Archive for ‘Gujarat’

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31/10/2019

Jammu and Kashmir: India formally divides flashpoint state

India has formally divided the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two new federally-administered territories.

In the new arrangement, Jammu and Kashmir is one territory, and Ladakh, which borders China, is separate.

The two new union territories are now ruled directly from the capital Delhi.

It’s part of a controversial move announced in August to tighten the Indian government’s control over the part of Kashmir it administers.

R K Mathur and Girish Chandra Murmu were sworn in as lieutenant governors of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir respectively on Thursday.

“Now the real participation of co-operative federalism will be seen. New highways, new railway lines, new schools, new hospitals will take the development of the people of Jammu and Kashmir to new heights,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a public rally in the western state of Gujarat.

Union territories have far less autonomy from the federal government than states do.

The former state has long been one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints and is a highly militarised area.

India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir in full, but control only parts of it.

How does this affect the people there?

Almost 98% of the state’s population will be in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, comprising two regions – the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, which has about eight million people, and the Hindu-majority Jammu, which has about six million.

The third region, the newly created union territory of Ladakh, is a high-altitude desert inhabited by 300,000 people, with almost equal numbers of Muslims and Buddhists.

Workers from the previous state government will continue to retain their jobs in the new territories, the government said.

What’s the background?

On 5 August, the government revoked Kashmir’s special status, sparking protests in the Muslim-majority valley.

Article 370, as the constitutional provision guaranteeing special status was known, allowed the region a certain amount of autonomy, including special privileges in property ownership, education and jobs. This provision had underpinned India’s often fraught relationship with Kashmir.

Before the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government announced its decision to scrap the special status, it put the region under lockdown – mobile phone networks, landlines and the internet were cut off; and regional political leaders were placed under house arrest.

Media caption The children being ‘tortured’ in Kashmir

The region also witnessed protests where security forces often clashed with civilians. Thousands of activists and others were believed to have been picked up from their homes in the days that followed the surprise move.

Almost three months later, the situation is still far from normal.

On Tuesday, militants killed five migrant labourers in Kulgam district. Just a day before, a truck driver from outside the region was killed in Anantnag district.

In total, 11 such migrant workers have been killed by militants in the past two weeks.

Earlier this month, the Indian government restored mobile services 72 days after they were suspended.

But internet services continue to be suspended and most businesses remain closed – some in protest against the government, and others for fear of reprisals from militants opposed to Indian rule.

Source: The BBC

Posted in Anantnag district, autonomy, Bharatiya Janata Party, Buddhists, cut off, Delhi, divides, ederally-administered territories, federal government, flashpoint, formally, Gujarat, Hindu-majority Jammu, house arrest, India alert, Internet, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, landlines, militants, militarised area, mobile phone networks, Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, Muslims, new highways, new hospitals, new railway lines, new schools, political leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reprisals, state, truck driver, Uncategorized, Union territories | Leave a Comment »

05/10/2019

India’s onion crisis: Why rising prices make politicians cry

A labourer carries a sack of onions at a wholesale vegetable market on the outskirts of Amritsar on September 19, 2019.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption The onion is India’s most “political” vegetable

Onion prices have yet again dominated the headlines in India over the past week. BBC Marathi’s Janhavee Moole explains what makes this sweet and pungent vegetable so political.

The onion – ubiquitous in Indian cooking – is widely seen as the poor man’s vegetable.

But it also has the power to tempt thieves, destroy livelihoods and – with its fluctuating price a measure of inflation – end the careers of some of India’s most powerful politicians.

With that in mind, it’s perhaps unsurprising those politicians might be feeling a little concerned this week.

So, what exactly is happening with India’s onions?

In short: its price has skyrocketed.

Onion prices had been on the rise in India since August, when 25 rupees ($0.35; £0.29) would have got you a kilo. At the start of October, that price was 80 rupees ($1.13; £0.91).

Fearing a backlash, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government banned onion exports, hoping it would bring down the domestic price. And it did.

Vegetable vendors sell onions by the road, at Sector 25 on September 24, 2019 in Noida, India.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Onion prices peaked by the end of September

A kilo was selling for less than 30 rupees on Thursday at Lasalgaon, Asia’s largest onion wholesale market, located in the western state of Maharashtra.

However, not everyone is happy.

While high prices had angered consumers in a sluggish Indian economy, the fall in prices sparked protests by exporters and farmers in Maharashtra, where state elections are due in weeks.

