A stove that can trigger a fuel revolution

IN SEARCH OF CLEAN ENERGY: PART III   Sreelatha Menon & Sapna Dogra Singh / New Delhi December 26, 2007         Jatropha oil and solar stoves for cooking? Many environmentalists see cooking as the right use for jatropha oil and other bio-fuels which are now being used only for running vehicles.   The reason is that 80 per cent of the renewable energy now in use is in the form of twigs and cow dung that the rural woman uses for cooking. Jatropha oil and solar stoves could help continue using a green fuel even when she leapfrogs into affluence.   Says environment activist Sunita Narain: This woman is cutting more CO2 emissions than the big companies which have been running windmills, because her stoves outnumber the windmills. She is too poor to afford a kerosene stove or a gas stove or a microwave. Women like her form 80 per cent of the entire gamut of renewable energy, while wind, solar power and other forms comprise just a fraction of 0.4 per cent. Her chulha (oven) forms 39 per cent of India’s primary energy use. The need of the hour is to find an alternative for women like her. That would provide a beginning towards a low carbon economy.”   The energy advisor in Greenpeace India says the idea does not make economic sense as the jatropha grower would prefer to sell the oil to a company like Reliance, for say Rs 30 a litre, and buy kerosene for Rs 2.   However, Subrato Mandal, a bio-fuel expert and an economist at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), says the economy of fuels is skewed as subsidies are determining the prices of fuels. The environmental viability of fuels should also be taken into account. He says there are scattered instances of jatropha and similar plant oils being used for cooking purposes. But it has not been documented.   He says it can definitely be a medium for cooking as it can be directly put in the stove and the wicks burn like they do in an oil lamp. It can definitely be a good alternative for a petroleum product.   He says that the clean development mechanism (CDM) should be used to make the prices affordable for the poor.   If the CDM is used to fund jatropha use for cooking oil, it should translate into carbon emission reductions (CERs) and earn in euros to the grower and if it is being sold to an auto fuel company then the CERs should be denied to it, says Mandal.   Currently, a CER earns 21 euros — double of what it earned a year ago. So CDMs should be exploited to make such green projects like solar stoves and bio-fuels viable and profitable, adds Mandal.   The bio-fuel expert says solar stoves can supplement other cooking medium in cities and villages. He says if a solar stove can help a housewife cut LPG use from 14 cylinders a year to four a year, then why not?   Meanwhile, the Ministry of Renewable Energy has no project for green cooking fuels. It has 4 million family-size biogas plants, about 1.4 million solar photovoltaic systems for lighting and other applications.   It is, however, supporting deployment of renewable energy systems by providing fiscal and financial support to reduce the capital costs of these systems.   It is left to communities to exploit the green opportunities, says the ministry.

 

Seeing a tiger at its own sweet will

Kanha National Park, Mandla district, Madhya Pradesh A chital alarm called as our Maruti Gypsy rolled down Bison Road in Kanha National Park at about 8 in the morning. A few minutes ago, the Park, with a core area of 940 sq.km and a buffer zone of 1,005 sq.km, had just shed its mist cover. The chital alarm called again possibly from the far side of Shravan Tal at the end of Bison Road. We moved back and forth Bison Road when our guide, 30-year-old Kamalesh Maravi, advised us to halt the vehicle at the end of Bison Road in front of Shravan Tal.

Kishor Rithe of the Satpuda Foundation, at the wheel, switched off the engine and we waited. By about 8.20, one got the first glimpse of the radio-collared tigress as it climbed on to the embankment, strolled along before moving down towards us and away into thick, dry light brown grass. From a distance of about 80 ft. we could take some pictures as the tigress walked in and out of the skylight. Kishor refused to age the tigress while Kamalesh Maravi thought it was a full grown, six-year old female. It has three cubs and has earned a frightening reputation as some of the guides believe it had killed a human intruder into the Park some time ago. Kishor, Giri Venkatesan, this writer and his son, Ganesh, had a peaceful viewing as there was only a second Gypsy parallel to us.

Over five days, Ganesh and this writer (Kishor and Giri had to break off on work at Mandla) had five tiger sightings. Evening trips in Kanha start at 3 p.m. and end at 5.30 p.m. while the morning rides start at around 6 a.m. and end at 12 in the afternoon. There were about 30 minutes to go that evening as we were driving in second gear along Dhawajhandi fireline before touching the Indri-Chimta Road. Our guide Phagan Singh Maravi is passionate about tigers. He has a sixth sense as he told us in Hindi, “Saab, idhar tiger dekhne ko milega (Saab, we are sure to see a tiger here).” Sure enough at around 5.10 on the left side of the forest track, we sighted the powerful head of a heavy, radio-collared male. It was a profile in tiger thought as we switched off the Gypsy engine to watch. After a few minutes, it rose, looked round and walked away sedately in silent mode.

It was 5.15 p.m. Yet again, we were alone on the forest track. We moved along to spot a second male, probably mightier than the first, on the right side above a nullah. A peacock was strutting in front of it calling desperately. But the tiger did not attack. For a few moments it sat on its hind legs staring at the peacock nervously pacing in front. The tiger walked down the nullah, circled a tree to smell it and moved away as a few vehicles saw the action. The peacock also made it with its life. “Chalo aaj bach gaya (He is saved for the day),” remarked Phagan Singh Maravi. On the following evening, a male tiger sighting was ruined by many crowded Gypsies, desperate to see the animal. It lay curled up in the grass with its head tucked into its belly and did not bother to raise its head. Perhaps, from an aesthetic angle, the radio-collared tigress at the Kanha Meadow was the prettiest sight.

