve,” she said.

The government had launched the fourth phase of ‘Reserve Level Monitoring' to study the big cats' population and habitat on an annual basis. Almost one per cent of country's geographical area was conserved for tigers as their core/critical habitat.

“India's commitment for saving the tiger is well-known. Wild tigers thrive in 17 of our States. We have the maximum number of tigers. ‘Project Tiger' was launched in 1973 with nine tiger reserves. Today, the coverage has increased to 41 reserves spread over all the 17 States,” she said.

“The wild tiger continues to remain endangered the world over. Threats to the wild tiger and its habitat are due to several factors like poaching, illegal trade catering to a demand for the body parts and derivatives of the tiger, loss of habitat due to extractive industries, infrastructure and revenge killings,” she said.

Adaptive management

Ms. Natarajan favoured adaptive management to tackle country- and area-specific issues related to tiger conservation.

Last year, the government increased its allocation up to Rs. 1,216.86 crore, especially to support the States for securing inviolate space for tigers, she said

The tiger reserves had been directed to raise a Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF); several new technologies were being used to safeguard the animal.

The Hindu, 16th May 2011

“Not for 55m years has there been oceanic disruption of comparable severity”

IN 1998 a rise in sea temperatures caused by El Niño, a periodic eastward surge of warm Pacific water, caused a mass bleaching of the world’s coral reefs, the permanent or temporary home of perhaps a quarter of all marine species. Up to 90% of the Indian Ocean’s technicoloured reefs turned to skeletal wastes, largely devoid of life. Had this happened to rainforests—coral’s terrestrial equivalent—a sea-change in attitudes to the environment could have been expected. But because this change occurred in the sea, the calamity drew remarkably little comment.

Traditional attitudes towards the sea, as something immutable and distant to humanity, are hugely out of date. The temperature change that harmed the corals was not caused by human activity; yet it was a foretaste of what man is now doing to the sea. The effects of overfishing, agricultural pollution and anthropogenic climate change, acting in concert, are devastating marine ecosystems. Though corals are returning to many reefs, there is a fair chance that in just a few decades they will all be destroyed, as ocean temperatures rise owing to global warming. The industrial pollution that is cooking the climate could also cause another problem: carbon dioxide, absorbed by the sea from the atmosphere, turns to carbonic acid, which is a threat to coral, mussels, oysters and any creature with a shell of calcium carbonate.

The enormity of the sea’s troubles, and their implications for mankind, are mind-boggling.

The Indian Express, 16th May 2012

Rejecting the celebration of World Migratory Bird Day at a time when no migrant birds could be spotted in India, a section of ornithologists is pitching for an exclusive Indian version of the occasion.

The theme of the 2012 celebrations, organised between May 12 and 13, was “migratory birds and people — together through time.”

The day is celebrated during the second week of May with “public events such as bird festivals, education programmes, and bird-watching excursions to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day and to help raise awareness around a specific theme,” say the organisers of the day.

United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) two international treaties — Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement — are the organisers.

Asad Rahmani, Director, Bombay Natural History Society, has questioned the rationale of organising the event in the country at a time when most of the migratory birds might have left India and other tropical countries.

“During this time of the year, almost all of the migratory birds would have completed their annual migration and none would be travelling. How can the celebrations be held when none of the species would be in the tropical countries, including India,” wonders Mr. Rahmani.

“The programme is all about creating awareness on migratory species and it won't be possible to sensitise people when no long-distance migratory species is present in the country. Ideally, a neutral date between October end and early November should be selected for hosting the events when the birds would be really migrating,” he says.

Mr. Rahmani says he will take up the issue with BirdLife International, a global collective of conservation organisations.

Migratory season

The migratory season in India begins in September and extends up to April and nearly 600 species of birds can be spotted at various locations in the country. Most of these come from the north of Himalayas from countries namely Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Magnolia, and the Siberian region. The major wintering grounds are Chilka Lake, Bharatpur, East Calcutta Wetlands, Harike Lake, Kolleru Lake, Loktak Lake, Point Calimere, and Sambhar Lake. Some of the important long distance-migrants that reach the country during the eight-month-long season are White Stork, Bar headed Goose, Northern Pintail, and Eurasian Wigeon, experts say.

P.O. Nameer, South Asian coordinator, in situ, Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, International Union for Conservation of Nature, has suggested that a national day could be dedicated for the migratory species.

“Celebrating the day when one cannot spot a migrant species does not make any sense. If the message has to really go down to the masses, organising a migratory bird week can also be considered with programmes like field trips, seminars, and film shows,” he says.

“The migratory bird season in Kerala coincides with the national scene and birds start arriving in the State by early September. They will also leave the State by April,” Dr. Nameer, who is also the Kerala coordinator of the Indian Bird Conservation network, says.

Some experts have also suggested celebrating the day on November 12, the birthday of Salim Ali, the ‘bird man' of India.

The caption for the photograph accompanying this report has been corrected for a typographical error.

The Hindu, 16th May 2012

Quashing a Kerala High Court order, which permitted a private resort to operate in the picturesque Lakshadweep islands allegedly against Coastal Regulations Zone provisions, the Supreme Court has appointed a panel, headed by its former judge R V Raveendran to examine the allegations. A bench of justices T S Thakur and Gyan Sudha Misra said the five-member committee can seek the CBI help to examine the alleged violations and wilful role of the official machinery in the construction of various resorts "home stay" by private individuals in violation of CRZ (Coastal Regulations Zone).

The Committee shall also examine whether any official of the Lakshadweep Administration has wilfully or otherwise neglected the discharge of his duties whether related to the violation of CRZ norms or any other act of omission or commission. "The Committee may examine whether there is any criminal element in any such neglect or act of omission or commission on the part of any of the officials in the Lakshadweep Administration. "If necessary, an investigation can be conducted by the CBI into the alleged blameworthy conduct of the officers if there be any need for such investigation," the bench said.

The apex court passed the order while upholding an appeal by the Union Territory Administration challenging the high court's direction to consider the Seashells Beach Resort's plea for construction of "Home stay" resort in the island in alleged violation of the rules. "The resort could not be commissioned under a judicial order in disregard of serious objections that were raised by the Administration, which objections had to be answered before any direction could issue from a writ court. We have, therefore, no hesitation in holding that the order passed by the high court is legally unsustainable," the court said. (more)

The Hindu, 16th May 2012

A section of the Neharwali Haveli in Daryaganj, the ancestral home of former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, has been demolished, kicking off a row with local MLA Shoaib Iqbal claiming that the city has lost a landmark.

Musharraf visited the haveli in 2001, spending time with a select group of people, including an 80-year-old woman who had been cleaning homes in the area for decades.

Residents of the area said a multi-storeyed building is being built at the site. MLA Iqbal said he noticed the demolition only on Tuesday and was “shocked” that most of what once comprised the courtyard of the haveli had been razed.

“I was there when Pervez Musharraf visited the house in 2001. I was with him when he took a round of this property. I was shocked to discover that a portion of it was demolished recently. The original Neharwali Haveli was spread over a large area,’’ Iqbal said.

Jatin, a resident of the locality, said: “My father has been running a shop opposite this property ever since Partition. All we know is that some people used to live in this crumbling building which was part of the Neharwali Haveli. But they moved out and a portion of it was torn down. Finally, the old structure was pulled down three-four months ago.’’

The sprawling haveli, where Musharraf was born on August 11, 1943, is tucked away in a narrow lane behind Golcha cinema in Daryaganj.

It was Musharraf’s grandfather, Qazi Mohtashimuddin, who had bought the haveli after retiring from government service. When the family left Delhi to start life afresh in Pakistan, the house was sold to cloth merchant Madan Lal Jain.

A resident of the Jain household, who did not wish to be named, said: “Our house is part of the haveli. When Musharraf visited, he came to our house. The portion that has been broken formed a part of the haveli. That’s what we were told by our elders. But now there is no way of telling.”

The Indian Express, 16th May 2012

A new publication has more than 240 rare images of Indian royalty, a few dating back to the mid-1800s.

The transition happened in the mid-1800s, when the easel was replaced with the camera, and the court painter with the photographer. Years before India witnessed the 1857 Uprising, in its heartland — Lucknow — young darogah Ahmad Ali Khan was documenting his surroundings in a little-known medium. Master of daguerreotype — a process where the image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copperplate, he holds the distinction of being one of the earliest Indian photographers — one who captured the British as well as the Indian elite.

In 1855, he might have created history when he photographed Nawab Raj Begum Sahibah of Oudh. Seated with her hands on her lap, her eyes looking down, she was perhaps one of the first Indian royals to be photographed. Now, the image has resurfaced. It is one of the over 240 photographs that feature in the publication Posing for Posterity: Royal Indian Portraits (Roli Books, Rs 1,975).

“The images are representative of the genre of Indian photography portraiture. Most of them have never been published before,” says author Pramod Kumar KG, managing director of Eka Archiving Services, a Delhi-based museum consulting company. Months were spent sifting through photo archives across the world — from the British Library to Leiden University Library, Netherlands, to the Royal House of Mysore and that of the Maharana of Mewar.

In the cover note, Kumar points out that one of the first photographs of an Indian ruler was possibly that of Maharaja Duleep Singh, son of Ranjit Singh, taken in Lahore by European war photographer John Mcosh. In fact, it was to maintain the patronage of their princely rulers that court painters were to turn photographers, while the maharajas of Jaipur, Tripura, Chamba and the Maharani of Kutch were keen photographers themselves. “The aim is to understand the last 180 years in photographs. We wanted to know how these were pictures taken, what were they used for, and the changing attributes of photography,” notes Kumar.

The book has a sizable number of self-portraits of Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh of Jaipur — anointed in the garb of a Shaivite priest; another one where he’s dressed in western clothes with a cigarette in hand; and one which shows him seated in a Durbar-like setting. Maharana Bhupal Singh of Udaipur was the only maharana to have been photographed from childhood. Among others, Kumar has culled a photograph of him at Jag Niwas, now renovated extensively and known as Lake Palace.

Through the sepia, Kumar gives a glimpse into the past. He says photography was a diplomatic tool, with Indian royalty sending their images to the queen on important occasions. There are rulers with their infants in their laps, young princes bejewelled and dressed as rulers in all their finery, queens posing for the camera outside their zenana, and at times, in western attire.

The publication has no formal categorisations but Kumar binds the photographs in a manner that they appear as compartmentalised — the royal heirs, the rulers, the queens and of them together. Each photograph is accompanied by details, which suffice at times, but on other occasions, leave one asking for more.

The Indian Express, 17th May 2012

After a gap of six years, the joyride on a toy train has returned to the National Bal Bhavan — even though as trial runs for a new diesel engine.

A major attraction for children and adults alike, the steam engine-pulled toy train service was suspended in 2006 after its driver retired.

The train rides at the Bal Bhavan started in 1958 when Jawaharlal Nehru gifted the steam engine to the Bhavan.

In 2007, the steam engine, built by Messrs Krauss Maffic AG, was declared irreparable. The Bhavan got the new diesel engine in 2010, but had no driver.

Finally, the Northern Railway has agreed to loan the Bal Bhavan one of its Rajdhani drivers, who retired from service on April 30. With all requirements met, the Bhavan plans to resume the train rides soon.

On Wednesday, a huge crowd of children and adults waited inside the Bhavan, hoping to get a ride on the new train. Such was the excitement that the train operator was forced to skip a few of the designated stops to prevent people from boarding the already crowded train.

Director of National Bal Bhavan Gaya Prasad said: “There was no train running when I joined. We had no driver. I saw the charm of the mini-train ride among children when I asked a technician to take a trial. Since a technician cannot run a train, we persuaded the Railways to give us a driver. We hope to get a driver in this week.”

Prasad is also the Director of School Education under the HRD Ministry.

It has been a month since a technician has been taking the diesel engine-run toy train on trial runs.
“When we went to Mysore to take the engine, the railway officers gave us some training on operating trains. We are using the training for the trials, which started after the new director joined,” said an official at Bal Bhavan

As the trial run came to an end on Wednesday, a woman was seen arguing with the technician. “I called the office and they told me about the trial run, now they are refusing the ride as train has had its run,” said Smriti Sharma, who had come from Rohini with her eight-year-old daughter.

The mini-train passenger list includes names like Dr Radhakrishnan, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Jagjivan Ram, Rajiv Gandhi, Chandra Shekhar, P V Narasimha Rao, Madhavrao Scindia, Sonia Gandhi, Jacqueline Kennedy.

The Delhi Tourism department has invited proposals to develop a wellness centre at the Garden of Five Senses near Saket. This move is in line with the department’s promotion of eco-tourism at various locations across the city.

The initiative also includes two development projects along the Najafgarh drain with a plan to develop cycling tracks and a broad walkway in green spots at Chhawla and Kanganheri in the upstream reaches.

The Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation Ltd (DTTDC) has floated tenders for a transactional advisor, and hopes to appoint a private company to develop the two spots over the Najafgarh drain by early 2013.

According to the plan, which does not involve cutting trees, the department wants to develop a sunset point and a restaurant in the two-acre land at Chhawla. “A broad walkway would be developed over the trees to give a pleasant and greener view to tourists,” a Delhi tourism official said.

About two-km upstream of Chhawla is another spot measuring 11 acres, which has been rounded off by the department at Kanganheri. “We have already created 12 platforms for tents to be set up. Toilets and bathrooms have also already been developed. The private player will now come with camping equipment. We have created a cycling track with barricades and the complex will also have a restaurant,” the official said.

Officials agree the quality of water in the Najafgarh drain is not good. “But it isn’t too bad either, since the water has fish. Water in the drain is cleaner upstream of Chhawla as compared to the rest of the drain,” the tourism official said.The estimated cost for the development of the complex is Rs 4.5 crore, the official said.

The Indian Express, 17th May 2012

Veteran Kolkata-based photographer Soumitra Datta's special interest in landscape photography is evident at his ongoing solo exhibition at India Habitat Centre's Visual Art Gallery here. Titled “Silent Miracles”, this is Soumitra's first exhibition in the Capital. It features 61 photographs captured over the past 12 years.

To depict nature in its various manifestations, Soumitra travelled extensively across the country. “I visited Sikkim, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, besides making excursions into the interiors of my home State of West Bengal to capture various facets of nature.”

Quite a few images seem like artistic impressions. “It is true that some of my photographs look like works of art. But this is not the result of an artist's brushwork; it is nature's gift. To get these pictures one has to have patience and perseverance. I wait, sometimes for hours at a stretch, to capture such moments like a rainbow, flow of a river, clouds and waves. Capturing such moments on my camera is not a perfunctory exercise but one in which the eye, mind, heart and spirit work together. The idea is to look beyond the apparent beauty of nature.”

The photographer, who has captured thousands of photographs on nature, likes to work on his passion for landscape. He specialises in portraying landscapes and sees to it that each one is unique in its content, form and pattern. He has had numerous exhibitions in Mumbai, Kolkata and Florida.

The exhibition opened in the Capital on May 10 and is on up to this Friday.

The Hindu, 17th May 2012

Resorts within five kilometers of tiger reserves will have to pay 10% cess even though tourists will not be allowed inside core critical tiger zones.

The environment ministry is all set to inform Supreme Court this week that tourism activity inside core areas --- having 60 % of

1,706 Indian tigers, would be prohibited as per new guidelines. This is being done to make core areas inviolate (aloof) for tigers.

The new guidelines based on a set of recommendations of a committee of experts of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) says that tourism will be allowed in fringe areas of tiger reserves through special safaris. “These safaris will be regulated by state forest departments,” a senior government official said.

The guidelines had become imperative as various studies had suggested that inviolate areas of minimum 800-1,000 square kms is must if India wants to sustain tiger population of about 1,500 tigers. Also, studies have shown that human interference causes problems in breeding as happening in Sariska tiger reserve in Rajasthan.

The exhaustive guidelines also prescribe a minimum cess of 10%, called conservation cess, on the total turnover of the tourist resorts around 41 tiger reserves in India. The government, however, did not agree to increasing the cess to 30 % as suggested by Tiger Task Force report of 2006.

The money to be generated will have to be deposited in the account of tiger foundation and used for tiger conservation and welfare of people in and around tiger reserves.

The guidelines also prescribe that the state governments could charge higher than 10 % of cess, if they want, depending on the local needs. With this money in hand, each tiger reserves will have to formulate eco-tourism development plan for providing employment avenues to locals.

The guidelines also provide for a structure to monitor the use of funds generated though the cess at the reserve and the state government level.

To further provide funds to tiger reserve, the government would be debarring sharing of entry ticket, which account for about 30 % of total budget of popular tiger reserve such as Corbett Tiger Reserve, with the revenue department of the state governments.

The government has also proposed to impose restriction on construction of any kind around tiger reserves to protect the buffer zones, which house about 40 % of the 1,706 tigers in India. Incentives will be provided to close existing tourism resorts in the buffer zone, officials said.

The Supreme Court last month had asked the NTCA to submit the proposed guidelines in a case related to banning tourism activity inside core areas in Madhya Pradesh. The next hearing of the case is slated for July.

The Hindustan Times, 17th May 2012

A royal past, a fort which still houses a quarter of the city’s population, a city which hosts the Desert Festival, a hot favourite of Indians and foreigners alike, the inspiration of Satyajit Ray’s famous film Shonar Kella — welcome to the city of Jaisalmer.

Named after Maharawal Jaisal Singh, it is the westernmost town of any significance in India located at an approximate distance of 777 kms from Delhi by road and an overnight journey by Jaisalmer Express.

Being a desert town, the best time to visit is between October to March and if you can visit in February you can see the colorful Desert Festival which showcases the life and culture of the desert people. At one time, the entire city’s population used to live inside the fort which now houses museums, shops and restaurants besides of course the local residents.

