Recently, I stumbled on a children`s science fiction BATUKBABUR CHASHMA written by vetran Bengali writer TMC ANANDA group afliated Shirshendu Bandopaddhyaya and published in the Puja Special of Anando Mela. The background is near to nature and the Human scape is Aboriginal. The theme relates to some ALIENS attacking the Earth who try to steal an Ocean from the Earth as their planet has not sufficient Water. They are the best alchemists and may produce GOLD out of nay metal just changing the atomic Chemical equations! The Novel emphasises on the worth of Bio Cycle and Natural Resources which are more precious than Gold! What we face is a different story in reality, Plastic Money has all the Power of the Universe and it has the single Agenda- Destroy the Nature and Kill the Nature associated Aboriginal Indigenous Human scape!
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - Four Hundred SIXTY
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
At least 18 children were killed while six others were pulled out alive from the debris after the roof of a primary school collapsed in a hilly area today following heavy rains in Uttarakhand's Bageshwar district.The children were in the age group of six to 10 years, he said, adding the rescued children who were injured were safe and were being treated by doctors.Uttarakhand chief minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank said the search and rescue teams have recovered the bodies of 18 children from the debris of the collapsed building in Kapkot area, about 450km from Dehradun.Despite bad weather, the rescue and search operation is going on in the affected area, said official sources.
The roof of the Saraswati Shishu Mandir at Sumgad village collapsed this morning when the children were studying, burying them under the debris, he said.Six other children were also rescued safely with minor injuries from the debris, he added.
Nautiyal said according to reports around 50 children were inside the classes when the tragedy occured. Fortunately, several children were in the open compound area, he added.
The chief minister also announced ex-gratia of Rs50,000 each to the families, which have lost their children.
Amid growing recrimination over the slow international response to the Pakistan flood crisis, the US has increased its aid to the country to $150m (£96.2m).The Indus valley civilisation is destroyed thousands years ago. The Saraswati valley has disapeared. Now the Himalayas where from all the rivers do spring as flowing lifelines in south Asia, is being butchered. The Glaciers may not be melting as alerted , but the Calamities man Made are so overwhelming expose the Naked TRUTH across Political Borders. Mansarovar and the Everest have become Tourist Destination thanks to China. China continues construction at High altitudes without any mercy. While the Awakened Dragon laundering in the Free Market has initiated to stop the WATER of Mahabahu Brahmaputra from its source. Government of India Incs has already chained the Great Ganges. Tehri dam is clicking like an ATOM bomb in the Earth Quake prone super sensitive zone. While Uttarakhand and Himachal compete as ENERGY Pradesh. It is all over Disaster in every part of Himalayas these days. Pakistan is suffering UNPRECEDENTED Floods. While Leh has NOT Recovered from the Cloud Burst as yet despite super Icon AMIR Khan Initiative amidst Peepli Live aboriginal theme song and Three Idiots Dynamics!
On the other hand, Politically the Himalayas have become the most Volatile zone. US Army Presence in AF Pak border areas, Tibet and kashmir on Fire, North East India inflicted and Gorkhaland- multi dimensional Crisis has inflicted the Himalayan Human scape beyond the senses of the so called Main Stream inland and global Opinion and Order beyond!
The bodies of 18 children were today recovered from under the debris of their school in Bageshwar district even as heavy rains continued to wreak havoc in Uttarakhand, killing two more persons and flattening at least 100 houses.
My heart bleeds as I have been witnessing the Hill children`s daily tedious task to reach the school !I have NOT visited the spot but I may see the faces NOT to speak again!
I know all those faces!I know the villages and the people.
Based in Kolkata fro Twenty years so far from my roots, I am pained to see and feel the Apathy of the mainstream for which it is NEVER a matter of Ecology or Environment.
Recently, I stumbled on a children`s science fiction BATUKBABUR CHASHMA written by vetran Bengali writer TMC ANANDA group afliated Shirshendu Bandopaddhyaya and published in the Puja Special of Anando Mela. The background is near to nature and the Human scape is Aboriginal. The theme relates to some ALIENS attacking the Earth who try to steal an Ocean from the Earth as their planet has not sufficient Water. They are the best alchemists and may produce GOLD out of nay metal just changing the atomic Chemical equations!
The Novel emphasises on the worth of Bio Cycle and Natural Resources which are more precious than Gold! What we face is a different story in reality, Plastic Money has all the Power of the Universe and it has the single Agenda- Destroy the Nature and Kill the Nature associated Aboriginal Indigenous Human scape!
With heavy rains continuing in Uttarakhand and most of the rivers flowing above the danger mark, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre issued a red alert in the entire state.
In Bageshwar district where a school collapsed yesterday, rescue workers completed their operation, taking out the bodies of 18 children. The bodies will be handed over to the families after a postmortem, police said.
Panic-stricken people were leaving some of the disaster-prone villages particularly in the hilly Bageshwar and Rudraprayag districts. Most of the people in Nagjagai in Rudraprayag, Sumgarh and Saling in Bageshwar district have left, they said.
The hilly areas bore the brunt of the heavy rains in the state where over 100 houses collapsed overnight in different areas, officials said here.
Nearly half a dozen houses were flattened in the hill resort of Mussoorie due to overnight heavy rains. In Harsiabagad area of Bageshwar district, nearly 12 houses collapsed.
An old woman died after her house collapsed in Mussoorie. In a similar incident, a man died at Bhawali town in Nainital district. So far, rains have claimed 43 lives in the state during the monsoon season.
The Chardham yatra to four hilly shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, was hit by heavy rains which have triggered a series of landslides.
In Dehradun, heavy rains disrupted normal life with water inundating scores of houses in localities like Doiwala and Majri goan areas.
The meteorological office here said heavy rains would continue to lash the state during the next few hours. Nainital recorded 221 mm of rainfall, followed by Dehradun at 142 mm.
Ganga, Yamuna and its tributaries were flowing above the danger level in most of the areas in the state.
Until yesterday, Nand Kishore Mishra was a happy father watching all his three children going to school.
But the tragedy that struck a primary school in Sumgad village of Bageshwar district yesterday changed his life forever as he lost his two sons and a daughter.
Mishra's two daughters -- Urmila, 8, Yogita, 5, and son Gaurav, 4,-- were studying in Saraswati Shishu Mandir school when its building collapsed following incessant rains, killing them on the spot.
Sushila Devi's two daughters were also among 18 children, all aged between 4 to 10, who were killed in the roof collapse leaving their parents and relatives inconsolable.
The death of Neha Danu, 7, and Manisha Danu, 4, Devi says, has left her alone in this world as her husband had died a few years ago.
Meanwhile, Bageshwar district administration completed the rescue and search operation and handed over the bodies to their families after postmortem.
The bodies were later buried in an open field at the bank of the river Saryu.
"When the bodies were being buried, everyone had tears in his eyes," said sub-divisional magistrate of Kapkot tehsil Kirtipal Singh, camping in the area since yesterday morning.
The heavy rains that lashed the capital Thursday were felt in the Lok Sabha - thanks to a leaking roof.
Jagdambika Pal of the Congress raised the matter during Zero Hour, pointing to the roof. "Madam, the rain water is dripping in the house," he said.
The parliament house, designed by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, is showing signs of wear and tear.
Speaker Meira Kumar has constituted a high level committee, headed by her, to protect the heritage structure that opened in 1927.
Read more: It rained in the Lok Sabha too! - India - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/It-rained-in-the-Lok-Sabha-too/articleshow/6338926.cms#ixzz0x44UHCex
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No concrete proof to pin Leh cloudburst on global warming: Experts - 1 day ago
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PM sanctions Rs1 lakh for Uttarakhand roof collapse victims
Prime minister Manmohan Singh today expressed grief at the demise of 18 children in a roof collapse in Uttarakhand and sanctioned Rs1 lakh each for the kin of the victims.
"The prime minister is grieved to learn of the unfortunate demise of 18 children of a primary school in Uttarakhand's Bageshwar district," a statement from the prime minister's office said.
It said the prime minister has sanctioned ex-gratia assistance of Rs1 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and Rs50,000 each in case of seriously injured from the PM's National Relief Fund.
The mishap occurred in Kapkot area of Bageshwar district this morning following heavy rains.
Bageshwar district magistrate DS Garbiyal said the tragedy occurred due to heavy landslides triggered by torrential rains at the hill where the school is situated.
Rescue teams from the district headquarters had a tough time reaching the spot after the bridge linking thearea with Kapkot also collapsed due to heavy rains last night, Bageshwar district development officer SK Singh said.
However, locals sprang into action immediately after the incident and safely brought six children out of the rubble, he said.
Uttarakhand governor Margaret Alva expressed grief over the death of children in the tragedy at Kapkot area of Bageshwar district.
In her message, Alva has also prayed to God to give strength to the family members of the children to bear the loss, a Raj Bhavan release said.
Nautiyal said that rescue operations are continuing despite bad weather and poor connectivity in the area.
"We have already deployed few ambulances on the spot and relief work continues as we speak now," he said.
Pachauri asks Mexico to be realistic: Cancun climate summit
With hopes of a consensus eluding the Cancun climate meet, IPCC chairman R K Pachauri has urged host Mexico to be realistic and work hard in pushing rich nations to put climate funds on the table.
"There will be least expectations (of a consensus) this time (at Cancun). I doubt if you will get anything close to a global agreement. It is not possible particularly considering the situation in some countries," Pachauri said, apparently referring to delay of passage of US climate law.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has already acknowledged that the December meeting might not produce the definitive agreement the world body is seeking.
Talking to PTI, Pachauri said during his recent meeting with the Mexican leadership in the run-up to the crucial summit, he has cautioned them to be "realistic and don't pitch expectations very high because that will not really work."
Highlighting the need for an action on climate money, he told the host country "for heaven's sake please get the commitment on funding.
"So I think Mexico will have to work on some of these countries to see that they (developed nations) really put some money on the table," he said, noting that of the USD 30 billion agreed by the developed states between 2010-2012, no funds have been made available so far.
The head of the Noble-award winning Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), however, said he was looking forward for some limited agreements for concrete actions to control Green House Gases at the crucial meet slated to be held by the year-end.
Most countries at the Copenhagen Summit last year signed an accord that called on governments to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius, but without spelling out how to achieve this goal.
He made clear that at the multilateral level it was the responsibility of the developed nations to provide funds for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and not developing nations as has been demanded by some industrialised blocks.
"They (rich nations) have to take the first step but they are not doing that," he said, adding that at a bilateral level there was no harm in major developing countries like India pitching in to help the least developed nations.
"If it has money, I see no harm in India providing technical support to the needy countries at the bilateral level," he said.
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Search for bodies at Indian school endsSydney Morning Herald - 5 hours agoRescuers said on Thursday they had stopped searching the rubble of a northern Indian school that collapsed under heavy monsoon rains, after recovering the ... World Briefs.......Daily Dispatch Online - 9 hours agoAT LEAST 18 children died yesterday when a school collapsed after heavy rains in northern India as the region's monsoon wreaked more havoc. ... India Digest: 18 Children Killed as Roof of School Building CollapsesWall Street Journal (blog) - 12 hours agoHere is a roundup of news from Indian newspapers, news wires and Web sites on Thursday, August 19, 2010. The Wall Street Journal has not verified these ... Landslide buries school, at least 18 children deadIndian Express - 16 hours agoAt least 18 children, all below the age of 10, died this morning after a landslide triggered by a cloudburst struck a primary school building in the hills ... Landslide hits Uttarakhand school, 18 dieHindustan Times - 18 hours agoA massive landslide, triggered by a heavy monsoon downpour, demolished a school building in Uttarakhand's Bageshwar district, killing at least 18 children ... 18 school children buried alive in UttarakhandSify - 20 hours agoAt least 18 children were buried alive when the building of a school caved in following incessant rain in Uttarakhand's Kapkot town on Wednesday. ... PM sanctions Rs one lakh for Uttarakhand roof collapse victimsIndian Express - Aug 18, 2010Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday expressed grief at the demise of 18 children in a roof collapse in Uttarakhand and sanctioned Rs one lakh each ... 18 children killed as school roof collapses in UttarakhandIndian Express - Aug 18, 2010The CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has announced a relief of Rs 1 lakh for the deceased. At least 18 children of a primary school in Uttrakhand's Bageshwar ... 17 kids killed in Uttarakhand building collapseSify - Aug 18, 2010At least seventeen children were killed and more are feared trapped under the debris of a school building that collapsed following a cloudburst in ... All 43 related articles » | RelatedUttarakhandCloudburst North India Timeline of articles Number of sources covering this story
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No concrete proof to pin Leh cloudburst on global warming: Experts
ANI, Aug 18, 2010, 05.17pm ISTLONDON: Two weeks back, a Himalayan desert town, Leh was ravaged by a fatal cloudburst - but scientists insist that there isn't sufficient evidence to confirm that it occurred as a result of global warming.
