Dehradun, April 9
Climate change seems to be taking its toll on the arrival of migratory birds in the wetland of Assan. The number of arriving migratory birds fell drastically this winter touching the lowest ever in the past four years.

Initiated by the Uttarakhand Forest Authorities every winter, Assan waterfowl census has recorded a total of 4,031 migratory birds this year, which is lowest ever in past four years.

The last Assan waterfowl census had recorded 6,762 migratory birds while 2008 winter census recorded 6,517 birds. In the winter of 2007, 5,210 birds were counted at Assan. This figure amply hints a decreasing tendency in the number of arriving migratory birds to Assan, a conservation reserve and an important bird area of the country.

There has also been lesser number in terms of species. Twentyone species of birds have been recorded at Assan this year. While last winter, 33 species arrived at Assan, a year before 36 species had come to Assan. This amply reveals that even in terms of species, less number of migratory birds were preferring Assan as their winter home.

Migratory bird Rudy Shell Duck, which is identified with Assan, due to its sheer numbers that come to this wetland have just touched a maximum 1,100 this winter. There have been instances earlier also when Rudy Shell Duck has touched the figure of even 3,000 birds.

Among other migratory birds enumerated this winter, Spot Billed Duck counted 526, Great Cormorant six, Little Cormorant 200, Tuffted Duck 112. Mallard 60, Common Pochard 290, Gadwall 135, Common Coot 626, Nothern Paintail 85, Grey Leg Goose 12, Red Crested Pochard 155, Great Crusted Pochard 45, White Throated Kingfisher eight, River Lapwing 12, Little Egrate 45, Common Teal 203, Northern Shoveller 60, Eurasian Wigeon 150 and Plash Fish Eagle two.

A team comprising Pradeep Bharadwaj, Mustkeem Ansari, Gulfam Ali and Intazar Ali supervised the count under the aegis of the Yamuna Circle Authorities.

Those engaged in study of birds see climate change as biggest threat to avian fauna.

“The birds have been hit the hardest by climate change,” Nanda Nautiyal at Departmental of Environmental Sciences from GB Pant University, observed. “Even in western countries like the UK, seven out of nine common species of wading birds have shifted from the warm west to colder east in response to milder winters,” she adds.

Significantly, there have been little of winter in Dehradun this year as climate change effects have amply been seen on both flora and fauna. Early flowering have been recorded in burans, mangoes and even other fruits.

Spread across 444 hectares along the Uttarakhand-Himachal border the Assan Conservation Reserve is big source of attraction for bird watchers and tourists alike.

2007 5,210

2008 6,517

2009 6,762

2010 4,031

Dehradun, April 9
A blood donation camp was organised by Petroleum University on its Bidholi premises in collaboration with IMA Blood Bank here yesterday.

The university collected a record 1,214 units of blood this year during the three-day camp. Last year it had collected 731 units of blood while in 2007 the number was 265.

According to university’s officials, this is the record for the educational institutes of Uttarakhand.

The IMA Blood Bank team goes to every class and removes the wrong perception about blood donation among students and encourage them to donate blood.

A poster competition was also organised in which first prize of Rs 1,500 was won by Manish Madan. Nimrata got the second place and was awarded with Rs 1,000.

Isha Singh and Binni Sharma shared the third place with the prize money of Rs 500.

Nainital, April 9
Two teachers of prestigious Sherwood College were nabbed in a case pertaining to the death of two 13 year old students of the school in an accident near Ramnagar last Saturday.

According to the police, those arrested are Rohit Jalal and Ashish Dwivedi. They had been accompanying the group of children from Class VII who had been out for their annual treks near Sitabani when the tractor-triler carrying 36 children overturned, killing Ibrahim Ansari of Kanpur and Anmol Bhatt of Haldwani.

The driver of the tractor-triler Anand Sati had been arrested earlier this week.

Ever since the accident took place, the Sherwood College authorities have been under fire from various corners, including the agitated parents of children studying there, local pressure groups and politicians.