And it is not just at home where hackles have been raised: the export ban has also strained trade relations between India and its neighbour, Bangladesh, which is among the top importers of the vegetable.

But why does the onion matter so much?

The onion is a staple vegetable for the poor, indispensable to many Indian cuisines and recipes, from spicy curries to tangy relishes.

“In Maharashtra, if there are no vegetables or you can’t afford to buy vegetables, people eat ‘kanda bhakari’ [onion with bread],” explains food historian Dr Mohseena Mukadam.

True, onions are not widely used in certain parts of the country, such as the south and the east – and some religious communities don’t eat them at all.

But they are especially popular in the more populous northern states which – notably – send a higher number of MPs to India’s parliament.

“Consumers in northern India wield more power over the federal government. So although consumers in other parts of India don’t complain as much about higher prices, if those in northern India do, the government feels the pressure,” says Milind Murugkar, a policy researcher.

People stand in a queue to buy onions sold at Rs. 22 per kg by the Government of India, outside Krishi Bhawan on September 24, 2019 in New Delhi, India.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Onions are so ubiquitous that the government has been selling them at subsided rates

A drop in prices also affects the income of onion farmers, mainly in Maharashtra, Karnataka in the south and Gujarat in the west.

“Farmers see the onion as a cash crop that grows in the short term, and grows well in dry areas with less water,” says Dipti Raut, a journalist, who has been on the “onion beat” for years.

“It’s like an ATM machine that guarantees income to farmers and sometimes, their household budget depends on the onion produce,” she said.

Onions have even attracted robbers: when prices skyrocketed in 2013, thieves tried to steal a truck loaded with onions, but were caught by the police.

Why do politicians care about the onion?

Put simply, because the price moving too far one way or another is likely to anger a large block of voters, be they everyday households, or the country’s farmers.

Control rate onion vans seen after flagged off by Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, at Delhi secretariat, on September 28, 2019 in New Delhi, India.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption The Delhi government transported 70 vans full of subsidised onions

Onions are so crucial they have even featured in election campaigns. The Delhi state government bought and sold them at subsidised rates in September when prices were at their peak: chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, it should be noted, is up for re-election next year.

Meanwhile, Indira Gandhi swept to power in 1980 on slogans that used soaring onion prices as a metaphor for the economic failures of the previous government.

But why did onion prices rise this year?

A drop in supply, due to heavy rains and flooding destroying the crop in large parts of India, and damaging some 35% of the onions stocks in storage, according to Nanasaheb Patil, director of the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation.

He said the flooding had also delayed the next round of produce, which was due in September.

An Indian restaurant worker cuts onions for curries in New Delhi on September 11, 2015.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES

“This has become a fairly regular phenomenon in recent decades,” Mr Murugkar said. “Onion prices swing heavily with a small drop or increase in production.”

In fact, the shortage – and subsequent rise in prices – happens almost every year around this time, according to Ms Raut.

“It’s a vicious cycle and the trader lobby and middlemen benefit from even the slightest price fluctuations,” she added.

What’s the solution?

Ms Raut says more grass-root planning and better storage facilities and food processing services will ease the problem – and making a variety of cash crops and vegetables available across the country would also ease the pressure on onions.

“The government is quick to act when onion prices rise. Why don’t they act as swiftly when prices fall?” asked Vikas Darekar, an onion farmer in Maharashtra. He said the government should buy onions from farmers at a “fair price”.

Mr Murugkar, however, feels that the government should never interfere in “onion matters”.

“If you are interested in raising purchasing power of the people, they should not curtail exports. Do we have such a ban on software exports? It’s really absurd. A government which has won such a huge majority should be able to withstand the pressures from a few consumers.”

Source: The BBC

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12/07/2019

India air pollution: Will Gujarat’s ‘cap and trade’ programme work?

Air pollution in IndiaImage copyright AFP
Image caption Much of the air pollution is caused by factory emissions

Air pollution contributed to the deaths of at least 1.2 million Indians in 2017 – but a unique pilot scheme to combat air pollution in the western state of Gujarat could prove to be a model for the rest of the country. The BBC spoke to experts to find out more about the world’s first ever such experiment.

The concentration of tiny particulate matter (known as PM2.5) in India is eight times the World Health Organization’s standard.