Heavy rainfall is common elsewhere in the Himalayas, but not in Ladakh.
Instead, it's a rain shadow area, making it a cold, high-altitude desert and receives a meagre average of 15 millimetres of rain during August.
On 6th August, however, the cloudburst that attacked Leh, led to flash floods and mudslides, washing away houses that weren't built to withstand such rainfall. More than 150 people have died and hundreds more are missing.
According to New Scientist, climate scientist Jayaraman Srinivasan of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore said that the number of extreme events such as cloudbursts would increase with rising global temperature.
But added that there is not enough evidence to pin the Leh cloudburst on global warming.
"The problem with mountainous areas is that we don't have sufficient data," he says. "We only know from hearsay that the number of extreme events has increased over the past few years," he said.
Read more: No concrete proof to pin Leh cloudburst on global warming: Experts - Global Warming - Environment - Home - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/No-concrete-proof-to-pin-Leh-cloudburst-on-global-warming-Experts/articleshow/6331318.cms#ixzz0x4423qbH
Changes in AFSPA after consultations: Chidambaram
IANS, Aug 19, 2010, 07.54pm ISTNEW DELHI: Home minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday said changes proposed by his ministry in the special powers accorded to the armed forces in troubled areas could be effected after consultations with all concerned.
"We have to have consultations with everybody before amendments are made" to the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), Chidambaram said, adding that his ministry had proposed amendments to it.
AFSPA provides legal immunity to the armed forces for any collateral damage, including deaths, during anti-terror operations. It is in place in Jammu and Kashmir and parts of the northeast.
Chidambaram was speaking in the Lok Sabha on the economic blockade of the national highways in Manipur.
Ruling out any division of Manipur as demanded by some Naga groups, the home minister said the government would ensure "honour, dignity and equal rights" of the Nagas within the constitution.
He said the government was taking "all measures to ensure that essential commodities are available in adequate quantities in all parts of Manipur" in the wake of the second road blockade in the first week of August.
The government is monitoring the situation on a daily basis and will take necessary steps to maintain adequate stocks of food grains and other essential commodities in Manipur, he said.
This is the second economic blockade of National Highway 39 and 53 to Manipur.
Earlier, United Naga Council (UNC) and other Naga bodies of Manipur protesting against the holding of elections to the six autonomous district councils in Manipur had blocked road links to Manipur in April 6.
He said adequate number of central para military forces were made available to the Manipur government for escorting vehicles along NH-39 from Dimapur to Imphal.
Transportation of food grains by railways has also commenced, the home minister said.
He said from Aug 4-17, 71 tankers of petrol, 207 tankers of diesel, 10 tankers of kerosene, 78 bullets of cooking gas, 120 trucks of food grains, 14 trucks of medicine and six trucks of cement have reached Imphal through NH 39 under Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) escort.
Read more: Changes in AFSPA after consultations: Chidambaram - India - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Changes-in-AFSPA-after-consultations-Chidambaram/articleshow/6338990.cms#ixzz0x44Hlocn
Sept 21 rally to drum support to save Himalayas
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KATHMANDU: The Save the Himalayas awareness rally will be held on Sept 21 at 4 pm at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in front of the United Nations.
Issuing a statement, Binod Shah, coordinator of the committee urged all to participate in the rally which is scheduled on a weekday (Tuesday).
"It is more importantly related to our daily livelihood. You and I know that the global warming is having a devastating impact on the Himalayas and as a result the snow is melting and the mountains are turning into rocks without any snow on them," reads the statement.
It has expressed great concern about with the snow melting situation in the Himalayan region.
"When there is no snow on the mountains, the glaciers will disappear and when
there are no glaciers, there will no water flowing down to streams and rivers, it said in the statement.
It urged the participation of all which would be important to the success of the rally.
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9 Aug, 2010, 02.09AM IST, Jai Kumar Sharma,
Misy Mountain Resort may bring ripple of joy
Anyone can be perky about driving through the clouds on the roads through the Himalayas but fear is a factor. One may still adore and admire the feeling of water vapours creeping through the windows of the car caressing your face. But those careening H20 kisses are soon forgotten because of what follows after the adventurous drive.The misty mornings of a tiny hamlet in the not so distant Kumaon fascinate like mysteries of life. The slow pace of life in those quaint Himalayan villages still holds on to their charm: the evenings are pretty with sights of flocks returning home from the high-land pastures; the tinkling sound of sheep-bells reminds you of the poetic twilight scenes from anthologies; smoke rising from the chimneys of small village houses that are not ashamed of merging with the milky white background of the snowy peaks.
Can we ask for anything more? It's hard to find, but there are some hidden treasures of Himalayan beauty that still offers a more than awesome hiding place for those seeking some serene sanity. The Misty Mountains resort in "Jhaltola Estate" is one such destination which may bring a ripple of joy to travellers who went to embrace the snowy Himalayas without risking their lives. And that risk discounts seeing leopards, deer, wild boars and Himalayan birds.
Jhaltola Estate, which is 492 km north from Delhi in the Gangolihat sub-division of Pithoragarh district in Eastern Kumaon, quenches your thrust for being in the lap of nature and pampers you with good food and a sterile stay supported by modern amenities.
Before reaching there people prefer to stay overnight at Nainital or Almora, but this correspondent decided to drive non-stop for 13 hours, which in hindsight turned out to be wise decision. After a night's drive on NH 24 we were in Bhovali in the morning.
Things are very simple, though the drive may not be. Hit the pedal on a normal hill drive on wide road till Almora via Khairna and take a right turn before entering Almora town for Pithoragarh. The road is comparatively smooth till Badechina which is 16 km from Almora, turn left on the uphill road to hit upon the beginning of a journey to the mystique Kumaon.
It's a newly laid hot-mix road passing through thick pine forest and negligible human population, endless green slopes, mountains of paddy step-farms, small streams coming down from the higher reaches that adds transcendence to the drive.
Sneaking through a narrow but charming valley 16 kilometre from Badechina this correspondent reached Dhaulchina, an oasis that emerges without warning on an otherwise lonely drive. The ubiquitous name Hill View is a stopover restaurant that surprises everyone with its delicious Punjabi, Chinese and Kumaoni cuisine that is least expected in such a remote location.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/Misy-Mountain-Resort-may-bring-ripple-of-joy-to-travellers/articleshow/6333680.cms
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipko_movement - Cached - Similar
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Chipko Movement, India
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In the 1970s and 1980s this resistance to the destruction of forests spread throughout India and became organised and known as the Chipko Movement. ...
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www.iisd.org/50comm/commdb/desc/d07.htm - Cached - Similar
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Chipko Movement, Chipko India Movement, Chipko Movement and Women ...
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Eco India provides some useful information on the Chipko Movement, started in India in 1970's. It was based on the Gandhian peaceful means.
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www.ecoindia.com › Eco Education › Green Movement - Cached - Similar
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The Chipko Movement (India)
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The Chipko Movement (India). (1987). Sunderlal Bahuguna ...for its dedication to the conservation, restoration and ecologically-sound use of India's natural ...
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www.rightlivelihood.org/chipko.pdf - Similar
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Healthy-India.org :: The Chipko movement
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In the 1970s, an organized resistance to the destruction of forests spread throughout India and came to be known as the Chipko movement. ...
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www.healthy-india.org/saveearth6.asp - Cached - Similar
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The Chipko movement
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In the 1970s, an organized resistance to the destruction of forests spread throughout India and came to be known as the Chipko movement. ...
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edugreen.teri.res.in/explore/forestry/chipko.htm - Cached - Similar
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The Chipko Movement (Women in World History Curriculum)
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Women in the Chipko Movemnet in India discussing deforestation. In the 1980s the ideas of the Chipko movement spread, often by women talking about them at ...
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Chipko Movement | India Environment Portal
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In a throwback to the Chipko movement to save trees in the seventies, the Rakhi festival has turned into a rallying point for hundreds of village women near ...
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www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/...movements/chipko-movement - Cached
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The Chipko Movement - India Today
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As there were hardly any environmental movements in the entire developing world in the '70s, the Chipko movement stood out, attracting worldwide attention. ...
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www.india-today.com/itoday/millennium/.../chipko.html - Cached - Similar
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"Hug the Trees!" (Chipko Movement, Nanda Devi, Chandi Prasad Bhatt ...
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INDIA. Though my research focused on the Chipko Movement as it grew up around Gopeshwar, there is another important branch founded and led by long-time ...
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19 Aug, 2010, 08.34PM IST, Nageshwar Patnaik,ET Bureau
Vedanta denies mining at Niyamgiri hills
BHUBANESWAR: London listed Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), which has already set up its 4,500-crore refinery project at Lanjigarh in the poverty-hit Kalahandi district much ahead of the schedule and now is expanding to one million ton refinery on Thursday denied exploitation of bauxite from Niyamgiri hills.
The company also made it clear that not an inch of mining would commence on the hills without obtaining necessary approvals from the Centre and Orissa government. "We have not started a single inch of mining on the hilltop of Niyamgiri. The recent report in a section of media about bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hill is just misinterpretation of the facts and far from the truth," Dr Mukesh Kumar, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of VAL, told "The ET".
Dr Kumar said VAL was waiting for necessary clearances from the Centre. "We are waiting for necessary clearances. I have ensured many times even in the past that no mining activity has commenced on Niyamgiri hills. Mining will commence only after obtaining all the necessary approvals from Government of India and the Orissa Government," Dr Kumar said.
A joint venture (JV) company between state owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) and Sterlite Industries India Ltd (SIIL), the metal arm of Vedanta Resources would undertake mining on Niyamgiri, Mr Kumar said adding that mining would take place as per the directives of the Supreme Court.
"VAL has strictly followed the Supreme Court's directive with regard to the project. As per the directive, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called Lanjigarh Project Area Development Foundation (LPADF) with participation of SIIL, OMC and Government of Orissa has been formed. The Revenue Divisional Commissioner (South) is the chairman of the SPV. SIIL has already deposited Rs 20 crore in the SPV as its contribution for Scheduled Area Development of Lanjigarh project," Dr Kumar said.
The Apex Court in its verdict had said, "SIIL will deposit every year commencing from 1.4.07, 5% of its annual profits before tax and interest from Lanjigarh Project or Rs 10 crore whichever is higher for Scheduled Area Development with the said SPV and it shall be the duty of the said SPV to account for the expenses each year".
Mr Kumar said the amount to be spent on the development of local area would cross Rs 50 crore once the expansion is over bringing smiles to local populace. The LPADF has initiated several development projects in the areas of health, education, drinking water, livelihood, infrastructure development for the tribals, he added.
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In This Section | Entire Website
1 Vedanta's move to pick up stake in oil blocks...
2 Surat diamond units unite to take on global c...
3 Jindal Steel to start project in Bolivia
4 Cairn Plc may face $1-b cap-gains tax
5 India Steel sells 10% stake to Dubai's ANC
US denies linking investment ties to Bhopal disaster
The United States has denied reports that it was trying to link the Bhopal gas tragedy with India-US investment ties by suggesting a "lot of noise" over the issue could have a "chilling effect" on them."The assertion that there was linkage between two separate and distinct issues is wrong, is incorrect," Benjamin Chang, Deputy Spokesperson of the National Security Council in the White House, stated.
"We certainly recognize the importance and sensitivity of this issue in India. We are committed to building a strong, broad and deep relationship between our two countries," he said.
Chang was commenting on an Indian news report that US Deputy National Security Advisor, Michael Froman had made such a suggestion in an email to the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
According to the Indian news report, responding to Ahluwalia's request for US support in getting World Bank loans, Froman wrote: "While I've got you, we are hearing a lot of noise about the Dow Chemicals issue. I trust that you are monitoring it carefully."
"I am not familiar with all the details but I think we want to avoid developments which put chilling effect on our investment relationship," the e-mail added.
Chang, however, declined to go into the contents of the e-mail exchange saying, "We are not going to comment on the specific contents on emails." But added any effort to conclude that there is any linkage between two separate issues is wrong.
Officials also pointed out that the US has supported India's position at the World Bank affiliate International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) as requested in the purported e-mail from Ahluwalia.
