“India should be aggressive on energy efficiency. If energy is used differently, if energy demand is managed properly, you don’t need to build as many power plants as you need today,” Yumkella, who was in India, told IANS in an interview.

“If you promote the three principles of access, efficiency and increase in the share of renewable energy, India can be one of the global leaders in the energy revolution going forward in the next two decades,” he added.

The Indian government has started doing its bit. It is today among the top five countries in wind energy. The ministry of new and renewable energy has set an ambitious target of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020. The government is also promoting biomass plants that can produce one to two MW of power to change the energy mix.

Yumkella, who was in New Delhi to attend the “Delhi Sustainable Development Summit”, said companies and funds would be interested to invest in green infrastructure in India, if the government frames promotional policies for the sector.

“There are two sources for funds. We have almost three trillion dollars in cash in a number of companies, funds around the world, which are hesitant to invest because of the global financial crisis. I believe with well-defined policies countries like India with a huge market can attract a huge amount of that cash,” Yumkella said.

Clean energy investments in India reached $10.3 billion in 2011, about 52 percent higher than the $6.8 billion invested in 2010. This was the highest growth figure of any significant economy in the world and had been put down to improving cost-competitiveness of wind and solar, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

Yumkella suggested that India should export its green technology solutions to developing countries in Africa and Latin America.

“India has some good programmes like to use waste, biomass to generate electricity and others. These can be scaled up and this would become useful to the rest of the world.

“I should add that your Prime Minister in particular has been a chief driver of South- South corporation. As I speak, my agency is working with Indian firms and taking these energy solutions to Africa.”

Industry experts say India with its technology base should accelerate the development of green technologies. Otherwise, it would just be a captive market for developed countries’ green industry and its costly technologies.

Agrees Yumkella. “It’s a win-win business model where Western companies are making money here which is helping their bottom line in their home base.”

Yumkella also praised India for the role it played in the recently concluded United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa.

“India has been a solid voice in all these negotiations and representing the interest and views of developing countries to grow and to create jobs. India’s voice has that balanced view for sustainable energy.”

With the enforcement of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the livelihood of the kalandar community — a nomadic gypsy tribe — was rendered illegal.

To rehabilitate the rescued bears, Wildlife SOS, an animal welfare organisation, along with government agencies, opened the first bear rescue centre near Agra in 2002. And the first occupant of the Agra Bear Rescue Facility (ABRF) was Rani.

Malnourished, injured and stressed — like most other dancing bears — she was given medical treatment, food and, most importantly, freedom from the rope tied around her nose and the compulsion to move within the 2×2 feet radii it was confined to.

But simply rescuing the bears would not have ended this cruel trade. So the kalandars were roped in too.
“It’s very easy to demonise the kalandars. But the community comes from an impoverished background with no access to health facilities and education. So we have to rehabilitate the kalandars too,” Wildlife SOS India co-founder Geeta Seshamani said.

Thus, a kalandar rehabilitation programme was also started under which a package of Rs.50,000 is given to the owner upon peaceful surrendering of a bear.

But what is even more heartening is that a large of number of kalandar boys, whose fathers were once in the trade, are now working in the facility, looking after the bears and campaigning against the practice.

“It was thanks to Rani that our kitchen fire kept burning. We would make her entertain the crowd and earn about Rs.600 per day,” Aashiq, 29, told IANS.

“But we knew it was unlawful. There were campaigns in our village and one day my father surrendered Rani and took a job at ABRF,” he added.

Aashiq too works at the centre which houses 270 sloth bears. He is a kitchen chef.

“I knew the bear’s eating habits; so this was an apt job for me. I was taught the dietary supplements they require. We feed them thrice a day,” he said.

Mohammad Rizwan is another kalandar boy at the facility.

“We are from Uttar Pradesh, but I have grown up in West Bengal. Every 10 days our community, which constitute about 10-15 families, would move from one village to another,” Rizwan told IANS.

“With the bear, our daily income was around Rs.500. With my brothers in petty businesses, it’s around the same now. But we are not chased by the law and have a stable life,” he added. The kalandar boys earn Rs.6,000-7,000 per month at the centre.

According to Wildlife SOS India founder Kartick Satyanarayan, around 40 percent of its staff is from the kalandar community. However, he says it’s not easy bringing them to the mainstream because they are “used to the begging culture”.

“We have to be patient and give them confidence. We also provide education to the community’s children which is important to uproot any malpractice,” Satyanarayan said.

Mohammad Hussain, another bearkeeper of the community, says the motivation to work comes when they realise the animal’s pain.

A cub, barely a month old, is stolen from its mother by the poacher and is bundled in a gunny sack. Traumatised and ill fed, it’s sold to a kalandar. Many don’t survive the ordeal and the ones that do have their delicate snouts pierced by a hot iron rod and a rope being pulled through.

Their canines and claws are broken and they are tied by a rope. So much is the stress that once rescued, a bear has to be quarantined for three months, its wounds are tended to, surgeries are performed and ample food is given.

“To a bear, man stands for cruelty. By the time he is rescued, he loses his animal instincts; so it’s not wise to leave them in the wild,” said S. Ilairaja, a veterinary doctor at ABRF.

With the tables turned, a number of kalandar boys also work as informers for the organisation, keeping them posted on any poaching activity.

“We have rescued around 550 dancing bears from across India. The last known dancing bear, Raju, was rescued in 2009. There have been no reports of dancing bears since then. However, we suspect there are some in Nepal and there may be attempts to bring them in through the India-Nepal border,” Satyanarayan said.

“The state government is promoting herb culture in a big way so that besides using herbs in ayurvedic medicines the income of farmers could be supplemented,” Dhumal said at a regional conference of Arogya Bharti in Una town, 150 km from here.

He said the government had initiated a number of programmes to strengthen the ayurveda system of medicines. “To provide medical treatment to people at their doorstep, the state has given relaxation up to 53 years to ayurvedic doctors for recruitment.”

Himachal Pradesh is known to be a grower of herbs and a large number of people depend on the cultivation and collection of herbs for their livelihood.

The government is also promoting the plantation of indigenous species, especially medicinal plants on a large scale, to transform the hill state into a herbal zone.

In 2009, the government launched a herbal plantation campaign under which the farmers across the state were provided over one crore herbal saplings of more than 50 indigenous species like neem, banyan, jamun and peepal free of cost for plantation.

China has spent 3.8 percent of the GDP in 2009 to clean up the environment, the China Green National Accounting Study Report 2009 said.

“The damage to the environment not only results in health problems, but in financial loss as well,” the Global Times Saturday quoted Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based NGO Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, as saying.

“It’s a vicious circle if we continue to strive for economic prosperity at the cost of huge energy consumption and environmental pollution, and it’s time we wake up and curb the trend,” Ma said.

The average cost of China’s resources output is $320 to $350 per tonne, far below that of developed economies, which is between $2,500 to $3,500 per tonne, and it is still decreasing, according to the report by the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning.

“This means we are consuming about 10 times more energy than the developed economies for the same amount,” he said.

“I want to make a film about saving the environment and bring about a change. I don’t know if anyone of you is willing to fund a movie like this, but I plan to act in it,” Abhishek, who is busy shooting for Rohit Shetty’s “Bol Bachchan”, told IANS.

But the challenge lies in finding an engaging story that can convey the message in an interesting manner and help in bringing footfalls to the theatres.

“The challenge is to get a story that is compelling enough for Indian audiences to see. I know there are one or two films like ‘Day After Tomorrow’ that have been successful in the West and people came out thinking what if this actually happens tomorrow,” said Abhishek.

“If I make a film just talking about climate change, it would be boring to watch. The real challenge is to make a film that would be engrossing enough for the audiences to come out and watch and deal with the issues. If we come across something like that, I am on and I’ll sign on the dotted line any day,” he added.

A bevy of Bollywood stars have associated themselves with various social causes and Abhishek is one of them. He has been honoured with the Green Globe award for his efforts towards creating a greener environment.

The actor, who featured in films like “Yuva” and “Guru”, feels celebrities can bring about a change by lending their voice for causes.

“I am not talking about myself, but a lot of my colleagues the world over have lent their voice for saving the environment or other social issues. I think if a celebrity has the ability to make a difference and influence even two people, then he should help…,” the 35-year-old told IANS.

“There is some kind of purpose to so-called celebrityhood; hopefully some people would listen and follow suit…I think if a celebrity has a voice, one should go out there and make it work. Thankfully, if one of us shows up, we have the media writing about it, and media is the actual agent to bring about a change the world over,” he added.

Youth can play an important role in bringing about a change, feels Abhishek, as youngsters know what they want.

“I really feel that youth will make the change. Youth are not willing to be told what they have to do because they are very sure what they need to do. So more to the youth of the nation as they would play an important role in bringing a change,” he said.

He has been doing his bit towards creating a cleaner, greener and energy-efficient future by creating awareness through various endeavours on issues affecting the earth.

Each monkey is getting a moderate dose of about 50 grams of Cahors wine a day, mixed with piping hot water and served with apples, lemon and sugar, the Tengrinews.kz website reported.

The monkeys enjoy their drink, said Svetlana Pilyuk, deputy director of the zoo in Karaganda city, around 190 km from Kazakh capital Astana.

“That’s normal practice. They always get to drink something relaxing when it’s cold or when they’re being transferred to another zoo or from summer to winter cages,” Pilyuk said.

“In the wild, primates also consume alcohol-containing plants that disinhibit their nerve system and give them some release,” she said.

Cahors, popular across all former Soviet Union states, has an alcohol level of 16 percent. It is the communion wine of the Orthodox Christian church, though its secular consumption is also considerable.

Kazakhstan has been hit by a cold wave that has blanketed most of western Eurasia. Temperatures in Karaganda stood at minus 33 to minus 38 degrees Celsius this week and the forecast promised minus 40 to minus 45 degrees over the weekend.

Global sugar consumption has tripled over the past 50 years and its intake should be curtailed, like alcohol and tobacco, to protect the public from the deleterious effects of obesity, they said.

These health hazards largely mirror the effects of drinking too much alcohol, which is the distillation of sugar, point out study co-authors Robert Lustig, Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis, from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

This would help explain why 40 percent of people with metabolic syndrome — the key metabolic changes that lead to diabetes, heart disease and cancer — are not clinically obese, according to the journal Nature.

The study co-authors argue that sugar’s potential for abuse, coupled with its toxicity and pervasiveness in the western diet make it a primary culprit of this worldwide health crisis.

Significantly, diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer now pose a greater health burden globally than infectious diseases, they said, according to a university statement.

“As long as the public thinks that sugar is just empty calories, we have no chance in solving this,” said Lustig, professor of paediatrics, at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

“There are good calories and bad calories, just as there are good fats and bad fats, good amino acids and bad amino acids, good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates, but sugar is toxic beyond its calories,” Lustig said.

“Projects with an environment dimension to them would be given preference in terms of expedited government clearance and other non-financial benefits,” said state Environment Secretary Valsa Nair-Singh.

Addressing a conference on Green Co – The Next Wave for Sustaining Growth, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), she noted that the central government will be funding state governments based on Environment Protection Index, constituted by the Planning Commission, subject to the state government spending 2 percent of the funds on environment-related activities.

In addition to promoting eco-friendly industrial and other construction projects, she said the state government provides funds to foster research in environment protection and sponsors M.Phil and PhD candidates.

CII Maharashtra state council chairperson, Leena Nair of Hindustan Unilever Ltd reiterated the need to focus on maintaining inter-generational equity.

“Our resource consumption should not add burden to our next generation. If we consume at the rate we are doing, we need five planets to sustain over the next 100 years,” Nair said.

She informed that the CII has been driving several initiatives in the area of green buildings and climate change and developed a Code for Ecologically Sustainable Business Growth, which has attracted voluntary commitment from 450 organisations.

Speaking at the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, Natarjan said: “There is no doubt that the global regime for protecting biodiversity has to be ambitious but it has to be firmly rooted, at the same time, in Rio principles.

“The principle of common but differentiated responsibility and equity is something that is extremely relevant when we talk of global environmental agreements and their effective implementation. They are vital to the success of any global agreement in the field of environment,” she said.

Talking about the outcome at climate change talks in Durban last year, she said: “In Durban, we took some very important decisions to advance the international actions on global climate change.

“Our goal should be to ensure that the outcome of the ensuing negotiations under Durban platform is firmly founded on these principles and that we avoid pitfalls in implementation that such agreements have suffered in the past,” she added.

“No one in EU argues against that India — with a 1.2 billion population with 400 million still without power — has a right to grow and emissions will continue to grow in India. We don’t want real, substantial cuts but deviation from business as usual,” she told reporters here.

Clarifying on single legally binding regime demanded by the EU, Hedegaard said that all the countries should be equally bound to whatever they commit.

Over half a million turtles arrive and congregate in the shallow coastal waters of the Bay of Bengal from October to November and nest from December to March. Most hatchlings emerge by May.

Officials at the Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary in Kendrapada district which houses Gahirmatha, 174 km from here, said the turtles were already found mating in the shallow coastal water, but the nesting time may get delayed due to adverse weather conditions.

“Nesting time may be delayed due to climate change. One of the main reasons is that the accretion of sand on the nesting beach is continuing due to the northerly winds,” Divisional Forest Officer Manoj Mohapatra told IANS.

“The turtles always prefer to nest after the accretion of new sand that occurs around this time. If they nest during the accretion, the eggs will get buried and hatchling success will be reduced,” he said.

“The beach condition is governed by climate change. Probably climate change has delayed the stabilisation of the beach,” he added.

Mohapatra said the delay in nesting is not a new phenomenon and such delay was also observed in the past.

“The carcasses of about 274 Olive Ridley turtles have been spotted since Nov 1 last year at various places on the coast near Gahirmatha,” he said.

Although he did not predict when the mass nesting will take place, he said adequate protection measures were in place to provide the turtles a trouble-free environment.

He said over 500 people were arrested and over 140 trawlers seized during the past three months for entering into the prohibited area of the nesting site.

The authorities have set up about 16 camps along the beach and the turtles are being monitored by nearly 100 activists and officials. As a result the turtle mortality has not increased, he said.

During the last three months about 900 turtles were found dead on the beach. The number is almost the same as last year’s figure around this time, the officer said.

While some turtles were killed after being hit by fishing trawlers, some died due to stress as they travel very long distance in sea. There were also many other reasons behind the mortality, he said.

An Olive Ridley on an average lays about 120 to 150 eggs from which hatchlings emerge after about 45 days.

The eggs are under threat from natural predators such as dogs, jackals, wild boars, crows and eagles and subject to being washed away due to beach erosion.

Like tigers and elephants, Olive Ridley turtles are protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Trapping, killing or selling of the species could result in a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment.

