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Bird migration gets off to a poor start
First mall of U’khand awaits MDDA nod
Guru Ram Rai School celebrates annual day
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CII-Thompson Reuters Award for BHEL
Intel, U’khand open varsity sign MoU
Scientists have a field day at Dhanaulti
Army School Roorkee clinch overall trophy
Manoj, Kavinder register big triumphs
GRD Academy holds 10th sports meet
GRD no match for Himalayan institute
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Bird migration gets off to a poor start
Haridwar November 23 These five species identified by ornithologists and wildlife scientists are ruddy shelduck, black-headed gull, black stork, black-necked stork and painted stork, though the numbers of ruddy shelduck and black-necked stork are on the lower side. In the coming days, these birds may get a bigger presence due to change in climatic conditions. Notably, bird migration is the traditional seasonal journey undertaken by several species, primarily for feeding-breeding requirements which includes covering thousands of km. In India, particularly in Uttarakhand, these migratory guests come from regions of Europe and central Asia where, at the moment, winter is severe and the whole region is covered with snow. These species return to their original places once summer sets in around mid-March-April. These birds can be seen gliding over the Ganga, particularly early morning and late evening. Bird lovers, wildlife scientists, photographers and tourists in large numbers are flocking these particular bird sites.
Impact of flood
With irregular monsoon in the previous years followed by heavy rain this year and now, early snowfall in higher altitude areas of Garhwal hills is having a significant impact on the movement of migratory birds as these are found retreating to the lower reaches of Uttarakhand a few weeks earlier in comparison to the past few years. But their stay in Haridwar may not be as comfortable like in the past years. It is being feared that due to massive floods that ravaged Haridwar several protected habitats have also been washed away completely which used to be ideal habitats for these avians during their winter stay in this district. Taking into account the previous year’s data of arrival and departure of these migratory birds, a considerable difference has been noticed. A decade earlier, ruddy shelduck, black-necked storks were seen in large abundance, but now their numbers have significantly lessened. Floods have caused major damage to their natural habitats and its being feared that they may switch to other areas on not finding suitable habitat on the same sites near the Ganga river.
Schedule upset
A drastic change in the arrival and departure timings of avian winter migratory species has been observed in the past five years. Normally, the arrival time of these birds was recorded to be October and early November and departure time near March, but during the past five years, erratic changes were observed in their arrival and departure timing. While in the previous decade, these migratory birds used to arrive during December staying till May-mid June, but now for the last couple of years, the arrival time of these birds has been found in various studies to be nearing October while they leave as early as April. During 2008-09, a total of 16 species of avian winter migratory birds were documented whereas during the next season (2009-2010), only 11 species were documented which is quite alarming. Looking into the field data and as compared to previous year, a total of five species didn’t arrive last year including common shelduck, red-crested poachard, Eurasian, wigeon, common teal, greylag goose and pallas’ gull. Demoiselle crane was not observed in 2008-09 while only a pair was found moving at Neeldhara last year. Local bird lovers inform that a decade back, thousands of migratory birds used to make their abode here.
Construction for Kumbh to blame
Several studies by wildlife biologists has also revealed the impact of the Maha Kumbh on Rajaji and adjacent Ganga embankments where these migratory guests used to stay. Several small-scale developmental projects were carried for and during the Kumbh period particularly from September 2009 to January 2010 that included construction of temporary huts, temporary bridges in dry bed of the Ganga, in the islands situated in the Ganga and renovation of Haridwar-Chilla-Rishikesh motor route and increase in traffic on New Delhi- Haridwar-Dehradun national highway. Also with vehicular traffic being diverted to Jhabargarh forest of the Chilla forest range (Rajaji National Park), it affected approximately a 5-km forest stretch and thus last year, a number of migratory avian species weren’t seen in Haridwar for that short duration. It is feared that if these birds might have found new places to stay, they may not visit the Ganga areas again. Scientists and wildlife experts attribute the erratic change in behaviour of these migratory birds to climatic changes, irregular monsoon, global rise in atmospheric temperature and developmental activities, responsible for this catastrophic change in bird’s migration. According to noted wildlife scientist, Dr Ritesh Joshi, a proper census of migratory species is the need of the hour aided by satellite technology as it would be quite helpful in knowing the accurate tracks, resting sites and exact data of their arrival-departure. “Community participation is vital as then we can generate environmental awareness among people which will tremendously help in bird conservation. Anthropogenic activities should be totally banned along the Ganga areas which are the habitat of these migratory birds. “Additional scientific studies regarding migratory birds is imminent like land-use pattern, habitat analysis and a scientific-oriented action plan which will be helpful in ensuring the long-term arrival and conservation of these guests,” said Dr Joshi who has been carrying out a detailed analysis on the movements of these birds during their stay in Haridwar habitats.