Driving along the edge of the Kanha meadow, we (along with our guide Kamalesh Maravi) thought we heard a high-toned roar and stood still at the spot. Two wild boars were feeding at a distance of about 80 ft. when Maravi took us back to the rim of the Kanha Meadows. At 8 a.m., in sparkling sunlight, a radio-collared tigress strode out across the grassless part of the Meadow towards a banyan tree. Two elephants tried to trap the lady (for the popular Tiger Show) as it crossed over into the forest beyond. For about a forever 10 minutes, one stood rooted at the easy grace of the lady as she made the distance. Panthera tigris is alone in the super league of Nature. Kamalesh Maravi had his own construct on the event. Possibly, the tigress was mating with a male and went off the scene for its own reasons. The elephants failed to trap the female but got the male for the Tiger Show. Three to four elephants surround a tiger or tigress for the public riding on the elephant’s back to have a sighting. Most wildlifers scorn the Tiger Show. This writer would ban it for the reason that the Tiger Show comes in the way of seeing a tiger at its own sweet will in the wild by the ordinary public.

On holidays (like the one starting ahead of Christmas and ending around the first week of January), more than 70 vehicles enter the Park when the carrying capacity is 55 vehicles per day (six to a vehicle). This information was given last year to this writer by Khageswar Nayak, Chief Conservator of Forests, Kanha National Park. With the media (including this piece) exclusively chronicling the fate of the tigers, the visiting public is exclusively tuned on the animal; the rest of the sal and bamboo forest and its citizens, which is Kanha National Park, are set aside. Using own funds liberally to reach Kanha, the public wants to see a tiger and at some places vehicles form double rows (with none yielding space) when the animal is spotted. It does not have an easy solution as disappointing too many visitors could get them forever against Nature, argues Giri. There is a scientific way to measure the carrying capacity of vehicles in a Park and that could act as the limit, says Kishor Rithe.

But one cannot understand the move of the Park management to open a third gate at Bitcha to add to the rush; currently there are two gates – Kisli and Mukki. In the bargain, the Tiger Show needs to be stopped as it is demeaning to the tigers, if not to the humans.

Public frustration can be really sharp going by the tale told us by Phagan Singh. A frustrated visitor, having spent well over Rs. 20,000, yelled at Phagan Singh Maravi and threatened to report the non-sighting of a tiger to forest managers in Bhopal and New Delhi. “Ek do tiger ko idhar bandh ke rakkho (Tie up one or two tigers in the Park),” he shouted at a scared Phagan Singh, who humbly replied, “Saab, aap kuch bhi karo. Mere ko chod do (Saab, you are welcome to do anything but leave me alone).”

Some time in the future the public may be able to see more tigers as the Satpuda range as Central India becomes one integrated piece of Tigerland. Proof: Dr. Y.V. Jhala of the Wildlife Institute of India, has radio collared a few tigers in the area and one tiger collared in Kanha National Park was found recently in Pench Tiger Reserve Maharastra, some 250 km away.

P. Devarajan

 

Recycling company building $50m plastic-to-fuel plant

Enviro-Hub's plant will be able to convert into fuel 30,000 tonnes of plastic waste a year

By Jessica Cheam

AN EXCITING new use has been found for the annoying plastic waste that often washes up on beaches and clogs rubbish dumps: fuel. It may sound too good to be true, given the soaring price of crude oil and the global hunt for alternative fuels, but mainboard-listed Enviro-Hub Holdings says it is building the world's first large-scale, commercial plastic-to-fuel plant. The waste management and recycling firm yesterday announced the construction of Singapore's first $50 million plastic-to-fuel plant - which converts waste plastic into useable fuels and gases. Its executive chairman, Mr Raymond Ng, told The Straits Times that Enviro-Hub had been researching a long-term environmental solution for plastics since 2005. Success came only last month, when a pilot plant it built proved that the technology imported from India worked. This patented technology, for which Enviro-Hub now holds an exclusive licence, heats waste plastic with a special catalyst that breaks it down into 85 per cent diesel, 10 per cent liquid petroleum gas and 5 per cent coke. 'This plant is a historic milestone for the company,' said Mr Ng, formerly the co-founder of waste recycler Citiraya Industries, now known as Centillion Environment and Recycling. 'Plastic waste has always been a big problem for the world. The commercial potential in this technology is huge,' said Mr Ng. Enviro-Hub's new 200,000 sq ft plant in Tuas, which will cost an initial $30 million to build, will be able to convert into fuel 30,000 tonnes of waste plastic a year. Mr Mohamed Gani Mohamed Ansari, business development director of Enviro-Hub unit Cimelia Resource Recovery, said the diesel produced - unlike in older technologies - would have low sulphur content and also lower carbon dioxide emissions. The heating process of converting the waste plastic into fuel would also be emissions-free, said Mr Ansari. Enviro-Hub is now looking into seeking carbon credits from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These credits are savings in carbon dioxide emissions - largely blamed by scientists for global climate change - that can be traded on the carbon market. Enviro-Hub's facility - equivalent to a 24MW plant - will use about 5 per cent of the fuel it generates to power itself. The rest will either be used to power the rest of Enviro-Hub's plants nearby or sold to industries. The plant will start operations by the second quarter of next year, with its capacity expanding to 50,000 tonnes a year at an additional cost of $20 million by end-2008, said Mr Ng. Enviro-Hub yesterday incorporated a new unit - Enviro-Power - to operate the plant. Funding for the plant is internal, the firm said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange. Singapore is estimated to generate more than 300,000 tonnes of waste plastic a year - a capacity Enviro-Hub hopes its plant will eventually reach. Enviro-Hub also announced late yesterday that it would invest US$4.2 million (S$6.1 million) in a 30 per cent stake in Enviro Energy - a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Enviro Energy, through a unit in Thailand, will also be looking to set up a similar plastic-to-fuel plant in Thailand. The setting up of Enviro-Power and the investment in Enviro Energy are not expected to have any financial impact on the company's current financial year. Enviro-Hub's shares was 0.5 cent higher at 57.5 cents at yesterday's close