The so-called ‘supergiant’ – a type of amphipod – was discovered more than four miles below the surface in waters north of New Zealand.

Most amphipods are usually 0.8in-1.2in long. But the new specimen, found by a team from the University of Aberdeen, was 10 times the size, the newspaper said.

Using submergence cameras and a large trap designed by the university’s Oceanlab, the crew was able to explore to depths of six miles.

They were hoping to find specimens of deep-sea snailfish, which have been photographed before but have not been seen since the 1950s.

Expedition leader Alan Jamieson said: “The moment the traps came on deck, we were elated at the sight of the snailfish as we have been after these fish for years.

“However, seconds later I stopped and thought ‘What on earth is that?’ whilst catching a glimpse of an amphipod far bigger than I ever thought possible.

“It’s a bit like finding a foot-long cockroach.”

“The government has inventorised greenhouse gas emission for assessing the carbon footprints. The carbon footprint per capita in the state has been assessed at 1.4 tonne per capita against the national average of 1.57 tonne per capita,” Dhumal said at the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organised by The Energy and Resource Institute.

The state has signed a pact with the World Bank for harnessing carbon credits to generate carbon revenue amounting to Rs.20 crores for 20 years under “Bio Carbon Projects” in 10 districts of the state.

The Rs.365-crore Himachal Pradesh Mid-Himalayan Watershed Project being co-funded by the World Bank, is the first project in India registered for carbon credits.

The chief minister advocated the market-based instrument “payment for eco-system services” for maintenance, conservation and expansion of pristine Himalayan flora and fauna.

The state has prepared an environment master plan for guidelines in environmental protection, and would soon set up a centre on climate change in Shimla for coordinating research on climate change, added Dhumal.

The World Wetlands Day was observed Feb 2.

The country’s natural wetland reserves have decreased by over 8,000 sq km over the past three decades, a study by the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications said Thursday.

Poorly-protected wetland areas are mainly located in west and southwest China, some coastal regions, as well as along the Yangtze river, Xinhua reported.

Only 15 percent of the wetlands found along the Songhuajiang river in northeast China’s Jilin province are well protected.

The study called for wetland protection legislation, remote-sensing supervision and industrial restructuring in areas near the reserves.

Currently, China has 614 natural wetland reserves.

“This is good news and can be termed as one of the best average populations,” said herpetofauna researcher Jayaditya Purkayastha after release of his book “Urban Herpetofauna: Amphibians and Reptiles of Guwahati” on World Wetland Day Thursday.

The book, which aims at generating interest and inform school students regarding herpetofauna, was released by Saibal Sengupta, considered to be an authority on the subject here.

“The fact that we have 63-odd species, including 17 species in the Deepor Beel — the lone Ramsar site in Assam — is a good one compared to the global statistics,” he said, adding that there are only 6,800 species of herpetofauna globally.

According to International Union for Conservation of Nature data, there are only 16,318 herpetofauna species worldwide — 9,547 species of reptiles and 6,771 species of amphibians.

“There has been rapid habitat alteration for every species and it is a global phenomenon due to development in various sectors. We cannot stop that as development is necessary,” Purkayastha told IANS.

“However, if urbanization continues at the present rate, the population will be affected in our region too very soon,” he said.

The young researcher also rued the fact that the northeastern region, which has been identified as one of the two biographic hotspots after the Western Ghats, is still data deficient regarding the herpetofauna population.

Not many studies have been conducted in this part of the country to record the amphibian and reptile population scientifically. “I am sure many new species will be recorded in states like Arunachal Pradesh once there is a scientific study,” he added.

He said misinformation, superstitions and lack of interest among people in these animals is hindering the conservation process.

Speaking at the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) here, Manmohan Singh said there is a need for equity as the per capita emission of developed countries continues to be 10-12 times that of the developing world.

“India will play a constructive role in ongoing talks as far as it is based on fair and equitable agreement,” he said.

Commending the progress made at the UN climate change talks in Durban, the prime minister said: “The 17th Conference of Parties (CoP) at Durban did achieve significant progress by agreeing to the second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol.”

He said the ensuing climate talks should be based on the principles of equitable access to resources and common but differentiated responsibility.

“Durban must build on the Bali Action plan and we must find a solution to the problem keeping in mind that developing countries have the right to develop,” he added.

Sultan, who was 16 and weighed about 230 kg, was donated to the zoo in April 2011 by the Renato Circus and had become a star attraction.

The tiger was given to the zoo after it sustained injuries in a fight with another tiger, leading its owners to believe it might be crippled, the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat said.

The tiger was injured during a tour of Honduras and the circus decided to donate him to the zoo in the Central American country’s capital.

Sultan was treated extensively and recovered fully, but he reinjured himself about a month ago, veterinarian Diana Echeverria said.

The tiger was euthanized Tuesday to end his pain and suffering.

Sultan will be stuffed and placed on display at the zoo, officials said.

The introductory episodes titled “Tiger Dynasty” was launched Wednesday.

The documentary, filmed by acclaimed wildlife cinematographer S. Nallamuthu, tells the story of five translocated tigers from Ranthambore National Park, also in Rajasthan, to Sariska Tiger Reserve, an expanse of 800 sq km in the picturesque Aravalli range.

The extermination of Sariska’s tigers by poachers had come to light in 2004.

Nallamuthu says of the five translocated tigers he is fond of Baghani, a tigress portrayed in the documentary. “I have been filming her with my good friend and field assistant, Hemraj Meena, since she was a cub,” he says.

“When the Rajasthan government and the Wild Life Institute of India decided to translocate her, I wanted to follow her journey. In a sense we both began our journey in a similar fashion – blindfolded,” Nallamuthu told IANS.

“Days went by before I even caught a glimpse of this magnificent tigress,” he said of the tigress after her translocation to Sariska.

In 2010, Nallamuthu had made the “Tiger Queen”, a moving tale of rivalry and betrayal in a tiger family in Ranthambore. It was India’s first full length wildlife film shot in a high definition (HD) format.

The film shows Machli, the tigress, who ruled the fort for over a decade, was overthrown in a battle by one of her daughters.

Baghani, portrayed in Tiger Dynasty, is one of her daughters.

Today, the population of prey animals in Sariska went up in the absence of major predators. The park now boasts a significant number of prey animals, including spotted deer, sambar, nilgai and wild boar.

Leopards, another key predator in the food chain, began to make a comeback into areas where the tigers had once ruled. They are their main competitors in Sariska today.

Coming back to his favourite subject, Baghani, Nallamuthu says, “At least I knew some of the dangers that were possibly going to trouble her – tiger land is now a playing field for leopards, the villagers lay claim to critical parts of the forests and the lurking sinister dangers of poachers.”

“We all fretted and prayed – would she make it? She of course knew nothing of this – all she knew was that she was in unfamiliar territory – she was wild, she was a tigress – and she honed her skills to survive in this park…It’s true when they say that the journey is the destination,” said Nallamuthu who has captured the unfolding events on camera like no one has ever before in India.

The film also portrays the conflict between leopards and villagers in the reserve.

“The film is mainly shot on HD, (but) infra red cameras have also been used,” said Nallamuthu, who has also captured the conflict between tigers and leopards in Sariska.

1. Even while recognizing that the States have the right to frame suitable policies, laws and regulations on water, the draft NWP, 2012 lays emphasis on the need for a national water framework law, comprehensive legislation for optimum development of inter-State rivers and river valleys, public trust doctrine, amendment of the Indian Easements Act, 1882, etc.

1. Basic minimum quantity for essential health & hygiene and sustenance of ecology has been defined as pre-emptive need, which must be ensured. Water has been recognized as economic good, over and above pre-emptive need, for the first time, which would promote maximization of value of water and its conservation and efficient use.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 presents a holistic picture of ecological need of the river rather than restricting it to only minimum flow requirement. It states that the ecological needs of the river should be determined recognizing that river flows are characterized by low or no flows, small floods (freshets), large floods and flow variability and should accommodate development needs. A portion of river flows should be kept aside to meet ecological needs ensuring that the proportional low and high flow releases correspond in time closely to the natural flow regime.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 recognizes the need to adapt to climate change scenario in planning and implementation of water resources projects. Coping strategies for designing and management of water resources structures and review of acceptability criteria has been emphasized.

1. Need and approaches towards enhancing water availability have been stipulated. Direct use of rainfall and avoidance of inadvertent evapo-transpiration have been proposed as the new additional strategies for augmenting utilizable water resources.

1. Mapping of the aquifers to know the quantum and quality of ground water resources (replenishable as well as non-replenishable) in the country has been proposed with provision of periodic updation.

1. Water use efficiency has been emphasized. A system to evolve benchmarks for water uses for different purposes, i.e., water footprints, and water auditing should be developed to ensure efficient use of water. Project financing has been suggested as a tool to incentivize efficient & economic use of water.

1. Provision of setting up of Water Regulatory Authority and adequate water pricing to incentivize recycle and re-use has been specified.

1. Water Users Associations should be given statutory powers to collect and retain a portion of water charges, manage the volumetric quantum of water allotted to them and maintain the distribution system in their jurisdiction.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 proposes reversal of heavy under-pricing of electricity, which leads to wasteful use of both electricity and water.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 recognizes encroachment and diversion of water bodies and emphasizes the need for their restoration with community participation.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 proposes setting aside a suitable percentage of the costs of infrastructure development, which along with collected water charges, may be utilized for repair and maintenance. Contract for construction of projects should have inbuilt provision for longer periods of proper maintenance and handing over back the infrastructure in good condition.

1. Pari-passu planning and execution of all components of water resources projects have been proposed so that intended benefits start accruing immediately after completion and there is no gap between potential created and potential utilized.

1. All water resources projects, including hydro power projects, should be planned to the extent feasible as multi-purpose projects with provision of storage to derive maximum benefit from available topology and water resources.

1. Project affected families to be made partners in progress and given a share in the benefits comparable to project benefitted families, who may bear part of the cost of resettlement & rehabilitation through adequate pricing.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 lays emphasis on preparedness for flood / drought with coping up mechanisms as an option. Frequency based flood inundation maps should be prepared to evolve coping strategies.

1. There is a need to remove the large disparity between stipulations for water supply in urban areas and in rural areas to bring equality between rural and urban people.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 proposes a forum at the national level to deliberate upon issues relating to water and evolve consensus, co-operation and reconciliation amongst party States. A similar mechanism should be established within each State to amicably resolve differences in competing demands for water amongst different users of water, as also between different parts of the State.

1. The “Service Provider” role of the state should be gradually shifted to that of a regulator of services and facilitator for strengthening the institutions responsible for planning, implementation and management of water resources. The water related services should be transferred to community and / or private sector with appropriate “Public Private Partnership” model.

1. Appropriate institutional arrangements for each river basin should be developed to collect and collate all data on regular basis with regard to rainfall, river flows, area irrigated by crops and by source, utilizations for various uses by both surface and ground water and to publish water accounts on ten daily basis every year for each river basin with appropriate water budgets and water accounts based on the hydrologic balances.

1. The darft NWP, 2012 proposes negotiations about sharing and management of water of international rivers on bilateral basis in consultative association with riparian States keeping paramount the national interests.

1. All hydrological data other than those classified as secret on national security consideration should be in public domain. Setting up of a National Water Informatics Center has been proposed.

1. Continuing research and advancement in technology should be promoted to address the issues in water sector in a scientific manner. Innovations in water resources sector should be recognized and awarded. A center for research in water policy should also be established to evolve policy directives for changing scenario of water resources.

1. It is necessary to give adequate grants to the States to update technology, design practices, planning and management practices, preparation of annual water balances and accounts for the site and basin, preparation of hydrologic balances for water systems, and benchmarking and performance evaluation.

The series of consultation meetings held to evolve the draft policy were as follows;

1.       With Hon’ble Members of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources, Consultative Committee for Ministry of Water Resources and Parliamentary Forum on Water Conservation and Management on 28^th July, 2010, at New Delhi.

2.       With Academia, Experts and Professionals on 26^th October, 2010 at New Delhi.

3.       With Non-Governmental Organizations held on 11^th & 12^th January, 2011 at New Delhi.

4.       With Corporate Sector held on 21^st March, 2011 at New Delhi.

5.       With representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions on 16^th June, 2011 at Hyderabad, on 30^th June, 2011 atShillong, on 14^th July, 2011 at Jaipur and on 2^nd November, 2011 at Pune.

The Drafting Committee comprising of Dr. S.R. Hashim, former Member, Planning Commission and Chairman, Union Public Service Commission; Prof. Subhash Chander, former Professor, IIT, Delhi; Shri A.D. Mohile, former Chairman, Central Water Commission; and Shri S.C. Jain, an expert from an NGO was constituted for drafting of the National Water Policy.       This Committee was supported by a team of officers from Ministry of Water Resources, Central Water Commission, Central Ground Water Board, National Rainfed Area Authority; National Institute of Hydrology and Planning Commission.

            Considering the recommendations and feedback received during various consultation meetings, the Drafting Committee identified basic concerns in water resources sector and adopted basic principles which should be followed to address those concerns, and accordingly, evolved draft policy recommendations.

The draft National Water Policy (2012) has also been put up on the website of Ministry of Water Resources http://wrmin.nic.in and arrangement is being made to facilitate posting of online comments/suggestions. The comments may also be mailed to nwp2012-mowr@nic.in.

The draft National Water Policy, 2012 shall remain open for comments till 29^th February, 2012. After carrying necessary modifications, it would be placed before National Water Board and National Water Resources Council for finalization and adoption.

Conversely, it would require only 100,000 generations for very large creatures to regress into dwarfs, says the first ever computation of large scale evolution mammals.

The computation, led by Alistair Evans of Monash University, describes increases and decreases in mammal size following the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.

Evans, evolutionary biologist from Monash School of Biological Sciences, led a team of 20 biologists and palaeontologists which made the discovery.

Evans said the study was unique because most previous work had focused on micro-evolution, the small changes that occur within a species, according to a Monash statement.

“Instead we concentrated on large-scale changes in body size,” said Evans. The paper looked at 28 different groups of mammals, including elephants, primates and whales, from various continents and ocean basins over the past 70 million years.

“The huge difference in rates for getting smaller and getting bigger is really astounding – we certainly never expected it could happen so fast,” Evans said.

“When you do get smaller, you need less food and can reproduce faster, which are real advantages on small islands,” Evans said.

The chemical plant executives were accused of releasing Cadmium, an industrial waste, into the Longjiang river. The pollutants were first detected Jan 15.

Cadmium concentration near the Lalang reservoir was 80 times higher than the official limit of 0.005 milligrams per liter, China Daily quoted Feng Zhennian, an official with the regional environment department, as saying Tuesday.

