This year, the marathon was completely eco-friendly and trash-free, with water being served in coconut shells, food in banana leaves and plates made out of areca leaves.
Nikki Ponnappa (left) along with Milind Soman (in grey) and members of The Coorg Wellness Foundation
Bengaluru :
Bengaluru-based golfer Cheppudira Nikki Ponnappa can never decide what she is passionate about more – her love for sports or working towards saving the ecology of her hometown, Kodagu. The international-level golfer recently arranged the fifth edition of Barefoot Marathon, which happened on Sunday in Kodagu. The marathon was an initiative by her organisation, The Coorg Wellness Foundation, in association with avid marathon runner and her friend, Milind Soman.
This year, the marathon was completely eco-friendly and trash-free, with water being served in coconut shells, food in banana leaves and plates made out of areca leaves. The warm-up exercise before most marathons is usually Zumba, but keeping up with local traditions, Valaga music, which is traditional Kodava music, pumped up the participants. The highest prize being `42,000 for 42 km, the marathon had some interesting rules for the prizes that were distributed.
The cash prize went to runners from the neighbourhood area, while the non-local runners got to bring home produce by local farmers, which included rice, coffee, spices etc. All the funds collected from this event will go towards betterment of the families who lost everything in the landslide that hit Coorg in 2018.
More than 400 people participated in this marathon. Ponnappa says the main objective of the run was to bring people closer to nature. “When you run barefoot and feel the soil, it makes you feel closer to Mother Nature. Barefoot is a symbolic way to do something auspicious, plus it has lot of scientific benefits too. We have many nerve points in our feet and these runs work wonders for them.
It was great to see so many people travelling to Coorg, especially from Bengaluru, to participate in this marathon,” says Ponnappa, who was first introduced to golf at the age of 14-15 by her father, who was then serving in the Indian Army. She is also a certified coach and a social activist. Ponnappa’s organisation, the Coorg Wellness Foundation, which was set up in 2014, works towards the development of the people of Kodagu and its eco-system. Along with free education and boarding, they also provide training to join the Army.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Monika Monalisa / Express News Service / December 10th, 2019
– Rare ‘Ring of Fire’ visible in South Kodagu
– Over 2,000 hand-picked students to witness celestial event from 8 am to 11 am
– Organisers aim for India Book of Records
Mysuru:
Kaimaani, a remote village in Kutta, South Kodagu, is all set to witness the rare Annular Solar Eclipse on Dec. 26 — the third and final solar eclipse of the year 2019. The Mysore Science Foundation (MSF) is organising a sky-gazing event at Kutta where nearly 2,000 children and general public will witness the spectacular event.
In the Annular Solar Eclipse, Moon does not completely obscure the Sun as the Moon is farther away from us than normal, making it appear smaller. As a result, the Sun is not totally eclipsed, leaving a ‘Ring of Fire’ around the edges.
The Mysore Science Foundation has tied up with Aseemit Edutech Private Limited, a Pune-based organisation (Mitee as its sub-group) for the event. Aseemit Edutech Private Limited is involved in secondary and senior secondary education.
The spot in Kutta where the sky-gazing event will be witnessed on Dec.26.
Kutta falls on Solar Path
Speaking to Star of Mysore, G.B. Santosh Kumar of Mysore Science Foundation, said that Kutta falls on the Solar Path and as such, the visibility is clear. The visibility of Annular Solar Eclipse in Mysuru is only 75 percent.
“Mangala in Gundlupet, Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Udupi in Dakshina Kannada and Kutta in South Kodagu fall on the Solar Path where there is a clear visibility.
“We did not get permission from the Forest Department for the event as Mangala falls under the limits of Bandipur Tiger Reserve. And 2,000-strong crowd going to Coimbatore and Udupi was a distant possibility. As such, we have zeroed in on Kutta where the event can be viewed from 8 am to 11 am,” Santhosh said.
Kaimaani coffee yard
At Kutta, the event will be organised at the newly-developed coffee drying yard of Kolera Ravi Cariappa in Kaimaani village. “The place is by the side of the road and the land is in a higher altitude and there is an arecanut plantation below. This is a perfect location for witnessing the once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Kotrangada Somaiah, a teacher at Manchalli Government School, who played a key role in identifying the location for the organisers.
“People from Mitee Pune contacted me two months back and requested me to find out an ideal place in Kutta to view the event. First we considered the Government Higher Primary School Cinkona in Kutta for the event but had to cancel it as the approach road was not good. The Kaimaani coffee yard is a perfect location as it is by the side of the road. There are facilities including toilets and I have requested the local residents to allow children to use their toilets,” said Somaiah.