 

 

Leadership in Governance

MEN AND IDEAS

Blueline solution in Indore

GURCHARAN DAS

 

To be able to kill 113 persons in less than 12 months in broad daylight is something of an accomplishment. The distinction belongs to Delhi’s Blueline buses. Desperate citizens tend to blame drivers, police, politicians, or transport officials. They are all guilty, of course. The real problem, however, lies elsewhere. A few months ago a prominent public figure even blamed ‘privatisation’. A staggering comment, i thought, considering that major cities in the world (including in France and England) have excellent, privately run bus services.
   Closer to Delhi lies Indore, a city of 20 lakh people. Vivek Aggarwal, a 34-year-old IAS officer, became its collector in 2005. He had a hobby — he studied bus services in different cities. With a tiny capital of Rs 25 lakh, he launched a public-private bus partnership in Indore based on best practices in the world. Two years later, Indore has a fleet of 98 modern, low-floor buses with computerised ticket-vending. Electronic signboards at bus stops announce when the next bus is due based on satellite data. Investment in the system has risen to Rs 40 crore, all done privately. The city has made a profit since inception; so have its six private partners who run the buses. Soon, it will have 500 buses. Indore is now quoted (with Bogota) as having the best bus service in the world.
   What can Delhi learn from Indore? First, it must ditch the old socialist idiocy of ‘one bus one owner’ — a product of the ‘small is beautiful’ thinking of the Eighties. This same stupidity made India reserve 800 industries for the ‘small scale sector’. Economists believe this was perhaps the most harmful industrial policy of the past 50 years, which has effectively prevented our industrial revolution. Indore did not have such socialist hang-ups — it selected the most capable entrepreneurs and companies to run its buses. Secondly, Delhi must not allow two operators to compete on the same route. This leads to speeding and accidents as drivers scramble to maximise revenue. Bus owners must get exclusive routes and earn revenue based on distance travelled, and this can be easily monitored by an affordable satellite system that tracks bus movement. Indore has a daily and monthly electronic pass, whose revenues are shared between companies. Tomorrow, if Delhi switched to a system where Blueline buses earned revenue per kilometre, traffic deaths would disappear.
   Delhi must also have a regulatory body which assesses demand, plans routes, fixes fares, gives out tenders, and monitors daily performance. Indore has a five person team which does this continuously, and this is the secret of its success. Delhi is finally planning to have a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority, but unless it gives it teeth, it won’t succeed. Some will argue that Indore is too small to be an example for Delhi. These are the same second rate minds who scoffed at Japan’s miracle in the Sixties and Korea’s in the Seventies, arguing that these countries were too small for India to copy. Just think of Delhi as 10 Indores!
   Another painful lesson from this tale of two cities is that it takes a bit of luck to throw up officers like Vivek Aggarwal, who have the knowledge and the will to deliver. The average IAS officer spends a lifetime pushing files and still gets promoted. Vivek Aggarwal, i fear, may actually be punished by a system that puts down achievers. But before that he would have had the moral satisfaction of bringing a smile on 20 lakh faces in Indore — something that most of his colleagues will never experience in an entire lifetime.

 

Technology leadership in Drip irrigation

Last week I read about Singapore’s position as a global water hub. However, in the area of irrigation, due to the domestic market, Jain irrigation, an Indian company has made tremendous advances. In the next 10 years, as our glaciers and rivers dry up, we will need to completely overhaul our irrigation systems. Instead of mega projects like river linking, we need to concentrate more on issues like getting farmers access to drip irrigation.

 

