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Award for standing forests
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Gramin Bank registers 44 per cent growth
Take up pension issue on priority, say ex-servicemen
17 get SAI scholarships
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Award for standing forests
Dehradun, April 27 Climate change has become a major global issue and with little resources and no skills to cope, the developing world has been hit hard. This is for the first time that developing nations in such big numbers have come together to come up with basic information on technical aspects related to measurement of forest carbon for developing inventories of forest ecosystems and to enable the countries to understand technical options better. The UNFCC Bali convention had some time back agreed to providing compensation to the developing countries that have protected their standing forests than merely providing incentives to countries as a deterrent to those felling trees on a large scale. But then the UNFCC had asked for framing of a methodology for fullproof accounting of carbon stocks in these nations for ensuring them a compensation package. In this backdrop, 34 developing countries from Africa, Latin America and Asia, including small nations like the Honduras, Congo, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, Bhutan, Ghana and Ecuador, are participating in the three-day marathon talks under the guidance of six international organisations, including the World Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ). Significantly, India as a country has been doing much towards forest conservation. The Union Government has announced a “Green India Campaign” for afforestation of 6 million hectares. While the national target for the area under forest and tree cover is 33 per cent, the area under forest is 23 per cent. The ambitious Green India programme for increasing the forest cover and its density by six million hectares of degraded forests constitutes a significant step towards ensuring the ecological security of the country and improving the livelihood of dependent communities. Director-General of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education Jagdish Kishwan, who has been instrumental in putting up the case of developing countries before the UNFCCC, thereby ensuing inclusion of “policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stock” in the Bali Action Plan. Bhutan’s Phenta Tshering, one of the participants at the meeting, welcoming the Indian initiative said such deliberations would prove to be of immense help in negotiations on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) at the Copenhagen meet. Jagdish Singh from Guyana said since the adoption of agenda on deforestation and forest degradation at COP 11 in Montreal, 2005, forests were now receiving international attention which had been further enhanced after the 1992
Earth Summit. India continues to be in the forefront in taking up the cause of developing countries. The increase and improvement in the forest cover as a mitigation also dovetails into the Indian stand on the REDD being dicussed at the UNGCCC meetings. The country’s viewpoint favours a comprehensive approach to compensate nations for the carbon services they are providing and will be doing so in future by conserving, stabilising and increasing their forest cover. Green Indian Mission, thus, proves to be a practical demonstration of India’s support for the policy of conservation, sustainable management of forests and increase in the forest cover as a means of reducing emission from deforestation. Senior scientist, climate change, VRS Rawat, said the deliberations were all the more important as these would help in developing the methodology for REDD, apart from helping the detection of forest changes and associated carbon stocks in a transparent and verifiable manner, specially with the use of satellite technology. Forests continue to be both sources and sinks of carbon. Global forests cover around 30 per cent of earth’s surface spread over about 4 billion hectares. The total carbon content of these forests is much more than the total carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Globally, large-scale deforestation of tropical forests has been a major sources of green house gas emission, besides emission from fossil fuel burning. The global community is busy framing rules for climate change mitigation by giving incentives to check deforestation.
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Jumbos mourn their dead
Haridwar, April 27 A month ago a tusker was killed in the Chila forest range. The place now is witnessing a movement of elephants coming there to mourn around the decomposed carcass. Forest officials confirm the report as footprints of elephants have been spotted in the area. For hours elephants have been seen at the site sitting around letting out mournful sounds. Social organisation is a highly developed aspect in elephants. A herd lives as a close-knit family unit and that explains why the jumbos move in groups. These herds maintain kinship in terms of acoustic communication and through intra-mixing of groups time to time. During major migration and when elephant movement is nearer to human habitation, several smaller groups may join in to make a large herd. Social factors such as home range, the average group size and breeding season have a profound influence on the population dynamics of these large mammals. The most cohesive social organisation in elephants is that of the adult female and her offspring, which constitutes a family unit. A number of family units together form a clan. Principal investigator, Asian elephant, Dr Ritesh Joshi, says due to their strong social bonding, elephants are coming back and expressing affection for their dead seniormost tusker killed by a young tusker last month. “A few years back I saw elephants in deep sorrow and distress when a young male calf hit by a train was grievously injured. Three female elephants would not leave the spot. “They trumped loudly and were soon joined by five more elephants from a nearby forest. The herd remained in the vicinity till late in the evening and would not let forest guards go near the injured elephant,” recalled Joshi. When a female elephant gives birth, it’s often surrounded by other cows trying to protect the mother and the young one. Group members jointly nurture the young one and the mother elephant is always near the newborn. Dr Rambir Singh, director, department of science and technology, says: “This shows how sympathetic, helpful and cooperating elephants are.” In 2001 in the Motichur range of the Rajaji National Park area, a calf was pushed over by a train and seriously injured. The mother of the calf remained with it for the whole day and would not let anybody near the calf and made rescue operations by the wildlife staff extremely difficult. She had to be tranquillised to get to the calf.” Elephants call their young ones by slapping their ears against the head. When they feel threatened, they beat their trunks against the ground, spread mud and produce a sound like that of a tiger. At that moment, they are ready to charge. Elephants have been seen trying to help injured companions and support them. In one such case in Chilla forest, a female elephant with a swollen leg who could barely move was seen helped by 20 elephants, including calves, in various ways like helping her reach a water source. They would lift her injured hind leg with their trunks and gently push her forward. Elephants trump loudly whenever excited or angry. The sound may be a call to a member of the herd gone astray. Groups of
elephants produce a rumbling sound as a greeting when approaching another herd.
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Gramin Bank registers 44 per cent growth
Dehradun, April 27 Addressing a press conference, Threesh Kapoor, president Gramin Bank said, “Apart from a net profit of 12.72 crore, we have made a 32 per cent net business profit and an increase in credit deposit by 54.61 per cent as compared to 2007-2008 which was of 39.39 percent,”
he said. To make bank service accessible and user friendly 122 branches of the bank have been given the facilities of computers in far-flung areas. “Uttaranchal Gramin Bank, in spite of many known banks existing in the market, is constantly working to provide basic facilities in the interiors of the state. It provides facility of a zero bank account, ATM service with beautiful ambience and many beneficial schemes in collaboration with national insurance company, the SBI and even advantage of mobile banking for convenience of people,” added Threesh Kapoor. However, for the betterment of farmers in the year 2008-2009, 10,601 new farmers have been provided loan of Rs 30.27 crores and also 34 new employees were employed to generate employment
opportunities in the state.
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Take up pension issue on priority, say ex-servicemen
Dehradun, April 27 At a convention of ex-servicemen held here yesterday, the central president of Poorva Sainik Welfare Association, Shamsher Singh Bisht while seeking one-rank-one-pension for the ex-servicemen, in particular sought justice for the other ranks. “While the ex-officers manage to extract all benefits meant for them, the other ranks face a tough time availing facilities due to them,” Bisht said. He said it was even strange that while political parties promote ex-servicemen and other ranks are often neglected in political process. Strengthening the facilities in Military Hospital, better CSD arrangements, proper rehabilitation of ex-servicemen, simplification of domicile certificate preparation certificate for ex-servicemen and creation of community center particularly for other ranks were other issued raised on the occasion.
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