NEED A PLAN FOR SUCCESS...

 

 

YOU DON'T

ALWAYS

NEED A PLAN.

SOMETIMES 

YOU JUST NEED TO

BREATH,

TRUST,

LET GO

AND SEE

WHAT HAPPENS.

                                     - Mauli

Switch it off!: How light pollution disorients ecosystems...

 

Watching the night sky, the stars and other astronomical objects is an absolute delight. Who can forget the synchronised movement of fireflies on a dark night?

While one may still observe these phenomena in rural areas, they are becoming increasingly rare in densely populated urban areas. The presence of artificial light in the environment is a major reason behind this. Other than restricting our ability to observe the wonders of nature, the presence of excessive light has grave impact on living beings.

Light pollution

Light pollution is an unwanted consequence of outdoor lighting and usually occurs due to excessive and inappropriate artificial light. There are five overlapping components of light pollution: Urban sky glow, light trespass, glare, uplight and clutter.

Urban sky glow refers to the brightening of the night sky over urban inhabited areas. The falling of light in an area where it is not intended or needed is called light trespass. Glare is the excessive brightness of light, causing visual discomfort and disability. An uplight is directed toward the open sky, causing a very strong, localised form of light pollution. Clutter refers to an excessive grouping of lights, commonly found in over-lit areas. 

Poor placement of signage and streetlights, excessive and inappropriate use of light, high population density and a higher road density and traffic density contribute significantly to light pollution. At times, certain environmental conditions such as smog, fog and high levels of suspended particles also increase the intensity of light pollution. 

Impact of light pollution on plants, animals and human beings

Light pollution interferes with living organisms’ biological activities, rather the timing of it. Living beings depend on the Earth’s daily cycle of light and dark that governs behaviours such as reproduction, sleep and migration. Artificial light at night has negative effects on these behaviours.

Plants are affected by three characteristics of light: Quantity, quality and duration. Quantity of light refers to the total concentration or intensity of the light.

Light quality indicates the wavelength of the light and duration refers to the total period for which light is present. Light pollution has the potential to alter one or more of these characteristics.

Broadly speaking, light pollution affects plants by interfering with photoperiodism. Based on their sensitivity to light, plants are classified as long-day plants, short-day plants and day-neutral plants. The presence of artificial light, beyond natural light hours, can disturb the photoperiods of these plants.

Several biological activities in plants, such as pigment formation, leave shedding and the onset and breaking of bud dormancy are determined by the photoperiod. The presence of artificial night lighting alters the natural photoperiod and, therefore, upsets the plant’s development.

Many plant species (such as night-blooming cacti, for example, Queen of the Night Epiphyllum Oxypetalum) bloom only at night and depend on nocturnal pollinators for pollination. Increasing lighting can prevent flowering and pollination in such plants and hamper reproduction.

Similarly, animals are also affected by light pollution. Crepuscular (active only at dusk and dawn) and nocturnal (active only during the night) animals depend on the duration of day (light) length to start / stop their daily activities.

Exposure to artificial light interferes with these activities, decreases their chances of finding food and mates and exposes them to predators. While light pollution can potentially affect any organism, its effects are particularly pronounced on insects, amphibians, sea turtles and migratory birds.

Artificial light at night is one of the prominent causes of global decline of insects. Amphibians are sensitive to ambient light and can detect light intensity at far below human limits. Amphibians perform their mating calls at night.

Long exposure to artificial light can interfere with this process and affect their reproductive success.

Sea turtles lay their eggs on beaches. When the eggs hatch, the hatchlings find their way to the sea by detecting the bright horizon over the ocean. However, artificial lights on the coasts draw them away from the ocean and in the wrong direction.

This process exposes them to several dangers. Nocturnal birds use moonlight and starlight for navigation and hunting and thus, become disoriented by a large amount of artificial light. The collision of birds with brightly lit high-rise buildings, lighthouses, wind turbines and sea-based drilling platforms results in the death of numerous birds and is a common phenomenon in many cities.