BH Jain conferred Water Conserver of India award

moneycontrol.com: December 1, 2007

Shri B H Jain, Founder-Chairman of Jain Irrigation Systems Limited, has been conferred upon the prestigious UNESCO & West-Net instituted award as the “Water Conserver of India”. This is taking into account yeomen service to the cause of water conservation. Jain Irrigation is pioneer in micro irrigation and sprinkler irrigation systems in India which is a viable alternative to the conventional irrigation methods. This award has been presented by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Water Resources, Prof. Saif-Ud-Din Soz at a glittering function held in New Delhi on 29th November 2007 at the Jaypee Vasant Continental, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi. The function was attended by eminent delegates from the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, Central Water Commission and TERI apart from the Industry and Press. Till date, the Company has received 46 State Awards, 85 National Awards and 3 International Awards for outstanding export performance, R&D achievements and entrepreneurship, Fair Trade Practices Etc. The internationally prestigious "Crawford Reid Memorial" Award instituted by Irrigation Association, USA was conferred on the Chairman Shri. B.H. Jain for "Significant Contribution to the Irrigation Industry outside the United States". The Company employs more than 4,200 people directly and several hundreds indirectly. The company operates through branches and depots practically in all the States besides overseas subsidiaries for supporting and developing Export business. The Company has an outstanding track record in successfully developing Micro Irrigation Systems and Sprinkler Irrigation Systems as an alternative to the conventional irrigation methods. Besides, the Company makes PVC Pipes for Irrigation; PE Pipes for gas and water distribution and ducts for Optical fiber cables. PVC & Polycarbonate Sheet for exports; Fruit Pulp & Puree Dehydrated and Onion & vegetables for exports. Company has modern manufacturing facilities located in India at Jalgaon, Maharashtra, Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Baroda (Gujarat) and Udumalpet (Tamilnadu). The company has recently acquired Companies in USA & Israel in its core line of business as part of strategy to become one of the top 3 global players. At present, Company has 13 plants outside India i.e. USA, Israel, Chile, Brazil, Spain & Australia The Company has an extensive Research & Development [R&D] farm and training & development center spread over nearly 1,000 acres of farm at Jalgaon & similar facility near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. This center has extensive development laboratories and is engaged in pioneering efforts in developing tissue culture plants for Banana, Sugarcane etc. The Company's turnover for the last year ended on 31.03.2007 was Rs.1,267 crores and is currently expecting to accomplish a more than 45% growth in the current year with a turnover of Rs.1,850 crores, including Rs.515 crores of export turnover from India. The Company's customers included some of the top MNC's like Coco-cola, Pepsi, Nestle, Gilroy Foods etc. besides Indian large customers like HLL, Reliance, L&T, BSNL, Bharati Telecom etc. The Company had established its leadership in almost all the businesses it is engaged in and the list of satisfied customers are even increasing.

 

Singapore bid to become global water hub

If we could have ‘shower’ meters, linked to the volume of water being used & a display that converts that value into rupees, I think it will go a long way in reducing personal water consumption.

 

 

Turning a crisis into an opportunity

K.V. Kurmanath

Hyderabad, Nov. 29 Singapore’s success story with water reminds one of a Bollywood rags-to-riches story. From a water-starved State 30-35 years ago, it has now become a confident nation on the water front.

This, however, is not news. The success story has been written many times over in the last few years.

But what is new is the city-nation refuses to live on the laurels. It now wants to become a global hydro hub, offering technologies and skills in project implementations in the water sector.

It has already begun taking up desalination projects in West Asia and project management assignments in China and Vietnam, according to Mr Prantik Mazumdar, Centre Director (Kolkata) of Singapore Government’s International Operations Group.

“The Government has set up a $500-million fund for research and development in the water and related issues,” he said.

Mr Mazumdar was here to showcase the Singapore experience with regard to water and its plans for the future at a summit on water organised at the CII-Green Business Centre.

The city is taking up a S$2-billion project that envisages laying 40-60 metre deep tunnel sewerage system to collect all of its used water and, using the gravity pull, channelise it to Changi Water Reclamation system.

It will also help the City-State free 90 hectares of precious land. Singapore’s 700 sq. km is less than half of our national capital.

The 10-litre challenge

As a part of its bid to become a global water hub, Singapore is going to organise an international meet on water next year.

As it strived to save and use every drop of water, the Singapore Government launched the 10-litre challenge, asking its people to reduce the per capita daily consumption of water to 155 litres by 2012.

 

A businessman`s crusade against darkness

 

A businessman`s crusade against darkness

PROFILE/ Harish Hande, CEO, Selco

BS Reporter / New Delhi December 04, 2007

 

Harish Hande, who has been honoured recently with a prize for social entrepreneurship, has made it his business to take solar power to every un-lit home.

Harish hande, CEO, Selco, who has been selected social entrepreneur of the year by the Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation this year, has been in the business of solar electrification since the past 12 years. At last count, his clients numbered 85,000 in 220 villages in Karnataka and 2,000 clients in Gujarat where he started operations recently.

Hande says he is into business only because that is the only way he can take solar power to the largest number of people. That has been his dream and main occupation for the last 12 years when he started doing his Masters and PhD in Massachusets Institute of Technology. His subject was rural electrification and whether solar power makes sense.

He says he came upon the idea during a brief visit to the Dominican Republic as a student in IIT Kharagpur. “Those two hours of what I saw there — people using and paying for solar energy changed my way of thinking totally. I haven't touched technical applications after that,” says Hande.

His strategy for making solar energy succeed has been two fold: doorstep service and doorstep financing. He first started creating solar service centres in all the places he was setting up solar panels.

In addition, he got the centres to identify more potential technicians in nearby villages which were beyond the centre's reach, train them and then help them set up shop.

The second task was to persuade the existing financial network of Regional Rural Banks, cooperative banks to finance the solar panels he set up. “Once that was done, I have been piggy-riding on this network to spread the reach of solar power into the interiors of Karnataka villages,” he says.

In Gujarat, a tie-up has been achieved with SEWA and customers are getting financed while being offered solar energy.

Hande admits that solar electrification programmes have been criticised for providing just a single bulb and thus keeping the poor sections from being on a par with other beneficiaries of electricity.

He says that his technicians go with a clean slate to the customer's house. It is not a pre-planned one-bulb scheme being offered. People can opt for one or two or three bulbs and even run an electric sewing machine,. The installations can be done in phases depending on the payment capability of the buyer, he says.

