THE END OF THE INDIAN LIONS BY STUBBORN POLITICIAN

Amidst growing concern over depleting tiger population in India, Gujarat stoutly opposed in the Supreme Court, the Centre's proposal to shift some of the Gir Asiatic lions sanctuary to Kuno tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh.

The Narendra Modi government warned that partial relocating the lions from the Gir sanctuary in Gujarat was fraught with "irreparable damage to the sociology of lions" and asserted that Madhya Pradesh cannot manage the relocation as it had failed to protect its own tiger sanctuary.

"Already, their (Madhya Pradesh's) tigers are dying. It would be highly improper to shift the lions to Kuno reserve," senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi appearing for Gujarat told a bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices B S Chauhan and Chandramouli Prasad.

The Modi government further argued that the people of the state take pride in the lions sanctuary and any attempt to translocate the animals to the Kuna reserve "against the will of people of Gujarat will cause irreparable damage to their conservation and cultural ethos."

The Union Ministry for Environment and the Wildlife Board had come out with the partial relocation

Fact is that if all Indian lions are located in one lion santuary than inbreeding or a disease will kill them. The reason Gujarat don't want the partial split is just for profit reasons wanting to have all the tourist for themself.

Under these circumstances the it is only a question of time until the Indian lion is gone

SUDDEN RISE IN H1N1 CASES IN DELHI , 233 REPORTED ON SATURDAY

NEW DELHI: On Saturday, 223 H1N1 influenza cases, including one death, were confirmed in the capital. This is the highest number of cases reported
in a day since the infection entered the city.

Though experts rule out the beginning of the ‘‘second wave’’, they advised doctors to give full-treatment dose to those who came in contact with H1N1 positive cases and were showing symptoms of the disease.

Of the 223 confirmed cases, 131 are children. Experts say once a case or two is tested positive at a school or college or any institution, full dose of tamiflu should be given to the rest who show clinical symptoms of H1N1 influenza. The state health department attributed the high figure to awareness about the disease and more number of testing facilities.

‘‘Now people have adequate knowledge about the disease. And with five private labs testing for H1N1, people are getting themselves tested,’’ said Kiran Walia, Delhi’s health minister.

Meanwhile, one 37-year-old man died due to H1N1 influenza at Safdarjung Hospital on Friday night. His reports tested positive on Saturday. So far, 29 people have died due to H1N1 infection in the capital.

toireporter@timesgroup.com
Fact is that the swine flu in India is extremely dangerous with a death rate of 1/31. An extremely deadly figure if compared to Belgium , now leading in the world wide statistics of dead rates from H1N1 with just 1/5,498 cases closely followed by Iceland and Portugal. Obviously the countries with the best medical treatment sytems. In Germany the risk to die is double as high as in the countries mentioned above 1/ 2004)
Amazing is that countries with an elaborated medical treatment systems have a lot high death rates as e.g. :
- Switzerland : 1/310
- Austria : 1/193
- Sweden 1/133
- Japan 1/132
- The Netherlands 1/35 ( very amazing und unexplainable since it is so close to the actual leader Belgium)
- US with 1/23 on the same level as developing countries and worse than India ( the explanation for this scaring figure I leave open for US citizens)

I am still very scared to get H1N1 in India and happy to return soon the Germany , Portugal and Belgium.

DALAI LAMA's VIST TO TAWANG (ARUNACHAL)

Speaking to his followers, the Dalai Lama declared that Arunachal Pradesh was an important part of India, and spoke emotionally about his attachment to the town were he first arrived when he fled China's invasion on Tibet in 1959.
"My stand that Tawang is an integral part of India has not changed," he said, and recalled his relief at being met in the town on his arrival from Tibet by an Indian foreign ministry official.
"There was a feeling of hopelessness when I first came here in 1959. But I felt safe when I saw a long-time friend from the Indian foreign ministry waiting for me at the border. That is why I have visited Tawang so many times. People here take a genuine interest in Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhist culture. Right from Ladakh to Tawang, Tibetan Buddhism is practised traditionally," he said.





