City’s noted snake rescuer and wildlife conservationist popularly known as Snake Shyam who has been elected as the Corporator of MCC Ward No. 17 was featured in Daily Mail, a UK tabloid on July 23.
The article in the tabloid says that Snake Shyam, despite being allergic to most anti-venom, catches some of the deadly species in Mysore every day.
It also says that this serpent-lover had been bitten four times and the doctors discovered that their treatments were prompting a severe allergic reaction which could kill him.
That means that Snake Shyam’s next call-out could be his last – but despite the dangers, he refuses to give up.
The article also features photographs of Shyam catching snakes, documenting them, his Maruti Omni Van and video of him catching a snake.
Reaches 28,000 mark yesterday
With the rescue of a Rat Snake at a steel godown in Bannimantap here yesterday, Shyam has so far rescued 28,000 snakes.
Snake Shyam speaking to SOM said that he began catching snakes in 1980 and had not documented them till 1997. He further said that on the advice of some, he began to document the snakes he had rescued from 1997 and has so far rescued 28,000 snakes and released them into their habitat far from urban areas.
He has called upon the people not to kill them, but instead call him on Mob; 94480-69399 and keep a watch on the snake till he arrives.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / July 25th, 2014
A lovely green patch at the site of the soil biotechnology plant at Herohalli tank / The Hindu
Water mixed with sewage is being treated through a process called Soil Bio-technology and let into the Herohalli tank.
When a city hits a plateau with regard to water availability it perforce needs to become innovative in identifying alternative options. Right now many problems exercise the minds of citizens and institutions; garbage, sewage in stormwater drains and lake destruction are on top of them.
As you drive west out of the city on Magadi Road, a little after Sunkadakatte Cross you see a tank on your right. This is Herohalli tank, with a water-spread of about 14.50 hectares. The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been working to restore it. The tank has been fenced to protect it from encroachment; a bund has been created to enable walkers to go around it. A major stormwater drain brings in water mixed with sewage as well as debris including plastic. An underground sewage line runs across the periphery of the tank too. This sewage line carries about 6 to 8 million litres of waste-water daily. The water from the storm drains is not enough to fill the tank.
A quite but dedicated team of engineers from the BBMP and a competent and young team of designers are working to resuscitate this water body. A new technology called Soil Bio-technology or SBT is being applied for the first time in Karnataka at a scale of 1.50 million litres per day treatment.
Use of strainers
Using the concept of sewage mining, the SBT system taps into the sewage line and draws 1.50 MLD into a small wet well. From here the water is strained using 20 mm and possibly 10 mm strainers to remove solids, plastics, grit and large sediments. This will be collected and removed separately. The remaining waste-water is then allowed to percolate gradually through a specially prepared bed of soil and stones which harbour million of good bacteria. These bacteria eat away at the carbon in the sewage and also change the composition of nitrates and adsorb phosphates to clean up the water.
As the water trickles down the special medium, it is collected at the bottom. If necessary it can be re-circulated to allow the bacteria to have another go at cleaning it up. The treated sewage that comes out of the system is crystal clear and meets the requirement necessary to be led into the tank.
From the top the SBT plant looks like a garden, beautifully landscaped and full of colourful flowers and grass. There is no smell and no unsightly scenes. The SBT plant occupies 2,000 square metres as a foot-print, a really small component of the tank. Eventually Herohalli tank will receive treated waste-water and will be full. This water, cleaned by nature, will in turn recharge the surrounding aquifers and be available as additional supply to the local residents. Bangalore will have converted sewage water into usable water using the SBT and the tank as nature’s kidneys.
Sewage flowing in the stormwater drains can also be diverted to the SBT plant and then allowed into the tank. The design provides for it.
There are problems though. Plastics and garbage thrown into the storm drains end up clogging the bars and creating a backflow in the drains. These also end up in the tank. Sewage flow is sometimes mixed with industrial waste-water. This is highly toxic and cannot be treated. What the SBT plant does for now is to allow this water to flow past and then pick up only domestic sewage.