Artificial light causes major sleep disturbances in humans. The circadian clock, which is a 24-hour day / night cycle, affects physiologic processes in practically all organisms. Brain wave patterns, hormone generation, cell regulation and other biologic functions are examples of these processes.

In human beings, disruption of circadian clock has been associated with a variety of medical issues, including depression, sleeplessness, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Mitigation measures 

We should use light only in places and at times it is needed. Installation of time and motion sensor-based lighting can help achieve this. Whenever possible, efficient lighting should be used and should be directed at the ground, not the sky.

A good lighting design should optimise the visibility of the intended object and minimise glare and light trespass. Artificial light should be minimised in ecologically sensitive areas such as routes for migratory birds and beaches with active hatching of turtle eggs.

Proper guidelines should be introduced regarding lighting on the highways and roads in or near forest regions. Awareness about this lesser-known form of pollution needs to be augmented so that we can fine-tune our activities to reduce the negative impacts and make the world a better place for all beings.  

African swine fever: Forgotten contagion...

 Viruses, it seems, are at war with life forms. While the world is struggling with the novel coronavirus, another one has been killing pigs, decimating the global pork and animal feed trade. African swine fever, a century-old disease that infects pigs and wild boars with a near 100 per cent fatality rate, has claimed a third of the world’s pigs since 2018. Its latest victim is India, where cases have been reported since May 2020 but have exploded in the past couple of months. Since there is no cure or vaccine, the infected animal has to be culled. With most piggeries in Asia being small-scale and the spread of the virus showing no signs of abating, what are the implications for pig farmers and the global trade of the world’s primary source of protein? 

NEXT NEWS ❯

By Richard Mahapatra, Vivek Mishra, Shagun Kapil, Adam Saprinsanga, Moa Jamir, Sobhapati Samom

Published: Thursday 08 July 2021

 India’s northeastern states account for nearly 47 per cent of the country’s over 9 million pig population. In 2021, African swine fever cases have been reported in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam (Illustrations: Ritika Bohra)

“A BULLET TO the forehead.” In the past few months, pig farmers in Mizoram have come to dread hearing this sentence. But Thanliana and his three sons had little choice. Having lost 308 of their 500-odd pigs to a “fever” since April, they finally informed the state’s Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, whose officials visited their piggery in Sateek village, on the outskirts of state capital Aizawl, on June 18. They were accompanied by two armed policemen dressed in personal protective equipment or PPE.

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Read: Every Mizoram district feared swept by African swine fever

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Veterinary officer Esther Lalzoliani had already identified the pigs’ symptoms as African swine fever (ASF), a viral haemorrhagic disease that is known to infect pigs and wild boars, with a near 100 per cent fatality rate. The infected animals develop fever and their skin turns purple, with watery discharge from the eyes and severe, bloody diarrhoea before death.

With no cure or vaccine, isolation or culling are the only ways to curb the spread of this highly contagious disease which transmits through direct contact with sick animals or from anything contaminated — water, soil, feed, objects like shoes, vehicles and farm equipment, live or dead pigs or even pork products.

That day, at Thanliana’s piggery, 42 pigs were culled by the police, who used a pistol for the smaller animals and a rifle for the bigger ones. “A third of the dead are sows that were part of the breeding stock and half of the lot culled was ready to be sold to the slaughterhouse,” says Thanliana, adding that he has borrowed heavily to set up and expand the pig farm.

“Every week for the past two months, we have been burying pigs by the dozen around the farm. I called the officials to save the rest of the stock,” says PC Ramchullova, the eldest son of Thanliana. That day, too, the family dug trenches to help the team bury the animals, but had to hire an earth-mover to dig since the number of culled animals was quite high.

Lalhmingthanga, joint director of the animal husbandry department and nodal officer for monitoring the outbreak in Mizoram, who was accompanying the team, estimated the loss at Rs 10.3 lakh. “It is a rudimentary estimate,” he says, “the overall loss would be higher, accounting for person-days lost looking after the pigs, the cost of medicines and the earth-mover, among others.”

Esther and Lalhmingthanga have become used to culling-burial-loss estimation process as ASF sweeps across India’s northeastern states, which account for nearly 47 per cent of the country’s 9.06 million pig population and where pigs are a major source of livelihood and a significant part of the local diet and culture.

