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Forest mafia does it again
Fever remedy found to have another use
Regional film industry is dying: Filmmakers
Finally, hope for women soccer
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Exams done, kids turn to favourite authors
Dehradun, March 17 As school exams got over, a large number of students are trying to keep themselves busy in recreational clubs or with interest books.
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Forest mafia does it again
Haridwar, March 17 The incident points to the illegal trade going on in the area.
Recently, nine teak trees were cut in the Motichur range of the Rajaji National Park area. The cost of one teak tree is more than Rs 60, 000 as per the current market rate. Officials say earlier too there had been attempts by smugglers to axe teal trees in the area. The manner in which the smugglers carry out their task has left the park authorities baffled. The spot where the trees were cut is just barely 100 metres from the Rishikesh-Dehradun national highway. What’s even more intriguing is that the Motichur range office and entry gate to the park is just 200 metres away. This has raised suspicion over possible nexus between poachers and forest employees. Uttarakhand chief conservator of forests RBS Rawat has ordered a high-level department inquiry into the matter. Chief wildlife warden Shrikant Chandola today visited the site with other forest officials. He said it seemed that the trees were cut during the Holi festival and the incident had come to light only on March 16. Interestingly, most of the trees cut were of
between 150cm and 200cm diameter and to carry such heavy logs of wood, several trucks must have been pressed into service by the smugglers. Yet none noticed either the trees being axed or these being transported. It is clear that there is much danger to the forest wealth. Earlier in 1994, two forest employees, Harpal Singh and Naresh, were killed by smugglers while on duty. They confronted the smugglers when they were illegally cutting the trees. They two employees were attacked and done to death by the smugglers. One of In 2004, again teak trees were cut, but no one was caught. Motichur range warden Gopeshwar Pandey, under whose area the smuggling occurred, tried to evade questions and said as an inquiry was on, he did not want to comment. However, he claimed that some clues had been found from the spot.
Rajaji National Park director SS Rasailly said various teams had been formed to nab the culprits. He did not deny the hand of some powerful forest mafia in the case. Apparently, all nine trees that were cut were big in size while the smaller ones were left untouched, indicating the intentions of the smugglers.
The incident has shocked the state government as well as forest authorities. The impunity with which the smugglers acted reminds one of the incident in 2001 when wildlife smugglers had killed six elephants in Jim Corbett National Park. It seems the forest department was once again in slumber when the forest wealth was being looted.
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Fever remedy found to have another use
Dehradun, March 17 This rare herb with immense medicinal properties has gained renewed importance with a scientist at a United Kingdom-based university finding it effective in controlling Type-2 diabetes. Dr Abdel Wahab, a senior lecturer of biomedical sciences at the University of Ulster, has discovered that the bark of Swertia Chirayita has properties which appear to stimulate insulin production and also improves its action. Swertia Chirayita, a temperate high-altitude plant, is found in stretches between Mandal and Chopta valleys and in pockets of Dhanolti, just above Mussoorie hills. The herb has held its ground in Nepal while in Uttarakhand, it is fast losing habitat due to landslides and infrastructure development activities like road construction. According to Dr Vijay Prasad Bhatt, scientist at the Herbal Research Development Institute, Gopeshwar, said Swertia Chirayita has been traditionally used in the Himalayan region as a remedy for malarial fever. He, however, admitted that till date, the cultivation of the herb has not been done in the state on a large scale so as to make it a viable product for companies and thus had little market value. Swertia Chirayita has also been a subject of study at the Forest Research Institute. The institute has been conducting surveys to identify locations in the state where the herb is found. Dr AK Sharma, scientist, FRI, said while all parts of the herb were important, its bitter taste could prove useful in curing diabetes.