India Book of Records
The event organisers have already registered in the India Book of Records for the largest gathering of children in one place to view Annular Solar Eclipse. “On Dec.17, the Mysore Science Foundation will organise another programme called “Video Viewing” where students will be seeing eclipse-related videos to prepare them for the main event. For the actual event on Dec.26, we are expecting students from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala,” Santhosh added.
On that day, occurrence of eclipses, types of eclipse, science behind eclipse, myths and misconceptions, eclipse watching and safety shall be explained in addition to demonstration on pressure variation and temperature variation.
Food & accommodation
For outstation students coming from Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, choultries have been booked in Virajpet for their food and accommodation. “Along with them, students from Mysuru, Bengaluru and Kodagu too are participating in the event,” Santhosh said.
Student selection
On the student selection process, the Mysore Science Foundation had communicated to schools to send 10 children who are interested in astronomy and a teacher. Registrations were on first-come-first-serve basis and we have kept last-minute registrations open as we are aiming for India Book of Records, he added.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / December 07th, 2019
Foresters Anil and Pamela Malhotra have found peace among the coffee plantations of Coorg. Embracing nature has been their passion.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AJAY SUKUMARAN
Around four in the evening, after a late lunch, Pamela Gale Malhotra is standing at a bay window of her living room looking out at a picture-perfect landscape—a gushing stream in a rain-soaked forest with the abutting Brahmagiri hills framing the backdrop. It was about 25 years ago that she first stumbled onto this view. At the time, she was out scouting for a site for their home and had been hurrying up a hill trying to escape the rain and leeches when it struck her speechless.
The place is now more wooded than it was in 1995 when Pamela, 67, and husband Anil Malhotra, 78, built their home in south Coorg—in a coffee estate that had been listed. How they got here is quite a story, told amidst a primordial symphony—the burble of the stream and the call of the crickets.
Their first port of call in India was in the Himalayas in Uttarkashi along the Assi Ganga, where they stayed for nearly a decade before deciding to move south. After scouting through a few states, they finally found what they were looking for at the Brahmagiri foothills in Theralu—a remote plantation where they could raise a forest, as bizarre as it sounded to the folks around back then.
It might still sound like a nutty proposition, until you drive past the gates of the Save Animals Initiative (SAI) Sanctuary. Suddenly, you are in a thicket with a narrow driveway that meanders some distance to a garage and beyond that the dark peach walls of the Malhotra home. Around you is a 300-acre native rainforest through which the elephant and tiger freely saunter.
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“When you are away from Nature you aren’t thinking clearly…This is our passion.”
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Every morning, in more hospitable weather, Pamela and Anil set forth into this grove—their walks take an hour-and-a-half usually unless she’s checking on the dozen or so camera traps dotting the landscape, replacing batteries, swapping memory cards or switching locations. Over the years, Pamela has collected a mountain of data—otter, porcupine, leopard, sambhar, all kinds of species on video. Since it’s a wilderness—whatever remained of the coffee plants became humus for the trees—the couple merely follow the paths the elephants have cleared.
“We’ve set up this private model,” Anil tells Outlook. “We want other Indians who can afford it, we need even those who can’t, to join together to build this.”
The hills get covered up and the rain comes down. It’s been bucketing down all through the south-west monsoon this year, casting a gloomy outlook for coffee growers in Coorg. “When we came here, it was normal to have 350 inches of rain a year. Even if it was buckets of it, we had this,” says Pamela, pointing to the woods. “This is what the forest canopy is for. It’s like using an umbrella with pores in it, it’s going to break it up and slow it down.” But over the decades, Coorg’s forest cover has been dwindling. “The coffee plant is useless when it comes to retaining moisture…they have extremely small, shallow roots. We’ve warned people again and again, “don’t cut down your big native trees.””
The Malhotras put together their 300-acre sanctuary piece by piece, starting 1991, first by purchasing a 55-acre coffee estate. “Patches were cleared for coffee. So what we did was to fill up the patches with native trees,” says Anil. They planted jackfruit, Nandi, Rosewood, Matti and hundreds of fruit trees. “And, of course, the native trees come out way on top in absorbing carbon,” adds Pamela, pointing to sequestration studies which show that SAI Sanctuary acts as a carbon sink, helping the neighbourhood as well as providing a haven for the wildlife moving between the Brahmagiri reserve forests and Nagarahole national park, an hour away by road.
