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Flight to extinction
 As
many as 88 species of Indian birds are severely endangered. Sounding a
red alert, Asad
R. Rahmani says it is time to take immediate steps to save them
As
far as bird diversity is concerned, India is a blessed country.
It has more than 1200 bird species, or over 13 per cent of the
world’s bird species. But India also has the unfortunate distinction
of being third among the countries having the largest number of rare
and threatened species. Only Brazil and Indonesia have more threatened
species of birds than us.
Back from the brink: The Spot-billed Pelican, which was considered ‘vulnerable’ in 2004, is now ‘near threatened’ as there has been considerable recovery in its population.
— Photo by writer
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Is anyone listening?
Colours
of Mt Abu
Chandan Sen
According
to a legend ‘Abu’ stands for the son of Himalaya,
deriving its name from Arbuda, the powerful serpent that
rescued Nandi, Shiva’s bull, when it was trapped in a
deep gorge and could not free itself. The place thus got famous as Mount
Arbud or Mt Abu as it is known now.
Navratilova’s
artful return
Arifa Akbar
For
a woman who dominated tennis for a quarter of a century and won
many grand slams, Martina Navratilova’s departure was but a natural
loss to the game when she announced her retirement from the sport in
2006. This summer Navratilova
hopes to make a comeback to Wimbledon, not to play tennis, but as one
half of an artistic duo.
Actors
in a different role
Derek
Bose checks out what is it about film direction that fascinates
so many actors
Aamir
Khan’s outburst soon after the release of Taare Zameen Par
best illustrates the agony and ecstasy of an actor making the
transition to film direction: "The past few months have been the
most exciting, nerve wrecking, exhausting, rejuvenating, draining,
enriching. I feel like I’ve been stuffed into a washing machine,
which doesn’t have an ‘off’ button.
Sameera’s
new avatar
Shoma A. Chatterji
You have come a long way since your debut in 2002 with Maine Dil
Tujhko Diya
I consider myself lucky
to have worked with the best directors in the industry. It has been an
uphill climb for all of us here, including Shah Rukh Khan. I have
worked with directors ranging from Sanjay Gupta through Ram Gopal
Varma to Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Aruna Raje. I worked with Mira Nair
for a short film Migration, which was screened at the Toronto
Film Festival in 2007.
Women
of substance
Nirmal Chandel, widowed at
23, was one of the 3,000 rural women from eight districts of Himachal
who walked to Shimla to hand over a charter of demands of single women
to the CM. She is now the state-level coordinator of Ekal Nari Shakti
Sangathan. Today over 6,000 single women of the state are part of the
organisation, writes Nirupama Dutt
I
would labour all day in the fields and often sleep there,
hoping for a snake bite that would put an end to my life,"
recalls Nirmal Chandel (44). Married at 18, this comely Rajput girl of
Sarkaghat in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh was widowed at 23 and
condemned to a life of unpaid labour and a colourless existence.
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