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First mall of U’khand awaits MDDA nod
Dehradun, November 23 MDDA-Ramky Inter-State Bus Terminal Limited in the second phase of the project has developed The City Junction (TCJ) mall on 113,039 sq ft. Though the delay has escalated the costs of the project to as much as 50 per cent, the company is awaiting completion certificate from the MDDA, to start commercial activities. The MDDA had earlier given a temporary completion certificate to it for three months that ended on November 22. “We have completed all work and even submitted the remaining fee of Rs 1.39 crore to the MDDA so that the completion certificate could be issued. We were issued a temporary completion certificate as the work on false ceiling was not completed. Now, that the work is complete we are hopeful of getting the clearance certificate and begin operations by early next year,” said Sultan Singh Rai, Project Head, MDDA-Ramky Inter-State Bus Terminal Ltd. The work on the project that began in 2008 weathered recession and even underwent changes in the design like the addition of multiplex that was suggested by the MDDA midway to the developer company, Ramky. Now the Glitz multiplex (three screen) is being readied by the Star Gazers company on 30,000 sq ft on the second floor with central air-conditioning. The remaining area will be utilised for setting up a food court and restaurant. Officials of Star Gazers said the area had been leased for a period of 15 years and they would be paying Rs 5 crore to Ramky. The TCJ mall has already got electricity connection and fire clearance from the respective departments. The work on elevators and accelerators is still on. While the second floor will be leased to Fortune Group of the Big Bazar fame, the ground floor with 82 shops too will be given on lease. MDDA-Ramky Inter-State Bus Terminal Ltd will earn revenue from the mall from upfront lease payments, parking fees, fees from advertisements on hoardings and wall space and operation and maintenance charges.
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Guru Ram Rai School celebrates annual day
Mussoorie, November 23 Tiny tots presented a play titled “Chhoti si Munni”, along with kathak, Garhwali folk, dandiya performances on the occasion. In the athletic competition Ria Walia stood first in 400 metre, while Sarita Singh stood second and Suman Mehra third. The song “Desh meru rangila” and a Tandi dance were much appreciated by the audience. The Rajasthani song “Rangilo maro dholna” was also presented by the students. Principal Usha Singh read out the annual report. The programme was coordinated by Sunder Singh Negi. Baldev Rawat, Anil Gaur, Arvind, Satish, Ashish, Manoj, Babita Kukreti, Neelam, Kulvinder Kaur, Ashia and Rekha were present on the occasion. Tiny tots enrall audience
Children’s Academy celebrated its annual day with fervour on Sunday in Mussoorie. Tiny tots from the school enchanted parents and teachers with their lively performances. The chief guest, Principal, Hampton Court School, Sister Lucy D’Souza inaugurated the function along with Wynberg Allen School Headmistress L Cashmore. The toddlers presented several rhymes and plays on the occasion. A poem titled “Traffic Lights” was enacted in an innovative way with a message on road safety and following traffic rules. The children also presented a Marathi dance. The highlight of the show was a play titled “Princess and the Pea”. A fancy dress show was also held on the occasion. The judges of the fancy dress were Sister Nirmala and Tripta Agarwal. The function concluded with a prize distribution ceremony.
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CII-Thompson Reuters Award for BHEL
Haridwar, November 23 This award is conferred by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in association with Thompson Reuters which is the leading source of intelligent information for business and professionals Informing about the company’s research and development, a spokesman said with technology being a key driver, varied developmental efforts were being undertaken by BHEL which included the filing of patents, copyrights, almost one per day. This has enhanced company’s intellectual capital to almost 1,300 patents and copyrights which are being used in production business. Notably BHEL is the highest spender on R&D in India with it spending 2.5 per cent of its total revenue, putting it among top 1,000 R&D spender companies in the world. Its Hyderabad-based research centre is the prime centre of excellence for the company. The management of the Haridwar-Ranipur unit of the company has expressed happiness over the award being accorded to BHEL.
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Intel, U’khand open varsity sign MoU
Nainital, November 23 The two institutions have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch two flagship programmes in the state. The first is called World Ahead Programme under which the university will promote computer education among students. Under the second programme, named Teach Programme, the emphasis will be on providing computer skills to teachers. The computer laboratory of the university was inaugurated on Monday by the state Education Minister Govind Singh Bisht. The strength of the Uttarakhand Open University has gone from a mere 600 students to 7,000 students in one year.