Down by the stream, a snake slithers away as we approach the water. Most days, the couple crosses over onto two rocks on a small island to meditate. “We were sitting on these rocks once and a matriarch elephant came up,” says Anil. It didn’t sound pleased, he recalls. “We kept sitting and mentally saying we have come in peace. They may not speak English but they know vibrations. She started eating the bamboo and then 8-10 members of the family came. They surrounded us for 45 minutes. It was such a beautiful experience.” Frequently, local people and the forest department bring them injured animals—dogs, cats, parakeets—which find a ready home.
Anil says it is possible for others to do what they did—buy land and restore forests—even if it’s difficult. “It can be done. People tell us “we haven’t made the money you made in America”. We bought at the right time. I can’t afford it today.”
Pamela and Anil met in the US in the early 1970s at her hometown, Red Bank, New Jersey, where he ran an Indian restaurant. She worked at an all-night cafe at Asbury Park, where a young Bruce Springsteen (then playing in a band called Steel Mill) would drop in to play sometimes during breaks from the music club upstairs.
“But Anil and I were on complete opposite sides of the political spectrum then,” she laughs. “I’ve always described it as fire and petrol…explosive encounters.” Mostly over the Nixon presidency and the anti-war movement. Soon after, she went back to college to study political science—the breaking-out of her conservative mindset of ‘materialistic Americana’ happened then. He sold up and followed her to Colorado, where they stayed for a few years, she working as a sales rep in a pharma company and he with a mortgage firm. The commissions he got were reinvested in real estate in Colorado and then in a forested patch in Hawaii, which they fell in love with on their honeymoon. The couple moved to India in 1986 to visit Anil’s ailing father and eventually settled in Uttarkashi where they wanted to recreate their wooded Hawaii home. The land ceiling regulations prompted the decision to look at plantation land in the south.
“I could have continued the real estate and all that in America, but what is the point of life then. I can’t take it after me,” says Anil. “I’d rather drink pure water and breathe fresh air than breathe carbon dioxide and be ill half the time and give all my money to doctors and hospitals.” Adds Pamela: “Being in Nature helps us physically. Kids today are being hot-wired by not having time out in Nature to play.”
Pamela, who received the Nari Shakti awards for her efforts in afforestation in 2016, has given numerous presentations across the country—including a recent one at the Apple facility in Cupertino while on her first visit to the US in 20 years—to raise awareness. She’s currently working on an autobiography titled From the Heart of Nature, slated for publication next year. “When you are away from Nature you aren’t thinking clearly,” says Anil. “Grow fruit trees, grow organic food…the demand far outstrips supply. We have planted thousands of native fruit trees now. Last year, we distributed thousands of saplings at schools and colleges telling them this is the future.”
The Malhotras, like successful permaculturalists, are mostly self-sufficient for most of the year. They rely on roof-top solar panels, installed in 1997—a year after the house was built. The patch next to the house is an organic food garden where most of their vegetables and salads come from. Pamela prefers cooking on biogas.
“Everything comes out of our pockets, except approximately two per cent in the form of donations if we are lucky,” says Pamela. Eco-tourism—they have four rooms for guests—helps meet expenses. “This is our passion, our life. So we have to keep things going. But there are things we’d love to do, like Payment for Ecosystem Services. We’d like to sponsor more organic farming,” says Pamela. “I cannot tell you how frustrating it has been trying to raise money for any of these programmes.”
The rain lets up for a bit, but the clouds hang low. Pamela and Anil climb up a wet, metal ladder to the rooftop for a sweeping view of their sanctuary. Pamela recalls a dream she once woke up with, years earlier. “I had seen a house on a small hill, overlooking a pond with the river flowing past in the middle of a wooded valley with white-capped mountains all the way around and a lot of wildlife. This was that view…those mountains are white-capped from the mist.” This was before they bought this place in Coorg. “I thought we’d find that in the Himalayas. But it wasn’t in the Himalayas, it was here. So, you never know.”
By Ajay Sukumaran in Coorg
source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> Magazine> National> Cover Stories / by Ajay Sukumaran / November 21st, 2019
Tributes were paid at Guddemane Appaiah Gowda Memorial in Old Fort, Madikeri, on Friday.
The 182nd commemoration day of freedom fighter and martyr Subedar Guddemane Appaiah Gowda was jointly organised by district administration, Department of Kannada and Culture and Guddemane Appaiah Gowda Memorial Monitoring Committee, in Madikeri on Friday.
Dignitaries paid floral tributes to the statue of Appaiah Gowda at Field Marshal Cariappa Circle. Later, a silent procession was taken out till Old Fort.
Tributes were also paid at Subedar Guddemane Appaiah Gowda memorial, where he was hanged. Women sang ‘Lavani’ songs depicting the life and achievements of Appaiah Gowda.