The plan panel chief had apparently asked Forman to speak with his colleagues at the US Treasury for supporting New Delhi as India had hit the limit set at the World Bank that would force it to cut its credit line to New Delhi drastically unless the limit was relaxed.
In New Delhi too officials have pointed out that Ahluwalia had already explained he was not connected in any manner with the process being followed on the Bhopal disaster case, including then Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson's extradition.
Twenty-five years ago, on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984, at least 3,500 people were killed instantly and thousands more later after a deadly gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal. Union Carbide was subsequently acquired by Dow Chemicals.
17 Aug, 2010, 04.58AM IST,ET Bureau
Scindia against curbs on iron ore exports
NEW DELHI: The commerce and industry ministry has said that it does not favour any restrictions on exports of iron ore, arguing that production was higher than domestic consumption and failure to export the mineral could lead to environmental degradation and hazards in mining areas.
The statement made by minister of state for commerce and industry Jyotiraditya Scindia in reply to a Lok Sabha question will disappoint the domestic steel industry that has been lobbying for 'preserving' the natural resource for the industry's future use by restricting its exports.
The export of iron ore has always been an issue but the pitch has been raised after Karnataka government decided last month to ban exports and subsequently extended it to taking it outside state borders.
India produced 226 million tonne of iron ore in 2009-10, more than half of which (117 million tonne) was exported.
Karnataka produced 46 million tonnes of iron ore last fiscal, the second highest among all estates, of which it exported about 20 million tonne.
Iron ore mining companies have already taken the state government to the courts over the abrupt ban, which industry says can result in a serious credibility issue for the government if other states were to follow.
In his reply, Mr Scindia justified exports saying that India was mainly shipping out iron ore fines, which is not used by domestic steel industry due to its limited sintering and pelletisation capacity.
During 2008-09, iron ore fines constituted about 87% of the total iron ore exports.
Any restrictions on its exports will not only harm the environment but would also affect economic activities in remove areas where handling of iron ore is the main employment generating activity, he added.
Steel minister Virbhadra Singh had earlier said the UPA government had an open mind about stronger deterrence measures to discourage exports of the mineral.
The government has already increased the export duty on iron ore has been revised to 10% on lumps and pellets and 5% on iron ore fines to discourage exports.
Most of India's iron ore exports is headed to China, but the demand from the country is expected to slowdown as industrial growth moderates there after government measures to cool down prices.
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Allow FDI in multi-brand retail after 5 years: Report
Before allowing FDI in multi- brand retail, the government should give five year's time to the players in the unorganised sector to develop a strategy to compete with foreign firms, a report said."...a breathing space of five years till 2015 should be given to the unorganised retail sector so as to enable this crucial sector to re-orient its strategy and be competent to face competition from foreign investment," the report of Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) said.
The industry department has taken a tentative step towards opening the multi-brand retail sector by kick starting a debate on the issue.
Besides, major retail players like Carrefour and Walmart several Indian chambers and organisations, including BIMTECH have responded to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion's (DIPP) discussion paper.
While the BIMTECH report suggests that FDI in front-end retail should be allowed after 2015, foreign investments could be allowed immediately in the retail infrastructure (back-end) to improve the supply chain.
"If the government allows FDI in back-end retail right now that will strengthen the supply chain by the time multi-brand retail becomes opens, say after five years," BIMTECH's Director H Chaturvedi said.
Due to lack of proper food processing and storage facilities, annual wastage of fruits, vegetables and other agri-products is estimated at Rs one lakh crore.
The BIMTECH report also recommended that the government should set up a separate fund for educating retailers in the unorganised sector about customers service and products display.
While multi-brand retail is forbidden for FDI, the government allows 51 per cent foreign investment in single brand retail and 100 per cent in wholesale trade.
Norway to pay $30 million to save Indonesian forests
JAKARTA: Norway agreed Thursday to advance 30 million dollars to Indonesia in the first instalment of a planned billion-dollar scheme to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.After two days of talks in Jakarta, Norwegian officials said they were satisfied that Indonesia was making progress towards its promise to impose a two-year moratorium on deforestation starting in January 2011.
"Indonesia... is taking a global leadership role on climate change. Norway is honoured to work with Indonesia in a partnership built on mutual trust and respect, and a long time friendship," Norwegian Ambassador Eivind Homme said.
"Our shared commitment to transparency, accountability and predictable contributions in return for agreed deliverables breaks new ground in international climate change collaboration."
He said the meetings in Jakarta had "brought us significantly forward" and he expected to be able to announce a "fully operational partnership" at a UN conference on climate change in Mexico in December.
Indonesia is one of the top emitters of climate-warming gases blamed for rising global temperatures, largely through deforestation due to illegal logging and clearing for palm oil plantations, experts say.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the moratorium during a trip to Oslo in May.
But no one knows how it will work in a country where illegal logging is rampant and the government's figures about deforestation rates are seen as wildly inaccurate.
Homme's emphasis on the need for transparency and "agreed deliverables" echoed Norwegian Prime Minister Stoltenberg's comments in May.
"If there is no reduced deforestation, we will not pay," Homme said.
The verifiability of such initiatives is crucial to broader UN-backed efforts to link developed-world climate change funds to forest conservation in developing countries like Indonesia and Brazil.
Analysts say Indonesia has still not clarified which forests will be protected under the moratorium, which has been opposed by the powerful palm oil industry.
Environment threatens Pakistani state: US report
Environmental woes as witnessed in Pakistan's devastating floods threaten the unity of the nation, exacerbating the threat of Islamic extremists, a US government report said.
The study prepared for US lawmakers warned that Pakistan's ecological problems would likely get worse due to climate change, potentially inflaming tensions with nuclear-armed adversary India.
The report said that Pakistan faced critical risks to food security in the coming decades due to a number of reasons including water scarcity, population growth and mismanagement.
"The combination of these factors could contribute to Pakistan's decline as a fully functioning state, creating new, or expanding existing, largely ungoverned areas," the Congressional Research Service said.
The growth of lawless areas of the type seen now in Pakistan's tribal northwest is "not in US strategic interests given the recent history of such areas being used by the Taliban, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups," it said.
The Congressional Research Service is tasked with advising US lawmakers, although its reports do not necessarily reflect US policy. The Pakistan report was obtained by the Federation of American Scientists.
Pakistan is suffering from the worst floods in its history, affecting 14 million people. Some Islamist groups have tried to raise their profile in the relief operations after criticism of the government response.
While the report was written largely before the flooding, it warned of future disasters as climate change leads to a melting of Himalayan glaciers, the source of most of the water in the Indus River.
But Pakistan's environmental decision-making is held up by corruption and rivalry between civilian and military leaders, the report said.
The report noted that the United States has increasingly sought to assist Pakistan on water and other environmental issues.
The United States last year approved a five-year, $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan, hoping to stabilise the nation at the frontline of the fight against Islamic extremism.
Water has increasingly been a point of friction between Pakistan and India, which have fought three full-fledged wars since their separation at birth in 1947.
Many Pakistanis accuse India of stealing water; India denies the charges and says that Pakistani mismanagement is to blame.
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Carbon pricing called key to coal pollution plan
The key to developing technology to store coal plants' pollution underground is charging them for the carbon dioxide they release into the air, a US presidential task force says.The experimental technique is aimed at reducing pollution blamed for contributing to global warming.
In a report released Thursday, the task force says that without a price for carbon pollution, there is no framework for investing in the underground storage technology, known as carbon capture and storage or CCS.
According to the report, coal-fired power plants are the largest contributor to US greenhouse gas emissions, which is why the Obama administration is making a big push for "clean coal." The Energy Department is funding demonstration projects with $4 billion in federal funds, matched by more than $7 billion in private investments.
Senate Democrats were forced to shelve plans for climate legislation last month because they couldn't get enough Republicans to support it. The Republicans assailed the bill as a ``national energy tax'' and jobs killer, arguing that the costs would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher electricity bills and fuel costs.
President Barack Obama created the task force in February, charging it with coming up with a plan to overcome barriers to widespread, cost-effective deployment of carbon storage technology within 10 years with a goal of bringing five to 10 commercial demonstration projects online by 2016.
A big issue hanging over the developing technology is liability costs if something goes wrong. A sudden release of large amounts of carbon dioxide can kill by asphyxiation. In 1986, 1,700 people died when a cloud of carbon dioxide escaped from a volcanic lake in Cameroon.
The report offers several options to address the liability issue for carbon storage facilities: limits on claims; an industry-financed trust fund to pay damages after a site is closed; transfer of liability to the federal government following a site closure; or maintaining the current legal framework.
Despite questions about the technology, the report says there are no insurmountable barriers. But early projects do face ``first-of-a-kind technology risks'' and high costs, the report says.
It calls on federal agencies to help by coming up with rules governing such projects.
The task force, led by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department, included input from 14 federal agencies, CCS experts and others.
11 Aug, 2010, 08.21PM IST,REUTERS
FAO launches global fire monitoring system
MILAN: The United Nations' food agency launched a new monitoring system on Wednesday to help countries control fires and protect natural resources just as Russia is fighting its most deadly wildfires in nearly 40 years.
The new Global Fire Information Management System (GFIMS) detects fire hotspots from satellites operated by the US NASA, and its users can get email alerts on specific areas of interest, which help them react quickly, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said in a statement.
"The GFIMS has been launched at a time when the incidence of megafires tends to increase," said Pieter van Lierop, FAO Forestry Officer, in charge of its fire management activities.
"The control of these fires has become an issue of high importance, not only because of the increasing number of casualties and the huge amounts of area burned, but also because of the relations with issues of global interest, like climate change," he said in the statement.
Forest fires have killed more than 50 people in Russia, which has been stricken by its most devastating drought in 130 years.
GFIMS has an online mapping interface for displaying fire hotspots in near real time, with a lag of about 2.5 hours between satellite overpass and the data being available, the Rome-based FAO said.
Vegetation fires hit an estimated 350 million hectares (ha) of land each year around the world, with about half or more of this burnt area in Africa and 700,000 to 1 million ha damaged in the Mediterranean, the agency said.
GFIMS provides analysis on trends of prevalence of fire by year and month and will include information on the size of a burnt area by land cover type in the future, the FAO said.
The system can be used by forest managers, fire fighters and agencies involved in agricultural and natural resources monitoring, it said. The subscription is free of charge.
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Climate Group to draw up low carbon charter
NEW DELHI: A delegation of senior business leaders from the UK met their Indian counterparts of the UK-India Business Leaders Climate Group during the British Prime Minister David Cameron's recent visit to India.The Business Leaders Climate Group, launched in February 2010 in London, discussed opportunities to create low carbon economic growth and related jobs. A draft report was discussed for launching a charter of principles and actions for strengthening collaboration recommended. The paper would be presented to the UK and Indian Governments in September.
"By focusing on real actions, the UK-India Business Leaders Climate Group can demonstrate that there are real opportunities in shifting to cleaner forms of production and show the Governments a way forward in designing supportive policies, " Mark Kenber, Deputy CEO, the Climate Group, said. The Climate Group is excited to be acting as secretariat to such a prestigious group of business leaders and looks forward to working with them to deliver their vision of low carbon growth and development, Kenber added.
The leaders discussed the issues key to unlocking bilateral low carbon growth, including collaboration in areas such as R&D, investment, financing tools, trade, technology transfer and policy design.
Sir Stuart Rose, UK chair of the new group and chairman of Marks & Spencer said: "We've worked very hard over the last few months to put together a draft report. I hope we'll have robust discussions to make sure that we end up with the right final report because, it's absolutely vital that India and the UK work together to create a sustainable low carbon economy."
The Climate Group has commissioned ICF International to carry out a consultation with the business leaders and their companies to stitch up the draft report and charter. The leaders will present the final charter to UK and Indian Governments when they meet during the climate week in New York in September.
Dr Amit Mitra, India Chair of the Group and Secretary-General, FICCI, said: "This initiative will catalyse on the market experiences of both countries and develop new models and mechanisms for climate mitigation through a market driven process and will bring technology and finance as central drivers in this initiative."
The new acting India Chair of the Business Leaders Group, Rajan Bharti Mittal, President of FICCI said: "This initiative between India and UK will become an important template for other countries to emulate".
Genevieve Anderson ED of the UK-India Business Leaders Climate Group said: "This influential group of business leaders have put significant time and thought to the challenge of producing actionable recommendations and promoting a drive toward low carbon growth in both countries."