Environmental protection workers have been dumping neutralizers, made from dissolved aluminum chloride, at six locations along the river to dissolve the contaminants.

The source of the pollution was reportedly contained Saturday, as cadmium concentration at Lalang reservoir, where the pollution was first detected, had returned to normal.

The pollution belt was now near the downstream Luodong hydropower station where the cadmium concentration levels were still 25 times higher than the official limit.

He said the pollutants were flowing downstream and were close to a major drinking water source for Liujiang city, home to 1.5 million people.

The Arctic has been warming at three times the global average and the loss of sea ice, which had melted faster in summer than predicted, was linked tentatively to recent extreme cold winters in Europe.

But there’s more to come and in a manner that has not been highlighted before.

University of Western Australia researchers say the Arctic region is fast approaching a series of imminent “tipping points” that could trigger an abrupt domino effect of large-scale climate change across the entire planet, the Swedish journal AMBIO and Nature Climate Change report.

“There is evidence that these forces are starting to be set in motion. This has major consequences for the future of humankind as climate change progresses,” said Carlos Duarte, professor and director of the university’s Oceans Institute.

Researchers suggest that the loss of Arctic summer sea ice, most likely over the next four decades, if not before, was expected to have abrupt knock-on effects on cities including Beijing, Tokyo, London, Moscow, Berlin and New York, according to a varsity statement.

Duarte, winner of last year’s prestigious Prix d’Excellence awarded by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, said Arctic records showed unambiguously that sea ice volume had declined dramatically over the past two decades.

“None of our questions have been answered during the past three meetings. The central expert committee has not agreed to meet the members of our own panel of experts. At Tuesday’s meeting, we will reiterate our demand and come out,” M. Pushparayan, convener of the Coastal People’s Federation and a member of the state panel told IANS over phone.

India’s nuclear power plant operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is building two 1,000 MW atomic power reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district, around 650 km from here.

The project originally budgeted to cost Rs.13,171 crore, got initially delayed due to non-sequential deliveries of equipments from Russia. The revised project cost is estimated to be around Rs.15,824 crore.

Villagers of Kudankulam, Idinthakarai and others fear for their lives and safety in case of any nuclear accident.

Their agitation led by People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) of which Pushparayan is a leading member, has put a stop to the project work, delaying the commissioning of the first unit slated last month.

To resolve the issue, the central and state governments have formed two panels to allay the fears of the people. The state panel has representatives of PMANE that spearheads the protest against the project.

As per plans, the multi-disciplinary central panel would meet the state panel and explain safety features and other aspects of the KNPP. The state panel will, in turn, allay the fears of the people.

According to Pushparayan, PMANE’s two members are neither boycotting Tuesday’s meeting nor walking out of it.

“We will receive the report, if any, shared by the central panel,” he said.

They said the projects not only threaten to displace them but will also affect the local ecology.

“The Chenab, one of the five major river basins in Himachal, remains the least exploited basin for hydro electricity generation (in the state). The government is hell bent on killing the only living river by planning almost 20 projects of more than 3,000 MW total generation capacity on it,” said the letter.

The Chenab basin falls largely in the high-altitude region (above 2,500 metres) in Lahaul and Spiti district. The area is characterised by difficult terrain, fragile and loose mountains, prone to avalanches and landslides and falls in seismic zone-IV.

“In such an area, construction of reservoirs and tunnels will have serious implications. Any rise in the temperature and rainfall can bring havoc in the form of landslides and can cause disasters similar to the kind that happened in Leh in August 2010,” Ravi Thakur, a signatory to the letter, said in a statement.

Environmentalist R.S. Negi said the hydroelectricity projects would severely affect local natural water sources in Lahaul like in another remote district of Kinnaur.

“There has not been any independent carrying capacity study or assessment of environmental impacts of the projects. We demand that until and unless this process is carried out, there should be no further commissioning and clearance to the hydro projects,” said Prakash Bhandari of Himdhara, an environment research and action collective.

Thakur said the reservoir of the 300 MW Jispa project on the Chenab would displace more than 200 families of seven villages. The project is being constructed by the state-run Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (HPPCL).

The mega projects coming up in Lahaul are in Miyar, Seli and Udiapur areas.

Like the Lahaul Valley, protests over hydro projects are becoming common in Kinnaur, Shimla, Chamba and Kullu districts.

According to forest department estimates, over 9,000 hectares of forest land has so far been diverted to non-forest use. Of this, 7,000 hectares were used for hydel projects.

The females tend to choose mates from those who produce the best illusion, suggests a new study led by John Endler, professor of evolutionary biology at the James Cook University.

After mating, the females go off to build a nest and raise young independently. “So the bower is nothing more than a complex visual signal to females and a mating place,” added Endler, according to a James Cook statement.

The research involved recording the geometric patterns of objects on the bower courts. “I placed motion activated solar powered video recorders next to the bowers and recorded the behaviour and numbers of matings by the bower owner males.”

The research was conducted over several months at Dreghorn Station, a cattle station. “I concluded that males who build bowers with more effective false visual perspective, as seen by females, had more matings,” Endler said.

“Bowerbirds are extremely interesting and intelligent birds, particularly the species I have spent most time on, the Great Bowerbird,” he said.

Endler said males also regularly stole each other’s bower decorations and destroyed each other’s bowers, something he said was akin to politicians sniping at each other.

Industries, Commerce and Forest Minister Jitendra Chowdhury said the bamboo park would produce hundreds of value-added items and also facilitate export of bamboo products.

“The thrust of the bamboo park would be to give a fillip to growers who are forced to sell raw bamboo and its products at a cheap rate. Bamboo growers and artisans would gain enormously if value addition is ensured,” Chowdhury told IANS.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar Friday kicked off the work for setting up the bamboo park, to be created at a cost of Rs.30 crore (about USD 6 million), at Radhakishore Nagar, near Bodhjunjnagar industrial growth centre in western Tripura, 15 km north of state capital Agartala.

Being created over an area of 70 acres, the bamboo park would be ready by March next year.

Bamboo flooring, bamboo-laminated boards, mat board, corrugated roofing sheets, incense sticks, mechanised Venetian blinds, home accessories and utility products, furniture made of laminated bamboo, round bamboo would be among the hundreds of items to be produced in the park and create skilled artisans.

“Besides trade and business facilitation to bamboo splitting and slivering, all kinds of modern facilities and latest techniques would be available in the proposed park,” said Chowdhury adding that more than 40 bamboo species are available in the northeastern region with 25 species in Tripura alone.

Of the 1,250 bamboo species throughout the world, India has 145. Bamboo forests in India occupy approximately 10.03 million hectares, which constitutes almost 12.8 percent of the total forest area of the country.

About 28 percent of these bamboo forests are located in northeast India.

Tripura is one of the major bamboo producing states, harvesting 1.5 million tonnes of the total 13.67 million tonnes of bamboo harvested in the country per annum.

“Tripura is best positioned to lead the export-oriented bamboo sector in the country on account of the rich bamboo resources available in the state and the large skill base of people who are adept in the various aspects of handling bamboo,” the minister said.

The bamboo park is expected to lead to direct employment generation for 1,730 people within the project site and the indirect employment generated is estimated to be five times the direct employment at 10,000 people located in the rural areas.

The project has strong linkages with the bamboo clusters in the state and with the preliminary processing facilities in the bamboo growing areas.

The Tripura government has been demanding that the central government create a bamboo board like rubber or coconut boards for coordinated harvesting, value addition and export of bamboo-made items and goods.

Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (ILFS), India’s leading infrastructure development and finance company, is the project management agency of the park, which is also expected to attract tourists, researchers and ecologists.

Chowdhury, who visited China in 2007 to personally see the value addition process in that country, said : “China is the number one country in the world in the production of thousands of value-added bamboo items.”

China’s Nanjing Forestry University has provided some technology to Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation (TFDPC) for value addition to bamboo. The Bamboo Engineering Research Centre at the Nanjing University has signed a memorandum of understanding with the TFDPC in 2007 for transfer of technology.

“There are about 1,500 documented applications of bamboos, also known as ‘green gold’. The major ones are used in building material, agricultural implements, furniture, musical instruments, food items, handicrafts, large bamboo-based industries (paper pulp, rayon etc) and packaging,” an official document said.

The marathon, organised by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) and the Kolkata Improvement Trust (KIT), was aimed at raising consciousness about environmental pollution and its impact on Rabindra Sarobar.

The lake in South Kolkata is now included under the National Lake Conservation Plan by the central government to help its conservation.

Leading Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta, industrialist Harshvardhan Neotia, West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim, doctors, lawyers, students and sportspersons were among the estimated 5,000 participants in the Great Sarovar Run.

“Rabindra Sarobar has been adversely hit due to urbanisation. We want to revice it,” said KMDA CEO Vivek Bharadwaj.

KIT and KMDA have started a joint beautification programme to preserve the lake by planting saplings.

Malabari goats are endemic to parts of Kerala’s northern districts and theirs numbers are fast dwindling. Any attempt to transport these goats to Australia without proper checks and balances could have been a huge loss to Kerala, KSSB member secretary K.P. Laladhas, told IANS.

The board had got information a few days back about the proposed export between a state agency and Australia from the National Biodiversity Authority.

“We got in touch with the state agency, Kudumbashree, who told us that this is only a proposal and rules would be abided by if this eventually took place,” said Laladhas.

The unique feature of the Malabari goat is that it adapts to very hot and humid conditions. Besides, both males and females have a protuberance hanging from the neck.

The colour of these goats varies from white to black and fully grown males weigh 30 to 35 kg, while females weigh 25 to 30 kg.

Malabari goats yield less than one kg of milk during peak days and can be milked for four to five months.

“The rules are very clear when it comes to transfer of any bio resources and this can be done only through clear-cut bi-lateral agreements. Moreover there should be clarity when it comes to benefit sharing in the future if this eventually leads to genetic modifications,” said Laladhas.

“The animals were crossing the highway that passes through the Sepahijala wildlife sanctuary when they were killed Saturday night,” wildlife warden Ajit Bhowmik told reporters Sunday.

The official said in the past one month, over 10 rare animals, including leopard cats, have been killed on the highway.

The sanctuary is home to a zoo that houses 655 animals from 53 species.

Setting off firecrackers is believed to be dispel misfortune and evil, but 282 cities banned the use of crackers in the 1980s over safety concerns, China Daily reported.

The Beijing municipal government, however, lifted a 12-year ban in 2005.

More than 5,000 sweepers worked during the holiday to keep the city clean, said an official with the Beijing Environmental Sanitation Engineering Group.

Water-tank trailers were kept on standby in case of fires every day during the weekly celebrations Jan 22-28.

There were, however, no statistics on how much firecrackers waste was left in rural areas across the country.

“The animals were crossing the highway that passes through the Sepahijala wildlife sanctuary when they were killed,” wildlife warden Ajit Bhowmik told reporters Sunday.

The official said in the past one month, over 10 rare animals, including leopard cats, have been killed on the highway.

The sanctuary is home to a zoo that houses 655 animals from 53 species.

“At Sula, we’re not just focused on making great wine, we’re focused on making great wine well. And since great wine starts with the environment, it’s in our best interests to take good care of it in the long run,” Sula Vineyards CEO Rajeev Samant told IANS.

“Our sustainable agricultural practices and efficient winery operations are environmentally friendly, economically sound, socially responsible, and mindful of the earth’s limited resources. We are continuously working to improve our own sustainability and that of our growers, through experimentation and experience sharing,” he added.

To move away from coal- and diesel-based power, the winery has installed enough solar water heaters to heat 5,000 litres of water a day to 70°C.

“This is enough for almost all of our hot water requirements. For a few requirements, such as bottle cleaning, where we need water at a higher temperature, we will soon be installing a wood-fired boiler, fuelled entirely by woody vine clippings from the vineyard,” Samant said.

Speaking about the winery’s three-phase watershed management project that aims to harvest rainwater and excess irrigation runoff, Samant said the storage capacity of its two reservoirs is now at over 30 million litres — 14 million litres collected annually from rainwater and 19 million liters via check dams.

“We are now meeting 60-70 percent of the winery’s annual water needs through water harvesting,” he added.

Noting that pomace — grape skins, seeds, and stems that remain after the crush — can constitute up to 30-40 percent of the original harvest yield Samant said instead of being thrown away, it is used for vermiculture.

“These workaholic wrigglers are an environmentally conscious farmer’s best friends. They chew their way through the mix to produce a crumbly black compost that is odourless and rich in organic matter, which we then use back on the vines as fertilizer.

At present, our homemade organic compost meets 40% of our fertilization needs. Over time, our aim is to replace all chemical fertilizers,” Samant said.

This apart, the winery has a bottle collection programme that sees 800,000 bottles reused each year.

“This not only meets 25 percent of our bottling requirements, but it has also created jobs for 30 local women as bottle washers, who clean 3,000 bottles per day between them,” Samant said.

Samant established Sula Vineyards in 1999. Today, it is spread over 1,700 acres — 300 acres owned by his and his friends and the balance by some 250 small farmers.

The company sold five million bottles last year and hopes to cross the six-and-a-half-million mark this year.

“We are benefiting from a demographic dividend,” Samant explained of the growing sales.

“Not only are more and more people per se moving away from hard liquor to wine, but increasing numbers of women, particularly in the metros are quite comfortable with a glass of wine,” he added.

Over the years Sula has pioneered many classic grape varietals in India like Sauvignon and Chenin Blanc in 2000, Zinfandel in 2001 and Riesling in 2008. In 2005, Sula launched its first reserve wine, the Dindori Reserve Shiraz, as well as India’s first dessert wine, the Late Harvest Chenin Blanc.

The company is also a leading wine importer under the umbrella of Sula Selections, with a portfolio of prestigious brands from leading producers like Remy Cointreau, Constellation Wines and Chianti Ruffino.

The annual waterbird census, both local and migratory, will be held at the Pong Dam reservoir in Kangra district.

More than 150 bird watchers and staff of the wildlife department will participate in the dawn-to-dusk exercise, Chief Conservator of Forests Sanjeeva Pandey told IANS.

He said ornithologists of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the Wildlife Institute of India and the Zoological Survey of India are participating.

Bird watchers of the Delhi Bird Club, Chandigarh Bird Club and Pong Birding Society will also participate.

The Pong Dam reservoir, 250 km from state capital Shimla, is one of the largest man-made wetlands in the foothills of the Himalayas.

With the onset of winter, thousands of migratory birds from central and northern Asia start arriving for their annual sojourn in Pong.

“As per our estimates around 1.25 lakh migratory birds of more than 100 species are roosting and feeding in Pong right now,” Range officer (Pong wetlands) D.S. Dadwal said.