District Congress Committee President K K Manjunath said that Guddemane Appaiah Gowda bravely fought against the British to save the people of Kodagu.
“Nobody can change history. One should not make efforts to misinterpret history. Instead, one should lead lives with peace and cordiality,” he added.
Advocate Vidyadhar said that more and more people need to know about the greatness of Appaiah Gowda, who laid down his life during the freedom struggle.
Karnataka Arebhashe and Literary Academy President Lakshminarayana Kajegadde said that a lesson on Guddemane Appaiah Gowda should be included in school curriculum. He fought against the British even before the Sepoy Mutiny, he added.
MLA K G Bopaiah, MLC Veena Achaiah, Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy, Superintendent of Police Dr Suman D Pennekar and others were present.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> States> Mangaluru / by DH News Service, Madikeri / November 01st, 2019
An ultra sound scan indicated he had a kidney stone
Mysuru:
In a rare surgery, doctors at a government hospital in Virajpet removed a kidney stone weighing 800 grams from a 37- year- old man’s bladder on Tuesday.
Mohammed Rafiq, a daily wage worker from Kadanga village in Virajpet, was treated at the hospital after he complained of difficulty in passing urine and severe pain. “An ultra sound scan indicated he had a kidney stone. And an X- ray revealed it could be 8cm to 10cm in size, but we could not get the exact dimensions of the stone as its posterior length could not be measured. But when we opened up, we found it was much bigger. It was not easy, but after an long hour procedure, we succeeded in removing the stone. When we weighed it, we found it was 800 grams,” said Dr Vishwanth Chimpi, a general surgeon, who operated on Rafiq.
Speaking to the Deccan Chronicle, he added that while Rafiq must have had the stone for the past four to five years for it to have grown so big, it was only since the past one year that he had been getting intermittent pain, which intensified more recently. “As it was a calcium phosphate stone, it did not explode , but could not come out in the urine either as it was so huge,” he explained.
Dr Vishwanath admitted that the stone found in the daily wage worker’s body was the biggest he had come across, although three years ago he had removed a stone weighing 600 grams from a patient. Rafiq is now doing well.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / by Shilpa P / October 24th, 2019
Indian and European bees are the most sought after while stingless bees are slowly catching our attention for its medicinal properties.
(Photo | Meghana Sastry, EPS)
Your favourite mango will definitely become dearer if not extinct, if we don’t act now. Pollinators, which include bees, need a major protection boost.
There are 2,00,000 pollinators of which honeybees are the most sought after, why?
There’s a popular saying ‘as busy as a bee’. That term comes from the fact that honey bees are the only species who identify a flower and make multiple visits to the same flower until they get all the nectar and pollen out of it. They are the best pollinators and work in the most methodical fashion. From identifying to communicating and dividing work. Their social structure is fascinating and one that we can learn a lot from. There are 20,000 types of bee species of which the ones mentioned below are the most popular types in India. Indian and European bees are the most sought after while stingless bees are slowly catching our attention for its medicinal properties.
Common Name Scientific Name Natural Nesting Site Honey Yield
(KG)
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Indian Bees Apis Cerena Cavity, Termite Mounds, Tree Hollow etc. 8-10
European Bees Apis Mellifera Cavity 25-30
Rock Bees Apis Dorsata Tree Branches, Buildings etc 30-35
Dwarf Bees Apis Florea Twig in a bush <1
Himalayan Rock Bees Apis Laboriosa Underside of rock cliffs 40-45
Indian Stingless Bees/Dammer Bees Tetragonula Iridipennis Cavities, Hollows in tree trunks and walls <500 grams
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There’s been a lot of buzz about bees going extinct and people have been trying to find a way around it.
Here is a story from beekeepers who have found it very lucrative to harvest them.
There are multiple beekeepers like Apoorva - the bee man of India and organisations like the University of Agricultural Sciences in GKVK, Bangalore who conduct workshops and help people understand the importance of bees, train them on beekeeping and provide them with bee boxes.
Apoorva visits his bee farm in Bidadi regularly to check the health of the bees. He is a mechanical engineer but a beekeeper by profession. He found his passion for bees even before he graduated and took it up soon after. He’s been working on bees for over 10 years and works closely with farmers across the country. He travels, meets farmers, trains them, gives them bee boxes, follows up with them on the progress and reviews the health of the bees regularly. He also helps them sell their produce. While Apoorva works with a lot of people across the country, this is a story close to home where he’s been working with flood victims in Coorg.
