Hotspots of Biodiversity
September 20, 2006 at 2:05 pm | Posted in "new species", biodiversity, bird, Bugun, liocichla, Stott | 2 CommentsThe recent discovery of a completely new species of bird from the remote Arunachal Pradesh (Himalayan foothills) in India reminds us that where man has not interfered much, the wilderness still can thrive.
Bugun liocichla is colourful. Initially it was mistaken for a Chinese species, the Omei Shan Liocichla, and it was assumed that a different race of that species had survived in a pocket over a 1000 km South of its known range.
Now that would be very unusual. The other possibility, that the species had spread South from the Shan would be even stranger!
With the world warming rapidly we are seeing the opposite! Temperate species are creeping North as the winters become milder while tropical creatures are extending their ranges. The nightmare for medical authorities in temperate countries is that very soon, tropically transmitted diseases, such as Malaria and Dengue will be commonplace in North America and Europe. The reason being that their vector – the mosquito – is already establishing populations much further North than ever before – simply because winter has become so much milder. In fact, the trend is so pronounced that the hottest specialty in medical colleges is now…Tropical Medicine!
Getting back to Bugun, the new species has coexisted with a small tribe of the West Kameng district, quite naturally called the Bugun (or Khova) and hence the new name.
We have a common, noisy and gregarious cousin of this rare “babbler” in my area and we call that “the seven sisters” as they are always found in hyperactive bunches.
My own fascination for birds bloomed very late and I have to thank many people for having introduced me to the “world of birding”not least of whom is the amazing Dr. John R.W. Stott
Suffer the CHILDREN
September 12, 2006 at 7:09 am | Posted in BBC, children, education, modern warfare, war, women and children | Leave a commentThe BBC reports an estimated 43 million children in the war affected hotspots around the world that are now being denied a chance at education (data from Save the Children).
Horrifying, but not nearly as bad as this statistic: The proportion of women and children among civilians injured or killed in war is approximately 80% (according to Unicef).
In countries like India, where industrialisation is growing apace, the greater danger comes from poverty. Society is becoming more stratified.
The absolute number of kids getting a primary education seemingly increases as a result of the ‘growth’ of the middle class.
But, the poor are getting poorer – and sending their kids out to work. Staying alive has a higher priority. Privatisation of education only means that the government, which should be helping the poor, quietly turns a blind eye.
Getting back to the question of who really suffers in war, one wonders, do the perpetrators of war ever think through the consequences?
What benefit is there in supposedly engaging one enemy but ending up killing only women and kids?
– stop fighting me…
Remember: Modern warfare kills 10 TIMES more civilians than combatants!
Raining and Pouring
September 9, 2006 at 7:51 pm | Posted in deforestation, displaced persons, earthquakes, flood, Mahanadi, mega dams, MODIS, monocultures, NASA | Leave a commentModerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.
Will we never learn? In the dry season and during periods of drought, many parts of India resemble a desert. But if it should rain, behold we have floods. The photos compare the Mahanadi estuary just one month apart. About 2 million people were displaced over that one month along the course of just this one river – 2,000,000!
Climate change has been rapid in India what with the massive elimination of forests over the last century. The land’s ability to ameliorate the extremes has disappeard. The water table has dropped precipitously making it unlikely that the forests will ever come back even if we do try to allow aforestation. We replant with monocultures promoting bioinversity, we pollute. Is there anything left for us to make worse?
the people suffer
The government builds mega dams and the flooding worsens. The likelihood of catastrophic earthquakes increases – Latur, Bhuj and Kashmir all in the space of 10 years are not enough of a warning.
the people suffer
Loving Community
September 9, 2006 at 6:28 am | Posted in communal insect, intolerance, pest control, Polistes, Polistinae, pollinator, Vespidae, wasp | 2 CommentsFor a short while, we had shifted to a new home that had been lying vacant for quite some time. It was full of interesting creatures like geckos, roaches, 6 species of ants, at least 10 different types of spiders and two communities of paper wasps. The wasp nests were nestled into the air vents in the house’s two bathrooms. As they were well out of easy reach, we decided to wait on “dealing with” the wasps and got on with clearing out most of the other house guests. The nearby vacant land had a few trees with a resident family of purple rumped sunbirds and even a rarely seen green agama lizard sporting an impressively long, brown-tipped tail.
A little research on our wasps revealed that these were members of the family Vespidae, subfamily Polistinae and probably of the Polistes genus (though no entomologist am I).
The adults feed on nectar while the young are given a diet of other insects’ larvae making the wasps very important both as pollinators and as pest controllers.
After a week we realised that the wasps were not causing any problems – no one had been buzzed and though the bathrooms were in use, the wasps seemed to be minding their own business. As days went bye, we spent more time just watching them work. Superbly organised, there was daily progress on nest construction and we started to notice the young ones emerging and merging with the family community. there was even a powerful but gentle discipline maintained by the senior wasps. Juniors who did not get on with their work could be seen sitting just outside the nest area facing away from the nest for a few hours at a time till one of the older ones would come and nudge them gently back into the mainstream.
My son (about 13) had always been terrified of anything that carried a sting. Even he came round to taking bath without an upward glance! Soon he became the resident expert in capturing and releasing the few wasps that got confused at night by the tubelights and ended up in the living room or in one of the bedrooms.
When we shifted out after about 4 months of peaceful cohabitation, we (carefully) covered the vents up from the inside to try to protect the nests from whoever came in after us. The attempt was unsuccessful. When I returned to pick up the last few odds and ends after about a week, I found the netting removed, no wasp nests, and evidence of fire on the walls round the air vents.
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