None of the problems are of a nature that cannot be overcome. All we need is community participation and institutional responsibilities. What the city now realises is that everything is tied up — garbage management, stormwater management, sewage management, lake restoration and groundwater recharge. Citizens and others should visit the SBT plant and Herohalli tank, understand how an eco-system can be managed and try to do the same for the water bodies in their neighbourhood. The time to seize this challenge and overcome it is now or else we will have lost our lakes and will run out of water for the city.
source: http://www. thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Habitat / by S. Vishwanath / Bangalore – July 25th, 2014
Rural Development Minister H K Patil said, a target had been set to free Karnataka of open defecation by 2018.
He launched a special drive under Nirmala Bharat by inaugurating a toilet at Keelara, near Mandya, on Monday. He said, the government hoped to construct 10 lakh toilets this year and this target could be achieved if one lakh of them were constructed in Mandya district.
“Under Gaurava scheme, the government plans to construct one lakh units, which would comprise of bathrooms as well as toilets. To make toilets user-friendly for senior citizens and physically handicapped persons, western commodes will be fitted in toilets, wherever necessary,” he said.
Drawing a comparison between south and north Karnataka, Patil said, the southern districts were lagging behind in implementation of various government programmes and schemes.
Directing the officials to lay stress on implementing the programmes, he said, even people demanded only roads and bhavans here. “They do not care to seek grants for playgrounds, drying yards, toilets, etc.”MP C S Puttaraju said, some shameful incidents had occurred in the district due to the lack of toilets, so people should take the issue seriously and make use of the scheme judiciously.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / DHNS – Mandya, July 08th, 2014
‘Beeja Jathre,’ a festival of seeds and grains will be held at Nanjaraja Bahadur Choultry in city on July 5 and 6 under the aegis of Sahaja Samrudha.
Farmers and consumers can apprise themselves of nearly 1,500 indigenous varieties of seeds, of which more than 900 will be of different varieties of paddy, said G. Seema of Sahaja Samrudha and State Coordinator of Save Our Rice Movement here yesterday.
Krishnaprasad, founder of Sahaja Samrudha, said that more than 50 groups of seed conservators from all over South India will participate and showcase at least 35 varieties of ragi, 50 varieties of brinjal and more than 900 varieties of rice.
In addition, indigenous delicacies made of organic products will be displayed and also sold during the festival.
This is the first such seed fest being held in Mysore, and on the occasion, the organisers will felicitate some farmers who have taken up seed conservation.
The festival will be inaugurated by Zilla Panchayat CEO P.A. Gopal. A book titled “Beeja Bangara” authored by G.S. Jayadeva of Deenabandhu Trust will be released on the occasion.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / July 03rd,2014
The decoction of leaves of the Paradise tree is being used as a complement to chemotherapy | Wikipedia
Paradise tree, a native of South and Central America and now grown widely in Karnataka, is fast becoming a tree of solace for many cancer patients in the state. The decoction of leaves is being used as a complement to chemotherapy, with patients vouching that it drastically improves the quality of life and even cure the cancer.
The leaves are sourced from Bangalore, where two retired agricultural scientists, Syamasundar Joshi and Shantha Joshi, are engaged in popularising this tree and the decoction. They do it without taking any money, charging patients only labour cost.
“We just want people to grow this tree. It is like taking health insurance,’’ said 73-year-old Syamsundar Joshi. The scientist duo said that the tree was originally brought to India to tide over the edible oil crisis. They noticed the plant was anti-bacterial, anti-tumorous and was good for gynaecological problems.
It was effective for cancer patients and the scientist couple found that the decoction could also bring down side effects of chemotherapy, minimise appetite loss and ensure fast recovery.
Shyla Ramdas of Vazhuthacaud here, who had heard about this decoction, was at first hesitant to give it to her husband, a stage-four cancer patient, who had malignancy in and around his intestine.
“The doctors were not very hopeful about his case and he kept on losing weight. But once he started taking this decoction, he was much healthier, driving the car and generally managing on his own. He even gained back the weight he had lost,’’ said Shyla.
Scientifically, validations are yet to come but isolated studies have shown that several compounds such as the quassinoids in Simarouba has anti-tumour and anti-leukemic (against blood cancer) action. Glaucarubinone, one such compound, has been found to have activity against drug-resistant mammary tumours in mice and anti-leukemic activity, again in mice. It has also been found to improve mitochondrial metabolism and extend lifespan in the nematode, Caenohabditis elegans.