The streets are laced with havelis of yesteryears with ornamental jharokas with exquisite jali work. The jalis are said to designed in such a manner that the wind cools down after passing through them. The three famous havelis — Patwon ki Haveli, which is five storey high and took 50 years to complete; Salim Singh’s haveli, which has a distinct upper portion; and Nathumal ki Haaveli. You have to pay a nominal fee for entering all these havelis. All these havelis can easily be covered in a day.

The Golden Fort made in the 17th century is made of soft yellow Jurassic sandstone, and it stands 76m high on the Trikuta hills, and is enclosed by a nine metre wall. The view from the top of the fort of the entire town is breathtaking.

Tourism being the biggest industry, one can easily find all kinds of food and all amenities. Hotels are plenty and other than during the Desert Festival, one can easily get hotel bookings.

If you love photography, visit the royal chhatris, a little away from the city from where the sunset and view of the Golden Fort bathed in crimson rays is just amazing.

A visit to the Sam desert is a must. 42 kms from the city, one has to travel by jeeps which charge a per person rate for a return trip after seeing the sunset and spending some time there. If possible, one must stay a night at one of the many camps which have come up there so that one can see sunrise too. Local people put up entertainment shows and the desert comes alive at night in these camps.

And don’t forget to relish the makhaniya lassi at Kanchan Sri Ice Cream at Gadisar Marg and garma garam doodh with malai at Prabhu Tea Stall at Hanuman chowk. If you have time, visit the Gadisar Lake which once met the entire water requirements of the city. There are some shrines on the bank of the tank.

Sadly, people have also vandalised the fort in a number of places, and to curb this there is an international movement called ‘Jaisalmer in Jeopardy (JIJ),’ which helps in undertaking repairs inside the fort.

The writer is an avid traveller and photographer

The Asian Age, 18th May 2012

The Vindhyas cannot be sacrificed in the name of development

Standing almost midway between the Shaiv Varanasi and Shakt Vindhyachal is Chunar, a fort town nestling amidst the hoary Vindhya range. Ujjain’s King Vikramaditya was believed to have built the grand fort, later coveted by the Afghan, Sher Shah Suri, as well as the Mughals. Finally, in the late 18th century, it was seized by the East India Company from the Benaras Maharaja, Chet Singh. It seems that Warren Hastings, India’s first Governor General, liked the place so much that he had a house there.

It still survives. The origins of Chunar are identified with the Vishnu avatarVaman, the Brahmin dwarf, having taken his first step here after the asur king Bali, who threatened Indra’s position in heaven, acquiesced to his request for as much land as encompassed by three steps. The first step covered the earth, and the second heaven. The king then offered his head for the dwarf to place his foot. Pleased, Vishnu let him stay in the nether world. Order was thus restored to the cosmos. And the place came to be named Charanadri.

However, Chunar-based Pradeep Shukla, general secretary of Vindh Environmental Society, is today a worried man. This is because grapevine has it that the new Uttar Pradesh Government, headed by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, is considering reviving his predecessor Mayawati’s pet scheme, the estimated Rs 50,000 crore Ganga Expressway project. It was stayed by the Allahabad High Court on May 29, 2009, after it heard separate petitions filed by the society and the Ganga Mahasabha. The clearance order of the Uttar Pradesh Environment Assessment Authority was scrapped, and the BSP Government was directed to seek fresh clearance from Union Ministry of Environment and Forests under the Environmental (Protection) Act and Environmental Protection Rules, 1986.

The project suffered a reversal in February 2011 when the authority conveyed to the JP Ganga Infrastructure Corporation that granting such clearance was outside its ambit. This was because the expressway would pass through regions, rated amongst the most critically polluted. The Centre has currently suspended all major projects within a 10 km-radius of critically polluted areas, numbering 88 in the country. The State has 12 such areas. Big projects of this kind are covered by the provisions of Environmental Impact Assessment, 2006. They are in ‘A’ category, with the Ministry alone authorised to approve or reject them. The High Court order directed the State and the concessionaire to undertake an environmental study. The concessionaire reportedly completed its study and submitted its proposal to Environment Ministry in April 2011 for the requisite clearance.

Before the State poll, there were reports of the Mayawati-headed ruling dispensation returning the bank guarantee of Rs 1,000 crore to the concessionaire, Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. But, in the event of the project getting environmental clearance from the Environment and Forests Ministry, the guarantee amount could be deposited by the concessionaire again. Her successor has reportedly studied environmental engineering in Sydney University, and so, should be fully aware of the ramifications of the project. It not only entails connecting Ballia in eastern UP with Greater Noida in western UP via an eight-lane 1,047 km-long expressway on the river’s left bank but colonising all land alongside. This would vastly magnify the hazards of air and groundwater/river pollution. The river is already badly polluted.

The project being slated for the Ganga’s left bank, the lower bed will be raised and a bund built. Experts say that this would be catastrophic as towns such as Kanpur, Allahabad, Mirzapur and Varanasi could be flooded during heavy rains. Other towns/cities slated on the route are Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Badaun, Etah, Farrukhabad, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Kannauj, Kanpur, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Ghazipur. Almost the entire Ganga basin in the State will be colonised, with residential areas, industries, including agro-based ones, technical institutes, paramedical schools, medical college and the like mushrooming along the way.

The Vindhya terrain covers a large part of the Ganga basin. It represents a civilisational ethos, integral to the evolution of Hinduism and other Indic faiths. Handing over the Ganga basin to a myopic promoter and a chain of greedy contractors, sub-contractors and corrupt political and bureaucratic hangers would result in supplanting this great cultural and religious heritage with contemporary kitsch and all its evils. There could be no bigger crime. The project, as originally conceived, is likely to affect 1,024 villages, with an estimated 64,000 hectares of land to be acquired from farmers, fishermen and landholders. A self-sustaining and traditional agrarian way of life that has endured over millennia will thereafter permanently disappear, with the dispossessed being forced to become menial workers in homes, offices, institutions and factories, and living in urban slums.

This may please economists such as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who apparently thinks that prohibiting the use of fertile agricultural land for industries is ultimately self-defeating. His reported view is that ideally, industry is based near cities, rivers, coast lines, expressways and other places for practical and cost-cutting reasons. Industrial production is financially far more rewarding than agriculture. He cites the examples of industrial hubs such as Manchester, London, Munich, Paris, Pittsburgh, Shanghai and Lancashire, all located on extremely fertile land. Eventually, most people shift to industry from agriculture, with per capita income increasing. He argues that the poor are not benefitted by preventing industrialisation on agricultural land.

A more pertinent counter-argument is that nobody in their right mind would want soulless Manchesters sprouting in the Ganga basin and supplanting a spectacular age-old ethos. There are other ways of alleviating poverty than letting the Vindhyas be devastated, like the Aravallis have been by industries and the construction juggernaut.

The Pioneer, 18th May 2012

An exhibition and book remembering the extraordinary art of François Balthazar Solvyns, a pioneer in the field of print-making in India.

François Balthazar Solvyns belongs to that club of geniuses who are celebrated long after they are gone. The world woke up to his splendid artwork only a few years ago and hailed it as a seminal work in the field of anthropology. Born in Antwerp, he came to India in March 1791 and made Kolkata his home for the next 12 years, where he remained engaged with the local communities and recreated their lives through his splendid etchings.

The marine painter and travel artist Solvyns also brought out three books, “A collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs, and Dresses of the Hindoos”, “The Costume of Hindostan” and “Les Hindous” which failed to get any notice then. It's a different story today. Solvyns' books and works do the rounds of auctions and his work is seen in the context of socio-cultural studies of that era.

Now, Aryan Books International has come out with the reprint edition of “The Costume of Hindostan” which will be launched alongside the exhibition “The Costume of Hindostan: Exhibition of Eighteenth Century Engravings” at India International Centre scheduled to begin on May 25th. The book comprises 60 engravings/sketches of the locals in their costumes, occupation and cultural life like aheers, bhistis, barbers, astrologers, etc., accompanied by detailed descriptions as given by the artist himself in English and French. The exhibition, which will travel to Bangalore and possibly to Mumbai and Kolkata, draws a few striking works from the lavishly produced book.

“It's a very realistic portrayal, as close as you can get. He observed his surroundings keenly and recreated them remaining loyal to the reality. For instance in palkiwala, Solvyns hasn't missed out on the keys of the bearer which is such a minute detail. At the World Book Fair this year, we did our poster in vinyl sheet bearing the work “Brijbasi” and the visitors got so fascinated by that image,” says Vikas Arya of Arya Books International.

Unlike the Daniels and other European painters based in India at that time who commanded respect and enjoyed popularity in the elite circles, Solvyns struggled to find a place in the European society of the time. “None of his books did well. His first book failed because there was a war followed by recession. Even the ‘Les Hindous', now considered so crucial, failed miserably. He went to France and produced the same book in French and even that didn't do well. Among the number of factors responsible for this, one is that unlike the others who were doing picturesque scenes and architectural imagery, he was concentrating on the ordinary man,” says Vikas, who sourced the original book through a dealer. The publisher says they have tried to remain as close to the original book as possible. While the original is said to be priced in lakhs, the reprint edition will be available for Rs.3,600.

“Since these books were meant for the European market, introducing the reader to new cultures and practices, people like Solvyns wrote descriptive texts to go along which were quite interesting. He did one plate on a barber and titled it “A Baulber”. ‘Barber is a corruption of baulber for as the native aborigines and Mahommedans never employ a hairdresser, they have not a name for him in their language. The hairdresser of India like the hairdresser of Europe propagate the lie of the day',” says Vikas quoting from the book.

Solvyns was born in Antwerp in 1760, the youngest child of a family of prosperous merchants. In 1778, Solvyns went to Paris to become the student of François-Andrè Vincent (1746-1816), one of the major figures of the Neo-classical movement. On his return to Antwerp, he embarked upon a career as a marine painter. There are records of many marine paintings from the 1780s by Solvyns. However, the only Solvyns painting known to have survived from this period is “The View of a Dutch Port” signed and dated 1787, in Antwerp's National Maritime Museum. Because of the political unrest in the Low Countries in 1789-1790 and without his former patronage, Solvyns, at the age of 30, made the decision to come to India.

In 2004, Mapin and Oxford University Press released “A Portrait Of The Hindus: Balthazar Solvyns & The European Image Of India 1760-1824”, authored by Professor Robert L. Hardgrave

The Hindu, 18th May 2012

The avian guests at Okhla Bird Sanctuary that had surprised the bird watchers with their unexpected visit are now being forced to look out for another habitat.

Birds — including whiskered tern and lesser whistling duck — were spotted at the sanctuary earlier this month following a long gap. With the closing of the Ohkla Barrage, the sanctuary which till a few weeks ago was a major attraction for bird lovers now wears deserted look. Only small puddles of water here and there have forced the migrants to look out for another shelter. The lake is expected to remain dry for over a month since the authorities plan to de-silt the lake and repair the barrage gates.

Each year during the summer months, the water of the Yamuna is diverted to the Agra Barrage for routine repair work at Okhla Barrage gates. “It is a routine monsoon preparedness measure. The barrage gates are to be repaired as a precautionary measure for the monsoon,” said the officer of the irrigation department.

A team from the irrigation department from Lucknow visited the sanctuary on Thursday to inspect the area. “We have written to the Uttar Pradesh Government asking for funds to de-silt the lake. While the routine cleaning has already started, the department is waiting for funds to arrive so that the cleaning of the entire lake can get started,” said an officer. About `11 crore have been sanctioned by the Uttar Pradesh Government for the cleaning.

The officers of the irrigation and the forest department are calling it is a routine process. “Most of the birds leave the sanctuary by this time of the year. Though we have been hearing about the unexpected visitors, we don’t have any control over the situation,” said the Divisional Forest Officer B Prabhakar.

Prabhakar pleaded helplessness and said that his office could not interfere in the workings of the other departments. “We just get intimation from the irrigation department. They are not bound to seek any permission from us. They do this repair work each year,” Divisional Forest Officer added.
The lake has not been de-silted ever since it was created in the late seventies. Over the years its capacity to retain water has gone down. The lake spreads over three and a half square meters area has the capacity to retain water that can fulfill the requirement of Noida for about two weeks. But with continuous deposition of silt on the floor of the lake, it now holds water that fulfils requirements for only two days.

The authorities at Okhla feel that it is the ideal time for cleaning the lake, since most of the migrants have left and that when the monsoon sets in next month they will have no control over the water. While most of the birds have left the sanctuary only a few residents — including black winged stilt, cormorant and egret — were spotted in the sanctuary.

The conversationalists and bird watchers have criticised the authorities for drying the lake. “The lake was dried in October last year as well for cleaning. Now again they want to close it for a month. The migratory water birds had been breeding, roosting and nesting here for the past few weeks. They have all been forced to move away,” feels conversationalist TK Roy.

Bird watcher Anand Arya, however, feels that though it is the best time for de-silting, but it should be done in the shortest possible time. “De-silting is important and probably this is the ideal time to do so. But the authorities must ensure that they do not delay the process for too long,” feels Arya.

The Pioneer, 18th May 2012

The Rajasthan High Court today cancelled 99-year lease for 100 acre land with historical Jal Mahal on it within the 16th century Man Sagar Lake, given by the state government to a private firm to develop tourist resort there. A division bench of Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Mahesh Bhagwati revoked the state government's 2005 order saying that the government had no right to lease out the public property and it violated all norms in leasing it out. While cancelling the lease to the firm for executing 'Jal Mahal Project,' the court also revoked the government's order to give heritage monument Jal Mahal, located in the middle of the picturesque lake, on a license to the 'Jal Mahal Resorts Pvt Ltd' and directed the government to take possession of the land and the monument with immediate effect.

The court's order came on a plea by social activist Bhatwat Gaur, who through his counsel A K Jain, had alleged that the government had given the land on throwaway price of 2.5 crore per annum to the firm. The court also directed the government to remove all construction raised at the site by the developer and recover its cost from it. The public land adjoining Man Sagar Lake was handed over on lease for 99 years by Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation to the firm for developing tourist facilities around the lake.

The deal got mired in controversy when objections were raised as to how the government land could be leased out for 99 years instead of 30 years, which was akin to selling it. Gaur had lodged criminal complaints against the then RTDC officials and later filed petition in the high court in May 2010. The government land initially belonged to Jaipur Development Authority, but had been transferred to the RTDC which handed it over to the private firm for the construction of resorts and developing other infrastructure for a fee of Rs 2.5 crore per year. Jal Mahal was built by Sawai Pratap Singh in 1799 as a summer palace in the lake located on Amber road here.
The Asian Age, 18th May 2012

Kumar Singh (name changed on request), a Green Park Main resident, spent restless time as his proposal for construction of additional floor was pending with Delhi’s competent authority (CA). The permission is mandatory as his house was about 250 metres away from a protected monument.

Colhgal DK, a resident of Nizamuddin (west) had already received CA’s approval but has since been waiting to know the status of his application at the National Monument Authority (NMA).

If, like Kumar and Colhgal, you too stay in the vicinity of an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected heritage monument, there is some good news. You can now apply online for getting permission for construction/repairs/renovation and track the proposal once relevant documents are submitted.

Two years after the amendment in the archaeological act, Delhi CA’s website (www.competentauthoritydelhi.co.in) was launched on Friday by Delhi’s chief secretary PK Tripathi.
The website has options for submitting the applications, knowing its status, permissions given, action on proposals, refusals etc. “Once someone files online application, he will get a system generated unique number. This will enable him to track the proposal. Moreover, the entire process becomes transparent,” said Vijay Singh, CA Delhi, who himself has designed the website.

The website has a host of other related information such as the archaeological act, the notifications, provision for heritage bye-laws, maps of the heritage areas, city’s history, list of all the protected monuments with details and each of its photos.

However, there still is no trace of NMA website. “It will take about 2-3 weeks more,” is all that Pravin Shrivastava, member secretary, NMA said.
The Hindustan Times, 19th May 2012

Despite efforts and “huge investments”, pollution level in Ganga and Yamuna continues to increase unabated, a Parliamentary panel on Friday said and slammed the environment ministry for only adopting an “engineering centric” approach to deal with the situation.

The standing committee on environment and forest in its latest report on demands for grants (2012-13) of the environment ministry said, “The quality of Ganga water is going down day by day.”
It said despite “whatever efforts” made, a huge investment incurred under various schemes and projects, pollution level in Ganga and Yamuna continues to increase “unabated”. “The pathetic condition of Yamuna which has virtually turned into a nala to carry sewage falling into it from various drains, is deplorable,” said the report tabled in both Houses of Parliament.

It said the quality of Ganga water downstream at several important locations such as Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi and Patna still continues to be a major concern for environmentalists and the common man.

“The committee feels that one of the reasons for the failure of government schemes lies in the fact that government has so far adopted only engineering centric approach to solve the problem with undue emphasis on creation of sewage treatment plants...,” it said.

The report of the standing committee said that engineering centric activities alone will not be successful and the ministry should also approach it as a social engineering problem “and now the time has come when we should integrate engineering centric approach with social centric or society centric approach through which people live on or around the banks of the rivers are involved...”, the committee said. It recommended that services of various institutes of social sciences should be sought.

The Deccan Herald, 19th May 2012

The French have a monopoly on elegance and savoir faire, the Italians on style, the Americans on conspicuous consumption, while the British do pomp and pageantry like no one else. Much of that has to do with the legacy and trappings of the empire and its over-the-top displays of wealth, power, allegiance and fealty. Pomp was best illustrated by circumstance, as in the Delhi coronation durbars staged to mark the formal crowning of British monarchs as emperor and empress of India. There were three: in 1877 (Victoria), 1903 (Edward VII) and 1911 (George V), a lavish marriage of imperial politics and a celebration of the Raj, enlivened, visually, by the galaxy of maharajas wearing the Order of the Star of India on their bejewelled chests. Each durbar took months

 preparation and spanned a fortnight, all captured for posterity by the foremost photographers of the time, British and Indian. Many of these form part of the Alkazi Collection, a treasure trove of over 90,000 images, amassed by theatre legend Ibrahim Alkazi.

