Shimla, June 16
It is yet another offer that has come Himachal’s way for setting up of a film studio in the pristine environs of the hill state, but as has been the case in the past will the state be able to turn it into reality or it will remain only a proposal?

It’s the pristine and verdant locations loaded with abundant natural beauty that inspired Bollywood director Anil Sharma to shoot films like “Gadar” and now Salman Khan-starrer “Veer” in the state. His love and fascination for the state does not end at shooting at various locations in the hill state to rake in big money. He has a dream to set up a high-tech film studio somewhere in the state, which has everything to offer to a film crew.

Anil, who shot into fame with Sunny Deol-Amisha Patel film “Gadar”, has shot most of his films in the picturesque locations in the state.

“When I visit foreign locations in the US, England, France and Switzerland, I realise Himachal is even better in the terms of natural beauty so why not set up a film studio here,” he said during a visit in connection with the Tourism Conclave held here.

He has come up with a proposal to set up a film studio with all possible facilities that a film crew requires. “If the government is willing to walk with me to make this dream come true, I will submit the detailed proposal as there is immense potential for setting up a film studio,” he said.

Despite the Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation being keen on setting up a film city somewhere in the state, the project only remains a vision with no further headway.

A proposal by Prakshit Sawhney, son of the immensely talented actor, Balraj Sawhney, who remained closely associated with Shimla to turn his house here into a centre for performing arts, has also not made much headway.

Hema Malini, too, had expressed her desire to set up a dancing school in the state, but one did not hear from her after the campaigning got over for the Assembly elections almost one-and-a-half year ago.

With director Sanjay Leela Bhansali shooting his film “Black” with Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee in and around Shimla, there is no denying that the place has much to offer. However, it is the lack of infrastructure facilities like good roads, air connectivity, water which remain an inhibiting factor.

Another Bollywood director Harry Baweja, who, too, has shot his films, including Ajay Devgan-Sushmita Sen-starrer “Main Aisa Hi Hoon”, during his recent visit, felt that despite abundant natural beauty the place lacked in basic infrastructure facilities.

“I would rather travel abroad in a day and shoot with all facilities at the arm’s length rather than spend days in Himachal to reach to beautiful locations,” he rued.

Having remained the summer capital of the erstwhile British empire, Shimla has the perfect settings with its Raj nostalgia and colonial flavour reflected in the several architectural masterpieces.

It was a preferred station for film crews who are willing to risk shooting in Jammu and Kashmir and places like Uttrakhand where infrastructure is better than Himachal.

Would Himachal, which has given stars of the likes of Anupam Kher and Preity Zinta to Bollywood, make up for the time lost and take some steps so that the state can create facilities which can help promote the place from the film tourism point of view?

Shimla, June 16
Global warming may spell doom for people in most areas, but in a hill state like Himachal Pradesh it will bring new opportunities in the inhospitable high altitude areas, which remain under snow for most part of the year.

The adverse fallout of the climate change is already discernible in the receding glaciers, declining snow, erratic rainfall and rising mercury, which will have long-term implications for all forms of life. Consequently, the traditional sources of water are drying up and the fortunes of farmers have been oscillating between drought and deluge, posing a variety of problems.

Eminent scientist and vice-chancellor of the Chaudhary Shrawan Kumar Agricultural University Tej Pratap feels that so far not much thought has been given to harnessing the positive impact of the largely undesirable phenomenon. He calls for two-pronged strategy to face the challenge. Besides taking steps to slowdown the process of global warming, focus should also be on evolving a plan to make the best of opportunities the change in climate will throw up for the hill people, particularly in the tribal areas.

Citing example of the changes which have already taken place, he points out that the places like Shimla are already out of the snowline and tourists who thronged the hill station every winter to enjoy the thrill of falling snow have to go Kufri and even beyond. The apple crop had revolutionised the economy of the state over the past six decades, but the fruit could not be grown anymore in lower hills due to the lack of snow, which is considered as white manure for apple orchards. Of late, the higher reaches have also started feeling the heat of climate change. Even the quantum of cold desert of Spiti and the higher reaches of Kinnaur are getting warmer. The quantum of snow is declining and unlike past, whatever snow is received during winter melts away very fast.

The people of the Sangla valley in Kinnaur had drawn Tej Pratap’s attention to the receding glaciers and the early melting of fresh winter snow in the highland pastures. In fact, the local people have starting cultivating the high slopes, which they earlier used for grazing their sheep and goats for a brief period during summer. Tej Pratap predicts that if the snowline continues to recede even Sangla may not get snow regularly a few years from now and the people would have to go all the way to Chitkul, the last village bordering China, to witness snowfall. The lack of adequate snow will have impact on the fruit-based tribal economy, leading to radical changes in cropping pattern.