Most patients that ‘Express’ talked to were willing to let chemotherapy or surgery take credit for their recovery, but in their hearts, believed that it was the Simarouba leaves that made them better. Simarouba glauca is the scientific name of the tree, the local one being ‘Lakshmitaru.’ The leaves are considered to be very effective in curing cancer of first and second stages, whereas in later stages, improvement in quality of life is what is expected. But for Lakshmidevi Pillai of Thrissur, who was suffering with an ovarian cancer that had spread to kidney and intestine, these leaves seemed to have worked.
‘’I had to undergo several rounds of chemotherapy and surgery, but on my last check-up date on October 28, they said everything was fine with me. I continue to drink the decoction,’’ said Shyla, who got her treatment in Gujarat, where her husband worked. Many of the patients, like Pearly Karun of Vazhuthacaud, came to know of these leaves from friends or relatives.
Pearly, whose malignancy had spread from the uterus to the lung, still had a 0.4 cm big tumour even after her chemotherapy.
“I used to feel drained but after starting on this decoction, my fatigue just disappeared. My stamina increased and I have become at least ten times more active now. I am sure that whatever is left of my tumour, will go away,” Pearly sounds confident.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Reema Narendran / ENS – Thiruvananthapuram / January 18th, 2013
A stall being readied for the Mygreen- 2014 expo at the Mysore Builders’ Charitable Trust premises on Sterling Theatre road, which will be inaugurated this evening.
Mysore :
NIE-CREST, a centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies in city will be displaying the technologies for various energy saving concepts at the three-day Mygreen- 2014 expo to be inaugurated this evening at the Mysore Builders’ Charitable Trust premises on Sterling Theatre Road in city.
Technologies that will be displayed are: Waste to Wealth Systems (Kitchen Waste Biogas Plants), Biodiesel from non edible seeds like Pongamia (Honge), Mahua and Jatropha, Solar Energy Technologies (Parabolic concentrators, Solar Box type cooker), Sustainable building materials (Stabilised Mud Blocks and Alternative building materials), Biomass based energy systems- Astra-ole (fuel efficient biomass chullas), Water conservation technologies like Rainwater harvesting systems and Tippy tap systems, Muscle powered water pumps, Charcoal cookers, Muscle powered flour mill and more.
An Organic Food mela will also be held in the evenings on all three days.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Friday – June 27th, 2014
In 2006, soaring hotel costs and traffic snarls led Infosys to build Le Terrace, a four-star hotel with 500 rooms for its employees and overseas clients in its campus in Bangalore’s Electronics City.
Eight years on, the software industry posterchild is about to embark on generating its own power, in the process saving costs, getting clean reliable power for its operations and fulfilling its broader obligations to society.
(Eight years on, the software…)
Infosys has proposed a 50 mw solar park in Karnataka, becoming the first software company in India to think of generating its own power that will meet a bulk of the electricity needs of its offices in Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore.
Karnataka’s Energy Minister DK Shivakumar told ET on Monday that Infosys had held one round of talks with the state government in which it had expressed keenness to build the solar power facility. “The company will buy land on its own,” he said.
Infosys confirmed the intent and said it will submit a formal proposal to the government once they finalise the land. “We hope to commission the park in about a year,” said Infosys Executive Vice President Ramadas Kamath told ET. Asked why Infosys is entering captive generation, he said that his company wanted to be self-sufficient in energy.
“We want to promote use of clean energy and reduce carbon emission. Solar is the best option. Several parts of Karnataka have good solar intensity. We now have solar technologies wherein you recover your investment in eight years. It has less of maintenance hassle, and easy to build,” said Kamath, who heads facilities, administration, security and sustainability at Infosys.
Kamath said the idea to build a solar park had been mooted a year ago by Infosys’ Head of Green Initiative Rohan Parekh, and had won the support of the company’s board of directors. “Narayana Murthy and the Board have been very keen that we do this,” Kamath said.
The company has already started looking for some 300 acres of land in regions of Karnataka where solar intensity is high. The company expects project cost, including land, to be about Rs 360-380 crore, small change for a company that is sitting on a cash pile of Rs 30,000 crore. Infosys estimates that it would require about five acres of land to generate one megawatt of solar power and excluding land costs, each MW of capacity will require its shell out around Rs 6.5 crore.
