5,500 of paramilitary guarding Gadchiroli

A contingent of 18 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel — around 2,100 men — arrived in Gadchiroli on Sunday to assist in the combing operation to clear out the Naxal group that had gunned down 17 C-60 commandos last week near Lahiri.

Eight companies of the CRPF and 27 companies of the Border Security Force had been pressed into poll duty earlier this month. With the fresh arrivals, the number of paramilitary personnel in the district has gone up to over 5,500.

In a joint strategy chalked out by the Maharashtra police and the Chhattisgarh government, the combing operation has begun from both sides to first round up and then flush out the Naxals.

Gadchiroli Additional SP Dr Manoj Sharma said the second army MI-17 helicopter was pressed into operation on Sunday. Two more choppers would be made available this week.

Meanwhile, 20 kg of high-intensity explosives with blasting devices were recovered from Korchi, 65 km north of Gadchiroli, on Sunday.

Sharma said the recovery was made while clearing a road. The explosives had been stashed in a cavity, ostensibly by Naxals to disrupt movement.

The Naxals, he said, were resorting to “every possible trick” to obstruct the progress of the search parties in jungles as well as roads by creating obstacles.

“The jungles have been mined while attempts are being made to disrupt road communication,” Sharma said, adding that mine detectors and anti- mine equipment were being used to clear the passage.

MP yet to sign tripartite pact for tiger conservation

NEW DELHI: Except Madhya Pradesh, all the tiger-range states have signed a tripartite agreement with the Centre and sanctuaries on big cat conservation which makes them eligible for funds.

West Bengal, which initially had expressed reservation in signing the agreement that makes the tiger reserve directors accountable for the predator's mortality, too recently signed the pact, an official said.

However, Madhya Pradesh's reluctance to sign the agreement has drawn flak from the environmentalists, who fear that in the absence of Central-sponsored funds, the state might lose its tag of "tiger state", having as many as six major sanctuaries.

"All the states have already signed it and this is the way forward to revive the dwindling tiger population.

"A large sum of money is being put into tiger conservation efforts and states must be made accountable for fund spending," wildlife expert Belinda Wright of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) said.

She asserted that since it is the tax payers money, all the states and the Centre need to have a unified stand and agreement to protect the endangered tigers. "We hope Madhya Pradesh would soon sign the pact," she added.

Tiger expert Ashok Kumar from Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) expressed similar views. "Unless it (MP) signs the tripartite agreement, it will not get fund for management of reserves, thus putting the striped cats at risk. The pact aims to ensure accountability in the state's tiger conservation efforts."


The Madhya Pradesh government has sought about Rs 3,200 crore for relocation of 117 villages situated inside the six reserves -- Panna, Satpura, Kanha, Pench and Bandhavgarh.

However, State Additional Chief Secretary (Forest) Prashant Mehta termed the pact as "unconstitutional" and said under the existing bilateral pact, the State Chief Wildlife Warden was already responsible for tiger management.

"Nevertheless, we are open to the talks. We have suggested a bilateral pact between Centre and the state and Chief Wildlife Warden can sign an individual agreement with the director of reserves on tiger conservation," Mehta added.

On being asked if absence of pact would hamper fund flow and hence tiger conservation, he retorted "had the Centre been concerned about the safety of wild cats, it would not have tried to impose the pact on the states."

Seventeen states in the country have tiger population.

Lunar bombing a smash hit

WASHINGTON: Earthlings are having a blast – at the expense of the silent Moon. The US space agency Nasa on Friday deliberately crashed a rocket

into planet earth’s nearest celestial - and revered - neighbor in an effort to expand the search for water on the Moon. Nasa said the rocket and satellite strike was a success, kicking up enough dust for scientists to determine whether or not there is water on the moon.

“We have the data we need to address the questions we set out to address”, said Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission. At approximately 5.31pm IST on Friday, a rocket called LCROSS (for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite), traveling at over twice the speed of a bullet, traversed the nearly 375,000 km from earth to Moon and slammed into the bottom of a lunar crater bathed in a permanent shadow.

The impact is said to have created 13 feet deep, 65 feet wide hole and excavated about 350 metric tons of Moon debris, some of it flying up. Trailing four minutes behind, instruments aboard the second piece of the rocket analyzed the rising plume and sent its observations back to Earth before it also slammed into the same crater.

The “double smack,’’ as one report called it, was primarily aimed at ferreting out any hidden ice - and therefore water - on the Moon beyond the traces thought to exist. If there are significant amounts, then it changes the whole ball game of Moon exploration since presence of H²O means life giving oxygen and fuel-potential hydrogen, both of which mankind carries from earth now when it visits the Moon.

An icy Moon could facilitate a moon base, allowing a host of activity from growing food in pressurized green houses to a whole lot of workaday chores. But scientists concede it is also possible that the first major water-specific probe could have easily missed a pocket of ice – or that the theory is wrong and there isn’t large amount of ice on the moon after all.

The much-hyped crash landing was a bit of an anti-climax as it did not live up to the spectacular visual space aficionados had expected based on the animation.

Two-thirds of world's blind are women: Study

London: Two-thirds of blind people worldwide are women and girls, and the gender bias has resulted in men and boys having twice the access to

eye-care, says an international agency in a report to mark the "World Sight Day" Thursday.

The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness says in most developing countries, women are less likely to receive eye care services than men, and that additionally, women comprise more than half of the elderly population.

