Evolution Theory's New Catch: How a Monkey gives birth to a Butterfly!!!

My little darling daughter Khushi (Prakriti), studying in standard 7th, always surprises me with her imaginations. Last night was a bit different as she came up with a whole new evolution theory.

She said, "Papa, after doing a lot of thinking I have reached to this conclusion that a Monkey can give birth to a Butterfly." Surprised, I asked, "how?"

Khushi: "See, you are a Monkey but I am a Butterfly." Explaining further, she said, "you belong to the Monkey class but girls are like butterflies - colorful and always wanting to fly."

My sweet little princess, you are really amazing. I just wish that you continue viewing life like that and live one with liberty and flying colors. God bless!

WIO's Mahanadi River Basin Update - 12th June 2015!

Mahanadi River Basin Update – 12^th June 2015

(An occasional update from ‘Mahanadi River Basin Initiative’ of Water Initiatives Odisha and Mahanadi River Waterkeeper)

Theme: Inter Linking of Rivers

Odisha Government is Right in Opposing the Mahanadi-Godavari Link Project

We have learnt that the Government of Odisha has opposed the Mahanadi-Godavari River Linking Project proposed by the Central Government.  This is a right move and we welcome this decision of the state government.

Mahanadi is already a stressed River.   Accelerated urbanisation, increased mining and blind promotion of coal fired power plants has already dried up the River.  In almost eight to nine months in a year the River is not able to maintain even Minimum Ecological Flow.  Irrigation as well as drinking water projects are not able to meet targets and number of conflicts between different user groups are growing by the day in the entire basin.  Any diversion of water from the Mahanadi will bring more chaos and misery to the basin communities.

The feasibility studies of the river linking projects have always remained controversial.  Neither states nor independent experts have been taken into confidence by successive governments at the centre. A link that involves large dams and other construction activities will have huge impact on ecology of the river system.  Further the plan will also lead to social unrest as large number of people will be displaced.  Resettlement and rehabilitation of project oustees has always been mired with controversies and states have miserably failed in this.  The project will therefore not be feasible.

Mahanadi is has been continuously marketed as a ‘Water Surplus’ river to attract investment in mining and power sectors.  However, the data that are available at public domain are old and obsolete.  Most of the documents in government that one can access in public domain date back either to 1991 or 2001.  This is completely unacceptable and speaks of the obsolete systems in place. 

We have urged upon the Government of Odisha to come out with a Status Paper on the water availability in the River Mahanadi with updated information. In this, the government should closely and actively work with the Chhattisgarh government.

Some of the news coverage on this update can be found at:

http://www.orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=59596

http://mail.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/odisha-yet-to-get-proposal-in-detail.html

http://www.orissabarta.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19604:odisha-government-is-right-in-opposing-the-mahanadi-godavari-link-project&catid=35:top-stories

We encourage you to follow our updates at the following places:

Twitter: @MahanadiRiver

Facebook:

Our Group “Save Rivers to Save Civilizations” at https://www.facebook.com/groups/220598744649462/

Our Community “Save Odisha Rivers” at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Odisha-Rivers/233282700036094?fref=ts

Our Blog at http://www.climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your continued support to all our initiatives.

Look forward to listen from you and to work together.

Thanks and regards,

Ranjan Panda

Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha

Mahanadi River Waterkeeper (Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance)

Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, India

Mobile: +919437050103
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com, ranjanpanda@yahoo.com

Tweet @MahanadiRiver

Tweet @ranjanpanda

Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader

Blog: http://www.climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/

Please join with us in saving Mahanadi, India's 6th largest River...

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Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) is a state level coalition of civil society organisations, farmers, academia, media and other concerned, which has been working on water, environment and climate change issues in the state for more than two and half decades now.

Sea Change: Bay of Bengal's Biodiversity is in Danger - My Latest Article on World Oceans Day!

http://www.thequint.com/2015/jun/08/sea-change-bay-of-bengals-biodiversity-is-in-danger

Sea Change: Bay of Bengal’s Biodiversity is in Danger

Ranjan K Panda

Updated: Yesterday, 7:09 pm

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1.1K7

Spotted-deer on the fringe of Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest along Bangladesh’s southwest coast. (Photo: Reuters)

In December 2014, when over 75,000 gallons of oil spilled out of a drowned tanker in the Sunderbans delta, pollution of the Bay of Bengal came under international limelight. The Bay of Bengal, occupying an area of about 2.2 million sq km, is one of the world’s largest marine ecosystems, replete with biological diversity such as coral reefs, estuaries, mangroves, fish spawning and nursery areas.

The Sunderbans, straddling Bangladesh and India, is an UNESCO-designated and protected World Heritage Site. It hosts the world’s largest tidal mangrove forest, hundreds of endangered Bengal tigers, and riverine Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins.