India does not have a history of ASF, though the disease was first described almost a century ago (more on this later). It reported its first outbreak to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in May 2020, with cases reported from Arunachal Pradesh and then Assam. A few months later, on June 24, 2020, the Centre intimated the state governments about the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying’s “National Action Plan for control, containment and eradication of ASF” and asked them to take “suitable action”.

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Read: Illegal pig import may be behind African swine fever outbreak in Manipur, say officials

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Cases started to rise again this year, with Lungsen village in Mizoram’s Lunglei district reporting a pig death from an unknown disease on March 21. On April 15, the National Institute of High Security Animal Disease, Bhopal, confirmed it as the first case of ASF in the state.

By June 10, the viral disease had spread to Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland, says the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s ASF Situation in Asia and Pacific Update. In Mizoram, the government data shows ASF has caused severe losses, claiming more than 8,130 pigs in 10 of the state’s 11 districts by June 29.

With every culled pig, the meat economy takes a hit. According to the Mizoram government’s Economic Survey, the state’s annual meat production rose from 13,158 tonnes in 2011-12 to 16,533 tonnes in 2019-20, of which pork accounted for almost half.

“As of now, the spread of the disease has largely remained under control because of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. But given the virulence of the pathogen, it won’t take long before spreading to other parts of the country. This will have a disastrous impact unless stringent biosecurity measures are implemented,” warns Swaraj Rajkhowa, principal scien tist at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Research Centre on Pig, Guwahati.

Such measures include thorough disinfection, proper disposal of carcasses and waste, movement control, surveillance and early detection and humane killing of animals, as per OIE, which classifies ASF as notifiable disease.

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Read: The worst of Nagaland’s African swine fever outbreak may be over, say officials

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The virulence of the disease stems from the fact that it is caused by a double-stranded DNA virus that is fairly large, genetically diverse and is talented at evading the immune system.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says ASF virus, when in a suitable protein env ironment, can survive in a range of pH and extreme temperatures. It has been shown to remain stable in serum at room temperature for 18 months, in refrigera ted blood for 6 years and in blood at 37 degrees Celsius for a month.

It may also remain viable in faeces for 11 days, decomposed serum for 15 weeks and in bone marrow for months. As a result, only certain disinfectants are effective in its control, says FAO.

Studies also show that ASF virus, when in a feed ingredients, can tolerate long-distance sea transports. This allows it to be easily spread and transmitted.

This complex makeup, apart from a general lack of willingness to invest in research until recently, are the reasons scientists have not been able to develop a cure or vaccine against the disease, des pite knowing it for almost a century now.

Disease origin

ASF was first recognised after its introduction in domestic pigs to Kenya in 1910, according to Elsevier’s Encyclopedia of Virology. In 1921, R Eustace Montgomery, veterinary adviser to the government of Uganda, established the likely transmission of ASF from wild swine. The virus is said to have evolved around 1700 AD from a virus of soft tick that infects wild swine, including giant forest hogs, warthogs and bush pigs.

In 1957, ASF appeared for the first time outside Africa, in Portugal, and in just a few decades, spread to other countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas, even reaching the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Haiti.

It entered Asia in 2018, when China — the world’s largest producer and consumer of pork — reported the first case. That year, nations rushed to declare it a “notifiable” contagious animal disease under OIE to be managed with national and international regulations and agreements.

India, however, remained free from the disease till 2020 despite neighbours Bangladesh and Myanmar reporting ASF in 2018 and 2019. So how did the virus enter India?

Passage to India 

Understanding the source and route of the spread of a virus is important to plug the gap before it can spread to pandemic-like proportions. However, scientists have so far not managed to trace its foray into the country.

Some believe that the virus has arrived via Tibet. “In 2020, [during the first outbreak] OIE reported two epicentres in Tibet, on the border of Arunachal Pradesh. People reported big carcasses flowing in rivers criss-crossing the international border,” A Chakraborty, director of research, North Eastern Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Guwahati, tells Down To Earth (DTE).