"The natural incidence of some blinding diseases, like cataract and trachoma, is higher among women than men, which results in a situation where women account for nearly two-thirds of blind people worldwide."

Some of the key findings of the report are

• Equal access to eye care could substantially reduce blindness in poor countries

• Simple and effective strategies can address the inequity within 2020

• 80 percent of blindness is avoidable and can be prevented, cured or treated

• 45 million people worldwide are blind, and 269 million are vision impaired

• 90 percent of blind people live in low-income countries

• The world's leading cause of blindness is cataract

• Cataract is curable by simple, cost-effective operation

"Blindness and severe visual impairment from cataract could be reduced by around 11 percent in low- and middle-income countries if women were to receive cataract surgery at the same rate as men," says the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Accordingly, the new report recommends strategies that are simple and achievable with the hope that they will contribute significantly to reducing blindness in developing countries.

"The systematic approach to 'gender and blindness' can serve as a model to help other health areas to address gender inequity."

The World Sight Day is an international day of awareness, commemorated annually on the second Thursday of October to focus attention on the global issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment.

Bonus bonanza from Reliance

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the country’s largest private sector company, on Wednesday announced a bonus share issue of one share for every share held—only the second time in the 32 years since it went public in 1977.

The oil refining, exploration and petrochemicals giant topped that with a Rs. 13 per share dividend for existing shareholders in the backdrop of a courtroom dispute with the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group led by Mukesh’s estranged brother Anil who controls the other part of the divided Reliance industrial empire.

The pleasant surprise to shareholders came as the company unveiled audited financial results for 2008-09 in consolidated figures that combined revenues from Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL), which has been merged into the group flagship with effect from April 1 this year. The combined entity reported a marginal 0.2 per cent decline in consolidated net profit.

“The bonus was completely unexpected and has come as a positive surprise,” said Amitabh Chakraborty, president, equity, at Religare Enterprises. “A bonus issue, while neutral on accounting terms, has a positive impact on the market because it reflects the company’s confidence of a bright future prospect and its ability to serve double the equity base.”

What this means is that RIL must henceforth strive to increase earnings on twice the current number of shares.

RIL’s dividend will involve a cash outflow of Rs. 2,219 crore.

RIL’s net profit in 2008-09 totalled Rs. 15,296 crore down from Rs 15,326 crore it registered in 2007-08 as expenses on crude oil shot up. Consoliated revenues rose 10.3 per cent at Rs. 151,224 crore.

“High crude oil prices in the first two quarters impacted the refining margin of the company leading to a dip in its profits,” said Alex Mathews, head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

The refining business continues to be the flagship business for the company as it accounts for 63 per cent of total revenues, followed by petrochemicals that earns 32 per cent of the revenue for the company.

RIL’s oil and gas exploration business, much in the news for the dispute between the Ambani brothers over the supply and pricing of gas for ADAG’s energy units, contributes only 2.5 per cent of the company’s revenues. However, its 60 per cent net margin is several times that of the other business lines.

Oil regulator counters ADAG campaign with ads of his own

Faced with allegations of favouring Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries' Ltd in the ongoing gas price war with ADAG, oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) on Wednesday launched an advertisement campaign to state that the government would get $16.57 billion as revenues compared to $9.5 billion for RIL.

DGH said at $4.20 per unit, the Government would earn in profit share, taxes and royalty Rs 77,879 crore, while the net revenues to RIL-Niko combine would be Rs 49,961 crore.

Director General VK Sibal has also sought government protection against damage to his “personal and professional life” from the Anil Ambani group.

“I will not be surprised if ADAG resorts to violent means to achieve their objective,”

Clouds of soot melting glaciers in Himalayas and Tibetan plateau

LONDON: In a new research, scientists in India and China have determined that glaciers in the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau that feed the

river systems of almost half the world's people are melting faster because of the effects of clouds of soot from diesel fumes and wood fires.

According to a report in the Guardian, the results of the research, to be announced this month in Kashmir, show for the first time that clouds of soot - made up of tiny particles of "black carbon" emitted from old diesel engines and from cooking with wood, crop waste or cow dung - are "unequivocally having an impact on glacial melting" in the Himalayas.

Scientists said that while the threat of carbon dioxide (CO2) to global warming has been accepted, soot from developing countries is a largely unappreciated cause of rising temperatures.

Once the black carbon lands on glaciers, it absorbs sunlight that would otherwise be reflected by the snow, leading to melting.

"This is a huge problem which we are ignoring," said Professor Syed Hasnain of the Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) in Delhi.

"We are finding concentrations of black carbon in the Himalayas in what are supposed to be pristine, untouched environments," he added.

The institute has set up two sensors in the Himalayas, one on the Kholai glacier that sits on the mountain range's western flank in Kashmir and the other flowing through the eastern reaches in Sikkim.

Glaciers in this region feed most of the major rivers in Asia.

The short-term result of substantial melting is severe flooding downstream.

Hasnain said that India and China produce about a third of the world's black carbon, and both countries have been slow to act.

"India is the worst. At least in China, the state has moved to measure the problem. In Delhi. no government agency has put any sensors on the ground. Teri is doing it by ourselves," he said.

Decreasing black carbon emissions should be a relatively cheap way to significantly curb global warming.

Black carbon falls from the atmosphere after just a couple of weeks, and replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could quickly end the problem.

Controlling traffic in the Himalayan region should help ease the harm done by emissions from diesel engines.