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Scientists have a field day at Dhanaulti
Mussoorie, November 23
The members approved the agenda for the ICIMOD support group. Various recommendations were also discussed and approved at the meeting. A detailed discussion on the future funding strategy of the ICIMOD was also deliberated upon and proposals were approved unanimously. The financial commitments and recommendations were also sought from the support group. Discussions on guidelines and proposals were also the mainstay of the meetings that were held today. The programme advisory committee and the ICIMOD support group also held a joint meeting to discuss the future endevaours on mountain development. A field trip was also organised in which the members visited the Famous Dhanolti Eco Park, near Mussoorie, and interacted with locals. The members commended the community participation project at the Eco Park and bought a few locally produced items from shops being run by the community in association with the Forest Department. The members from GB Pant Agriculture University, nodal partner of ICIMOD in India, were also present. Local participation must for hill region
development: Experts
IERP and Envis Centre scientist in charge PP Dhyani, Krit Kumar and JL Kunyal opined that there was a need to identify and strengthen the local knowledge of the environment and contribute towards strengthening scientific researches in institutions, universities/NGOs and voluntary agencies working in the Himalayan region through interactive networking. It was essential for the development of the region and the GBPIHED was working closely as nodal partner of ICIMOD in India to address these issues effectively. Dr Dhyani said the GBPIHED was established in August, 1988, at Kosi-Katarmal, Almora, as an autonomous institute of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, with four main units in Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. The institute worked as focal agency to advance scientific knowledge, evolve integrated management strategies, demonstrate their efficacy for conservation of natural resources and ensure environmentally sound development in the entire Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), apart from undertaking research and technology development on its own. The GBPIHED had established linkages with national and international organisations committed to the environment and development linked issues in mountainous regions. The institute is recognised as a nodal agency for research and development programmes in the Indian Himalayas by the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and many international organisations such as ICIMOD. All R and D activities of the institute are essentially multi-disciplinary in nature and based on a conscious effort to interlink natural and social sciences to promote sustainable development with the vision to undertake an in-depth research and development studies on environmental problems of the IHR. Dr JL Kunyal said at Solan, the GBPIHED was working in association with the local horticulture university under a programme of ICIMOD to promote bee-keeping. He also outlined the fact that the apple cultivation was shifting towards the northern hemisphere and the Kulu valley temperature had increased by 9 degress C and the feedback had been provided to ICIMOD for the preventive methods that would be formulated by ICIMOD in the near future. Dr Krit Kumar said the GBPIHED acted as a bridge between ICIMOD and India. Many projects were being run in Uttarakhand under ICIMOD like the Kailash Sacred Landscape and IFED projects in which training is provided to improve livelihood of the indigenous communities. The scientists said the meeting here with ICIMOD was extremely fruitful and would go a long way in addressing the basic problem of distress migration in the states like Uttarakhand.
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Army School Roorkee clinch overall trophy
Dehradun, November 23
Dressed in saffron, the 1052 Army School’s senior students performed an eye-catching PT drill. This was the highlight of the day. The events included various races for senior and junior girls and boys. Army School Roorkee bagged the march past trophy. The runners up positions went to St Anns and Kendriya Vidyalaya 2. The best athlete (girls) awards were awarded to Surbhi and Hema Joshi of KV 2. The championship trophy (girls) was bagged by Army School, Roorkee. In the boys category, the best athletes were Amit Sharma from Greenways Modern Senior Secondary School and Ravi Giri of Army School, Roorkee. The championship trophy (boys) was won by Army School, Roorkee. The overall championship trophy was also won by Army School, Roorkee with 17 gold medals, 16 silver and 15 bronze. Chief guest Brigadier DS Ahuja praised the students and the teaching staff for their efforts. He gave away the prizes and scholarships on the occasion.