He is involved in multiple activities such as honey production, bee breeding, manufacturing beekeeping equipment, selling honey and beehive by-products, mainly wax. His company’s annual turnover is over 2 crores. He has both Indian and Italian bees.
He initially collected bees from hives and then started breeding them in his apiary during the natural division season of bees. He also buys colonies from farmers when they multiply. This bee farm is near a cornfield which is rich in pollen. It is important to understand your demography he says. Having bee flora next to an apiary is very beneficial to harvest more honey and keep bees in good health. He harvests Indian bees in forests and hilly regions and also promotes only Indian bees to farmers as it’s easier since most of them cannot handle migratory beekeeping.
European bees which in India are Italian bees requires 4-7 migrations in a year for which, he travels around 1,200 kms pollinating thousands of acres in North Karnataka mainly Sunflowers, Til, Niger, Coconuts, Arecanuts, Banana, Avacado, Litchi and more. Honey yielding fields for Italian bees are Sunflowers, Eucalyptus, Til and Niger. He has more than 200 colonies now and will split them to make about 800 during the breeding season. A farmer keeps anywhere between 4-25 boxes. He needs about 3 boxes per acre and has to distance each colony by at least 10 feet.
Bee Harvesting has helped Coorg flood victims make a livelihood
Vijay Panduranga talks about the effects of the flood and the rehabilitation work in Coorg.
After the floods in 2018 that hit Coorg, a lot of farmers lost their land in turn livelihood and haven’t received much relief from the government. There were rescue operations but then not much is being done on the rehabilitation front.
With paltry compensation from the govt. Coorg flood victims are finding solace in the new beekeeping venture. Nectar flow is an initiative/program started by a few local people, spearheaded by Retd. Brigadier Devaiah to help provide a steady income to people interested in beekeeping. People have seen returns in the 1st few months. They say that the money that comes in lets them breathe. While beekeeping in an age-old tradition in Coorg, the methods are ancient. Devaiah was on the lookout for someone with a scientific approach to help them and that’s when he found Apoorva and sought help. Apoorva readily agreed and continues to work closely with the farmers. He has helped the farmers understand the species better, eventually getting them better yields. At Coorg, each farmer makes a minimum of 5 kgs of honey per year and each box sells at Rs. 600/- per kg. They also make money by selling colonies at Rs. 1,500/- per colony. Farmers produce about 2-3 kgs of beeswax per year which is approximately Rs. 350/ kg
Farmers from the North East, Chhattisgarh, Coorg and other parts of India find it difficult to sell the honey and wax that they produce. Apoorva helps them by buying the whole lot from them, filters them further if there’s moisture and sells them as and when he gets enquires. Honey is labeled as per the flowering season such as litchi, cardamom, clover, mustard, chilli, etc., the honey tastes different too.
The by-products such as beeswax, royal jelly and bees venom are other sources of income and, used in pharmaceuticals and beauty products.
The below-mentioned statistics are only an example of how bee pollination increases the yield anywhere between15% – 80%. These are scientifically proven numbers in ideal conditions (these are underestimated values).
Estimated global economic value of pollination is 217 billion USD in 2005
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Crop Increase in yield per acre (%) Increase in yield per acre Income generation by pollination per acre
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Coffee 15% 5 Bags 15,000/-
Aracanut 25% 2 Quintals 64,000/-
Coconut 20% 3,000 nuts 36,000/-
Banana 20% 5 Quintals 10,000/-
Watermelon 80% 4 Tonnes 20,000/-
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Farmers tell us their personal stories of how beekeeping has helped increase their yield with pollination in crops such as coffee, fruits and spices. They also make a good livelihood but extracting honey and wax. What they make is pure and unadulterated making the quality far more superior than the ones available off the shelves at supermarkets.
This is what a bee box looks like. This is one bee colony. They come on top to feed. There are multiple wooden frames inside quoted with wax, which help them construct combs.
Every bee box has an opening at the bottom which allows the bees to move in and out of it, to go out and collect nectar and pollen. Some farmers who have these bee boxes are also given out on rent for pollination to seed producers or other farmers who are in need of pollination.
Naganna (Saachi) Kalappa lives 3 kms away from the main Madhapur town in Somwarpet Taluk. He has been harvesting bees for 18-20 years. Bees were available in abundance then as the ecology was healthy and rich, and filled with plants that the bees needed to survive. However, the species has seen a massive decline in numbers as the human population has been increasing and trees are being cut down for personal benefits such as planting silver oak trees as it yields timber and in a short span of time. Since the decline in numbers, they now need to procure boxes and up their skills and knowledge. After adopting this scientific method, he has benefited as his crops are multiplying. He is making enough money to take care of the needs of his family. He also says I request people to stop destroying forests and help in sustaining them and grow trees that are required for agriculture instead of timber to improve the ecology.