13 Aug, 2010, 12.16AM IST, Jayashree Nandi,
'50% rise in extreme rain incidence in last 50 yrs'
The Leh cloudburst has again brought out the glaring lack of adequate documentation on such sporadic weather events. J Srinivasan, chairman of Divecha Centre for Climate Change and head of Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, tells TOI's Jayashree Nandi about the need for extensive research on extreme weather events like the cloudburst. Excerpts:What do you think of the cloudburst disaster at Leh?
Cloudbursts are events in which high rainfall occur over a very small area, in a very short time span (typically more than 100 mm/hour for a few hours). We do not have much data about this phenomenon. However, such events have occurred earlier in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. For instance, many people were killed in a cloudburst at Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand) on August 7, 2009. These events are rare in Jammu and Kashmir and hence the Leh cloudburst was unexpected. Extreme rainfall events (rainfall more than 100 mm/day) have increased by 50% during the past 50 years. This year we had floods in Pakistan, Gujarat and now in Jammu and Kashmir.
How long did it rain in Leh and across how much area?
India Meteorological Department data says it rained between 1.30 am and 2 am in Leh on August 6. A weather station near Leh recorded only 12.8 mm of rainfall in 24 hours. These events are extremely localized in an area probably less than 30 square kilometres. In August, the normal rainfall in Leh is 15.4 mm and the highest recorded in this season was 51 mm. But this time, the rainfall was probably much higher than that.
Have such events taken place earlier? Is it similar to 2005 Mumbai floods?
Such events occur every year in mountainous regions. Many events are not reported because of insufficient data. For instance, if it happens in some remote areas of Himachal Pradesh and if there is no a weather station close by and there is no habitation in those areas, the event doesn't get reported. Leh cloudburst is comparable to Mumbai floods because it rained for over 12 hours in Mumbai.
Could this be due to climate change?
IMD observations show that events of extreme rainfall have increased by 50% during the past 50 years. And, most climate models predict that global warming will increase such events. We cannot claim that a specific extreme event is due to global warming although we know that the probability of such events will increase as the earth becomes warmer.
Have any new observations been made on climate science recently?
In March, this year a disputed island on the Bangladesh-India border called Talpatti disappeared completely. Such events will occur more often in the future. The impact of sea level rise will not be seen in one or two years because the changes are slow. Similarly in case of temperature rise, IPCC predicts that there will be three degrees rise in 100 years. So that means a .03 degrees rise every year. We will not notice these changes easily unless we look at the long-term trend.
Do you think our policies are robust enough to deal with climate change?
Global warming will have serious impact on our life within 30 to 40 years. We have to act immediately because the transition from the present fossil-fuel dependent economy to one based on renewable energy will take many decades. Sadly, the vision and leadership on global warming has been lacking.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/global-warming/50-rise-in-extreme-rain-incidence-in-last-50-yrs/articleshow/6301950.cms
4 Aug, 2010, 12.05AM IST,PTI
Brace for solar tsunami
LONDON: The Earth could be hit by a "solar tsunami" anytime now as an unusually complex magnetic eruption on the Sun has flung a large cloud of electrically charged particles towards our planet, scientists have warned.Several satellites, including NASA's new Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), recorded on Sunday a small solar flare erupting above sunspot 1092, the size of the Earth.
The satellites also recorded a large filament of cool gas stretching across the Sun's northern hemisphere also exploded into space.
The explosion, called a coronal mass ejection, was aimed directly towards Earth, which then sent a "solar tsunami" racing 93 million miles across space, the New Scientist reported.
When the violent cloud hits, which could be anytime now, it could spark aurorae in the skies around the poles and pose a threat to satellites, although not a severe one, it said. Despite being separated by hundreds of thousands of kilometres, the two events may be linked, said astronomers who studied the images from SDO that hint at a shock wave travelling from the flare into the filament.
"These are two distinct phenomena but they are obviously related," said Len Culhane, a solar physicist at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London.
Experts said the wave of supercharged gas will likely reach the Earth on Tuesday, when it will buffet the natural magnetic shield protecting Earth. It is likely to spark spectacular displays of the aurora or northern and southern lights.
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Vedanta project: Orissa hopes to place its stand before FAC
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Himalayan paradise
SYEDA FARIDA
Leh is a beautiful place for a quiet holiday. From the people to the scenery everything is awesome. Leh was recently in the news when disaster struck. Read on to find out more about the place… |
For centuries, Leh has been an important stopover on the trade route along the Indus Valley. The old town of Leh has been added to the World Monuments Fund's list of 100 most endangered sites because of the increased rainfall and the other effects of climate change. Within the old town there is also neglect and a change in settlement patterns which are a threat to long-term preservation of the site. Leh has a cold desert climate with long, harsh winters with temperatures well below the freezing point. The weather during the remaining months is usually fine. The flash floods of August 8 resulted in great loss of life and devastation.
* * *
It's a high altitude desert, so it hardly ever rains. It receives less than five inches of precipitation a year and that is in snow. So when there was heavy downpour in the first week of August it was a surprise to everyone. A cloudburst over Leh that lasted about two hours caused extensive damage to this beautiful town. The rain, triggered by a cloudburst happened around midnight destroying hospitals, bus terminals, radio station transmitter, telephone exchange and mobile phone towers and the airport. But apparently it was a disaster waiting to happen. Even last year, visitors say that it rained more than it snowed. It was a problem, because the region is dependent on meltwater for irrigation.
Pangong Leh :Moody, yet serene.
Is it all a part of the global warming phenomenon? Or as Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author, says it is all "global weirding" where the weather gets strange and unpredictable. Cities and countries are forced to deal with natural disasters and no one can be sure of what the future will be like. Moscow, Canada, Australia, Pakistan are some of the places where they have experienced weird weather with a heatwave, heavy rains, drought and floods.
Morning :Off to school.
As it hardly ever rains in Leh, most houses have been built with mud. So the damage is great and it is going to take a long time for the city to be rebuilt.
A draft of cold wind gently nudges you as you approach this high altitude cold desert destination nestled in the Great Himalayan Range. Open for a few months to tourists, Ladakh can be reached via high altitude passes — Zoji La from the Kashmir side and Rohtang and Tanglang La on the Manali side. The name Ladakh is thus derived from these passes ( La meaning pass and dakh meaning related to). These mountain passes were crucial for the trade routes and were used by caravans in the olden days. For the rest of the year, apart from early June to late August, this place is land-locked with the rivers and lakes frozen. Winter temperature can go down to -20° C.
Leh is the capital of Ladakh. Packed with tourists mostly international, this city offers a panoramic view of the Himalayas. Shopping centres such as the Old Fort Road are a hub of activity with vendors selling semi-precious stones and woollens. Restaurants offer yummy thupkas, momos and 'gur gur' chai.
Leh is bound by Tibet on its northern side and the influence of Tibetan culture is obvious. A typical Ladakhi homestay or guest house allows you a glimpse of their culture as you mingle with the family and learn a few more words than the popular greeting ' Juley'. The guest houses are also available in remote places such as Deskit — the part of the ancient silk route. The double humped Bactrian camels in the rolling sand dunes nearby at Hundar is a testimony to the fact.
Hot springs and palaces
White sand greets you in Hundar that is reached after crossing the famous Khardung-La pass. At 18,300 feet this pass boasts of the highest motorable road in the world. Here Army officers greet you with herbal tea to reduce altitude sickness. At Panamik there are hot springs and incidentally this is the last village on the silk route. Two of the spectacular rivers —Indus and Zanskar — merge a little above the entrance to Leh before they flow into Pakistan as the Sindhu.
Different facets : Art and leisure.
Apart from the adventure activities such as treks and rafting and the walk on frozen rivers in winter, Ladakh offers an insight into the Vajrayana form of Buddhism with spectacular statues of the Buddha. Impressive monasteries such as the Hemis, Spituk and Matho stand out for their murals, thangka paintings as well as the monastic festivals that fall during various parts of the regional calendar. Palaces such as Shey built by the early rulers of the region have stood the test of time and offer an insight into the traditional architecture of the region. During the summer months there is archery and polo, again a legacy from the 17th Century Namgyal rulers.
And for the nature lovers, nothing can come as close as to Pangong Tso lake. A drop of blue in the moon-like topography, this lake on the Indo-Chinese border is situated at an altitude of 14,000 feet. The colour of the water seems to change from a grey to blue to a purple across the day reflecting the Changchenmo and Pangong range around.
Tso-moriri, off the Manali-Leh road is a popular breeding ground for bare-headed goose, Brahmini duck and the brown-tailed gull. Other wildlife native to this region is the yak as also the sheep known for their pashmina wool.
Photo Paul Noronha
Celebrations at the Hemis monastery : Buddhist monks dance at the Hemis festival.
One cannot have enough of this picture perfect region but will carry back warm memories of the hospitality of these people.
* * *
Cloudburst over Leh
It's a high altitude desert, so it hardly ever rains. It receives less than five inches of precipitation a year and that is in snow. So when there was heavy downpour in the first week of August it was a surprise to everyone. A cloudburst over Leh that lasted about two hours caused extensive damage to this beautiful town. The rain, triggered by a cloudburst happened around midnight destroying hospitals, bus terminals, radio station transmitter, telephone exchange and mobile phone towers and the airport. But apparently it was a disaster waiting to happen. Even last year, visitors say that it rained more than it snowed. It was a problem, because the region is dependent on meltwater for irrigation.
Photo : Kamal Kishore
Flash floods : A village destroyed.
Is it all a part of the global warming phenomenon? Or as Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author, says it is all "global weirding" where the weather gets strange and unpredictable. Cities and countries are forced to deal with natural disasters and no one can be sure of what the future will be like. Moscow, Canada, Australia, Pakistan are some of the places where they have experienced weird weather with a heatwave, heavy rains, drought and floods.
As it hardly ever rains in Leh, most houses have been built with mud. So the damage is great and it is going to take a long time for the city to be rebuilt.Printer friendly page
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http://www.hindu.com/yw/2010/08/17/stories/2010081750230200.htm
unday August 15, 2010
Giving back to Nature
By MAJORIE CHIEW
starmag@thestar.com.my
RAVI Prasad's first office when he began working for the Himalaya Drug Company was a car garage in Bangalore, south India. Now, barely two decades later, the company has offices in many countries and a workforce of 5,000, Prasad says proudly.
He was in Malaysia recently to launch Himalaya's Your Passport to Wellness road show at 1 Utama, Petaling Jaya, in conjunction with the brand's 80th anniversary celebrations. Part of those celebrations took place at The Star's recently concluded FemmeCity fair and exhibition at the KL Convention Centre.
Himalaya is currently helmed by chairman Meraj Manal, who returned from studies in the United States to join his father's business in 1964, taking over after his demise later. His father, Mohammad Manal, founded the herbal healthcare company in the 1930s.
"Meraj brought the rigour, Western transparency and professional thinking to the company," says Prasad, 49, explaining that Himalaya was the turning point in his life and the chairman had given him "a free hand" to try his luck in the company. Prasad is now deputy chairman of Himalaya Global Holdings Ltd, appointed to the position in 2008.
Those familiar with Himalaya will know its story: how Mohammed Manal's discovery of Rauvolfia serpentina in the forests of Burma (or Myanmar) led to the company's first product launch in 1934: the world's first natural antihypertensive drug. Mohammed Manal went on to establish the pioneering process of using scientific methods to test, isolate and refine active ingredients in traditional herbs – some of which have been in use for centuries – and manufacture the resulting herbal "drugs" according to modern standards.
By the early 1990s, Himalaya's product range had grown to 30 therapeutic medicines for the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, respiratory tract infections and kidney stones.
And under Prasad's direction, the company began moving into personal care products, too.
Prasad, who has a Masters in business management, had a decade of experience in India's pharmaceutical industry before joining the Himalaya Drug Company in 1991 as sales development manager. In April 1998, he took over as president and CEO of Himalaya Herbal Healthcare and directed the evolution of the brand from a phytopharmaceutical company to a "head-to-heel" herbal healthcare and personal care company.
Now, as deputy chairman, Prasad takes care of Himalaya's domestic operations and global business and assists in the development of global strategies to guide the company's future growth.
His vision to make Himalaya a household name around the world has driven the company's expansion to over 65 countries including Romania, Russia and Ukraine.
During his tenure, Himalaya has crossed many milestones in domestic and international markets, undergone a successful re-branding exercise, launched several breakthrough products and forged into new business areas.
