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C
O V E R S T O R
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EYE
OPENING ECO FACTS |
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Construction
workers
Who built the seven gates of
Thebes? The books are filled with the names of kings. Was it kings who hauled the craggy
blocks of stone?
And Babylon, so many times destroyed.
Who built it up each time? ....
In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished.
Where did the masons go?…
—Bertolt BrechtThe flyover is complete. The chief
minis-ter is going to inaugurate it. There are mithais and garlands. But where are the
people who actually built it-brick by brick?
Construction is expensive business and the industry makes a lot of
money.But construction labourers are perhaps the poorest work force in India.
Many of them migrate from villages and most are unskilled. Their
fami-lies shift frequently and live in slums. They have no water, elec-tricity or schools
for kids. And they live in con-stant fear of losing their job. While wages are low,
occupational haz-ards  are high.
Your city is home to thousands of peo-ple like these. Why do they
stay on? Find out.
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Follow the food trail
In the Victorian age, arsenic oxide was used in bread dough because it made
bread whiter. It has now been found to cause can-cer.
But food additives are as much a part of
life today, as they were in the Victorian times. You will find more than 2,500 additives
available in the market. Most of these are harmful. For example the silver coating on barfi
is actually aluminium foil. Aluminium gets deposited in bones and is known to cause Alzheimer’s disease. Most packaged food has a variety
of chemical
additives. You can
find out which are harm-ful and which are not. All you have to do is to list all the
ingredients and check out their chemical compositions. |
 Backyard wildlife
Wildlife, biodiversity, nature conservation and habitat. These words make you think of
pristine forests…untouched by humans? But that ought to change. It’s time you
thought of your backyard as a habitat.Cities support an amazing variety of birds, animals  and insects that are uniquely adapted to the
urban scenario. You will find squirrels, bats, butterflies, reptiles and birds eking out a
living in most cities. Crows are the best urban scavengers and owls keep the pest
population under control. Sunbirds pollinate flowers and koels spread seeds. Flycatchers,
drongos and bee-eaters also destroy harmful insects. Do the names sound unfamiliar?  Then
may be your backyard deserves more attention.
Identify the wildlife around you. You can even create
spaces with the needs of the local species in mind and help them thrive. Be wildlife
friendly!! |
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