Training programme on childcare begins
Dehradun, May 3
A 10-day programme in Integrated Management of Neo Natal and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) for doctors and ANMS began today at the Doon Hospital. The CMO of Doon Hospital, Dr GS Baunthiyal, inaugurated the programme.

Don’t give junk food to children, doctor tells parents
Dehradun, May 3
There is a wide option with youngsters to hand around with the opening of many hi-end eating joints like Mc’ Donald, Pizza Hut, Dominoes in the city. Most of these joints are seen jam packed always especially during weekends.

Dehradun, May 3
After frequent bickering between the state forest department and rafting companies over use of rivers for rafting operations, the Uttarakhand government is finally in the process of drafting a new policy, which will hopefully bring the two warring sides to an agreement.

Riding high on adventure tourism, Uttarakhand has in recent times promoted rafting in a big way. But the rafting companies in the region accuse the state authorities, particularly the forest department, of doing little to promote the activity and accuse them of harassing the operators.

Rafting operators accuse the state authorities of not taking them into confidence while forming the new policy. “We don’t even know the contents of the policy in the making. We have been ignored despite being important stakeholders in the process,” said Dinesh Kathait, office-bearer of the Indian Association of Professional Rafting Outfitters (IAPRO).

These operators say that Uttarkhand that has been bestowed with a vast network of rivers has immense potential for rafting as an adventure sport, but accuse the state authorities, including the forest department, of adopting an attitude that only discourages such activities. 

The Indian Association of Professional Rafting Outfitters (IAPRO) has held several rounds of discussions with the Uttarakhand forest department for doing away with the season to season contract system for the rafting companies.

“ At present, the forest department renews the rafting contract every season (September-June) and they have to renew the contract for the subsequent year.

This proves to be very problematic,” said Rajeev Tiwari, another rafting company operator.

A longer period contract will definitely help both rafting companies and tourists.

s of now, tourists book a year in advance and rafting operators are unable to confirm booking dates for their clients with the period of contract being just one season. Moreover, the companies are not sure whether they will have the same camp sites the following year.

But the forest department has its reasons. It accuses the companies of putting up camps inside Reserve Forest areas in violation of norms and is of the opinion that the new auction- based rafting will bring in better revenue to the department.

As per an estimate, rafting companies’ annual turnover is to the tune of about Rs 14 crore while the forest department earns a meagre Rs 14 lakh as revenue.

Senior forest official BP Gupta said various rafting companies openly flouted camping norms.

“These companies resort to unlawful camping in the Reserve Forest areas that proves to be of big headache for the forest department,” he said, hoping that the new policy would be in the interest of the state and would end the monopoly of a few rafting companies.

Significantly, forest norms state that camping by the rafting companies can only be allowed in sandy beaches, but sources say the companies also use Reserve Forest area that has sand due to recurring flash floods in the Tons. This is in open violation of norms.

The companies, who now seek a longer contract period, accuse the forest authorities of delays in renewing their contract, leading to losses. But the forest authorities out rightly reject this charge. They put the onus of any such delay on companies for their failure to submit the no-objection certification in time.

The NOC is to be submitted by a company to the forest department every year to get the contract renewed. The NOC is to ensure that there is no violation of forest norms by companies while they conduct their activities.

But the operators point out that any tourism activity that starts with restrictions can only prove detrimental to the cause of tourism in Uttarakhand. Any harassment in the name of NOC for renewing contract may be deterrent for promoting adventure tourism in the state.

Uttarakhand has world’s best rapids in its rivers with stretches at Ganga, Alakananda,Tons and Mahakali being major contributors to the white water activity.

This year as many as 106 companies are operating in Uttarakhand, most having their operations in the Ganga. Interestingly, the Tons has developed as an important site for rafting.

But the forest department allows rafting only for a period of two to three months while the operators want the period extended.

Rafting at the Tons is permitted for only three months - April to June- every year whereas the rafting operators say that it can be also be organised in September-November.

Uttarakhand intends to promote rafting by giving the go-ahead to rafting at some more stretches in other rivers also in the much-awaited new rafting policy.

