http://www.shelfari.com/o1516947822
janwar aur insan
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Rain harvesting system in our small house
We have managed to install a rain harvesting tank in our house in NOIDA.
Whew!!!! Quite a task that was. We took consultation from the Centre of Science and Environment , New Delhi that was superb.Unfortunately the whole idea of rain harvesting is unknown in Noida. People confuse it with digging a bore well.
It comprises of digging out a big pit that would become your tank later on, rerouting all the rainwater that falls in your house to the tank, and directing this water deep down under your house so that it ultimately recharges the water table underneath.
We started with getting a proper rainharvesting system drawn by MR. Salahuddin Saiphy of CSE who studied our house architecture map and designed the system according to the amount of rain it would catch.
Searched for a bore well digging company. Got our boring done ,150 ft deep for a 210 sq m house.Fitted our harvesting pipes, two of them being slotted and one plain pipe.THen got the digging done of a pit 6 by 4 by 4 ft by two diggers. Whew!!! THey dug it up diagonally so that the pit's depth had to be brought down to less than five and a half feet while bricklining it. Got the tank inlaid with concrete.
Meanwhile routed our rainwater pipes towards this tank and closed down the original rain water drain.Got the tank top made with concrete and got it fitted with a 2ft by 2 ft lid to go down into the tank in future years.WHat we forgot was to cut an overflow pipe from the tank and join it to the main rain drain outside our house. ANd then it began to rain. It rained and rained and rained and our tank got filled with our roof top water gushing into it like a jharna.My heart began to race as the water began to spill out of the tank and started filling up into the small patch of a garden in our house. I panicked and called the CSE. Salahuddin Sir pointed out that this was impossible unless I had not fitted the outlet pipe in the tank and joined it to the rain drain.
It was specially satisfying to see the water go down wthin half an hour of the rain into the earth. We had saved some water. I called two plumbers the next day and they cut and fit a pipe from the tank to the rain drain. And now it works alright.
I have been wondering since a long time that why do I always choose to travel in ordinary rattling buses and sleeper class trains and not AC buses, Coaches or Taxis. The answer is easy to find. Theformer are far more lively and have greater courtesy and humaneness in them.
A woman boarding a bus, struggling to lift a baby carriage, is apt to be quickly aided by another passenger were she in travelling sleeper class or by the ordinary bus
Bus riders, seeing people behind running for the bus as it pulls away, call out and ask the driver to wait, stop, as they empathize with the person running desperate to make it. Train riders quickly extend a hand to hold the runners luggage as another pulls him up.
The rest of us don't mind the wait; we've all been that person running. We don't heckle or complain when the bus waits for a runner; we nod, relieved, silently cheering when the person bounds breathless up the bus steps. We chat with one another, tell jokes, respect one another's silence. We commiserate, compare notes, smile at one another's children and join in the informal chats. Even when we annoy one another, we rise above our own irritation.
But something happens when people drive; a sense of entitlement takes over as the driver talks on his cell phone and drives through the red light . A sense of self-importance takes hold of the driver as his QUALIS rushes to overtake in the wrong lane, indifferent to the harm his actions may cause. .
Are bus and train riders kinder people than car drivers? Or do they become just as impatient and self-centered when they themselves drive? What is at play here? Is it the isolating nature of driving a car, where the illusion of sovereignty obtains? Is it fear of some kind that pushes drivers to ignore laws and show contempt for the safety and the well-being of others? And, if so, is this a fear of losing their place on the road – or a deeper fear of losing their place in the social order?
Our car culture has been destroying us since it began: destroying our environment, destroying our sense of community, splintering our cities, desecrating our countryside. Riding the bus seems to restore something inside of us.It makes us more tolerant of others and gentler. We are becoming much quicker to loose temper, to snub others, to be arrogant as we are acquiring more amenities and luxuries.
The educated middle class feels a little inferior if they have to use the local bus. Even
passing by car riders look piteously at bus riders as if they were a poorer stock. Today many people do not want to disclose that they have been using the local bus for fear of being pitied.
No matter how fast we drive, or how many places we go, or how much we pride ourselves on our swanky cars, what we really need from one another is some courtesy and warmth. Without these, we become furious and lonely. Without these, we are cold and alone in a world that hears us no more than we hear the world. Besides, Cars today have been found to be the largest contributors to Global Warming.