The university has taken an initiative to help the people to combat the challenge of climate change by involving a local community-based organisation, Sangla Sustainable Development Society (SVSDS), and a Shimla-based NGO, Himalayan Research Group (HRG). The combined effort was aimed at developing sustainable livelihood by harnessing the potential for environment-friendly agro-based tourism to replace the high-carbon commercial tourism to slowdown the process of climate change.

The Sangla Valley Household Tourism Festival will be held under the aegis of SVSDS on June 27 and 28, in Sangla to showcase the tribal culture, handicrafts and traditional farm produce like buckwheat, phafra, barley and wild apricot, which have very high potential for future tourist market keeping in view of their health benefits.

Brainstorming and public debates will be organised to address the core sectors like agriculture, animal husbandry, horticulture, household tourism in this changed scenario of climate change and economic development.

The subject of the debate, “opportunities and risks of climate change on habitation and farming in highlands” has been purposely chosen. Interaction between scientists and the local people will enable to evolve effective strategies to tap the opportunities for growing new crops.

A successful model of development for Sangla will enable to tackle the problem in other high-altitude areas of the state and even the country, Tej Pratap explains.

Makreri (Mandi), June 16
About 100 members of the Monal Eco-Club of Goverment Senior Secondary School, Makreri in Jogindernagar, are acting as green ambassadors for villagers, encouraging them to adopt an eco-friendly way of life.

The club has come out with an eco-friendly way of conserving and recharging local water sources, using weeds as moisture and top soil conservation agents to their advantage. They have taught farmers how to install water conservation tanks, mulching and other techniques, shunning the use of harmful chemicals.

The club has recently bagged the state award for its work under the National Green Corps Programme in the school and its surrounding villages, spreading ecological awareness among students, teachers and villagers. The club has been in limelight since 2003. Its members have represented the National Junior Science Congress thrice.

In fact, there are over 1,690 school eco-clubs in the state, but most of them remain inactive.

The brain behind the Monal Eco-Club is its in-charge, Tek Chand Parmar, a science teacher and an environmentalist, who says, “We have been advising the students and parents to share knowledge on how to make villages congenial for a clean and green living”.

After popularising the “pitcher technique” among the villagers, the club has dug up a pond that gives 10 lakh litres of water to the people of Chilarhag panchayat.

Water sprayed through the pin-holes in pitchers helps preserve moisture deep into the roots which is good for vegetable and other crops, says Vandana, a former convener of the club.

The villagers are using ‘burgundy’ leaves after drying them up to make powder and then use it to preserve food grains. The villagers earlier used to burn weeds, but now we have told them to spread them on the top soil as it helps conserve precious soil moisture and gives nitrogen to the soil, says Parmar.

He says they have told the villagers to plough their fields in perpendicular to the flow of rain water to save the top soil from erosion.

Jagdamba, vice-president of Chalarahag gram panchayat, has grown rich garlic crop by adopting the techniques suggested by the club.

However, the State Council of Science, Technology and Environment, which monitors the eco-clubs, gives just Rs 2,500 as grant to each club regardless of its performance. “The grant is meagre and should be given to those clubs which are working for the cause of environment”, experts say.

Kotgarh, June 16
In their initiative to revive the sagging fortune of Rs 1500-crore apple industry, Vijay Stokes, an engineer-turned progressive apple grower, and Hari Roach, an orchardist, have created history in horticulture in the state.

Both have raised apple orchards on rootstocks with plant material imported from the US for the first time in the country. The orchards are now three years old and are expected to give fruits after five years.

Following in the footsteps of his legendary grandfather Satyanand Stokes, who had spurted apple revolution in this nondescript village about 100 years ago, Vijay (74) returned from the US after retiring from a lucrative engineering profession and decided to revive the ageing orchards once raised by his grandfather here over 100 years ago. Raising apple rootstocks was never easy for him. Like his grandfather, Vijay took the risk. He first cut down old apple trees amid criticism from apple growers of the region.

Vijay then razed the old orchard with JCB machines and reclaimed soil to make it fertile enough for his new mission, the rootstocks. He raised a poly-house for breeding the plants on rootstocks about three years ago.

He says, “We cut down 100 old apple trees, which had outlived their life. I raised a poly-house in which I raised 9,500 rootstocks that cost Rs 2 crore as I had imported them from the US in 2006”.

“But the worst happened. Almost one half of them died in the heat of April in Delhi Customs office before they could be brought here after 15 days long struggle,” Vijay adds.