Thammaiah CB (Dolly) lives 7 kilometers away from the main Madhapur town in Somwarpet taluk in the Coorg district. This part of Coorg witnessed the worst of nature’s fury in 2018. While he has been harvesting Indian Apis Cerena Bees in boxes he also harvests stingless bees in pots. The quantity of honey is way lesser than what is produced by other bees however, the quality is far more superior as it has a lot of medicinal properties and is sold at a much higher rate.
Thammaiah’s mother tends to her garden every day. She says it isn’t enough if you just harvest bees and have a coffee estate, it is very important to understand what kind of flowers and fruits attract them and cultivate them in your garden. This helps in increasing pollination and nectar production.
Fruit especially those with seeds are good pollinators.
Plants that one should cultivate to yield better results
Nectar: Plants such as Avocado, Litchi, Hibiscus etc.
Pollination: Plants such as Sunflower, Sesame, Mustard, Coriander, Niger, Coconut and more (bees are attracted to vibrant colours such as yellow and blue)
She also makes beeswax at home which is another income generator. She says that it is not a very laborious process and demonstrates. You first break the comb into a utensil with enough water and let it boil.
You let it boil until it reaches the required consistency.
You then squeeze out all the excess water and use the residue to make wax cakes.
This is the final product.
Apoorva pays regular visits to all the farmers across the country and conducts a health check.
It is very important to taste it as well. Every house he goes to gives him honey to taste. He jokes and says I am glad I don’t have diabetes. If I did, for the amount of honey I consume, I would be in a lot of trouble.
Bose Mandanna is the fourth generation coffee grower. He moved back to Coorg 53 years ago after completing a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics. He talks of how he has seen farming change in the years to come. Back in the day farming was done in a very environmentally friendly way. Over a period of time, when they found pests taking over the plantation, they used some chemicals to deal with the pest issue. However, they soon realised that they were not only harming humans but also the bees and other pollinators in the environment. These chemicals known as weed killers have cancer-causing properties. On realising this, they decided to go back to organic farming. However, a lot of farmers have been affected by this chemical especially in Punjab as they are one of the largest agriculturists, and the Punjab mail is popularly called the cancer express as a lot of them are coming to Bombay for treatment. Also to note the groundwater gets affected by these chemicals. People are saying that there are bee-friendly pesticides available. He jokes and says “there are all chemicals and they cannot be friendly, they might not kill you but make you unconscious”. Please avoid chemicals and use bio controlled agents.
White Stem Borer Problem: These pests are known to attack the coffee plants and wreak havock hence they wrap the plants with white cloths to avoid this menace. There is a mild chemical in it but it only
touches the trunk of the plant and does not reach the coffee flower thereby not harming humans or bees.
May 20th is International Bees Day. UAS in GKVK conducted a 2 day class for people interested in beekeeping. Urban beekeeping is also becoming popular as people from the cities have started showing
interest.
The staff showed them how to identify and dig out for a beehive as they can build hives anywhere. This has to be done with caution so as to not break the hive.
You then mildly sedate the bees with some smoke by burning dry cotton cloth and get the comb out
Once you get the comb out, you tie them tightly to a frame but not so tight that they break.
Students learn to tie the comb to the frame.
While they learn to make honey, a student observes the comb.
Santosh from the faculty shows the class how to peel the comb before you can put it into a vessel to churn honey. The peeling has to be very fine.
These are the machines in which you put the combs in to extract honey. These machines are also made by Apoorva and sold to the farmers. There is a particular way the combs have to be kept and then manually churned.
A small community of farmers can only do so much, the government needs to step up and help take this initiative forward, make this bigger and reach more people.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Specials / by Meghana Sastry / Express News Service / October 28th, 2019
Women today are seen in every sector. Professions that were conventionally considered to be ‘men’s jobs’ are now crowded with women. The women of today do not face as much struggle or prejudice in pursuing the career of their dreams as they did two or three decades before. This has been possible because of a few women who have confronted the unjust ways of the patriarchal world and made name for themselves.
One of these powerful ladies was C.B. Muthamma. Muthamma was the first IFS officer of India. She joined foreign services in the first qualifying batch of the service, right after the independence in the year 1949. This was at a time when a woman in diplomacy was a rarity in itself.
For the longest time, women were not considered fit for holding a diplomatic position across the globe. In fact, in 1933 it was stated in a debate in British House of Commons that “The special virtues of women are ill-adapted to the diplomatic life,” the virtues referred being ‘sympathy’ and ‘intuition’. These virtues were considered fatal as a balanced attitude was required in order to preserve diplomatic relations.
