“In India, as in China, stimulating an interest in nature is a task of the utmost and immediate importance. With both economies growing at rates of around ten percent a year, whole ecosystems risk being destroyed. In India the most recent example is the famed bird reserve of Bharatpur. The increased demand for water in Rajasthan has lead to the diversion of the water supply from Bharatpur, the winter home of 70,000 migatory birds, or rather what was the winter home of 70,000. Since the local river was re-channeled the birds don’t come anymore….

In Britain surveys have found that 85% of respondents have stated that they learn most about their environment from television. Patently India is not necessarily a direct parallel, however there is no doubt that television could have a positive role to play in creating awareness among India’s 1.1 billion people. A sizeable proportion of the population do not have access to television, but hundreds of millions do. It is vital then that a strong and vibrant natural history industry evolves to supply this huge market with home grown films to reinforce the sense of wonder and respect for nature that needs to be there, so it can be defended…..

………….In my personal view creating air time on Indian channels is vital to generate a successful Indian wildlife film industry not merely as a platform to sell to American channels but also help preserve India’s wildlife treasures…”

Jeremy Bristow, award winning environmental film producer

Source:  http://www.wildfilmnews.org/

Nova NetTV

When one talks about E-governance for conservation, most of us dismiss the idea as one whose time has not come. 

But an article I read at the following link called the 100 dollar un-pc

http://jasonoverdorf.blogspot.com/

reassures me that the day is not far when we can achieve that.  The article talks about the revolutionary product Nova net tv which is a PC costing less than Rs 5000/-

Rajesh Jain, co-founder of Novatium  says that in India’s PC market there are 10 million relatively wealthy Indians at the "top of the pyramid" who buy computers just like consumers in developed countries. There are an additional 30 million urban Indians at the "middle of the pyramid" and 100 million very poor Indians at the "bottom of the pyramid." "What we are saying is how can you dramatically bring down the entry levels for computing in this country and make it accessible to the middle of the pyramid?" he says.

Novatium’s approach has been to completely redesign the computer, slashing costs while keeping the form and functions typical of a top-end PC. Once it’s set up, it doesn’t look all that different from a conventional PC—the basic box plus a keyboard and monitor. It installs and operates as simply as a television—you plug it in and switch it on. And the money doesn’t come from government budgets or philanthropic largesse, but from Jain’s profit-oriented business model.

The concept owner and cofounder Prof. Jhunjhunwala and researchers at IIT came up with a plan that builds on the "thin client" concept that has been popular in the West for years, but only for business applications. It uses a cheap microprocessor and removes the hard disk, CD/DVD drive and other costly and problem-prone components, leaving the keyboard, screen and USB port. Easier to maintain than regular PCs, sales of thin-client PCs to businesses are growing at about 20 percent a year in developed nations, even as sales of regular PCs flatten. Instead of working backward from the PC, Jhunjhunwala pioneered a new architecture from the ground up, replacing the expensive microprocessor with the guts of a mobile phone—thus tapping a supercompetitive industry with enormous economies of scale. In 2003, Jain and Jhunjhunwala cofounded Novatium, along with Analog Devices Chairman Ray Stata, with the aim of taking thin-client computers into the home market.

Read the full article which appeared in News Week International at http://jasonoverdorf.blogspot.com/

Documentary film making in India has always been a challenging task.  Commissioned projects end up in the can after being screened to a select audience.   The public do not get a chance to see them as the screening opportunities are limited.  But “Vikalp” in Mumbai and traveling film festivals of Centre for Media Studies, New Delhi, and “film vans” in Kerala and Bengal are changing all that.

If you are an independent producer who spend hard earned money in making films one finds the investment does not come back and making more films remains a dream.  But there is hope here too.  Production costs and Camera costs are coming down for one. Outlets for distribution like youtube.com and google videos offer a free platform to reach your videos to a wider audience. Video CDs and DVDs are a possible distribution method too.   

Read an interesting take on the subject at the following link

Making business sense of documentary filmmaking

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1923204,0002.htm

 

HIGHLIGHTNING TOURISM’S ROLE IN CLIMATE RESPONSE

 "There is now
unequivocal proof from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
and the Stern report that climate challenge is real and that we must
all play our part in its resolution. Tourism is an important sector
of the global economy and a vital link in human communications,
cultural interface and development. Like other key sectors, we play a
part in the problem and we have to be responsive and responsible as
temperatures, sea levels and other climactic conditions evolve. We
will work even more closely with UNEP and other sister agencies like
the International Civil Aviation Organization, as well as the private
sector, in exploring new patterns of consumption and conservation, as
well as fast track strategies for adaptation", Mr. Frangialli, UNWTO Secretary-General, said.