”I have raised over 3,000 spur apple dwarf trees on rootstocks, which are now three years old. I later imported more rootstocks from the US,” he says.

Vijay has planted dwarfed apple trees in rows with close density and some trees have born samples. “I expect crop after five years. Most of Himachal apple varieties are red delicious, but rootstocks are spur dwarfs which are shorter in size and hence it is easier to prune, train and spray and harvest as a dwarf apple tree does not exceed 10 ft in height, as compared to a red or royal delicious tree, which even attains the height of over 30 ft.”

Vijay says small holdings with unscientific approach have no future. Farmers in the state need more land and scientific support to survive on apple farming. Another orchardist, Hari Roach, who has raised a rootstocks orchard near here, has become a source of inspiration for other farmers and scientists who take buds for research from him.

He says, “We started at a time when farmers were being asked to switch over from apple to floriculture. The future lies in root stokes and the certified plant materials that the university or the horticulture department have so far have failed to provide to the farmers”.

Hari says farmers need more guidance, judicious use of chemicals for proper growth, certified plant materials of dwarfs for new plantation and facilities for proper transportation. “Even ‘fusi’, Chinese dwarfs, I had planted have yielded good results”.

He observes that apple cultivars in the state belong to the 1875 era in the US and as such they have outlived their life.

The festive atmosphere continued in the state capital as Shimla Mart got under way as soon as the Shimla Summer Festival concluded. The trade fair turned out to be a big draw.

Apart from industrial houses, some traders and manufacturers from Pakistan and Afghanistan also participated in it. Decorative pieces made from onyx stone of Baluchistan were the centre of attraction. There were fascinating items like flower vases, bowls, candle stands, tables in green and white, the two basic colours in which the stone is mostly found. Two parties from Pakistan, Zamal International and Continental Traders, brought a container of onyx products.

“These are fancy items, which have a huge export market but it was the first time that they had come to India. Our company exported products worth $12 million annually,” Rao Saghir Akhtar, chief executive, Continental Traders, said.

The mining of the stone was carried out in Baluchistan and products were made in Karachi. In all, about 200 products priced from Rs 50 to Rs 15,000 were available.

Nurpur, June 16
Bhagola village in Ther gram panchayat under the Nurpur development block is in bad shape notwithstanding its three martyrs who had laid down their lives for the nation. The village has no road connectivity, health centre and government school with higher classes. The village is even facing the problem of potable water.

This village is known as “martyrs’ village” as in 1965 Indo-Pak war, Jagdev Badwal, who was serving in the Indian Army, had laid down his life in the Khemkaran sector. In 1984, another resident of the village, Swaroop Bhadwal, had made his supreme sacrifice in the Operation Bluestar in Amritsar launched by the Indian Army. In 2000, Prabhat Bhadwal of this village had sacrificed his life while fighting the Pakistani army in the Kargil sector during Operation Vijay. The villagers said the then government in 2000 had announced a village link road but so far nothing had been done. Raj Singh, Pratap Singh, Janak Singh, Jagpal and Shukuntla Devi, residents of the village, have appealed to the state government to provide basic amenities in the village and build a gateway at the Sadwan Chowk in memory of the martyrs.

In this connection, local MLA Rakesh Pathania claimed that during the previous regime of Prem Kumar Dhumal, the construction of the road was started but it had stopped all of sudden after the Congress government came to power in 2003.

Hamirpur, June 16
In its endeavour to improve the financial condition of farmers in Hamirpur district, the state government has launched the ATMA project.

Through this project, various government agencies are making efforts to create employment opportunities through diversification in agriculture and horticulture by providing several incentives to the farmers.

The basic aim of this project is to create employment opportunities for rural youths by introducing improved and scientific methods in farming and thereby making them self-reliant.

Due to scanty agricultural land in the district and dependence on rains for raising crops, most of the farmers were still carrying on with the traditional farming. Thanks to this initiative, many of them are now switching over to modern techniques and growing off-season vegetables by setting up poly-houses.

The ATMA and soil-testing projects have come in handy for the farmers as a result of which several enterprising youths have set up poly-houses and are growing flowers, vegetables, mushrooms etc.

The farmers have also built water tanks for irrigation through which fisheries are also getting a boost.

Under the horticulture technology mission, farmers have been provided financial support and 90 of them have already established modern poly-houses. As much as Rs 1.5 crore have already been given to farmers under this project.

Each farmer has been given an average loan of Rs 10 lakh, besides technical knowledge. They are also being taken on educational tours to Punjab, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra.