His comments will further inflame Beijing's anger at the visit, not least his reference to Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir being areas of strong Tibetan Buddhist influence.
China claims vast swathes of both areas as its own and rejects the 1913 Shimla Convention at which the Tibet government ceded Tawang to British India and agreed the McMahon Line as the border between India and China.
China now regards the McMahon line as its last disputed border and has escalated tensions over the issue to pressurise India to make new concessions.
Beijing renewed its attack on the Dalai Lama's visit yesterday accusing him of visiting the area at India's behest to bolster its claim to the area China calls "Southern Tibet". Its official media has also denounced him as a "liar" for comments on fear among his people in Tibet.

LATEST NEWS ABOUT THE SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE KIDS

The two child stars of "Slumdog Millionaire" risk losing their monthly stipend and their trust fund unless they start attending school more regularly, a trustee for the fund said on Thursday.


The slum kid stars of Slumdog Millionaire want a lot of things in life _ new houses, a car, trips to London and Paris _ but they aren't too interested in school.
Ten-year-old Rubina Ali has missed nearly 75 percent of her classes and her co-star hasn't done much better truancy that filmmakers say will jeopardize their trust funds and monthly stipends if it continues.
Their parents blame the absences on deaths in the family or other misfortunes, including the demolition of Rubina's shanty by city authorities earlier this year, and have promised to do better. But the filmmakers say the children are being lured away by endorsement deals, television appearances and other opportunities to cash in on their celebrity at the risk of losing the money set aside for them once they graduate.






"Our love got a little bit tougher today," Slumdog producer Christian Colson said. "We understand there are opportunities for both kids and for the parents of both children to cash in, in the short term, on their celebrity. We don't have a problem with that. But if they want to benefit from the trust, they have to get those attendance rates up."
Beneath the debate about school is a deeper tug-of-war between the impoverished families' urge for as much short-term gain as possible and the filmmakers' desire to endow the children with a secure future.
Rubina and 11-year-old Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail both grew up in one of Mumbai's most wretched slums. They shot to fame after starring in the rags-to-riches blockbuster, which won eight Oscars. Rubina was cast as the young Latika, who grows up to become the hero's love interest, and Azhar plays his brother, Salim.
After filming ended, director Danny Boyle and Colson got the pair placed in a Mumbai school that helps disadvantaged children. But these days, Azhar is showing up to class just 37 percent of the time and Rubina's attendance is only 27 percent, said Noshir Dadrawala, an administrator of the trust.






"It's pathetic," said Dadrawala, adding that a flurry of awards ceremonies, festivals and fashion shows that have taken the kids to Paris, Madras and elsewhere are detracting from their studies. These have included Rubina's Paris trip to promote a book about her life, "Slumgirl Dreaming: My Journey to the Stars," as well as a tea party at Westminster in London, a dance number on a Hong Kong TV show and, of course, a trip to Los Angeles for the Oscars.
"They are constantly going ... That's fine, but go over the weekend, not at the sacrifice of school," Dadrawala said. The parents were told Thursday that if the children do not get their attendance above 70 percent they would lose their monthly $120 stipend. And if the kids fail to graduate, they will forfeit the lump sum payment set aside to help them get a start in life, Dadrawala said.
The filmmakers have declined to reveal the amount of the trust for fear of exposing the families to exploitation. In addition, both families are covered by medical insurance, which the trust finalised on Thursday.
Azhar's mother, Shameem Ismail, said her son had missed school because he has been inconsolable since his father died in September from tuberculosis.
"He would cry often, so I kept him home from school for a while," she said, promising he would go to class more often. "As long as I'm alive, I will make sure my son gets an education," she added. Rubina's father, Rafiq Qureshi, said his daughter's absences were due to the destruction of the family's shanty last May and a cut on her leg that forced her to stay home.

GURGAON ONE HEALTH CLUB - LE CLUB SOIGNEE

The health club or gym is very well equipped with all machines and tools to activate the muscles after a day in the front of the laptop. And of coarse some beautifull ladies are visiting the club too. Obviously they are not happy with the smell of sweat bodies are producing so they decided to make deodorant use as a recommendation.

Next recommendation maybe use SOIR DE PARIS of CHANNEL before entering or FORBIDDEN TO SWEAT.
I think if everybody would put a fresh shirt and training suite that would help a lot in a country where each corner smells for urine and continious during walking you have to take care where to put the feet in the shit or on the ground.