He has the story of a customer who ran away when he was told that three bulbs would cost him Rs 12000. The technician of SELCO did not give up, says Hande. He went back to the customer, climbed on his roof and put a single bulb in such a way that it lit up three of his rooms cutting the cost by third.

The costs of lighting up houses come between Rs 5,000 and Rs 18,000 he says. “Of course, solar lighting cannot solve irrigation problems of villagers. That needs so much energy that the costs would be unbearable for the villagers,” says Hande.

He also is not in favour of a single transmission system catering to a number of customers. “It is so much easier to be modular,” Hande says.

He says the idea that drives his business proposition is the Gandhian principle of “production by masses rather than mass production''. And the fact that in Karnataka alone 44 per cent of people have no electricity

 

Bangalore Walks

Bangalore Walks is an interesting way of exploring the city and its history. Much like anything else in India, the government should have done this long back, if it was serious about promoting tourism, but fortunately, today, Arun Pai, an entrepreneur and history lover and a proud Bangalore an has launched something which was so sorely missed. Bangalore Walks is all about re-discovering your city from a historical perspective and on foot. In good measure, a typical South Indian breakfast is thrown in to complete the walk. It has done more for city tourism than the 50 years existence of government tourism department/s.

 

At School, History was treated as just a study dates and some outdated facts which were to be memorized in order to pass the exam. Infact, it was even made fun off. If you had an interest in History, you were probably a sissy. The ‘real’ people would solve complicated math sums. In Economics, they say, for a thing to have value, to be precious, it must have scarcity value. Conversely, if you have too much of something, chances are, you will not value it. We have too much history and is it any surprise, we don’t value it. In France, they will take you to a Chateau (village) and talk about it for hours. In India, even a priceless piece of historical architecture is only good enough for the dogs (and humans) to relieve themselves.  

 

We just took our second Bangalore Walk at Lalbagh and came back enthralled, with new eyes.

 

Here are two suggestions for Arun Pai and his team: Add Grover Vineyards & Nandi Hills as a walk with probably a meal thrown in at Angsana. Also, worlds largest flower Exporters, Karturi Floritech have a large, beautiful farm at the outskirts of Bangalore. It could be another suggested walk for your fan group.

 

 

 

 

What Business are you in?

This morning I had an emergency. My glass frame broke down and I do not keep an emergency pair. I suspect, most people don’t, unless they travel very often.

First thing in the morning I went to my optician and asked him, if the frame could be repaired. “No’, said the neighborhood optician. So, naturally I asked him, if I could have a new one, and how soon I could have it. He could not even answer me without calling his central workshop at Ulsoor, who informed him that it took 24 hours to get the new glasses ready.

Now, compare this to how Essilor, a leading lens maker, who has a factory in Doddbalapur area, does its business. Orders come in from Europe real time through the internet- i.e., a customer visits an Optician, who records the customized requirement for lenses, places the order for manufacturing these lenses at Bangalore through the internet, Essilor receives and processes it and put its on the flight to Europe within 12-24 hours and the customer probably gets it within 48 hours.

 

It may be unfair to compare the two, but there is a point to this- Essentially, they both follow the same process, with scale being the only difference.

Consider the convenience or inconvenience to the customer who has a broken frame or lens and has to wait for 24 hours to get a new one. He/She will either suffer through a terrible headache throughout the day without the glasses or the other alternative to completely switch off from work.

Could not the optician fill in with an additional service of providing emergency glasses (and charge a reasonable amount for it)? Thinking on the same lines, can an optical retailer, not fill in to provide eyes masks, eye pillows, eye care solutions and eye massages instead of just providing frames and frame repairs. This would be a sure way to differentiate himself from the other neighborhood retailers and provide value add services, not without increasing the average bill amount of each customer.  

Let us look at the neighborhood Optician a little more in detail. He easily stocks about 5000 frames- I am quite certain, without knowing what is the inventory turnover period, which frames are moving faster and which are slow and what is the cost of keeping this inventory- What is the cost of the retail space?

 

One really has to be ask oneself the larger question- what business am I in? Am I in the frame and lens business or am I in the Eye-care business? Only then would you get the right answers.

 

 

    

Ram Rajya

The Vision for future India

Combine the vision of Gandhiji, Gopinath, Dr. Abdul Kalam  and Dr. Devi Shetty with the learnings of ‘Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’ and what do you get: All of our villages having PURA facilities, Health, education and entertainment through satellite (ISRO and Dr. Devi Shetty have a model for this) and at prices which even villagers can pay. All districts connected with Air Services so none of the produce goes waste. There are 600,000 villages in India and 700 districts. Imagine if each company can adopt just 1 village and provide the PURA facilities.

Imagine if a political party were to put out a manifesto, seeking a mandate for not just 1 but 2 terms of 10 years promising 10% for 10 years starting 2010. Vision 2020- that’s what will save India.