That rare archive is now being made available to a wider audience through a series of coffee-table books, this being the latest and possibly the richest in terms of visual treat. The coronation durbars used spectacle to hide imperial politics and intrigue under a dazzling display of royal extravagance, unity and entertainment. The famous photographers of the time — Bourne & Shephard, Vernon & Co, Raja Deen Dayal, Frederico Paliti among others — conveyed a historical and cultural narrative as well as a counter narrative. The 1877 durbar for instance, was partly intended to bring a closure to the tensions generated by the 1857 Revolt, while justifying the need for British rule. Equally, the durbar, as the then viceroy of India, Lord Lytton, pointed out, “conspicuously places her (Victoria’s) authority upon that ancient throne of the Moguls”. Politics by pomp was clearly the central theme since all three durbars were the creation of the viceroys — Lytton, Curzon and Hardinge. In fact, only one of the durbars was attended by the king and the queen personally: in 1911, by George V and Queen Mary.

The durbar itself was adopted from the tradition practised by the Indian royalty which involved hearing petitions from subjects, making announcements, exchanging gifts. All these were incorporated into the coronation durbars that were held in what is now the disused Coronation Park in Delhi.

It was a photographer’s paradise, even with the limited technology of the time, and this book is further embellished by rare illustrations, paintings, postcards and commemorative brochures. The photographs, however, form part of a larger sociocultural history, with the pageantry linked to fantasy and assumptions about India and the British rule. The visual effect was to portray a utopian empire and celebrate a joined history. What add to the book’s value are essays that focus on the role of durbar photographs and the complexities of colonial power and pelf. What the book really captures are the overt and hidden meanings of the Empire.

The Indian Express, 19th May 2012

The year was 1791. Little-known Flemish artist Francois Balthazar Solvyns landed in Kolkata from Antwerp. Fascinated with what he saw, he decided to document the Indians living around him, drawing etchings of the “natives” in their caste-specific garb, and others playing traditional musical instruments. Probably one of the first accounts of the Indian society and its people, his ambitious project titled A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos was published in a series comprising 12 volumes, in Kolkata, from 1796 to 99. Unfortunately, the work was a financial failure. The collection, perhaps, did not appeal to the dominant European community, who found the etchings to be “crude” and “rough”.

Disappointed, Solvyns left for Europe in 1803. He reworked the etchings in the publication Les Hinduos, that was released in Paris between 1808 and 1812. Few copies of the account remain today. Now, a part of the collection has been reprinted from a copy of the book that was procured by Delhi-based publishing house Aryan Book International from a private dealer in London. Titled The Costume of Hindostan, this will be released at the India International Centre (IIC) on May 25 and will be accompanied by an exhibition that will feature 60 enlarged etchings from the book. “Even though Solvyns is not as prominent as other artists of the time, his work is significant in documenting the period. These are probably the first images of Hindustan,” says Vikas Arya, director of Aryan Book International.

The 60 etchings are a curious collection of Indians in the 18th century, dressed distinctively and engaged in various activities. The preface of the book notes that Solvyns aimed for his accounts to be useful for Indians as well as for “Gentlemen” who used to reside in India. He notes that “this present race of Hindoos are known for their primitive manners (which) have been preserved amongst them by an immutable attachment to their ancient religion”. His documentation also points out that though the descriptions are specific to people in Bengal, they also apply to the rest of the country.

Through the descriptions, one can draw an interesting picture of the past. If ‘Bauluck’ was the name given to dancing boys “who often perform female parts in their dramas”, the ‘Hidgras’ (hermaphrodites) were “extraordinary beings, frequently met with in India”. The social hierarchy is seen through observations of various castes like ‘Chittery’, who were “in eminence next to the Brahmun” and employed by the Mughal government. A “species of watchmen” were called ‘Brijbasi’, and were often employed by merchants and bankers.

The exhibition will also feature etchings of what were possibly the earliest forms of traditional Indian musical instruments. While ‘Sittara’ is an instrument “capable of tranquillising the most boisterous disposition”, the ‘Jultrung’ is a set of earthen cups “adapted to different notes of music and played on by two sticks or pieces of iron”. These works, points out Arya, “Are just the gist of the whole works by Solvyns.”

The exhibition will take place at IIC from May 25 to May 31. The book is priced at Rs 3,600. Contact: 23287589.

The Deccan Herald, 20th May 2012

Its tip is too bulbous and its bottom rather heavy. The flanks are unwieldy and the middle is out of shape. And it's unnaturally inclined to its right. But the legend at the top says 'East Indies' - it's a map of India and the countries to its east. The makers of this map could be forgiven for not getting it right; after all, it was sketched sometime soon after the 15th century. What is it about old maps that fascinates people despite their inaccuracies , sloppiness and inelegance? What is it that makes connoisseurs dig deep in their pockets to buy them at exorbitant prices? The East Indies map (shown alongside), part of a set of 250 giving details ofSoutheast Asia, including India was sold for a staggering £223,250 (Rs 1.9 crore) at a Sotheby's auction titled 'Travel, Maps, Atlases and Natural History' in London on May 9. The set dates to 15th-19 th centuries.

One reason we find old maps worthy of collection is their incorrectness. The fallacies, after all, are not errors but a reflection of what people in those times thought their world to be like. This is how a cartographer, drawing upon the explorations undertaken before his time, would sketch the lines of a landmass. And each successive effort would be more definitive than its predecessor. It's fascinating to think that this is how - through a process spanning centuries and generations - geographers would have come to understand the triangular shape of the Indian subcontinent.

Maithili Parekh, the India director of Sotheby's , says that it is the inaccuracies that make maps appealing. "It's interesting to look at maps from earlier times that show us how explorers and cartographers researched geographies and landmasses. Maps were used for defence, invasions, understanding far off lands, and were critical in strategic planning for kingdoms. On a recent trip into interior Rajasthan, I was surprised to note that people even today don't know the shape of the world, or have never seen the sea, only imagined it."

Andrew Currie, London-based representative of the Bonhams auction house calls maps a window into the past which illuminates the present. "Their appeal is in showing us how the people before us made sense of the changing knowledge; how they reflected on political developments and how they charted completely unknown territory. In fact, as recently as 1990, the map of Europe looked completely different from the way it looks today with large swathes of Eastern Europe lying within the Soviet bloc. The Czech Republic and Slovakia didn't exist and most of the now-independent states in the Balkans were part of Yugoslavia," he says.

Some of the maps that Bonhams has sold include journals written by the East Indies explorer Thomas Bowrey (1662 - 1713), known as one of the first Europeans to sample the narcotic effects of bhang. "The journals, sold in 2006 for £40,000, also included 'An account of the Journall of a Voyage from England to Bengall in the East Indies... from the 11th of December 1689 to the 14th of December 1691'," says Currie.

As Currie says, map creation is an ongoing process, not just because of the changing global politics but also because of the constant revision of our knowledge about a distant past. While older maps attain historical value as they get outdated, the newer ones clear cobwebs in our understanding about the past. Irfan Habib and Faiz Habib's 'Atlas of Ancient Indian History' , soon to be published by Oxford University Press, is important in this context.

Through 12 maps, it presents comprehensive data on what the political, economic and geographical divisions of India looked like, from pre-historic times to AD 750. In a first for ancient India, these maps give a highly detailed description of our earliest history, showing political and linguistic boundaries, trade and occupations, the pottery in use and more.

The atlas is not just of academic interest but also amazes with the list of Greek names of Indian places. It's interesting to note that the Greeks, the trading partners of Indian kingdoms, referred to Saurashtra as Syrestrene, Bharuch as Barygaza, Ujjain as Ozene, Kalyan as Kaliena and Machlipatnam as Masalla

Irfan Habib, historian and professor emeritus, Aligarh Muslim University, says that the task of creating the atlas was painstaking - it grew out of a paper he had presented at the 1986 Indian History Congress on the 'Economic Map of India, AD 1-300 ' - because of the limited information . "Indians didn't have much interest in geography and the earliest map of India that shows it to be a peninsula is Persian and dates to the 14th-15 th century." While Prof Habib undertook the research, the maps in the atlas were created by his son Faiz, a cartographer.

It will be a while before the latest maps of ancient India attain historical value. In the natural progression of knowledge, they may even get outdated in the distant future, with fresh insights into the times of the Indus Valley Civilisation, Buddha, Ashoka and, perhaps, somebody else whom we don't even know of yet.

The Times of India, 20th May 2012

Hunting, like prostitution, is one of India's worst-kept secrets. Everyone knows it's illegal. And everyone knows it's going on. In the Northeast, hunting is prevalent amongst both tribals and the Army. And in Kerala's Periyar Tiger Reserve, rampant poaching of tuskers has dramatically skewed the sex ratio, with one male elephant for 101 females.

These are amongst a series of startling findings thrown up by a research paper on hunting by three scientists - Nandini Velho, research associate at National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore and a doctoral student at Australia's James Cook University ; Krithi Karanth, assistant director of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore; and William F Laurance, an eminent tropical scientist at James Cook University.

The scientists plunged into a meta-analysis of 143 studies on hunting in India in a bid to give shape to the shadowy world that plagues the country's wildlife.

Their study shows that hunting was reported in 23 of the 28 states and 7 Union Territories, with 114 species of mammals reportedly hunted in the country.

Besides pushing animals to extinction, hunting also changes the way they behave. For instance, encounter rates (the chance of spotting an animal or signs of it) of daytime animals declined where guns were used to hunt them during the day. Likewise, encounter rates of nocturnal animals reduced where guns were used at night.

While much has been written about tiger conservation, Velho cites the plight of other mammals. For instance, the widespread use of traps for otters has led to their extinction in several areas. Its skin, says Velho, is prized in Europe.

According to wildlife conservationist Belinda Wright, the last 18 months have seen an increase in hunting for meat,with a spike in demand in towns around protected areas. Wright says the trend has much to do with economics. Highly priced domestic meat has spawned a market for wild meat, which is found to be cheaper.

While hunting happens across the country, the methods vary. "Hunters in Uttaranchal used guns (42%) and snares (48%) in roughly equal frequency; in Himachal Pradesh hunters used exclusively guns. In Karnataka, most hunters (94%) used home-made muzzle-loading guns although use of snares was also reported," says the study. Velho says certain communities such as the Nishi tribe in Arunachal Pradesh have banned the use of locally made trap scalled Komiya,which have often caused injuries to people, too. "The fine for laying these traps is one mithun (a bison-like animal). They do, however, allow hunting with guns," adds Velho, who has worked extensively in Arunachal, where hunting is deeply embedded in the local culture. "Even the belts used for clothes are made of animal skin."

Tribals aren't the only ones hunting in the Northeast. "Army forces posted on India's northern borders in the Indo-Myanmar /eastern Himalayan region are also reported to engage actively in hunting," says the report. "Many Army officers wear musk (a perfume extracted from the musk deer)," says Velho. Government officers, too, are involved in hunting. "A lot of the killings carried out by locals are either sold or gifted to officers," she adds.

The report says hunting is particularly widespread in Arunachal, which lies within the India-Myanmar and eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspots. As many as 94 mammal species are reportedly hunted in these two regions. "This figure is considerably higher than the 33 species reported to be hunted across the Western Ghats, the 22 hunted species recorded in the western Himalayas, and zero hunted species reported from the Nicobar Islands," says the study. This may be due to the fact that the eastern Himalayas are home to more species than the Western Ghats, says Velho. Environmentalist Uttara Mendiratta, a consultant with Freeland Foundation says hunting in the Northeast gets a boost because the Southeast Asian market for wildlife trade is close at hand. "After hunting an animal in Northeast India, it's very easy to cut across the border to Myanmar where there is a ready market. It is not the same in the Western Ghats where it is harder to sell wildlife in an open market," says Mendiratta, who has been involved in underground operations in China and Tibet to study the illegal animal market. While Tibet was once a large market for illegal animal products from India, there has been a marked drop in demand after the Dalai Lama forbade the use of such products amongst Tibetans . His is amongst several initiatives to curb hunting. In the Northeast, locals from tribes known for their hunting prowess have been roped in for wildlife conservation.

The Times of India, 20th May 2012

My mother, being extremely religious, had always desired to do a religious expedition of the Himalayas.

However, last summer when she and Dad suddenly announced that they were headed on a 'chhota char dham trek' (Yamunotri-Gangotri-Kedarnath-Badrinath), I was left in a bit of quandary. Having accompanied her to two dhams -- Puri and Rameswaram -- and promised to accompany her to the other two-Badrinath and Somnath, I knew this was my opportunity to be the good son. However, given my professional commitments at that point, being away for two weeks was not an easy decision to make.

My wife, Ramyani, surprisingly made things easier for me when she instantly decided to do the journey. She is not particularly religious but always wanted to see the Gangotri.

With both my parents and wife having made their decisions, things became a lot easier for me.

We started with Yamunotri, the origin of river Yamuna. The 7km steep trek is tough for old people. But the incredible beauty of snowcapped mountains in the background and the energy that it generates in you, make you forget irritants like dirt and the stench of horse-shit that you negotiate all your way up.

At Gangotri, catching the sight of the river Ganges falling in full force, from a distance of less than 20 metres, is what you'd describe as the 'moment of a lifetime'.

The 14 km trek up Kedarnath is probably the toughest after the Amarnath Yatra. With the crowds swelling at the peak of summer, it gets difficult for a whole family to move up together. Hence, we decided to hire dolis. Half way up, it started raining heavily. Fog engulfed the entire place, making the visibility extremely poor. In such conditions when pilgrims coming down after their darshan, tell you about mishaps, which they personally witnessed along the way, it just freaks you out. That my mother couldn't be located for half an hour, gave us some particularly anxiously moments. However, when you trust God, trust him fully. That's what my mother had always told me and I believed it that day.

Dawn break at Kedarnath is sheer bliss. The very concept of waking up in a tiny abode some 3600 m above sea level, surrounded by the Himalayas is an out of this world experience.

Thanks to inclement weather though, we had to wind up the tour after a quick darshan of the temple. On our way down, it was as foggy and the same anxieties re-surfaced. This time though, we were more confident of God being on our side.

Our last destination was Badrinath, one of the four maths that Adi Shankaracharya had established way back in the ninth century. Twelve days of rigorous travel through the day and the treks had taken their toll on me and wife with both of us battling severe cough and cold. My parents though were fighting fit, which only made us conclude that such pilgrimages are often an inner calling and best enjoyed by those who have unflinching faith in them.

Even though Ramyani and I hadn't gone on this pilgrimage particularly for religious reasons, we will always cherish the moments spent with parents, Gods and the Himalaya. This trip had transported us away from the chaos of city life into a world that seemed so much at peace with itself.

The Times of India, 20th May 2012

In a rebuff to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), the Delhi High Court has dismissed its plea against making public an ecology report of Western Ghats.

Justice Vipin Sanghi upheld a Central Information Commission (CIC) ruling asking MoEF to disclose summary of the Western Ghats Ecology Panel (WGEEP) report authored by Prof Madhav Gadgil to an RTI applicant. The HC also refused to tinker with another CIC directive to ensure all reports of commissions, special panels are posted on the ministry's website within 30 days of being received.

"The scientific, strategic and economic interests of the state cannot be at cross purposes with the requirement to protect the environment," the HC noted, pointing out that by challenging the CIC ruling, the "endeavour of MoEF appears to be to withhold the WGEEP report so as to curb participation of the civil society and interested environmental groups as also the common man who is likely to be affected by the policy as eventually framed".

The HC also rejected MoEF's apprehension that disclosure of the WGEEP report would impede the decision-making process. It said the broad-based participative process of debate would help MoEF and the states in arriving at a policy decision, which is in larger interest and for public good.

In April, the CIC had directed the Centre to furnish a copy of the summary of the WGEEP report and another one on the Athirappilly Hydro Electric Project in Kerala to RTI applicant G Krishnan. MoEF cited two grounds to defend non-disclosure of the report. First, it argued that the report was not final, and second it still had to incorporate the state governments' views. Publication of the report would lead to a spate of applications seeking notification of certain areas as ecologically sensitive, MoEF feared.

"It can't be said that the said report is not final. What is not final is the governmental policy decision on the aspects to which the WGEEP report relates. The said report is one of the ingredients, which the MOEF and the concerned states would take into consideration while formulating their policy in relation to the Western Ghats ecology," the HC said.

The WGEEP panel, headed by Prof Madhav Gadgil, was constituted in 2010, and has 13 members.

The Hindustan Times, 20th May 2012

The tourists may get a taste of Victorian royalty with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) contemplating to allow horse buggies to ply in tourist areas and monuments which come under its jurisdiction. Humayun's Tomb, Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, Safdarjung Tomb, Lodhi Garden, India
Gate, Qutab Minar, Mehrauli Dargah and Tuglakabad Fort are some of the places where the buggies may be allowed.

Manish Gupta, commissioner of SDMC, said that the corporation is willing to start the service again, provided the Delhi traffic police give their nod for certain tourist places.

"A group of students came to us with the proposal that the buggy wallahs, who were left unemployed in 2010 following the ban, should be rehabilitated by the newly formed corporation," he said.

In 2010, when the ban was implemented due to traffic congestion and chaos, more than 2,000 buggy owners were rendered jobless. At present, the use of horse-driven carriage is limited to weddings and religious procession only.