He said that the largest influx was of the bar-headed geese, coot, common pochard, red-crested pochard, great cormorant, gadwall, northern pintail, river tern and the spotbill duck.

Prabhat Bhatti, a professional wildlife photographer based at Nangal in Punjab who participated in the last two censuses at Pong, said the influx of birds could be seen in the Nagrota Suriyan, Sathana, Sansarpur Terrace and Rancer Island areas.

For the first time the wildlife wing this year spotted the Falcated Duck in Pong.

Experts say this silvery plumage species is predominantly found in China and in smaller numbers in Japan, North and South Korea.

The Pong wetlands are also home to many native birds like the red jungle fowl, large Indian parakeet, Indian cuckoo, bank myna, wood shrike, yellow-eyed babbler, black ibis, paradise flycatcher, crested lark and the crested bunting.

The bar-headed goose, the world’s highest-altitude migrant, is a regular winter visitor here.

During the last census by the wildlife department at the Pong reservoir in January 2011, over 132,000 migratory waterbirds of 95 species were recorded. The Pied Avocet – a wading bird species – was spotted for the first time.

Interestingly, four migratory birds – three bar-headed geese and one ruddy shelduck – that were tagged with global positioning system (GPS) transmitters last year returned to Pong this year after travelling thousands of miles.

The wildlife department, in association with Mumbai-based BNHS (Bombay Natural History Society), had tagged the migratory birds for the first time in Pong as part of its work to track and monitor them.

BNHS assistant director S. Balachandran, who installed the chips on the birds, said last month seven more solar-powered transmitters were installed on the migratory birds.

As per the latest Asian Waterbird Census coordinated by the Wetlands International, the population of threatened migratory birds in the entire flyway region, which includes Central Siberia, Mongolia, the Central Asian republics, Iran, Afghanistan, the Gulf and the Indian subcontinent, is either decreasing or stable.

Researchers traced the microplastic to synthetic clothes, which released up to 1,900 tiny fibres per garment every time they were washed, BBC reported citing the US-based research network National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

An earlier research showed plastic smaller than one mm were being eaten by animals and getting into the food chain.

The findings appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

“Research we had done before showed that when we looked at all the bits of plastic in the environment, about 80 percent was made up from smaller bits of plastic,” said co-author Mark Browne, an ecologist now based at the University of California.

Browne, a member of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, said the tiny plastics were a concern because evidence showed they were making their way into the food chain.

“Once the plastics had been eaten, it transferred from the animals’ stomachs to their circulation system and actually accumulated in their cells,” he told BBC.

In order to identify how widespread the presence of microplastic was on shores, the team took samples from 18 beaches around the globe, including Britain, India and Singapore.

“We found that there was no sample from around the world that did not contain pieces of microplastic,” Browne said.

“Most of the plastic seemed to be fibrous. When we looked at the different types of polymers we were finding, we were finding that polyester, acrylic and polyamides (nylon) were the major ones that we were finding,” he said.

Browne’s team carried out a number of experiments to see what fibres were contained in the water discharge from washing machines.

“We were quite surprised. Some polyester garments released more than 1,900 fibres per garment, per wash,” Browne said.

“It may not sound like an awful lot, but if that is from a single item from a single wash, it shows how things can build up.”

Two of the poachers managed to give the slip to the police.

According to police, the remains of five chinkaras, a protected animal under wildlife laws, were recovered from a village near Dhorimanna town in Barmer, some 550 km from Jaipur.

“We got a tip-off that some people were poaching chinkaras in a forest area here. A police team was immediately rushed to the place. On suspicion, a car was intercepted and searched,” a police officer told IANS.

“We recovered hides of four chinkaras and the body of one chinkara from the car. When the vehicle was being searched, two men managed to flee, while three others were taken into custody,” said the officer.

Those arrested have been identified as Shamura Ram, Reshma Ram and Mohammad Khan.

“During interrogation, it has come up that these men are professional poachers and are part of a big racket. They have booked under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act. Further investigation is on,” said the officer.

China ranks 116th in the Index produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, reflecting the strain rapid economic growth imposes on the environment in emerging economies.

Brazil ranks 30th, however, suggesting that a concerted focus on sustainability as a policy priority will pay dividends – and that the level and pace of development is just one of many factors affecting environmental performance, according to the index released in Davos.

“India’s low rank on the 2012 Environmental Performance Index should be a wake-up call to Indian political leaders at all levels,” said Daniel Esty, Director of the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy and one of the lead authors of the report.

“India faces significant pollution control and natural resource management challenges and its lagging results suggest the need for redoubled policy efforts across the board,” he said.

The United States places 49th in the 2012 EPI significantly behind other industrialised nations, including France (6th), the United Kingdom (9th), Germany (11th), and Japan (23rd).

In addition, the US places 77th in the Trend EPI rankings, a Pilot Index that shows which countries are improving and by how much on an issue-by-issue basis over the period 2000-2010, suggesting that little progress has been made on environmental challenges over the last ten years, a Yale release said.

Latvia, Norway, Luxembourg, and Costa Rica round out the top five positions in the 2012 EPI, which ranks 132 countries based on 22 indicators across ten major policy categories including air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity, and forest management.

Occupying the bottom five positions in the EPI ranking are South Africa, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iraq – all countries grappling with deteriorating environmental circumstances in the context of significant economic development pressures and other challenges.

“The science congress is expected to be a forum for productive exchange of state-of-the-art scientific research across different disciplines,” said V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, president of the event.

The theme of this year’s edition is ‘Climate change: Plantation crops and spices of Kerala’.

“Leading experts will discuss on issues related to how spices and plantation crops can be adapted to the projected changes in weather patterns, temperature and rainfall driven by climate change,” said Pillai.

The event will also provide a platform for young, budding researchers to interact with experienced scientists like M.S. Swaminathan.

Mostly used in industrial effluents, cadmium is a carcinogenic chemical which can lead to cancer. It is a key component in battery production, coatings, electroplating and toys. Exposure can result in fever, pneumonia and kidney failure.

According to the city’s environmental protection bureau, cadmium pollutants were detected in the Liujiang river in Liuzhou city of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region Thursday afternoon, over 10 days after industrial waste from a local mining company polluted Longjiang, a tributary upstream of the Liujiang River, Xinhua reported.

Situated on Longjiang, the dam is about 60 km from the Liuzhou city with a population of 3.7 million. The levels of cadmium at the dam were found five times above the standards.

But, so far the water quality tests, conducted every two hours, showed that the drinking water source at the downstream of the dam had not been contaminated, said Gan Jinglin, Liuzhou’s environmental chief.

“The water is still up to national standards and is safe for drinking,” said Gan.

Local authorities have warned residents against fetching water from the river’s polluted sections.

The government has also commenced searching for alternative water sources, fearing the pollution belt may spread further.

The situation has caused panic buying of bottled water in parts of Liuzhou city.

According to a super market salesperson in the city’s downtown area, sales of bottled water have risen over three times in recent days.

“Some people bought ten cardboard boxes of bottled water at a time,” the salesperson said, adding that despite the surge in demand the store has ample stocks that there is no immediate threat to supply.

The campaign is part of an initiative by the UN Human Settlements Programme or the UN-Habitat. It is the UN’s agency for human settlements aimed at promoting socially and environmentally sustainable towns with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

As many as 30,000 families across the country will take part in the 45-day plantation campaign, the Online news agency reported.

The agency said that as part of the reconstruction and rehabilitation process after the floods of 2010 and 2011, trees were being cut from forests and there were no plans of reforestation.

Families in the affected areas, besides using timber for shelter construction, use them as fodder for animals and the wood as fuel.

The agency is trying to mobilise the affected communities to plant trees at places such as the kitchen gardens, schools, mosques, or community land.

The two fastest-developing economies in the world – India and China – rank poorly in 125th and 116th positions respectively. Both countries suffer from unhealthy air.

The study, which is conducted by Yale University’s Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University, ranks 132 countries on 22 performance indicators in 10 policy categories: environmental health, water (effects on human health), air pollution (effects on human health) air pollution (ecosystem effects), water resources (ecosystem effects) biodiversity and habitat, forests, fisheries, agriculture and climate change.

Switzerland (with an EPI score of 76.69) leads the world in addressing pollution control and natural resource management challenges. Its top ranking on the 2012 EPI is in mostly due to its high performance in air pollution control. Latvia (70.37), Norway (69.92), Luxembourg (69.2), and Costa Rica (69.03) round out the top five positions in the 2012 EPI.

FOR MORE READING. . .

The database, which can be accessed through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website, features more than 100 examples from companies such as Coca-Cola, Levi’s, Microsoft and Starbucks, which share the details of their business-friendly adaptation practices, Xinhua quoted officials as saying.

“By showcasing private sector adaptation success stories, we intend to help both communities and businesses become more climate-resilient and to put the benefits and business sense of adaptation firmly on the agenda of the private sector,” said UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“Climate risks which affect communities around the world are always also business risks,” she added.

Examples of best practices in the database include efforts to make drinking water clean and safe in developing countries and efforts to improve the yield of coffee beans in regions that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, said the officials.

The database also covers activities such as the development of climate-friendly goods and services and climate proofing the supply chains of companies.

“The initiatives detailed in the database both show how the private sector can secure early advantages by adapting without waiting for absolute policy certainty at the international level, and how governments and the private sector can work together to respond to climate change now,” she said.

“Public-private partnerships and cooperation with a wide range of stakeholders is becoming increasingly important to ensure successful implementation.”

The snow leopard was seen in the forests of Chitral district.

A wildlife department official told the daily Dawn that the snow leopard hadn’t been seen in the area over the last two years and there were fears that it had become extinct.

The official added that it descends to low altitudes in search of food after heavy snow in forests and high mountains.

Ejaz Ahmad, an expert, said snow leopard lived in areas along the Hindu Kush range of mountains.

He said the leopard was declared an endangered species and its numbers later went up.

According to an estimate, there are between 200 to 420 snow leopards in Pakistan.

The mother, who came to see her child in the morning, found him chewing a dead 35-centimeter-long snake.

The boy, who had fallen asleep in his parents’ bed that night, apparently woke up early and returned to his room, where he discovered the reptile, the report said Thursday.

He grabbed it and chewed off its head, miraculously avoiding being bitten.

The child was immediately rushed to a Haifa hospital, where doctors found no bite marks on his body.

According to the country’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) for the paper industry, released last week, the Chinese authorities will urge people to reduce usage of high-quality paper sheets with high whiteness, Xinhua reported Thursday.

Current paper product standards, as per the new five-year plan, should be revised to encourage the production of energy-saving and emission-reducing paper, and promote the substitution of paper packaging for alternatives.

The plan requires government purchasers to give priority to paper products mixed with waste paper, and to reduce paper use by switching to digital systems.

Meanwhile, the plan calls for news publishing and packaging industries to take effective measures to reduce paper consumption.

China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of paper and paperboard products. It has plans to eliminate at least 10 million tonnes of outdated papermaking capacity before 2015 by encouraging corporate mergers and acquisitions.

The country aims to cut chemical oxygen demand, which accounts for around 47 percent of the sector’s total emissions, by 10 to 12 percent this year.

According to scientists, captive dolphins in Port-Saint-Pere, in France, have been recorded sleep-talking. But, as they rest at night, the aquatic mammals are not making dolphin sounds but whale-like noises, the Daily Mail reported.

Peos, Mininos, Cecil, Teha, and Amtan, the dolphins who were born in captivity, have only ever heard whale sounds as recordings, the Science magazine reported.

If the sounds were confirmed to be ‘whale’, it would be the first known instance of dolphins remembering a particular noise and repeating it later, say researchers.

These dolphins have only ever heard a whale sing on the soundtrack to their daily shows at the French aquatic park Planete Sauvage. The 21-minute tape, to which they perform, features several minutes of whale song among other marine noises.

A nine days and eight nights study, conducted between November 2008 and May 2009, revealed 25 occasions of never-heard-before dolphin sounds.

Researchers at the University of Rennes, France, hung underwater microphones in the performing dolphins’ tank overnight, the Discovery reported.

The unusual noises — which make up just one percent of all the sounds recorded — strongly resemble whale song and occur only during ‘rest periods,’ mainly between midnight and 3 a.m.

Researchers recruited 20 volunteers to compare dolphin whistles and whale songs and found that the dophin’s ‘whale’ is so good that listeners mistook it for real whale song 72 percent of the time.

The dolphins, the noises suggest, could be practicing their daily shows in their minds during night.

An analysis of the car industry by the CSE found that in 2011-12, diesel cars will account for over 40 percent of the total car sales in the country.

Also, for the first-time ever, bigger diesel cars – the SUVs – are selling more and there is no slowdown in dieselisation.

Increased use of diesel by cars means enhanced public health risks. It also means greater revenue losses due to the under-priced and under-taxed fuel — with each litre of petrol replaced by diesel to run a car, the excise earnings of the government dropped seven times, the CSE said.

“Without fiscal brakes in the forthcoming budget, India will pay a heavy price,” says Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE’s executive director-research and advocacy and head of its air pollution and urban mobility team.

“The automobile industry is trying hard to prove that cars and SUVs are very small users of diesel, so that it can block the growing demand to put higher taxes on diesel cars to offset the revenue losses and cut public health risk,” she said.

The analysis says cheap diesel is pushing market towards bigger cars that guzzle more diesel. “Petrol car sales are higher in small car segment – 87 percent of petrol cars are below 1200 cc — while 40 percent of the diesel cars are above 1500 cc,” it said.

There are 24 diesel car models in the engine size class range of less than 1,400 cc; 42 models in the range 1,401-2,000 cc; and 61 models in the class above 2,000 cc engines. This shows how more models are proliferating in the big car and SUV segments, the report said.

Use of diesel in cars has increased so much that the excise earnings from petrol and diesel have equalled despite high excise duty on petrol.

“If the new diesel car fleet to roll between 2009 and 2015 were to pay the same amount of excise as the petrol car fleet, the potential excise revenue from the lifetime fuel use can be as high as Rs.100,000 crore,” Roychowdhury said.

“Present revenue loss due to diesel subsidy is Rs.86,000 crore,” she added.

The Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell of the union ministry of petroleum and natural gas said petrol consumption has slowed down while diesel use has registered 6.4 percent growth.

The CSE said it analysis showed the industry is playing with data to confuse and obfuscate.

“The new number game says diesel cars, SUVs and taxis use only 5 percent of total diesel used – cars use 0.6 percent while a committee chaired by Kirit Parikh found it to be 15 percent,” she said.

The CSE has written to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee demanding additional tax on diesel cars to reduce public revenue losses and public health costs.