THE MINERALOGICAL (CRYSTAL) MUSEUM IN SINNAR

On the way from Nasik towards Pune shortly after leaving the suburns of Nasik, Sinnar is located. In Sinnar only few kilometers from the main road is the surprising GARGOTI museum. Here I could admire the biggest crystal collection of my live. The crystal in display originating mostly from the local mines and surrounding cities in Maharasta. For educational purposes also a broad overview of crystals form all over the world are shown in 2 uge vitrines.
The general manager of the museum was so friendly to give my explanations about the crystals and to my surprise here I learned that the druse (geodes) are not detected by specialist looking for the form of the stones but mostly show up already broken- up after explosions for mining.
I realy recommend this museum, where I spent 2 fantastic hours. The museum also has a shop where smaller druse and jewels from differnt gemstones are for purchase.

























Address: Gargoti, D59 MIDC, Malegaon, Sinnar, Nassik, 422103

for more information:
www.superbminerals.com
www.gargoti.com
email: info@suberbminerals.com

ACTUAL DEATH RATES OF H1N1 INFLUENZA (SWINE FLU)

Thsi is just an overview, more detailed figures can be find at http://www.flucount.org/

There is not a lot of changement if compared to the previous figures I published. In the following just a selection of important (at least for me) statistical relavent countries:

Paraguay (leader): 1/10 ( that means of 10 caes 1 will die )
Ghana : 1/14
Brazil : 1/19
India : 1/32
Spain : 1/37
US : 1/80
France : 1/128
Australia : 1/200
Italy : 1/675
Belgium : 1/1177
Portugal : 1/7120
Germany : 1/21129



These are amazing figures showing that in in most countries H1N1 remain a big danger for live. In other countries the death rates are comparable to or even less than the regular influeza (flu). Is there an explanation for it ? I cannot imagine that the quality of health service in Spain and France is considerable lower than in Belgium or Portugal.
Who has an explanation for these figures.
Regarding India there is an explanation: first the health service at the rural site is almost non- existing and second the governement decided that only public clinics can handle swine flu cases and the more efficient and better equipped private hospitals are not entitled to treat the illness

IS INDIAN AGRICULTURE DRYING OUT THE COUNTRY ?

ONE nation's thirst for groundwater is having an impact on global sea levels. Satellite measurements show that northern India is sucking some 54 trillion litres of water out of the ground every year. This is threatening a major water crisis and adding to global sea level rise.

Virendra Tiwari from the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad, India, and colleagues used gravity data from the GRACE satellite to monitor the loss of continental mass around the world since 2002. Regions where water is being removed from the ground have less mass and therefore exert a smaller gravitational pull on the satellite.























The data revealed that groundwater under northern India and its surroundings is being extracted exceptionally fast. Tiwari and colleagues calculate that between 2002 and 2008 an average of 54 cubic kilometres - enough to fill more than 21 million Olympic swimming pools - was lost every year. Boreholes in the region show the water table is dropping by around 10 centimetres a year (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2009gl039401).
























Agriculture is the primary culprit, says John Wahr of the University of Colorado at Boulder. If the trend isn't reversed soon, the 600 million people living in the region could face severe water shortages in the next few years.




















The "lost" water doesn't just disappear, though. Most of it runs into the oceans. The team calculates that it could be pushing up global sea levels by as much as 0.16 millimetres each year. That's 5 per cent of total sea level rise

From NEW SCIENTIST
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427285.300-indias-thirst-is-making-us-all-wet.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

The pictures are taken in the Satara area.

