Four Days at Dudhwa Tiger Reserve

Reaching Dudhwa

Dudhwa National Park is a unique wildlife reserve of the country. It’s a place where every informed wildlife enthusiast will be eager to visit. The reason is simple; Dudhwa is unique in many features. Firstly, It’s a tiger reserve which itself attracts! Secondly, Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, part of Dudhwa tiger reserve is world famous for its gharial population, an endemic aquatic reptile of India. Thirdly, success of Rhinoceros in Dudhwa makes it a home to diverse kind of animals and ecosystems. I was very excited from inside when I got the confirmation call from Mr. Fazlur of Katerniaghat Foundation about my participation at Dudhwa Bird Count. My first visit to any national park and that too in Dudhwa!!
I also had a very important meeting with a famous environment lawyer on Saturday, but the call from wild was strong and, though for a moment I was in dilemma but I chose passion again. The other reason was also that the visit was already planned couple of weeks ago and

Wetlands in India: Their Importance and hydrologic alteration as threat from urbanization

Content: Introduction > Wetlands in India: Current Scenario > Wetland Services > Urban Water Crisis and Altered Hydrology Cycle (Case study: Chilika Lake) > Concerns (Case study: Sonbhadra) > Conclusion

Introduction

Wetlands as the name suggest is any land which is wet or contain water. There has been much definition for wetlands but none can be said perfect definition. Since years, the most common definition used by scientific texts is, wetlands are lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic eco-systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water (Mitch and Gosselink, 1986). However a more clear and detailed definition can be found of that of Ramsar Convention, entered into force 1975  as ‘areas of marsh, fen, peat, land or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters’. In addition to that, the Convention Article 2.1 provides that wetlands ‘may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six meters at low tide lying within the wetlands.’ 

What Makes Science Express Biodiversity Special: Debaadityo’s Film on Science Express Biodiversity Special released at SEBS valediction

The most awaited film on Science Express Biodiversity Special by Debaadityo was officially released by Mr. Chander Mohan, Adviser and Scientist G, Department of Science and Technology, GoI at Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre, Ahmedabad. The occasion was valediction program of Science Express Biodiversity Special (SEBS) which crossed 24 lakh visitors in the current phase of exhibition during which it covered 18,000 kilometers touching 51 stations in 201 exhibition days.  

This film by Debaadityo is a tribute to the team of SEBS which he made during his association with this unique science exhibition. He started his journey with SEBS from its inauguration on  5^th June, 2012 from Delhi Safdarjung and worked as Science Communicator till successful completion of the phase on 22^nd December, 2012. 

It is not the end 2013 is here!

Another end to a year...2012 will never come again. For me another year added to exploration of this world, the people and how it works. Nonetheless to say, 2012 has been the most rewarding year in my entire life and if compared to last year, it has been wonderful. Got to see many places… got to know many people and of course got to learn many things. This year added to me lots of new experiences which I used to think, hope, wonder and desired. Thanks 2012 you gave me many such things in such a short time. Like every past years in my life

पिछले तीन साल में.. एक वृत्तान्त बी.एच. यू. से..

ये तो आप सभी लोगों को पता है कि मेरा अनुभव कितना मज़ेदार और रोमांचक रहा है.. मैंने यहाँ हमेशा हर दिन एक नए चुनौती के साथ जिया... एक वक्त तो ऐसा भी था जब सुबह उठते ये नहीं पता रहता था की आज होने क्या वाला है.. खैर जैसा भी हो.. मैंने ये ३ साल में कई बड़े काम किये.. कई लोग आये कई लोग गए... कुछ लोगों को हमेशा से ही मुझसे परेशानी रही है..  और मोटा मोटी कहूँ तो सबसे ज्यादा परेशानी मेरे काम से रही है.. मैं M.Sc. Tech  में  दाखिले से खुश जितना हूँ उतना ही अपने आपको भाग्यशाली भी महसूस करता हूँ.. आज अपनी खुशियां आपके साथ ज्यादा बाटूंगा...

Of Anna, Lokpal and People of India... The article for all who supports Anna blindly!

It was April 5th, 2011 when the nation saw an old man doing fast for a strong law against corruption. Well, the anti corruption topic was raised by BJP last year to bring back black money. A series of events started thereafter and in April I got to know Anna Hazare. Now I am telling you here my observations, views and some inferences and how things twisted since April till today. This is first time I wrote on something away from my favorite topic of environment.

The rise of Team Anna

I was out of the capital, but through facebook and newspaper I got some hints though not the clear picture. Anyway, Anna got good support at Jantar Mantar. Within 5 days government accepted his demand to bring a lokpal bill.
Hazare’s statement came on fourth day as "Government has accepted all our demands and I will end my fast tomorrow at 10:30AM. This is a victory for the entire nation!”

The Toxic Solution: A lesson on World Environment Day!

Being an environment enthusiast I planned to visit the so much hyped 'Green Haat' at Dilli Haat. Though I wasn't in a mood but still gave it a second thought for just knowing what people are doing in other parts of the country hoping to learn something and off course share some knowledge what I can give them. As it was organized by MoEF, UNEP and CEE I thought it would leave me learned. I was joined by another environmentalist friend of mine whom I met during coordinating a conference.. and obviously if she haven’t been there today I would seriously get bored.. Anyway here 's the story after we entered the haat!

Fuelwood, Food and Forests: A study in Mirzapur

The greatest discovery made by man ever was the fire with which he got the power to cook food and since then it has created an intense demand on wood. With development in science and technology and discovery of new fuels, the choice of energy kept shifting to cleaner fuel. While, the modern fuels like LPG and kerosene have been the major energy sources in urban areas, but in rural households it is the traditional bio fuels that are being used as the major energy source for cooking. The fact that natural resources are freely available at zero cost involved, added with unavailability of alternate fuel sources the bio fuels, chiefly wood and cow dung are the principal fuels used in rural areas. Fuelwood has been the chief fuel choice in rural India. As population is increasing fast and land areas under forest are shrinking, so it is indeed an alarming situation.

Women and children with fuelwood. (Mirzapur, September, 2010)

About animals and their relationships with humans!

Read the following lines which everyone already studied at schooltime:
“Cow gives us milk.” “Sheep gives us wool.” “Goat gives us meat”

Now answer these questions:

Does cow really gives us milk or we take it?
Does sheep really gives us wool or we take it?
Does goat gives us meat or we take it?

The logic is simple. Man is selfish. Throughout the history of evolution, man has achieved dominance over the earth proving “survival of the fittest” because man has learned how to utilize nature for its own self needs. Its good that we learned to utilize nature and every organism do that to survive, infact the basis of survival is to utise nature and its resources. But the problem arised when the “utilization” turned into “exploitation”. From the period humans came into existence their utter selfishness has

Wetlands: Are they wastelands?

Current Perception of the Wetlands

Wetlands, due to no visible utility to human are largely being ignored by us. Even today in the era, where global warming, climate change and sinking of water table is such a big issue, the initiative to conserve them has not yet been considered. Well, the problem is not only their ignorance, nor we can blame it on the people neither the government, the problem actually lies in the unawareness about the wetlands. The main reason is lack of people in aquatic sciences, and less studies on wetlands especially in India. Generally, the wetlands are percept as ‘wastelands’, that’s why whenever there is a pond or lake in nearby locality, people starts dumping their household wastes, sewage etc. Today, to make Understand the person about the importance of a wetland is a Herculean task! But its in almost every religious texts to conserve lake, ponds, rivers etc. whether you see Quran, the holy book of Muslims