Sun struck: Jharkhand villages get water, light through solar power

Business Standard: October 9, 2007

Ranchi: Paharsingh is a hamlet, situated about 52 km from Ranchi. The village has a population of only 87 people, belonging to the primitive Birhor tribe. Till a few months ago, the village had no source of drinking water. The villagers had to collect water from a hand pump located in a far-off village. However, their water woes came to an end when a solar water pump of 1,200W capacity was installed in the village. The initiative was taken by Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA), run by the Jharkhand government. The agency works with the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy. The project, which cost Rs 7 lakh, now also lights up the streets of the village. The agency, with the help of the ministry, generates electricity from the solar plant and provides it to remote villages. It plans to cover 224 remote villages of Jharkhand by the year-end through solar home lighting and street lighting systems. The JREDA has recommended more such units in remote villages of the state to ensure drinking water supply. Under this programme, one solar home lighting system has been installed in each house of Paharsingh village and 1,211 solar lights have been installed in the streets. "Over 84,000 people belonging to the SC/ST category have benefited from this programme and the JREDA has spent Rs 2,392 lakh on this project," says project officer Prakash Kumar Das. "We are also doing a pilot project of providing power through bio-fuel. A diesel generator set of 5 KVA capacity has been installed in Gardih village of Nawadih block in Bokaro district. The engine runs on vegetable oil and supplies electricity to the village," Das adds. The tribal village of Paharsingh, with 100 houses, gets 4 hours of power daily from the engine that runs on karanji oil, the seed of which is available in the village. A machine for manufacturing leaf plates was installed by the villagers with the help of the agency, after a performance study of the engine running on different vegetable oils was made available by the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. The electricity is supplied to the machine by the solar plant for 2 hours everyday. The villagers are happy because the availability of electricity has increased their income due to the sale of leaf plates. The total cost of the project is Rs 15.79 lakh.

 

Panna Tiger Reserve

Panna Tiger Reserve or National Park is an incidental attraction for most tourists, as most land at Khajuraho and make a detour to the park, if they have time. Leave aside one or two hotels and the area around the reserve remains uncluttered, except for the lorry traffic on the highway bisecting Panna and the Gangau sanctuary.

Some time ago, wildlifers thought the Panna Tiger Reserve in the Vindhya mountains was going the Sariska way. A leading tiger expert had alerted the country over the sharp decline in tiger population at Panna. Officials in the forest department of Madhya Pradesh have still not got over the scare and dismiss the work of the expert with disdain.

Dinesh Kothari and myself did not expect to see a tiger at Panna Tiger Reserve when we went on our morning round in a jeep. The Ken river flowing softly through the reserve, defines the forest and is said to be one of the few clean river systems in the country. The Ken keeps the National Park alive. It originates at Bhuwar village near Katni and after running through the southern part of the Panna district, flows along the boundary of Panna and Chhatarpur districts to enter Uttar Pradesh and join the Yamuna.

For a start, we saw four-painted sandgrouse, for the first time, apart from chitals, sambhars and nilgais. On the way, we saw a few tiger pug marks and our guide got a message on his walkie-talkie of a tiger being sighted near the Shivla-Jheria link road. There were two jeeps ahead of us at the spot with the tiger resting deep in the forest. We climbed on an elephant using the top of our jeep as a base and the mahout guided the animal, busy tearing branches from the nearby trees, to the spot where the tiger lay on its side in splendour. We were four on the elephant — two aged foreign ladies, Dinesh and myself — and the five-minute ride was a bit of a roll.

For a minute, the four-year old, male tiger, lifted its head, looked at us before going back to sleep. The tiger did not bother about the 50-year-old she elephant, Anarkali, standing some 10 ft away nor did Anarkali think much of him. Watching the tiger from elephant back (popularly called elephant show) is not the ideal way of watching a tiger. Yet, we were part of the elephant show and at least this writer will not do it again.

At his offices in Panna town, Shahbaz Ahmad, Chief Conservator of Forest and Field Director, Panna Tiger Reserve, said, "the tiger density in the area is good."

An October 2006 study of Wildlife Institute of India says, "We also have conducted camera trapping exercise covering an area of 185 sq km in the Panna National Park. The estimated density of tiger in this area is 4.9 tigers per 100 sq km. Number of tigers in the study area of 185 sq km with a confidence limit of 95 per cent comes to nine (range - minimum eight tigers to a maximum of 15 tigers). Viewed in the context of the all-India situation, this is a reasonably good density and indicates a healthy tiger population in the study area...

"So far as comparability of our studies with the past study done by Karanth (2002) is concerned, it would not be out of place to mention here that their study covered an area of 418 sq km of the Park and estimated a population density of 6.94 tigers per 100 sq km. They estimated a population of 29 tigers over 418 sq km with a range from 10 to 48 tigers. Such wide variance in population estimation is not a very useful tool for monitoring a population. It is also relevant to point out here that our density estimate over 185 sq km has a low CV (coefficient of variation) of 16.8 per cent compared to their high CV of 46.54 per cent. Thus, our estimates are more precise... "

On the way back near the exit gate, we had a chat with the range officer, Madla range, Narendra Singh Parihar, who was happy we had seen a tiger. He said the forest department was on the alert at the Panna Tiger reserve, which has four ranges: Madla, Hinnauta, Panna and Chandranagar. "We are trying our best to stamp out poaching and have built watch towers to oversee 98 per cent of the area," he said.

The Panna Tiger reserve is spread over a core area of 542.67 sq km (no buffer zone) and was at one time the royal hunting grounds of the Maharajas of Panna, Chhatarpur and Bijanor. At present, the Gangau sanctuary nearby is under the management of the Panna Tiger Reserve. Mining activity has completely stopped, including diamond mining, by the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), said Shahbaz Ahmad. "The NMDC has approached the Supreme Court and we are waiting for the final ruling," Ahmad added.

But the Panna-Gangau forests may not remain with New Delhi keen on a dam plus two power stations across the Ken and a railway line lancing the forests to link Khajuraho to Satna. Also, the District Planning Committee is keen on denotifying a portion of the Gangau sanctuary, to probably restart mining and agriculture.