1.Get involved in the environment in your own neighbourhood. Acquaint yourself with the trees of your neighbouring park and look after some of them by putting manure in them once or twice ayear. Get yourColony's Welfare Committee to recognise the efforts of the local gardener of the park
2.Tell your carwash man not to wash your car with a hose pipe but use lesser water.Similarly tell your maid not to wash the driveway but mop it instead.
3. Leaving open the tap as you brush.... , taps and faucets spout about five litres of water per minute.
4.Save water with powder dettergents and soap bars. Liquid dish washing soaps consume much more water as they are more dificult to wash off.
5.Open the fridge door less frequently and for shorter durations to conserve energy.
6. Install a rain water harvesting system above your house.This way you will recharge your water table that your motor draws water from everyday.The Centre for Environment Studies , Delhi gives very good free consultancy on this.I have approached them for a rain harvest system on our 210sq. metre Noida house.
7. Adopt an animal or a pet. We recently adopted a bear cub of the WIldlife SOS based in Delhi. It was my son's birthday and what better way to fulfill it than by donating. We have been given visitng rights.
8. Raise Awareness by just participating in polls related to green issues.Many of you must have taken part in the NDTV's " save the tiger " campaign.
Keep going.
9. DO away with your yellow light bulb, it is no longer an eco-friendly idea. Replacing 3 frequently used light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs will save approximately 300 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year .Greenpeace, a global organisation fighting for environment, Wednesday launched an all-India campaign aimed at replacing the energy inefficient bulb with better alternatives.
As part of the campaign, the body started a signature drive to collect a million signs on a petition to the central government to ban inefficient light bulbs in the country by the year 2010.
Arguing for compact fluorescent lights (CFL), Greenpeace India said: "By replacing ordinary bulbs with CFL, we can reduce India's carbon dioxide emission by 55 million tonnes annually as well as save nearly 12,000 MW of power
10. Gift plants or tree saplings on occassions.
If there is a birthday or anniversary in your family why not give an everlasting fresh gift of greenery.
11. FLush down lesser water down your tank.
If you fill a one litre plastic bottle with water, close it tight and put it into your tank, everytime you flush, you will save a litre of water.
I do not ocnsider us to be good people in that we are too busy with our lives, politics, cricket, style and good living. IF required to do or donate even a little bit, we at once remind ourselves of being "middle class" and already having enough problems of our own.
I consider myself to be extremely selfish and unsophisticated in this matter.I confess to what I did not do so far as my bit towards my community and country.
1. I am not active in our Residents' Welfare Association and do not care to pay up anything to them. 2. Apart from some backbiting with morning walkers about the illegal cutting of trees around a big park in my neighbourhood, I did not approach anybody with a proper grievance. 3. Because of having been forced to change a lot of houses I havent voted in the last fifteen years. 4. I havent changed all my incandescent light bulbs so far to CFLs 5. 6. 7. I will keep adding as I remember. Here is what little I did. 1.Took a dying dog to an animal hospital(1996), sought the help of a labourer to bury our neighbourhood dog(1989), changed three of my yellow bulbs(2007), 2.Encouraged an elderly neighbour of ours that stood up and did not let the gardening deptt cut eight neem trees of our neighbourhood park calling them his own " YEH HAMARE NEEM HAI" ,he siad. He thereby saved a lane from being treeless. 3. Adopted a rescued bear cub on my son's birthday.DOnated to the WPSI (Wildlife Protection Society of India) on a death anniversary.If you give Rs.500 to them,or WWF India, they give you back gifts of Rs400 to you.... 4. Planted four gulmohur trees near our house in July 2008. 5. Have begun to pay regularly towards our Residential Welfare Association and speak ONLY encouraging words to them or about them.
A female Indian rhino and her calf have were killed for their horns in Kaziranga National Park, India The female survived for 35 hours after the attack, but slowly bled to death after her horn was sawn off and shot twice by poachers.
The region's rhinos had recently featured in the BBC's natural history series Saving Planet Earth.
Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, from Aaranyak, a conservation charity based in India, told BBC News: "The vet tried to save her but it was not possible. "It is the first time I have seen a rhino struggle to survive for 35 hours after having their horn sawn off."
The attack took place under the cover of darkness on 19 January. The next morning the female was found in a critical condition. She struggled to survive until 21 January.
