Dwindling Blackbucks put Mowgli’s brothers at peril

Even as Mowgli, immortalised by Kipling in his Jungle Books lives on, the Indian Wolf is perilously close to extinction in Karnataka especially after the recent survey which put total number of Blackbucks-the major prey of the wolves at 458.

The Free People once ran across the entire subcontinent, and were subject to none but the wisest of their own kind. That’s how they could take in the man-cub Mowgli even though Sher Khan demanded his pelt. That’s also why they were called the Free People. Today, there are less than 500 of them in Karnatka.

Remember how quickly Sher Khan, the lame tiger stepped back when faced with an angry mother wolf protecting her cubs in her lair. She was not called Raksha, the Demon, for nothing. Today, tragically, both the tiger and the wolf are on the verge of extinction.

The magnificent wolf packs that once roamed across the vast plains of Karnataka, have almost vanished. Very few are spotted these days, and a survey by Mysore University (scientists) a couple of years ago, found that their population was down to less than 500 across the state, thanks to the moral turpitude of the people and their leaders over centuries.

Indian Grey Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes), belongs to the same breed as the German Shepherd, and two species are native to India – the Grey Wolf which dens in the Deccan Plateau and Tibetan Wolf which lives across the Shivaliks and Greater Himalayas. Karnataka’s vast plains and dry grasslands, spanning 1,23,330 sq km stretch from Bangalore rural, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Davangere, Haveri, Bijapur to Belgaum district, and wolves once occupied the entire plains land.

Hunting for their meal and killing anyone who threatened their young, wolves were delicately balanced with the ecology of the region, the population rising and falling in tune with the cyclic periods of famine and plenty that crisscrossed the Deccan Plateau. However, with the coming of British, the scales tilted and the wolves never roamed freely again.

Through the 1980s, wolves were killed whenever they were spotted as they were believed to be baby lifters. According to Sanjay Gubbi, each wolf requires about 225 sq km of area to live and in the midst of exploding population it is hardly possible to find such a vast stretch. “Even though the government has created a sanctuary for wolves at Melkote in Mandya district, the habitat of the sanctuary filled with dry deciduous forest is not conducive for them and they need thorny, bushy and rocky area. Hence they are more visible in Tumkur, Chitradurga and Ranibennur which has a considerable amount of black buck and grassland,” explains a conservationist.

“Known for ferociousness and hunting skills, wolves were declared vermin by British and mass slaughter of wolves were ordered between 1875 and 1925 and nearly 2,00,000 wolves were killed during the 50-year period,” according to a study by Mahesh Rangarajan. After independence, increase of agricultural lands, urbanisation, mining and stone quarrying took its toll on their habitats along the plains, says Mohan Pai, a wildlife researcher.

Adding to their woes, their prey density has dwindled considerably. The shrinking habitat and decreasing prey density led to wolves preying on sheep, goats and other livestock. This has lead to increased conflict with humans. “As an act of revenge, many villagers have resorted to mass slaughtering of wolves by covering their dens with grass and thorns and putting fire to it. This not only kills the adults, but also pups and thus the entire species,” laments Sanjay Gubbi, a practising wildlife conservationist.

Blackbuck Photo: Wikipedia

Wolf Photo: Abi Tamim Vanak

Patriotic Central College turns political cauldron!

Protests and dharnas are not new to the Central College located in the heart of Bangalore. It used to be a hub of activity for freedom fighters. On Wednesday, the college saw police ordering a ‘lathi charge’ on the Congress activists protesting against the government’s ‘Anti-Terrorism Awareness Campaign’.
The college, which had seen the fight between freedom fighters and the British, was witness to a battle between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress. The college principals held a meeting at the place to discuss the campaign. Congress workers, protesting that the government was trying to ‘saffronise’ aducation, asked the police to allow them inside so they could submit a memorandum. When the police refused, another group entered the premises through the rear entrance and started shouting slogans against the government.
In a bid to quell the protesters, police ordered a lathi charge. Tension gripped the campus for over an hour following the scuffle between the party workers and the police. Later, police arrested 20 activists who illegally entered the college premises.
Saffronisation charge
Congress Working President D K Shivakumar said, “It is not anti-terrorism awareness but saffronisation of education. The government, instead of giving saffron flags, should give tricolour to students. There isn’t much terrorism. The material they are distributing is anti-Manmohan Singh and anti-Sonia.”

Why campus?
Byatarayanapura MLA and Congress Youth Wing President Krishna Byregowda said, “They (BJP) have been ruling the state and the administrative machinery. Be it home or education, it is in their hands. They could have tackled the problem of terrorism legally. Why do they want to go to the campus?”