Last year, most outbreaks were on these river banks. The carcasses might have been mauled by community dogs who then brought the virus to villages, he says. In July 2020, soon after Arunachal Pradesh and Assam reported the initial outbreaks of ASF, Rajkhowa had also told DTE that the disease could have spread from Tibet.

Tapan Kumar Dutta, professor of microbiology at the Central Agricultural University College of Veterinary Scien ces and Animal Husbandry, Aizawl, says there are several potential ways the virus might have spread to India:

It first reached China (in 2018), then Myanmar and then Bhutan. There is a possibility that our domestic animals might have contracted the infection from wild boars coming from bordering countries through forests.

Praveen Mallick, commissioner, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, also attributes ASF transmission to wild boars that easily cross over the border.

However, in states like Mizoram and Nagaland, that reported ASF this year for the first time, genesis of the outbreaks are shrouded in mystery.

Intra-country spread?

Lalhmingthanga suggests that the outbreak in Mizoram’s Lungsen village could have come from Bangladesh which, surprisingly, is not currently listed among FAO’s “ASF reported administrative areas since August 2018”.

He says:

The Village Council President at Rolui (just south of Lungsen) told us about pigs dying in various villages on the Bangladesh side of the border from the beginning of February. Lungsen is a village where pigs, illegally imported from Bangladesh, are kept along with the local animals. From Lungsen, the imported pigs are then supplied to Lunglei town.

There was also an outbreak in Mizoram’s Zokhawthar village, situated along the international border. It is a major hub of trade between Myanmar’s Chin State and Mizoram. Although 250 pigs died at Zokhawthar, the outbreak was quickly contained and there have been no further reports from anywhere in the vicinity.

Could it have come from Chin then? While some officials suspect this, others say the virus may have come from within India, probably Shillong in Meghalaya, because fresh as well as smoked pork from there is a staple in Aizawl. Mizoram had banned pigs from other states as soon as ASF Arunachal Pradesh and Assam reported outbreaks. But state authorities admit it is nearly impossible to check every vehicle that crosses state boundaries.

Nagaland, too, had imposed such restrictions for nearly a year to avoid any ASF outbreak by imposing restrictions on pig movements from neighbouring states since April 2020. Five months later, it allowed pigs from Punjab and Haryana, but restrictions continued for Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Officials are now clueless about how the disease reached the districts of Phek and Kiphire.

Researchers say the incursion of ASF into the densely distributed domestic pig population of this region, mostly reared under backyard and scavenging systems with poor biosecurity measures, is also a major threat to wild boars.

A research paper in the journal Pathogens in December 2020, written by scientists working on animal diseases in India, representing various institutions, says:

Tracking down the first outbreaks of ASF in the NE [northeastern] region of India, it was observed that the outbreaks were reported alongside the river tributaries of Brahmaputra, a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, India, and Bangladesh. The Brahmaputra receives a number of tributaries that flows through national parks and wildlife sanctuaries of the northeast, comprising a significant number of wild boar population.”

Outbreaks can wipe out the pig population of the entire region if not appropriately controlled, they say.

The research paper has a dire warning for the future: “From the NE pocket, the disease may further spread to eastern India and then to the mainland through the river routes and interstate movement of pigs for trade and commerce. Therefore, considering the existing high density of domestic pig population in India, there is every chance that ASF might attain an endemic status if not controlled critically.”

Global spread

India’s northeastern region is the latest geography in the world to be gripped by ASF. Overall, 26 countries have reported the viral disease this year. Over two-thirds of the outbreaks have been in Europe this year. “This is the largest animal disease outbreak in history. We’ve never had anything like it,” Dirk Pfieffer, veterinary epidemiolo gist at the City University of Hong Kong, was quoted by the Associated Press.

Currently, China is the worst affected. Shenyang, a city in northern China, reported the first case on August 3, 2018. By the end of 2019, or in just 16 months, it spread to rest of the country.

The virus slipped into China from east Europe, in all likelihood through contaminated meat or pork products that were used as feed, also called swill feed. From there, it reached Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, and, most recently, East Timor and southeast Asian countries.