There will be two overriding considerations for UNWTO, the Secretary-
General added. "First, promoting responsible growth of tourism to
advance global trade, as well as strengthening the links between
people and cultures which foster mutual understanding. This will mean
innovative adaptation across the sector using all the tools and
technologies as they become available. Second, ensuring that tourism
remains a key tool to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and
helping poor nations lift themselves out of the poverty trap.

 Tourism
represents 40% of services exports and the world’s poorest countries
have comparative advantage in this area which must be encouraged as a
part of responsible climate change strategies."

UNWTO and UNEP have agreed to strengthen their cooperation in a
number of ways – most immediately, UNWTO will join the billion tree
planting campaign of UNEP and the environment agency will strengthen
its support for UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism to upbeat
the sustainability and climate response components. The organizations
will collaborate on the Tourism Climate Change Summits.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) - BillionTree Campaign
http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/

IPCC Report on Global Warming

The most authoritative scientific report on climate change says with 

90% certainty that the burning of fossil fuels and other human 

activities are driving climate change. 

The report, from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC) says the rise in global temperatures could be as high as 6.4°C 

by 2100. The report also predicts sea level rises and increases in hurricanes.

 The new IPCC report is the work of 3750 climate experts, who have 

spent six years reviewing all the available climate research. It was 

released in Paris, France, on Friday.

Considering the human role in causing climate change, the IPCC report is damning: "The understanding of [human] influences on climate has improved since the [2001] report, leading to a very high confidence that human activities" are responsible for most of the warming seen since 1950, says the report’s summary for policymakers. “Very high confidence” is described as “at least a 9 out of 10 chance of being correct”.

Before the industrial revolution, human greenhouse gas emissions were small, and the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide – the main greenhouse gas – was about 280 parts per million (ppm).

Thanks largely to the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use, such as agricultural exploitation and deforestation, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide reached 379 ppm in 2005

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11088-blame-for-global-warming-placed-firmly-on-humankind.htm

A picture story sent in by a friend was so moving I thought we must have a blog topic exclusively for "anthromorphism". Anthropomorphism, also called personification, is the attribution of human characteristics and qualities to nonhuman beings.

Scientists at one time used to look down upon such stories-as figments of human imagination. But as human beings are observing and flming more deeply into the private lives of animals, realisation is slowly dawning that we were probably too egoistic to acknowledge that animals have intelligence and emotions!

Read the story at this link

http://www.juliusbergh.com/cocky

Maharashtra all set to induct women foresters

CHANDRAPUR: For 21-year-old Yogita Madavi, the steep climb of Tipagarh hills in the naxal-hit Gadchiroli last month was no mean feat. Physically challenged, this tribal girl wanted to prove a point. "My friends used to taunt by calling me a langdi. Every time they did so, I got more determined to prove my mettle some day. And I think I’ve done it," she says.

Yogita is one of the 11 successful girls who were recruited by the Maharashtra Forest Department last April after a written and physical test. She and her co-mates literally walked into what was hitherto a male bastion. "We walked 16 km in four hours on the trot to pass the physical test. All of us here passed the test at ease," the gutsy recruit says. “This is the first batch of women foresters in Maharashtra. And it’s doing very well,” said S P Wadaskar,  principal of Rangers Training College. Though a few other states have already recruited women cadres before, this is the first time in Maharashtra, he said. After a two-month training, the 11 women foresters would join work, the principal said.

Their responsibilities include everything from joint forest management to catching poachers and safeguarding wildlife.  They have to lead separate teams of guards to monitor the depleting jungle wealth.

Three of the 11 female recruits are married. Motivated by their husbands, all of them decided to join the department as foresters  post-marriage.  "It was my husband who motivated me to go for the test," said Seema Sherki nee Gore.

Last year, the forest department received 47,000 applications, including 7,000-odd from female aspirants for 36 vacant posts. Of them, 36,000 got short-listed for the preliminary examination.

About 520 got through for the mains, and finally only 33, including 11 women were selected, Wadaskar said. Amrapali Khobragade, one of the women recruits, says: "We are no less than men. And we are extremely anxious to prove that women can work even harder than men. This was, perhaps, the only field without women. There is no field left now where women haven’t countered risks and challenges successfully."

Source: DNA, January 21, 2007