Urbanisation Trend

A fourth of the world’s population lives in countries bordering the Bay, at least half a billion people living in its low littoral are highly vulnerable to sea rise. Experts attribute population growth and climate change as two greatest threats to the Bay, whose health can be rightly considered as the lifeline of Asia’s economic resurgence. On World Oceans Day, I am worried about the trend of urbanisation, and a related unsustainable lifestyle-driven economy.

Representative picture. (Photo courtesy: Facebook page of Ranjan Panda)

Some of the largest and most important rivers that disgorge into the Bay of Bengal are now highly polluted. Among them are the Ganges and its distributaries such as Padma and Hooghly; the Brahmaputra and its distributaries such as Yamuna and Meghna; and rivers such as Irrawaddy, Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna and Kaveri have all recorded alarming rates of pollution.

In five years, the number of polluted rivers in India has more than doubled. According to the latest assessment by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the number of polluted rivers has gone up from 121 in 2009 to 275. The number of stretches of these rivers has also doubled from 150 in 2009 to 302. With India’s urban population growth rate outstripping the rural growth rate, the bulk of the pollution load that our rivers receive is from urban centres.

Polluted River Stretches

The CPCB report says that the sewage generated from 650 cities and towns situated along the 302 polluted river stretches has also increased from 38,000 million litres per day (MLD) in 2009 to 62,000 MLD today. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar recently said that effective treatment of sewerage in our cities is about 15 to 17% only. All the waste travels down to the sea.

A heavily polluted Mahanadi. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook page of Ranjan Panda)

My studies of the Mahanadi basin, one of the major river systems that empties into the Bay of Bengal, shows that waste water, including sewerage load discharge of Odisha’s major cities, alone has increased by about 300% over the last two decades.

The UN has warned that land-based sources (such as agricultural run-off, discharge of nutrients and pesticides and untreated sewage including plastic) account for approximately 80% of marine pollution, globally. Our pollution monitoring systems are currently discounting the pollution by industrial and mining affluent.

Fossil Fuel-Driven Growth

However, ground realities show that coal mining and thermal power plants have emerged as the greatest threat to the basin as well as the Bay of Bengal. Even in the Sunderbans, protests against the Rampal power plant plan show how urban lifestyle fuelled by fossil fuel and unsustainable industrial growth-based development is polluting the Bay of Bengal to an irrecoverable extent.

Immersion going on in the Bay of Bengal. (Photo: Reuters)

Assessing the role of pollution by urbanisation alone, researchers from Monash University, Australia, have projected a gloomy future for the Bay of Bengal. Expecting that 50% of the Bay’s adjacent population would be urban by 2050 — in countries like Bangladesh, India and Myanmar — they project a considerable increase in nutrient levels in rivers from sewage and other sources that would lead to harmful algal bloom in coastal waters of about 95 % of the Bay’s total drainage.

Other data, however, suggests the urban feat may be achieved much earlier, by 2035. The doom is coming faster.

Fossil fuel driven growth has another bearing on the Bay of Bengal. The rise in sea surface temperature (SST) is largely driven by global temperature rise due to increased CO2 in the atmosphere. According to scientists, rise in SST is a major cause of increased intensity of cyclones that ravage the Bay of Bengal from time to time.

Worrisome also is the fact that mangrove forests, the richest among which are found in this Bay, that act as a natural shield against cyclones are also shrinking fast due to “development.” To save the Bay of Bengal, we certainly need to look the way we are seeking ‘progress.’

(The writer is a water and climate change researcher).

WIO's Mahanadi River Basin Update - 5th June 2015

Mahanadi River Basin Update – 5^th June 2015

(An occasional update from ‘Mahanadi River Basin Initiative’ of Water Initiatives Odisha and Mahanadi River Waterkeeper)

Theme: World Environment Day

Growing Focus on Mahanadi

Greetings from Mahanadi on World Environment Day!

A leading daily newspaper of the region 'Pragativadi' profiled me as "Environment's Guard" in an exclusive feature that covered our work on the Mahanadi in specific and other environmental issues in general. The following link shows the feature but that is in Odia language and hence I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to friends who can’t read this language.  However, just wanted to give the link for your information.

http://climatecrusaders.blogspot.in/2015/06/pragativadi-features-me-as-environments.html

Several regional newspaper carried our view points in their WED features and articles.  However, one of India's leading English dailies quoted me extensively on water pollution issues in mining areas.  You can please find the link at:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/odisha-s-story-about-pollution-mining-and-the-environment/article1-1355017.aspx

Two TV channels invited me for live discussions on environmental issues especially dealing with Mahanadi River Basin.  The details are as follows:

http://climatecrusaders.blogspot.in/2015/06/in-live-tv-news-programmes-on-world.html

We have reached out well to the communities and youths through these mainstream media as well as social media on our pages, groups and twitter handles.  Our updates now reach to about ten thousand people.