Animal ambassador David Shepherd said: "Can man, the most lethal animal on the planet, sink any lower in depravity just to make money?
"In 50 years of conservation, I have seldom seen such a sickening example of wildlife abuse
Increased poaching
Mr Shepherd is the founder of the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF), which supports Aaranyak in its mission to protect the Indian one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) in KazirangaNational Park.
Melanie Shepherd, from the DSWF, suggests poaching has escalated in the region as the market for rhino ivory has increased in China, for use in traditional Chinese medicine and because the location of KazirangaNational Park makes it particularly vulnerable and difficult to patrol.
The park is situated in the far eastern state of Assam, close to the Chinese border.
"KazirangaNational Park is a key pivotal area. Assam is on the doorstep of the consumer market. It is easy for poachers to get across the border and then into China, Thailand, and Myanmar. The park is an obvious target," she says.
Another problem is that the Bhamaputra river makes up the Northern park boundary and is currently exploited by poachers to gain access to the park, especially in the monsoon season.
However, it is hoped a patrol boat, funded by a £62,000 donation from the BBC Wildlife Fund after Kaziranga's rhinos were featured on the BBC's Saving Planet Earth series, will help provide extra reinforcement to this problem.
The money is also going towards the ongoing project, started in 1995, of equipping the 400 park rangers with radios so they can report poaching incidents and call for reinforcements.
The conflict between rangers and poachers has claimed the lives of 60 people over the past 20 years.
Ms Shepherd says: "Bibhab and his team do the most amazing work fighting against sophisticated, well-armed, criminal gangs.
"Despite losses, including his second in command who was killed in action, they never give up. The Indian rhino's future lies in their hands and we must continue to support them."
The world population of one-horned Indian rhino is estimated to be 2,500 animals, three-quarters of these are found in KazirangaNational Park. The species was once found throughout the northern Indian sub-continent, but can now only be found in India and Nepal.
Rhino horn, kilo-for-kilo, is five times more valuable than gold
Rhino Killings: The Inside Story
And here is the inside story by Teresa Rehman on these deaths.
A former poacher in Kaziranga reveals why the animal is being increasingly hunted
TERESA REHMAN Kaziranga, Assam
A RARE SUCCESS story in India's wildlife conservation record, Assam's KazirangaNational Park, home to the one-horned Asiatic Rhinoceros and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is struggling to come to grips with a spurt in rhino killings. Twenty rhinos were poached last year, 14 of them inside the national park and the rest in areas just outside the sanctuary. The forest department has come up with the usual excuses of being understaffed and under-equipped, but the retrenchment of casual workers in the park by the previous Prafulla Kumar Mahanta regime, leaving scores without livelihood and angry at the government apathy, has also played its damaging part.
One of those dismissed workers was Golap Patgiri. Employed informally by the forest department since 10 years, Patgiri's monthly earnings of Rs 1,500 suddenly ran dry. "We used to do everything, from patrolling to cutting grass. We assisted the permanent staff in almost everything. I had once caught a poacher red-handed," he says. Suddenly jobless, Patgiri found himself under pressure to join the ranks of the very people he had once battled, the poachers.
All of a sudden there was nothing to do and there was a family to look after. It was difficult to go back to our village and begin farming. As it is our village is ravaged by annual floods and the crops are destroyed by stray rhinos and buffalos," rues Patgiri. Despite belonging to one of the village's affluent families, nobody was ready to engage him even as a daily wage labourer. "People used to ask us instead if we had a job for them," he says.
On the fringes of the 900-sq km sanctuary is a small hamlet known as "Shikari Gaon". Infamous as a breeding ground of poachers till not long ago, the village is now home to many surrendered poachers, some of whom work as informers for the forest department. Patgiri is one such "reformed" outlaw, and besides helping forest officials with information, he works as an activist for a local NGO named "Dagrob – Eco-tourism and Eco-development Society". The Wildlife Trust of India has promised to help him set up a shop. Dagrob means the "rising sun" and Patgiri and his fellow villagers are keen to make a new beginning. One of Dagrob's main activities is creating awareness against poaching. Another is a campaign for economic empowerment of women through building a cottage weaving industry. The NGO North East Social Trust is assisting Dagrob in this endeavour.