A British author Helen McCarthy has remarked in her book, ‘Women of the world’ that, “Even in the 21st century, a woman wielding serious powers in the global arena is an oddity. A phenomenon to be explained rather than taken for granted. Not only is her performance subject to closer scrutiny than her male peers, but it often comes to stand as a test of the ability of all women and to reflect for good or ill, the wisdom of allowing a woman to do a man’s job.”
There was a criterion up until the 1970s that only unmarried women can apply for the IFS services, and they will need to quit their positions whenever they choose to get married. Women were also not promoted to senior positions in the services.
C. B. Muthamma believed that this was clear discrimination. Which is why, when she was not considered for a well-deserved promotion, she filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India against the government of India, seeking justice for herself and all the women who would want to pursue their career in international relations. In a very famous case known as ‘Union of India vs. C. B. Muthamma’, the government changed its policy of not promoting the women before the apex court could give out its judgement for the case. The petition filed by Muthamma was then dismissed with her promotion to Grade 1 of the IFS, with the words by the judges that “We hereby dismiss the petition, but not the problem.”
The landmark case pushed the government to change its rules regarding these discriminating laws. And women now represent 18.5% of the total foreign officers of the country. However, it was this case that set off the trigger for many women to pursue careers in diplomacy while simultaneously leading a normal family life.
C.B. Muthamma has served as an inspiration to all the female diplomats, not only in India but across the world. India lost an exceptional officer of its foreign services when she bid adieu to the world on October 14, 2009.
source: http://www.thecsrjournal.in / The CSR Journal / Home> Header News / by Hency Thacker / October 15th, 2019
Septuagenarian B.K. Deva Rao, who has preserved over 150 variants of paddy by cultivating them every year at Mittabagilu village in Belthangady taluk, and national award winning film director Abhaya Simha from Mangaluru are among the six persons who will be honoured by Mangalore University on its 40th foundation day on Mangalagantori campus on Thursday.
Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, P.S. Yadapadithaya, Vice-Chancellor of the university, said N.R. Shetty, Chancellor, Central University of Karnataka, Kalaburagi, will deliver the foundation day address.
The others who will be honoured are Gopal Mugeraya, Director, National Institute of Technology, Goa; Shashikala Gurupur, Director, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune; G. Chidvilas, Editor, Shakthi daily, Madikeri; and Ganesh Ameen Sankamar, an expert in Tulu folklore.
He said that Mr. Mugeraya would be honoured for his contribution to the fields of Chemical Engineering and Biochemical Engineering. Mr. Simha is one of the country’s newest and most notable voices in the field of cinema. An alumnus of Mangalore University, he has made a name for himself as director of feature films, short films, documentaries, music videos, and as scriptwriter, sound engineer, actor and film activist, he said. Ms. Gurupur would be felicitated in recognition to her contribution to the fields of legal education and social justice.
Mr. Chidvilas has been recognised for his social service and Mr. Sankamar for his research in the field of Tulu folklore.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – September 11th, 2019
Yoga teacher Sangeetha Jairam rides off into the yonder in her spare time
“I’m no biker chick,” Sangeetha Jairam says firmly. “I am more of an adventure-traveller; my motorcycle is something of a companion-teacher, who has taught, and continues to teach me, a lot about life.”
Biker chick or no, Jairam, who is within eye-balling distance of 50 but doesn’t look it, is definitely one more name added to the growing number of women who make long-distance rides on their motorcycles. Her most recent ride was from Finland to Norway in June 2019. She was part of a group of eight motorcyclists, all riding Japanese bikes, who rode from Helsinki to Nordkapp and back, covering a distance of around 3,600 kilometres in 12 riding days.
Jairam rode a Kawasaki ER6n, a 600cc motorcycle. The itinerary was Helsinki-Kuopio-Kuusamo-Ivalo-Skarsvag-Rovaniemi-Vaasa, and back to Helsinki.
“That was indeed one great experience,” she says, enthusiastically. “Our daily distance bar was set at 500-plus kilometres, and since it was summer in Finland, the sun shone all day and all night, and we couldn’t tell the difference!”
Everything pointed North on that trip. The European Highway E69, has its northern terminus at the North Cape, the northernmost point in Europe accessible by road. The Cape has a 307-metre-high-cliff with a large plateau on top, where visitors, weather permitting, can watch the midnight sun and view the Barents Sea to the North.