All the Infosys offices in Karnataka, which between them have around 65,000 seats, consume about 95 million units a year. The pro- posed 50 MW will generate about 84 million units, nearly 90% of Infosys present energy needs. 1 MW capacity equals 1000 kilowatts or 1.67 million units of energy a year and is enough to light up anywhere between 300 and 350 homes in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore.
“We will buy the balance from the grid,” Kamath said, adding that the company would consider scaling up its generation capacity based on its experience with the 50 MW initially planned.
Grid power presently costs the company, which has managed to halve its per capita consumption of power between 2007 and 2013, about Rs 5.65 per unit, while its own solar power would cost about Rs 3 per unit after factoring in depreciation . Barring a few states, grid power is unreliable in most parts of India, forcing companies to also have diesel-operated generators for back-up power and raising their overall power costs. Companies such as Infosys, which carry out mission-critical operations for mostly overseas clients, need uninterrupted power and its solar experiment, if successful, could lead to other firms to think along similar lines.
source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> Tech> ITeS / by K. R. Balasubramanyam, ET Bureau / June 17th, 2014
A Moscovy duck born after being artificially hatched in an incubator at Pilikula Biological Park. — PHOTO: RAVIPRASAD KAMILA / The Hindu
More than 25 birds in Pilikula Biological Park born out of incubators
If you spot jungle fowls Moscovy ducks or yellow and red pheasants chirping in Pilikula Biological Park, they could have been born through artificial hatching of eggs.
The park has gone a step forward after the success of captive breeding of animals. It took up artificial hatching of eggs of some birds under controlled environment a year ago. As a result, more than 25 birds have born in this fashion, according to its director H. Jayaprakash Bhandary.
The park took to artificial hatching as some birds in captivity (in aviary) got disturbed by the movement of visitors and some birds did not sit on eggs for hatching. As a result success rate was less, he told The Hindu.
Thus, some grey and red jungle fowl, Moscovy ducks and yellow and red pheasants have born out of hatching in a controlled environment, he said.
Mr. Bhandary said that eggs were first put in an incubator for the hatching process under a controlled environment. Once the young ones came out of eggs they would be shifted to a brooder for a few days.
Then the young ones would be shifted to a mini cage and once they grew up, they are moved to the aviary. The entire process of artificial hatching would take between 21 days and 24 days.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangalore / by Ramprasad Kamila / Mangalore – June 19th, 2014
The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) is ready for the commercialisation of instant ragi mudde mix, a patent-pending product of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru’s (UAS-B) Department of Food Science and Nutrition (FSN) of Process Technology.
The department, led by Dr H B Shivaleela, professor and university head, FSN, academic council member and scheme head. She, along with S Meenakumari and Rani Arvind, provided the technical know-how about the product to NRDC, which could be accessed by the small and medium food companies in India.
The instant ragi mudde mix formula has been developed to suit both small-scale and mechanised processing. It does not involve a tedious process or require advanced processing equipment.
It could simply be blended with a specific amount of water in the desired cups/bowls, and heated in a microwave for four minutes, or steamed for four minutes in a pressure cooker.
“Ragi is known for its phyto-chemicals and calcium and fibre content. Developing an instant ragi mudde mix would now allow consumers easy access to the required daily nutrition intake,” said Dr Shivaleela.
The invention is aimed at developing simple process to prepare the ragi-based dumpling mix, which is a specialty food of Karnataka. The mix has brought stability and enhanced the value addition to cater to the growing demand of the product, particularly by the natives of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
“There is also immense export potential for the instant ragi mix. People from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh residing overseas can now pick it off supermarket shelves,” said N G Lakshminarayan, manager, business development; coordinator, IPFC, and chief vigilance officer, NRDC.
“A novel feature of the invention is that the mudde mix is a processed flour blend and ready to be used to prepare the Karnataka specialty, which is consumed by all strata of the local population,” said Dr Shivleela.
“In fact, the readymade mix is far more convenient with no lump formation during the predation process in contrast to the conventional process of preparing ragi mudde, which requires skill,” she added.
Therefore, UAS-B viewed it as a nutritionally-improved value-added processed food, saving considerable time vis-a-vis the traditional mode of preparation.