To ply buggies in tourist areas, the SDMC will have to amend its policy for grant of license. "We do not yet have a policy to govern the use of horse-drawn buggies in tourist places, so a new set of policies will have to be formulated. The policy will have to take care of animal rights," said a senior official of SDMC. He added that those rendered jobless due to the ban will be able to earn a decent living and tourism in the area will also receive a boost.

If the proposal comes into force, it will give a new lease of life to buggy and tonga owners such as Surinder Kapila from Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar. "If we are allowed to ply in tourist areas, it will bring a good income all through the year," he said.

However, the traffic police is waiting for the proposal to come to them and only after going through the multiple aspects of the scheme, they will decide on it. "Tonga and buggies lead to road congestion. We will wait for the proposal before commenting on it," said Sudhir Yadav, special commissioner of police, traffic.

The Hindustan Times, 20th May 2012

Vasco da Gama landed here on May 20, 1498. Though the visit is etched in stone, the monument is a picture of neglect, says K.V. Prasad

Browsing through the travel literature lying in the hotel room, a sudden realisation struck that Kozhikode or Calicut in the Malabar region of Kerala has a historical reference in travelogues of the world.

A few brushes off the history subject I pursued in school nearly four decades ago and a quick glance through the documents available at hand showed that the spot where Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama landed in Kappad was barely 16 kilometres from the hotel.

Excited to be so close to a historical monument that stands as a silent reminder to the landing was somewhat tempered by a colleague from the State in a matter-of-fact statement that the place has a historical linkage but the area around is free of such trappings.

Whatever be the reason — politics or local sentiments — the fact is that one is almost certain to miss the pillar that stands on the edge of the road that leads to the picturesque Kappad beach till the taxi driver pulls the vehicle by the narrow single-strip road by the side to point out the pillar.

The monument, a cement pillar, offers a pitiable sight. The whitewash on it is barely visible in contrast to the ungainly concrete fence on two sides that is broken at places. The pillar, bearing a marble tablet etched with the words in black “Vasco da Gama landed here in Kappadvu in the year 1498” is virtually lost in the backdrop of a waist-high bare brick wall that marks the boundary of residential dwellings on either side.

It is another matter that an entry in a history book on the city notes that May 20, 1498 is the day when the Portuguese explorer set foot in Calicut, which was ruled by the Zamorins.

But Kozhikode has much more to offer than just this historical reference, with the beach near Kappad among the best. The beach area some two kilometres away from the pillar has been developed for the purpose of tourism with rock-paved walls from the shoreline protruding into the sea offering an interesting sight.

Then there is the more expansive Kozhikode beach, which is the popular destination both for the denizens of the city as well as visitors. While the fitness freaks can be seen jogging along the coastline during the day, making their way through morning walkers, others can be spotted simply enjoying the early morning breeze and turning the pages of newspapers. Yet, the most memorable sight is the sunset. Being on the west coast, it is a sight to see the orange ball gradually vanish behind the horizon and vast expanse of water.

For the art lovers, there is the Raja Ravi Varma art gallery, while for foodies the place offers amazing variety. Being close to the sea, Kozhikode has a range of seafood that goes with a staple offering of rice and beef curry.

For the vegetarians, the Malabar parantha, a coiled version of bread made from wheat and maida dough that is prepared with a helpful quantity of ghee (clarified butter), can be had with curries or stew, vegetable or chicken.

And, of course, you cannot afford to miss out either on the delicious biryani or appam, made of batter in a special rounded pan. It is an all-time meal that can be had right through the day, as breakfast, lunch or dinner with stew or anything else one may prefer to go with it.

There are plenty of established hotels in the city and not the least among them is Paragon, a multi-cuisine restaurant where one would find difficult to get a seat during lunch or dinner. The place of late became a talking point for being a restaurant where Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi dropped by for a meal during his visit to the city.

Besides the long list of cuisine, the city, like any other place in Kerala, offers wafer-thin banana chips that come in various fried forms. On any regular day, one can notice people at roadside stalls peeling dozens of raw bananas, slicing them and dipping them in water before moving them to a boiling cauldron of coconut oil. Interestingly, it is common practice for the stalls to use peeled coconut covering as fuel, which takes care of handling the by-product that otherwise goes into the making of coir. Another special offering is chips made from jack fruit, tapioca and even bitter gourd, as also a variety of mixture.

For those with a sweet tooth, Kozhikode offers a delightful range of halwa. Made from a variety of fruits and dry fruits, one can dig into the different flavours — banana, mango, badam, et al. For those in North India, its taste is close to the Karachi halwa that is available in regular sweet shops.

The Hindu, 21st May 2012

Life for people living in the vicinity of ancient monuments and sites in Delhi is all set to get a wee bit easier with the Competent Authority for Delhi established under Ancient Monuments and Sites & Remains Act 2010 (Validation and Amendment) launching a user friendly and informative website to provide greater access to the masses to ameliorate their grievances.

The project is aimed at literally bringing the office of Competent Authority to the doorstep of people through its on-line operations like submission of applications for grant of permission for repair and renovation in prohibited areas and for construction and re-construction in the regulated area around centrally protected monuments in Delhi.

The website, which can be accessed at www.competentauthoritydelhi.in or www.competentauthoritydelhi.co.in, has been conceived and designed by Vijay Singh, Competent Authority for the NCT of Delhi.

Through this site, the applicants – by using their unique application ID numbers – would also be able to easily track the status of their applications and browse the list of applications locality-wise. All the permissions and NOCs being granted by the Competent Authority would be visible on the website.

The site, officially launched this past Friday, contains the AMASR ACT and Rules along with the list of centrally protected monuments.

A brief history of all 174 centrally protected monuments in Delhi and their photographs are also given on the website with their respective locations tagged on Google Map for the convenience and knowledge of people.

Through this site, people would now be able to register online complaints about unauthorised construction in prohibited and regulated areas or violations of the AMASR Act.

Besides, a special public forum has been created on the website to provide a platform to the residents of Delhi for posting their suggestions regarding the preservation, conservation and management of Centrally protected monuments or improvement in the ambience around them.

A special section therein also enables active participation of residents of Delhi in formulating the heritage bye-laws of all centrally protected monuments in Delhi.

Since the constitution of National Monuments Authority (NMA) under the AMASR Act in November 2011, the Competent Authority has so far forwarded over 310 applications for grant of permission to NMA and permissions in more than 120 cases have been issued with the Authority's approval.

Besides, NOCs have been issued in 32 cases for construction beyond the regulated area. The proposals in respect of all public projects and institutions like NDMC, DMRC, Railways, colleges, schools and various institutions have also been forwarded to NMA by the Competent Authority

The Hindu, 21st May 2012

Six people died on Sunday, including a woman aged over 100, after an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale hit northern Italy, the news agency ANSA reported.

The quake hit the region of Emilia-Romagna at 4:04 a.m. local time.

The epicentre was 36 kilometres north of the city of Bologna and had a depth of around 10 kilometres, according to the National Geophysical and Volcanic Institute.

Four people died when the factory buildings they were working in collapsed.

Two workers died in a ceramics factory in Sant’Agostino, near the city of Ferrara, while a third died at a metal-working factory in the same area. The fourth was killed in an industrial area in the town of Bondeno, around 15 kilometres from Sant’Agostino.

A 37-year-old German woman also died in Casale. She developed breathing difficulties, possibly because of a panic attack triggered by the earthquake, and lost consciousness, ANSA reported.

A woman aged over 100 was also found dead in Sant’Agostini, according to ANSA, possibly having died of shock.

It was still unclear how many people were injured, though the television stationRAI put it at around 50.

Several aftershocks followed, one measuring 3.3, and thousands of people remained on the streets in the early morning, unwilling to return inside.

Television showed footage of collapsed buildings and churches, with rubble covering the streets. The worse hit were the towns of San Felice and Finale Emilia, were many historical buildings were severely damaged.

The earthquake was felt as far away as Milan and Venice, though no damage was reported.

Local elections scheduled in around 120 towns were still to go ahead, including in areas affected by the earthquake, RAI television reported.

The earthquake was almost as strong as that which hit Aquila in April 2009, killing nearly 300 people and leaving 60,000 homeless.

The Hindu, 21st May 2012

 Next time you visit Qutub Minar, take care not to litter. Or you may just find yourself being forced to pick it up and junk it in the bin by a volunteer. You better keep toilets in the complex clean and don't scribble on the pillars and walls. As part of the Clean India campaign, volunteers will interact with visitors everyday to keep the world heritage monument clean.

Volunteers met on Sunday to start the campaign, conceived by Indian Tourism Development Corporation under the tourism ministry. ITDC has been networking for almost a year with various agencies like MCD and the traffic department to make it a success. The toilets, both outside and inside the complex, have been renovated recently; a portion of the compound, which used to be a guesthouse, is being converted into a cafeteria. Other plans include maintenance of the parking, setting up proper drinking water kiosks and creating more space for visitors to sit.

Five to six volunteers will be at Qutub everyday starting Monday for almost a month to talk to visitors and supervise the campaign. Qutub Minar has been chosen for the project because it gets about 20,000 to 25,000 visitors every weekend and is probably the most visited heritage site in Delhi.

Most volunteers are foreigners, who are in India for a year to take part in voluntary teaching projects with Prayas, an NGO, which has partnered with ITDC for the campaign. Qutub Minar, they say, is a magnificent heritage site that needs utmost care. "We will ask visitors not to scribble on pillars and not to litter. We have visited other important monuments like Taj and feel strongly about keeping tourist sites clean," said Moira (20) from Germany.

Annie (20) and Lukas (19) added that plastic bags and bottles were behind the mess. "We also urge visitors to take care of their belongings and report to security immediately if there is any theft or crime. We hope the campaign will help change habits of people," Lukas said.

ITDC chairman Lalit Panwar said, "Qutub Minar is the pilot project of the Clean India campaign

 The Times of India, 21st May 2012

The summary of the report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), under the chairmanship of Prof Madhav Gadgil, and its report on the Athirappilly hydro-electric project in Kerala will finally be made public — not in piecemeal but in entirety.

Dismissing an appeal by the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) against a CIC order, Justice Vipin Sanghi of the Delhi High Court has held: “A policy evolved in the largest public interest and public good can certainly not be said to be against the strategic, scientific or economic interest of the State.”

The court has directed the central government to ensure that the complete summary of the WGEEP report is placed on the ministry’s website, besides supplying a copy to RTI applicant G Krishnan.

The ministry had sought to prevent disclosure of the report on the ground that it would affect the “scientific or economic interests of the State” and also impede the decision-making process, involving consultation with the states affected by the recommendations in the report.

The counsel for the government further argued that the materials, which have gone into the preparation of the report of the WGEEP, have already been made public and the entire report could be disclosed only after consultation with the affected state governments of the Western Ghats region is completed and a final decision with regard to acceptance or rejection, in whole or in part or with modifications etc, is taken.

Justice Sanghi, however, remained unimpressed with the MoEF’s arguments and noted that there was no reason to apprehend that the disclosure of the WGEEP report, at this stage, would impede the decision-making process, and also would adversely affect their scientific or economic interests.

The Indian Express, 21st May 2012

T he district forest department has issued notice to Ambience Group's Raj Singh Gehlot asking for "retrieval of forest land" in Nathupur bund-a protected forest area-which has been used for developing Ambience Island Lagun Apartment.

The notice-a copy of which is in TOI's possession-was issued on May 15. It says: "This notice is served on the said Raj Singh Gehlot for removal of all the structures constructed on the forest land along with all the malba or debris within 60 days of issue of this notice."

The forest department "registered post" communique says the forest land needs to be retrieved in its original state.

The notice mentions that 6000 sq m, which was part of the bund and nullah, has been used for construction of the apartment and other structures. Nathupur bund and the nullah had been declared a protected forest by the state government's gazette notification dated December 2, 1981. It says the construction is in gross violation of Forest (Conservation) Act and Indian Forest Act.

A forest official who did not wish to be named said they have approached the environment court in Faridabad seeking an order for punishment in case the forest department's directions are not adhered to.

The department has also marked a copy to the district town planner and the regional director of pollution control board, requesting them it "to revoke all sanctions issued".

However, Gehlot denied receiving any such notice. "We have not received any notification from the forest officials. We have obtained a stay on the case in the environment court. The government-conniving with my market rivals-has mala fide intentions in issuing such notices, which mean nothing," said Gehlot.

He added that he had "licences for construction from the departments concerned."

Earlier, the forest department had issued notice to the builder in 2008 to discontinue the "illegal" construction

The Times of India, 21st May 2012

There are numerous churches throughout the Capital. R.V. SMITH tells us how they came to be.

Delhi's Christian link dates back to the times of the Moghuls. The earliest churches were built by the Armenians who had come to the court of Akbar in the 16th Century. There were two churches, one near the slaughter house beyond the old Subzi Mandi, and another in Sarai Rohilla, though accounts of their exact location differ.

According to Sir Edward Maclagan, says a Delhi Archdiocese publication, there were 120 Catholics in Delhi during Shah Jahan's reign in 1650. Their number went up to 300 by 1686 when Aurangzeb was on the throne. Two priests looked after them. A Catholic cemetery was also in existence from 1656. Father Desideri, who came to the city from Tibet, found the churches in ruins in 1732 (Mohammad Shah's reign). He stayed on for three years and built a new church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and blessed on All Souls' Day, November 2, 1723.

In 1739 this church and another one were destroyed by the Persian invader Nadir Shah during the massacre of Delhi; the Jesuits in charge of them escaped by hiding in a ruined house. One of the churches was rebuilt in 1746 and blessed on Christmas Eve. Later another church came up but both seem to have been razed and in the early 19th Century, mass was held in the palace of Begum Sumroo in Chandni Chowk.

In 1857 Father Zachary of Tretti built a church which was destroyed during the Mutiny and the priest murdered. In 1865 a new church of St Mary's was built and it still stands in S.P. Mukherji Marg as the earliest Catholic church.

The Central Baptist Church was rebuilt in 1858 after the earlier one was destroyed in the previous year's rioting. It owes its inception to Begum Sumroo, who later became a Catholic. St Stephen's Church in Fatehpuri was built in 1867. This Anglican church had its golden years during the tenure of Reverend Robert Winter and his wife.

The imposing building won the DDA Urban Heritage Award in 1994. The church has Corinthian capitals and stained glass rose windows. An attraction was the organ, which was played on Sundays. Its most noted organist was old Benjamin, whose son is now the secretary of the New Delhi YMCA.

The Cambridge Brotherhood built a chapel attached to its residential building in 7 Court Lane, Raj Niwas Marg. The main features of the chapel at the rear of the building are semi-circular arches. However, the oldest existing church in the Capital is St James's Church, built in 1836 by Colonel James Skinner in perpetuation of a vow made when his life was saved on the battlefield in Uniara.
This church in Kashmere Gate is a landmark of the area and the place where the Viceroys worshipped before New Delhi came up. It has a Florentine dome and was damaged in 1857 by the rebel sepoys but later repaired.

Sacred Heart Cathedral, near Gol Dakhana, was erected in 1934 by the Capuchins from Italy. Father Luke was the priest who supervised the construction of the splendid Italian-style building, which was designed by Henry Medd, who also designed the Cathedral Church of the Redemption near the Secretariat that was built in 1935. The Sacred Heart Cathedral was to be originally built in Delhi Cantonment but that land was taken over by the Army and the present plot allotted for it.

Holy Trinity Church in Turkman Gate was built in 1905 and is conspicuous because of its Byzantian-style building, domed and half-domed characteristics. This church was originally planned to be built near the Ajmere Gate. But the site was shifted when an underground medieval reservoir was discovered while the foundations were being dug. The Raj Niwas Marg Baptist Chapel in colonial style was built in 1918, while St John's Church, Mehrauli, constructed with Christian, Muslim and Hindu architectural features came up in 1927.

In the same year Free Church was erected on Parliament Street with its conspicuous circular appearance. Its best known pastor was the late Reverend Salim Sharif. St Martin's Church, also known as the Garrison Church, was erected in 1929 and, like the Trinity Church, was designed by Arthur Shoesmith. Built of three-and-a-half million red bricks in Delhi Cantt, its Nave has a barrel vault and a square tower.

 St. Paul's Cathedral in Bhogal was also built in 1929 and expanded in the 1970s. The Methodist Church in Boulevard Road, near Tis Hazari, with is Gothic features, is a very impressive building with a bell tower. It dates back to 1931. St Thomas's Church in Mandir Marg was also built at the same time, ostensibly for poor Christians, and opened by the then Viceroy's wife, Lady Willingdon. The main entrance has stone tablets in Urdu script. Gandhiji used to visit it when he was staying in the Bhangi Colony nearby.

Though the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has listed only 18 churches, their number has gone up to more than a hundred with many new ones coming up, the latest being the St John de Britton Church in Maya Enclave, which was opened in February this year by Archbishop Concassao after a long court suit.

Thus Delhi's Christian link continues to grow to mark it out as a cosmopolitan city of temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches, perhaps more numerous than in any other Indian city. However the old Armenian cemetery in Sarai Rohilla's Kishanganj needs to be preserved lest it disappear altogether.

The Hindu, 21st may 2012

It once provided all the flowering bushes and shrubs to adorn the open spaces and the boulevards of Lutyens’ Delhi. It then fell to neglect and grew barren, but now flowers are blooming again at Sunder Nursery.

Formerly known as Azim Bagh, Sunder Nursery has been in existence since the 1940s in the buffer zone of the World Heritage Site of Humayun’s Tomb. Concerted efforts to restore the nursery to its blooming ways has resulted in long beds of rare plants, and a dedicated bonsai section making an appearance.

Following the successful restoration of Humayun’s Tomb Garden and as part of the Nizamuddin Urban Renewal project, the Central Public Works Department and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) have been busy with the landscaping and development of the 70-acre Sunder Nursery since 2009.