Just like the human-impacting virus, this animal disease also demonstrates how fast it can spread in the inter-connected world. Like in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, this disease also has global economic impacts.

Taliban takeover: What will happen to Afghanistan’s minefields...

 

As the dust begins to settle on war-torn Afghanistan, a major question is what will happen to the landmines and other ordinance littering its landscape?

More than 40 years of war have left the Afghan landscape littered with landmines as well as other munitions. These landmines have rendered fields, valleys, cities, watercourses, mountains and other terrain unusable, leading to the under-development of the country.

About 41,085 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured by landmines and undetonated munitions, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS).

The UNMAS is part of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. It specialises in coordinating and implementing activities to limit the threat posed by mines, explosive remnants of war (ERW) and improvised explosive devices.

Anti-personnel mines of an improvised nature and ERW from more recent armed clashes caused 98.8 per cent of the casualties recorded in 2020 in the country, according to the UNMAS website.

More than 72 per cent of the ERW casualties in 2020 were children, the UNMAS noted.

Some 81.4 per cent of known minefields in Afghanistan have been cleared, according to UNMAS. This is about 3,300 square kilometres of land.

However, it added:

Some 3,983 identified hazards remain, threatening about 1,528 communities, impeding development by delaying the construction of new road networks, airports, transmission lines, and returnee settlement.

Afghanistan has been in the throes of instability, war and insurgency since April 1978 when the then-President, Mohammed Daoud Khan was assassinated by Afghan Communists. This led to a chain of events that ended this week when the Taliban returned to Kabul for a second time.

Several countries of the world came together in 1997 to formulate the Ottawa Treaty. It is formally known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction.

It bans the stockpiling, transfer and use of anti-personnel landmines, requires countries to clear them on their territory, while prescribing states in a position to do so to assist affected countries.

The Treaty became effective from March 199. There are a total of 164 parties to the treaty. But major countries of the world including the United States, China and the Russian Federation have not signed it. In South Asia, India and Pakistan also have not signed the treaty.

Afghanistan acceded to the Convention on September 11, 2002. The Convention entered into force for Afghanistan on March 1, 2003.

Afghanistan had undertaken “to destroy or ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel mines in these areas as soon as possible but not later than 1 March 2013” under Article 5 of the Convention.

The country asked for an extension of the deadline March 29, 2012. The request was subsequently granted and the new deadline for Afghanistan was March 1, 2023.

This was before the Taliban takeover. How will the de-mining programme fare now in Afghanistan?

“In 1999, the Taliban had declared landmines to be an un-Islamic weapon. They had issued a fatwa or edict that this was not a weapon that they should use. We are hopeful that they will stand by their previous commitment,” Khurram Parvez, a prominent anti-landmine activist based in Kashmir told Down To Earth.

He, however, noted that besides the political will of the Taliban, a lot also depended on neighbouring Pakistan. Islamabad has mined its border with Afghanistan as it, like India, believed that mines protect borders.

“Even if the Taliban agrees in the future to de-mine the area, they would require huge resources. Mining is not that expensive but de-mining is. Does Afghanistan have the resources to de-mine? What will be the nature of the international assistance? These are the questions for which we have no answers right now,” Parvez said.

Landmines impacted a person’s ability to earn. Many people who became victims of landmines were also usually caught in the crossfire in conflict zones. If they survived, they usually became victims of mental illness. Psychological support for victims of mental illnesses was usually inadequate. This was true for India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Parvez said.

Independence Day 2021: Why this day is celebrated in India? Other countries who also mark ‘national day’ on August 15...

 

Our country gained freedom from British rule on August 15, 1947. This day holds a special place in the heart of every Indian. On this day, India's tricolour flag is hoisted at the Red Fort in Delhi. The Prime Minister addresses the nation and a military parade is held that is broadcast all over the country.

But not just India, there are several other countries that mark August 15 as a national day. Let's check out the list of countries that celebrate the national day with India.

Significance of August 15 for other countries:

1. Bahrain:

Not just India, but Bahrain also experienced British colonial rule. They announced their independence on August 15, 1971, almost more than two decades after India attained its own freedom. This day was marked by the signing of a treaty between the nation and the United Kingdom. However, Independence Day is celebrated on December 16 in Bahrain.