The hunted species include the pygmy beaked whale, South Asian river dolphin, narwhal, Chilean dolphin, long-finned pilot whale, and Burmeister’s porpoise, says a report released by the World Conservation Society.

Seals and sea lions are on the list as well, including species such as the California sea lion and lesser known species such as the Baikal seal. The polar bear (a marine mammal) also makes the list.

Three species of manatee and its close relative the dugong, considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, are also widespread targets of human consumption.

Martin D. Robards and Randall R. Reeves from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Okapi Wildlife Associates have conducted an exhaustive global study of human consumption of marine mammals using approximately 900 sources of information.

The main finding: since 1990, people in at least 114 countries have consumed one or more of at least 87 marine mammal species, the journal journal Biological Conservation reports.

“These species, however, represent only a fraction of the world’s diversity of marine mammals, many of which are being accidentally netted, trapped, and-in some instances-directly hunted without any means of tracking as to whether these off-takes are sustainable,” said Robards, who led the study.

In order to build a statistically sound picture of human consumption rates of marine mammals, Robards and Reeves started with records on small fisheries focused on small whales (i.e. pilot whales), dolphins, and porpoises from 1975 and records of global marine mammal catches between 1966 and 1975.

From there, the authors consulted some 900 other sources and consulted with numerous researchers and environmental managers, an exhaustive investigation that took three years to complete.

The team only counted information with actual evidence of human consumption of marine mammals, omitting instances where marine mammals were caught (either intentionally or not) for fishing bait, feed for other animals, medicines, and other uses.

“Obviously, there is a need for improved monitoring of species such as Atlantic and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and other species,” said Howard Rosenbaum, director of WCS’s Ocean Giants Program.

The bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice R.S. Endlaw rejected the plea of the All India Plastic Industries Association, terming it premature.

Refusing to entertain the plea, the court, however, asked the petitioner to approach the court within a week after the government issued the final notification.

The Delhi government submitted that the petitioner should not have approached the court at this stage, as objections raised by industry were still pending before the lieutenant governor for his consideration.

The plastic industry has approached the high court challenging the Delhi government’s draft notification of September 20, 2011. The plastic manufacturers had contended it violated their fundamental rights to run a business for livelihood.

To completely ban plastic bags, the central government had framed Plastic Waste (Manufacturing and Handling) Rules, 2011, on the directions passed by the court in 2008. The Delhi government issued the draft notification in September 2011 in compliance with the central government’s rules.

Vikrant Sharma withdrew the petition, filed on behalf of the Rashtriya Jal Biradari, following the court’s suggestion.

The petitioner is opposing the construction of the proposed Karhera bridge, the third over the Hindon, near a point where the river takes a curve.

The petition allege that the proposal to build the bridge on an artificial embankment would stop the natural flow of river water and cause a flood in addition to environmental loss.

Sharma’s counsel said he withdrew the petition after the court said that “the liberty is granted to the petitioners to move to the National Green Tribunal”.

“We are happy that the apex court accepted our plea and opined that we could move before the National Green Tribunal. The tribunal would hear the case on Feb 14,” counsel said.

The petition said an Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi professor also opposed the construction of the bridge at the proposed point.

The IIT expert said that if the government was adamant on building the bridge then it should build the structure on pillars, instead of on the artificial embankment, leaving the river free to choose its own course.

“Jagat had a tumor on the neck and it affected his respiratory tract. Despite treatment, we could not save the animal,” a senior zoo official told IANS.

White tigers are considered highly endangered. At present, there are only about 200 white tigers left in the world.

The Nandankanan zoo, which is spread over 425 hectares, is home to over 1,200 wild animals. It offers a white tiger safari, the first of its kind in the world.

With the death, the number of tigers in the zoo has come down to 25. While nine of them are white, others are Royal Bengal tigers, he said.

At the Kaziranga national park, forest guards resorted to gunfire when a gang of three poachers sneaked into the Bagori forest range of the park Monday.

The combing operation in the dense area of the park lasted for several hours but the poachers managed to escape. The poachers, however, could not kill any rhino, the Kaziranga park officials confirmed.

“We heard a gunshot inside the forest. Our staff also opened fire in retaliation. But no person was injured in the exchange of fire. The poachers, equipped with a .303 firearm, however, managed to escape,” the official said.

The second incident took place at Orang national park where a gang of poachers entered the park on the night of Jan 18.

“The gang of poachers entered Orang national park through south-western boundary on Jan 18. They camped there and attempted to kill a rhino,” said Mangaldoi wildlife divisional forest officer, Sushil Kumar Daila, adding that the forest officials carried out a combing operation and pushed out the poachers Monday morning.

Anti-poaching operation in the two national parks have been intensified following increasing incidents of poachers trying to kill rhinos for their horns, which are in demand in Southeast Asian markets for traditional medicine.

“We have identified the poacher as one Md. Idris and raided his house in Dalgaon area. But he was found absconding at the time of the raid,” Daila said, adding that they have stepped up patrolling as the poachers may try again to sneak in.

A senior park official of Kaziranga said that poachers are increasingly targeting rhinos that stray out of the park.

In the past one month, poachers have killed three out of seven rhinos that strayed out of the park. “We have issued notification to all nearby forest divisions to take special security measure after rhinos stray out from their areas,” he added.

While the minimum temperature was recorded one notch below average at 6.8 degrees, while the maximum temperature settled three notches below average at 18 degrees, said an India Meteorological Department official.

The humidity wavered between a high and low of 91 and 47 percent.

“Though it was less foggy, there was no let up in the harsh cold. You cannot ride a bike without gloves. The visibility was fine today (Sunday),” said 26-year-old Gaurav Dixit, a student of Jamia Milia Islamia.

There was no major traffic and flight disruptions in the capital Sunday.

According to IMD, Monday morning will be foggy but the sky will remain clear in the day.

A slight rise in the temperatures is expected, with the maximum and minimum temperatures likely to hover around 19 and 8 degrees respectively.

He said he has been invited to participate in the 39th International Snow Sculpture Contest at the Sapporo Snow Festival where he has planned to create a three-metre-high image of the globe and the face of a man on snow.

“Two of my students, Jitendra Kishore Jagadev and Bulu Mohanty, will help me to build the sculpture in the six days contest to be held from Feb 6,” Pattnaik told IANS over phone from his home town Puri, 56 km from here.

“We will not use any sand. The sculpture will be created using only snow,” he said. The artist said his team is the lone participant from India in the contest that will see representation from 14 other countries.

Pattnaik, who has participated in about 50 international sand sculpture competitions, runs an art school called Golden Sand Art Institute in his home town.

Erratic weather conditions have made the mango trees around the tri-cities of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali flower early this year.

Mango trees across Sector 29 and the Industrial Area in Chandigarh have grown a yellow canopy that is indicative of its flowering. Concerned growers and horticulturists believe the early flowering is not good for the ‘king of fruits’ that is eagerly awaited in summers.

Before the city of Chandigarh was planned in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the central government in post-independent India, the whole area on which Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali stand now as an urban mass used to be a huge mango grove. Tens of thousands of mango trees were cut down at that time to clear the land.

However, the authorities retained a few portions of the earlier mango groves, like the ones in Sector 29 and part of the Industrial Area belt.

Horticulture experts say that usually the flowering in the mango trees around the city takes place during late February and March.

“The flowering of trees is dependent on the weather conditions and the variety of the trees,” said R.K. Kohli, senior ecologist and chairman, Department of Botany, Panjab University here. “However, all the trees have developed new buds much before their usual time this year,” he added.

Even as some people are happy with the phenomenon and are awaiting an early fruit, experts say this cannot be a sign of a good crop. “If the ripening of this early crop is disturbed, then the trees might not fruit the entire season,” a grower said.

Kedar Nath, a fruit grower and vendor at Industrial Area, pointed out: “If it rains now, the crop will be destroyed, which is the usual problem with early blooming. It is unusual for the trees to flower at this time of the year.”

Growers are worried that even if the trees become infertile for the season, contractors appointed by the local authorities are likely to spray the trees with medicines to get some crop. “After that, trees bear fruits but they are not natural,” one grower said.

However, according to Kohli, the trees can still bear fruit naturally. “However, even if these trees ripen naturally again, the fruits will not ripen properly and fall off before time,” he added.

The ripening of these trees may have taken place a month earlier than usual because of the Western disturbances and the strange changes in weather conditions. Therefore, the kind of insects that breed in a particular season also affects the growth of the trees, he added.

Satish Narula, a senior horticulturist in Chandigarh’s forest department, said: “If the trees have bloomed early, there is a possibility of the early fruit getting attacked by insects.

“The kind of insect that breeds in a particular season will decide the further growth and flowering of the trees. Since it’s an untimely flowering, we cannot be sure how the crop will be.”

Dogs have bitten many tourists not only around the Taj Mahal, India’s biggest tourist draw, but also in the nearby Fatehpur Sikri complex.

“The stray dogs take leisurely stroll inside the Taj Mahal scaring away tourists. The CISF personnel do not seem bothered by their presence,” said Taj Ganj hotelier Sandip Arora.

Last year a bull on a rampage at the Eastern Gate of the Taj had to be shot dead by a police officer after it attacked tourists.

At Fatehpur Sikri, a female American tourist was bitten by a dog and was forced to cut short her visit to Agra.

Waking up to the public outcry, the Agra Nagar Nigam has now sent out its team to round up stray animals in the Taj Ganj area.

Rajiv Rathi, pollution control officer of the Municipal Corp, said: “Four stray dogs had been caught Saturday from the Taj Mahal area. More will be rounded up in the next few days.”

Corporation veterinarian B.S. Verma said the dogs would be kept at a shelter house.

But the Municipal corporation has failed to contain the monkey menace.

“Every few days there is a case of monkey bite. With thousands of monkeys in the city, it is a problem beyond the control of any municipal body,” says activist Shravan Kumar Singh.

A team from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, which went to Iceland to study a set of geothermally-heated streams, came up with these findings.

The streams provided them with a unique environment to isolate the effects of temperature from other confounding variables found in nature, the journal Global Change Biology reports.

Explained Queen Mary’s Daniel Perkins who led the study: “The streams in Iceland are all very similar, in terms of their physical and chemical environment, but maintain very different temperatures to each other all year round.

“This enabled us to explore how temperature, both past and present, affects the rate at which respiration responds to temperature in ecosystems,” he said in a statement.

Perkins said when the team exposed the organisms found in streams to a range of temperatures, “the rate at which carbon was respired increased with temperature as expected, but surprisingly the rate of increase was consistent across streams”.

Said co-author Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, also from Queen Mary: “Our findings demonstrate that the intrinsic temperature sensitivity of respiration is the same across a diverse range of organisms, adapted to markedly different temperatures.

“This result is important because it will help us build more accurate models to predict how rates of carbon dioxide emission from ecosystem will respond to the temperature increases forecast in the coming decades.”

Officials said hydropower generation starts declining in October. By December, it comes down by 80 percent. This winter, it dipped more.

“Against the optimum generation of 36 million units daily, the lowest was 7.5 million units in the previous years during January. But this time, it was around 6.5 million units – 18 percent of the peak generation,” V.K. Verma, deputy general manager of the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (SJVNL) that operates the 1,500 MW Nathpa-Jhakri project in Kinnaur district, told IANS.

He attributed the decline in production to bountiful snow in the catchment of the Satluj river, on which the project is located.

The river discharge is just 68 cubic metres per second against 1,500 cubic metres during monsoon, Verma said.

The state-run Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd has 21 hydropower projects across the state with a combined optimum generation capacity of 11 million energy units a day.

Officials said all the projects are generating less than 20 percent power.

Joginder Singh, power controller with the state electricity board, said the production in all projects has fallen drastically due to frozen water channels.

R.S. Thakur, chief engineer of the state-run 126-MW Larji hydropower project near Kullu town, said the project is generating 0.65 million units daily against the optimum generation of three million units.

“It’s (decline in generation) normal, but this time it’s unusual as compared to the previous years,” he said.

Private hydropower major Jaypee Karcham Hydro Corp Ltd’s 1,000-MW Karcham Wangtoo Hydroelectric Project and 300-MW Baspa Hydropower project, located in Kinnaur district, are functioning much below the generation capacities.

Jaypee Group senior vice-president Kanti Prasad said the Karcham project is currently generating 3-3.5 million units against the optimum generation capacity of 17 million units.

Likewise, the 300-MW Baspa Hydropower project, located upstream of the Karcham project, is generating one million units against 7.2 million units.

The Met office here said it has been an extremely wet January with the entire state, especially higher reaches, experiencing snow far above normal.

“The overall precipitation, both solid and liquid forms, during Jan 1-18 was 107 mm against the normal of 43.5, meaning 146 percent excess,” meteorological office director Manmohan Singh told IANS.

“Only Lahaul and Spiti out of the 12 districts had normal precipitation,” he added.

He said this year even the mid-hills experienced plentiful snow after a long gap. “We still have more than 60 days of active snowing in the state.”

But excess precipitation in winter has brought some cheer to the hydropower producers.

“We are expecting optimum hydropower generation this summer. Plentiful snow means sufficient water in all the rivers from April onwards,” Verma said.

Himachal Pradesh has abundant water resources with a power generation potential of about 23,560 MW. About 6,673 MW have been harnessed till now by the central and state governments, private players and joint venture companies.

Currently, 13 hydropower projects in the state sector, six in the central and joint sector and 19 in the private sector with a combined generation capacity of 5,809 MW are under execution.

The monitoring will cover areas within 30 km of plants that are both in operation and under construction, according to a national working plan for drinking water monitoring in 2012, which was published on the website of the Ministry of Health Tuesday.

The document also specified that the plants will include the Tianwan nuclear power plant in Jiangsu province, Qinshan plant in Zhejiang, Daya Bay and Ling’ao nuclear power stations in Guangdong, as well as those under construction in Zhejiang, Liaoning, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan provinces, said Xinhua.

The plan asked the authorities to consider both natural radiation conditions and artificial radioactive matters that may have leaked from the nuclear power plants.

“The cold wave conditions have intensified because of clear night skies in the valley and the Ladakh region. Leh Saturday recorded the coldest temperature of the season so far at minus 21.8 degrees while Kargil town recorded minus 21.0 degrees. The minimum temperature fell down to minus 5.0 degrees in Srinagar while it was minus 16.5 degrees in Pahalgam,” Sonam Lotus, director of the meteorological office said here.

Lotus also said another spell of moderate snowfall was likely to occur in the valley between January 23 and 26.

“The snowfall could be rather heavy in the Pir Panjal mountain range,” Lotus said.

Little traffic was seen on the roads of Srinagar Saturday morning because of highly slippery road conditions.