Himalaya, in short, is a successful, thoroughly modern company – but its secret is the ancient system of medicine called ayurveda that uses nature's wealth of plants and herbs as healing agents. Now, after 80 years of harnessing nature's wealth, Himalaya is focusing on giving back to nature through several biodiversity conservation initiatives .
"We have grown a lot of herbs through contract farming with over 1,000 farmers across India," explains Prasad. "We're also working with two non-government organisations (NGOs) that work with tribal and rural communities to grow and collect herbs."
Himalaya's third initiative involves playing a role in the tissue culture of endangered plant species: "We're taking endangered plants for tissue culture in our lab in Bangalore. We then send the saplings to the fields for cultivation.
"We've just succeeded with two critically endangered plants, Ratnapurush and Acorus calamus – herbs used in various Himalaya formulations. We're now involved in tissue culture of a third herb, Saussurrea lappa, which is also critically endangered."
Himalaya's fourth effort to conserve biodiversity is to train tribal people for sustainable collection. For instance, the bark of the Oroxylum indicum tree, or arlu tree, found in Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim (in the Himalayas) is good for the liver, says Prasad.
"The tribal folk would cut the tree and strip the bark. The tree dies. Now, we're teaching them to take a small patch of the bark on one side of the tree and return six months later to take another small patch on the other side."
Prasad also works closely with government authorities, as he is on India's official committee on trade and industry, set up to promote India's herbal healthcare sector on a global platform.
He has the passion of a true believer when it comes promoting his company around the world because he truly believes in its products – which is serendipitous since he is the brand's top marketer!
"I take a fistful of Himalaya's health products, some 15-16 tablets each time, morning and evening," he says, smiling.
"I take tablets for the mind, a heart tonic and pills to keep my cholesterol under control and keep my liver healthy."
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/8/15/lifefocus/6753777&sec=lifefocus Climatic calamities and endangered species
Syed Mujahid Ali Shah, by email
15 August 2010,
The recent heavy rains in northern mountainous belts of Pakistan are hardly going to spare wild fauna from devastating their habitats as that of human population.
Among all such animals, the most concerned specie is snow leopard. They are already threatened being left only a few hundreds in these mountain ranges due to ongoing prey depletion of theirs following dry conditions caused by ever increasing temperature trends. But a wet calamity of heavy rains during recent weeks anticipates a new threat.
The unusual heavy summer rainfall situations are opposite to that of normal weather conditions of snow leopard habitats in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges of Gilgit Baltistan and Chitral. This drastic change in climate can create vegetation rich landscape situation where snow leopards and its prey species cannot live.
As the ideal habitat of these animals is open semi desert rocky mountains—out of dense vegetations like those of Chilghoza pine near nival zones of Himalayas and Karakoram. On the other hand huge rainfall situations, as some recently recorded 100 mm/h in Baltistan and Ladakh regions, being semi desert rocky hills, they are easily eroded and lose most of the soil. What leaves behind may be just rock, unable to produce enough fodder for the species of Markhor, ibex, Marcopolo sheep and the musk deer on which snow leopards thrive. Isn't the world becoming so unsafe for both human and animals from carbon emissions in bulk? If timely steps were not taken to cut the greenhouse gases by the industrialised nations, such species would just wither away.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=/data/openspace/2010/August/openspace_August16.xml§ion=openspace
A high price
0 commentsPublished on 25 Jul 2010
Generations of K2 climbers have risked more than their own safety. Long after the peak was conquered, can the cost paid by sherpas, rescue services and bereaved families be justified? Essay of the week by Graham Bowley
In the frigid darkness before dawn, 30 climbers set off for the final day's ascent of K2, the second tallest mountain on Earth. It was August 1, 2008 and the climbers were from eight different national expeditions. Through a combination of poor judgement, lack of equipment and overcrowded conditions, they reached the summit far too late, way past their mid-afternoon deadline, and started to descend just as night was falling. Then, a huge ice chunk from a glacier just below the summit sheared off and swept away the fixed guide ropes they were depending on to climb down. More than a dozen climbers and porters still above the glacier – many without oxygen and some with no headlamps – faced the near impossibility of descending in the blackness with no guidelines and no protection. Over the course of the night, some would miraculously make it back. Eleven others would not, in what became one of the worst tragedies in Himalayan history.
My own initial reaction to this accident was: why should we care? As a New York Times reporter I had been asked to write about the events. But to me this seemed only a case of people indulging a private passion for their expensive sport. It was sad, but there was no broader meaning for the rest of us.
My story appeared on the front page of the New York Times. In the weeks that followed, something about the voices I had encountered emanating from the mountain in northern Pakistan would not let me rest. After I flew to Ireland for the wake of one of the victims, I determined to work out exactly what had happened. No Way Down, my book about the K2 tragedy, is also a story about my own conversion. In the course of researching it, I came to believe passionately that we should care about the men and women climbing in the high places of the world. They have a lesson for all of us.
At first, however, I was sceptical. It seemed a pointless loss of life. What had been gained? K2 was first climbed in 1954 by an Italian expedition, at a time when the lingering rivalries of the Second World War were still being played out in the Himalayas, and all the big peaks were being conquered.
News of K2's conquest was greeted back in Italy by a wave of patriotic fervour – a postage stamp was issued in the climbers' honour and they were received by Pope Pius XII – just as, one year earlier, reports of the conquering of Everest had prompted national celebration in Britain. This was important, and these things mattered then. The Italians were the first to stand on the top of K2 and the entire nation – all nations – cared.
Since then, however, all the big Himalayan peaks have been conquered and thousands have trooped to the top of Everest. The climbers who set out to reach K2's summit in 2008 were, it seemed to me, no Hillarys or Tenzings, the conquerors of Everest, no Shackletons or Scotts, the Antarctic explorers. They were not conquering mountains for the first time, standing in places where no-one had stood before, pushing back the boundaries of human achievement.
What's more, they had endangered other people and incurred costs better spent on more deserving needs. A Pakistani porter, one of several doing the heavy carrying for a few of the western teams, tried to help bring down the body of a dead Serbian who had fallen amid the overcrowded conditions early on the summit day. But the porter, Jahan Baig, tripped and fell to his death. A young Sherpa, flown to northern Pakistan by a well-funded 15-man South Korean team, became trapped in ropes as he led some of the Koreans down and froze to death – just a day after his son was born in Kathmandhu, a fact he had learned by satellite phone from the summit.
As the event turned into an international media circus, the Pakistani military spent tens of thousands of dollars, in a desperately poor country, sending helicopters deep into the Karakoram mountain range to fetch the injured back to civilisation. Some of those who survived seemed most concerned about what their sponsors would think, though the sponsors in the end seemed to appreciate the publicity.
It seemed at first, also, that these mountaineers were not good enough to be on K2. Some of them had never climbed on big Himalayan peaks before. They made unconscionable mistakes. It seemed that the craziness of modern mountaineering which has overtaken other, more accessible mountains such as Everest, had also reached K2, with a surfeit of commercial expeditions and unqualified climbers paying others to hoist them up the slopes.
As I continued my research, however, I discovered the truth was very different. K2 was not Everest. Though 800 feet shorter, it is hundreds of miles further north, straddling the border between Pakistan and China, and its weather is colder and notoriously less predictable. Steeper and far more dangerous, it remains a mountain for serious climbers, and with few exceptions, most present on K2 in 2008 were qualified to be there. Almost all came wide-eyed and aware of the risks they were taking. And while thousands of people have now climbed Everest, fewer than 300 have ever stood on the top of K2, which makes it a goal with significance.
As I encountered more and more of their families, I realised the climbers were pursuing their passion despite immense personal costs, risking themselves but also their loved ones back home, who had to put up with their months-long absences each year and the possibility of their death or serious injury. Many climbers, I discovered, tend to be loners or divorced, or leave baffled or embittered families back home.
The friction between the climber and his or her family was present as I visited the climbers' loved ones. In Ireland, at the wake for Irish climber Gerard McDonnell, more than 1,000 relatives, well-wishers and friends sheltered from the rain under a big white tent behind the small village school – and all seemed bewildered as to what had motivated their son and brother to travel 4,000 miles to risk his life on a mountain.
Two climbers on K2 in 2008 were exceptions to this pattern, although they too paid a terrible personal price. A Norwegian couple, Rolf Bae and Cecilie Skog, had been married for little over a year; highly skilled mountaineers, they took immense joy in the outdoors and the mountains were the place where they could be together. Bae, however, would be killed on K2, caught in the avalanche when the glacier broke away.
I discovered that mountaineers climb for many different reasons. An important one is to be in the most beautiful places of the world – in touch with nature at its freshest and rawest. As some explained to me, not being there would be the risk, the mistake, the waste of their lives.
Travelling to K2 to research my book, I began to see what they meant. On the way through northern Pakistan, after six days of trekking, I saw the line of giant peaks marching into the distance, and finally K2 appeared, a crystal pyramid against the blue June sky. I asked a German climber why he did what he did. He just pointed to the glorious mountains above us. "Isn't it obvious?" he replied. "Why would I be anywhere else?"
His answer made me feel that it was me – who would soon return to a nine-to-five job and a cubicle life in New York – who would be throwing his life away, not these people who were about to ascend on deadly ridges and leap yawning crevasses.
Being alive in this way – connected to the natural world – was worth even the risk of death, a sentiment most eloquently expressed to me by Jennifer Lowe-Anker. She was married to one of America's greatest climbers, Alex Lowe, until he was crushed in a Tibetan mountain avalanche in 1999, leaving her with three children. Here was somebody who would surely be justified in denying the value of mountaineering. But two years later, she married another climber, Conrad Anker, who had survived the avalanche that killed her husband, and she has encouraged him to continue scaling the world's great peaks.
"I never got angry and blamed climbing," she told me. "We all die. Maybe he would have lived, maybe he would have died in another way. We know life is a crapshoot. But living out there in the real world is what it's all about."
As well as beauty and nature, I found, mountaineers are attracted to doing what they do because they have a talent for it, and not fulfilling that talent would be denying something in themselves. This was true of Gerard McDonnell, whose strength and insatiable joy on the slopes was evident to all who knew him. It also seems to be the case for Tom Ballard, the 21-year-old son of British climber Alison Hargreaves, who was blown to her death from near the summit of K2 in August, 1995.
Hargreaves was controversial in her time: she was a mother of two young children and some asked whether she should be risking her life and their future by taking to the mountains. Again, since mountaineering killed his mother, Ballard might be expected to turn his back on climbing. But when I spoke to him he was in Switzerland training on the terrifying north face of the Eiger in preparation for an attempt on K2 this winter. A successful winter ascent of the peak has never been accomplished.
When Ballard talks about why he climbs, he describes a natural awakening in himself – he could not be doing anything else. "I don't know why I do it. I think it's inside. It unfolded as I grew up." Did he blame Hargreaves? Apparently not. She will be on his mind as he makes his ascent, but "not in that way".
Ballard's father, Jim, is more forthright. Even now, he justifies his wife's attempt on K2, against the attacks that were directed towards her at the time. "Alison went to K2. She could not resist it and nor should she have," he says. "What really hacks me off are people who complain that soldiers get shot. That's what soldiers do. It is very sad but it is what you sign up to do."
Not everyone sees it that way. Cecilie Skog says she now bitterly regrets her choices, and will never climb on the 8,000m-high peaks of the world again. They are just too dangerous. "I hate K2," she says. Her main reason is the pain it would cause her parents or her late husband's parents if she were to tell them she was returning to K2. She couldn't look them in the eyes, she told me recently.
Many mountaineers climb because they are on a quest for meaning, to figure out something about themselves, and to try to make something of themselves. They are pushing back their own personal boundaries, if not the human boundaries for all of us. This, most probably, is one of the reasons why Tom Ballard is travelling to K2, although he denies it has anything to do with his mother.
This, I sensed, was also true for 61-year-old Hugues d'Aubarede, who died on K2 in 2008. A deep and thoughtful Frenchman, he had returned for three successive summers to K2, leaving behind a partner, two daughters and a grandchild for the hardships of daily life in the tents on the frozen slopes, in an attempt to defeat it. From the summit on August 1, he called home on his satellite phone and left a message on a friend's answer machine in Lyon, just hours before he fell to his death: "It's minus 20. I am at 8,611 metres. I am very cold. I am very happy. Thank you."
High on a promontory just outside the base camp of K2 sits the Gilkey Memorial, a monument to those who have died on the mountain. It is named for Art Gilkey, an American climber who was killed on K2 in 1953. Parts of bodies washed down by storms are interred there – there is the stench of death on the wind – and plaques to the dead fashioned from tin mess plates borrowed from the tents decorate the rocks.