Landscaping commenced following a meticulous survey that included documenting each tree within the nursery. Detailed discussions with experts allowed the project team to prepare a Landscape Master Plan for the nursery with the aim of combining heritage, ecology and nursery functions within one comprehensive interactive space.

The efforts bore fruit and the nursery now offers opportunities for recreation, education and discovery together with procurement of plants.

The landscape plan, designed by renowned landscape architect Muhammed Shaheer, derives inspiration from the traditional Indian concept of congruency between nature, garden and utility coupled with environmental conservation.

Once the work is complete, Sunder Nursery — designated a District Park in the Master Plan 2021 and also a notified Conservation area — will be a green space, rivalling Lodhi Gardens and even the Mughal Gardens at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Ratish Nanda, AKTC Project Director, said, “In order to ensure that the nursery functions are enhanced and made more efficient, the project started with the creation of nine acres of nursery beds in the northern section of the plot. A two-km concrete road limits vehicular movement to the periphery of the complex and allows visitors a safe pedestrian zone. We have put in place a good electrical and hydraulic infrastructure to ensure efficient and limited use of electricity and water.”

In a far-sighted move, the CPWD and AKTC are developing portions of the nursery to provide a representation of over 300 species of flora found in the Capital. This, the team said, will be useful for schoolchildren to learn about the various plant species.

Over 20 acres of the nursery is being developed as a micro-habitat area to showcase plants of the ridge, riverine, alluvial and marshy landscapes. Another nine acres will be converted into a bird habitat for nesting peacocks.

The crowning glory of the nursery is its bonsai collection. Put together over the last 50 years, the collection has more than 300 plants, gifted by Dr V P Agnihotri to CPWD. These have been housed in specially built structures for public viewing.

Nature trails and pathways will allow visitors to walk through the nursery, learn about plants and buy the varieties, best suited for their homes.

A senior CPWD official said, “The nursery would have been lost to a major thoroughfare during the Commonwealth Games. But thankfully, it has now been conserved for generations to come. Many rare trees have been planted here and they are much appreciated by our customers.”

“Nine Mughal-era monuments within the nursery grounds are also being restored. A portion of the Mughal Grand Trunk Road, which runs through the park, is also under development. The landscape works will be done within a couple of years. We are already in discussion with CPWD on the best manner to manage the grounds in a sustainable way,” Nanda said.

“The nursery was in a real bad state and the funds available for its conservation was limited. The entire area was lying waste but following the Memorandum of Understanding there has been tangible development,” said D S Sachdev, former Director General, CPWD, under whom work on the project was initiated.

The Indian Express, 22nd May 2012

The National Museum seems to have been losing its sheen due to the callous attitude of authorities. While eight galleries are closed for years, only eight per cent of artefacts are on display, and there has been no director-general for the last five years.

However, to prevent theft at the National Museum, the government has decided to beef up security by installing X-ray scanners, CCTV cameras and door frame metal detectors.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee report, which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, pointed out glitches in the working of the National Museum.

According to the report, out of the total 26 galleries in the museum, 7 remained closed for 3 to 4 years. The manuscripts gallery is closed since the last eight years. The committee was not convinced by the reasons given. “For example, Central Asian Antiquities–II gallery after repair of roof leakage, remained closed as the space was being used for storing exhibition material. Some galleries were sealed by the investigation agencies pending vigilance inquiries into theft cases. Decorative Arts–I gallery remained closed due to storage of display materials. Another gallery, Tanjavur Paintings, could not be opened because of shortage of synthetic moulding and other wooden material. Two galleries, Musical Instruments and Wooden Carving, remain closed due to roof leakage and shortage of display material. Another gallery could not be opened after the demise of the curator in-charge of the gallery in 2008,” noted the committee.

The committee observed that the displays in the museum are not rotated regularly and therefore the visitors “lose the charm of visiting”. The National Museum has a total of over 2 lakh artefacts but only 15,000 odd items are put on display. Justifying such a low display, the culture ministry claims that this is the norm across the world. No museum puts every artefact on display.

The National Museum has also not carried out physical verification of the artefacts since 2003 onwards. “The committee fears that when the verification process is taken up some of the objects may be reported missing,” the standing committee said in the report.

The Asian Age, 22nd May 2012

Unidentified men yesterday vandalised a historic Hindu temple in Peshawar city of northwest Pakistan that was reopened on the orders of a court last year, police officials and local residents said.

The attackers burnt pictures and damaged a shiv ling inside Gorakhnath Temple and took away idols from the shrine located within an archaeological complex in Gor Gathri area, leaders of the Hindu community said.

The shrine's custodian told the media that this was the third attack on the temple in the past two months.

When police officers visited the temple to probe the incident, Hindu leaders urged them to put in place better security measures to prevent such incidents.

The temple's custodian told police that he had seen a group of eight men inside the temple when he arrived there at 6.30 pm.

The men started burning pictures and holy books before fleeing with some idols, he said.

Members of the minority Hindu community rushed to the temple.

Footage on television showed burnt papers and utensils lying strewn on the floor of the temple.

The 160-year-old temple was reopened for Hindus last year on the orders of the Peshawar High Court.

It has been closed since Partition.

The temple was reopened after Phool Wati, the daughter of the shrine's cleric, petitioned the High Court

The Pioneer, 22nd May 2012

Mortuary practices are one of the most visibly cultural features

The idea of primitive society postulates a simple model: a pristine, organic society with no private property or family in the sense in which we understand it. This model envisages an organic social life based primarily on worship of ancestor spirits as articulated in the ceremonies, especially death customs, of the tribes living in different parts of the world today.

This prototype, which anthropologist Adam Kuper has debunked in his The Invention of Primitive Society, derives its inspiration from Rousseau's concept of Noble Savage. When Kuper says that “the theory of primitive society is on a par with the history of the theory of aether,” he is treating the perceived purity of the primitive as fictional. Such critiques could have been in the mind of Manjula Poyil when she decided not to use terms such as ‘primitive', ‘aboriginal' and ‘backward' in her Homage to the Departed: A Study of Funeral Customs Among the Tribes in Malabar, Kerala. But the book tends to hark back to the idea of a primeval purity often applied in portrayals of tribal people. In the Introduction of the book, she says the tribal groups of the Malabar region in Kerala are undergoing the slow uprooting of the tribal tradition. She notes: “The intrusion of non-tribal cultural ethos into the tribal milieu has started eroding much of their cultural exclusiveness and identity. Even the death customs, an integral part of their religion, are being invaded by external forces.”

Despite this patronising view of the tribal life that forms the backdrop of the book, a revised version of her doctoral dissertation, it offers glimpses of beliefs and practices of various tribal groups in the region that run counter to the romanticising portrayal of the tribal life. The deep-rooted gender discrimination among the tribal groups in the region, for example, defies “the cherished nostalgic notions of gender equality in tribal life.”

COMMUNITY LIFE

Mortuary practices are one of the most visibly cultural features observed by archaeologists. English anthropologist, Edward B. Tylor developed the argument that animism has had its origin in the dream and death experience. The body-soul division was perceived by ancient people in dream that persuaded them to believe that the ghost-soul survives the destruction of the body. James G. Frazer expanded this idea and argued that all mortuary rituals were motivated by fear of the ghost-soul of the deceased.

The book describes the community life of each of the tribes in Malabar such as Kadar, Iravalan, Cholanaikkan, Kattunaikkan, Paniya, Kurichiya, Mullukuruman, Adiyan, Kurumba and Karimpalan, among others, how they worshipped their ancestors and how their death customs are determined by their modes of subsistence. Anthropological evidences on tribal death customs all over the world show that they are more or less similar. As Poyil says, human approach to death and funeral rites is universal. Viewing death as a separation of the soul from the body is universal and it runs through all the mainstream religions. Some of the features of organised religion, observes American author Daniel Dennett in Breaking the Spell , will turn out to be vestigial traces of the folk religions from which they are descended.

Opinion is divided on the hypothesis that the tribes of Kerala are the direct descendants of the Megalithic builders, although they follow many traits of Megalithic culture. Poyil says that any serious study of the history of tribal death customs is possible only with the help of an ethno-archaeological exploration. The book offers a detailed description of mortuary practices, both common and specific, among the tribes of the Malabar region. While the book laments that the “entire tribal tradition is now losing its purity and originality” as they are being fast ‘Hinduised' with animism giving way to faith in Hindu gods and temple-centred worship, it also notes that the tribes that are undergoing greater ‘acculturation' realise adverse impacts of some of their rites, especially expensive funeral rites which cause heavy financial burden on them.

Detailed description of funerary practices in the book including death announcement, wailing, funeral dance, ritual washing and death pollution makes reading tedious. However, the book, which is not without grammatical errors and erratic punctuations, is an important contribution to the study of funeral customs which is largely neglected in Kerala.

The Hindu, 22nd may 2012

Projects amounting to nearly Rs 2600 crore have been sanctioned so far under the NGRBA for development of sewer networks.

Projects worth Rs 2,600 crore have been sanctioned by the government to ensure that by 2020, no untreated sewage and industrial effluent flow into the Ganga river, the Lok Sabha today told.

The projects will be implemented and supervised byNational Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) which has been set up the government to ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of Ganga by adopting a holistic approach.

In a written reply, Environment and Forest MinisterJayanthi Natarajan said, "The NGRBA has decided that under Mission Clean Ganga it will be ensured that by 2020 no untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluent flow into Ganga."

Projects amounting to nearly Rs 2600 crore have been sanctioned so far under the NGRBA for development of sewer networks, sewage treatment plant, electric crematoria, community toilets and development of river fronts in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

"A World Bank-assisted project to be implemented over a period of eight years at an estimated cost of Rs 7000 crore has also been approved for conservation and restoration of water quality of the river Ganga," Natarajan said.

Replying to a question on efforts to check pollution in Yamuna river, she said an expenditure of Rs 711.05 crore has been incurred under the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) till date.

"YAP-II was approved in 2003 at an estimated cost of Rs 624 crore with major items of works such as rehabilitation of sewerage network and sewerage treatment plants," she said.

Observing that Yamuna has not shown the desired improvement due to gap between generation and treatment of sewage as also the lack of availability of fresh water in the river during the lean period, she said the pollution in the river is also because of bathing ghats, open defecation and run off from catchment areas.

The Asian Age, 22nd May 2012

Alarmed at the rising instances of tiger poaching in the state tiger reserves, the state forest department has asked forest officials to shoot poachers on sight.

Forest minister Patangrao Kadam told reporters on Tuesday that the directive had been issued to all forest divisions.

"The death caused by preventive shooting will not be treated as offence under the Indian Penal Code. We have made a legal provision to safeguard our staff from any excesses by so-called human right activists," the minister said.

The forest guards and officers will be armed with self-loading rifles and will be provided additional vehicles to enable a 24x7 vigil.

Over the past fortnight, unidentified poachers killed two tigers in Chandrapur district. One trapped tiger was rescued by forest officials a couple of days ago but it is unlikely to survive the wounds caused by the iron jaw trap and renal failure.

Maharashtra has 169 tigers and most of them inhabit the three tiger reserves in Vidarbha region-Tadoba, Melghat and Pench. In one year, the state lost eight tigers to poachers of which, seven killings happened in Chandrapur's Tadoba and Andhari reserves.

Some days ago, the government had issued a red alert after an intelligence input suggested that tiger poachers of the notorious Bahelia group in Madhya Pradesh had been paid an advance of Rs40 lakh for killing 25 big cats in the state.

Pravin Pardeshi, principal secretary of the forest department, said that the staffers were more vigilant and it was because of their alertness that poaching incidents came to light.

He said that the government has deployed 70 more guards in Tadoba and Andhari reserves and 523 vacancies would be filled as soon as possible.

The Pioneer, 23rd May 2012

Union Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan on Monday that there are 668 Protected Areas (including 102 National Parks, 515 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 47 Conservation Reserves, 4 Community Reserves) and 198 Zoos including 23 circuses in the country.

In Lok Sabha, the Minister said that the financial assistance for development and upkeep of Protected Areas is provided under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of 'Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats' and 'Project Tiger'.

Briefing the members further the Minister added that the Ministry has modified the existing Centrally Sponsored Schemes by adding more components and activities for providing better protection and conservation to wildlife and its habitats.

For the protection and improvement of zoos across the country, the Central Zoo Authority has formulated detailed guidelines for the scientific management of zoos for adoption and implementation by the zoo operators.

The Pioneer, 23rd may 2012

The Rajasthan BJP on Tuesday gave an ultimatum to the Government to take possession of the Jal Mahal Lake and the palace soon, following cancellation of the lease held by a private enterprise by the high court last week.

Talking to mediapersons, senior party leader and its deputy leader in Assembly Ghanshyam Tiwari said that if the Government failed to initiate steps to take possession of the over Rs 6,000-crore property by May 30, the BJP would organise a march to take "public possession" of the heritage site.

The BJP leader alleged that the Government was deliberately delaying taking possession, giving time to the leasing party to get a stay order from a higher court. He said the Government should immediately file a caveat in the Supreme Court, so the consortium should not be able to get the stay.

Tiwari said that after considering the facts, the BJP Government in 2007 had cancelled the 99-year lease of the property given on a paltry sum of Rs 2.5 crore a year. This fact has been mentioned in the 171-page judgement of the Rajasthan High Court that cancelled the lease. The court had described the leasing out of this heritage property as 'breach of public trust' and had directed the consortium to return the land by bringing it to its original state.

He alleged that despite the cancellation of the lease by the BJP Government, the Congress Government, which came into power in December 2009, not only changed the decision of the BJP Government, but also allowed the consortium to increase the number of rooms to 425 from 200 in the hotel that the consortium was planning to put up on the 100 bighas leased to it. Tiwari also alleged that Congress Government also gave the possession of some additional land to consortium in the name of parking facilities in violation of the rules.

He said land given on lease to the consortium originally belonged to Jaipur Development Authority and Jaipur Municipal Corporation.

The same was transferred to the Tourism Department which was made the nodal agency to promote tourism facilities on the land. "Meeting to transfer the land to Tourism was chaired by none other than Gehlot himself," said the BJP deputy leader in Assembly.

He said all decisions pertaining to awarding of leases by Congress and its cancellation by BJP Government are part of the official records. Government should either come out with status reports or a white paper, so the real facts could be known to the public, Tiwari demanded.

The Pioneer, 23rd May 2012

Of the 2.06 lakh artefacts with the National Museum, only 15,681 — constituting 7.61 per cent of total collection — have been kept on display, a Parliamentary Standing Committee’s report on “functioning of museums” tabled in the Rajya Sabha has revealed.

The committee, headed by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, said it was “not satisfied with the number as well as selection of items put on display at the National Museum”.

The government in its reply said no museum in the world displays its entire collection since not all exhibits are worthy of display.

“Only selected exhibits are displayed for education and propagation of culture. However, display of objects depends on the availability of space and, as such, every museum displays its collections within the limitations of its space. The National Museum has noted the suggestion of the committee for compliance,” the reply stated.

Though at present only 7.61 per cent of the total exhibits are on display, when the Phase III of the National Museum is constructed, more number of exhibits will be displayed. “Construction of Phase III of the National Museum will be taken up as soon as the space occupied by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is vacated for which necessary action is in progress,” the government said.

The committee also noted that of the 26 galleries at the National Museum, seven have been closed for the last three to four years.

The manuscripts gallery has remained shut since 2003, the committee said. It said the reasons given for these areas being closed were not convincing.

The panel cited the example of the Central Asian Antiquities-II gallery, which even after some repair work was carried out on its roof, has remained closed as it was being used for storing exhibits.

“Some of the galleries were sealed by investigation agencies pending vigilance inquiries into theft cases. Decorative Arts-I gallery remained closed due to storage of display materials. Another gallery — Tanjavur paintings — could not be opened because of shortage of synthetic moulding and other wooden material. Two galleries — musical instruments and wooden carving — were closed due to roof leakage and shortage of display material. Another gallery could not be opened after the demise of the curator in charge of the gallery in 2008,” the committee’s report said.

The committee was sharp in its criticism and said it “finds such excuses as shortage of display and other material, posts being vacant, leakage, etc. for keeping a large number of galleries closed for a long time, unacceptable”.

The committee also observed that the displays in the Museum are not rotated regularly, and therefore, the visitors lose the charm of visiting the Museum.

The Indian Express, 24th May 2012

Any strategy to win hearts and minds in tribal areas must focus on the rights of local communities over the forest lands where they live

The call for a national hostage policy after the recent hostage crisis in Chhattisgarh seems to have ignored that the government has formed a review committee to look into the pending cases against tribals. The media describe this move as a “concession” without understanding its import. While development work and policing are important, the defining feature of this low intensity conflict is that it is a response to the changes taking place in an area where the local people are dependent on the forests — their habitat — and it is the Central laws and the criminal justice system that are turning them against the State in desperation.

Observing that thousands of tribals had been put behind bars on various charges, Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Rural Development, recently said that the cases should be reviewed to ensure that no one was languishing in jail without a strong case against him, and the forest officials of different States should be directed not to register cases against tribals for entering the forests.

Kishore Chandra Deo, Minister for Tribal Affairs, has also recently directed the Governor of Andhra Pradesh to cancel mining leases as they constitute alienation of land to non-tribals, and cancelling them would “strike at the basic premise on which the Maoists have gained sympathy”. This would be the first time special powers of the Governor in Scheduled Areas are being exercised.

LONG OVERDUE

Does this recognition of governance failure amount to a new well thought out strategy? If it does, the shift in political will from only using development packages to win the “hearts and minds” of the local population to the centrality of the habitat – land and the forests on it — is long overdue, because the distinctiveness of these communities does not arise from “backwardness” but from reliance on their habitat and its natural resources.