2. North Korea and South Korea

In North Korea and South Korea, August 15 is celebrated as the National Liberation Day of Korea. This day marked the end of World War II, and 35 years of Japanese occupation and colonial rule over Korea. In South Korea, August 15 is called ‘Gwangbokjeol’, i,e. the day the light returned, while in North Korea, it is known as ‘Chogukhaebangi nal’, i.e. Liberation of the Fatherland Day.

3. Liechtenstein

A German-speaking microstate situated in the European highlands of the Alps named Liechtenstein also marks August 15 as National Day. This day was selected as it was already a bank holiday, celebrated as the Assumption of Mary. Also, the ruling prince of that time, Prince Franz Josef II, was born on August 16. Hence, the national day was selected keeping in mind these two key events.

Ten highlights of the IPCC report...

 

On Monday, 9 August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its report on climate change, which was published by the IPCC Working Group. The report is named on the Physical Science Basis.

1. In the next 20 years, the global temperature will cross the 1.5 degree Celsius limit. The previous decade was much warmer than the previous 1.25 million years, which recorded a temperature of 1.09 degrees higher during 2011 to 2020 than between 1850 and 1900. 

2. If greenhouse gas emissions continue as at present, the global temperature will exceed the 2 °C threshold by the middle of the 21st century

3. Every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature will increase the intensity of heavy to heavy rain events by 7 percent

4. The concentration of carbon dioxide is highest in 2 million years

5. Sea level rise is fastest in 3,000 years

6. Arctic sea ice is lowest in 1,000 years

7. We can reverse some changes, at least for thousands of years to come

8. Even if we control our greenhouse gas emissions, ice will continue to melt for the next 1,000 years 

9. Oceans will continue to warm, it has increased 2 to 8 times since the 1970s

10. Sea level rise will continue for hundreds of years

The world is running out of time: Least developed countries on IPCC report...

 

The least developed countries, which are also among places that will bear the worst brunt of global warming, threw their weight behind the Sixth Assessment Report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change August 9, 2021.

“Alarm bells are ringing; I hope everyone is hearing them,” said Sonam P Wangdi, chair of the group of the 46 least developed countries, shortly after the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its most comprehensive report on the science of climate change since 2013.

Among the findings of Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science basis:

• There has been a 40 per cent decrease in Arctic sea ice since 1979
• With every 1 degree C rise in temperature, there will be a 7 per cent increase in the intensification of extreme rain events
• Carbon dioxide concentration has been the highest in at least 2 million years

The report flagged that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach.

Wangdi said:

“The report comes as yet another stark warning. The science is even clearer: Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the climate crisis is worsening, and the impacts will be devastating. The report shows that the 1.5°C goal is still within reach, but we must act now, all together, to urgently limit warming and prepare our communities for the impacts to come.”

He said how the report flags several “alarming facts” about climate change: The last four decades have been successively warmer, global surface temperature and mean sea level has increased, and global glaciers are retreating fast.

“This confirms that the current global efforts to address climate change do not reflect the scale of the crisis we are facing,” he said.

He added that the crisis needed to be dealt with more ambitious nationally determined contributions (NDC), long-term decarbonisation plans and more climate finance before the 26th conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Chnage (CoP 26) to be held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, in November.

He warned that resubmitting the same NDC was not enough and that stronger emissions reduction targets were needed for 2030.

“We are running out of time. The world has seen unprecedented and lethal heatwaves and floods in the last few weeks alone. These will only get worse as emissions continue to rise.”

Hindustani music increases the concentration of the mind!

 

Often we read in a clamor. The sound of an auto or truck passing outside the road, the barking of a dog in the distance, the throat of the neighbor's uncle, the call of the vegetable seller, the chatting of friends or singing out loud. There is noise everywhere. I studied in a residential school where hundreds of children lived side-by-side on double-storey beds. All are in the chain of the same hall, and the child in the first bed is talking loudly to the child in the tenth bed. In the same hustle and bustle, we would have to study, pass the matriculation examination. So how to be the focus? How do all those noises disappear, and we just focus on the book? How can our meditation become like Arjuna can see the eyes of a bird?

