Count Down Begins to Vishwa Mangala Gou Grama Yathra

Count Down Begins to

A nation wide awareness movement ‘Vishwa Mangala Gou Grama Yathra’ will be inaugurated on 30th September 2009 at Kurukshethra.

Venue : Theme Park, Pehewa Road, Near Sannihit Sarovar, Kurukshethra, Haryana Programme

Starts at : 3:30 pm

Divine Presence : Poojya Jagadguru Shankaracharya Shree Swami Vasudevananda Saraswathi Ji, Pejavara Mathadheesha Poojya Shree Vishwesha Tirtha Swami Ji, Gou Rushi Poojya Shree Dattasharanananda Ji, Poojya Jagadguru Shankaracharya Shree Raghaveshwara Bharathi Swami Ji, Didi Maa Poojya Sadhwi Rutambara Ji, Poojya Shree Swami Chidananda Saraswathi Ji, Poojya Shree Swami Jnanananda Ji, Mahanta Manadas Maharaj Ji, Rinpoche Lochan Tuklu Ji, Bhikku Vishwa Bandhu, Dharmadhikari Dr. Virendra Heggade Ji, Poojya Acharya Shree Baladevji, Chote Miyan Moinuddin Sabari Ji, Navab Majda Ali Khan Hussain Tikari Ji Presence : Shri Bhayyaji Joshi – Sarakaryavah of RSS, Ka.Aa. Adhyaksha Shree Jagadevram Uramv Ji, Jalapurush Shri Rajendra Simha Ji, Padmashree Kutti Menon Ji – Agriculture Expert, Shri Vivek Oberoy Ji – Film Actor, Sa. Joginder Singh Ji – Ex CBI Director, Dr. Shirley Telles Ji – Yoga Expert, Smt. Santosh Yadav Ji – Parvatharohi

Yathra :

In 108 days it covers the distance of 20 thousand kms.

More than 15 thousand Upa Yathras will reach each & every corner of the country.

Signature Campaign : Crores together singnatures will be collected.

Come, Join Us, In this Historic Journey towards Universal Prosperity and Happiness.

For details click the image links above and lend your full support to the movement.

-Nethrakere Udaya Shankara

Lokayukta calls for Active Public Action to save Lakes

Lokayukta calls for Active

Public Action to save Lakes

Justice Santosh Hegde attributed the problems facing Bangalore’s lakes to the negligent attitudes of short-sighted politicians and an unconcerned bureaucracy.

Hon'ble Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde called for Active Public Action to save Bangalore Lakes. He was speaking in the workshop on “Urban Lakes as Ecological, Cultural and Public Spaces”, Organised by Environment Support Group in collaboration with Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology at Dr. H. Marigowda Hall, Lalbagh, Bangalore on 26 September 2009.

In his Keynote address Justice Santosh Hegde Karnataka Lokayukta addressed the overall lake situation in Bangalore and then on more specific issues of governance that worsen conditions for lakes.

He spoke of the undulating topography of Bangalore, lending itself to the huge system of manmade lake chains that was in place until relatively recently. He went on to explain that building upon and encroaching on lakes leads to problems of flooding, since problems of overflow were previously handled by water flowing from the upper lakes of a lake series to those further down. He spoke of other problems facing lakes, such as pollution from sewage and heavy metal contamination.

Justice Hegde attributed the problems facing Bangalore’s lakes to the negligent attitudes of short-sighted politicians and an unconcerned bureaucracy. He claimed that faulty governance and overcrowding of the city beyond its infrastructural capacities were both to blame for the death of the city’s lakes.

The only hope he saw was in people organising themselves to question the absolute collapse of the governance systems and engaging with each and every public action, demanding transparency, exposing corruption and ensuring only that development would take place that truly benefits the people. He spoke with alarm that less than 15% of public expenditure truly meets public objectives and cited the recent CAG report which exposed that Rs. 51,000 crores of investment in programmes like NREGA were unaccounted.