The option of easy preparation and cooking in microwave ovens could attract modern consumers towards instant ragi mixes in an age of ready- to-cook versions of processed foods.
source: http://www.fnbnews.com / FnBnews.com / Home> WideView> Top News / by Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru / Saturday – June 07th, 2014
Yesterday morning I had a most unexpected visitor, Rangaswamy, at my consulting room. He had come all the way from his native place, Banavara near Arsikere to see me with his young son who had not been feeling too well for the past few weeks. This very small built, ever-smiling man is an itinerant seller of kitchen utensils who goes about from village to village on his rickety and always over-loaded moped from dawn to dusk. But that is not his main job and what he is good at most. It is what he does when he is not selling utensils that makes him unusual.
Rangaswamy is a professional monkey-catcher, much in demand and it is in this unusual calling that his talents and ability stand out most. I first met him nearly two decades ago when he became a sensation with his skills in the town of Kollegal where I used to then practice. I still have a weekly outreach clinic there. The town used to be plagued by a herd of more than a hundred monkeys that used to pillage and plunder the crop in all the coconut and fruit trees in addition to harassing citizens on the streets by jumping on them and snatching away anything edible.
No child could walk home from the neighbourhood shop with an ice-cream stick or a packet of chips and no housewife could walk home safely with her daily purchase of vegetables or groceries. And, because the monkeys loved to play with all the clothes that used to be put out for drying I am not too sure whether the womenfolk there had evolved a laundry sorting service in their respective neighbourhoods, not unlike the postal department, to exchange their misplaced and interchanged clothes! I do not know who gave them the idea but one day the town municipal authorities who were under tremendous pressure to do something about the problem decided to rope in Rangaswamy.
He arrived on the scene with his wife and started a two-day survey of the town and the magnitude of its problem before getting down to work. And when he got down to work it was all child’s play for him. In just a week’s time he had all the rouges, big and small, dancing and prancing to his tunes but now safely behind the bars of a large cage from where they could do no harm. The much relieved municipal authorities would then pack their tormentors off in batches by truck to be let off in the distant forests of Malai Mahadeshwara Hills. Since Rangaswamy used to always be on the rooftops with his magic traps while at work, I could not see his handiwork at close quarters although I was tempted at times to follow him and learn the basics of his art.
Strangely, I have always been and I still am fascinated by anything that can be called ‘monkey business’! But on the terraces and rooftops, Rangaswamy seemed as agile as any monkey and unfortunately this was not my forte. But I used to always discuss his exploits and achievements at his every visit to my clinic and he would tell me all about himself and his art with great enthusiasm. I would always tease him that the monkeys were attracted to him because he looked exactly like one of them which is what made his job easy for him. He would say “Yaay hoogi swamy, neevu sari” and break into a shy grin.
But very strangely, yesterday, although I tried very hard I could not get my friend to smile for his photograph. If you happen to see even a wee bit of a smile on his face here it is largely due to your imagination. I would get to spend some time with him unfailingly at the end of each day of his stay in Kollegal because his newly married wife happened to be a bit hypochondriac and he happened to be a very caring and affectionate husband, not unlike me.
He would wait patiently for the crowd of patients to melt away before bringing her into my consulting room. She would have some complaint or the other for which I would prescribe a new and different looking placebo that would satisfy both husband and wife immensely but just for the next twenty-four hours. The next evening they would be back and the lady would narrate a different set of symptoms for which I would evolve a different remedy.
But taking pity on the poor and hapless man I decided to cure her permanently before they left Kollegal. And, I did it too by resorting to a rather drastic but ridiculously simple trick for which Rangaswamy pledged his lifetime gratitude before leaving. I told her that she would soon find her husband going in for a second wife if she did not stop complaining about her minor aches and pains and this unusual treatment seems to have worked wonders. Rangaswamy yesterday told me that his wife who has borne him two sons after our last meeting now dreads going to doctors and that is why this time he had come to see me without her! In case you have a monkey problem, you can contact Rangaswamy on Mob: 9972146839. And, in case you have a hypochondriac wife, you can contact me!
e-mail: kjnmysore@rediffmail.com
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / by Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD / June 06th, 2014