These particles are so tiny that they can enter deep into the lungs and make people susceptible to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, making them extremely deadly.

Air pollution in India is caused by fumes from cooking on wood or dung indoors in villages, and a combination of traffic exhaust, soot and construction dust and factory emissions in the cities.

Now Gujarat has launched the world’s first “cap and trading” programme to curb particulate air pollution.

Textile factory in SuratImage copyright AFP
Image caption Surat is a dense industrial city where textile and dye factories are a major source of pollution

Put simply, the government sets a cap on emissions and allows factories to buy and sell permits to stay below the cap.

It is being launched in the dense, industrial city of Surat, where textile and dye factories are a major source of pollution. Since 2011, local pollution control authorities have been working on the impact of emissions trading in Surat, along with the University of Chicago and Harvard University.

How will this programme work?

The basic commodity in the emissions trading system is particulate matter, which is emitted by industries through their smoke stacks.

Under the emissions trading system, industries must hold a permit for each unit of particulate that they emit, and must comply with the prescribed standard of 150 milligrams per cubic metre of particulate matter released in the atmosphere.

Although industries can trade permits among themselves, the total quantity of these permits are fixed, so that air pollution standards are met.

For example, an industry that finds it inexpensive to decrease emissions is likely to over-comply with the standards – this would allow them to sell its excess permits to another industry that finds it more expensive to decrease emissions.

Both industries benefit by reducing their total costs of compliance, while the total emissions are held constant.

Importantly, this trading system gives firms an incentive to find ways to reduce emissions because they are able to sell any extra reductions to other firms.

These incentives have been shown to prompt firms to innovate so that they find new and inexpensive ways to reduce their emissions.

This standard will be used to set the overall emissions from all the industries that are participating in the pilot programme.

Traffic is pictured on a bridge over the Sabarmati River during heavy smog conditions in Ahmedabad on February 5, 2019.Image copyright AFP
Image caption Smoggy skies over the Sabarmati river in Gujarat

Why is this programme being implemented in Surat?

Michael Greenstone, economist and director of the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC), says the programme in Surat is a result of a multi-year process that his institute has been working on with the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) over the last four years.

In 2015, the environment ministry ordered 17 highly polluting industries – such as pulp and paper, distillery, sugar, tanneries, power plants, and iron and steel – to mandatorily install continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS) devices. They are a network of sensors installed in factories that send live readings of pollution emitted through their smoke stacks.

In the first phase of experiment, some 170 industries installed the devices, which cost anywhere between $2,500 and $7,000 (£2,000-£5,600).

“We worked with GPCB and the industries extensively on how to understand and use this data for regulation,” Dr Greenstone says.

Factory pollution in indiaImage copyright AFP
Image caption Highly polluting industries in India have been asked to install emission control systems

“In the Gujarat experiment, we are working with textile, paper and sugar manufacturing industries.”

Can this programme be scaled up in a country as vast as India?

The state’s pollution board set this up as a pilot so that whatever is learnt here can be applied to help the operation of the market, says Dr Greenstone.

If successful, there will be a strong case for expanding this regulatory approach to other parts of Gujarat and other states in India.

“Particulate air pollution is shortening lives in India, so if the pilot is successful there is a terrific opportunity for a win-win by scaling up emissions trading in order to reduce industries’ compliance costs and to improve air quality which would ultimately [improve] people’s health,” he adds.

Will this ambitious programme work?

Siddharth Singh, energy expert and author of The Great Smog of India, says the emissions trading scheme has the potential to work.

“Firstly, unlike in other countries, emission trading schemes are not a politically sensitive topic, so it could quietly be tested and scaled up if it proves to be successful. Secondly, India has some experience in running a similar scheme.”

India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency has been running a programme to improve industrial energy efficiency. It targets some 500 large users of energy across India and encourages trade in energy efficiency certificates. This has led to decreased energy use and emissions, as well as cost savings.

Media caption A hair-raising drive through the Delhi smog

“India is only testing the trading programme at the state level,” he adds.

“There is nothing to lose here, even if the pilot fails. But if it succeeds, it could be scaled up and prove to be a great policy tool to address particulate air pollution in India.”