In that sense Justice Hegde wondered if the the thousands of crores that the Government proposed to be invested in rehabiltating lakes should be perceived as benefiting the public to the extent of 15%?

Justice Hegde also answered many questions from the audience and encouraged people to intervene at the very inception of a problem and not to presume it is not their problem at all.

Speaking on “A Historical Anthropology of Tank Irrigation Technology in South India” Dr. Esha Shah of the University of Suxxex investigated the history of tanks in Karnataka, studying in particular the folklore and songs that grew up around tanks. She disputed the common assumption that in pre-colonial times tanks were collectively constructed and maintained by communities, attributing that assumption to a tendency to glorify and romanticise history.

Dr. Shah discussed the system through which tanks were constructed, where temples would provide resources (donated by the elite of the community) and lower caste communities provided labour, often under cruel coercion. She spoke of folk tales passed on through the communities which support the latter theory, in which their people were through various means tricked and cursed into poverty and tank building. She also spoke of the complex mythology that would grow up around tanks, with songs and shrines created for women who were periodically sacrificed to make a tank provide water during droughts.

She also spoke of how tanks were not initially built with a view towards environmental sustainability. Of the over 35,000 tanks in Karnataka, merely 300 were built during the British period and most of the rest during the reign of the Vijayanagar Empire. The basic objective was to expand agricultur, particularly paddy cultivation, to places with water scarcity.

She concluded by saying that history does not hold the key to the problems of the present. Our history did not have the democratic structure of present day society, and thus its often brutal solutions to problems could not be replicated in society today. She said that we need alternative ways to imagine the future keeping well our memories from the past as a reminder of what to avoid.

Dr. S. Subramanya of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dr. D. S. Ravindran, IFS, Sunil Dutt Yadav, A. R. Shivakumar, Executive Secretary of the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology, A. T. Ramaswamy, formerly Chairman of the Joint Karnataka Legislature Committee on Encroachment of Public Lands in the Bangalore area, Leo Saldanha of the Environment Support Group, Ms. Bhargavi S. Rao, Trustee and Coordinator (Education) of Environment Support welcomed the audience and also thanked them for all their excellent participation and cooperation. also spoke. Ms. Bhargavi S. Rao, Trustee and Coordinator (Education) of Environment Support welcomed the audience and also thanked them for all their excellent participation and cooperation.

For detailed report of deliberations of the workshop by Anjali Vaidya, click the link to image above.

-Nethrakere Udaya Shankara

Proud moment to India: Chandrayaan founds water on Moon..!

Proud moment to India:

Chandrayaan founds

Water on Moon..!

BANGALORE/MUMBAI: This is the moment we should be proud. Yes, It is a giant leap for India's space programme and the biggest scientific discovery of the 21st Century.

India's maiden Moon Mission, Chandrayaan-1 has found water, a discovery that scientists say will upend thinking about space and boost research. And, of course, it has helped shake off the failure tag from the Rs 386-crore Chandrayaan-I project that was aborted last month.

India's own Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on board the country's maiden lunar craft had discovered water on the moon, a finding confirmed by US space agency NASA's probe that was also aboard Chandrayaan-1, India's top space scientist G Madhavan Nair said here on Friday. ( Watch Video by Times Now)

India's first lunar mission had made a "path-breaking and real discovery" by establishing the presence of water on the moon, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Nair said.

While expressing pride in the achievement, Nair added: "But the water is not in the form of sea or lake or puddle or drops. It is embedded on the surface in minerals and rocks."

Apart from India's MIP, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) of NASA on board Chandrayaan-1 confirmed the presence of water. The lunar mission had to be aborted Aug 30 after it lost radio contact with Earth.

According to Nair, the "quantity found is much larger than expected".

On whether water can be extracted, Nair said: "Yes, we can. But one tonne of soil may yield half a litre."

Nair said MIP picked up signals about the presence of water as it journeyed down to land on the moon surface.

"One of the main objectives of Chandrayaan-1 was to look for the presence of water. Our MIP confirmed it."

Click the links to image to view the pictures.