“The best part of the ride was reaching Nordkapp, Land’s End of the European continent, 2,093 kilometres from the North Pole,” says Jairam. “To get there, we had to ride around the Arctic Sea, which was a stunningly scenic road. I had my first-ever experience of the Arctic gale there. At times, it took real effort to keep the motorcycle from rising up in the air! Since it’s the Arctic region, there was hardly any vegetation except rolling grasslands and lots of reindeer skipping across the road. It was truly an amazing ride.”
Jairam inherited a passion for bikes from her father. “After he graduated, my father returned to India from Germany in 1964 on a motorcycle! All my childhood, I saw him on a motorcycle, so it was only normal for me to ride one.”
Currently, she alternates between riding a Royal Enfield Himalayan and a Hero MotoCorp Impulse, but her all-time favourites continue to be the BMW, Triumph and Honda motorcycles.
It’s not all been smooth riding, of course. While riding in Bhutan, some years ago, she got over the Pele La pass and the bike had a flat tyre. “It was 4pm, not a good time to be stuck in the mountains,” she recalls. “It was late, the light was fading and the skies opened up! Then, a lone vehicle came over the pass, a pick-up truck, onto which my bike was loaded; the next repair shop was 70 kilometres ahead, and on that track, it meant a travel time of four hours. But this experience taught me that bikers are blessed; my initial dismay turned to pure exhilaration!”
Discussing her enthusiasm for riding bikes, Jairam, who often takes solo trips, says riding motorcycles is a hobby and travelling to experience new places and people is a passion. “I would not call it an expensive hobby because this is what I love doing most. There is little else I spend on, I save to moto-travel.”
Jairam grew up in Coorg and did her schooling at The Lawrence School, Lovedale in the Nilgiris, where she says she had the best time of her life. “I always wanted to ‘give back’ to the school, and three years ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to introduce yoga into the school curriculum.”
Interacting with children has to be the best job on earth, she avers. “Children are awesome, they keep me fully engaged. Just like riding motorcycles, my day job, too, has taught me so much and given me immeasurable happiness.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Motoring / by Sheila Kumar / August 21st, 2019
Around 50 residents of Kodagu’s Goodugadde village were stranded in their flooded homes on Friday morning.
Around 50 residents of Kodagu’s Goodugadde village were stranded in their flooded homes on Friday morning, hoping that help would come before the river Cauvery would take away their lives.
Luckily for Goodugadde’s residents, help came in the form of eight Good Samaritans, who ferried them to safe places through small iron-made coracles.
Mustafa, a 32-year-old activist from Kodagu, suspected that people were stranded in Goodugadde and other villages along the banks of the Cauvery river. Mustafa had heard from the local grapevine that many people had not left their homes despite a flood warning.
At around 6 am on Friday, Mustafa and his friends Ranjith Kumar, Afzal, Iliyas, Shafiq and four others from Siddapura, were anxious as the Dubbare Rafting Team was busy with rescue elsewhere.
Mustafa and his friends rushed to the Siddapura Police Station and requested the police to lend them the iron-made coracle lookalikes that the police had kept in the evidence room, which they had seized when they busted an illegal sand mining ring.
“We call it thappe in Kannada. They are circular, iron made vessels sand miners use to transport sand. It’s smaller than a coracle but bigger than the round vessels used to carry sand in construction sites. We wanted those so we could row it and look for stranded people,” Mustafa explains.
When the group reached Goodugadde, they found several senior citizens, children and middle aged people stranded in their flooded homes. Many were sitting on their rooftops, while some of them clung to trees, waiting for help.
“There were about 50 people. We began rescue at 7am and it went on till 11 am. We lost count of the number of trips we made to bring all of them to safety. They were sent to relief camps in Siddapura. By 12 pm, the Dubbare Rafting Team came to help us and we continued rescue operations in Baradi and Kakkattagadu villages,” Ranjith Kumar says.
Mustafa, Ranjith and the team of local rescuers claim that they are experienced swimmers and that they had volunteered during rescue operations in the floods that hit Kodagu in 2018.
“We have lived along the banks of river Cauvery all our lives. We have a very close relationship with the river and swimming is the first thing we learnt as children. We are expert swimmers and if our skill could be put to use to help people in need, then it’s our duty to help them. What is the point of being an expert at something and not helping those who could benefit from it?” Mustafa says.
Mustafa and his motley crew continue their rescue operations even now. “We will help as much as we can. Our people have seen too much damage due to rains and floods. Currently, we are going back and forth Goodugadde and recovering their belongings,” Mustafa adds.
source: http://www.thenewsminute.com / The News Minute / Home> Karnataka Floods / by Theja Ram / August 10th, 2019
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