Dehradun, April 4
A short programme broadcast on community radio “Heval Vani” about the
water problems in Jugad village in Tehri managed to stir the comatose Jal
Nigam into action.

Villagers facing acute water shortage for the last several months accomplished their mission by raising their voice through community radio (CR).

As Chitra Rawat takes her place at the Bhanaj radio station ready with her report on the day-to-day health problems of hill women, back home, her mother and other siblings listen to her report on the DOTS programme on the radio.

She is a young reporter collecting stories for “Mandakani Ki Awaz” in Bhanaj in
Rudraprayag district.

What makes her work meaningful is that she gets instant response from her society who now look to her to find solutions to their daily problems.

In the hills of Uttarakhand, community radio is giving voice to the voiceless and
empowering them.

Villagers are slowly realizing that CR can be a powerful tool of information. Not
only is it responsible for bringing behavioural change but is also becoming a real
voice of the people.

The huge popularity of CR has also dazzled politicians, who in the election year, want to use it to their advantage.

“It has caught the fancy of politicians who are coming in with their requests and for airing their views. Thankfully, CR cannot be used for political messages and we are happy with that,” said Darmiyan Rana, station manager of “Heval Vani” at Chamba.

Their programme ‘Hamara Gaon’ and another programme for the youth, which is broadcast on ‘World Space’ is quite popular among villagers.

A collaborative effort of social groups and communities “Heval Vani” at Chamba and “Mandakani Ki Awaz” in Bhanaj village in Rudraprayag were set up as community radios in 2004.

They were established with technical support and training from Ideosync media, an organisation that provided technical support and know-how to village communities.

The programme is supported by Plan India. In fact, UNESCO has developed a low-cost radio-in-a-box that can be quickly and easily deployed.

“Though we are awaiting licences but our efforts are bearing fruit. CR enterprise is democratising communication. It is very cost effective. The service is akin to building a house and one can have as many rooms as one wants. But the cost of setting up the apparatus is between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh,” said N Rama Krishan heading the Ideosyncmedia organisation.

The CR venture has been extremely successful in the hills where there is no
dearth of issues.

The man behind “Mandakani Ki Awaz” Manvendra Negi said that it can be used to solve people’s problems.

“In the hills, our voice seldom reaches the political masters. CR is doing a great job in making heard loud and clear the villagers’ opinion,” said Negi.

“Our issues are village specific aimed at solving social and cultural problems. At the local level, broadcasting is done using loudspeakers in villagers or local cable network. The content is in local dialects,” said Manvender Negi, station manager ‘Mandakani Ki Awaz’ that is aired on World Space Radio in the morning and at night.

After the Central government allowed educational institutions, NGOs and community-based groups to set up and run low-powered community stations covering a range of 5-10 km in 2006, it has paved the way for a revolution in the communication-starved hill districts.

The Central government can make provision for 50,000 frequencies for CR but as of now, it has set aside 4,000 frequencies only. In fact, suitcase radios are very popular as they are easy to operate and handle.

Though buoyed with the efforts of the government, experts say that the potential of CR may not be realised fully in the absence of a national policy.

“As of today, the Government of India does not have a national policy on electronic media. Broadcasting services can be used for education and rehabilitation of handicapped people. For long, we have ignored the utility of radio. It is time we moved in this direction,” said Sunil Kainthola, a social activist.

In his paper, John Gideon, sound recordist at National Institute for Visually Handicapped (NIVH) and a votary for using media in disseminating education, said, “A number of studies confirm the superiority of audio media.”

As early as 1956, UNESCO co-operated with the Government of India in organising a radio farm forum pilot project in some 150 villages in Maharashtra.

Dehradun, April 4
Goral, a wild Himalayan goat, in Chenab valley, falling between protected areas of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary and Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in Chamoli district, could be under threat due to livestock grazing and associated disturbances.

A study entitled - ‘Abundance, Group Sizes and Habitat Use Patterns of Himalyaan tahr and goral in Chenab Valley in the Chamoli district’ conducted by Wildlife Institute of India scientists S Sathyakumar and T Bhattacharya has revealed the livestock grazing threat to the wild goat.