Source: The BBC

Posted in Bureau of Energy Efficiency, cap and trade, continuous emission monitoring system (CEMS), Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC), Gujarat, Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), India air pollution, programme, Sabarmati River, Surat, Uncategorized, World Health Organization | Leave a Comment »

05/07/2019

Rath Yatra: The legend behind world’s largest chariot festival

Indian devotees and members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) march alongside a chariot carrying a deity during the annual Rath Yatra Festival in Siliguri on June 24, 2009.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption This journey is documented in undated Hindu sacred texts known as the Puranas written a few thousand years ago

One of India’s biggest religious festivals, the Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra, gets under way on Thursday. The festival is unique in that three Hindu gods are taken out of their temples in a colourful procession to meet their devotees. The BBC’s Priyanka Pathak explains the legend behind the festival and its significance.

The biggest of these processions takes place in Puri in the eastern state of Orissa, while the other takes place in the western state of Gujarat.

Believed to be the oldest Rath Yatra or chariot procession in the world, this festival marks the annual ceremonial procession of Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and younger sister Subhadra, from their home temple to another temple, located in what is believed to be their aunt’s home.

This journey is documented in undated Hindu sacred texts known as the Puranas which are believed to have been written a few thousand years ago.

What makes it so interesting?

This is the only festival in the world where deities are taken out of temples to travel to devotees, and it is also the largest chariot procession in the world.

Millions of people come to watch as a “king” sweeps the road with a golden mop and three massive 18-wheeled chariots bearing the sibling deities make their way through massive crowds. Their chariots, which are mini architectural marvels, are constructed over 42 days from over 4,000 pieces of wood by the only family that has the hereditary rights to make them.

Devotees pull the chariots of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Devi Subhadra in front of the Lord Jagannath temple during the celebration of the �Rath Yatra� at Puri,Image copyright AFP

Legend says it always rains on the day of the procession. For a whole week before, the temple doors are shut and no one is allowed inside, because it is believed that the sibling deities have a fever after bathing in the sun with 108 pitchers of water. The breaking of their fever calls for a change of scene, which is why they go to their aunt’s home for a few days.

The size, pomp and splendour of this procession has even contributed a word to the English dictionary: Juggernaut.

What is the legend of the sibling deities?

Unlike the ornate, carefully crafted metal idols everywhere else, these three deities are fashioned from wood, cloth and resin. They are malformed with large heads and no arms: reminders of the legend of an impatient King.

The legend begins in different ways.

One speaks of an arrogant Indrayumna, King of Puri in the east, who tried to steal the Hindu god Krishna’s heart. It had been immersed in the legendary Dwarka sea after his cremation and had reappeared to the tribes people of the place as an idol. When Indrayumna tried to claim its possession, the idol disappeared. The repentant king sought absolution from Krishna by sanctifying him in another form.

Devotees pull a chariot of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra during the Jagannath Rath Yatra, on February 17, 2019 in Noida, India.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Unlike the ornate, carefully crafted metal idols everywhere else, these three deities are fashioned from wood, cloth and resin

Another speaks of how Krishna’s grief-stuck siblings – his elder brother Balabhadra and younger sister Subhadra- rushed into the Dwarka sea carrying his half-cremated body. At the same moment, King Indrayumna dreamed that Krishna’s body had floated back up on his shores as a log.

The two legends merge here: Indrayumna decided to build a temple to house the log. His next task was to find someone to craft the idols from it. Legends say that Vishwakarma, God’s own architect, arrived as an old carpenter. He agreed to carve the idols, but on the condition that he was not to be disturbed. However, when he did not emerge from his workshop for weeks, going without food, water or rest, a worried and impatient King threw the door open.

At the time the images were only half-finished, but the carpenter disappeared. Still, believing the idols to be made from the very body of God, the King sanctified them and and placed them in the temple.

When the deities disintegrate, they are remade in the same half-done image with new wood every 12 years. They were last remade in 2015.

Why are there two rath yatras and how are they connected?

Dwarka in Gujarat – where Krishna’s half-cremated body is believed to have been immersed into the ocean – is located on the west coast of India and Puri in Orissa- where it is said to have re-emerged as a log – is located in the east.

About 500 hundred years ago, a travelling Hindu saint and temple priest of a Hanuman temple in Gujarat, Shree Sarangdasji, arrived in Puri to offer prayers at the historic Jagannathan temple.