These groups have been seeking action against the top brass of the institution holding it responsible for making the students travel in an unsafe mode like a tractor-trailer while the institution charges a heavy amount from the parents. The school authorities have closed themselves to the media and are not coming out with any statement.

The institution has a sparkling list of alumni that include names like Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw, to name a few.

District Magistrate Shailesh Bagauli has already ordered a magisterial probe under the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) at Ramnagar AK Nautiyal into the death the children. Going a step ahead on Wednesday, Bagauli had ordered that from now on the public schools would have to inform the local administration and the police of the area being visited by their students.

He has also asked the managements of public schools to ensure that the vehicles being used by them for taking children on tours have proper permits and the drivers have a license entitling them to drive in the mountainous terrain.

Dehradun, April 9
Expressing concern at the deteriorating situation in the hills, social activists said that deterioration of nature and exploitation of man can only end if they are made partners in development and their right on resources is not taken away.

The activists, who had gathered today from different parts of Uttarakhand at Shuklapur (near Dehradun) on the concluding day of the conclave today, came up with a Himalayan policy that seeks to address the imbalances created as a result of lopsided development unleashed by successive governments.

Their main recommendations include a ban on big power projects. Instead small dams should be taken up specially the ones that run off the river.

In order to encourage local varieties of cereals, a special provision should be made in the Food Security Bill. Tribal Act 2006 should be implemented in the state.

Dr Anil Joshi, patron of the Himalayan Environment Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO) said that the focus of scientific inventions should be need-based so that the poorest of the poor can rake in the benefits.

“There is no point in talking about big inventions if they are unable to impact the lives of people living in distant villages. We have to make their lives stress-free and this end should be the focus of all inventions.

“There is no point in going for big dams when they extract a heavy price in terms of displacement and loss of livelihood,” said Dr Joshi.

Vijay Jarhdhari of Beej Bachao Andolan called for doing away with the use of chemical fertilisers in the hills as they were responsible for reducing the fertility of the soil.

“In Uttarakhand, organic and traditional agricultural practices should be revived. In the state agriculture policy, these practices should be included,” said Jarhdhari.

Radha Bhen, President of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, emphasised on taking steps in order to curb migration. “For this, a village-centric approach is needed,” she said.

Suresh Bhai of Raksha Sutra said that actions of the governments become a suspect in the eyes of the people when these lack clarity. “It has been the irony with state governments that while formulating power projects, these have never taken into consideration public viewpoints. Even ‘jan sunvais’ (public hearings) regarding the viability of projects have been reduced to one upmanship.

“We are happy that the Shankaracharyas and religious heads are raising environmental concerns, but these should not be empty gestures,” he stressed.

In all, 100 activists from different parts of Uttarakhand had gathered to take stock of the situation and formulate a policy guideline for the government to work upon.

Dehradun, April 9
CT Young set up the title clash with Uttarakhand Police after defeating XI Star2-1 in a semifinal of the 2nd BS Negi Memorial Football Tournament held at the Dr BR Ambedkar Stadium here today.

In this electrifying match, Sachin Rawat of XI Star scored the first goal in the 17th minute. But, CT Young didn’t take much time to answer them back.

Gaurav of CT retaliated in the 22nd minute scoring a goal.

With teams level at 1-1, fierce moves were made by players of both sides. However, the first half ended on equal points.

Even several goal attempts were made in the next half but all proved futile. To give joy to the excited crowd was the goal of Manish in the 85th minute that changed everything for CT Young.

CT Young would now face the mighty contender of the tournament Uttarakhand Police tomorrow in the final that would start at 3 pm at ONGC’s Dr BR Ambedkar Stadium.

Prior to the start of the match, XI Star had registered a protest with the disciplinary committee against the alleged playing of outsiders in CT Young’s side. However, they later took back the protest.

Dehradun, April 9
The Uttarakhand police has bagged a gold and five bronze medals at the ongoing All-India Police Games underway at Pune from April 6 to 10.