Recently, New Delhi sent a team of officials to drill 35 holes at various points in the Panna National Park as part of the work ahead of setting up the dam. The Field Director objected as any work inside the sanctuary needs the okay of the Supreme Court and the team went back. The Ken-Betwa river link proposes to divert surplus waters of the River Ken at Daudhan (2.5 km upstream of existing Gangau weir) through a Ken-Betwa link canal to River Betwa for meeting the water requirements in the water deficit Betwa basin.

A dam is to come up at Daudhan on the Ken river with a gross storage capacity of 2,775 million cubic metres; a two-km long tunnel followed by an about 230 km long link canal will transfer water from the Ken; two power houses, one (3x20 MW) at the foot of the dam and the other (2x6 MW) at the end of the 2-km long tunnel, are to be set up; the existing outlet of Barwa Sagar shall be used to drop the link canal water into Betwa, through the Barwa river.

A rather, distressed Shahbaz Ahmad said the dam and the railway line would reduce forest cover and cut into the Panna Tiger Reserve. About 74 per cent of the submerged area comes under forests and parts are reserved falling within the Panna National Park. The area of the National Park under submergence is estimated at about 45 sq km. That may be a low-end estimate for a project expected to cost Rs 1988.74 crore. What is being left unsaid is that the Government will denotify parts of the National Park to accommodate the development projects and push Panna into the past.

 

Kanha National Park

We reach Kanha as the sun is homeward bound. From the open verandah of the guesthouse, we gaze at the kaleidoscope of colours that paint the horizon, the hues changing from bright orange to deep blue to purple, till the inkiness unveils the shimmering stars. Ahead in the open grassland looms a huge tree. Our guide calls it an ek mein teen (three-in-one), a banyan, neem and sal rolled into a single marvel. Quite a familiar sight in Kanha, he tells us.

As it darkens a host of sounds accost our ears. The cicadas' incessant orchestration is punctuated now and then by the loud hoots of an owl. A jungle cat slinks in, ferreting rather noisily for bits from the kitchen bin, and a scrunching and grunting has us train our torches to a clump of trees nearby. It's a family of wild boar at their favourite haunt. Deep in the forest we hear the plaintive cry of a deer.

The night is enchanting in this wilderness in the Maikal Ranges of the Satpura Hills. The next morning, up at dawn, we are at the gates just as they are being unlocked, our open jeep augmenting the excitement of an adventurous foray into the forest.

The jungle cock greets us with his loud crowing and we can just make out his brilliant multihued coat among the cluster of bamboo. Chitals dot the landscape, at times very near, their coats camouflaging them in the brownness of the foliage. It is the right season to be here as animals are most visible now, coming out to slake their thirst in waterholes and nibbling on whatever food is available.

We stop by a pond. It's surrounded by a host of creatures — monkeys, neelgais, deer in perfect harmony, drinking their fill. As we move on, we espy under the tall sal trees a lone gaur, the Indian bison in white-socked majesty. Chewing cud, it stares at us. We stop a bit and, looking into the forest behind him, find his entire kith and kin. This sanctuary is also the only habitat of the barasingha, herds of which congregate by shallow pools.

Diverse trails

Though the circuits are mapped out in Kanha, the trails are diverse enough to sight a number of creatures. It is however in its grasslands that wildlife abounds. As we near one we find it chock-a-block with herds of sambhar. At another peacocks display their finery, while a couple of blackbucks stand, leaping gracefully into the air as they hear us approach. And we witness a stag fight — the deer, horns locked, challenging each other's might! The evening round ends at Bamimi Dadr — sunset point — a spectacular area in the park. We settle here to see the sun go down in the horizon, an orb of red, the shadows lengthening as trees and grasses become silhouettes. Silence falls. As we wait in utter quiet we are rewarded by a rather rare sighting of a pack of dhole — the Indian wild dog.

Kanha is also a birdwatcher's paradise, harbouring almost 200 species of avian life. And so the next morning, binoculars in hand, we station ourselves in a clearing in the forest. The Racket-Tailed Drongo, Indian Roller and Shikra are here in plenty as are Treepies, Kingfishers and Woodpeckers. Water birds wallow in Kanha's many brooks and pools and at Sarvantaal, we catch a few Common Teals and Pintail Ducks.

Another round of the forest, and it turns out to be our chance to see the big cat! For as we are ushered into the jeep, we are told that a tiger has been sighted in the surrounding environs. A gathering twister has us take cover under a clump of trees but as it moves away our guide points to the nearby rushes. And there, with its tail raised high is the mighty beast. Giving us a nonchalant glance, it moves right across, turns around and strides back into the grasses. It's only after it disappears, that we exhale!

Big cat bonanza

Barely have we begun to get over the vision, when we make our way quickly to another spot, deep in the jungle. A big cat has been spotted here too. It's resting in the thickets after its meal. Clambering onto an elephant we sway along, crouching to escape getting entangled in the tree branches. We clutch on to the howdah as our mahout manoeuvres the elephant to stop at a grove of sal and bamboo. The creature is well camouflaged and difficult to sight.

But, as it turns over, the grass moves and we get a peek. It's lazily licking its paws, quite oblivious to our presence...

That's the second tiger we've seen, and we're in for a bonanza. Our guide's talkie gets the message that a tigress has been sighted at the end of our trail. Down a rivulet and up again into the forest we go, when suddenly the elephant stops in its tracks. The tigress must be nearby.

