Dehradun, June 21
A short spell of rain accompanied by an intense dust storm disturbed normal life in Dehradun today. Besides claiming a life and injuring a few, the inclement weather caused traffic jams across the city as many trees were uprooted by high velocity winds.

A fallen tree blocks the East Canal Road in Dehradun on Monday

Traffic jams were witnessed on major points of the city, including the Rajpur Road, EC Road, Darshan Lal Chowk, Clock Tower, Chakrata Road, Arhat Bazar and the Haridwar Road near Kargi Chowk.

A big tree fell on the busy EC Road, which led to a massive traffic jam. On the Rajpur Road and the Mussoorie Road the situation was the worst as huge broken branches of trees blocked these roads at several points.

In a tragic incident, a convent schoolteacher in her early 30s lost her life and two suffered injuries when a portion of a tree fell on the three-wheeler they were travelling in near the Deer Park on the Mussoorie Road. According to the police, Darshi Cooper was declared brought dead at the Doon Hospital. Four persons, the driver, Darshi, another woman and a child, were travelling in the vehicle when the incident happened. The schoolteacher was going to Kothal Gate to attend a religious ceremony. She came to the city last night and was staying at her relative’s house. She was a native of Lucknow. District Magistrate D Senthil Pandiyan has announced Rs 1 lakh as compensation to the family of the deceased.

The cops at the hospital said: “There were about 10-12 uprooted trees blocking our way to the hospital and this made it difficult for us to bring the injured to the hospital”.

A large number of trees fell at the Sahastradhara tourist spot. Many cars were damaged and most of the shops running from thatched huts were blown away in the dust storm. Power supply to major parts of the city remained disrupted due to uprooting of trees which also damaged electricity lines in certain areas.

The incident may be a natural disaster but has once again brought forth that the administration has learnt no lessons from its past experiences. There have been several such incidents in the past where commuters died due to felling of trees. One such major incident occurred in April when 15-year-old Shruti died, while five others got injured when a portion of tree fell on them on the Rajpur Road. All were participating in a marathon.

Shruti’s demise had ignited a raging debate and given rise to a blame game among the school management, organisers of the marathon and the administration.

While the Forest Department had claimed to have marked trees dead portions which were to be chopped off, nothing seems to have been done in this regard.

Director General Manager (Power) SK Jain has said they have resumed 95 per cent supply in the northern part of the city. “It is the Rajpur Road which has been badly affected where power lines have been damaged on 1 km stretch due to felling of trees. We are not sure whether the power lines would be repaired by tonight there. But, in other pockets such as Anarwala, Sahastradhara Road, the power will be resumed by night,” he said.

RR Singh, Executive Engineer, said the power lines on the EC Road would be repaired by 8-9 pm whereas in the Dalanwala area and the partially affected area of Raffel Hall Feeder and Vijay Colony, the lines would be set right by 7 pm. The Bindal Feeder which too had closed down would also start working by 6.30 pm, he added. The power lines in all these areas were snapped due to felling off trees.

Dehradun, June 21
Varunavat, the hill that experienced massive landslides in 2003, has responded fast to bio-stabilisation and even become a source for fodder to the local population.

The infamous Varunavrat landslides in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand that had started in 2003 had led to much hue and cry with the conservation department apprehending a disaster in waiting. Nearly 2,050 chir pine (pinus roxburghii) trees were lost in the landslides.

Among various agencies that were entrusted with the task of restoration of the landslide-affected part of the hill was the Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute (FRI) with the primary task of bio-stablising the hill.

An FRI team led by P Soni, Head, Ecology and Environment Division Department, comprised scientists HB Vasistha and Ashish Rawat, had since then been working hard to ensure a successful bio-stabilisation.

Soni told TNS that 10 hectares of the affected area had been taken up by planting deodar and similar tree species to arrest the slides. Apart from Banj and Ringal, the FRI has strongly recommended Manipur Banj for plantation as it binds soil very well.

Interestingly, mansoor, a shrub found in Mussoorie and after which the Queen of Hills got its name, has also been put to use by the FRI experts.

