CLIMATE CARE - NORTHEAST INDIA

Monoj Gogoi April 24, 2013   Several environmental organisations of Lakhimpur district sought an inquiry over the sudden death of 11 vultures in Dhakuakhana on Tuesday and demanded exemplary punishment to the guilty person. Devajit Phukan, mthe secretary of Mega Mix, a Dhakuakhana based environmental organisation told today that the incident occurred when the vultures consumed the carcass of goat on which the owner of the got applied Furadan, a kind of pesticide and left it in an open field. Till today the owner of the land had been identified though the owner of the goat was yet to be identified. Phukan added that the guilty person must be awarded with exemplary punishment so that no one would dare to do such crime in future. He told the district administration was taking the matter very seriously and the police and the forest department were working accordingly. He also clarified that among the dead vultures 9 were Himalayan Giffon and 2 were white-backed vultures. Phukan als...

Consuming pesticide contaminated flesh 11 vultures died in Dhakuakhana on April 23, 2013   MONOJ GOGOI     The sudden death of 11 vultures on April 23, 2013 in Bagicha gaon near the Sub-Division Office (SDO) of Dhakukhana under Lakhimpur district created a huge sensation among the nature lovers across the state. According to sources, the 11 vultures comprised of white-backed vultures (gyps africanus) and slender-billed vultures (gyps tenuirostris) died in the morning due consumption of goat carcass on which furadan, a kind of pesticide was applied. Sources added that the goat died due to the bites of stray dogs and in vengeance, to kill the dogs, the owner of the got applied furadan on the carcass and left it in an open field. After consuming the carcass of the goat the vultures started to die. First the local people of Bagicha village witnessed the carcusses of the vultures and informed Mega Mix, a Dhakuakhana-based NGO for conservation of nature.     Devajit Phukan, the secre...

  Experts and studies find mobile phone towers are the causes behind the drastic declination of house sparrows population  Monoj Gogoi  Published in Eastern Chronicle in September, 2011  The Indian mobile telephonyr is one of the fastest growing  industries in the world, and the success story continues unabated, with the sector growing at more than 35 percent annually during the last decade in terms of subscribers. India is the world’s second largest wireless market after China, with over 700 million subscribers and estimated that by 2013, over 1 billion people will be having cell phone connection in India. The tremendous growth of this industry, experts and studies find, is one of the prime causes of drastic decline of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus), the small bird that lives in nest colonies close to human habitats. Today, in absence of government policy, large numbers of mobile phone towers are being installed in a haphazard manner, without sc...

MONOJ GOGOI  APR 13, 2013:  It was the morning of August 15, 1950. While the entire country was celebrating the 3rd Independence Day of India, the earth shook suddenly in the northeast region. It was an earthquake at a magnitude of 8.7 in the Richter scale which created indelineable devastation at several parts of the region. In that earthquake, in a massive landslide occurred in the hills near Dulungmukh, the Subansiri, a principal north bank tributary of the Brahmaputra was entirely blocked. Due to the blockade the water level receded largely in the downstream and the river bed almost dried up. Though the people saw the landslides from the downstream, they did not know the actual reason behind the drying up of the river. The riverine people gladly became busy in fishing in the swallow stagnant water of the river. The government tried to warn the people by distributing leaflets using helicopter about the blockade of the river and the possible impending disaster, but the p...

  Workshop on conservation and sustainable utilisation of Maguri-Motapung wetland concludes in Tinsukia Monoj Gogoi TINSUKIA, APR 8, 2013: Aaranyak, a frontline environmental organisation of India, based at Guwahati organised a two day workshop on the ecosystem of Maguri-Motapung wetland of Tinsukia in collaboration of Bobosa, a local NGO in Tinsukia successfully concluded today. The workshop was organised in two different levels. On the first day on Sunday, it was organised onconservation and sustainable utilisation of the Maguri-Motapung wetland at Rangagarha Kaliapani L.P. School where more than 60 people from six surrounding villages of the wetland participated and shared their views on the importance and  conservation of the wetland. Partha J Das, an environmentist who heads the Aaranyak's Water, Climate and Hazard (WATCH) programme told in his keynote address that the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region was highly dynamic, with many socioeconomic and environmenta...

Day of Action for Rivers observed in an island of Subansiri  Monoj Gogoi  DHEMAJI, MARCH 14, 2013: The People's Movement for Subansiri Brahmaputra Valley (PMSBV), an anti-dam organisation of the Subansiri valley celebrated the International Day of Action for Rivers today at an island of the Subansiri river near Chauldhuwa. On the occasion, hundreds of men and women gathered on the island from various rural areas of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts and going to the riverside they lit earthen lamps in order to worship the river. In the knee-depth water the people shouted slogans against the construction of Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Project (LSHEP) carrying posters and banners in their hands. Talking about the significance of the Day, Keshoba Krishna Chatradhara, the secretary of the PMSBV told that this day had been observed at various parts of the world since 1998 and in Subansiri valley PMSBV had been celebrating this day from 2004 in various ways. He told that...

MONOJ GOGOI Early warning can minimize the devastation of flash flood DHEMAJI, OCT 3: The frequency and intensity of flash flood is rapidly and noticeably increasing year by year in the eastern parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, particularly in the districts of Assam’s Lakhimpur and Dhemaji and Arunachal Pradesh’s Lohit, Lower Subansiri and Anjaw districts. Many people believe that the root cause of this rapid increase of flash flood in this region may be attributed mainly to erratic rainfall in the upper catchment areas due to climate change or climate variability. The flash flood is different than the normal monsoon flood as it carries huge amount of water loaded with debris and sediment to the plains affecting people, livestock, crops land etc. The energetic flash flood is difficult to deal with and more hazardous than a typical monsoon flood because of its suddenness without giving much indication before. The north bank tributaries of the Brahmaputra are flashier and more...