An Indian elephant is painted ahead of the annual Hindu festival Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad on July 3, 2019. - Rath Yatra, an annual Hindu festival, is scheduled to start on July 4 this year and will be led by some 15 elephantsImage copyright GETTY IMAGES

While sleeping at the temple guest house, it is believed that he received visionary instruction from Lord Jagannathan to go back to Ahmedabad in Gujarat and install three idols of Jagannathan, Balbhadra and Subhadra there. Carrying out the instructions received in his dream, he founded the Ahmedabad Jagannathan Temple.

By doing so, he sanctified the two locations – one where Krishna’s mortal remains began their journey from the west, to their transformation as Puri’s Lord Jagannathan in the east.

About 142 years ago, one of the founder’s disciples, Shree Narsinhdasji Maharaj, began the Ahmedabad Rath Yatra. The deities on chariots, pulled by elephants and humans, replicate their own journey in Puri, completing a set of rituals that sanctify the two places where Krishna’s mortal remains are believed to have come to rest.

What happens to the chariots and elephants after the journey?

At the end of the festival, the chariots are dismantled and their wood is used as fuel in the temple kitchens – believed to be the largest in the world that cook 56 things every day and feed anywhere between 2,000 to nearly 200,000 people.

The elephants are returned to the lands managed by the temple trusts to roam free – until the procession the following year.

This year’s festival was, however, marred by controversy over the elephants.

Following the death of some of the temple elephants in Gujarat, there was massive outcry over plans to replace them with elephants from the north-eastern state of Assam.

The four elephants would have had to make a perilous train journey of more than 3,100km (1,926 miles) in heatwave conditions to participate in the festival.

This decision was suspended by a wildlife official after activists went to court.

 

Source: The BBC

Posted in activists, Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad Rath Yatra, Assam, Balabhadra, chariot procession, chariots are dismantled, court, Dwarka sea, elephants, God's own architect, Gujarat, Hanuman temple, heatwave conditions, Hindu god Krishna, Hindu sacred texts, Indrayumna, Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra, Juggernaut, King Indrayumna, legend, Lord Jagannath, old carpenter, Orissa, perilous train journey, Puranas, Puri, Rath Yatra, Shree Narsinhdasji Maharaj, Subhadra, suspended, temple kitchens, temple priest, train journey, travelling Hindu saint, Uncategorized, Vishwakarma, wildlife official, world's largest chariot festival | Leave a Comment »

26/06/2019

Did the world’s tallest statue bring development to India?

The $430m iconic Statue of Unity in the western state of Gujarat was hailed as a symbol of development in the state. But for those who live near the statue, they’re afraid they will lose their homes and livelihoods.

Source: The BBC

Posted in development, Gujarat, India alert, Statue Of Unity, Uncategorized, world's tallest statue | Leave a Comment »

22/06/2019

Fears for elephants facing 1,900 mile train journey in India

Decorated elephants stand prior to the arrival of Gujarat state Chief Minister, Narendra Modi to offer prayers at the the Lord Jagannath Mandir in Ahmedabad on July 9, 2013Image copyright AFP
Image caption Decorated elephants lead the procession at the Jagannath temple’s annual festival in Ahmedabad

Animal rights activists in India have criticised a plan by the Assam state government to send four elephants on a perilous train journey of more than 3,100km (1,926 miles) to participate in a temple ritual. They say the long journey could be dangerous for the animals and may even kill them, writes the BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi.

The elephants are to be moved from Tinsukia town in the north-eastern state of Assam to the extreme west of the country – Ahmedabad city in Gujarat state.

Reports say the railway authorities in Assam, who have been asked to make travel arrangements for the elephants, are looking for a coach to transport them.

No date is set for their departure yet, but they are expected to reach Ahmedabad before 4 July to participate in the annual Rath Yatra (chariot procession) at the Jagannath temple. The train journey is expected to take three to four days.

In previous years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hails from Gujarat, has participated in the festival and the elephant procession, although temple officials say he’s not expected to attend this year.

Temple trustee Mahendra Jha told BBC Gujarati that they decided to “borrow” the animals from Assam “for two months” because three of their own elephants died from old age last year.

But activists and conservationists say the plan to move the elephants is “cruel and completely inhuman”, especially since temperatures are more than 40C (104F) in many places along the northern Indian route these elephants are expected to take.

Media caption Human-elephant conflict destroying lives in India

“Most of north-western India is reeling under a heatwave. There have been reports of people dying from heat during train journeys,” Kaushik Barua, a wildlife conservationist based in the Assam state capital, Guwahati, told the BBC.

