Dear Panditji,
Towards the end of 2005, I sent faxes to the President and the Prime Minister of India regarding the promotion of public awareness about the bird flu virus. I wanted to pre-warn the people in India about the symptoms and precautions against the avian flu virus. There were not any cases of bird flu in India at that time.

But, only the President's Secretariat replied saying has been forwarded to Ministry of Environment and Forests.

But now, when Bird Flue may be spreading in various parts of country like Maharashtra and Gujarat, the Central government has suddenly become more attentive. Why are they worried about it at a time when the Flu has already spread? Why weren't the leaders and the Central Government alert when it was not here and I sent them letter for some awareness programme or at least an advertisement?

Pawan K. Bharti,
Research Scholar,
Department Of Zoology & Environmental Science,
Gurukula Kangri University, Hardwar (Uttaranchal)

Dear Panditji,
Gobar Times is not only interesting, but much more informative than any other magazine in its category.

HS Rose
Dr. Harjinder Singh Rose
M.Sc. (Hons. Sch.), Ph.D., FRES (London)
FZSI, FAZ, FES I, FNESA, FBRS, FIAES, FAScAW, FNC
Professor & Head, Department of Zoology,
Punjabi University, Patiala-147 002, Punjab (INDIA).
Phone: (91-175) 3046334

Dear Panditji,
Some of your readers want to know about terracotta and clay and their environmental friendliness. May I add a few more facts to lend strength to your wonderful response?

Clay is fairly stable in an acidic medium in ambient/ sub-surface conditions. Its performance (clay group of minerals) matches with quartz (silica). When compared to other dominantly occurring minerals such as feldspar, plagioclase, pyroxenes and amphibolite, natural clay is considered extremely acid tolerant. As clay is baked the acid tolerance is further improved because of vitrification of silica, feldspar and clay present in the artisanal raw material. A glaze or engobe further improves the acid tolerant properties of terracotta.

Traditionally, artisanal clay is taken from a plot of agricultural field with a fatigue in the soil column after years of cultivation. Potters have traditional rights, in many parts of India, for the top one yard (90cms) of soil column as part of 'jajmani'. By removing the fatigued column, the pedological process is accelerated on the exposed surface. Silt from tanks and ponds is growingly being used these days due to gradual collapse of jajmani.


Brick earth is an inferior variety of artisanal clay and does not require good plasticity as easily moulded into simple geometric shapes. Large tracts of land is leased out commercially for brick making similar to leasing of mining rights. Commercial brick manufacturing in fertile agricultural land is causing greater damage contrary to artisanal clay for use in terracotta.

Goutam Bhattacharya
Udaipur