Every climber who goes to K2 sees it but carries on towards the the slopes nonetheless. The memorial is a testament to the beauty and scale of K2. It is also a monument to its deadliness and to mortality.
When I arrived at K2 last year, I climbed up to the memorial and read the names of the dead: Hargreaves' name is there, along with the names of Rolf Bae, Jahan Baig, Hugues d'Aubarede, Gerard McDonnell and the others.
Those individuals took on nature at its harshest, challenging themselves to the utmost in pursuit of thrill and fulfilment. Did any of them, when finally cold and alone and facing certain death on the mountain, regret their choices and the impact they would have on their families?
We will never know. We do know that these were people who had broken out of comfortable lives to pursue something about which they cared so profoundly, they were prepared to die for it. There is a lesson there for all of us.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/guest-commentary/a-high-price-1.1043390
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Commentary In the latter half of August, 1998, severe rains lashed the Himalayas, causing devastating in their wake. On August 14, 69 people died in a landslide in Okhimath block (near Gutpkashi). A week later, the entire village of Malpa, lying along the Kali river on the way from Dharchula to Lipu Lekh, was swept away. The death toll, 205, included road workers, porters, members of the border police, and five dozen pilgrims returning from a yatra (pilgrimage) to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in Tibet (August 18). Two dozen more people died when Mansuna village in Rudraprayag district also disappeared (August 19). In addition, hundreds of homes and infrastructure were demolished by the torrential rains and intense winds, that had also hampered rescue efforts. By August 20, the authorities began evacuating 50,000 residents of the Okhimath block, as rubble, debris, and boulders had fallen into the Madmaheshwar river, a tributary of the Mandakini, plugging it and causing the formation of an artificial lake. As the lake swelled, so did the danger, as a flash flood would submerge two dozen villages. The army cautioned against blasting the artificial dam with dynamite, as the sudden discharge would overwhelm the villages below. Instead, the lake was left to erode naturally. Also, local villagers and social activists went on search and rescue expeditions, while various NGOs scrambled to attend to the needy. In Dehra Dun and other large cities, generous people rallied to send aid to the victims of the landslides and flooding that had afflicted the plains. The death toll due to landslides had surpassed the past record and followed a very intense winter and hot summer in the hills. The extreme weather fluctuations, probably due to El Nino-related disturbances, combined with possible global warming-induced climate extremes to aggravate the situation. These recent landslides served to remind us that ecologically, the Himalayas are dying the death of a thousand clearcuts. Recurring landslides have afflicted the Uttarakhand Himalayas for decades now, engraved in the memories of the survivors who lost loved ones, homes, and livelihoods. Apart from whole villages like Malpa and Mansuna swept away by the flood waters and cloud bursts, life for the rest of the people have become more and more tenuous with the environmental deterioration of the Himalayas. Large-scale deforestation, largely attributable to outside commercial contractors, have ravaged the hills. The people's forest rights, increasingly curtailed since British times, have diminished as the forests have declined. For locals, the forests had not only borne a steady supply of fuel wood, but also retained moisture in the soil, without which, precious fresh water springs would dry up (as they are throughout the hills). What little forest left to the local people, has been stressed beyond the breaking point. Furthermore, the deforestation has led to soil erosion and lowered water retention. The effect of this proved catastrophic as so dramatically demonstrated this August. Indeed, the Chipko movement was motivated in large part by the tragedies of landslides that had by the 70s become an ominous threat to the difficult hill life of Uttarakhandis. In its most philosophical phase, the movement linked all these issues together, bringing village common sense and ecological awareness in conflict with the supposedly "scientific" and "forward-looking" plans of the government and big business. Unfortunately, the struggle to change the outlook of the leaders of the nation continues. Today, by almost anyone's estimate, the development paradigm followed by governments in India have worsened the situation, being the chief consumer of the forests and despoiler of the hillsides. A recent editorial in the Times of India (August 20) lambasted successive state and central government policies that have undermined the fragile Himalayan ecosystem and geology. The pillage of the forest, coupled with neglect for the Himalayas, have done their part to intensify the destructive forces of nature. Incidently, the editorial also remarked cynically that the government only responded to this August's landslides with a flurry of activity because prominent VIPs were among the pilgrims that were lost near Malpa. India Today has already published a list of pilgrims feared dead. It goes without saying that a similar list of Uttarakhandi villagers or workers that died will probably not appear in the press. The heavy rains this year have caused havoc throughout Asia, as seen in China, where the Yangtze floods have been the worst in over 30 years. There too, heavy deforestation all along the river banks has allowed water to flow unhindered, sweeping all before it. Three thousand people have died there, and millions have been left homeless. The national emergency in China has been so severe that hundreds of thousands of troops have been mobilized to hold back the raging rivers. The Chinese government has also proclaimed a change in policy, as the previous habits of corruption and reckless ecological destruction had proved a catastrophic failure. Furthermore, the crisis in Bangladesh is at its most severe in living memory, with over 60% of the country under water. Much of the flooding has been caused by the overcharged rivers flowing from the denuded Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. The floods have swamped 30 million people, destroyed millions of dollars in crop land, carried off livestock, and caused enormous damage to the country's infrastructure. The staggering tragedy is matched only by the human folly, that could not, despite all the warnings, avoid this catastrophe. It is possibly only a matter of time before the Ganga similarly rages through the plains of India. Indeed, a thousand people have already lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands made homeless by floods in UP and West Bengal. The same corruption that afflicted the dykes and dams of China, the cheap material and shoddy workmanship that allowed them crumble against the weight of flood waters, afflicts most of the development projects in India. Indeed, the Tehri Dam, under construction for at least 30 years, has been a bonanza for contractors, while ruinous to the immediate area. As such, the country is possibly verged on a Himalayan disaster, one that will need Himalayan solutions to prevent. More landslides Retrospective September 1998 August 28-31, 1998 August 26-27, 1998 August 24-25, 1998 August 23, 1998 August 22, 1998 August 21, 1998 August 20, 1998 August 19, 1998 August 18, 1998 August 14-17, 1998 http://uttarakhand.prayaga.org/landslide.html- R.R. 10.22.98Landslides in the Garhwal Lesser Himalaya, UP, India
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Landslide
 | This article needs attention from an expert on the subject. See the talk page for details. WikiProject Geology or the Geology Portal may be able to help recruit an expert. (November 2007) |
A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments. Although the action of gravity is the primary driving force for a landslide to occur, there are other contributing factors affecting the original slope stability. Typically, pre-conditional factors build up specific sub-surface conditions that make the area/slope prone to failure, whereas the actual landslide often requires a trigger before being released.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Causes of landslides
Landslides occur when the stability of a slope changes from a stable to an unstable condition. A change in the stability of a slope can be caused by a number of factors, acting together or alone. Natural causes of landslides include:
- groundwater (porewater) pressure acting to destabilize the slope
- Loss or absence of vertical vegetative structure, soil nutrients, and soil structure (e.g. after a wildfire)
- erosion of the toe of a slope by rivers or ocean waves
- weakening of a slope through saturation by snowmelt, glaciers melting, or heavy rains
- earthquakes adding loads to barely-stable slope
- earthquake-caused liquefaction destabilizing slopes
- volcanic eruptions
landslides are aggravated by human activities, Human causes include:deforestation, cultivation and construction, which destabilize the already fragile slopes
- vibrations from machinery or traffic
- blasting
- earthwork which alters the shape of a slope, or which imposes new loads on an existing slope
- in shallow soils, the removal of deep-rooted vegetation that binds colluvium to bedrock
- Construction, agricultural or forestry activities (logging) which change the amount of water which infiltrates the soil.
[edit] Types of landslide
 | The following text needs to be harmonized with text in Landslide classification. |
[edit] Debris flow
Slope material that becomes saturated with water may develop into a debris flow or mud flow. The resulting slurry of rock and mud may pick up trees, houses and cars, thus blocking bridges and tributaries causing flooding along its path.
Debris flow is often mistaken for flash flood, but they are entirely different processes.
Muddy-debris flows in alpine areas cause severe damage to structures and infrastructure and often claim human lives. Muddy-debris flows can start as a result of slope-related factors and shallow landslides can dam stream beds, resulting in temporary water blockage. As the impoundments fail, a "domino effect" may be created, with a remarkable growth in the volume of the flowing mass, which takes up the debris in the stream channel. The solid-liquid mixture can reach densities of up to 2 tons/m³ and velocities of up to 14 m/s (Chiarle and Luino, 1998; Arattano, 2003). These processes normally cause the first severe road interruptions, due not only to deposits accumulated on the road (from several cubic metres to hundreds of cubic metres), but in some cases to the complete removal of bridges or roadways or railways crossing the stream channel. Damage usually derives from a common underestimation of mud-debris flows: in the alpine valleys, for example, bridges are frequently destroyed by the impact force of the flow because their span is usually calculated only for a water discharge. For a small basin in the Italian Alps (area = 1.76 km²) affected by a debris flow, Chiarle and Luino (1998)[citation needed] estimated a peak discharge of 750 m3/s for a section located in the middle stretch of the main channel. At the same cross section, the maximum foreseeable water discharge (by HEC-1), was 19 m³/s, a value about 40 times lower than that calculated for the debris flow that occurred.
[edit] Earth flow
Earthflows are downslope, viscous flows of saturated, fine-grained materials, which move at any speed from slow to fast. Typically, they can move at speeds from 0.17 to 20 km/h. Though these are a lot like mudflows, overall they are slower moving and are covered with solid material carried along by flow from within. They are different from fluid flows in that they are more rapid. Clay, fine sand and silt, and fine-grained, pyroclastic material are all susceptible to earthflows. The velocity of the earthflow is all dependent on how much water content is in the flow itself: if there is more water content in the flow, the higher the velocity will be.
These flows usually begin when the pore pressures in a fine-grained mass increase until enough of the weight of the material is supported by pore water to significantly decrease the internal shearing strength of the material. This thereby creates a bulging lobe which advances with a slow, rolling motion. As these lobes spread out, drainage of the mass increases and the margins dry out, thereby lowering the overall velocity of the flow. This process causes the flow to thicken. The bulbous variety of earthflows are not that spectacular, but they are much more common than their rapid counterparts. They develop a sag at their heads and are usually derived from the slumping at the source.
Earthflows occur much more during periods of high precipitation, which saturates the ground and adds water to the slope content. Fissures develop during the movement of clay-like material creates the intrusion of water into the earthflows. Water then increases the pore-water pressure and reduces the shearing strength of the material.[2]
[edit] Debris avalanche
A debris avalanche is a type of slide characterized by the chaotic movement of rocks soil and debris mixed with water or ice (or both). They are usually triggered by the saturation of thickly vegetated slopes which results in an incoherent mixture of broken timber, smaller vegetation and other debris.[3] Debris avalanches differ from debris slides because their movement is much more rapid. This is usually a result of lower cohesion or higher water content and commonly steeper slopes.
Movement
Debris slides generally begin with large blocks that slump at the head of the slide and then break apart as they move towards the toe. This process is much slower than that of a debris avalanche. In a debris avalanche this progressive failure is very rapid and the entire mass seems to somewhat liquefy as it moves down the slope. This is caused by the combination of the excessive saturation of the material, and very steep slopes. As the mass moves down the slope it generally follows stream channels leaving behind a V-shaped scar that spreads out downhill. This differs from the more U-shaped scar of a slump. Debris avalanches can also travel well past the foot of the slope due to their tremendous speed.[4]
[edit] Sturzstrom
A sturzstrom is a rare, poorly understood type of landslide, typically with a long run-out. Often very large, these slides are unusually mobile, flowing very far over a low angle, flat, or even slightly uphill terrain.
[edit] Shallow landslide
Landslide in which the sliding surface is located within the soil mantle or weathered bedrock (typically to a depth from few decimetres to some metres). They usually include debris slides, debris flow, and failures of road cut-slopes. Landslides occurring as single large blocks of rock moving slowly down slope are sometimes called block glides.