“The wagon in which the elephants will be transported is not climate-controlled. It will be hitched to a passenger train which will be travelling at a speed of 100km/h (62mph), so can you imagine the plight of the animals?”

Mr Barua warns the journey may prove “dangerous” for the animals.

“They can suffer from heatstroke, from shock, and even die.”

Under the law, he says, there’s no problem moving these elephants since all the paperwork is in order, “but where’s the animal welfare?”

Also weighing in on the debate is the opposition Congress party MP from Assam, Gaurav Gogoi, who’s petitioned India’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to intervene.

“Roughly half of the country is struggling through its worst drought in six decades…. These are extreme conditions for the elephants to travel… The elephants may suffer from acute skin infection and dehydration,” Mr Gogoi wrote in his letter on Thursday.

Media caption India’s first elephant hospital is run by the charity Wildlife SOS

“Therefore, I request the central government to intervene and instruct the state government to withdraw the decision as soon as possible.”

Elephants – both wild and captive – are a protected species in India and there are strict guidelines for their transportation, wildlife biologist Dr Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar told the BBC.

According to the rules, no elephant can be made to walk for more than 30km (18 miles) at a stretch or transported for more than six hours in one go.

The state’s wildlife officials, who’ve issued transit permits for the elephants, have so far refused to comment on the controversy. But after protests from activists and conservationists, “they have gone into a huddle, discussing a plan B,” according to a wildlife expert.

A mahout gives a bath to an elephant in a lake at Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary on a hot summer day on June 05, 2018 in the Morigaon district, Assam, India.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption Elephants are a protected species in India

“There’s some suggestion that the pachyderms may be moved in trucks to allow them the flexibility to stop if needed and that they could be accompanied by a forest department veterinarian to look after them,” he said.

Mr Barua, however, is blunt.

“Gujarat doesn’t need these elephants,” he says. “Wildlife laws prevent [the] display and exhibition of elephants. Laws ban performances by elephants in circuses, zoos are not allowed to exhibit them, so why should temples be allowed to use them in rituals or processions? Don’t elephants have rights?

“We worship Ganesha, the Elephant God. Why are the Gods then being put through such cruelty by a temple?”

Source: The BBC

Posted in Ahmedabad, Animal welfare, annual festival, annual Rath Yatra, Assam state government, BBC Gujarati, chariot procession, circuses, Congress party MP, die, display, Elephant God, elephant hospital, elephants, environment minister, exhibition, Fears, forest department veterinarian, Ganesha, Gujarat, Guwahati, heatstroke, India alert, Jagannath temple, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, protected species, shock, temple, Tinsukia town, train journey, Uncategorized, wildlife biologist, Wildlife laws, Wildlife SOS, zoos | Leave a Comment »

21/06/2019

Yoga Day: Thousands of Indians celebrate the day

Indian yoga practitioners participate in a mass yoga session on International Yoga Day in New Delhi on June 21, 2019.Image copyright GETTY IMAGES

Indians across the country celebrated the fifth international yoga day on Friday.

Temperatures are soaring in many cities, including the capital Delhi, but that didn’t stop people from gathering outdoors and stretching and bending their way through at least an hour of yoga.

And everyone joined in – even the dog unit of the Indian army!

Dogs doing yoga with Indian armyImage copyright @SPOKESPERSONMOD/TWITTER

The Indo-Tibetan border police – and their dogs and horses – were not about to be outdone. They practised what they called yoga, doga and hoga.

And they were luckier than many of their counterparts – they got to practise their yoga in cooler climes, along India’s scenic Himalayan border.

Dogs and horses doing yoga alongside Indo-Tibetan border policeImage copyrightI TBPOFFICIAL

Among those who did yoga in more hostile climates were the armed forces on board the naval aircraft carrier INS Viraat which is docked off the coastline of sweltering Mumbai city.

Indian Armed Forces personnel take part in a yoga sesssion to mark International Yoga Day on the Indian Navy aircraft carrier INS Viraat anchored at the Mumbai harbour on June 21, 2017Image copyright GETTY IMAGES

In Gujarat, the soldiers got a little more creative with their yoga.

Source: The BBC

Posted in celebrate, Delhi, dog unit, doga, dogs, Gujarat, Himalayan border, hoga, horses, indian army, Indians, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, INS Viraat, mumbai, naval aircraft carrier, Uncategorized, Yoga, Yoga Day | Leave a Comment »

25/05/2019

India tuition class fire kills at least 19 students

Fire rips through Gujarat collegeImage copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image caption The fire ripped through tuition classes in the western state of Gujarat

At least 19 students have died in a fire at a school in India, officials said.