Frantic alarm calls across confirm its presence. We wait in silence. Fifteen minutes later the tigress walks by, a few feet away, two cubs in tow. We barely breathe...

As we get back a new family has settled near our lodge. It's the monkeys. They are there to entertain us for the evening. As we are busy watching their antics, we spot a sloth bear in the distance.

Kanha has surpassed our expectations...

Fact file

Getting there: Kanha is accessible from Nagpur, Jabalpur and Raipur — all well connected by air and rail from Delhi and Mumbai.

Local transport can be hired to get to Kanha from these cities.

The two main entrances to the park are Khatia (3 km from Kisli) and Mukki.

Accommodation: Madhya Pradesh Tourism, Wild Chalet Resort, Tuli Tiger Resort, Krishna Jungle Resort, Kanha Jungle Lodge, Royal Tiger Resort.

Best season: Feb-June. The park is closed from July-October.

 

Panna Tiger Reserve

On a late afternoon waiting on the banks of the River Ken in the Panna Tiger Reserve for a boat, we heard the thud of the axe against wood. Villagers were removing forest cover and there was no forest official to stop them. The dhabas at Panna use wood as fuel and most of it could have only been trawled from the forests.

The poor have to live and cannot afford gas cylinders. They do not have any meaningful employment to talk of. But when the forests go, the poor will be the worst hit with policy makers taking the first flight out to the US. There are five villages with 1,900 families inside the Panna Tiger Reserve and have to be relocated, said Shahbaz Ahmad, Chief Conservator of Forest and Field Director, Panna Tiger Reserve, and added eight villages have been relocated.

With the passing of the Tribal Bill will the five villages be relocated? Narendra Singh Parihar, Range Officer, Madla range, admitted to grazing being a major problem. We took the boat ride to watch crocodiles sunning themselves on the river banks but could not see any. It was the same at the 45.20-sq km Ken Gharial sanctuary.

A long 26-km ride over kutcha roads from the reserve took us to the Ken Gharial sanctuary and the guide promised to show us a gharial sunbathing in the River Ken. Work is on to rebuild the road and widen it, which could eat up some of the oldest mahuwa trees in the region. The river bed is rocky being made of granite, dolomite and quartz and during rains get submerged.

For about 30 minutes, Dinesh and myself floated down Ken without spotting a gharial with the adult male sporting a pot-like growth at the tip of its mouth. There is no sight better than the Ken in Panna. The river offers an easy fluidity to the forest made mainly of teak, mahuwa, salai and bamboo. The forest and its denizens know they will live as long as the river lives. One has gone to a few tiger reserves but there is nothing like the Ken with its ancient dignity still in place.

The Ken River Lodge, built on wooden stilts, on the banks of Ken (outside the reserve) offers a good birding site and we noticed darters, cormorants, including the large cormorant and a painted stork, basking under a winter sun. A guide at the lodge told us of the nesting of a pair of Sarus cranes at the far end of the river. In 2005, the Ken went wild during rains breaking banks and damaging quite a bit of the forest and signs of the destruction are still there.

The Government hand out on Panna lists the common trees, animals and birds populating the area and like all such documents is far off the mark. We did spot two Egyptian vultures, a few painted sandgrouse and vultures inside rocky pockets. The herbivore population is not well-built and there are some who doubt whether it can keep up a large tiger population.

A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India noted, "The Kanha Tiger Reserve had 7 per cent of the area as grasslands which was to be increased to 15 per cent. On a comparison of the availability of grasslands during 2000-05, it was seen that except in the Badhavgarh Tiger Reserve, three other tiger reserves (Panna, Pench and Kanha) witnessed a decline ranging between 0.001 and 0.05 sq km land availability per herbivore. The decline in availability of grassland was due to increase in the number of livestock in these tiger reserves. The livestock population severely causes fodder shortage in the tiger reserves, which needs to be tackled while planning for grassland and meadows development in the reserves." The final notification to declare Panna Tiger Reserve a National Park has not been issued till March 2006 though the reserve was created in 1975.

A note of the Wildlife Institute of India says, "The rationale for taking landscape as a unit is that tigers are long ranging animals (at times ranging over 250 sq km), and also that their prime habitats are subject to high turnover of individuals. It will, therefore, be naïve to assign any absolute number to a given administrative unit. Another important point to be mentioned here is that the density of tigers in an area can vary widely over time due to natural process of recruitment, dispersal and mortality. Breeding success or failure of even a single female may drastically change the prevailing densities. Therefore, present assessment done by WII is useful more as a baseline for long-term monitoring of the status of tigers in the area rather than giving absolute numbers."

Are we ducking the critical issue of trying to get at a firm estimate of the tiger population in India? Some tiger experts believe India's forests today could at best hold about 1,200 tigers (1,500 tigers on the higher side), while there are unconfirmed reports of the government pushing for a higher count of 5,000.

In the absence of any estimate, one can today firmly believe the CAG 2006 report castigating the Project Tiger Directorate. It says, "... . Poaching and unnatural deaths of tigers outnumbered the natural deaths. There was a decline in the tiger population in many reserves. Conservation efforts in the Tiger Reserves by and large remained ineffective due to inordinate delays in the settlement of acquisition rights under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, inadequate wildlife corridors connecting tiger reserves with other Protected Areas, slow progress of relocation of villages outside the Tiger Reserves as well as poor tourism management." It may be noted that along with the tigers, other animals are getting scarce.

P. Devarajan