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Manoj, Kavinder register big triumphs
Dehradun, November 23 In the same category, Radheshyam of Uttar Pradesh defeated Dal of Gujarat 23-21. Maharashtra’s Manoj surpassed Krishan of Haryana 41-9 in the same category. Lokesh of Himachal Pradesh got the better of Shiv Kumar of Indian Public School and Jitender of Punjab beat Ramdass of Delhi after the referee stopped the contests. Robin of Madhya Pradesh got walkover in his bout. Amandeep of Chandigarh defeated Vinod Kumar 3-1 in the same category. Uttarakhand’s Himanshu emerged winner in the 50kg bout beating Sonu of Jharkhand. Other results: Under-17 (50kg): Praasin (Maharashtra) bt K George (Goa) 4-3; Aditya (UP) bt Amit (Chhattisgarh) 10-1; Jitender (Indian Public School) bt Kamlesh (Vidyabharati) 7-6. 52kg: Projector (Manipur) bt Avinash (Jharkhand) 7-2; Imran (UP) bt Sohan (Chatishgarh) 8-7; Sumit (Haryana) bt Vishal (Chhattisgarh) 1-0; Mahender (Vidyabharati) bt Vikas (IPS) (referee stopped the contest) Under-14 (30kg): Ajay (Maharashtra) bt Karam (Chandigarh) 4-0; Simranjeet (Punjab) bt N Tubai (Manipur) 3-1; Lalit (Uttarakhand) bt Amay (Goa); Mukesh (Haryana) bt Prabhat (Madhya Pradesh).
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GRD Academy holds 10th sports meet
Dehradun, November 23 The meet started with a march past, followed by Principal Rajan Sethi’s address to the audience. The meet was declared open after the oath-taking ceremony and introduction of the school prefects. Nikhil Gupta from Section-B Boys stood first in the 100m, while Farman Ali from Section-A Boys bagged the first position in 80m. Section-F Girls Jujhar House bagged the first position in 4x100m relay and Section-B Boys Jujhar House bagged first position in 4x100m relay. It was Section-D Boys Ajeet House which bagged the first position in 4x100m relay while in 4X100 m relay Section-C Boys Jujhar House bagged first position. Tiny tots added charm with their races in colourful costumes. Saumya Kala and Sarthak Srivastava bagged the first position in PG animal race, Shiven Verma and Anushka Garg won the nursery bucket and ball, Bhavya Bansal and Shreya Kandwal bagged first position in KG alphabets, IA Cindrella race was won by Ayushman and Shreya Pant while Rohan Bhandari and Avni Aggarwal bagged first position in IB fun shopping race. Anivesh Dubey and Natasha got first position in IIB balloon race, Tushar Uniyal was declared winner of IIIA Santa Claus race, in IVA monkeys and banana race, it was Vineet and Tarun who emerged winners while VA frog race was won by Nikunj and Divyansh Gaur. Senior boys performed PT drill followed by the Western style of exercising by senior girls. Middle school students displayed some martial art skills. Sardar Raja Singh, Chairman, GRD Education Trust, presented a souvenir to former CM BC Khanduri.
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Petro institute’s eves win, lads lose
Dehradun, November 23 KDMIPE, while batting first, scored 111 runs losing four wickets in 10 overs. Tanvi (30) and Deepa (27) mainly scored for KDMIPE helping the team set a good fighting total. Tel Bhavan was packed off for a meagre 74 runs. In the men’s match, CPF defeated KDMIPE. The winning team had set a target of 105 runs with the help of Nigam (33) and AK Goel (38). KDMIPE could just score 65 runs. Ujjawal (30) and Bharat (29) were the main scorers for the team.
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GRD no match for Himalayan institute
Dehradun, November 23 GRD won the toss and chose to bat first. Kashif (32) and Birender (17) were the main scorers for the batting side. The team set a target of 113 runs. In the bowling department, Yoginder Singh got the maximum four wickets and Sandeep took three wickets for Himalayan. Batting second, Himalayan Institute achieved the target in 15.2 overs. Sandeep Sharma (57*) and Pramod Singh (55) scored half-centuries each to guide their side to an easy win. Kashif and Sandeep Negi of GRD were successful in getting a wicket each. In another match played at the Maharana Pratap Sports College Stadium, Uttarakhand Institute of Technology (UIT) defeated Sardar Bhagat Singh PG College by 41 runs.
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Migratory birds have started arriving in Haridwar though a sharp decline in their numbers, due to various factors, is a matter of
concern.
Public sector undertaking Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has bagged the prestigious CII-Thompson Reuters Innovation Award for this
year.The award, which has been accorded to BHEL in the “Hi-technology Corporate” category, is given for innovative entrepreneurship based on the number of patents, efficiency as well as impact of innovations measure by patent citations.
Mussoorie, November 23
Dehradun, November 23
Speaking on the sidelines of the 21st meeting of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) support group at Jaypee Residency, invited scientists from the GB Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development (GBPIHED) opined that it would be difficult to develop mountainous region without the participation of local people. 