The surface of the Dal Lake continues to remain frozen at most places, with fisherman and boatmen unable to row in the frozen waters of the lake.

The bone-chilling cold was blamed on the plunging temperature, which touched a minimum of 4.5 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature stayed put at 14.6 degrees.

The visibility in Delhi dropped to less than 50 metres at 8.30 a.m., an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. It led to cancellations of flights and trains, leaving thousands stranded.

Motor vehicles moved at a snail’s pace early in the day.

According to the Northern Railway, 28 trains ran late by more than two hours while 40 were cancelled due to fog that made train journeys risky.

As per the website of the Delhi International Airport Ltd, 66 flights were delayed and 21 cancelled till noon.

Airport officials said fog was not the only reason for the delays and cancellations. Bad weather at destination airports besides operational and technical reasons were also blamed.

According to IMD, Saturday morning too would be foggy but the sky would be clear. The maximum and minimum temperatures could hover around 16 and 5 degrees Celsius respectively.

Across the city, people added more and more layer of woollens to keep warm. The homeless and those in shanties lit bonfires to beat the intense cold.

Businessman Arun Vadala, 32, was forced to miss his cousin’s wedding in Ahmedabad after his train was cancelled.

“It’s frustrating how we suffer year after year from the same problem. Can’t we have a better technology in place?” he asked.

The worst hit in the morning were office-goers and school students.

Visibility was reduced to near zero in the vast stretches of forested land between Delhi and the Gurgaon border in Haryana.

“There was no way we could see anything from the Metro train beyond five feet,” said a college student, Vidya. “Just nothing could be seen beyond that distance.”

In a desperate bid to help the homeless, the Delhi government has opened shelters across the city.

“The maximum temperature is likely to stay around 17 degrees,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official told IANS. The maximum temperature Wednesday was 15.5 degrees — five notches below the average — and minimum settled at 5.6 degrees.

While the met department forecast clear skies in the day, thick fog early morning continued to hit train and flight services, causing delays of several hours.

Trains to Allahabad, Lucknow and other parts of Uttar Pradesh were delayed by two to six hours. “Fifty trains have been delayed by 2 to 6 hours. Nearly 27 trains have been cancelled due to fog,” an official from Northern Railways told IANS.

The situation at the airport was no different as harried passengers waited for hours for some news. According to an airport official, 20 flights were delayed while 10 had been cancelled.

“My flight was scheduled to depart at 8 a.m. It has been more than two hours but till now there is no information on when it is expected to take off,” said Manju Agarwal, a passenger at the Delhi airport waiting for her flight to Hyderabad.

Airport authorities said services were expected to resume by 11 a.m.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance said that the problem of global commons has been around not just today, but also earlier. The challenge is for building knowledge and cooperative institutions, he added.

Judiciously placed, at the brink of launching India’s 12th Five Year Plan and post Durban Conference, this workshop marked the second initiative of the recently set-up Climate Change Finance Unit in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance in bringing together policy makers, Members of Parliament(MPs), professionals and academicians to deliberate on a range of issues on Climate Change Financing, spread across the four sessions of the workshop. The consultations would provide important inputs for the chapter focused on Climate Change in the forthcoming Economic Survey of India, as for the first time ever, an entire chapter would be devoted on this subject. The sessions focused on national priorities for addressing climate change, the role of private sector in generating funds to enable a lower carbon trajectory; and the role of the state and civil society in ensuring equitable and sustainable outcomes that do not pass on mitigation and adaptation costs to vulnerable communities. A key outcome of the workshop was better understanding of the financial issues related to climate change, at the domestic and the international level.

Shri Mauskar, Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests explained that India will encounter high cost in taking necessary steps for climate change mitigation and adaptation. He said that some financial mechanisms may enable mitigation costs to be borne by the private sector but this will be eventually passed on to the consumers. However the cost of adaptation needs to be borne entirely by public finances, making global financial transfers (grants, low interest loans) highly relevant, he added.

Participating in the scientific frontiers session, Dr R.K.Pachauri, Director General,TERI as well as Dr B.Mungekar, Member of Parliament(Rajya Sabha) stressed the key issues of equity and using knowledge to deal with climate change.

The Impact of Industrial Farm Animal Production on Food Security in the Developing World by NGO Humane Society International, the report is critical of the idea that inhumane confinement of animals in industrial production facilities enhances food security.

“There is strong scientific evidence of the negative impacts of these animal factories on people and animals,” said Chetana Mirle, director of farm animal protection for HSI.

“We must do a better job of supporting small-farmer led and animal welfare-friendly agriculture as well as implementing stronger environmental and farm animal welfare regulations.”

According to the report, in India, 140-200 million egg laying hens were confined to barren, wire battery cages so restrictive they cannot even spread their wings.

Each bird has less living space than an A4 sheet of paper.

With no opportunity to experience most natural behavior, such as nesting, dust bathing, perching and foraging, these birds endure lives wrought with suffering.

Factory farms that confine more than 50,000 birds within a single shed are increasingly common in the country.

“The HSI report reviews the growing body of evidence showing that industrial farm animal production fails to improve food security,” said the report.

For example, the growing confinement of India’s egg laying hens in cramped battery cages has failed to significantly improve the nutritional outcomes for low-income communities.

The discovery was made by a team from the universities of Sussex and São Paulo, Brazil. The ‘soldiers’ hover at the entrance of the nest where they provide ‘early warning’ of enemy attack.

Working on a farm in Brazil, the team marked bees hovering close to the entrance to hives. They found that the soldier bees assumed the guard role for longer periods than their ‘worker’ colleagues.

Soldier bees are 30 percent heavier than worker bees and make up just one percent of the colony, whereas workers number around 10,000 per hive.

Known as Jatai in Brazil, they have slightly smaller heads and thicker legs than the workers, which helps them to fight off their main enemies – the robber bee.

Robber bees simply fly into hives, steal the honey and fly away. A full-scale attack by multiple robber bees can destroy an entire colony.

However, despite being stingless and far smaller, soldier bees are able to fight off single robber bee scouts. They clamp their heads onto the wings of robber bees, preventing them from flgiht.

“Stingless bees are not defenceless,” said Francis Ratnieks, professor at Sussex University, who led the research. “Jatai is one of the most common bees found in Brazil, but its sophisticated defences make it one of the most amazing.”

Countless mice, rats and rabbits die every year in the name of science – and the situation is getting worse. While German labs used some 2.41 million animals for scientific research in 2005, by 2009 this number had grown to 2.79 million.

One-third were destined for fundamental biology research, and the majority were used for researching diseases and developing medical compounds and devices, according to a statement from Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies,

But now, scientists at the institute have discovered an alternative.

“We’re basically using a test tube to study the effects of chemicals and their potential risks. What we do is take living cells, which were isolated from human and animal tissue and grown in cell cultures, and expose them to the substance under investigation,” says Jennifer Schmidt of Fraunhofer.

If a given concentration of the substance is poisonous to the cell, it will die. This change in “well-being” can be rendered visible by the sensor nanoparticles developed by Schmidt and her team.

Cells – the tiniest living things – that are healthy store energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). High levels of ATP are indicative of high levels of metabolic activity in cells. If a cell is severely damaged, it produces less ATP.

“Our nanosensors allow us to detect adenosine triphosphate and determine the state of health of cells. This makes it possible to assess the cell-damaging effects of medical compounds or chemicals,” says Schmidt.

“It’s a great welcome and relief to see the icicles,” said octogenarian Randev Sharma who lives in the Jakhu hills, the highest point of the town.

Sharma said the icicles were once common in the town. “This winter the icicles appeared after a gap of over five to six years,” he added.

His wife Sushma Devi recalled that in the distant past the icicles grew up to six feet.

“Sharp-pointed icicles were once a common sight in every building as they hung from the slanting roofs. We used to advise children not to go near them as the points could hurt them. Now their size has drastically reduced,” she said.

Icicle, a pendent spear of ice formed by the freezing of dripping rooftop water, is an indicative of harsh winter.

Ankita Singh was an awestruck tourist from Delhi. She said: “It is really marvellous to see nature’s bounty. It seems we are sitting in a deep freezer.”

M.R. Kaundal, retired government employee who settled in Shimla in 1945, said that till the late 1990s appearance of icicles in the town was a normal feature of winters. “Now you can see icicles only in areas in the Jakhu hills.”

From 2007 to 2011, except 2008, the Shimla town, situated at an altitude of 2,130 metres, was bereft of its traditional winter white blanket of snow. Except for one or two mild spells, there was no major snow during these years.

However, Shimla experienced 62 cm of snow Feb 12, 2007, which was the thickest snowfall for a single day in the past 99 years. But the rest of that winter was more or less without the much sought after snow.

This winter after mild spells of snow for days together, the town saw 24.6 cm of snow Jan 9.

Environmentalists blame deforestation and rising pollution for the change in the climatic conditions around Shimla.

“Forty more birds have died an unnatural death in the same farm at Williamnagar and we are yet to establish the cause of their death,” Animal and Husbandry Director D. Lyngwa told IANS.

In the past few weeks, around 2,000 poultry birds have died on the farm at Williamnagar, the district headquarter of East Garo Hills, 312 km west of Shillong.

Samples have been sent to the Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory and the results are awaited.

“We have not decided to impose any restriction on consumption as we are yet to confirm exact cause of deaths of the birds in the area, but if the test proves positive, we will impose restrictions,” Lyngwa said.

Moreover, he said that a rapid response team has been kept on standby in the district to deal with the unnatural deaths of thousands of birds.

Chief Secretary W.M.S. Pariat has directed district authorities in the three districts of Garo Hills to monitor the health of all the poultry birds following their unnatural deaths.

“The district administration has taken all precautionary measures and rapid response team has been geared up to take action in case the laboratory confirms bird flu,” East Garo Hills district magistrate Praveen Bakshi told IANS.

He said a seven-kilometre radius of the area where the birds died has been kept under surveillance

“There is nothing panic and the district authorities are all geared up to meet any eventuality,” Bakshi said.

Skiing organisers say more spells of snow are expected and will keep the Solang slopes, just 13 km uphill from Manali, covered in white for over two months.

“At present, the Solang Valley has more than a three-and-a-half foot snow cover. The region will continue to experience fresh snow till February,” Randhir Singh Salhuria, director of the state-run Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports here, told IANS.

The institute is conducting skiing courses – for professionals and amateurs – in Solang in the western Himalayas. This season the courses began from Wednesday and will continue till the slopes have snow.

Salhuria said a large number of skiers and snowboarders have come to the slopes for the first time in the season as the snow stopped and road links from Manali reopened.

According to the Met office in Shimla, it snowed heavily in Solang and nearby areas during Jan 5-9.

“What a nice powder,” remarked local skier Vineet Joshi, who had come here with his friends. “As the news flashes, Solang will pull in more skiers and snowboarders across the country,” he added.

District Tourism Officer Balbir Thakur said: “There are a large number of private tour operators in Solang who are providing skiing apparatus as well as instructors to tourists. We have fixed rates and the department is monitoring them.”

According to him, the fee ranges from Rs.300 to Rs.1,000 depending on the time booked and ski kits sought.

Besides skiing, the tourists can also enjoy snow scooter ride and sledging.

Private ski instructor Mohan Verma said like last year, snow on the Solang slopes was quite timely this year too.

“Till February we can easily hold skiing sessions in Solang. After that, the higher slopes of Marhi and Gulaba can be used,” he added.

The mountaineering institute, which boasts of ski instructors of international fame, is charging a fee of Rs.5,300 for a 14-day basic ski course in Solang that includes board and lodging.

The other attraction in Solang’s snowy peaks is a multimillion-rupee ropeway-cum-ski project that was inaugurated by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in January last year.

Set up with an investment of Rs.36 crore, the project is a joint initiative between the state tourism department and a private company, Ski Himalayas Ropeway Pvt Ltd.

The ropeway takes tourists to the ridge of Mount Phatru at an elevation of 3,200 m (10,000 ft).

Amitabh Sharma, the company’s joint managing director, said the gondolas have a special provision to carry skiers to the top terminal to enable them to increase the ski run by at least three kilometres.

Salhuria said the Solang slopes offer a challenging run to both beginners and advanced skiers and are of international standards.

For newcomers, the mountaineering institute conducts basic, intermediate and advanced ski courses at Narkanda, 65 km from Shimla.

Narkanda has shorter and gentler slopes that attract mostly newcomers. The slopes currently have more than two feet of snow.

The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation’s (HPTDC) Hatu Hotel at Narkanda provides accessories like skis, boots and sticks to prospective skiers.

According to Zhang Jianping, researcher at the China University of Geosciences, the footprints, discovered in a geological park in Yanqing county, are the first dinosaur traces found here.

They were left by dinosaurs that lived some 140 to 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic period, said Zhang.

A group of scientists from Zhang’s university first discovered the footprints in July 2011 in the Guihuamu Geological Park, known for its concentration of petrified ancient wood.

At one place where most of the footprints are concentrated, the paleontologists counted several hundred footprints as well as seven to eight lines formed by consecutive steps.

The discovery will benefit the study of China’s dinosaur categories at late Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods, Zhang said.

“It’s the first time China has found thyreophora, ornithopod, and sauropod footprints of that period, which provides us with more knowledge on how such species spread across China,” said Zhang.

An email from some residents of Naltar village in Gilgit-Baltistan region said the dam has developed “four big cracks and the water (from the river Indus) was fast gushing towards the residential area”.

“There are four visible gaps in the walls which pose a serious threat to us,” they said in the email to IANS.

Fearing that the reservoir could collapse at any time, the residents were readying themselves to flee the place and move to nearby villages.

They wrote that the authorities, despite the looming threat, have maintained that there was nothing to worry about.

The hydel power project was built in 2008 when military ruler Pervez Musharraf was at the helm in Pakistan.

A Chinese firm built the plant that generates 18 MW of electricity in the power-starved parts of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

The power house is the single major source of electricity to the Gilgit area.

With the assistance of Chinese firms, the government is currently building 29 mini hydropower stations with a cumulative capacity of 40 MW in Gilgit-Baltistan, rich in water resources that can produce an estimated 40,000 MW of electricity.

The finding is yet another in a growing list that could bring the creation of insect cyborgs out of science fiction and into reality. In this case, the power supply doesn’t rely on movement, light or batteries, just normal feeding.

“It is virtually impossible to start from scratch and make something that works like an insect,” said Daniel Scherson, chemistry professor at Case Western Reserve University and senior study author.

“Using an insect is likely to prove far easier. For that, you need electrical energy to power sensors or to excite the neurons to make the insect do as you want, by generating enough power out of the insect itself,” Scherson said.

“An insect equipped with a sensor could measure the amount of noxious gas in a room, broadcast the finding, shut down and recharge for an hour, then take a new measurement and broadcast again,” he added.

