Sunderbans will drown in 60 yrs: WWF

The World Wildlife Fund(WWF) has warned that days are numbered for much of the sensitive Sunderbans eco-system and in 60 years vast tracts of the rare mangrove forests, home to the Bengal tiger, will be inundated by the rising sea.

The study, focussed on Sunderbans in Bangladesh, says the sea was rising more swiftly than anticipated by
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 and would rise 11.2 inches (above 2000 levels) by 2070. This would result in shrinkage of the Bangladesh Sunderbans by 96% within half a century, reducing the tiger population there to less than 20, said the study.

Unlike previous efforts, WWF’s deputy director of conservation science Colby Loucks and his colleagues used a high-resolution digital elevation model with eight estimates of sea level rise to predict the impact on tiger habitat and population size. The team was able to come up with the most accurate predictions till date by importing over 80,000 Global Positioning System (GPS) elevation points.

The study, Sea Level Rise and Tigers: Predicted Impacts to Bangladesh’s Sunderbans Mangroves, has been published in the journal, Climatic Change. Though the Indian part of the Sunderbans will not be so badly affected, conservationists wonder how many tigers would be able to survive here with nearly 60% of the habitat gone. Of the total Sunderbans, nearly 60% is in Bangladesh. Tigers do not recognize international borders though and cross over from one side to the other as and when they choose.

Experts say that every tiger requires a large territory of its own (known as range). An ever-spreading human habitat in the Indian part has already resulted in a drop in the big cats’ territory, leading to frequent incidents of straying.

Tigers have adapted to a life in the mangroves and crabs constitute an important part of their diet. Though tigers are a highly adaptable species, occupying territory from the snowy forests of Russia to the tropics of Indonesia, the projected sea level rise in the Sunderbans may outpace the animal’s ability to adapt,” a WWF source said. There are no accurate estimates, but conservationists estimate the mangroves could be home to upto 400 big cats.

The sea level rise will also have an impact on the lives of people who depend on the Sunderbans for their livelihood. The mangroves protect human habitation from cyclones and other natural disasters.

WWF has recommended that governments and natural resource managers take immediate steps to conserve and expand mangroves while preventing poaching and retaliatory killing of tigers. Neighbouring countries should increase sediment delivery and freshwater flows to the coastal region to support agriculture and replenishment of the land.

Are you being harassed at workplace?

79 per cent of women face sexual harassment at workplace.

A study has revealed that 79 per cent of women face sexual harassment at workplace and those in casual and contract jobs are more at risk.

Anthony LaMontagne, associate professor at the VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, examined the likelihood of sexual harassment in different types of employment.

“Our study shows that 79 per cent of those who experience unwanted sexual advances at work are women,” LaMontagne said. “The study is an important new evidence because precarious employment has been associated with a variety of adverse working conditions as well as with poorer mental and physical health,” he added.

“People who are employed in casual jobs are about five times more likely to be subjected to unwanted sexual advances. The research also shows that people in contract positions are about 10 times more likely to be sexually harassed at work,” LaMontagne added.

Victorian Health Promotion Foundation CEO Todd Harper observed: “Not only are women more likely to experience sexual harassment but females make up bigger proportions of industries which use more casual and contract labour.”

“There is a strong link between sexual harassment and mental health problems. This behaviour is costly and preventable,” Harper said in a release.

How to Stop Sexual Harassment at Work

Instructions

Step1

Verbally warn. If you so choose, and depending on the severity of the sexual harassment, you can verbally warn the person that if they falter again you will report them. Many times this will stop it dead in the tracks, but sometimes it will not.

Step2

Report the incident. No matter what, you must report any incident of sexual harassment. Simply write down a brief synopsis of what happened, and make sure to submit it to your boss and the proper other channels at your workplace.

Step3

Find the help you need. There are tons of resources you can find on the internet that have places that will help you. You do need to take the first step and research and contact these organizations in order to get the help you need.

Step4

Take action. Do not let yourself sit idle. Sexual harassment is illegal, and there are plenty of things that you can do to stop it. Make sure your boss and co-workers realize how serious you are about defending your rights.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember, sexual harassment is illegal; there is no room for it in the workplace ever.
• Never falsely report a sexual harassment incident.

 

“Magic” lamp to transform rural homes in INDIA

A couple using a solar lamp in their hutment.

A multi-purpose, light-weight solar-powered lamp will be launched soon to meet the rural energy requirements for lighting.

“Egg Lamp”, as it is called by its Bangalore-based maker Kotak Urja Pvt Ltd, also has new generation features – it can also be used for charging mobile phones and has a provision for FM radio with built-in antenna and speakers.

The product has already come in for praise before its formal launch, expected in first half of this month, winning the award for best electronics product in the energy (honourable mention) category at the India Semiconductor Association’s annual conference last month.