Many people use different tricks. Somebody puts cotton inside the ear so that no one else can hear the sound. Now-a-days there is a 'Noise Cancellation' headphone, which eliminates the outside noise and you find the peace of a Himalayan cave sitting at home. Some people bring more noise around them to eliminate outside noise. Like a friend of mine would put the American rock-band Metallica's piercing song on 'Full Volume' and he couldn't hear anything else. He ended the noise with noise, just like dozens of arrows were killed with one arrow in the Mahabharata serial. Another friend took some drugs, so that he could not hear anything. As if away from the world, with a book in his hand, he would wander somewhere in the sky. But, I did not like all these solutions very much.

The way to eliminate noise is not to make more noise than that, but to convert the noise into loud music. Like the chirping of birds, the rattling of leaves, or the gurgling of water, there is no noise. It is the rhythmic music of nature. This does not disturb our sleep. But, you cannot create this sound of your own free will. One cannot raise a cuckoo to hear the sound of a bird. From where will you bring the flow of Kullu river to the room? However I have also used this. Chhutpan had brought some cassettes of tabla player Zakir Hussain - from the album 'Elements'. In its different cassettes made of water and air, dust flying, blazing of fire, sound of birds etc. could be heard. The atmosphere of nature was created with this music. But, I knew that this sound was coming from the audio-player, so it would have seemed artificial in nature.

Instead, I leaned towards real music. Towards film and Hindustani music. Reading while playing the radio, or simply reading while humming. This habit continues to this day, and believe me, even thick books in the study of medicine sat in the mind to a large extent, remember. But it is not that simple either. If a playful song starts playing, and you start dancing leaving the book, what will happen to your studies? What if your neighbor or roommate gets hurt? If all the monotonous songs are coming on the radio, or we waste time changing our favorite song on YouTube, then when will you read? If someone remembers listening to a romantic song, will we get lost in thoughts?

Now I divert things from here and take them to the world of the game. When Virender Sehwag scored a triple century in Multan, he gave the credit to a man named Venky. I wondered who is this Venky, whose name I have not heard in the field of cricket. Later it is discovered that there is a person who analyzes the video of the game and gives suggestions to the players. He had told Sehwag special improvements, which worked. The same Venky, when approached by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, grabbed a music CD along with some technical suggestions. It was a CD based on Hindustani and Carnatic music. What good will a cricketer of the modern world get by listening to this ancient musical tradition? What if you fell asleep while playing? But Rahul Dravid listened to it, and watched videos of his games together. His control kept getting better, and needless to say, he had immense patience in his game.

In fact, Hindustani music, which is also called classical or classical music, has been created in this respect. That is for meditation, yoga or meditation. Hearing this one enters a different world. For me it was very dull in the beginning, and could not withstand more than five minutes. But, I kept on listening alternately. One of its specialties was that there was no need to change the song in it. A presentation would have been of half an hour, an hour and a half. You leave Pandit Ravi Shankar with sitar, there is no song in it that you can hum. He would play in the background for an hour and a half.

The second thing is that this music is composed in such a way that we grow slowly. At first there is a slow, delayed sound that may seem monotonous at first; But, when used, this part is most effective in bringing attention to the book. If you watch the video, the musicians are lost in this phase with their eyes closed. We too will be lost in this step. After that the speed will be fast, which is called Jor, Jhala and Drut Jhala. Once we are focused, our reading speed also increases. Then comes the composition or bandish, which contains a song worth singing. As you read and now have a final blueprint in mind. In the end, when the tarana or lyakari happens, we also start dancing along with the book. By doing this whole cycle again and again, words and thoughts get imprinted in the mind.