Haridwar, May 3
Though the famous Rajaji National Park, that spreads in the districts of Pauri Garhwal, Dehradun and Haridwar across 820.60sq km, is known for the Asian elephant, it’s also home to a variety of animal species.

Rajaji is a habitat for several species and and most have seen a considerable increase in their numbers. One such species is the leopard which is found in considerable numbers in the park area.

The census last year put their number at 220, quite a leap as their number in 1997 stood at 149. While in Uttarakhand, the total number of leopards is 2,343. In 2005, it was 2,105.

This means conservation efforts are in the right direction.

Some of the reasons for the rise in the number of leopards at Rajaji may be attributed to good food, weather and steps taken by the park authorities in the past one year to make environment conducive for herbivores.

“We cut about 1,700 hectares of lantenna in the park area in big tracts apart from providing water, grass, fodder and minute things like salt which yielded results in just a few months with tigers and leopards retracting and coming back to the park,” said park director SS Rasailly.

There has been a considerable increase in the leopard movement in the park area. The Rajaji park acts as not only a feeding ground, but also hunting ground for the leopards. Experts say the leopards may outscore elephants in the park area.

“Rajaji has enough variety of food for the leopard, deer, monkey, dog, chimpanzee and langoor,” said Dr Ritesh Joshi, attributing the increase in the number of leopards 
to the Gujjar rehabilitation programme after which the movement of leopards had increased manifold.

The presence of leopards is crucial to the existence of other species like the vulture, hyena, jungle fox and the jackal that feed on the remains of the animals hunted by the leopard. With the tiger numbers dwindling, poachers have now set eyes on the leopard. Last year at least 141 leopards fell into the trap laid by poachers countrywide while 124 leopards were killed in 2007. As many as 24 tigers have been killed so far this year, says the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

Roorkee, May 3
The local police arrested three smugglers, here today. The police seized deer horns and other rare wildlife species from their possession.

The police has recovered 20 kg of horns and other solid body parts of the wildlife animals from them, which they intended to sell at Sharanpur and other parts of Uttar Pradesh.

The smugglers have been identified as Kamil, Gulfam and Rizwan, all residents of Banderjoot village (Buggawala).

Acting on a tip off, the police conducted a raid and arrested the trio from Solani Park early morning. “The horns and bones of wild animals are sold on higher rates (around Rs 3,000 per kg) in Saharanpur and nearby areas, which are being used in making some medicines,” said one of the smugglers.

Police is now investigating whether these miscreants were also involved in poaching or not. A case under Wildlife Protection Act has been registered against the threesome at Civil Lines Police Station.

Dehradun, May 3
A 10-day programme in Integrated Management of Neo Natal and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) for doctors and ANMS began today at the Doon Hospital. The CMO of Doon Hospital, Dr GS Baunthiyal, inaugurated the programme.

The purpose of the training is to improve child surveillance, by imparting skills to all medical officers and health workers in detection of malnutrition in infants early so that their growth is not impaired.

The training programme will be focusing on two groups, including infants under the age group of two months, and those who are above 2 months and below 5 years of age.

A total of 21 medical officers and 22 ANMS active in the periphery of PHCS would be participating in the training programme that would also target remote areas of the districts.

“To reduce infant and child mortality rate the programme would be of immense help for doctors and ANMS. In the second and third phases training would also be imparted to ICDS workers,” said Deputy CMO Dr BS Rawat and nodal officer for the training.

Only one-fourth of women breastfeed the neonates within one hour of birth and half the women exclusively breast-feed their children up to six months. Boys are exclusively breast fed for a longer duration than girls. “There is a need to change customary practices with the help of a highly focused communication campaign on the advantage of early and exclusive breast feeding.

Folk and video-campaigns on childhood diseases, treatment and management would also be part of the programme.

“We would also be assessing our immunisation programmes,” said Dr DS Rawat trainer, pediatrician, Doon Hospital.

The infant mortality rate has not shown any change it has remained stable in the state. Out of 1,000 infants born in the state 42 do not survive.

problem areas are the slums that are coming up in emerging towns and cities where the population is illiterate,” said Dr DP Joshi, pediatrician, Doon Hospital.