This is for the first time that the Uttarakhand Police has won these many medals at the all-India level games. Three of of the medal winners are those who were recruited under sports quota under the Uttarakhand government’s policy to encourage sportspersons.

Constable Sunil claimed the lone gold for the state in weightlifting in the category of 77kg. He lifted 280kg weight in total. While constable Vaishali Upreti of Udham Singh Nagar district lifted 166kg to win bronze in the 69kg category.

Constable Mamata Kothiyal of PAC stood third in the 63kg category lifting 167kg. Constable Chandan bagged bronze in the Gymnastic Walt Horse, constable Harish won bronze in Gymnastic Horizontal Bar and constable Kishan Lal got bronze medal parallel bar bronze medal.

Subhash Joshi, Director General of Police (DGP) congratulated the winners and announced a cash prize of Rs 10,000 to the gold medallist and Rs 2,500 each to the bronze medallists.

Dehradun, April 9
VK Purohit of PCDA gave superb all-round performance to down NHO by 45 runs here today during the ongoing Centre Government Employee Welfare Coordination Committee (CGEWCC) Cricket Tournament underway at the Survey cricket stadium.

He played a knock of 50 runs and claimed four wickets to fashion his side’s win.

In this 25-over match, the winning team was put in to bat first by NHO. PCDA had a poor start as it lost four wickets in just six overs at the score of 33 runs. However, the team was later ably led by VK Purohit (50) and Ajay (50).

Purohit hit four boundaries while the latter hit five fours during their half-centuries. Sonam (20*) also contributed with valuable 20 runs. PDCA scored 161 runs at the loss of eight wickets.

In reply, the NHO started off well but its batsmen couldn’t convert their scores to big numbers and got out early. Jatin Rawat (24), Isponder Singh (22) and Rajeev (28), the first three batsmen of the innings, were the main scorers for the team. And after their departure none other batsmen could stand on the pitch for a long and the team crashed.

The NHO was bowled all-out for 116 runs in 21 overs. Star of the day VK Purohit of the winning team was the pick of bowlers. He bowled a good spell of five overs to claim wickets and gave away just 13 runs. HS Rawat and BS Bhandari claimed two wickets each while Jaswant pocketed one.

Kali Club, HCL XI register wins

Kali Club drubbed Friends Club by nine wickets here last evening during the Day-Night Softball Cricket Tournament held on the PRD Ground on Tapovan Road.

Batting first, Friends Club could manage to score 60 runs in the allotted 15 overs. Durgesh (15 not out) was the principal scorer for the batting side. For Kali Club, Ravi and Rahul took two wickets each. Sonu, Lovely, Siddu and Bhagat got on wicket each.

The winning team faced no resistance from the bowlers of Friends Club while chasing the target. They scored 64 losing just one wicket. Rahul (22), Siddu (17) and Bhagat (18) were the scorers for the winning side.

While in another match, HCL XI managed to beat Garhwal XI by nine wickets.

Dehradun, April 8
Knight Riders got the better of King XI Majra by 56 runs in a Twenty-20 match of the Second Late Shri Hukam Singh u-17 Cricket Tournament being played on the Matawala Bagh cricket ground, here today.

King XI invited Riders to bat first. Making full use of batting first the latter mounted a total of 196 runs for nine. Prakash (62) was the top scorer for the team. He just played 48 balls and his knock comprised nine boundaries and a six. Gandhi (24) also chipped in.

For King XI, Zoher Ali got four wickets, Sohaib took two, Ayyub and Imran pocketed a wicket each. However, they gave away many runs during their overs and that cost their side dear in the long run. Not only this they gave as many as 52 extra runs.

Batting second, King XI couldn’t play even the allotted 20 overs. The team was sent back to pavilion in 17.1 overs for 141 runs. Ubed (32), Naeem (28) and Imran (23) could score some respectable numbers for their side.

While on Riders part the combined effort of its bowlers bore its fruit. Sameer took maximum two wickets while Akesy, Prakash, Amit, Raj and Gandhi got a wicket each.