(Imputs from ISRO and various other sources)

-Nethrakere Udaya Shankara

Benefits of Gaumata (Cow)

Benefits of Gaumata (Cow)

This is the mail I received from Rohit Khisti. He pointed out the benifits from Cows and sent a vidio appeared in Youtube.

Rohit says ' If we can prove to people about benefits of gaumata, campaign on tv commercials about benefits of gaumata, then i think that will also help our farmers as well cow protection.

.

Few points would be:

1) Biogas plant. This will eliminate expense on Household LPG Cylinder ( Approximate 5000 Rs per year )

2) Milk & Dairy Products.

3) Fertilizers from Cow dung for Farming

Lets explore & start working on it. Drop of water helps to fill up the dam, so lets start contributing as drop of water in the activity..Dont get bugged up with political decisions, non gaumata followers etc.

In the Video here Chaitanya Kumar, Hyderabad city coordinator for Indian Youth Climate Network, explains the simple beauty of a biogas plant in a village nearby to Hyderabad.

Just go through it.

-Nethrakere Udaya Shankara

Come Let Us Save our Lakes..!

Come Let Us Save our Lakes..!

Bangalore: Environment Support Group ® in collaboration with Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology has organised a workshop on Urban Lakes to give a thought how to save them.

The workshop will be held on Saturday 26th September 2009 at Marigowda Hall, Lalbagh, Near Double Road Entrance, Bangalore.

Decision makers, media, NGOs, Teachers, students and the public will participate in the workshop and think on the importance of Urban Lakes and their importance in the aspects like Ecological, Cultural and Public Spaces.

Workshop is organised for Decision makers, Media, NGOs, Teachers, Students, Government and Private organisations and their employees. All interested Public are also requested to participate in the proceedings and give their suggestions.

The urban built area of Bangalore once had over 300 tanks (now also called as lakes). These water harvesting systems were built over hundreds of years by various generations, and formed an intricate network of water use serving agriculture and drinking water needs. In addition these water bodies have become critical sites for a variety of flora and fauna, especially local and migratory waterfowl.

Over time, these tanks have disappeared due to poor urban planning, lack of concern and reliance on drawing water from faraway rivers. The cultural underpinnings of water conservation that was so innate to life and living in these regions, slowly eroded with the disappearance of these lakes. As the city grows more dense in population and buildings, the critical importance of lakes as social, cultural and ecological spaces is being felt.

Presently less than 60 of these tanks exist in built Bangalore, and most are heavily polluted or drained. As a direct result of encroachment of lakes and its canal networks, Bangalore's neighbourhoods get easily flooded even in a short rain frequently resulting in loss of life and property.

This workshop will highlight the traditional methods of use and management of tanks and community relationships that kept these practices alive apart from l appreciating the dynamic ecology of lakes and their role in supporting livelihoods of communities dependent on fishing, horticulture and farming. Workshop will focus our concerns on how lakes have transitioned into cesspools of urban waste, sewage and decay.

'

'We will examine how critical lakes are to building water security for ever growing Bangalore. Workshop will examine the role of the Rule of Law and Community Action in reviving these critical water bodie' Organisers of Workshop says..

Workshop will also examine current policies of protecting and conserving lakes and examine their efficiency, especially ongoing efforts at privatising lakes. As an overall process it will try and evolve a series of good practices to ensure our lakes are retained for our generation and generations to come.

This workshop is for decision makers from the government and corporate sectors, academicians, media persons, legal professionals, political leaders, etc. Needless to state, anyone is welcome with prior registration.

Proceedings of this workshop will be widely circulated with the help of mass media and also electronically.

For More Details and Registrations contact:

Divya Ravindranath or Bhargavi S. Rao, Environment Support Group, 1572, 36th Cross, Ring Road, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560070 Tel:91-80-26713559/60/61 Email bhargavi@esgindia.org/divyarrs@esgindia.org Website: www.esgindia.org

Lalbagh requires all Participants to pay the entrance fee of RS.10/- at the gates.

For More details click the links to images above.

-Nethrakere Udaya Shankara