A few years ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rightly identified the expanding and deepening footprint of the Maoists as the most serious threat currently facing India. The response has so far been of a bureaucratic nature. The Tribal Sub-Plan soon morphed into enhanced budgetary allocations for police forces, including automatic weapons and drones, and development packages with decision making decentralised to the district level, without much impact on the ground.

National attention on the continuing crisis is also shaped by the perception that it is a law and order problem, and largely limited to periodic analyses of crises situations where the focus has been on the dynamics of the hostage negotiation process. Somewhere in all this are references to the good work done by District Collectors and the significant public support for them

It is easy for the intelligence wing of the police to say that they had warned Alex Paul Menon that he was in danger, and he should not have gone to inaccessible villages. But then he was a target precisely because he was pushing development work in the remote areas, where the Maoists had established themselves. A new district, Sukma, of which Mr. Menon was the first Collector, was set up because the Chhattisgarh government wanted to reach inaccessible areas, and the district head was expected to push development into remote areas. The debate should really be on the priorities and policies the District Collectors should be pushing in the particular circumstances of these districts.

The Maoist problem is a case of governance failure, and has historical roots. When the British extended their administration into the inaccessible hilly and forest tracts of central India in the early 19th Century, they found that these areas were inhabited by socially and culturally distinct groups that had been living in relative geographical isolation, and called these groups “tribes”, on the analogy of similar groups in the American and African continents, and recognised them as a special category for administration. The first Census in 1872 categorised these communities as “Primitive Tribes”, while they were designated as “Backward Tribes” in the 1874 Scheduled Districts Act, and the Constitution in 1950 re-designated them as “Scheduled Tribes” while continuing to characterise these communities as socially, educationally, economically and historically backward, carrying forward the anomaly because these are really communities not tribes, internationally defined as units with an independent territory, and their distinctiveness is shaped by their habitat.

With the spread of colonial administration, a series of violent rebellions took place in this region between 1856 and 1910 against tree cutting by contractors, and were put down by the British army. As a partial response, the British enacted special protective laws implemented by the Collectors to safeguard the interests of this vulnerable section from commercial interests, who at that time were land grabbers, forest contractors and moneylenders from outside.

STATE ‘CAPTURE'

Currently, the habitat is being reshaped by designation of wildlife sanctuaries, timber contractors and, more recently, large mining and hydro electricity projects covering thousands of acres, under the Central Forest, Mining and Land Acquisition Acts with no special provisions to protect the interests of these communities over local resources. Simultaneously, a long period of corruption has weakened the regulatory structure leading to State ‘capture' by commercial interests. For example, Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo got killed in a “police action” in 1966 when he virtually revolted against the government for the rights of tribals in his erstwhile principality of Bastar.

Even the Forest Rights Act, of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, meant specifically for these areas has not been implemented. For example, in Chhattisgarh, where Scheduled Areas cover nearly half the State, almost no action has been taken to settle community rights, cases related to national parks summarily rejected and minor forest produce not defined. The situation in the other States is no better.

On top of that, criminal cases under the Forest Act of 1927 are being instituted against entire villages, including women and children, for theft of government property, whereas they are only using the produce of community forests for domestic use. Those thus jailed are not able to find sureties to get bail. It is not surprising that a committee to review all these cases was the major demand of the Maoists.

So, what should be done, now that we are prepared to consider the habitat rather than backwardness and ideology as the defining factor of the so-called Maoist problem?

First, in the Scheduled Areas the priority task of the Collectors should be to implement the Forest Rights Act in letter and spirit, in the form of a fresh Settlement by deputing officers of the rank of Sub Divisional Officer to camp in the villages rather than rely on the forest department and field reports, and any implementation issues related to community rights should be resolved by the Governor issuing necessary notifications. The implementation of the Forest and Mining Act would then have to take account of this new reality, which would act as a safeguard of community interests, including provision of alternative land in cases of compulsory acquisition for industry.

Second, in these areas the District Magistrates and Sub Divisional Magistrates should be given judicial powers under the Civil and Criminal Procedure Codes, with appeals to the Sessions Courts, as had been the earlier practice, as the issues and disputes relate to tribal rights and lands vis-à-vis forest contractors and big projects, where the tribals are at a distinct disadvantage in litigation foisted on them by outsiders with the sole objective of browbeating them.

Third, a special purpose vehicle should be set up under each Governor for pushing all development works in a district through a single tender and through direct sanctions, so that selected infrastructure companies can take up works throughout the district, under police protection. The SPV will become the sponsor of the project and be responsible for securing all clearances before the project is put up for bidding and be a major change in the public systems mindset; it must include independent evaluation arrangements.

Only such a multi-pronged strategy that takes a holistic view of governance — the habitat, outside influences, administration and development — will undercut the popular base of the Maoists depriving them of the local support they need to survive and build capacity sufficient to challenge the State. It should be possible for normalcy to return within a period of three to five years, when the special arrangements would be discontinued. Extraordinary situations require extraordinary solutions.

The Hindu, 24th May 2012

Bihar has set out to match Mumbai with its own version of the Marine Drive. The 21.5km Ganga Path, coming up in Patna by June 2015, will be one of the country’s biggest public-private-partnership projects at an estimated cost of Rs 2,234.46 crore.

The Bihar State Road Development Corporation will in November finalise one of six leading construction companies that it has shortlisted. The government has signed a deal with Transparency International to ensure transparency in the bidding process.

The driveway has been a dream project for the government since Nitish Kumar’s first term. What held it up so far was efforts to convince the Centre’s empowered committee for PPP projects that it would be worth spending so much on a project “just for decongesting Patna traffic”. The state government eventually pushed it through on the ground that it would “decongest the traffic load from five national highways passing through Patna; decongesting city traffic is only a happy coincidence”.

The Centre will bear 20 per cent of the cost, the state 20 per cent, and the winning bidder the rest. If a company bids more than 60 per cent, which is likely, the state government’s share will go down by that difference.

“The Ganga Path will have a pan-Bihar significance. It will be an arterial route for those using five national highways connected to Patna,” Nitish Kumar said. It would also enhance the Ganga’s public significance and pave the way for beautification of the city along the stretch, the chief minister said.

The estimate is that the driveway, when ready, will bear about 14,000 vehicles using the national highways everyday, and take at least 30 per cent off the city’s traffic load. It will become a key link in the journeys to Nepal in the north and to Haldia/Paradip ports in the east.

Along the driveway from Digha to Didarganj will be two major bridges connecting Patna to the educational and industrial hubs of Hajipur and Muzaffarpur. One of them, towards the western end at Digha, will be completed by this year-end. The other one, Mahatma Gandhi Setu near the eastern end, is already in place. About a third (7.5km) of the driveway will be an elevated stretch over low-lying areas.

The six companies were selected from 12 proposals at the stage of request for qualification, including from companies based in Malaysia, Austria and Spain. “The government also proposes parallel development of hotels, restaurants, a plaza and parks along both sides of the proposed stretch,” BSRDC managing director Pratyay Amrit said. “We are ensuring the flagship project has superior hydraulic measures to protect it from flooding and erosion.”

Amrit listed six highways the project will connect. NH 19 to Ghazipur can be reached via the upcoming bridge at Digha. NH 98 to Aurangabad and NH 84 to Buxar will be accessible to traffic from the direction of Bhagalpur without going through Patna. The other links are NH 30 (to Bakhtiyarpur), its offshoot NH-31 (to Rajauli) and NH 77 (to Muzaffarpur), connected via the MG Setu.

“The Ganga Path will also mean that people can travel from one end of the city to the other end in just 30 minutes instead of two hours,” said Road Construction Minister Nand Kishore Yadav. He said the old part of the city, now cluttered, can expand on account of the new connectivity it will get. The project will include wide approach roads to all main parts of the state capital.

The Ganga Path will be a toll road, with charges on 40 per cent of the traffic expected to use it. The construction company will collect the toll for 25 years, which will exclude the time of construction.

The Indian Express, 24th May 2012

The Environment Ministry on Wednesday finally made public the controversial report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel prepared by ecologist Madhav Gadgil and submitted almost a year ago.

The publishing of the report also came with a disclaimer saying that the ministry has not yet accepted the recommendations of the report.

The report presents an incriminating account of destruction of environmentally fragile Western Ghats due to several large-scale industries and mining activities going on for years and causing pollution. It recommends an “indefinite moratorium” on new environmental clearances to mining in what the report terms Ecologically Sensitive Zones in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts in Maharashtra and in Goa. According to officials, the report, if accepted in its entirety, would severely impact the economy of the Western Ghats.

The Indian Express, 24th May 2012

After having been mired in controversies and legal battles, the much delayed project for facade restoration of the Capital’s Gole Market seems finally set to take off with the New Delhi Municipal Council deciding to table the proposal to award the tender contract at its meeting this Friday.

Apart from facade restoration of the market, which is one of Delhi’s oldest landmarks, the other elements included in the project are installation of signboards and street furniture, rehabilitation of structure services, interior restoration and upgrading of the surrounding structure.

One of Delhi’s oldest surviving colonial markets, Gole Market is a circular structure that marks the critical crossing of an important axis on Lutyens’ plan and is in proximity to the historic Bangla Sahib Gurdwara on one side and Lakshmi Narayan Temple on the other. It also serves as a subsidiary market to the prime business centre of Connaught Place.

Elaborating on the special status of Gole Market, a civic body official said: “Gole Market provides a tangible link between the past and the present giving a continuous cultural identity to the city. The market is architecturally significant and being a part of the city’s heritage it needs a plan for its conservation and restoration to its former glory as it will be visible to people visiting the market especially during the Commonwealth Games.”

However, far from its old glory the market in its present form is bogged down under several problems which primarily include an unstable structure making it a security hazard.

As a senior NDMC official put it: “Being in constant use as a bustling market, Gole Market has been subjected to a range of issues arising from overuse, division of spaces and introduction of services, partitions and signboards typical of buildings being actively used for commercial use. Resultantly much of the original fabric has been obliterated or entirely transformed leading to a decline in the architectural aesthete as well as historic authenticity of the building.”

“The Gole Market and its surrounding building and structures have survived the hazards of time and face issues such as encroachments, water seepage, ad hoc and insensitive additions, deterioration of plaster and the timber roofing system,” he added.

The project cost which was initially estimated at about Rs. 6.31 crore has now escalated to about Rs.8.53 crore following the delay during which project tenders were called five times. The deadline for implementation of the project has been set at 58 weeks after the final award of tenders.

Explaining the delay, a civic body official said: “At first there was a lot of confusion over changing the use of the market building by turning it into a museum. Later there was a legal issue involved with shopkeepers of the market taking the NDMC to court as they were not assured of being provided alternative sites to run their shops while the restoration work was under way. Some of the court cases are still pending.”

The Hindu, 24th May 2012

Rajasthan is like a permanent fixation for me. In fact I call it my purva janam ka saath place. Wherever I go, there is a sense of deja vu, and I am happy to travel into the interiors with as much anticipation and delight as to the main tourist destinations.

On an earlier visit to Udaipur I had spent a day in Ranakpur and had promised myself that I would return to explore the area in greater detail. Ranakpur is off the regular tourist map, so one doesn’t encounter the usual touristy crowds that populate the ever beguiling Rajasthan. Quietly nestled within the folds of the Aravallis, the stunningly unique architecture of the area enhances the tranquility of the place.

Our journey started with Muchhala Mahavirji Teerth Dharamsthala. Situated at a distance of 21 km from the city, these temples are considered to be very ancient tirth among the Jains. A delightful temple surrounded by hills, many miraculous events are said to happen here. The temple has a significant architectural embellishment called bawdi (stepwells or ponds) in which the water can be reached by descending a series of steps.

The following day, what kept our energy reservoirs flowing was our visit to the Jain temple dedicated to Adinath who was the first Jain spiritual leader. The temple has four entrances, each facing a cardinal direction. It has 29 halls and 1,444 pillars which are intricately carved to represent Jain fables and symbols and it is said that no two pillars are alike. Light coloured marble has been used for the construction of this grand temple. The temple also comprises of beautifully adorned ceilings with painted walls and plush interiors.

Around 22 km from the city of Udaipur on National Highway No 8, is the Shiva temple located in the town of Eklingji or Kailashpurji. It is widely believed that Eklingji is the ruling deity of the princely state of Mewar and the ruling Maharana is his representative.

En route Ranakpur to Kumbhalgarh, approximately 14 km from Sadri village, is the Parshuram Mahadev Temple. This Shiva temple sits in a cave 3,995 feet above sea-level and it has naturally formed figures of Lord Ganesh and Lord Shiva. It also has nine kunds or ponds which never go dry. It is estimated that approximately nine lakh pilgrims visit this temple annually.

Next day, we were off to Kumbhalgarh. It is also the birthplace of Maharana Pratap, a great king and warrior of Mewar. Close by is Achalgarh, commissioned by famed Rana Kumbha, the fort was built in the 15th century. It is situated atop a mountain peak it has many vantage points that provide panoramic views all year round. The fort has a steep winding path that leads up to it and encloses many historic Jain temples within its embattled walls.

Chittorgarh, the most important Mewari fort, is a mere 60 kilometres to the south east of Ranakpur. The fort is surrounded by a circular wall with seven large gates that need to be crossed before entering the main area.

The fort and the city of Chittorgarh hold an annual festival called the Jauhar Mela to commemorate the valour of their ancestors. The fort also has an ancient but beautiful temple of Goddess Kali called the Kalika Mata Temple.

Returning to our resort after playing tourists to the hilt was refreshing and we promised to be back to the beguiling and bewitching Thar desert — for it is believed that if ones feet have touched the soil of any place, one has to go back there at least once again.

The Asian Age, 25th May 2012

After a study by the Institute of Urban Transport revealed that the Kolkata tram is a cheaper, environment-friendly mode of transport, the Ministry of Urban Development has asked metropolitan cities to consider re-introducing trams.

The ministry suggested that trams could be introduced along Bus Rapid Transit corridors.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi had also mooted a plan to re-introduce trams in Chandini Chowk. “As late as 1963, trams were an important mode of public transport in Chandni Chowk. The trams are an eco-friendly mode of transport and are extremely cheap. For instance in Kolkata, you can use the trams by paying as little as Rs 2,” said a source.

“We have asked all states to have a fresh look at trams as a mode of transport. The Institute of Urban Transport has carried out a preliminary study of the Kolkata tram and has found that trams continue to provide useful service to people. While trams have suffered due to a variety of reasons such as lack of upgradation and curtailing of routes due to introduction of Metro services, they can be used as feeder services to Metro or can be introduced along BRT corridors,” said Urban Development secretary Sudhir Krishna.

The trams in Kolkata, run by the Calcutta Tram Company, were introduced in 1902. “The matter of reviving and improving the tram system in Kolkata was also discussed,” said a ministry official.

The ministry has now asked all states to carry out individual studies to assess the viability of introducing trams in metropolitan cities. “Trams are a low-cost mode of transport. Since they operate at grade level, they can help connect more areas and enter more parts of a city,’’ said Krishna. The Ministry of Urban Development had held a meeting to discuss this matter with Delhi government’s Transport department. “The matter is likely to be discussed in more detail in the coming weeks,” said a ministry official.

Trams used to operate in Mumbai, Delhi, Patna, Kanpur, Nasik and Chennai. The ministry had asked the institute to carry out a study on the Kolkata tram.
 The Indian Express, 25th May 2012

Art map of the world is pinned on the wall of Karen Stone Talwar’s office in New York. She can rattle off the dates of art events across the globe and has the details of many art galleries — from Basel to Hong Kong, Istanbul to India — on her fingertips. Art consultants and artists are on her cellphone’s ‘speed dial’ and her travel plans centre around the art biennales.

But she is not alone on her sojourns. Accompanying her on most occasions are art enthusiasts, whom she guides through various art houses. In January, the stopover was Delhi. She escorted a group of 10 to the India Art Fair and introduced them to the biggies — Jagannath Panda at his studio and Ranbir Kaleka at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Lunch was arranged with international art consultant and author, Amrita Jhaveri, and private collections were on view. Each tourist had to part with a princely $8,000 to be in the illustrious company assured by Talwar, who is the director of Adventures in Art, a company specialising in art tours.

Those familiar with the art mart might argue that the amount would suffice to purchase a mid-range artwork, but that is also the price art

enthusiasts are willing to pay to be introduced to art giants.

A rising interest in art has aided several parallel industries. Experts are now giving lessons to art enthusiasts and teaching them how to distinguish between impressionism and impasto. If at Delhi’s National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), art historians are giving lessons on the evolution of Indian art; at Devi Art Foundation, people can opt for a guided tour of the extensive exhibitions curated from the Lekha and Anupam Poddar Collection. “The masses are now interested in the nuances,” says Sujata Parsai, head of cultural learning programmes at Flow Associates, a UK-based organisation promoting culture education, which opened office in Delhi last year.

Flow Associates offers tours for adults on different periods in Indian art — from “Contrasting Traditions: Indian Miniature Painting and European Traveller Artists” to “From Modern to Contemporary: Spanning the Period from the 1970s to the Present Day”. Besides, museum programmes and workshops for children are also held.

“Each tour examines the key developments using the wealth of India’s national modern art collection as a starting point. The walks are designed for beginners as well as those with some knowledge to share,” adds Parsai, who charges Rs 1,200 for a one-hour walk at NGMA, and her workshops for children cost Rs 800 onwards.

While Adventures in Art was established just last year, Arvind Vijaymohan, director of Delhi-based Art Ventures & Management Advisory, has been assisting tourists explore art for more than five years now. His clients include museum experts and art collectors from all over the world. “They are usually people who have been buying art or are well-acquainted with it. I take them to museums, art galleries and at times, even organise interactions with the artists,” says Vijaymohan. The trips can be customised too. “We exchange several emails before the clients’ arrival in India,” adds Vijaymohan.