The government has also provided Rs 3.88 crore to farmers under the Pundit Deen Dayal agriculturists and orchardists scheme. Free soil-testing of agricultural land is helping the farmers in improving yield from their crops.

I am starting with an analysis of the accompanying photograph. What could be its age? We know that Shimla was one of the first centres of commercial photography in India and T. Reineckee, a founder-member of the Bengal Photographic Society with a studio in Kolkata, started visiting the town every season in the mid-1850s.

Shepherd and Robertson joined by Samuel Bourne, an ace photographer of his times, had established a unit in Shimla at Talbot House by 1864. Photographs of the town were, therefore, available since 1850s. The building at the backdrop in the photograph is of Shimla Post Office that had replaced Conny Lodge by the year 1883. On the right hand side where there is a fountain in a petty municipal park today, an awning is visible which could be a shelter and was in existence prior to the year 1925 because the natives of Shimla who have crossed 80 years of their lives do not remember having seen such a shelter. The photograph, therefore, is aged between 1883 and 1925.

Quite a few Indians in pajama, achkan and turban can be seen roaming on the Mall along with two policemen in uniforms in this photograph. The hearsay, therefore, that no Indian was allowed on the Mall is false. Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre in “Freedom at Midnight” describe, “ Simla’s heart was the Mall, a broad avenue running from one end of the ridge in which the town was set to the other, an exclusively English presence of teashops, banks, and stores, its surface as cleanly scrubbed as the Viceroy’s porcelain. At one end stood Christ Church Cathedral into which the commander- in- chief, in full uniform, led the colony every Sunday, to listen to ‘a proper choir-all English voices.’ Until World War I, Indians were not allowed to walk on the Mall.”

The accompanying photograph invalidates the statement made about the Indians. There are evidences to show that Indians owned houses and shops on the Mall even before World War I, e.g., Mirza Mehmood Beg owned the last Block of the Northbrook Terrace on the Mall in the year 1881 and Hussein Bux had a shop near the Scandal Point. How would they be going to the Mall? How would Indians go to the Post Office, the Telegraph Office for transacting business? The authors of ‘Freedom at Midnight’ also add: “Much of that old Simla was already gone by the time Louis Mountbatten arrived in early May 1947.

Now, an Indian could even walk down the Mall-provided he was not wearing the national dress of his country.” The buildings in the photograph where exist Loke Nath and Aya Singh today are shown to have sloped-tin roofs which were changed to the flat-roofed ones in 1939.So, the Indians moving in their national dresses are of prior to the 1939 era and so this statement of the authors too is nullified. Mary Margaret Kaye, the author who was born in Shimla, seconds my inference in her biography, ‘ The Sun in the Morning’. “ I would like to say that of all the lavish helpings of canned twaddle, dished out by those writers who make a mint of money out of denigrating the Raj and all its works on the basis of second, third-or fourth hand information, one of the silliest is that before World War I, the British did not allow Indians to walk in the Mall…. How, for instance, would it have been possible for so many of the shops that line the Mall to be owned by the Indians if no Indian was allowed to walk there? How did he or his assistants reach the shop?”

The ‘no Indian on the Mall’ story is told with evidence that Pandit Padam Dev, freedom fighter in the Praja Mandal Movement and the education minister in the first Parmar Ministry, was ushered out of the Mall by the British because he was wearing the national dress. I had, once, interviewed his nephew Sat Dev for the AIR and he had told me that Panditji was steered out of the Mall not because he was wearing the chooridar and kurta but because he was raising slogans against the British Government.

Solan, June 16
The initial euphoria of the state attracting Rs 8,311 crore of industrial investment may soon be over if the government fails to seek an extension of the tax holiday for another five years.

The state was granted a central industrial package in 2003, promising 100 per cent tax holiday for five years which has now been reduced to 30 per cent for the next five years. The reduction is likely to adversely impact the industrial growth and has put a question mark on the sustainability of the existing industry if the trend of units shifting to other states like Sikkim continues.

With little scope for jobs in the public sector, the more than 8 lakh unemployed youth have been looking towards industry. Though about 2.28 lakh have been employed since 2003, the employability has reached a saturation point now. Explaining the impact of the situation, a leading employment consultant based in Baddi, said:” This not only means that there are fewer jobs now but also only those positions are being filled which are essential and have fallen vacant. As per an estimate, almost 60 per cent job reduction has been noticed in Baddi in the past few months with hardly any casual labour being employed now.

Manish Kumar, a postgraduate in life sciences who failed to procure a good job due to lack of experience, while expressing concern at the decline in the number of jobs said:”The scenario is grim in the industries as even after procuring a professional degree one has to run from pillar to post to procure a suitable job”.