The product, which is rechargeable by solar energy in six hours of sunshine besides by main AC, is being positioned as a replacement for kerosene lamp, and also emergency lamp in urban areas to compete with the likes of Panasonic and BPL.

Egg lamp, which can be wall-mounted, ceiling-mounted, hung on hook or carried by shoulder strap, is expected to be priced below Rs 1,500, Kotak Urja’s CEO K Srinivas Kumar told PTI.

The product operates on LED or CFL mode, works for six to 16 hours depending on usage pattern and has “dimmer mode switch” for operating for reading light, “habitation” (family atmosphere light) and night light.

Mr. Kumar said it has a mobile charging socket suitable for top brands of mobile phones. Just like the mobile phones, this product also shows the health of batteries (indicates its usage status).

“It’s portable and light-weight and has NiMH batteries for multiple recharge and weighs 2.2 kgs only,” he said. “For urban homes, it is positioned as emergency lamp. Brightness is as good as that of a 25 W bulb”. These rechargeable batteries last for 4-5 years.

The company is now looking out for a huge network of NGOs and entrepreneurs to take the IP-based product to the masses.

It hopes to sell 25,000 to 30,000 units in the first year, going up to a cumulative figure of ten lakh within two-and-half-years.

Mr. Kumar said the product also has export potential in countries with similar profile as that of India, in Africa and South East Asia, and in fact the company is scouting for partners. In Europe and the US, it can be positioned as a “camping” and “recreation” light, he said.

Mr. Kumar also talked about the product’s health and social benefits. Egg lamp is safe and clean, unlike kerosene lamps whose toxic fumes cause respiratory infections.

In power-starved rural homes, this product enables family members to gather together, with the help of “surrounding” light (habitation) of Egg lamp, he said.

The product also helps small shop owners and vegetable vendors to extend their business hours, and improves “government finances” as kerosene is subsidised to an extent of Rs 20,000 crore annually.

1.8 lakh Olive Ridleys turtles arrive on Orissa beach for nesting

KENDRAPARA (Orissa, INDIA): An estimated 1.8 lakh female Olive Ridley turtles have so far arrived en-masse to lay eggs, a unique natural phenomenon, at Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in Kendrapara district, officials said.

Since February 24 night the tranquil beaches on south eastern part of Nasi-2 island, close to Defence Research Development Organisation’s installation at the Wheeler’s Island, are teeming with turtles, Prasanna Kumar Behera, Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) forest division, said.

“The Olive Ridleys are literally invading the beach and are digging 2-3 feet deep pits to lay eggs. They covered the pits with sand after laying the eggs and loitered in the area for an hour or two before disappearing into the waves,” he said.

“With thousands of the turtles digging the pits at the same time, it created a soothing cacophony”, a forest official present at the site, said.

Net beats newspapers as news source: U.S. Study

Sixty-one percent Americans got at least some of their news online, compared to 54 percent who listened to radio news and 50 per cent who read newspapers. (project smile india)

More Americans get their news from the internet than from either newspapers or radio. But television is still the most popular news source, according to a study released Monday.

The survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 61 percent of Americans got at least some of their news online, compared to 54 percent who listened to radio news and 50 percent who read newspapers. Some 78 percent of respondents said they watched television news.

Most respondents mix and match for their news — with 92 percent saying they get their news from more than one source — combining social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook with radio, TV and newspapers, the report found.

Online users were younger than other news consumers. Some 37 per said they have contributed to the “creation” of news, commented on it online and shared or posted news on sites like Facebook and Twitter, according to the study.

Twenty-eight percent of online users customize their home pages to include news “from sources and on topics that particularly interest them,” the report found.

With 37 percent of cellphone owners using their mobile devices to get news, the report said that news was becoming “portable, personalized and participatory.” Online users tended to “forage widely” but regularly visited only a “handful of different sites,” the report’s authors said. Portals and news aggregators such as Google News, Yahoo News and AOL were popular, as were the sites of traditional news organizations such as the BBC, New York Times and CNN, the report said.

 

Why we fight with each other in the name of religion when there’s no religion teach us to fight………..?

Answerer 1
Islam does teach one to fight, and the Christian bible is at best ambiguous about fighting for religion. Incidentally, these two religions have been responsible for the vast majority of religious violence.
Answerer 2
I’m not fighting; people who choose to fight aren’t REAL Christians.
Answerer 3
Because we are not religious!
Answerer 4
Hmmm , cause bigots don’t actually believe in anything but forcing their own beliefs on others to share the happiness and greatness of their religion with others even through wars.
Plus , Islam teaches how to defend yourself even if it is through war . Practical , eh ?

PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS ON THE SAME….

Quote of the Day

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

~ ALBERT CAMUS (French author,philosopher & journalist 1913 – 1960)