The Sea of Pink   ( Read full article at http://www.bnhs.org/component/content/article.html?id=963)

Right next to the Arabian Sea was a Sea of Pink with nearly 15,000 Lesser and Greater Flamingo spread out on the mudflats foraging for food. In the background were the thick mangroves stretching up to Trombay and the oil refineries and power plants in Mahul in sharp contrast with the pink tide. The graceful movements of thousands of flamingos with their long elegant bodies, especially when flying in unison, were a mesmerizing sight. Apart from flamingos, it was also a good occasion to see other species of resident and migratory birds including herons, egrets, ibises, gulls, terns, plovers, sandpipers and kingfishers. Kids and grown-ups alike were making a beeline to click photos of the birds as well as their own photos with the flamingo statue kept at the venue!

1. To promote interest and knowledge about the natural resources and the environment among the emerging generation.   
2. To help young people experience the wonder of the nature and wilderness areas.
3. To create awareness about environment friendly lifestyles.   
4. To encourage conservation activities like Tree Planting, adapting exercises like Role plays, Jungle Walk, Bird Slide Show, Bird watching, Trekking and publishing magazines.  
5. To undertake activities to nature and help the environment regenerate through activities like wild life photography, ornithology, trekking rock climbing getting close to nature through various programs like nature conservation music, nature games along with forest walks in night and nature trails during the day.
6. To organize study tours and camps.
7. To aware farmers about co-relation between agriculture and animals, birds, inspects
8. To execute tree plantation in rural and urban areas. Arrange environmental awareness programs such as multipurpose development of forest resources and conservation of forest eco system and awareness of eco tourism.  
9. To organize various programs for farmers, pulps wholesome that is mental intellectual social economical, physical, cultural, scientific etc. development and specially try to implement principles as embodies in the Indian constitution.  
10. To form a society for ecotourism and agriculture centre without any political part.
11. To organise environmental awareness, such as related to air, water soil, and pollution.  
12. To undertake watershed activities in drought effected area.
13. To restore the green cover by massive plantation in order to meet fuel and fodder to fulfil the need of the village itself.
14. To organize group discussion seminar exhibition, competition and lecture services for farmers.

Radioactivepollution is very important environmental problem. The effects o radioactivepollution may represent significant health risk to human and other organisms.

Ultraviolet(UV) light is actually electromagnetic radiation with very short wave length(i.e; shorter than that of visible light). UV ray damages the cells of corneaand ultimately results to blindness. It also causes blisters and redness o theskin (skin cancer) by damaging the cells of the skin.

The effectsof radioactivity generate damage to the gene pool, the genetics of all livingspecies. Genetic damage from radiation effects over life time and generations.

The firsteffect of radioactive pollution was noted in the early twentieth century(1909). The miner who were working in uranium mines, suffered from skin burnand cancer. Some of the major biomedical effects of radiation are well known inhistory. During Second World War in Japan (1945), many people were died due toradioactivity of the atom (atomic explosion). Another prominent radioactivedisaster was 1984, Chernobyl, where an atomic power station was met with anaccident.

Thesubstances which have adverse effects on living organisms and environment, asknown as toxic substances.  A toxicsubstance has the ability to cause systemic damage to living organism. Toxic substancesare resent in air, soil, water and in other living things. They can enterinside body in many ways, like; - through ingestion- by eating or drinking,through inhalation- by breathing, through contact with the skin- by absorption,through injection- from syringe or from other poisonous insect or snake bite.

Toxic substancesare mainly of three categories. Chemical, biological and physical. Chemical toxicsubstances include (a) inorganic substances like lead, mercury, asbestos, hydrofluoricacid, chlorine (gas) and (b) organic substances like methyl alcohol, medicineand poison from living things.

The dosageor concentration of the toxic substances is very important. Or properfunctioning of organism, many substances may be essential at low doses, butthat particular substance can be dangerous at higher doses. For example,manganese is so important for an pregnant woman, that a deficiency of manganeseduring pregnancy reduce growth and can cause mortality of the offspring, whereas workers exposed to high levels of manganese (manganese mines) sufferingbrain damage that causes memory impairment, disorientation and acute anxiety.

Pollutants (or materials) in the environment are broadly of two types- a. biodegradable ones and b. Non- biodegradable ones. Biodegradables are subjected to microbial decomposition and thus with no or minimum persistence time in environment, and accordingly follow the regular cyclic material flow. While non-biodegradables are not decomposed by microbes. They have thus long persistent in environment, and are introduced in the biotic organisms along with nutrients food-stuff. They are neither metabolized nor excreted, but retained in unaltered state in higher concentration in organisms of higher trophic levels in the food-chain of an ecosystem. Thus they lead to irreversible disease and death of the organisms and misbalancing the ecosystem.

The process where the stable and persistent non-biodegradable pollutants (matters/ chemicals) are accumulated in tissues of biological organisms in a concentration that is much higher than its environmental concentration, which usually causes irreversible disease and death of organisms, ultimately lead to ecological imbalance is known as biomagnification.

Causes- Usually stable and non-biodegradable pollutants are lipophilic in nature, means they have the attraction towards lipid. For this lipophilic character, they are partitioned from surrounding water into the lipid or adipose tissues of organisms. Examples are DDT, PCBs (Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls), salts of heavy metals (mercury, lead, cadmium etc.) and so on.

Tulip Das.

A Park exclusively for butterflies, exists in Thenmala hills, Kollam, Kerala.  Situated on 3.5 hectares of forests, the artificially created safari park is filled with roosting plants, nectar providing flowers and a host of leafy shrubs that provide food for caterpillars.  Butterflies here are not kept in captivity.  The humid climate, artificial waterfalls and puddles, host plants and shrubs attract butterflies.  Monsoon season is said to attract maximum variety. 

Rare and endemic beauties like ’Paris Peacock’ and ’Southern Bird Wing’ can be spotted here.

Here is an opportunity to learn about EIA-provided by Centre for Science and Environment

Training: Understanding EIA: From screening to decision making
New Delhi, August 27-31, 2007

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CSE invites applications for its five-day training programme, which aims at demystifying Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for NGOs, environment managers and community-based organisations (CBOs). It also seeks to develop the capacity of state-level regulators and state level expert appraisal committees to screen and scope the EIA process, evaluate reports and conduct public consultations, especially after the new EIA notification.

The course will expose participants to:
- Technical and new legal aspects of EIA
- Environmental and social impacts of various types of developmental projects
- Hands-on exercises in screening, scoping, data analysis and developing environment management plans
- Tools and thumb rules to evaluate various environmental and social impact parameters
- Techniques to engage in public consultation
- Post-EIA monitoring

Last date for registration:
July 31, 2007

Register online >>
http://www.cseindia.org/programme/industry/eia/eia_form.htm

For more information contact:
Sujit Kumar Singh
<sujit@cseindia.org>

Note:
- Course is open to NGOs, academicians, regulators, decision makers and industries
- Due discount will be given to grassroots NGOs and CBOs