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Regional film industry is dying: Filmmakers
Dehradun, March 17 Lack of initiative on part of the state government in framing a film policy is the “It has been eight years since the creation of the state, but except for formal announcements nothing has been done on the ground,” said Manoj Pangtey, director/producer, Parmarth Pictures. Addressing mediapersons today, Pangtey said there is no dearth of talent in Uttarakhand, but as the government does not have a clear-cut policy, film-makers are being deprived of any sort of assistance. “As film-making is a costly affair, several states are nurturing the regional film industry by offering subsidy and adopting proactive measures such as weekly screening of regional films. Here, we not only have to arrange our own finances, but also look for cinema halls to screen films,” said Pangtey. He said cinema halls in the state are in a poor condition and most of them have “The government has failed to use the taxes collected from cinema hall owners; the money could have been utilised for the improvement of halls” Pangtey added. Besides, regional film-makers have also not been able to penetrate a larger market as is the case with Bhojpuri
Films. “We still have not been able to find a good market for our films, mainly due to poor marketing skills. Several directors from the state have won acclaim for documentaries, but I think we need to make bilingual films in order to reach out to a wider market,” said Manju Sharma, another director associated with Parmarth Films. Meanwhile, film-makers associated with Parmarth Pictures have recommended a Film Festival to be held on a regular basis in the state. “This will provide young film-makers a platform to showcase low-budget films,” said Hari Datt Bhatt, chief advisor, Parmarth Pictures. He also suggested that a film institute should be set up in the state.
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Finally, hope for women soccer
This is being done with the aim to promote football among girls as well. The enthusiasm for the game was similar in girls as men but they never got any platform to showcase their talent. Therefore, in a bid to give them a platform to perform, Dehradun District Football Association has chalked out plans for the promotion of women football in the valley. Devender Bisht, secretary of District Football Association said: “There are hardly any football competition for girls here. Considering this we decided to promote it at the big scale. We had made a similar initiative two years back but it failed to start, as hardly any team came forward to participate in the tournament.” The association had then invited teams from different Dehradun schools and clubs to participate in the tournament. But they failed to respond to the invitations. “A few public schools, which were ready to promote football among girls, were not willing to take it beyond the inter-school level tournaments. But things have certainly changed as the involvement of the girls in the game has gone up in last two year,” said Bisht. The number of schools promoting the game has increased substantially that include Hopetown, Unison, Doon Global and few others. “At least 30 girls have started taking coaching at Vijay Cantt and Cantt Blues. Recently, Unison School had also organised a camp for boys and girls in which foreign coaches had imparted technical knowledge to the players. “The feedback, which we had received two years back, was not very encouraging. On our visit to few schools in Dehradun we found that the standard of football in girls was not good. “But in these two years there has been a considerable change in the standards of women football. We expect to see a good standard football tournament of girls in the city in the days to come,” said Bisht. Clubs like Cantt Blues has shown that they are working hard with girls to make the game popular among them. The club has produced talented player like Raksha Pawar, who had done club proud by getting selected in the u-14 national team.
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Exams done, kids turn to favourite authors
Dehradun, March 17 As kids are over with the burden of final exams, bookstores in the city are also looking forward to sell variety of books for the students. “Kids purchase books throughout the year, but summers is the peak season for selling books,” said Alka Jain, Aditya News Agency. However, 10 years ago in Dehradun where students used to read a lot but today the scenario has changed with the arrival of video games, internet, and play stations. The virtual world had minimised child’s inclination towards reading. “Earlier children were assigned to read books during holidays, but today only between 10 and 20 per cent children find interest in reading as there is already so much pressure on them for performing well in academics and sports as well,” Upendra Arora, owner of a bookstore. Interestingly, due to so much of exposure available to the students, latest craze in the city is for fiction fantasy. The craze developed after the famous British author JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Porter’ series. “Post Harry we have noticed a tremendous response in fantasy fiction genre and where middle school boys prefer series of Christopher Paolini and Tonathan Stroud, girls are going for books by Stephenie Meyer, one of the bestsellers in last six months,” said Randheer Arora, owner of a bookstore. “Children between the age group of 5 to 12 read comics a lot while middle school kids like to read fiction and adventure series like Famous Five and Secret Seven. However, students of higher classes read best selling motivational books by Chetan Bhagat, Paul Cohelo and Robin Sharma,” said Chandar Prakash, a bookstore owner. “We have noticed that students from the top notch boarding schools take keen interest in reading. Teachers and parents should motivate children to read which would help in their overall development,” added Upendra Arora.
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films, directors,
Besides the thousands of tourists who visit Rajaji National Park to enjoy wildlife and the forest cover, wood smugglers too are frequent visitors there.
Teak (sagaun) trees worth lakhs of rupees have been axed and smuggled from the Motichur range of the park in the past few days despite claims of tight security arrangements by the authorities.
Dehradun, March 17