In the months of April and May, villagers take their livestock prominently sheep and goat for grazing up in the alpine regions of the valley and adjacent areas.

A total of livestock population of 5,000 animals was found in the region during the period of study that was found indulging in rampant grazing practices in the valley.

The worst affected has been the goral habitat as the middle and relatively low altitudes are frequently used by the livestock.

This has the potential to pose a serious threat to the Himalayan goral due to
habitat degradation.

Apart from camping, the day visits to these mid altitude grazing lands by livestock supervised by one person proves fatal.

“With present levels of livestock grazing and associated disturbances this goral habitat may pose a threat in the near future,” Dr Satyakumar points out.

Dr Satyakumar finds Chenab valley quite significant in terms of conservation potential of goral as the region despite lying outside the protected areas network offers habitat contiguity and consequently movement of animal populations.

Systematic field surveys, transect walks and scan counts were carried out in the valley and Urugam reserve forests.

The surveys were conducted during March-April 2005, to collect information on
the abundance, group sizes, sex rations and habitat utlisation patterns of both
Himalayan tahr and goral.

Haridwar, April 4
Uttarkhand has got its first Cosmology Department which was inaugurated on
April 2, the day many years ago, when India’s first space man Dr Rakesh Sharma
went to space.

The Dev Sankriti University (DSVV) here is attempting a confluence of Vedic
values and modern technology with the opening of the Cosmology Department
on the university campus.

The university is of the view that science and spirituality are not contrary to but associated with each other. Even though a lot of study has been done on the cosmos yet there is much more to know.

About the opening of the department at Aryabhatt Bhawan, Chancellor of Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, Dr Pranav Pandya, said that DSVV took the initiative to fulfil the requirement of higher studies and research work in space research in northern India by opening the Cosmology Department.

“Cosmology unites science and spirituality. The invisible is more powerful than the visible. Spirituality begins where science ends,” said Dr Pandya.

The university will take help of MPH Laboratory of Nainital which is the premier laboratory in cosmology in India.

Scholar of physics Prof BP Shukla will be the head of the department while Shambhvi Mishra will be the coordinator.

Rakesh Verma, Piyush Trivedi and Dr Arti Verma have been appointed assistants. A huge telescope has been installed for training the students.

Prof Shukla said, “The department will initiate research work wherein MSc students with subjects of physics, maths and astro-physics will be admitted.

“MSc and diploma courses will be started later and students will get placement after finishing their studies in various programmes running all over the world.”

Vice-Chancellor Dr SP Mishra said that preliminary study of the subject has already been incorporated in graduate courses. Research work will now be taken up.

For additional inputs, Dr Marcus Smikhe of Germany has been approached by the university for pursuing PhD from the university, which will be the first PhD in Cosmology from Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya.

Dr RP Karmyogi, registrar, Prof OP Mishra, dean, and all department heads, teachers and students of the university were present at the inauguration.

Dehradun, April 4
With the arrival of scorching summer arrives a variety of ice creams and beverages. A large number of people is thronging to the ice-cream parlours to beat the heat.

Narulas ice creams are a must try. "Since Narulas has created a niche in the market of ice creams, people love to binge on them. Hot chocolate fudge remains the number one choice, vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and nuts is available in single, double and triple scoop," said Sandeep Bhatt, manager Narulas.

With ice-creams, shakes, ice-cream sodas and slushes are also a perfect option to sip and lighten up.

"We have almost 21 flavours of ice creams. Ice-creams sodas, lime ice soda with lots of citrus juice is good for summers. Thandai was the flavour of March and for April our flavour is named after the IPL team of Delhi," said Yugveer Singh, team member at Narulas.

Baskin and Robbins another high-end ice-cream parlour is serving lots of variety in ice creams, shakes and sodas.

Old and famous ice-cream shops in Paltan Bazaar serve lip-smacking softies. Indian ice cream kulfi is one of the most favourite items in the city.

Kumar sweet shop, the old famous sweet shop in the city, is a one-stop destination for authentic faluda kulfi.

“It has been almost 40 years to our business and our faluda ice cream is loved by everyone," said Ramesh Kumar, owner Kumar sweet shop.