The world became more personal with the advent of good headphones. You, your book, and the music in your ears. No more noise. I also want to write on this subject that there are different ragas for every prahar, also for every mood. They have been made in such a way that when they sit to study in the morning, they listen to Bhairav, in the afternoon listen to Bhimpalasi, at dusk, Marwa, and so on at night listen to Yaman, Bageshree etc. But that is the technical aspect. Each person should choose from his own point of view what kind of music he will listen to or will listen to or not. Many successful people in the world do not listen to music while studying, but do adopt some trick to get rid of noise and increase meditation.

Climate crisis: Is Earth destabilising?

 

I woke up at 6 am, thanks to the relentless loud alarm. I turned it off, got up from my bed, stepped on the floor mat and the dampness hit me! The soggy floor drove away my sleepiness.

I carefully trotted to the hallway and noticed water dripping down the electric point on the wall, flooding the surface. I was shocked. Immediately, I moved the table and started wiping and drying the floor.

I rushed to the first floor to check with my neighbour about the situation, and they were busy cleaning their house too. The water seemed to have entered all corners of their apartment and they had a tough time wiping it dry.

All of this was due to the heavy rain that poured at midnight from 12 to around 5 in the morning, mid-February this year. The downpour was heavy and ferocious. It left the entire city stranded, the whole day!

And it was neither monsoon nor had a low pressure developed in the Bay of Bengal. Then what could be the reason? Climate change?? It was a possibility, given the time of this incident, February, which is usually the onset of summer.

During the same period, there was a deluge caused due to a glacier melt at the Rishi Ganga River in Uttarakhand. It washed away two major hydroelectric power projects constructed across the river.

This was attributed to global warming by experts, who say that inconsistent weather patterns lead to an increase in the thermal profile of ice, making it more vulnerable to melting.

We have been hearing about this phenomenon, climate change for a while now. It is quite popular. Much has been discussed and debated on what lead to the change i.e., is it natural, or anthropogenic? The latter topped the charts. And the question we strive to answer is, when will it stop… Or What can be done to make it stop?

Professor Johan Rockstrom, an internationally recognised scientist working on global sustainability issues, delves into much broader questions like: Do our planets have boundaries? Can it be defined? Is the planet earth destabilizing? What does it take to stabilize? (Check his TED talk here)

Before exploring that, we need to know when does the earth stabilise. Professor, in the recently released Netflix documentary – Breaking Boundaries – explains that it all started during the Holocene era when the earth’s temperature stabilized paving the way for the existence of life forms.

Along with all other kinds of life, came Humans, who not just lived and enjoyed stability but also took advantage of it to satisfy their own greed. This went beyond the boundaries of our planet causing various troubles.

Now, you might be thinking: What is a planetary boundary?

The planetary boundary is a novel concept developed and published by the international team of 18 researchers in the year 2009. According to the paper, there are nine planetary boundaries, and they are as follows,

1. Climate change
2. Change in biosphere integrity (biodiversity loss and species extinction)
3. Stratospheric ozone depletion
4. Ocean acidification
5. Biogeochemical flows (phosphorus and nitrogen cycles)
6. Land-system change (for example deforestation)
7. Freshwater use
8. Atmospheric aerosol loading (microscopic particles in the atmosphere that affect climate and living organisms)
9. Introduction of novel entities (eg, organic pollutants, radioactive materials, nanomaterials, and micro-plastics).

The stability of our planet earth, as the professor states in the documentary, is mainly due to these nine processes. These elements are the reason, our planet is intact. Any change in this would greatly affect our planet, and in turn, us.

“Four of nine planetary boundaries: climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land system change, altered biogeochemical cycles (phosphorus and nitrogen), have crossed the tipping point due to unfavourable human activities,” says the researchers and further adds, “Two of these, climate change and biosphere integrity, are core boundaries. Any change in these two would drive the Earth System into a new state.”

Planetary Boundaries do not dictate how human societies should develop but they can aid decision-makers by defining a safe operating space for humanity: Katherine Richardson, co-author

Until now, it was all climate change and global warming to us. But the contention that that is just one among the others, is a great revelation. Researchers have brought together all the separate processes under one roof which would make human beings to think about what we have done, are doing, and will do in the future.

And all of this has been beautifully narrated in this documentary Breaking Boundaries, in a tone that is simple, unambiguous, persuasive and provoking.