Patgiri has one case of poaching still pending against him, and he has to face the wrath of forest department officials whenever a poaching incident takes place. In Dhoba Ati Beloguri, Patgiri's native village, his elder brother Holiram Patgiri, a former CPI-ML activist, joins us. Pointing to his thatched house, he laughs, "Can you believe it? We are just about 3 km from Bokakhat town, yet we have no electricity or water supply. The only saving grace is a primary school with a single teacher who caters to 115 students."
How did his village, inhabited by people from the Mishing tribe, come to acquire the infamous epithet Shikari Gaon? Holiram says that the government used to grant gun licences to villagers living close to the forest to protect themselves from wild animals. The villagers were later asked to surrender the guns when militancy broke out in the region.
MANY OF the villagers had single and double barrel rifles. In fact, owning land, elephants, buffalo and a gun were status symbols in our villages," Holiram says. "Most of our men were ace hunters and hunting a pig or a hare was considered sacred during the festivals. But the rhino was never our target."
Holiram says many of the poor villagers were lured into assisting the poachers who came from Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. "These poachers came with sophisticated weapons but could not operate without a guide who knew the ins and outs of the forest," he says.
There was a time when 15 such local "poachers" had surrendered and the forest department had promised to pay them Rs 500 per month. Explains wildlife activist Uttam Saikia, who is also the honorary wildlife warden of Golaghat district, "But gradually the payment stopped and the officers stopped bothering. There should be proper rehabilitation packages for the reformed poachers like they have for the surrendered militants in Assam."
An angry Holiram says the forest department's claim of being short-staffed is a lie. "If they are understaffed, why did they fire those casual workers? Our boys grew up among the wild animals in the forest. They can be much better guards. Most of the present guards are so old they can barely hear or see," he says.
Wildlife expert Bibabh Talukdar says community participation is imperative for dealing with poaching. "The government should accord the highest priority to strengthening intelligence. The illegal wildlife trade in Kaziranga is the second highest in the country in terms of volume. If for Rs 10,000 the villagers are helping the poachers the government should pay them Rs 20,000 to help nab the poachers," he says.
Guwahati, Feb 26 (ANI): 61 poachers surrender in Assam February 26th, 2008 - 2:44 pm
Sixty-one poachers have surrendered before wildlife authorities at the Manas National Park in Assam. They deposited 26 country-made weapons before the Deputy Chief of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), Kampa Borgoyari, at the Bansbari range of the park in Baksa District. This is the second biggest surrender of poachers in the National Park during the last two years. In 2006, over 130 poachers had surrendered before the authorities. Borgoyari said the reformed poachers would be rehabilitated. Located on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, the Manas National Park has a core area of 500 square km and was declared a national park in 1990. It straddles Baksa and Chirang districts, both now administered by the BTC. A section of the park stretches beyond the Indo-Bhutan border, where it is known as the Royal Manas National Park. Almost the entire rhino population of Manas was wiped out by poachers and militants, prompting UNESCO to downgrade the parks status to that of a World Heritage Site in Danger. As many as 64 rhinos were killed for their horns between 1980 and 1995. Sustained conservation initiatives over the past few years have rejuvenated the park, but poaching remains a problem.
The park, famous for its tiger, elephant and rhino population, is likely to regain its past glory with the newly constituted BTC taking keen interest on conservation efforts. Meanwhile, the conservationists are expecting the possibility of the wildlife habitat getting back the World Heritage Site tag that it lost because of poaching. (ANI)
A countrymade gun and a tortoise shell recovered during an operation at Manas reserve forest in Chirang
Jan. 31: Antlers, box turtles, venison, dry fungus — you name it, they had it.
An operation conducted by personnel of the Chirang division of Manas reserve forest, members of the Bodoland Territorial Council and those of an NGO on Tuesday yielded an array of wildlife products just before these were to be smuggled out.
Based on information about the poachers' plan, the team reached their hideout 20km inside the forest and seized the items.
There were as many as 32 pairs of antlers, three box turtles, 60kg of venison, a deer carcass, dry fungus and a gun with 30 rounds of ammunition in the hideout.
Lakhan Mushahary, a poacher, was caught red-handed.
"There is little doubt that hunting, especially that of deer, continues unabated," the divisional forest officer of Chirang, B.N. Patiri, said.
The deputy chief of the BTC, Kampa Borgoyary, later stressed the need for better vigilance on forests.
Thursday 30.6.2005, Indian police have arrested a notorious wildlife smuggler who is wanted in several cases of poaching.