Students were seen jumping and falling from the building in the western city of Surat as black smoke billowed from windows.

Most of the victims were teenagers who had been studying at a tuition centre.

The initial cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Officials said the blaze spread through packed classrooms because of flammable roofing.

At least 20 others sustained serious injuries and were being treated in hospital in Gujarat.

“The students lost their life both because of the fire and jumping out of the building,” Deepak Sapthaley, a local fire official, told AFP.

All of the dead were aged below 20 years and many were trapped because the fire began near the staircase, Reuters reported.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences on Twitter and called for local authorities to provide assistance.

An inquiry into the incident has been ordered and a report is expected within three days, said the spokesman for the office of Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.

The fire is the latest in a long line of deadly blazes in India. In February at least 17 people died in a Delhi hotel fire.

Source: The BBC

Posted in Chief Minister, Fire, Gujarat, India alert, kills, local fire official, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, students, Surat, tuition class, Twitter, Uncategorized, Vijay Rupani | Leave a Comment »

27/04/2019

PepsiCo sues four Indian farmers for using its patented Lay’s potatoes

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, grown exclusively for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

The company is seeking more than 10 million rupees (£110,669) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the farmers’ lawyer.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” a PepsiCo India spokesman said.

“This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The company said the four farmers could join the group of growers who exclusively grow the FC5 variety for its Lay’s potato chips.

“PepsiCo India has proposed to amicably settle with the people who were unlawfully using the seeds of its registered variety. PepsiCo has also proposed that they may become part of its collaborative potato farming programme,” the company spokesman said in a statement.

If the farmers do not wish to grow the FC5 potato variety for PepsiCo, they can simply sign an agreement with the company to cultivate other available varieties, he added.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The forum has also called for a boycott of Lay’s chips and PepsiCo’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second large U.S. company to face patent infringement issues in India.
Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)
Source: Reuters

Posted in All India Farmers’ Forum, All India Kisan Sabha, Bayer AG, Bipin Patel, cotton-seed dispute, FC5 variety, Gujarat, India alert, Indian farmers, indian government, Lay's potatoes, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Monsanto, patented, PepsiCo, sues, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

25/04/2019

Indian officials travel deep into jungle to allow one temple priest to vote

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian officials travelled nearly 70 km (45 miles) through lion-infested jungle this week to ensure a 69-year-old holy man got his chance to take part in the world’s biggest democratic exercise.

A four-member team of election officials, accompanied by a policeman, set up a special polling station deep in the Gir wildlife sanctuary in Gujarat state so a sole voter – Bharatdas Darshandas – could vote in the general election.

A priest who has lived at his remote forest temple for two decades, Darshandas has not missed an election since 2002, and cast his vote on Tuesday by walking nearly a kilometre to the special polling station.

Darshandas looks after a Shiva Temple in the 350 square kilometre (850-square-mile) wildlife sanctuary, home to some 600 of the last remaining Asiatic lions.

India has more than 900 million eligible voters who can cast their ballots at 1 million polling stations.

Officials often have to travel to remote regions over days to get to voters. But an arduous trip for just one voter is not so common.

“The fact that the government is taking so much effort to ensure the casting of one vote speaks to the importance of each and every vote,” Darshandas told Reuters partner ANI in an interview.

“Just the way voting is 100 percent in Banej, there should be 100 percent voting everywhere,” Darshandas said, referring to the place he lives.

The staggered general election has seven phases. It began on April 11 and will end on May 19. Votes will be counted on May 23.

Sourabh Pardhi, an election official from the area, said the Election Commission had worked hard to ensure everyone got a chance to vote.

“We want to make sure that no voter is left behind,” he told ANI.
Source: Reuters

Posted in 69-year-old holy man, ANI, Asiatic lions, Banej, Bharatdas Darshandas, deep into jungle, Election Commission, election official, Gir wildlife sanctuary, Gujarat, India alert, Indian officials, left behind, lion-infested jungle, no voter, Shiva Temple, Sourabh Pardhi, special polling station, temple priest, travel, Uncategorized, vote, wildlife sanctuary, world’s biggest democratic exercise | Leave a Comment »

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