POVERTY IN INDIA - LOOKING FOR REASONS

Extract from an article of Jug Suraiya in Indian Times

Sixty-two years after independence, even as India boasts an economy widely acknowledged to be the second fastest growing in the world, there is another, alternative India which continues to be mired in the most appalling poverty. According to a recent World Bank report, 25 per cent of India’s population – that’s a projected 313 million human beings – will be living in “extreme poverty”, calculated at $1.25 a day, in 2015. India ranks only a little better than sub-Saharan Africa where the corresponding figure will be 37.1per cent, while that for China will be 6.1 per cent. In 1990, China’s “extreme poverty” population was 60.2 per cent, while that of India’s was 51.3 per cent. By 2005, totalitarian China had managed to reduce its figure to 15.9 per cent, while democratic India’s poverty quantum came down merely to 41.6 per cent. China had political dictatorship, but relative freedom from poverty; India enjoyed political freedom (at least in theory), but suffered under the brutal despotism of poverty.
This is not to argue the merits of dictatorship versus democracy. Without argument, democracy is better than dictatorship. If for no other reason than that in a democracy you can have a democracy-vsdictatorship debate; in a dictatorship you can’t. What can, and must, be argued, however, is that Indian democracy has tragically failed to protect so many of its citizens, for so long, from extreme economic degradation. The reasons for this – the many sins of omission and commission responsible for this shameful state of affairs – would fill entire libraries. But without going into details – where the Devil is said to lurk – it could, and ought, to be said that this national scandal clearly amounts to a case of massive and sustained malpractice on the part of all the governments elected into office since independence.
The answer to such questions is that our lawmakers see themselves, and have conditioned us to see them, as being above the laws they enact and enforce upon us. And till that changes, our much-celebrated dance of democracy will, for millions, remain a danse macabre. A dance of living death.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE- REALITY TOKE OVER FROM THE FAIRY TALE

Rubina the young female star of Slumdog Millionaire has now to pass the night on the street after the hut she was living in with her parents was demolished.

LONGLIVETY IN INDIA - FEMALE LIFETIME

Around 55 of 1,000 girls born every year don't live beyond their first
birthday and 77 per 1,000 births don't live beyond the age of five.

While a girl born in India today is expected to live for 65 years, the average life expectancy of a male child stands at 63.

Similar is the case with Pakistan and Nepal. While the life expectancy of girls in Pakistan stands at 64 and 63 for boys, in Nepal, an average girl child is expected to live till she is 63 and a male child till the age of 62.

In comparison, girls born in Japan will on an average live till they are 86 and those born in China and Sri Lanka will live till they are 75.
The tiny nation of San Marino, which is surrounded by Italy, has the world's lowest child mortality and boasts the longest average lifespan for men anywhere, at 81 years.

This has been revealed by WHO's World Health Statistics 2009.

Globally, WHO recorded 9 million deaths of under five-year-olds in 2007, 28% lesser than the 12.5 million who died in 1990.

India too recorded a fall in infant mortality. While 84 girls per 1,000 population died in 1990 before they reached they reached the age of one year, the number fell to 68 in the year 2000. In case of male children, 82 deaths per 1,000 births in 1990 reduced to 66 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000.

The under five mortality rate too has decreased in India. While 109 male children per 1,000 births died before their fifth birthday, it dropped to 86 in 2000 and 67 per 1,000 births now.

"The decline in the death toll of children under five can be achieved by scaling up interventions such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets for malaria and oral rehydration therapy for diarrhoea, increased access to vaccines and improved water and sanitation," said Dr Ties Boerma, director of WHO's department of health statistics and informatics.

According to the report, adolescent pregnancy rates remained high across the world. There were 48 births for every 1,000 women aged 15-19 years in 2006, a small decline from 51 per 1,000 in the year 2000.

An estimated 1.2 billion people are affected by neglected tropical diseases every year. In 2007, 546 million people were treated to prevent the parasitic disease lymphatic filariasis.

Out of every 100 deaths worldwide, 51 are due to non-communicable conditions 34 due to communicable, maternal or nutritional conditions and 14 due to injuries.

"Action needs to be taken now to implement preventive interventions, including reductions in tobacco use, overweight and obesity, and high blood pressure," the report said.

Child mortality is one of the millennium development goals adopted by UN member states, with the aim of cutting infant deaths by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015.

But that progress was still slow and sparse, especially in poor countries and in Africa.

In low income countries, $22 per capita goes to health care, compared to $4,012 in wealthy nations, according to WHO.

Pneumonia and diarrhoea kill 3.8 million infants every year, even though both conditions are treatable, WHO said.

Another development goal, maternity mortality, remains largely unchanged since 1990, with a global average death rate of 400 maternal deaths per 100,000 births a year, and more than double that rate in sub-Saharan Africa.

THE ULTIMATE TEST- WHO CAN FLY ?

The early selection of young parachutist recruts by the juvenile section of the Indian Air Force