Scherson teamed with Roy E. Ritzmann and Irene Lee, both professors, graduate student Michelle Rasmussen and research assistant Alan J. Pollack to develop an implantable biofuel cell to provide usable power.

The key to converting the chemical energy is using enzymes. After testing the system electrodes were inserted in the abdomen of a female cockroach. The researchers found they suffered no long-term damage, which bodes well for long-term use.

They measured the output of the fuel cell, which reached a maximum of nearly 100 microwatts per square centimetre at 0.2 volts. The study was five years in the making. Progress stalled for nearly a year due to difficulties with trehalase – the first enzyme used in the series.

During a diving trip in Indonesia in July 2011, Godehard Kopp of the University of Gottingen, Germany, filmed an unexpected pairing between the two animals.

Like a lackey clinging on to the big man on campus, the black-marble jawfish was seen closely following a mimic octopus as it moved across the sandy bottom.

The jawfish had brown-and-white markings similar to the octopus, and was difficult to spot among the many arms. The octopus, for its part, did not seem to notice or care.

Kopp sent the video to Rich Ross and Luiz Rocha of the California Academy of Sciences, who identified the jawfish species. Since this association had not been recorded before, they published their observations online last month in the scientific journal Coral Reefs.

The authors surmise that the jawfish hitches a ride with the octopus for protection, allowing it to venture away from its burrow to look for food-a case of “opportunistic mimicry”.

“This is a unique case in the reefs not only because the model for the jawfish is a mimic itself, but also because this is the first case of a jawfish involved in mimicry,” said Luiz Rocha, assistant curator of ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences.

“Unfortunately, reefs in the Coral Triangle area of southeast Asia are rapidly declining mostly due to harmful human activities, and we may lose species involved in unique interactions like this even before we get to know them,” added Rocha.

Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son, Phrae, Phetchabun, Nakhon Patom, Kamphaeng Phet and Si Sa Ket are some of the provinces affected by the cold spell, Xinhua reported quoting the weather office.

“It’s something nobody has done before,” says Malcom Fraser, professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, who led the study.

The project, which used Fraser’s piggyBac vectors to create genetically engineered silkworms with both silkworm and spider silk proteins, was a collaboration of his lab with Donald Jarvis and Randolph Lewis, University of Wyoming.

Jarvis’s lab made the transgene plasmids, while Fraser’s lab made the transgenic silkworms and Lewis’s lab analyzed the fibre from the silkworms.

Commercial production of silk from spiders is impractical because they are too cannibalistic and territorial for farming, according to a Notre Dame statement.

Researchers have experimented with producing the stronger material in other organisms, including bacteria, insects, mammals and plants, but those proteins require mechanical spinning – a task the silkworms perform naturally.

The stronger fibre could find application in sutures, where some natural silkworm silk is used, as well as wound dressings, artificial ligaments, tendons, tissue scaffolds, microcapsules, cosmetics and textiles.

This work is the culmination of a research effort begun more than 10 years ago with an internal award from the University of Notre Dame to Fraser to develop silkworm transgenics capabilities.

At present, just five percent of the 880-sq km Valmiki Tiger Reserve is under grasslands. The park management hopes more grassland will support more prey animals that will in turn support more tigers.

Limited grassland species in the park like ungulates, which are an important food source for tigers, have forced the management to do a rethink.

“This was one of the reasons why the park has a low density of tigers. My first priority after I joined the reserve last July was to create more grasslands,” field director Santosh Tiwari told IANS.

Scattered population of sambar, nilgai, gaur, chittal, hog deer, langur and rhesus macaque, among others, as well as a few rhinoceros are also found in the reserve.

The Madanpur forest range is home to many herbivores because the rich alluvial soil enriched by the river Gandak has favoured the growth of grasses, Tiwari said.

Common grass in the reserve include imperata cylindrica, saccharum spontaneum and saccharum munja.

The forest department, in collaboration with the NGOs Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and Germany’s Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), is currently conducting a study to boost grasslands in the reserve.

Valmiki had more grasslands in the past. But they gradually turned into woodland due to lack of management. People also turned them into agricultural lands, said WTI manager Samir Kumar Sinha.

The forest was under the management of the Bihar State Forest Development Corporation before it became a tiger reserve in 1994.

Since it was a profit-making organisation, it introduced commercially important trees like teak, shisham and bamboo which turned the grassland and open areas into woodland, said Sinha.

Mixed forest vegetation is crucial for the herbivores as they are important sources of food. The availability of quality food boosts their breeding chances.

“The grass has became unpalatable for the herbivores due to ineffective management,” Sinha told IANS.

Loss of grasslands led to a decrease in herbivore numbers, which reduced the tigers’ food source.

The most robust statistical method for prey density estimation is Distance Sampling. But this technique requires at least 40 sightings of animals in an area. Valmiki has such a low herbivore base that this method was not possible, Sinha said.

Grassland and open areas were also invaded by unwanted species like mikenia, eupatorium and phoenix.

Recently, experts from the forest department, the Chitwan National Park in Nepal, WTI and NABU held a discussion on better management of grasslands.

They suggested experimenting with different methods before a suitable one could be implemented. They also recommended documenting the types of grasses in the park to understand their biology.

“We have already identified the sites to conduct the trial. We will introduce grasses that are locally available instead of bringing them from outside,” Tiwari said.

Some 150 villages dot the periphery of the Valmiki Tiger Reserve. In addition, 25 revenue villages are in the Done Valley, a 45-sq km area in the heart of the reserve. Some 18,000 people live there.

Apart from human disturbances, poaching continues to be the biggest threat to the park.

The latest tiger census report released by the government in March last year estimated about 1,700 tigers. In 2008, it had put the numbers at about 1,400.

(Sanjeeb Baruah can be contacted at sanjeeb.b@ians.in)

The Gulmarg ski resort was frozen at minus 16.5. “Pahalgam hill station recorded a minimum of minus 6 degrees, said an official of the local weather office.

The Dal Lake was seen frozen at many places in the morning while highly slippery roads forced many people to remain indoors.

Although, the met office forecast improvement in weather, the night temperatures are likely to fall due to clear night skies.

The gap between the minimum and maximum temperatures has narrowed down considerably which had added to the severe cold in the valley. The maximum was 2.5 degrees in Srinagar Saturday.

According to the researchers, an influx of mercury into the eco-system may have been responsible for the mass extinction.

“No one had ever looked to see if mercury was a potential culprit. This was a time of the greatest volcanic activity in Earth’s history and we know today that the largest source of mercury comes from volcanic eruptions,” Steve Grasby, co-author of a paper from the University of Calgary, said.

“We estimate that the mercury released then could have been up to 30 times greater than today’s volcanic activity, making the event truly catastrophic,” he said.

About 250 million years ago, a time long before dinosaurs ruled and when all land formed one big continent, the majority of life in the ocean and on land was wiped out.

The generally accepted idea is that volcanic eruptions burned though coal beds, releasing CO2 and other deadly toxins. Direct proof of this theory was outlined in a paper that was published by these same authors last January in Nature Geoscience.

The mercury deposition rates could have been significantly higher in the late Permian when compared with today’s human-caused emissions. In some cases, levels of mercury in the late Permian ocean was similar to what is found near highly contaminated ponds near smelters, where the aquatic system is severely damaged, say researchers.

“We are adding to the levels through industrial emissions. This is a warning for us here on Earth today,” Benoit Beauchamp from the University of Calgary said.

No matter what happens, this study shows life’s tenacity. “The story is one of recovery as well. After the system was overloaded and most of life was destroyed, the oceans were still able to self clean and we were able to move on to the next phase of life,” Hamed Sanei from the University of Calgary, said.

The study has been published in the journal Geology.

The demand came after a high-level committee unearthed a “massive mining scam” in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills district where the state government gave a single window clearance to cement companies to operate in thick forested areas.

“We demand from the government to immediately close down all those (cement) plants as the government constituted report had itself confirmed that the plants were located inside forested areas,” Sangma said.

The committee, which was formed in April last year and submitted its report to the state government recently, found that the plants were located in “thick” forest areas.

The opposition also demanded immediate action against officials allegedly involved in the scam. “We also demanded that the mining licences of the eight cement companies, which allegedly flouted the norms, must be scrapped immediately,” he said.

Scientists have found the animals pick up not only the words we say, but our “intent to communicate” with them.

Jszsef Topal, of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, said: “Increasing evidence supports the notion that humans and dogs share some social skills.”

“The way dogs work resembles that of a six-month to two-year-old child in a lot of respects,” the Daily Mail Friday quoted Topal as saying.

Dogs even watch how we make eye contact, to work out what we mean and why we are talking to them.

“Dogs, as well as human infants, are sensitive to cues that signal our intent,” said Topal.

Topal’s team tested dogs with videos of a person saying, “Hi, dog!” in different tones of voice and using different levels of eye contact.

The dogs can “read” the eye contact and enthusiasm as well as youngsters, the team found. Dogs know when they are being spoken to – and can even make a guess at what you are thinking.

Topal said that the results will undoubtedly confirm what many dog owners and trainers already know.

However, whether or not dogs rely on similar pathways in the brain for processing those cues isn’t clear yet.

“Our findings reveal that dogs are receptive to human communication in a manner that was previously attributed only to human infants,” Topal said.

“However, it is the first study to use eye-tracking techniques to study dogs’ social skills, he noted.

The research was published online in the journal Current Biology.

Police in northern China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region have been given the order as increasing attacks have been reported in Xilin Gol prefecture, Xinhua reported.

Local police said wolves there killed more than 1,000 livestock in 2011, resulting in economic losses of nearly one million yuan (around $158,000).

One attack that occurred in December saw a group of four to five wolves breaking into a pen belonging to three families and killing over 230 sheep.

“Wolves only appeared in the remote mountains in the past, but this year they have been coming out a lot, even in densely-populated areas,” said local herder Yang Yujun.

Owning a private gun is illegal in China, forcing armed police to escort livestock every day to ensure their safety.

Police have also installed surveillance cameras to stay alert against wolf attacks.

The first comprehensive law to address animal welfare was to be submitted in 2009 but “there is still no clear timetable for legislation”, Chang Jiwen, a law professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who led the drafting team, told China Daily Thursday.

The Law on Protection of Wild Animals is the only existing animal law in the country which prohibits trafficking and abuse. But it fails to protect animals already in captivity.

Meanwhile, the number of cases of animal abuse is mounting.

A group of Web users, who formed a chat group “cat torturers”, constantly posted online pictures of cats being killed or suffering cruelty.

Animal rights groups said this stemmed from public indifference.

Live animal performances often involve acts of cruelty at zoos and wildlife parks, despite a government ban, said Mang Ping, a professor at the Central Institute of Socialism.

Poor visibility affected rail and road transport, and toursists were disappointed at a Taj completely shrouded by the fog. The city folk were waiting for the sun to break through the murky sky even till noon.

“Those who have spent money and come to Agra to see the Taj Mahal feel a little disappointed by the vagaries of nature. A clear sky would have made Taj a memorable experience for many,” said tourist guide Ved Gautam.

“A large number of tourists from south India, not familiar with Agra winter, are having a tough time negotiating with the searing cold,” he said.

On Wednesday, the fog made movement difficult. Goods trains were halted for hours at smaller stations between Delhi and Agra.

“Because of poor visibility, train drivers have been told to drive cautiously and slowly, this is causing the delay,” said a railway official.

Though the minimum temperature has not dropped below 8 degrees Celsius, the foggy conditions have hit normal life and forced people to either stay home or shut down shops and establishments early in the evenings.

Parents have demanded extension of winter vacations after some schools reopened Wednesday. District authorities have already asked primary schools to open only after 9 a.m.

“They are iconic large forest cockatoos that were once widespread and common in huge numbers on the Swan Coastal Plain (in Australia),” said Ron Johnstone, adjunct professor at Murdoch University and ornithology curator at the Western Australia Museum.

He said there were three species, namely Carnaby’s cockatoo, Baudin’s cockatoo and the Forest Red-tailed Black cockatoo, that nested in tree hollows and moved south and west after nesting season to feed on nuts, nectar and wood-boring grubs and insects.

Johnstone said nuts from the extensive pine plantations introduced in the 1920s and 30s provided a valuable diet replacement for Carnaby’s cockatoos as developers gradually cleared Perth’s banksia heathlands for housing, according to a Murdoch statement.

“(When) a lot of the juveniles are just fledged…these areas became a very valuable source of food (which) the birds were able to use up very quickly because the pines are producing cones during the period when they first arrive,” he said.

“That flock (of Carnaby’s black cockatoos) around the University of Western Australia grounds in Underwood Avenue is the last surviving flock in the western suburbs of Perth,” he said.

“Now if you just continue to degrade and reduce the amount of available foraging habitat you will lose that flock.”

Johnstone said developers and householders can choose to plant any of a variety of endemic and exotic trees that will help the black cockatoos survive.

Muduli, along with Chandra Pradhani, another member of her Porja tribe, were felicitated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the 99th Indian Science Congress here for practising the ‘Koraput Traditional Agricultural System’.

The system practised by the community has been chosen by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) under its Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Sites programme.

According to Muduli, 40, it all started after the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation — run by eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan — introduced them to organic farming.

“Earlier, we were using a large amount of chemical fertiliser for farming. But then we shifted to organic methods. We used cowdung for manure,” Muduli told IANS.

Muduli and Pradhani inspired other people in the village to take up the system and now almost eight-nine villages are involved in the climate-friendly agriculture system.

“For preventing crops from getting infected, we prepare insecticides in a traditional manner using neem leaves and other plants found in the forest that have medicinal qualities,” said Pradhani, who was ecstatic after receiving the award from the prime minister.

“I congratulate the tribal community of Koraput for the global recognition they have received for their contribution to conserving bio-diversity and developing climate resilient farming systems,” the prime minister said at the felicitation.

The tribe produces several varieties of rice, wheat and cumin seeds.

Pradhani says that this method of farming has almost quadrupled the annual yield in the last few years, while profits have risen several times.

“Now I earn Rs.1.5 lakh annually, which is enough to meet the basic needs of my family. I send my children to school and it has brought prosperity to the village,” said Pradhani, who is also the village head.

More than 15,000 delegates, including scientists and students, are participating in the Jan 3-7 Indian Science Congress being held at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT University). The theme of the conference is “Science and Technology for Inclusive Innovation – Role of Women”.

Some 1,500 children were reportedly rescued from cars in the last 12 months. During November and December 2011, nine children were found in locked cars, with four such cases in the last four days.