Police in the Indian capital, Delhi, say they arrested Sansar Chand after an intensive manhunt by crime branch detectives which lasted months.
He was sentenced to five years imprisonment by a court in Rajasthan in 2004 for smuggling two leopard skins.
But Sansar Chand was released on bail three months later. He has been on the run since. %
"Please a little respect, for I am Costanza, lord of the idiots"
Not only that I am new to blogging I have now come to realize that a community of ideas shared regularly can build valuable fellowship but also sometimes bring about a change in things or life or lifestyles around us.I know many of you who pass by will find this one not a showoff able blog but the essence of sharing your ideas is actually to meet like minded people with similar interests.
HEre are my attempts at learning to blog.
Dear Hemant, I am new to blogging . Couldnt find your page on Corbat errrr... Jim Corbett. THanks a lot for the precise answer.My trip to Dehradoon from Rampur stands cancelled as the distance is just too much for us to continue from Rampur further at one go. I must say you are an enlightened candidate and not aDUFFER MUMMMMMY TYPE OF A BLOGGER like me.
Hi Roopa,
I have updated your comment on my blog under Jim Corbett. But do visit Jim Corbett whenever time permits you. Hey!! Thanks for all your comments. Everyone is new when we start doing things for first time. What say!! Do let me know about your blog. Will surely visit and drop my footprints on it.Would love to read enlightened writeups by an enlightened Mummy.
It is great interacting with you. Thank you so much.
We are planning to go to Corbett this March. I wonder whether it Is absolutely necessary to have your own transport there as we are thinking of catching a train from delhi.Anyone with sure knowledge about whether transport for moving in the park can be easily hired or not fron outside the park
Today ,is 4th of April and we have been to Jim Corbett,,
Not only was the park and its facilities very good , we managed to see quite a few animals there , mainly herds of wild elephants. tiger, the hornbill, a monitor lizard, blossom headed parrots, the black drongo, the green bee eater, different varieties of trees , and TOO MANY PEOPLE.
Corbett is too popular a park ,Since it is half a day's drive from Delhi, it gets very crowded especially on weekends.But ecotourism has also given it great rooms and room service, open jeeps to enjoy the safaris and readily available cooked food in deep woods canteens.Its proximity to Nainital, a popular lake resort tow in Uttranchal also drives hordes of people to stop by for a day's pass into the woods.
It is quite heartening that common people need to get a permit to visit our national parks otherwise left to the mercy of our foraging hungry population, the woods would be felled in a day and the animals poached with in hours.
The Ramganga river is a biggish tributary of the Kosi River that enlivens up Corbett.
I saw an interesting book by the name of " Carpet Sahib" on display there.
For those interested in going there, From Delhi you can take a train Ranikhet express,upto Ramnagar, and Not RAMPUR that we did. It is the best to go by the Corbett Link express or Ranikhet exp that takes you upto Ramnagar,It leaves Delhi at 10 at night and reaches Ramnagar at 5 AM . Upon reaching if you have a booking already it is good as on the spot reservatons in the Forest rest houses seems difficult. It is advisable to hire your own open jeep per day @1600 a day and roam in the forest.THey have canters too that can house upto 25-30 people there but they are too big to go deeper into the woods.
Local guides are very helpful and eager to get business and do their very best for you.It is very safe for a woman to travel by herself there considering that I and my son ,14, stayed 3 nights there on our own and enjoyed ourselves a lot. It was good to see tourists from Kolkata, Mumbai, as well as foreigners out there.THe Dhikala and the BIjrani Zones have Canteen facilities too and the hassle of cooking yourself is taken away.
As quoted by many tourists, early morning time is the best time. Oh!! we saw biiiiiig wild elephants calmly munching on trees though alarmed about us.For those interested in going to Corbett,
Ramnagar is a small town near Jim Corbett Park. Delhi Ramnagar is approx.291 kms. Try to visit the park in the early morning. It's dividied into 3 zones: 1]buffer, 2] Tourist 3) Core jungle zone.