We encourage you to follow our updates at the following places:

Twitter: @MahanadiRiver

Facebook:

Our Group “Save Rivers to Save Civilizations” at https://www.facebook.com/groups/220598744649462/

Our Community “Save Odisha Rivers” at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Odisha-Rivers/233282700036094?fref=ts

Our Blog at http://www.climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your continued support to all our initiatives.

Look forward to listen from you and to work together.

Thanks and regards,

Ranjan

Tweet @MahanadiRiver

Tweet @ranjanpanda

=============================

For further information please contact:

Ranjan Panda

Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha

Mahanadi River Waterkeeper (Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance)

Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, India

Mobile: +919437050103
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com, ranjanpanda@yahoo.com

Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader

Blog: http://www.climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/

Please join with us in saving Mahanadi, India's 6th largest River...

=============

Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) is a state level coalition of civil society organisations, farmers, academia, media and other concerned, which has been working on water, environment and climate change issues in the state for more than two and half decades now.

Country's top corporates owe U.P. farmers 6000 crore rupees!

Indian economy's strength is its farm sector as it not only shelters majority of the population but also sustains their livelihood.  However, our governments have been favoring the rich and greedy corporate houses at the cost of the farmers.  The news pasted below is one such example...

Ranjan Panda

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Country’s top corporates owe U.P. farmers Rs. 6,000 crore

Updated: Jun 6, 2015 03:32 AM , By Mohammad Ali | 

The figures of arrears the industrialists owe the State’s farmers are the highest in the country.

Several sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh have committed suicide as they are yet to get more than Rs. 6,000 crore owed to them by some of the country’s top corporates for this crop season alone.

The corporate houses that owe the State’s farmers money include Bajaj, Birla, Modi group and the liquor baron Ponty Chaddha-led Wave group. These private defaulters, which own 40 of the 103 sugarcane mills, have left the farmers in a state of crisis.

Highest in country

According to an Uttar Pradesh Cane Development department document accessed by The Hindu, the figures of arrears the industrialists owe the State’s farmers are the highest in the country.

The top defaulter is Bajaj group which is yet to pay Rs. 1598 crore to the farmers. The Mawana group, which owns three mills in the State, has defaulted on the payment of Rs. 524 crore. The Birla group, which owns five mills, owes Rs. 376.5 crore, the Modi group, with two sugar mills owes Rs. 406 crore.

The Yadu group, owned by U.P. strongman D.P. Yadav has defaulted on payment of Rs. 50 crore. The Dalmiya group which owns three mills is yet to pay Rs. 94.3 crore. There are 20 others in the list with smaller outstanding amounts.

Senior officials of the Cane Development department told The Hindu that the officials will soon initiate action against the top defaulters.

A senior office-bearer of the Sugar Mill Owners Association said, on condition of anonymity, that the “government needs to seriously look at the crisis in the sugar industry and reward those who pay the farmers even in this crisis.”

“There is no dispute that the private sugar mill owners owe more than Rs 6,000 crore as arrears but frankly, the industry is going through a big crisis. Due to the decreasing sugar prices we are unable to recover the money from the market. So, we are just not in a position to pay Rs. 240 per quintal,” he said.

Sudhir Panwar, a farmer expert argued that farmers have not got even a fourth of the price of the sugarcane they sold to these private players.

‘Control sugar prices’

“The Central government needs to control the sugar prices which are continuously falling. When Modi addressed the rally in Meerut ahead of the parliamentary election last year, he raised the issue but he is yet to do any thing. The Centre abolished its control on the sugar market because of which the prices are continuously going down,” Mr. Sudhir Panwar added.

http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/countrys-top-corporates-owe-up-farmers-rs-6000-crore/article7287537.ece/

Mining and Pollution in Odisha: Ranjan Panda's views in HT article!

Odisha's story about pollution, mining and the environment

• Priya Ranjan Sahu, Hindustan Times, Bhubaneshwar
| 
• Updated: Jun 05, 2015 12:25 IST

In coal producing states, women carrying away illegally scavenged coal is a common sight. Here, womenfolk carry coal from an open-cast coal mine in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. (Getty Images Photo)

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Odisha’s resource-rich Sukinda valley acquired infamy as the fourth most polluted place in the world in 2007, ranked by the Blacksmith Institute of the US.

The finding was vigorously contested by the state pollution control board as vastly exaggerated, but it did manage to cause a constructive debate on environmental issues in the region.

The valley in Odisha’s Jajpur district has around 97% of the country’s reserves of chromite ore, a vital component in the production of stainless steel, leather and alloys.

The downside to the heavy tapping of mineral resources from a dozen open cast mines in the area over 70 years has been the utter degradation of Sukinda’s landscape. Water in the region has been severely contaminated, the soil polluted with toxic substances, the forests almost wiped out and farms laid waste.