“On a 29-degree day, with the car’s air conditioning dropping the interior to 20 degrees, it takes just 10 minutes for the temperature to double to 44 degrees and in another 10 minutes it triples to a deadly 60 degrees,” said Peter O’Meara, professor at the La Trobe University.

“Children and pets can die or suffer serious brain damage if they are left in a hot car for even a short amount of time. Young children are most at risk because they quickly dehydrate. They can lapse into unconsciousness, and may never fully recover,” said O’Meara, who led the study, according to a university statement.

O’Meara said that even on mild days, leaving children in cars unattended can have catastrophic consequences.

He suggests keeping your car locked and secured from children; warn your children about playing in the car by themselves without adult supervision; install a boot release mechanism, so that they can’t get trapped in the boot; remove children from your car first, then groceries etc.

“A quake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale occurred in the Valley at 10.01 p.m. this evening.

“The epicentre of the quake was in south Kashmir area with its coordinates 33.7 degrees north and 73 degrees east.

“No damage to life or property has been reported from anywhere so far,” Amir Ali, in charge of the disaster management cell at the divisional office, said here.

More than 40,000 people were killed across the divided Kashmir in a 7.8 magnitude temblor in October 2005.

Earthquake scientists have already warned of a mega quake which could result in massive landslides and destruction in the Valley.

The so-called doomsday predictions about a possible mega quake in Kashmir are largely attributed to the study of Roger Bilham, a US geo-physicist.

The corridor was among the several projects approved by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot during a cabinet meeting here Wednesday.

“The corridor will be named Rajiv Gandhi Biosphere Reserve. It is a very ambitious project of the state government for protecting wild life animals, especially tigers,” an official at the chief minister’s office (CMO) told IANS.

Sanctuaries which will be connected through the corridor include Ramsagar, Van Vihar and Kesarbaag in Dholpur district, Kela Devi in Karauli, Ranthambore National Park, Sawai Man Singh and Sawai Madhopur Sanctuary in Sawai Madhopur, Ramgarh Vishdhari in Bundi, Darra, Jawahar Sagar, National Chambal Sanctuary and Mukundara Hills Sanctuary in Kota, Shergarh in Bundi and Bhainsrorgarh Sanctuary in Chittoragarh district.

He added that due to increasing population of tigers in Ranthambore National Park, incidents of territorial fights and straying of the big cats into human habitats are on the rise.

“The corridor will give the big cats freedom to roam in a bigger area and also provide plenty of prey to them,” said the officer.

He added that the corridor will also reduce the possibility of poaching as it will be declared protected.

“Where ever necessary, the villages will be shifted. The animals will be able to roam in different sanctuaries without any threat,” said the officer.

The proposal will now be sent to the union environment and forests ministry for its final nod.

Chandigarh recorded a maximum temperature of 17.2 degree Celsius (four degrees below normal) and a minimum temperature of 6.2 degrees in the last 24 hours.

Ambala city in Haryana recorded a high of 14.8 degrees, four degrees below normal.

At 11.30 a.m. Wednesday, Chandigarh recorded a temperature of 14.6 degrees while Ambala and Patiala were at 12 and 9.6 degrees, respectively.

All flights from Chandigarh airport were cancelled Wednesday due to adverse weather conditions.

Thick fog engulfed several parts of Punjab and Haryana Wednesday morning as cold wave conditions continued in both states.

Met Centre officials here said the minimum temperatures at most places were higher than the sub-zero temperatures recorded last week.

Several districts in both states were affected by fog.

Amritsar had a low of 3.4 degrees. The maximum temperature in the city was 19.8 degrees.

According to Met officials, fog and mist could occur at a few places in the next two days

Insects hear with help of unusual ears. Grasshoppers have ears on their abdomens. Lacewings have ears on their wings. The ears of the tachinid fly are tucked under the chin.

“Insects have ears on pretty much every part of their body except on their head proper,” said co-author Roy Plotnick of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Insects have evolved ears at least 17 times in different lineages. Plotnick and co-author Dena Smith of the University of Colorado, Boulder are trying to figure out when different insects got their ears, and whether predators may have played a role.

Modern insects use their ears to tune in to one another’s chirps, trills and peeps. Think of the chorus of crickets, or the love songs of cicadas.

But many species can also pick up sounds beyond the range of human hearing, such as the high-pitched sonar of night-hunting bats.

Insects that evolved such supersensitive hearing would have had a crucial survival advantage, scientists say.

“The big evolutionary trigger for the appearance of hearing in many insects is thought to be the appearance of bats,” Plotnick said.

“Prior to the evolution of bats, we would expect to find ears in relatively few insects, but after that we should see ears in more insect groups,” he explained.

Plotnick and Smith turned to remarkably well-preserved fossils from a series of lake deposits in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado known as the Green River Formation, where some of the earliest bats are found.

Roughly 50 million years ago, fine-grained sediment covered and buried the animals that lived there and managed to preserve them in exquisite detail.

Researchers examined fossils from a Green River site in Colorado, focusing on crickets and katydids, which have ears on their front legs, just below their knees.

“Rain and snow are likely to occur at many places across the valley during the next 24 hours,” an official of the local weather department said here.

Because of the nightlong cloud cover, the minimum temperature rose Wednesday, providing some relief to the locals who had been braving severe cold wave conditions since the last 20 days.

“The minimum temperature was minus 3.1 degrees Celsius in Srinagar city. It was minus 3.2 degrees in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam hill station and minus 7.2 in Gulmarg ski resort,” said the official.

Gulmarg also saw light rain and snow in the morning.

“Kargil town was the coldest in the state at minus 13.4 while Leh recorded minus 13 degrees,” said the official.

The discoveries, made by teams from the universities of Oxford and Southampton and the British Antarctic Survey, include new species of yeti crab, starfish, barnacles, sea anemones and potentially an octopus.

Researchers used a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) for the first time to explore the East Scotia Ridge deep beneath the Southern Ocean where hydrothermal fissures on seabed, from which geothermally heated water issues, create a unique environment that lacks sunlight.

“Hydrothermal vents are home to animals found nowhere else on the planet that get their energy not from the sun but from breaking down chemicals such as hydrogen sulphide,” said Alex Rogers, professor of zoology at Oxford University who led the research, the journal Public Library of Science Biology reports.

Highlights from the ROV dives include images showing huge colonies of the new species of yeti crab, thought to dominate the Antarctic vent ecosystem, clustered around vent chimneys, according to an Oxford university statement.

Elsewhere, the ROV spotted numbers of an undescribed predatory sea-star with seven arms crawling across fields of stalked barnacles. It also found an unidentified pale octopus, nearly 2,400 metres down, on the seafloor.

“What we didn’t find is almost as surprising as what we did,” said Rogers. “Many animals such as tubeworms, vent mussels, vent crabs, and vent shrimps, found in hydrothermal vents in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, simply weren’t there.”

The Madhav National Park, spread over around 158 km, is located about 110 km from Gwalior.

Although less frequented by tourists as it does not have tigers, the park boasts of a tropical dry deciduous mixed forest with a range of animal and plant life. It has a diverse range of resident birds, spotted deer, nilgai, black buck, four-horned antelope, sambar, chinkara (Indian gazelle) – as well as crocodiles in hundreds.

Come winter, the park gets migratory birds aplenty. It offers a nice viewing of birds on the move as the span of the lake is widely spread out.

As the sun rose during a recent chilly winter morning, the park came alive with thousands of birds — of all sizes and in eye-catching colours.

Flying high over the waters and trees of the park were hundreds of Bar headed geese — grey brown with distinctive broad black marks across the nape. Many rested on a corner of the lake.

At one section of the park there were flocks of gregarious cormorants, darters or snake birds, redshank, gadwall, and flocks of lesser whistling ducks flapping over water and flying with whistling notes.

Oriental White Ibis, a large marsh bird with black head, neck and striking long stout bill which is bent downwards, was visible from a distance.

It is migratory and is seen in winters here.

Pairs of Brahminy shelduck, an orange-brown beautiful duck, had taken over one corner of the lake.

In addition to the influx of birds, Shivpuri also has many resident birds like lapwings, Asian paradise-flycatcher (Dudhraj), Madhya Pradesh’s state bird, and black winged stilts (a wading bird).

There were also egrets, grey heron, kingfishers, northern pintails, golden oriole, treepie, woodpeckers and peacocks.

The park is also home to eagles and vultures. If you love birds, you must head to Shivpuri — now.

(Anil Gulati can be contacted at anilgulati5@gmail.com)

Experts were stunned after so many dead herring, an oily fish, washed up on Norway’s western coast, the Sun reported.

The bizarre incident was noticed on the Kvaenes beach of Nordreisa municipality.

“We have seen herring stranded before but never this much,” said biologist Ole Kristian Berg at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

Berg added that the tides may have left the fish stranded on the beach, or that a predator may have chased them out of the water.

The incident comes just days after an entire flock of blackbirds suddenly dropped dead over a US town on New Year’s Eve. It was the second New Year in a row that had seen a large group of birds die in Beebe, Arkansas.

On Monday, Victoria’s ambulance service treated 45 patients for heat-related illnesses, including four cases of children left in cars, Xinhua reported.

Earlier Sunday, temperature reached 41.6 degrees in southern port city of Adelaide, giving the city its hottest start to a new year since the maximum temperature hit 43.1 degrees on New Year’s day in 1900.

Temperatures reached 43 degrees Celsius in parts of Victoria Monday when temperatures peaked between 4.00 p.m. and 5.00 p.m..

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has urged people living near the bush area to obey fire crews as temperatures soar across Australia.

Residents need to heed fire warnings since severe fire warnings have been issued in several states, with temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius expected in Victoria and South Australia, the prime minister said.

“There are a lot of emergency workers who are on high alert today due to the extreme weather conditions in parts of Australia and the extreme heat,” Gillard told reporters in Canberra.

“I am hopeful of getting well soon,” says Shalu, who has been admitted at the Delhi State Cancer Institute for the last six months.

Unlike most people at the hospital, including the staff and families of patients, Shalu never stops smiling even under the unending array of pills, syrups and injections.

This New Year’s day bought some more joy to Shalu and her fellow patients when a small celebration was organised at the hospital.

Another cancer patient Babli, in her 30s, has found new inspiration here.

Hailing from Bihar and abandoned by her family after she was diagnosed with cancer, Babli says: “This celebration is giving me a new strength to live with happiness as long as I live. I want to get better as soon as possible so that I can meet my children.”

Life has been an emotional roller-coaster ride for Rafiq-Ul-Ansari, a native of Assam, whose younger sister Dilruba Begum has been diagnosed with brain tumour.

“My sister has brain tumour. We have not gone home for the last eight months, but I hope the coming year would bring in happiness and good health for her,” said Ansari, whose sister could not attend the celebration due to her critical condition.

Bringing a streak of happiness into the patients’ lives, the celebration was organised by NGO Delhites’ National Initiative in Palliative Care (DNipCare), which also distributed blankets to the patients and their families.

“The event will be used as an occasion to create awareness on palliation for all volunteers and well-wishers and also to begin the year by providing some solace to the lives of the patients,” DNipCare’s general secretary K.V. Hamza said.

All airlines flying to EU countries, are now obliged to get permits to cover their carbon emissions for the whole length of a flight, as well as to monitor the emissions and to report.

They will get 85 percent of those permits for free, but the remaining 15 percent should be paid.

The EU has assured that the allocation of greenhouse gas emissions for the airlines will reduce their overall effect by five percent.

According to the European Commission, aviation accounts for about three percent of global carbon emissions.

Experts expect that the introduction of carbon taxes on airlines will lead to an increase in ticket prices for passengers, from two to 12 euros ($2.5 to $15) on medium-range flights, and from four to 24 euros ($5 to $31) on transatlantic flights.

“Due to an approaching western disturbance (WD), rain is likely in the plains from the afternoon of January 4 while the mountains surrounding the valley would receive snowfall during this period. The weather disturbance would increase gradually and would start weakening after January 7,” Sonam Lotus, director of the local meteorological office, said.

‘Western disturbance’ is a term used in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh to describe an extra-tropical storm in the Mediterranean Sea that causes sudden rain and snow in South Asia. The WD plays an important role in the production of ‘Rabi’ (winter) crops in these countries.

The minimum temperature improved marginally in the valley due to a partial cloud cover Monday.

“The minimum temperature was minus 3.6 degrees Celsius today in Srinagar. It was minus 3.0 degrees in south Kashmir’s Pahalgam hill station and minus 7.6 in north Kashmir’s Gulmarg ski resort. This shows a marginal improvement in the minimum temperatures which is because of the partial cloud cover during the night. Leh town in the Ladakh region recorded minus 17.2 degrees,” said Lotus.

The hyena, named Rahul by the Thiruvananthapuram zoo authorities, had displayed symptoms similar to its sibling which died last week.

On examination by the veterinarians here, they decided to call in experts from Tamil Nadu.

G. Vijayakumar, a faculty member from the Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakka in Tamil Nadu, conducted the endoscopy at a hospital here.

Speaking to IANS, Vijayakumar said the endoscopy and an ultrascan was done on Rahul and another hyena.

Rahul had bleeding ulcers and his kidney was also found to be having problems, he said.

“The ulcers can be cured in two weeks and the medication will now be given by the veterinarians here. Once it recovers from the ulcer, the treatment for its kidney problems will begin,” he said.

The weather office said cloudy conditions since Sunday night had led to the rise in temperature. “Clouds trap heat. Hence, the minimum temperature was higher,” an India Meteorological Department official here said.

The maximum temperature was recorded at 19.7 degrees Celsius. The humidity wavered between a high of 93 and a low of 74 percent. Persisting fog brought visibility down to around 200 metres on Monday morning from 300 metres Sunday evening.

According to the Northern Railway website, six trains were rescheduled due to fog. Besides, 23 were delayed and 27 cancelled.

The Met office has forecast Tuesday as a foggy day with dense fog in the morning. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to hover around 20 and 9 degrees, respectively.

Met centre officials said here that Amritsar, which recorded minus 2.1 degrees Friday and minus 0.2 degrees Saturday, recorded a minimum of four degrees Celsius, one degree above average. The maximum temperature in the past 24 hours was 19.4 degrees.

Ludhiana and Patiala recorded highs and lows, respectively, of 19.8 and 7.8 degrees and 20.6 and 10 degrees, respectively. The minimum temperature in Patiala was four degrees above normal.

Haryana’s Hisar town, which had also recorded sub-zero temperature earlier, recorded a low of 5.6 degrees, one degree above average. The maximum temperature was 21.4 degrees, three notches below average.

Chandigarh recorded a minimum of 10.4 degrees, five degrees above average, while the maximum temperature Saturday was 22.2 degrees, two degrees above average.

Met centre officials said fog and mist could occur at a few places in the next two days.