For those looking for a more basic round-up, artist Manisha Gera Baswani has taken it upon herself to promote art awareness. Her apartment complex in Gurgaon is dotted with posters of the works of artists from different periods and movements: from Raja Ravi Verma to the Bengal School and Amrita Sher-Gil. During a guided tour, she takes small groups around the complex and acquaints them with the work of each of these artists. “My aim is to initiate people into art and encourage them to explore,” she says.

The Indian Express, 25th May 2012

If early arrival of white and black winged migratory bird — Openbill Stork — at Keoladeo National Park near Bharatpur is any indicator, monsoon this year may hit the northern India much before its normal time.

Park authorities on Wednesday spotted a flock of about a dozen of Openbill Storks in D-block of Keoladeo National Park. The arrival of these migratory birds at water bodies in the park is synonymous with arrival of monsoon in northern parts of the country.

Talking to The Pioneer, Director of the park Anup KR said, “Generally, these migratory birds arrive in the mid-June when park receives monsoon rains and its water provides plenty of food for them. They nest and go for breeding during the monsoon before going back to their home around November.”

Ranger of the park Bholu Abrar Khan was the first to spot a flock of the birds. They were seen moving in D block, where water is still available and it has plenty of fish, frogs and snakes — the most staple diet of these birds. Surprised and delighted Khan immediately informed the director and other officials of the park on the arrival of these migratory birds.

Normally around this time of the year, park has very little water. In September last year, water from Chambal River was diverted here to replenish water-bodies in the park, which has been listed as world heritage site by the UNESCO. As in June last year, there was not much water in the park, very few of these birds arrived here. They hardly stayed in the park and returned without nesting and breeding, says Anup.

The Pioneer, 25th May 2012

To create public awareness about extensive collections documenting important sound and visual traditions of the country, the Centre for Art & Archaeology (CA &A) of the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) has developed and launched a unique Virtual Museum of Images and Sound (www.vmis.in).

Monetarily supported by the Union Culture Ministry, the Phase I of this museum was inaugurated at Defence Colony here by Prasar Bharti Chief Executive Officer Jawhar Sircar.

The collections have been developed over the past half-century by AIIS, which specialises in documenting important sound and visual traditions of the country.

The virtual museum in association with the institute's Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology will demonstrate ways in which extensive collections can be understood and used. It will also demonstrate how these collections are part of a larger context and related to the cultural developments of the time and place in which they developed, are both distinct and similar to other traditions that arose in the subcontinent, and finally are unique achievements within a global perspective.

An important objective behind creating the virtual museum is to provide users an interactive space to share their experience. It exhibits collections of audio, still and moving images, and text devoted to specific themes. Several collections in the form of gifts will be put online at the museum along with the extensive architectural documentation.Set up in 1965, CA &A seeks to increase awareness about the country's visual heritage and traditions. It has documented Hindu, Christian, Islamic, Jain and Buddhist art and architecture and created an archive of over 1.75 lakh photographs, line drawings and architectural plans

The Hindu, 25th May 2012

Rajasthan, which had prided itself on leading the way in relocation of villagers from its tiger reserves, is now facing a backlash. Villagers living inside Sariska reserve are in agitation mode and are refusing to be relocated.

Their complaint is that the `10 lakhs being offered to them by the government is completely inadequate. Gujjar leader Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla is also supporting their agitation which is also being fuelled by mine owners who operate on the boundaries of Sariska and who want to restart their mining operations.

The villagers complain that if these “influential people are being allowed to acquire land around these reserves, why should they be asked to move out?

The situation in Sariska is made more complex by the large number of pilgrims that visit the Hanuman temple located inside the reserve every Tuesday and the presence of a national highway cutting through the park which has seen an increase in vehicular traffic. With noise levels having risen dramatically, it is no surprise that the tigers in Sariska are not breeding.

This agitation has now spread to the Pench Tiger Reserve where the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has come up with what it claims is a new solution to ensure NH-7 is allowed to cut through this reserve.

Cabinet defers decision on telecom policy

MUKESH RANJAN

New Delhi, May 24

The Union Cabinet on Thursday deferred a decision on the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012 and unified licensing regime, as the information and broadcasting ministry raised objection over denial of its right of issuing airwaves to radio and television broadcasters.

The agenda note for the meeting of the Union Cabinet, which was circulated on Wednesday, had NTP and unified licensing regime as listed items, but with a dissenting and clarificatory note issued by the I&B ministry, it was decided to drop the item from the list for consideration, sources informed.

As per the policy draft note, department of telecommunication (DoT) has been entrusted to control the entire spectrum and only it could have auctioned the airwaves both to media broadcasters and mobile telephony and data transfer companies.

“If the proposal had been approved, the role of I&B ministry would have been limited only to information and controlling all the broadcasting services would have gone to the DoT. The I&B ministry, through its note, wanted the government to clarify its position on the issue,” sources said

The Asian Age, 25th may 2012

But Union Ministry says it has not been formally accepted

Recommending scrapping of two controversial hydro-power projects in Karnataka and Kerala that had run into difficulty due to opposition from environmentalists, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) has suggested setting up of a statutory authority to protect the Ghats.

The report of the panel, headed by Madhav Gadgil, formerly with the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, has called for cancellation of Karnataka's Gundia and Kerala's Athirapally hydro-projects, and gradual phasing out of mining activities in ecologically highly-sensitive areas of Goa by 2016.

The report has been put up on the website of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, following directions from the Central Information Commission and a court directive, for comments, with a disclaimer that it hasn't been formally accepted by the Ministry, and was being analysed and considered by the Ministry.

The expert panel set up in 2010 suggests the constitution of a Western Ghats Ecology Authority (WGEA), as a statutory authority appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, with the powers under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The Western Ghats have been identified as an extensive region, spanning more than six states, 44 districts, and 142 talukas.

Once created, the 24-member body will have ecologists, scientists, representatives of civil society, as well as tribal groups, officials from the Union Environment Ministry, Planning Commission, National Biodiversity Authority, Central Pollution Control Board, and representatives of the state government as its members.

The WGEA would need to function in a networked fashion, with six constituent State Western Ghats Ecology Authorities, appointed jointly by the State Governments and the Centre. The State Western Ghats Ecology Authorities should interact closely with the State Biodiversity Boards and Pollution Control Boards, as well as State Planning Departments administering the Western Ghats Development Programmes, funded through Five-Year Plans by the Planning Commission. It would be appropriate that all the Western Ghats Development Plan schemes are worked out by the State Governments with the Authority.

Regulation lacking

Currently, the Ecologically Sensitive Areas are administered with the help of High-Level Monitoring Committees (HLMC), appointed by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. These are hampered by want of regulatory powers, except in the case of the Dahanu Taluka Ecology Authority, established through a judgment of the Supreme Court. They are also hampered by want of financial and human resources, the panel said in its report.

In some cases, no HLMC has been in place for several years at a stretch. WGEEP proposes that they should be replaced by District Ecology Committees in all Western Ghats districts.

These District Ecology Committees should work in collaboration with the district-level Zilla Parishad/ Zilla Panchayat Biodiversity Management Committees, as well as District Planning Committees. Once created, the authority will have jurisdiction on the location of industry, and land-use planning. It will also be the final authority in declaring ecologically-sensitive areas, where facilities like storage dam won't be permitted.

The Hindu, 25th May 2012

Six years after Jaipur’s monument on water - the Jal Mahal - got restored under a public-private partnership; its rededication to the public has become mired in controversy.

With close to Rs 70 crore being spent on the project over six years, the Rajasthan High Court’s recent fiat directed that restoration work that has till now entailed a whopping Rs 70 crore be undone, forcing the proponents of the project to approach the Supreme Court.

Issuing notice on the appeal by Jal Mahal Resorts Private Limited, a Vacation Bench of Justices Deepak Verma and SJ Mukhopadhaya decided to hear the matter on Friday. The Rajasthan HC order of May 17, 2012 not only directed dismantling of the constructions but went on to order that the monument and the surrounding Mansagar Lake be restored to its original condition.

Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the project managers, informed the apex court that with all necessary clearances from the Centre and State in place, scrapping of the project was the last thing to be expected. Designed in three phases, the first phase of the project has entailed a cost of Rs 70 crore, of which the Centre and State have contributed Rs 24.72 crore, the rest being borne by the project manning company KGK Consortium.

With the lease executed in its favour for a period of 99 years as early as on November 22, 2005, the company questioned the timing of the PILs. When it took over the project, Subramanium said, the entire lake was a stinking sewage pond with two drainage pipes from the surrounding Nagtalai and Brahmpuri emptying its contents into the lake. Even the Jal Mahal was in a dilapidated State.

Giving evidence of the work carried out over the years, Subramanium submitted photographs to the Bench, explaining how the dome was refurbished, drains closed and sedimentation facilities installed to give the entire 100 acres surrounding Jal Mahal a facelift.

He further stated that the company proposed to organise boat rides for public on ferries designed with exotic Rajasthani art to take them through the lake to the Mahal. A nominal charge of Rs 25 would also be charged from each visitor. The high court order, he added, did not take into account

the work done as also the no-objection certificates issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Jaipur Development Authority, municipal body, the Art and Culture, Water and Archaeological departments of the State Government.

Further, the high court order had directed the company to fund the entire exercise to restore the pond and Mahal to its original shape, a demand that would not only burden the company with unnecessary cost but would place the lake, its flora and fauna to irreversible damage.

The Pioneer, 25th May 2012

The exhibition continues till May 31.

The Pioneer, 29th May 2012

Why did the Harappan civilisation, which flourished for hundreds of years and once extended across a vast area from northwestern India and across Pakistan, suddenly go into a terminal decline some 4,000 years ago and wither away?

Like their script that has remained indecipherable, the question what caused a sophisticated urban culture, capable of great feats of town planning and which had established a trading network that extended across the Middle East, to suddenly collapse is one that has aroused much scholarly debate and writing.

It has been suggested that reduction in water availability, perhaps as a result of climatic change or because tectonic activity caused rivers to change course, could have played a significant part in the decline of this ancient civilisation.

In a paper being published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team of scientists from the U.S., U.K., Pakistan, India and Romania has argued that long-term changes in monsoon rainfall altered river flow, creating conditions that initially allowed the Harappan civilisation to thrive but led later to its demise.

There is evidence that about 10,000 years back the Indian subcontinent went through a period when monsoon rainfall was greater than it is now, according to R. Ramesh of the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad who works on reconstructing the past climate and is not an author of the PNAS paper.

Then an eastward shift of the monsoon reduced rainfall in the northwestern part of the subcontinent, which became particularly marked some 5,000 years ago.

In their PNAS paper, Liviu Giosan and the other scientists have examined how river dynamics affected the Harappan civilisation. The declining rainfall reduced the cataclysmic floods produced by rivers in the region. This decrease in flood intensity “probably stimulated intensive agriculture initially and encouraged urbanisation around 4,500 years before present.”

The Harappan towns tended to be established on higher elevation, “in close proximity to floodable, agriculturally viable land,” the scientists noted. Lacking canal irrigation, these people relied on floods, which had to be regular and also benign enough to foster intensive agriculture without crippling their towns and cities.

But it was a delicate balance that ultimately tipped against the Harappans. As the monsoon continued to weaken, “rivers gradually dried or became seasonal, affecting habitability along their courses,” the paper pointed out.

“After 500 years of flourishing urbanism, the increasing aridification due to a shifting monsoon led to a crisis in the agriculture of the hinterland that supported the cities,” remarked Ronojoy Adhikari of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai, one of the authors of the paper. This led to large-scale migrations towards moister regions to the north and a decline in the urban system of the Harappan civilisation.

The PNAS paper also examined the Ghaggar-Hakra river system that some have identified with the legendary Saraswati, which was described as a mighty glacier-fed river in the Rig Veda. These days, the Ghaggar has a sustained water flow only during a good monsoon.

The paper's findings support those published by V. Rajamani, now retired from the faculty of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, his then doctoral student and two German scientists in the journal Current Science in 2004.

After examining the isotopic characteristics of sediments found in the Ghaggar river in the Thar desert, they reported that these sediments did not appear to have originated in the glaciated regions of the Himalayas.

The Ghaggar-Harappan civilisation was, they concluded, a ‘true river valley civilisation' supported by monsoon rainfall in the sub-Himalayan catchment, the reduction of which was responsible for the extinction of the river and the associated civilisation.

The PNAS paper, however, does not cite the Current Science work.

The Hindu, 29th May 2012

Survey finds many destroying native plants, causing environmental and economic loss

Mikania micrantha, an aggressive climber, has swathed the canopy at the Aralam Wildlife Sanctuaryin Wayanad.— Photo: Special Arrangement Kerala's plant biodiversity faces a severe threat from 89 alien invasive species, which were recorded in a survey commissioned by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board.

Of these, 19 pose a high risk; many were found displacing and destroying a large number of native species, causing environmental and economic loss.

Around 40 per cent of the varieties belonging to Brazil, Trinidad, Costa Rica, Chile and Mexico were believed to have reached the State mostly through timber and food grain imports, said K.V. Sankaran, director of the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, Thrissur, which conducted the survey and risk assessment.

The list comprises 11 trees, 39 herbs, 24 shrubs, and 15 climbers. The high risk species include Acacia mearnsii (Black wattle), Antigonon leptopus (Mountain rose), Arundo donax (Giant reed), Chromolaena odorata (Siam weed), Ipomoea cairica (Kolambipoo), Mikania micrantha (American vally, Kaipu vally, Dhritharashtra pacha), Mimosa diplotricha var. diplotricha (Anathottavadi), Prosopis juliflora (Sali) and Sphagneticola trilobata (Singapore daisy).

While some species were brought for agriculture and forestry, some others inadvertently reached the State. Over the years, they have established and spread, displacing the natural vegetation, including medicinal plants, and reduced the availability of fodder, researchers say.

Observation points

As part of the survey, around 4,000 observation points were set up for generation of data, and each point was selected on the basis of the presence of plants with visually aggressive growth. The species thus listed were checked against the catalogue of the native flora. The invasive plants were then subjected to the Invasive Species Risk Assessment, as per the Invasive Species Assessment Protocol developed by NatureServe, Virginia, U.S., said T.V. Sajeev, who led the field studies.

The research team also included T.A. Suresh, R.R. Ragesh and K.K. Subin.

The listed plants were at various stages of invasion and colonisation and different strategies were required for the management of each. Sesbania bispinosa and Senna siamea have started spreading and they were observed only in a few localities. However, Hypoestes sanguinolenta and Heliconia psittacorum have started reproducing. Mimosa diplotricha var. diploticha and Spahgneticola trilobata have established satellite populations. Chromolaena odorata and Lantana camera have started naturalisation, Dr. Sajeev said.

Pollinating insects preferred these species as they produced more pollen grains and nectar than the native ones. The resultant fall in the pollination rate of the native plants would affect the local biodiversity and its regeneration. Dr. Sajeev pointed to earlier reports of pollen grains of Acacia and Parthennium having caused allergy among humans.

Dr. Sankaran reckons that the quarantine measures at sea and airports should be made stringent to control the arrival of invasive varieties. Imported timber should be treated with pesticides as the wood would carry seeds and eggs of plants and insects. A large number of countries resort to such measures for protecting their biodiversity.

The Hindu, 30th May 2012

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has confirmed. Eighteen years and R1,500 crore later, the polluted stretch in the Yamuna river has increased to 600 km.

Till recently, this additional stretch of 100 km — between Panipat in Haryana and Wazirabad upstream — was believed to be clean and pollution-free. Till 2010, the CPCB’s data had showed that Yamuna’s polluted stretch was about 500 km - from downstream Wazirabad to Okhla in Delhi, and from Majawali (downstream of Delhi) to Juhika in Uttar Pradesh. This has, however, changed. “As per the recent monitoring of river Yamuna, its water quality is not meeting the desired level from Panipat downstream to Juhika for a distance of about 600 km,” CPCB admitted in a reply to an RTI query.

The data has been drawn from CPCB’s affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in the famous AQFM Yamuna case in April this year.

“A river is a living eco-system and not a channel for treated sewage. The whole of Yamuna should have original source water,” said Dr DD Basu, CPCB’s senior scientist.

Crores of rupees have already been spent as part of Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) I & II. Now, under the YAP III, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), which releases partially treated and untreated sewage into the Yamuna, has planned interceptor sewers to prevent untreated sewage from entering the river.

DJB officials, however, claim that getting fresh water is easier said than done.

“An inter-state agreement regulates the water share of each riparian state. So, getting an increased share is not easy. However, we are in talks with the government of Haryana,” said a senior DJB official.

“Yamuna water is not recycled. Moreover, the sewage treatment plants (STPs) do not function properly,” said Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan.

“Instead of giving fresh water to industries, why can’t DJB divert treated sewage from STPs to them? This can also be a possible solution to meet the increasing demand for drinking water,” he said.

After the Rs. 1,000 crore spent under YAP I & II, another R1,600 crore has been earmarked for YAP III as part of the grants received from the Ministry of Environment and Forest and Rs. 1,400 crore will also to be pumped through Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The Hindustan Times, 30th May 2012

Close on the heels of intelligence inputs on “supari killers” on the prowl for Big Cats and recent nabbing of 18 poachers from various districts of Central India, Ranthambore National Park (RNP) in Rajasthan has launched “Operation Sajag —“a war against poachers and poaching”.

This novel anti-poaching initiative comprises four “cobra” teams with forest guards for intensive patrolling. It is unique by way of being an all inclusive effort of local NGO, tourism department, police and district administration along with local communities. The teams would be provided with metal detectors and other latest facilities for more efficacy.