Shallow landslides can often happen in areas that have slopes with high permeable soils on top of low permeable bottom soils. The low permeable, bottom soils trap the water in the shallower, high permeable soils creating high water pressure in the top soils. As the top soils are filled with water and become heavy, slopes can become very unstable and slide over the low permeable bottom soils. Say there is a slope with silt and sand as its top soil and bedrock as its bottom soil. During an intense rainstorm, the bedrock will keep the rain trapped in the top soils of silt and sand. As the topsoil becomes saturated and heavy, it can start to slide over the bedrock and become a shallow landslide. R. H. Campbell did a study on shallow landslides on Santa Cruz Island California. He notes that if permeability decreases with depth, a perched water table may develop in soils at intense precipitation. When pore water pressures are sufficient to reduce effective normal stress to a critical level, failure occurs.[5]
[edit] Deep-seated landslide
Landslides in which the sliding surface is mostly deeply located below the maximum rooting depth of trees (typically to depths greater than ten meters). Deep-seated landslides usually involve deep regolith, weathered rock, and/or bedrock and include large slope failure associated with translational, rotational, or complex movement. These typically move slowly, only several meters per year, but occasionally move faster. They tend to be larger than shallow landslides and form along a plane of weakness such as a fault or bedding plane. They can be visually identified by concave scarps at the top and steep areas at the toe. [6]
[edit] Causing tsunamis
Landslides that occur undersea, or have impact into water, can generate tsunamis. Massive landslides can also generate megatsunamis, which are usually hundreds of metres high. In 1958, one such tsunami occurred in Lituya Bay in Alaska.
[edit] Related phenomena
- An avalanche, similar in mechanism to a landslide, involves a large amount of ice, snow and rock falling quickly down the side of a mountain.
- A pyroclastic flow is caused by a collapsing cloud of hot ash, gas and rocks from a volcanic explosion that moves rapidly down an erupting volcano.
[edit] Landslide prediction mapping
Landslide hazard analysis and mapping can provide useful information for catastrophic loss reduction, and assist in the development of guidelines for sustainable land use planning. The analysis is used to identify the factors that are related to landslides, estimate the relative contribution of factors causing slope failures, establish a relation between the factors and landslides, and to predict the landslide hazard in the future based on such a relationship [7]. The factors that have been used for landslide hazard analysis can usually be grouped into geomorphology, geology, land use/land cover, and hydrogeology [8]. Since many factors are considered for landslide hazard mapping, GIS is an appropriate tool because it has functions of collection, storage, manipulation, display, and analysis of large amounts of spatially referenced data which can be handled fast and effectively [9]. Remote sensing techniques are also highly employed for landslide hazard assessment and analysis. Before and after aerial photographs and satellite imagery are used to gather landslide characteristics, like distribution and classification, and factors like slope, lithology, and land use/land cover to be used to help predict future events [10]. Before and after imagery also helps to reveal how the landscape changed after an event, what may have triggered the landslide, and shows the process of regeneration and recovery [11].
Using satellite imagery in combination with GIS and on-the-ground studies, it is possible to generate maps of likely occurrences of future landslides [12]. Such maps should show the locations of previous events as well as clearly indicate the probable locations of future events. In general, to predict landslides, one must assume that their occurrence is determined by certain geologic factors, and that future landslides will occur under the same conditions as past events [13]. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a relationship between the geomorphologic conditions in which the past events took place and the expected future conditions [14].
Natural disasters are a dramatic example of people living in conflict with the environment. Early predictions and warnings are essential for the reduction of property damage and loss of life. Because landslides occur frequently and can represent some of the most destructive forces on earth, it is imperative to have a good understanding as to what causes them and how people can either help prevent them from occurring or simply avoid them when they do occur. Sustainable land management and development is an essential key to reducing the negative impacts felt by landslides.
GIS offers a superior method for landslide analysis because it allows one to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, and display large amounts of data quickly and effectively. Because so many variables are involved, it is important to be able to overlay the many layers of data to develop a full and accurate portrayal of what is taking place on the Earth's surface. Researchers need to know which variables are the most important factors that trigger landslides in any given location. Using GIS, extremely detailed maps can be generated to show past events and likely future events which have the potential to save lives, property, and money.
[edit] Prehistoric landslides
- Landslide which moved Heart Mountain to its current location, the largest ever discovered on land. In the 48 million years since the slide occurred, erosion has removed most of the portion of the slide.
- Flims Rockslide, ca. 13,000 km3 (8.1×109 mi), Switzerland, some 10000 years ago in post-glacial Pleistocene/Holocene, the largest so far described in the alps and on dry land that can be easily identified in a modestly eroded state. [15]
- The landslide around 200BC which formed Lake Waikaremoana on the North Island of New Zealand, where a large block of the Ngamoko Range slid and dammed a gorge of Waikaretaheke River, forming a natural reservoir up to 248 metres deep.
- Cheekye Fan, British Columbia, Canada, ca. 25 km2 (9.7 sq mi), Late Pleistocene in age.
[edit] Prehistoric submarine landslides
- The Storegga Slide, Norway, ca. 3,500 km3 (840 cu mi), ca. 8,000 years ago, a catastrophic impact on the contemporary coastal Mesolithic population
- The Agulhas slide, ca. 20,000 km3 (1.2×1010 mi), off South Africa, post-Pliocene in age, the largest so far described[16]
- The Ruatoria Debris Avalanche, off North Island New Zealand, ca. 3,000 km³ in volume, 170,000 years ago [2].
[edit] Historical landslides
[edit] 19th Century
- Rockslide Goldau, canton of Schwyz, Switzerland, on September 2, 1806
- Cliff landslip of the Undercliff near Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, on 24 December 1839
- Face collapse of The Barrier in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, 1855–1856
- The Cap Diamant Québec rockslide on September 19, 1889
[edit] 20th Century
- Frank Slide, Turtle Mountain, Alberta, Canada, on 29 April 1903
- Amalfi landslide in Salerno, Italy on March 1924.[citation needed]
- Gros Ventre landslide in Wyoming, United States, on June 23, 1925
- Mount Rokko mudslide by heavy rain in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan on July 1938.[citation needed]
- Rio Santa and Cordillera Blanca avalanche in Ancash Region, Peru on December 1941.[citation needed]
- Alcalá del Jucar landslide in Albacete, Spain on December 1945.[citation needed]
- Guwahati Landslide in Assam, India on September 1948.[citation needed]
- Khait landslide, Khait, Tajikistan, Soviet Union, on July 10, 1949
- Santa Elena landslide in Antioquia Department, Colombia on July 1954.[citation needed]
- Molina di Vietri and Ponte Romano landslide in Salerno, Italy on October 1954.[citation needed]
- The Riñihuazo landslide in Chile after the Great Chilean Earthquake, on 22 May 1960
- Ranrahirca landslide in Peru on January 1962.[citation needed]
- Monte Toc landslide (260 millions cubic metres) falling into the Vajont Dam basin in Italy, causing a megatsunami and about 2000 casualties, on October 9, 1963
- Hope Slide landslide (46 million cubic metres) near Hope, British Columbia on January 9, 1965.[17]
- El Cobre landslide with El Soldado cooper mine damage in Atacama, Chile on February 1965.[citation needed]
- The 1966 Aberfan disaster
- Santa Teresa landslide in Rio State, Brazil on February 1967.[citation needed]
- Caraguatatuba landslide in State of São Paulo, Brazil on March 1967.[citation needed]
- Kure mudslide by Typhoon Billie in Hiroshima, Japan on July 1967.[citation needed]
- Hida River landslide with two charter buses plunge in Gero, Gifu, Japan on August 1968.[citation needed]
- Darjeeling landslide in West Bengal on October 1968.[citation needed]
- Amherst and Nelson landslide by Hurricane Camille in Virginia on August 1969.[citation needed]
- the May 31, 1970 slide from Cerro Huascaran that buried the town of Yungay.
- Chungar landslide by avalanche in Peru, on March 1971.[citation needed]
- Saint-Jean-Vianney, Quebec, Canada. Small village near Saguenay river destroyed in May 1971.[18]
- Khinjan Pass landslide in Baghian, Afghanistan on July 1971.[citation needed]
- Tosayamada landslide in Shikoku, Japan on July 1972.[citation needed]
- Amakusa mudslide in Kumamoto, Kyūshū, Japan on July 1972.[citation needed]
- Moyomarca hill mudslide in Huancayo, Peru on April 1974.[citation needed]
- Quebradablanca avalanche with swept 33 vehicle in Boyacá, Colombia on June 1974.[citation needed]
- Zona de Armenta and Omoa landslide by Hurricane Fifi in Cortes Department, Honduras, on September 1974.[citation needed]
- Pahire Phedi landslide in Nepal on June 1976.[citation needed]
- Baliem Valley landslide by 1976 Papua earthquake in Irian Jaya, Indonesia on July 1976.[citation needed]
- Siheung and Anyang landslide in Gyeonggi, South Korea on July 1977.[citation needed]
- Tuve landslide in Gothenburg, Sweden on November 30, 1977.
- Nilgiri Hills landslide in Tamil Nadu, India on November 1978[citation needed]
- The 1979 Abbotsford landslip, Dunedin, New Zealand on August 8, 1979.
- Ayvazhaci avalanche in Kayseri Province, Turkey, on March 1980.[citation needed]
- Landslides associated with the Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980.
- Mount Semeru landslide by heavy rain in East Java, Indonesia on August 1981[citation needed]
- Nakajima landslide in Nagasaki, Kyūshū, Japan on July 1982[citation needed]
- Ataco mudslide in El Salvador on September 1982[citation needed]
- Dongxing landslide in Gansu, China, on March 1983[citation needed]
- Thistle, Utah on 14 April 1983
- Chunchi mudslide in Chimborazo, Ecuador on April 1983[citation needed]
- Almora landslide in Uttar Pradesh, India on July 1983[citation needed]
- Dongchuan landslide in Yunnan, China on May 1984[citation needed]
- The Mameyes Disaster - Ponce, Puerto Rico on October 7, 1985
- Buyeo and Seocheon landslide by Typhoon Thelma in Chungchongnam-do, South Korea, on July 1987.[citation needed]
- Val Pola landslide during Valtellina disaster (1987) Italy
- El Limon mudslide in Aragua, Venezuela on September 1987.[citation needed]
- Villatina mudslide in Colombia on September 1987.[citation needed]
- Wuxi County landslide in Sichuan, China on September 1987.[citation needed]
- Macka landslide in Trabzon, Turkey on June 1988[citation needed]
- Darwang and Niskot landslide in Myagdi, Nepal on September 1988.[citation needed]
- Sharora landslide by 1989 Tajikistan earthquale in Hisor District, Tajikistan on January 1989.[citation needed]
- Tsablanca landslide in Georgia on April 1989.[citation needed]
- Bhaji landslide in Maharashtra, India on July 1989[citation needed]
- Calama mudslide in Atacama, Chile on June 1991.[citation needed]
- Zhaotong landslide by torrential rain, in Yunnan, China on September 1991[citation needed]
- Ninghai mudslide in Zhejiang, China on September 1992.[citation needed]
- Llipi Limitada landslide in Larecaja Province, Bolivia, on December 1992.[citation needed]
- Nambija Bajo mudslide in Zamora, Ecuador on May 1993.[citation needed]
- The Pantai Remis landslide in 1993 in an abandoned coastal tin mine in Malaysia, forming a new cove
- Kagoshima mudslide in Kyūshū, Japan on August 1993.[citation needed]
- Yuangyang mudslide in Yunnan, China on July 1994[citation needed]
- Khooni Nallah and Banihal tunnel avalanche in Jammu and Kashimir region, India on January 1995.[citation needed]
- Wakhan landslide in Badakhshan, Afghanistan on April 1995.[citation needed]
- Cheorwon landslide in Gangwon, South Korea on July 1996.[citation needed]
- Tamburco mudslide by torrential rain in Apurímac Region, Peru on February 1997.[citation needed]
- Thredbo landslide, Australia on 30 July 1997, destroyed hostel.
- Pithoragarh mudslide in Uttar Pradesh, India on August 1998[citation needed]
- Lishui landslide in Zhejiang, China on September 1999[citation needed]
- The Vargas tragedy, due to heavy rains in Vargas State, Venezuela, on December, 1999, causing tens of thousands of casualties.