Locals say half the mines now stand closed but the damage has already been done, thanks largely to the improper disposal of waste in river water by the miners.

Hrudananda Nayak, a local resident who used to work in a mine that was closed in 2002, says people in a 20km radius of the mines have no choice but to drink toxic water and inhale chrome dust. “You will find people suffering from skin diseases, gastroenteritis and diabetes in every family across the valley. Every village has at least two cancer patients,” he said. After Nayak lost his mining job, he took up farming on his four acres of land but the production remains low as the soil has been degraded.

Besides the 60,000 people falling under the seven gram panchayats of Sukinda, more than 40,000 in another five gram panchayats of the neighbouring Dhenkanal district have been directly affected by the fallout of mining.

The importance of mining as a source of livelihood has also seen a rapid decline. In 1975, more than 40,000 labourers worked in the mines. The number is now down to 4,000 because of modernisation of processes. Modernisation, though, has not led to a let-up in the pollution level.

Veteran labour union leader Mayadhar Nayak says mine owners should have been more responsible about waste disposal. "Dumping of waste in the river has worked like slow poison. Diseases take time to surface but their seeds were sowed over a long period,” he says.

The Brahmani, Odisha’s second-largest river that runs through Sukinda valley, is the state’s most polluted because of excessive hexavalent chromium exposure, which has multiplied the risk from cancer-causing carcinogenic substances for the 26 lakh people dependent on the river. Surveys have indicated more than 80% deaths in heavily mined areas are caused by chromite-related diseases.

Though the state pollution control board disputed the Blacksmith Institute report as highly exaggerated, its own findings also showed high levels of hexavalent chromium in surface water.

Hearing a writ petition in May last year, the Orissa high court was not satisfied with a report by the state pollution control board that the pH and hexavalent chromium levels after treatment were within the limits prescribed under the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 and asked the central pollution control board to conduct an independent study on Sukinda’s pollution.

The central board gave its report in October last year, saying that hexavalent chromium pollution had gone up due to chromite mining and recommended the constitution of a consortium of members from all mines operating in the valley to take remedial steps.

Casting doubt over the consortium’s efficacy, noted environmentalist and water activist Ranjan Panda says local authorities can not evade responsibility as without their connivance mine owners could not have polluted the area with impunity.

“Though an independent assessment was done upon the high court’s intervention, we doubt it will address the alarming proportions of pollution,” says Panda. “Only one season’s data were analysed. A thorough study is needed. The consortium thing does not address issues related to the damage already done.”

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/odisha-s-story-about-pollution-mining-and-the-environment/article1-1355017.aspx

In Live TV News Programmes on World Environment Day 2015!

4th June at 7.30 PM went live on Focus TV to discuss pollution of Mahanadi at Cuttack.  

5th June at 11.30 AM went live on Prameya TV to talk about impact of Unsustainable Lifestyles on Mahanadi...

Ranjan Panda

Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO)

Mahanadi River Waterkeeper (Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance)

Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, India

Pragativadi features me as "Environment's Guard" !

Got featured as "Environment's Guard" by leading Odia daily Pragativati in it's special feature on World Environment Day 2015.

Thanks for your continued support all friends, co-sailors and well-wishers!

Happy World Environment Day 2015!

If we can produce Three Earths by 2050, we can continue the way we are pursuing ‘progress.’  If not, let’s live a life that keeps alive the only Earth we have…

Let’s make this promise on World Environment Day 2015!

Ranjan Panda

Water Initiatives Odisha

Combat Climate Change Network, India

Mahanadi River Waterkeeper(Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance)

Ah, those first drops of rains!

Ah, those first drops of rains;

Dancing down, piercing through the scorching heat...

So refreshing, so promising!

Stay with us please;

For the craving fields, soul and mind...

Will Indian Children soon lose their right to Egg Protein?

Most states run by BJP deny Eggs, an essential protein, to children in the Mid Day Meal (MDM) schemes. This goes in sync with the vegetarian culture they are supposed to be promoting. The latest ban of Eggs comes in Madhya Pradesh where 52 per cent children suffer from malnutrition.

A recent survey reveals that vegetarian people have more protein deficiency than non-veg eaters. Several communities including tribals, dalits and others across the country have non-vegetarian food habits. By denying Egg to children in MDMs therefore the governments are denying both protein and right to live the way people want.

Roads to Prosperity? A case to ponder...

@ Redhakhol: These children rush to each slowing vehicle on the National Highway to sell forest/orchard fruits that fetch them peanuts. They risk their lives and miss childhood. The same products are available in city markets at high prices (5 to 20 times more) but these primary producers don't get the benefit.

But we keep building more and more roads in the name of 'Development'. Which gap are these highways bridging and whose development are they bringing?