You will not be allowed to enter the Core zone. Early morning you will see plenty of birds, deers.. Tiger is rarely visible. But do carry your camera. It's a very beautiful place to capture in camera. You will get the forest tourist jeep for the park. Early morning visit is the best visit for the park. You need to book for the private jeep or vehicle from Delhi/Dehradun to go till Jim Corbet. Visitors are not allowed to take private or personal vehicles inside the forest area. You need to do the booking for the forest jeep with the forest department at Corbet. I would suggest do the booking of the forest jeep in the evening and next day morning you can go for the forest ride in the forest department jeep.
roopa esther,noida,says:Dear Arun nayak, I am one of your types who feels very helpless about wanting to do something for our animals and being unable to do anything. But a no. of people, ie. NGOs etc. are trying their best. To name a few:
1.The Wild life Protection Society of India, is doing a great job. It has teams that catch poachers as well las a no. of projects on tiger saving. It was instumental in getting the Dalai lama to save Tibetans off animal skins and you can watch a great video of a mountain of tiger skins being burnt by tibetans at his address.It has also filed a large no of cases in courts for turning out roads and railways from reserve forests.
2. Wildlife SOS.org has bought land on Delhi Agra highway to rehabilitate bears and is chipping elephants of Delhi roads for round the year foot blister checkups.
3.PETA India has a petiiton site that conducts poll surveys on wildlife issues and forwards them to the concerned ministers. It has recently taken elephants off the cruel roads of Mumbai. You and me can do a lot. We can get PETA's petitions signed by a 100 people and post it to our respective chief ministers. Or we can volunteer with the large no of NGOs in our holidays or work partime with them.
14 Feb 2008, 1506 hrs IST
roopa esther,noi,says:Going by reports of WPSI, and first hand accounts, the poachers get away with it very easily. There is nothing that a meagre staff of an acres wide reserve can do. If only the state wildlife depts understood how easy it is to protect the animal by deputing more guards with better equipment and walkie talkies at least to report any anomaly at once, it wouldnt have been such a sad story.
THIS IS GOING TO BE THE MOST CUTTING PART OF THIS BLOG.
THE FOLLOWING ARE NEWS CLIPPINGS AND IMAGES FROM THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Wildlife Trade Booming in BurmeseCasinoTown
Preserved animal parts, including a tiger's paw and penis used in traditional medicines, are displayed at a market in Chengdu, China, in an undated photograph.
Authorities in China recently began a crackdown on illegal sale of wildlife products—including tiger bone and elephant ivory—on Internet auction sites. The moves follow pressure from two conservation groups that found hundreds of online ads for banned goods in 2007 investigations.
A large male tiger skin is offered for sale in a private backroom in Möng La, a casino town near the border of Myanmar (Burma) and China, in this photograph taken in summer 2005.
Though recent crackdowns by Southeast Asian governments have thwarted some of the lucrative illegal wildlife trade, experts say, in this region many animal parts are still sold openly.
TIGER BONES
These bones from a male tiger—on sale in Möng La in northern Myanmar (Burma) in a photograph taken in summer 2005—will likely be used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The centuries-old practice relies on natural and herbal ingredients, and advocates tiger bone to treat joint ailments such as arthritis, according to the international conservation organization WWF and TRAFFIC, a wildlife-trad
"These bears are mostly used for meat and are electrocuted when a dealer comes along and buys a bear for a banquet in China," he said
February 28, 2008—A stall in Central Market in Möng La, on the border between Myanmar (Burma) and China, sells various dead wildlife, such as this bear (foreground), and skewers of unidentified meat in this undated photo.
Though a UN treaty and a recent agreement among Southeast Asian countries makes trade in some wildlife species illegal, open markets such as this one still thrive. (Read the full story.)
In this run-down casino town—part of an autonomous fiefdom run by a militia leader and alleged reformed drug lord—wildlife trade has replaced the drug and gambling industries as the one of the most lucrative economic activities in the region, observers say.
Market-goers can find everything from bear paws to tiger parts—evidence of a booming trade mostly fueled by nearby China's demand for animal parts for use in medicine and food delicacies. However, recent crackdowns by the government may slow the illegal business, experts say.
Wildlife photographer Karl Ammann has visited the region four times in the past 15 years, posing as a buyer.
"There were cages stacked on top of each other with captured animals: bears, macaques, small primates, pangolins, rare birds, all kinds of reptiles, and tables filled with butchered animals with bullet holes through their heads and their throats cut," Ammann said of his 2007 trip.