Wanna die? Try Bangalore borewells’ water

There is no doubt that water is the elixir of life. But in IT City, circa 2008, it would be advisable not to drink it raw. That is, if you value your health, and even your life. For the plain reality is that Bangalore’s borewells and even open wells are teeming with bacterial and faecal coliforms which are as lethal as any poison.
The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board’s analysis of water samples taken from the three major valleys of Bangalore has thrown up some alarming statistics about the water that we drink everyday. Thanks to our sewage system that goes back to the days of the Raj, domestic sewage has percolated into the underground water table and contaminated the city’s tubewells and open wells.
The analysis, covering the Bangalore-Vrishabhavati, Koramangala-Challghatta and Hebbal valleys, showed a high concentration of faecal residue along with high fluoride and nitrate content in the water samples. The study, following a directive by a recent Lok Adalat, included 29 different physico-chemical and microbiological tests. The samples were collected from water points which are used by a large part of the city’s population.
The study showed that more than 60 per cent of the samples were infested with bacteria that can adversely affect human health. “Total coliforms and faecal coliforms are very high in all the sites, indicating bacteriological contamination of ground water through constant percolation of domestic sewage,” the
report said.
The report has recommended to the government the need for continuous investigation to know how faecal coliforms enter the underground water table. The other recommendations include safe sanitary practices, alternative drinking water facilities for these areas, and banning of soak pits largely used across the city for the disposal of waste. The report also highlights the need to repair broken portions of sewage lines and calls for the integration of the city’s sewage network with the sewage treatment system for proper recycling of waste.
It is not just disease-causing bacteria, the water samples abound with toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Places around the Koramangala-Challaghatta valley have a high level of nitrates, again attributed to the seepage of sewage. According to experts, a high nitrate content in water can lead to the blue-baby syndrome, especially in infants less than six months old. The highest level of nitrate — 94.6 mg/ltr — was found at Kempegowda Layout close to the Ring Road.
In all these places, the pH level of the ground water stood at between 6.7 and 8.2, and the alkalinity between 263 and 612 mg/ltr. More than 86 samples revealed high concentrations of fluoride. More than the open wells, tubewell samples around Koramangala-Challghatta had a fluoride content ranging up to 2.1 mg/ltr. According to the report, such high levels of fluoride can lead to dental fluorosis (mottled teeth). Among heavy metals, zinc and iron were present in all samples while other metals like nickel, cadmium, chromium, lead and arsenic were not detectable.

The story of AK-56

Sanju Baba’s release from the Yerawada Jail on an interim bail might have provided some respite to Bollywood. But ‘Munnbhai’s’ episode has certainly flashed enough light upon Ak-56 rifle! The rifle, after Sanju’s incident, seem to have surpassed the reputation of AK-47 as the most advanced and preferred weapon by the terrorists in India and other countries that are infested with terrorism. Taking cue from the incident, Shobhan Saxena writes about the history and evolution of the weapon which has made the modern history bloodier than ancient and medieval times.

The name is Kalashnikov! Sixty years ago, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the lost son of a rich farmer was swallowed by a Siberian gulag. Then he found his calling and became a Soviet patriot by putting together eight pieces of hard wood and strong metal pipes in such a way that they could spit 600 bullets in a minute and reduce an army of men to a bloodied pulp of flesh and bones in seconds. Since then Kalashnikov’s automatic, and its many offspring, have spat from all corners of the world, drilling holes into bodies and firing insane imaginations.
In 1947, it was the People’s Gun. Then AK-47 became an instrument of foreign policy and found a place in Chairman Mao’s thoughts. It inspired books and films. It launched vodka brands. It has become the darling of international terrorism. It’s always there, resting quietly against a green backdrop whenever the bad boys of Al Qaida cut a new terror video for international release.
In the 1950s, AK-47 fell into Chinese hands and in 1956 out came a deadlier, slightly big ger and a little heavier version. From the Chinese cottage factories, the AK-56 followed the route of global conflicts, going to all hotspots and screaming as thousands of men dropped dead. It has left a long trail of blood — from Vietnam’s dense forests to Africa’s famished lands to Afghanistan’s hungry dustbowls to Iraq’s bloody alleys.
Cold-blooded killers love it. It’s light and it never fails. It never breaks down. It’s easy to use: fix the magazine, release the latch, press the trigger and spray it like perfume. It kills in big numbers. It’s called an assault rifle. It’s not meant to defend yourself. Today, apart from the many armies of the world, it’s the favourite gun of the murderous gangs roaming the streets of Baghdad, the drug-fuelled traffickers in Rio’s favelas, the confused and crazy child-soldiers in Chad and Sudan, the band of killers calling the shots in Kandahar, and the pack of pirates running a reign of terror in the Indian Ocean, just off the African coast.
When a man holds an AK-56 assault rifle in his hands, he knows what he is going to do with it. So, when a man living in a plush house in a posh neighbourhood in a big city wants to keep the gun at his home as a trophy of his manhood, he is not being gullible. He knows what he is doing. An assault rifle, even in a closet, is death waiting for an opportunity, a moment of intoxicated madness. Just listen to the echoes in a palace in Kathmandu, or some schools in America.
In the last six decades, 100 million pieces of Kalishnakovs have been sold. It has created a Rambo culture where you fire the gun before you shoot off your mouth. The Kalashnikov, which costs just $ 50 in some places, has been called the “Coca-Cola of small arms”.
After 60 years of fame for making this killing machine, Mikhail Kalashnikov says his conscience is clear and he sleeps well at night. He made this gun to fight the Nazis. Maybe he slips into sleep listening to John Lennon’s ‘Happiness is a warm gun’. But, every day, someone, somewhere in a dark corner of the world is being shaken out of his sweet dreams by a hail of bullets flowing from a magic machine.