The vulnerability of the situation in the reserve can be gauged from the fact that one of the detainees, from the arrested gang of poachers, has admitted of killing a tiger that had ventured out barely 250 yards from Ranthambore National Park into Shivpuri district in MP.

As per intelligence reports, an international poaching racket has given Rs 40 lakh to poachers-mostly Pardhis, and Baheliyas tribes from MP, kill 25 tigers in India.

“Looking at such rising incidences of tiger poaching and recent arrest of large number of poachers in Maharashtra and MP a high alert has been declared in Ranthambore. “Apart from keeping poachers at bay, the operation is also expected to have deterrent effect on wildlife criminals”, pointed out YK Sahu, DFO, Ranthambore, who had conceived the concept of this special anti-poaching initiative.

The novelty of the effort lies in the fact that for the first time a number of Government departments and private stake holders are working in tandem with the Forest department against poachers, said Dr Dharmendra Khandal, conservation biologist. Dr Khandal represents Tiger Watch, NGO (founded by the legendary conservationist late Fateh Singh Rathore) that is involved in Operation Sajag.

One of the major highlights of the operation is night vigilance being conducted by “cobra Teams”, or special night squads constituted to keep vigil at susceptible locations.

The water holes in the park are some of the most vulnerable poaching sites where metal traps, snares etc are laid. “The teams would be provided with metal detectors to hunt for illegal guns and traps etc, using metal detectors particularly on animal trails and near waterholes,” pointed out Sahu. While maintaining watch and ward at waterholes, check posts and pickets would be deployed at important roads and river ferry.

Brushing aside prevailing controversies related to tourism and conservation, the operation has involved tourism infrastructure. Four safari vehicles have been taken from the Tourism department for patrolling purposes.

The local communities would be involved at various levels particularly in surveillance and building intelligence network. “We are recruiting tiger friends from the surrounding villages in this regard, to involve more members from local communities who are crucial to tiger conservation”, stressed Sahu.

The Pioneer, 30th May 2012

Twenty years ago, promotion of arts through cultural institutions, as the Haksar Committee painfully pointed out, fell in a shadow between idea and reality. Now it has slipped further and got miserably trapped between inaction and inefficiency. At the core of the problem, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture in its recent reports noted, is the Ministry of Culture's lack of seriousness, improper planning and unwillingness to change its ways. While reviewing the Ministry's demand for grants (2012-13), the committee found that year after year, even the meagre funds allotted remain underutilised. Of the Rs. 805 crore sanctioned last year, only about Rs. 570 crore was used. This has seriously undermined the demand for more government spending on cultural activities, which is as low as 0.16 per cent of the total Eleventh Plan allocation. Poor management is not just limited to finances. Despite the special needs of cultural institutions, the Ministry still insists on antiquated recruitment procedures and has kept many posts under UPSC purview. As a result, many posts remain vacant for years. For instance, the Institute of Archaeology has remained non-functional since 1985 because of lack of staff. In the case of the National School of Drama, professorial pay scales fall short of UGC norms and do not help attract the talented.

Lack of institutional autonomy has impaired nurturing of talents and practices. Since the state remains the biggest patron and taxpayers' money is involved, the government justifies its intervention. If the bureaucratic approach and interference continue, fears expressed by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay a few decades ago may come true: The Ministry's meddling would bring ‘an end of all cultural activities in this country.' The performance of the cultural institutions has not helped the cause either. The Parliamentary Committee has pulled up art academies for their lack of transparency and lethargic attitude. The National Museum has not acquired artefacts for a long time because it claims sufficient storage space is not available. The National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities could achieve only half of its target. The Sangeet Natak Akademi, even after 20 years, has not produced a large body of literature on performing arts which it had committed itself to. The way forward is to adopt an arm's length approach. The government should increase its funding, but should not compromise institutional autonomy. For their part, institutions must be transparent in their dealings, be open to public scrutiny, and abide by a framework of administration they evolve for themselves. The appointment of suitable and qualified persons to lead cultural institutions is critical to achieve this.

The Hindu, 30th May 2012

Rajendra Singh tells why he thinks India cannot lay claim to having any rivers any more, and why there is yet reason to hope

Stemming of global warming and protecting the environment may be discussed and debated at big international forums, and the money being invested in environment-related projects may run into billions, but when farmers rotate their crops and use organic fertilisers, or use traditional water harvesting methods, it is more commonsense than complicated terminology that motivates their actions. On the basis of such everyday actions, many within the reach of the ordinary individual, India's celebrated ‘Jal Purush', Rajendra Singh has achieved astounding results in water management and replenishment of rivers in the country. But the man with a following of thousands and who has inspired countless others still seems to count every drop as a blessing. So it was that this Monday when he was in the Capital to convene a meeting of the Jal Biradari, the “National Water Brotherhood” of his organisation Tarun Bharat Sangh, Singh was keen to hear the views of every member in the room, be they activists, students, agricultural workers or religious leaders. The soft-spoken environmentalist is in the midst of planning a rally to be held in New Delhi on June 18 to draw the authorities' attention to the state of the Ganga, declared India's national river but no better than a “drain” as Singh puts it.

“My understanding of the Ganga started with my grandmother,” relates Singh, with his penchant for combining the macro view with the micro, the universal with the personal that lends genuineness to a cause. “When I was hardly 10 years old, she took me to Haridwar. She removed my clothes, took a lota (brass vessel) from her cloth bag and poured water from the river on my head. Then she sent me into the forest, and when I came back she poured water again.” After a solemn ritual, she finally let him take a dip in the holy river, says Singh.

It was much later, as a young man, that he asked his grandmother why she had treated the Ganga at Haridwar with a reverence that called for elaborate religious practices, whereas she had never reprimanded him when as a little boy he had played on the canal fed by Ganga water in his village, even when he and his friends urinated into the water, competing to see how far each boy's ‘contribution' would flow! “My grandmother scolded me roundly for being so stupid that I didn't see the difference. She said, ‘What is the use of your studies when you don't understand a simple fact: a canal is made to satisfy people's greed. When you urinated in it, it would actually send nutrients to the crops. A canal is not the river.'”

So, says Singh, he recently remembered how his illiterate Dadi taught him about “Gangatva” (essence or spirit of the Ganga) and how a canal loses its Gangatva. A river, he says, is a living thing. “Its colours change with the rays of the sun.Woh mitti ka sparsh badhaati hai.”

Today, however, “Ganga Maa is really sick,” says Singh. He has toured along the entire route of the river, “from Gaumukh to Ganga Sagar and back,” and concludes that the state of the river is primarily due to three factors: The bad policies (“ku neeti”) of the government, the decadent actions (“bhrasht aacharan”) of the public and the failure of the people's leaders (such as the religious and spiritual leaders). “Raj and samaj (the government and the society) are greedy. But it is the duty of the sant, known today as the paryavaran vid (the environmental experts), to guide them. They too have shirked their responsibility. I can't absolve them.”

This is the reason, he says, that “there are no rivers left in India.” He emphasises that he is not making a statement for the sake of shock value. A river can be called one when its water is clean, fit for drinking, and when the living beings in it are healthy too. This cannot be said to be the case of the country's rivers. Singh explains that it has been scientifically proven that the pollutants that affect a river in India remain in the water for 45 kilometres after it leaves a city. “That is lucky for us, because in the U.S. the effect has been found to remain for 200 kms.” The river naturally cleans itself thanks to the atmosphere and the sun's rays, etc., he says. “But after 45 kms, the river will hit another town, so where is the chance to have a real river?”

Now, however, says Singh, he sees a glimmer of hope. Because the Ganga is a river that has religious as well as secular significance. And religious leaders are taking interest. In bringing together the secular, the religious and the scientific community — which are not necessarily mutually exclusive — Singh hopes that the rally on June 18 will galvanise the efforts of those who care for the environment and bring about positive change in the health of the Ganga.

What the waters want

These actions are required to heal the Ganga, says Rajendra Singh:

No waste water drains should be allowed to empty into the river. Waste water from human consumption should be diverted to agricultural use as appropriate

No new dams should be commissioned and those already commissioned should be made environment- friendly

Encroachment of the river's lands should be stopped by proper demarcation and notification. The land demarcated as the river's should be used only for the Ganga or for agriculture

Mining of sand, water and stone should be stopped

Norms should be made for using rivers (nadi reeti)

A Ganga Panchayat should be called

The Hindu, 31th May 2012

The Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD) on Tuesday pulled down illegal construction in two buildings in Masjid Moth in south Delhi amid tight security. The drive is likely to continue for the next two days.

The demolition, sources said, is being monitored by Lt-governor, Vijai Kapoor. The L-G recently received complaints related to some of the buildings identified for demolition.

Deputy Commissioner of MCD (south) SK Saxena, said two buildings, number 37 and 303, faced action on Tuesday. During the demolition, the police cordoned off the entire area even as hundreds of onlookers gathered near the site.

"Both the buildings were built without a sanctioned building plan, which is compulsory for all buildings in urbanised villages," said Saxena.

He said in house number 303, roof on the fourth floor was punctured and parapet was demolished completely. "The ground and basement of the four-storey illegal building were sealed," he said.

In building number 37, MCD demolition squad pulled down three independent flats and punctured the roof at three places. The parapet was also demolished.

Both the buildings were built up to four storeys and the construction was completed one year ago, he said.

The Times of India, 31th May 2012

A study by the National Environmental Engineering Institute (NEERI) claiming that water in the Ganga has unique “anti-bacterial” properties has put a question mark on at least three important hydel projects on the Alaknanda in Uttarakhand. And forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to depute an official emissary to explain matters to environmentalist and former IIT professor G D Agrawal — later rechristened as Swami Gyanswaroop Sanand — of the Ganga Seva Abhiyanam who claims that the river will lose these properties if hydel projects come up on its upper reaches.

The PM’s initiative comes amid fears of a major agitation building up to coincide with next year’s once-in-12-years Mahakumbh on the banks of the Ganga. Anna Hazare has already come out in support of the cause and even shot off a letter to the PM in March.

Such is the concern that Uttarakhand is not letting Swami Sanand enter the state. On Monday, Sanand attempted to go towards Alaknanda but was stopped at the Uttarakhand border by the state police and brought back to Delhi, where he was admitted to AIIMS and later discharged. Insiders said the state fears his presence may stoke religious sentiments on an emotive issue.

The NEERI study, commissioned by the Tehri Hydel Development Corporation and submitted last November, has become a key document for the protestors. It states: “The present study confirmed that the uniqueness of the River Bhagirathi/Ganga lay in its sediment content which is more radioactive compared to other river and lake water sediments. It has bactericidal properties and can cause proliferation of coliphages that reduce and ultimately eliminate coliforms from overlying water column. Investigations revealed that particulate matters of Alaknanda have identical anti-bacterial property as that of Bhagirathi.”

Protestors claim that these projects change the course of the river which leads to the loss of its “unique properties”. The Ganges, they argue, acquires these properties because of the sediments is gathers along this path. Any obstruction in the form of a dam or a barrage impedes the river’s course. The group’s demand is that of an “Aviral (obstacle-free) Ganga”.

A worried PMO is learnt to have asked the consortium of seven IITs to validate the NEERI’s claims. The consortium, which has been tasked to draw up a Ganga River Basin Management Plan, will now have to look into this first. Incidentally, the NEERI study gives a clean chit to the Tehri project, stating that it does not obstruct the course of the river.

The government has, in fact, conveyed to Sanand that it could consider modifying these projects to ensure that a part of the river continues to flow on the original course and the diverted portion joins the river later. But there has been no response yet.

If the government were to fully concede, the worst affected would be the 330 MW Srinagar hydel project being built by GVK that is 90 per cent complete. The others include the World Bank-assisted project in Vishnugad Pipalkoti, where the rehabilitation plan is complete and the Singoli-Bhatwari project.

A few years ago, the Centre gave in and scrapped three projects on the River Bhagirathi amid heightened protests in Uttarakhand. Now, armed with the NEERI study and increasing clout, the group feels the action on the projects along the Alaknanda is only a logical sequel.

Sanand, meanwhile, met BJP leader Uma Bharati besides scores of other RSS sympathisers. The Centre, sources said, is worried about this campaign acquiring a feverish pitch by Dusshera and carrying on till the Mahakumbh.

The Indian Express, 31th May 2012

All hydroelectric projects on the Ganga could be asked to reduce their power generation — possibly up to 50 per cent of capacity — in an effort to provide a clean and continuous flow of the river's water, if a proposal by Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan is found to be legally viable.

“We cannot shut down existing projects, but we are exploring the legality of reducing the capacity of operational hydroelectric plants,” she told The Hinduon Tuesday. “A clean Ganga is my top priority at present… we need to get extremely proactive.”

If the proposal, which Ms. Natarajan plans to take to the Prime Minister, is implemented, the power generation of 17 operational projects could be affected. Apart from these, 14 projects are currently under construction, while 39 more are in the pipeline.

State governments and industry players, already facing power shortages, are likely to vociferously protest any such move, but the Union Environment Ministry is scanning the Environment Protection Act (EPA), to find a way to overrule states in the interests of a free-flowing river. “We are seeing if a way can be found under the EPA to impose conditions post-facto [on these projects], given that the Ganga is national river, and free flow is an environmental issue,” said Ms. Natarajan.

She has already put an effective moratorium on fresh environment clearances for any new hydroelectric projects on the river, in the wake of an increasingly strident campaign for “nirmal dhara” and “aviral dhara” (clean and free flow) by environmental activists and Hindu religious leaders. Last month, activists stepped up their demands through indefinite fasts and resignation threats of three members of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).

With complaints that the NGRBA is helpless, despite being headed by the Prime Minister, Ms. Natarajan also gave a proposal to set up a new Ganga Commission, which could effectively monitor activities on the ground. “It would be like a beefed-up CPCB [Central Pollution Control Board] exclusively for the 40-odd Ganga districts,” she said.

Meanwhile, CPCB has been told to provide zero-discharge of industrial effluents into the river by October this year. However, the Environment Minister was quick to point out that massive hydro projects and polluting industries aren't the only culprits.

“Vast amounts of water get diverted for agriculture through irrigation canals, but no one talks of that when they talk of the free flow of the river,” she pointed out. “In terms of pollution, 75 per cent of the effluents are domestic, rather than industrial. We have funded sewerage treatment plants, but unless local governments use them and set up sewerage networks, that will be of little use.”

The Hindu, 31th May 2012

Madhya Pradesh has the maximum area under forest cover among all the states in the country, an RTI query has revealed.

According to the latest India State of Forest Report 2011, 77,700 kms (11.24 percent) of the total 6,90,899 kms of forest land in the country is in Madhya Pradesh, Ministry of Environment and Forest has said, in reply to an RTI query by Omprakash Sharma, a former BJP national council member.

As per the latest assessment report, 83,471 kms (12.05 pc) in the country is covered by very dense forest while 3,20,736 kms (46.32 pc) of land is under moderately dense forest and 2,87,820 kms (41.56 pc) is covered by open forest, the MoEF report said.

The report further indicated that Arunachal Pradesh with 67,410 kms under forest cover stood next to Madhya Pradesh, while Chhattisgarh stood at third position with a forest cover of 55,870 kms.

Of the total 77,700 kms of forest land in Madhya Pradesh, 6,640 kms is covered by very dense forest while 34,986 kms by moderately dense forest and 36,074 kms by open forest.

In Maharashtra, of the total 50,650 kms of forest land, a major chunk of 21,095 kms was covered by open forest, 20,815 kms under moderately dense forest and just 8,736 kms by very dense forest, the report said. Of the country's total geographical area of 32,87,263 kms, 21.06 per cent, that is 6,92,394 kms, is covered by forest, it said. According to the report, forest cover is below 100 kms in union territories — Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman-Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

The Pioneer, 31th May 2012

A long Anatolian kilim, a Kyrgyz Julkhyr rug or a Shahsavan runner, these exquisite pieces of art woven in thread will go under the hammer this month.

The country will witness a first of its kind carpets, rugs and tapestries auction on June 11. Bengaluru-based auction house Bid & Hammer has put together a collection of 120 lots for the auction.

Sourced from individual collectors, each of these are from regions in Central Asia, the Caucasian mountains located between the Black and Caspian seas, the Persian Zagros mountains area and the Kurdish enclaves of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.

Estimated between Rs 15,000 to Rs 12, 00, 000, the highest bid is expected to be between Rs 10-12 lakh. “Indians are collectors of high value antiquities and artifacts.

The woven items are from the personal collection of a few Indians who have lived abroad and have relocated to India,” says Ankush Dadha, director, Bid & Hammer.

Novices or seasoned art connoisseurs, collecting carpets and rugs is the trend that has caught the fancy of many. Not just the aesthetics, the monetary value is something that attracts many to invest.

“Prices of all of these are bound to go up. The distinct factor of each is the region that it comes from. Most of these are hand-made by tribal nomadic women,” says Ankush.

A carpet or a rug is also identified by its physical aspects — like pile count (density) and design elements.

An Adiyaman runner from mid 20th Century Anatolia is identified by its heavy pile count. While the drawings of Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu and the Gopis are characteristic elements of a few Kashmiri woven carpets probably made for the Hindu rulers of that region. “Buying these is not as complicated as buying paintings,” adds Ankush.

The auction notice has received an overwhelming response online. Art-lovers from UK, USA, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Melbourne will be in Bengaluru for the auction.

Despite online auctions being popular, the organisers have chosen to go the traditional way. “People prefer full-fledged live physical auctions.

During online auctions, bidders can’t follow the direction of the bidding. But most importantly, who wouldn’t want to hear the applause at the end,” concludes Ankush.

The Deccan Chronicle, 31th May 2012