- Aldercrest-Banyon landslide in Kelso, Washington, in 1998-1999, one of the worst urban landslides in U.S. history destroying 127 homes and causing $40 million in damages.[19]
[edit] 21st Century
- Payatas, Manila garbage slide on 11 July 2000.[citation needed]
- Mianning landslide by torrential rain in Liangshan, Sichuan, China on July 2000[citation needed]
- Amboori landslide, in Kerala, 2001
- Danba mudslide in Sichuan, China on July 2003[citation needed]
- Zuojiaying landslide in Nayong, Guizhou, China on December 2004[citation needed]
- La Conchita mudslide in California, United States on January 10, 2005, killed 10 people and destroyed 18 homes
- Jaigaon mudslide in Maharashtra, India on July 2005[citation needed]
- Southern Leyte landslide in the Philippines on 17 February 2006
- Devil's Slide, an ongoing landslide in San Mateo County, California
- Landslide in Sulawesi, Indonesia, June 2006.[20]
- Liangshan mudslide in Sichuan, China on May 2007[citation needed]
- 2007 Chittagong mudslide, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on June 11, 2007.
- 2008 Cairo landslide on September 6, 2008.
- Xiangfen County mudslide with unlicensed Tashan coal mine collapse in Shanxi, China on September 2008.[citation needed]
- Lincang mudslide in Yunnan, China on November 2008[citation needed]
- Wulong mudslide in Chongqing, China on July 2009[citation needed]
- Hofu mudslide in Yamaguchi, Japan on July 2009.[citation needed]
- Liuzhou, Guangxi Region, China - derailed train, killing 4 [21]
- Shiaolin landslide by Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan on August 2009[citation needed]
- Nile Valley Landslide, no injuries but destroyed some houses, obliterated a quarter mile of Washington State Route 410 and redirecting the Naches River 10 miles west of Naches, Washington on 11 October 2009.
- Bayambang and Alcalá landslide in Benguet, Philippines on October 2009.[citation needed]
- San Vicente and San Salvador mudslide by Hurricane Ida in El Salvador on November 2009.[citation needed]
- Angra dos Reis mudslide in Ilha Grande Island, Rio State, Brazil on January 2010.[citation needed]
- The Hunza Valley landslide in northern Pakistan destroyed 26 homes and killed 20 people on January 4, 2010.[22] The landslide also blocked the Hunza River, creating an 26-kilometre long lake that inundated several villages and submerged 30 kilometres of the Karakoram Highway.[22]
- The 2010 Uganda landslide caused over 100 deaths following heavy rain in Bududa region.
- Morro Bumba mudslide in Rio State, Brazil on April 2010.[citation needed]
- Ruptured irrigation system caused over 11 deaths in Italy on April 12, 2010
- Landslide in Saint-Jude, Quebec killing a family of four on May 10, 2010.[23]
- Number K859 Shanghai-Gulin express train derail by landslide in Jiang Zhidong Jiangxi, China on May 2010.[citation needed]
- Massive Landslide caused 38 families about 107 people buried in Anshun City of Guizhou Province, China on June 28, 2010.[24]
- The massive 40 million cubic meter Meager Creek Landslide near Pemberton, British Columbia, Canada on August 6, 2010.
- Zhouqu county mudslide in Gansu, China on August 8, 2010. [25]
[edit] Extraterrestrial landslides
Evidence of past landslides has been detected on many bodies in the solar system, but since most observations are made by probes that only observe for a limited time and most bodies in the solar system appear to be geologically inactive not many landslides are known to have happened in recent times. Both Venus and Mars have been subject to long-term mapping by orbiting satellites, and examples of landslides have been observed on both.
[edit] See also
- Automatic Deformation Monitoring System
- Deformation monitoring
- Earthquake engineering
- Geotechnics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Landslide dam
- Landslide mitigation
- Mass wasting
- Slope stability
- Sturzstrom
- Submarine landslide
- Washaway
- Mudslide
- California landslides
[edit] References
- ^ History of landslide susceptibility and a chorology of landslide prone areas in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India. Environmental Geology. 2008. doi:10.1007/s00254-008-1431-9..
- ^ Easterbrook, Don J. (1999). Surface Processes and Landforms. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall.
- ^ Easterbrook, Don J. Surface Processes and Landforms. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1999.
- ^ Schuster, R.L. & Krizek, R.J. (1978). Landslides: Analysis and Control. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences.
- ^ Renwick,W., Brumbaugh,R. & Loeher,L. 1982. Landslide Morphology and Processes on Santa Cruz Island California. Geografiska Annaler. Series A, Physical Geography, Vol. 64, No. 3/4, pp. 149-159
- ^ Johnson, B.F. Slippery slopes. Earth magazine. June 2010. pgs 48-55.
- ^ Chen,Z. and J. Wang. 2007. Landslide hazard mapping using logistic regression model in Mackenzie Valley, Canada. Natural Hazards 42:75-89.
- ^ Clerici, A.; S. Perego; C. Tellini; P.Vescavi. 2002. A procedure for landslide susceptibility zonation by the conditional analysis method. Geomorphology 48(4):349-364.
- ^ 8
- ^ Metternicht, G.; L. Hurni; R. Gogu. 2005. Remote sensing of landslides: An analysis of the potential contribution to geo-spatial systems for hazard assessment in mountainous environments. Remote Sensing of Environment 98: 284-303.
- ^ De La Ville, N.; A.C. Diaz; D. Ramirez. 2002. Remote sensing and GIS technologies as tools to support sustainable management of areas devastated by landslides. Environment, Development, and Sustainability 4: 221-229.
- ^ Fabbri, A.; C. Chung; A. Cendrero; J. Remondo. 2003. Is prediction of future landslides possible with a GIS? Natural Hazards 30: 487-499.
- ^ Lee, S. and J.A. Talib. 2005. Probabilistic landslide susceptibility and factor effect analysis. Environmental Geology 47: 982-990.
- ^ Olmacher, G.C. and J.C. Davis. 2003. Using multiple logistic regression and GIS technology to predict landslide hazard in northeast Kansas, USA. Engineering Geology 69(3-4): 331-343.
- ^ [1] A.v.Poschinger, Angewandte Geologie, Vol. 11/2, 2006 english version
- ^ Dingle,R.V. 1977. The anatomy of a large submarine slump on a sheared continental margin (SE Africa). Journal of Geological Society London, 134, 293-310.
- ^ "Hope Slide". BC Geographical Names Information System. http://archive.ilmb.gov.bc.ca/bcgn-bin/bcg10?name=53154.
- ^ Glissement de terrain à Saint-Jean-Vianney | Les Archives de Radio-Canada
- ^ Aldercrest-Banyon Landslide Kelso, Washington (1998-99)
- ^ Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan: Emergency Assistance to Indonesia for Flood and Landslide Disaster in South Sulawesi Province
- ^ Illawarra Mercury 30 July 2009
- ^ a b "Landslide Lake in Northwest Pakistan". NASA Earth Observatory. 2010-03-18. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=43175. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
- ^ http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/05/11/quebec-landslide.html
- ^ Massive landslide in Anshun City of Guizhou Province, China June 29, 2010. Retrieved June 29, 2010.
- ^ Large landslide in Gansu Zhouqu August 7 August 19, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
- Pudasaini, Shiva P., Hutter, Kolumban, Avalanche Dynamics: Dynamics of Rapid Flows of Dense Granular Avalanches. Springer, Berlin, New York, 2007, ISBN 3-540-32686-3
- Pradhan, B., Lee, S. Use of geospatial data for the development of fuzzy algebraic operators to landslide hazard mapping: a case study in Malaysia. Applied Geomatics, Springer, Berlin, 2009, DOI 10.1007/s12518-009-0001-5
- Chen,Z. and J. Wang. 2007. Landslide hazard mapping using logistic regression model in Mackenzie Valley, Canada. Natural Hazards 42:75-89.
- Lee, S. Pradhan, B. Probabilistic Landslide Risk Mapping at Penang Island, Malaysia. Earth System Science, 2006, vol. 115, No. 6, December, pp. 1–12. (Springer publication)
- Pradhan, B., Singh, R.P., Buchroithner, M.F. Estimation of Stress and Its Use in Evaluation of Landslide Prone Regions Using Remote Sensing Data". Advance in Space Research, 2005, vol. 37, pp: 698 – 709, Elsevier publication, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2005.03.137
- Pradhan, B., Lee, S. Utilization of optical remote sensing data and geographic information system tools for regional landslide hazard analysis by using binomial logistic regression model. Applied Remote Sensing, 2008, SPIE, Vol. 2: pp:1-11
- Clerici, A.; S. Perego; C. Tellini; P.Vescavi. 2002. A procedure for landslide susceptibility zonation by the conditional analysis method. Geomorphology 48(4):349-364.
- Metternicht, G.; L. Hurni; R. Gogu. 2005. Remote sensing of landslides: An analysis of the potential contribution to geo-spatial systems for hazard assessment in mountainous environments. Remote Sensing of Environment 98: 284-303.
- De La Ville, N.; A.C. Diaz; D. Ramirez. 2002. Remote sensing and GIS technologies as tools to support sustainable management of areas devastated by landslides. Environment, Development, and Sustainability 4: 221-229.
- Fabbri, A.; C. Chung; A. Cendrero; J. Remondo. 2003. Is prediction of future landslides possible with a GIS? Natural Hazards 30: 487-499.
- Lee, S. and J.A. Talib. 2005. Probabilistic landslide susceptibility and factor effect analysis. Environmental Geology 47: 982-990.
- Olmacher, G.C. and J.C. Davis. 2003. Using multiple logistic regression and GIS technology to predict landslide hazard in northeast Kansas, USA. Engineering Geology 69(3-4): 331-343.
[edit] External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Landslide |
- United States Geological Survey site
- British Geological Survey landslides site
- European Soil Portal, Landslides
- British Columbia government landslide information
- Slide!, a program on B.C.'s Knowledge Network, with video clips
- Geoscience Australia Fact Sheet [3]
- Pictures of Slope Failure
- JTC1 Joint International Technical Committee on Landslides and Engineered Slopes
- Landslide blog written by Professor David Petley, Wilson Professor, Department of Geography, Durham University, UK
| ||
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उत्तराखण्ड के पहाड़ी जिलों में चकबन्दी की माँग को लेकर विगत तीन दशकों से संघर्षरत पौड़ी गढ़वाल की असवालस्यूँ पट्टी के ग्राम सूला निवासी गणेश सिंह नेगी 'गरीब' गाँव-गाँव भ्रमण कर लोगों को लामबंद कर रहे हैं। पेश है उनसे हुई बातचीत के मुख्य अंश। सवाल:- अधिकांश जनता चकबंदी से अनभिज्ञ है, ऐसा क्यों ? [...]
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- चिट्ठी-पत्री : जनता जागरूक बने और सक्रिय सहभागिता निभाये
- चिट्ठ्ठी – पत्री : कहीं कुछ टूट गया है
- चिट्ठ्ठी – पत्री: संपादक जी आग लगना कुदरती घटना नहीं है
- चिट्ठ्ठी – पत्री : दक्षिण एशिया ही है, जिसे पुरुषों ने अपना मूत्रालय बना रखा है
- चिट्ठ्ठी – पत्री : पूरे पहाड़ के कण-कण से परिचय
- चिट्ठी पत्री : शम्भू जी की वल्गर तरंग
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नैनीताल समाचार को सब्सक्राइब करें
ताजा अंक : 01 अगस्त से 14 अगस्त 2010
हरेला अंक 2009
मेरा पहाड़ (Mera Pahad)
- घी-त्यार : उत्तराखण्ड का एक लोक उत्सव
- बुलन्द हौंसले और धैर्य का दूसरा नाम- मीर रंजन नेगी
- ऋतुओं के स्वागत का त्यौहार- हरेला
- अमर शहीद स्व० श्री श्रीदेव सुमन
- उत्तराखण्ड का वीर सपूत-अमर शहीद केसरी चन्द
- हिसालू डाट काम "उत्तराखण्ड संदेश" का शुभारम्भ
- Piran Kaliyar : A Symbol Of Unity
- मां बाल सुंदरी मन्दिर, काशीपुर
- गौरा देवी : चिपको आन्दोलन की जननी
- कबूतरी देवी : उत्तराखण्ड की पहली लोक गायिका
Apna Uttarakhand
- बोला भै-बन्धु तुमथें कनु उत्तराखण्ड चयेणुं च
- जी रे जागि रे, जुगराज रे तू- जी रे
- श्यूँ बाघ, देबुआ और प्यारा सेतुआ….
- ओ पार के टिकराम और ए पार की पारभती
- चिलम की चिसकाटी व बकरी चोर
- श्यूं बाघ व नेपाली 'जंग बहादुर'
- अब कहां रहे वैसे श्यूं-बाघ
- गरा रा रा ऐगे रे बरखा झुकि ऐगे
- इखि ई पिरथिमा ये हि जलम मां
- साँस छिन आस-औलाद तुमारी हमारी डाली – झम्म
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