Bamboo; new raw material for construction crazy Bangaloreans

Soaring prices, crunch of construction materials like cement, sand and bricks and increased concern over eco-friendly homes, have made people to mull alternatives for building construction in near future. Fly ash bricks, mud bricks seem to be passe with the engineers and architects and use of bamboo for both commercial and domestic construction seem to be next option for Bangaloreans.
Besides elegant style and cost, energy sufficiency and greener technology seem to be fast catching up with many city people. Neelam Manjunath, renowned architect from Centre for Green Building Materials and Technology, Bangalore “The idea is not new and has been with us since many years. But none of us have given it a clear thought on how to use it for construction. It is both cost effective and eco-friendly and durable than the common constructions.”
Bamboo, as construction material, caught the bangaloreans attention only a few years back. “We all love to stay in resorts and huts of bamboo either on beach sides or in jungles. The same technology is now being utilised for domestic and commercial construction,” says Dhananjay, building contractor from Bangalore. “Still many are preoccupied with some misconceptions and prefer bamboo only at a few levels and not in its entirety. Currently we have been using bamboos to embellish outer structures like parapet, railings, cupboards, shelves and doors. Very few are opting for the full use of bamboos in the place of other materials,” explains Dhananjay.
Meantime, with an effort to create awareness among public Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited has set up energy park at the premises of the Indira Gandhi Musical fountain garden. The park besides showcasing energy production by harnessing solar energy also accommodates a house completely made of bamboo. From wall panels to roof and other accessories, the entire house is made of bamboo and the structure has been a testimony to the fact that bamboo too can withstand the catastrophes of nature like heavy rains, winds. The house also has the plumbing work, furnished accessories made from bamboo.
“People are in dilemma over the use of bamboo as it is new. We are not using neither the raw or bamboo straight from the forest. Instead, it will be processed according to the standards and only after withstanding all tests, it us used in construction. North East region known for heavy rains also has the highest density of bamboo houses in the country. So there is no question of bamboo affected due to heavy rains. The cost of the structure varies according to the size but fits within Rs two lakhs to seven lakhs for a decent house on 30X40 site. But it depends on the owner and requirements at the house,” explains Neelam Manjunath.

Further, the Horticulture department too appear to be realising the importance of bamboo in construction. The department has put up a mammoth rest house cum ticket centre for the visitors at the heart of the park. A recent summit on the green building technologies in Bangalore has also highlighted the use of Bamboo as an alternative for available resources. Leading architects like Jaisim, Ravindra Bhan have been the flag bearers in making the new material a success among people.
Neelam Manjunath, who has won National award for her innovation in Bamboo based technology says, “Even the government is keen in implementing in its projects. We are experimenting with it during the upcoming Hudco project near Channapatna. Besides I have been working on projects in Electronic City, Hebbal and Whitefield area by using bamboo and other green technology as against the conventional methods.”
Bamboo can be procured from the State Forest Department in the notified areas such as Shimoga, Mysore, Belgaum, Kodagu, Kanara and Bellary. According to the official notification by the department, hundred sticks of big bamboo would cost Rs 1000 to 1300 and hundred sticks of small bamboo can vary from Rs 500 to 800.