Soft Targets..........

It’s an alarming fact that has made the Union health ministry sit up and take notice: data from across the country is showing a rise in the number of paediatric HIV cases. Of the 2.5 million people with HIV in India today, four per cent are below 15 years. Recently, Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said in Parliament that more than 64,500 children had tested positive, while some 19,000 children in whom the virus had turned active were receiving anti-retroviral drugs at treatment centres across the country.

Maharashtra, at 24,614, has the highest number of HIV-infected children, followed by Andhra Pradesh at 23,621. Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Tripura, as is to be expected in small or sparsely populated states, have the fewest—six cases each.

Honey! it's sweet, yet comes with a sting

That spoonful of “guaranteed pure” sweetness may be hiding a bitter secret. Branded honey sold in India is likely to be contaminated with harmful antibiotics, according to a new study by the Centre for Science and Environment.

CSE's Pollution Monitoring Laboratory tested 12 leading brands of honey sold in Delhi, including those made by Indian companies such as Dabur, Himalaya, Patanjali, Baidyanath and Khadi as well as by two foreign companies based in Switzerland and Australia. Scientists found high levels of six harmful antibiotics in 11 samples, with only the Indian Hitkari brand coming out clean....

....Declining AvifaunA...

Seventy-five years after Salim Ali conducted his famous Travancore-Cochin bird survey, researchers who did a similar count, following the same route and corresponding dates, identified 337 bird species. The latest survey reveals the “extent of ecological damage that took place over a period of seven decades since 1933,”

Migratory birds

“There is a tremendous change in the pattern of migratory birds. More dry land/open area species started wintering in various parts of Kerala. Resident low country birds started moving up to the highlands causing severe competition for endemic forms. The future is bleak … ,” the report cautions comparing the status of various species.

he blue-winged parakeet, the small sunbird, the Indian rufuos babbler and the white-bellied treepie have a healthy population. However, the habitats of the grey-breasted laughing thrush, the black-and-orange flycatcher, the white-bellied shortwing and the Nilgiri flycatcher found in high-altitude shola forests are under threat. The large-scale decline of the Nilgiri wood pigeon, an IUCN Red List category bird, causes concern.

Tourism in high-altitude areas is a major threat to endemic species.The annual forest fires in the higher altitude grasslands threaten the ecosystem and birds such as the Nilgiri and the brown rock pipit and the broad-tailed grass warbler. The lesser fish eagle, a globally threatened species, is a significant addition to the avian fauna of the State.

IUCN to assess Western Ghats for nomination to heritage list

Experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will tour the Western Ghats region next month to evaluate its nomination to the World Heritage List.The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has prepared a nomination for inscription of 39 serial sites in the Western Ghats on the list. “The purpose of inscription is to ensure that the sites of outstanding universal value are protected for the present and future generations,” “The Western Ghats, spread over Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Goa and Maharashtra, stands a good chance to be included on the list considering its global significance in terms of biodiversity value,” The ghats region is likely to be assessed in the category of sites which “contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.” The government had established several protected areas including the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve and 13 national parks in the region considering its biodiversity significance.The world heritage list includes 911 properties, including 29 from India, which the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO considers as having outstanding universal value.

Actually what z our need??z t food r resorts???

Even as the State and Central governments are preparing to bring long-awaited relief to thousands of farmers in Kuttanad through the implementation of the Rs.1,840-crore-Kuttanad Package, indications are that the land lobby too is working overtime to grab as much land as possible at the earliest. Kuttanad's scenic paddy fields have for long been eyed by the land lobby, with the aim of reclaiming these fields and constructing resorts..

Again A Dawn F Naxalism..

Even as the Bihar police intensified operations against Naxals in the forests of Lakhisarai on Friday, the news of the killing of one of the four hostages by the rebels sent shock waves in the corridors of the State government.The police found the bullet-riddled body of Havildar Lukas Tete on a road at Simratalli Korasi, under the Chanan police station, in the early hours of Friday.

ADG (Headquarters) P.K. Thakur said the incident only served to “strengthen the resolve of the police, who would fight harder to rescue their captured colleagues and bring the Naxals to book.”..
so then think of Lukas Tete family,,n who is gonna look after them..cant bear the grief of his family who are screened in today's news channels...what the damn crap is happening to our society, ..,DO remember that this can happen to any of us n future.,,.

these people are crossing all the limits of Indian patience,,,i do think itz the time of their complete DISASTER,,
Join our hands to fight against Naxalism,,,
Arise..awake ...n stop not till v go get rid of thiz...