This indigenous shrub has excellent the soil-binding quality.

The efforts of the FRI have started showing results. The locals this year can be seen collecting fodder from Varunavat, evidently revealing that the bio-stabilisation treatment has been a resounding success.

“We started working on bio-stabilisation from October 2006, and are on the right track as far as overall results are concerned,” HB Vasistha said.

The FRI was earlier involved in a study report to assess the impact of Varunavrat landslides in terms of ecological and other losses in terms of carbon removed from vegetation. This loss came out to be 396.4 tonnes for chir pine and 0.25 tonnes for shrubs.

As far as biomass was concerned, the loss touched about 792.8 tonnes for chir pine and 0.50 tonnes for shrubs. In terms of monetary value, the economic loss due to depletion of biomass alone of chir pine totalled to Rs 43.40 lakh.

Nainital, June 21
Even as the country debates the pros and cons of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ)-based growth model, Uttarakhand Agriculture Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat wants the state to have Special Agriculture Zones (SAZ).

In an address that was made on behalf of the minister at the 26th convocation of the Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Rawat stated: “With the increasing industrialisation, the agriculture land is decreasing day by day. The establishment of SEZs in green belts has resulted and enhanced the threat of global warming. While the establishment of SEZs has led to an increase in employment opportunities, it has also caused an environmental imbalance. It is to compensate for this environmental imbalance that SAZs need to be established”.

He has stated that the purpose of the SAZs is to preserve fertile agricultural land and to increase the income of the farmers. Rawat says keeping in mind the foodgrain shortage being faced by the country, there is a need to formulate a long-term strategy and, hence, the concept of SAZs has been presented by him.

“This will not only help resolve the food grain crisis but will also give economic and social stability to the farmers,” he said.

Rawat has asserted that the same facilities which are being extended to corporate houses for development of SEZs in various states must also be extended to farmers for development of SAZs. He is of the belief that when such facilities are extended on a large scale to the farmers, the costs will automatically come down.

“If we have to promote agriculture, it is pertinent that the farmer’s income must exceed his cost of production. The main problem being faced by the farmers in India is less production. The cost of production shoots up on account of expensive fertilisers, pesticides, seeds, etc. The cost of production must be brought down. This is also in the interest of the consumer,” said Rawat.

The minister has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to help develop SAZs in Uttarakhand as a part of a special agriculture package for the state. He has also sought a special package of Rs 200 crore so that interest-free loans can be extended to farmers from the SC and ST communities and marginal farmers. The minister also wants an additional Rs 100 crore to promote agriculture in the villages on the borders with China and Nepal in order to check migration of the people to the plains.

Dehradun, June 21
With the intention of giving relief to students, DAV PG College is contemplating to commence with the single-window system during the sale of admission forms this year at their college campus.

The management of the college has initiated to facilitate admission-seeking students with single-window service. The system will help students in getting rid of student leaders who seek high rates from students to get their admission procedure done easily.

According to Principal BL Nautiyal, “The single-window system has not been implemented yet, but is under discussion of the management.

The single-window system will help admission seekers to purchase their forms, submit these, submission of the fees and getting their identity cards from the same window. Possibly, the system will commence from July 4 at the form-selling counters”.

Dehradun, June 21
Doon Challenger scored dominating 4-0 win over Uttarakhand Tiger in the Lala Nemi Das District Football League underway on the Pavilion Ground here today. Right from the word go, the strikers of the winning team started making inroads into the area of its opponent team. It got success in the fifth minute when Abhay Rana struck a goal.

Doon Challenger continued its dominance and scored the next goal in the 21st minute through Shekhar when he hit a direct kick from the 50-yard distance.

Before Uttarakhand Tiger, down with 2-0, could roar, Mukul (25th) of Doon Challenger getting a nice pass from a left striker headed the ball to the goal.

Thus, the first half ended with 3-0 in the favour of Doon Challenger.

Uttarakhand Tiger failed to retaliate even in the next half while Mukul Thapa of the rival team converted a penalty kick in the 55th minute to add to the score tally of his side.