A BEAR BEING MILKED FOR ITS BILE. A CATHETER IS ATTACHED TO ITS STOMACH
Workers extract bear bile—"liquid gold"—from the gallbladder of a bear, most likely an Asiatic black bear, in Möng La in northern Myanmar in April 2006.
Bile is popular in traditional Chinese remedies and supposedly cures eye irritations, fevers, and liver problems.
Common to Asia, a wild Sambar deer is butchered for sale at Central Market in Möng La, in northern Myanmar (Burma), in this picture taken in April 2006.
Deer penises are sold in gift boxes in a store in Möng La in this January 2007 photo.
The genitalia are usually made into wine or soup to supposedly restore virility and improve weak kidneys, among other benefits. Elderly men often receive them as birthday presents, according to photographer Karl Ammann.
China Cracks Down on Illegal Online Wildlife Trade
Preserved animal parts, including a tiger's paw and penis used in traditional medicines, are displayed at a market in Chengdu, China, in an undated photograph.
Authorities in China recently began a crackdown on illegal sale of wildlife products—including tiger bone and elephant ivory—on Internet auction sites. The moves follow pressure from two conservation groups that found hundreds of online ads for banned goods in 2007 investigations
MOST OF SOUTH EAST ASIAN COUNTRIES FARM BEARS
THere is some conjecture in this news but it can be safely believed that most SE Asian countries have bear farmers where private people keep a bear captive in disgusting conditions and use syringes or catheters to extract bile juice from them . SOmetimes the bear dies within 10 years of sickness though its life expectancy in normal conditions is 30 or more.Here is today's news.
10.4.08 Vietnam news agency
First bear rescue centre First bear rescue centre and quarantine facility opens in vietnam
While it is legal to raise bears in Vietnam, the law forbids the sale of bear meat and bile, both of which are sold in a thriving black market. Many Vietnamese believe bear bile has medicinal benefits, and bear meat is served in underground restaurants.
Bear farmers often extract the bitter green bile from the bears' gall bladders with syringes, then sell it to customers who usually drink it mixed with a shot of rice wine, believing it cures eye, liver and other ailments.
Ending illegal bear farming is difficult because the use of bear bile is a deeply rooted tradition, said Nguyen Van Cuong, deputy director of Vietnam's Forest Protection Department.
April,14th 2008
I just got this news from WPSA website on bear farming.It says that there are many alternatives available in medicine to replace bear bile that are as effective.
Unnecessary Suffering
Bears are farmed - needlessly - for the bile contained in their gall bladders to be used in Traditional Asian Medicine. Effective herbal and synthetic alternatives to bear bile exist and are gaining support from Traditional Asian Medicine practitioners. They say alternatives are more effective and bear bile is unnecessary.
"We definitely do not have to use bear bile as it can be replaced by herbs."
I love travelling by train. Considering that there is a Yahoo Group by the name The Indian Railways Fan Club there must be many who love it too.
I would particularly like to share the musical talents of the following artists
'1. THe blind harmonium carrying singer on the Chandigarh Punjab circuit. He has been singing high piched numbers of Mohammed Rafi. I caught him singing about two years ago in Sector 17 Chandigarh, THosr who are familiar know it to be the highpoint of Chandigarh's life. He was singing
"Basti basti parbat parbat gaat jaye banjara le kar apna iktara"
long time ago you could hear him tunefully singing numbers like
" Keh do koi na kare yahaan pyaar isme khushiyan hain kum beshumar hain gham "
HE was smart enough to belt forceful numbers like the following to help depressed unemployed boys to look romantically at their female companions in vast gardens and parks like the Pinjore Garden and Rose Garden of Chandigarh.
Zindabad. zindabad, Ai maohabbat zindabad, daulat ki zanzeeron se yeh, rehti hai azad
Now he has got older and so has his voice yet his arrival in the compartment and passengers begin digging their hands in their pockets for change
THen there are the child artists on the Ajmersharif circuit. THey are amazing as they are very tuneful and sing in groups of three at least where two give accompaniment with harmonium or rattlers for beat etc. Young men too sing qawwalis on this circuit. THank God for our Artists may they live in prosperity.
THere are also Eunuch artists that travel on these circuits. They are mostly dissappointing as they seem to bray and not sing. ANd they force passengers to pay up or else put up with their randy jokes. SOme passengers are delighted by them including me as I am also a Chhakki
Incidentally the govt. has given an official more dignified hindi name to them " KINNER"
