Dear Pandit ji, I am trying to construct a house with eco-friendly construction technologies and materials. After a detailed study of the various technologies available, I have zeroed down on stabilized rammed earth construction and thatched roofing. I understand that these technologies are not available commercially but are being practised by various artisans in the country. Can you help me locate these artisans, preferably in the state of Gujarat? I look forward to your help in this matter. Dhaval Mehta via email Dear Dhaval ji, You may follow this link and contact the organisations, which will hopefully provide you with the solutions to your search. http://lauriebaker.net/work/work/costford.html You can also get in touch with the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) : http://www.igbc.in:9080/site/igbc/index.jsp, The Energy and Research Institute (TERI), which has published design manuals on sustainable building : http://bookstore.teriin.org/bookSectorwise.php?sector_id=26 and The Haryana State Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) : http://asiaurbs.sustainable-buildings.org/ partners.htm#3 Dear Pandit ji, I am a regular reader of Gobar Times. It is a very interesting magazine and provides know­ledge. Our school is celebrating its golden jubilee this year. For the school exhibition, I wanted to prepare a working model on environment and also to perform a one-act play on the same issue. Can you help me? Bhup Via email Dear Bhup ji, CSE conducts the Green Schools Programme (GSP), which equips students to deal with environmental issues. The GSP is an ‘inspection’ or ‘survey’ of the school, conducted by its students on the school’s environmental practices (we call this environmental auditing). The students form teams and go around the school on an exploratory journey and find out the status of natural resources like water, energy, land , air and waste within the school premises and if they as a community are managing these wisely. You can find detailed information about this on our website: www.gobartimes.org Your one act play could be a street play. You could have scenes that portrays issues related to water pollution and waste management. I am also giving you the address of a group that organises theatre workshop in Mumbai. You can get in touch with the group for more ideas and information at: Shivani Tibrewala Artistic Director No License Yet Productions http://www.nolicenseyet.com Dear Pandit ji, I am a student of Class X and school asks me to prepare a project on " Role of govt. or non govt. functionaries in your locality in disaster management". Please help me in my project, as the internal assessment of it will be counted in my board exams. Japneet Kaur, via email Dear Japneet ji, I had dug out some interesting information for Peeyush Malavji in the last issue.Since this is an important project for you, I am repeating someof it again here. Hope this helps. Disaster model ‘Disaster’ is defined as a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society, causing widespread human, material, economic and environmental losses. These exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources. In order to reduce the undesirable impacts of disasters, there are world wide trends on managing disasters. Disaster management is a cycle of activities beginning with mitigating the vulnerability and negative impacts of disasters; preparedness for responding operations; responding and providing relief in emergency situations such as search and rescue, fire fighting, etc.; and aiding in recovery which includes physical reconstruction and the ability to return quality of life to a community after a disaster. These are the links:- 1) http://www.gisdevelopment.net/ application/natural_hazards/ overview/ me05_138.htm 2) http://www.gisdevelopment.net/ proceedings/mapindia/2006/ disaster% 20management/ mi06disa_245abs.htm — Conceptual Model for Disaster Management in India using GIS 3) http://home.earthlink.net/~dalep1/ KELLYMODEL.pdf- Principles of disaster management 4) http://devplan.kzntl.gov.za/ASALGP/Resources/Documents/ASALGPhandbooks/2-principles-of-disaster.htm- Dear Pandit ji, I am working voluntarily to spread the use of smokeless chullah among the poor tribal people living in the forest area of Bankura and Purulia districts of West Bengal. Please guide me in improving the system and in sharing the experience of other NGOs working in this field. Partha Biswas Via email Dear Partha Biswas ji, Recent studies have shown that indoor air pollution cause respiratory illness, eye and skin irritation, tuberculosis, blindness, infant mortality. The first major effort to improve chullahs was made in the 1950s by SP?Raju. He also wrote a famous book callled ‘Smokeless Kitcehen for the Millions. And since then have worked on creating smokelss chullhas. There are various agencies in West Bengal that are working on smoke­-less chullah as well as related programmes. This link might help you: http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:5K vxkO71qBwJ:enviswb.gov.in/Env_applicatio n/GO/download/project/A_typical_village_ of_West_Bengal.doc+Smokless+chullah&c d=5&hl=en&ct=clnk For improvement in the model, visit this link http://www.gramvikas.org/chullah.php Dear Pandit ji, We have a students hostel in Ladakh for over 50 students from rural villages. Our hostel is entirely solar powered, solar heated and we have some organic gardens as well. However, we buy all our dry food and supplies from the conventional market. Can you give us links to some suppliers of organic food from whom we could buy commodities like sugar, tea, spices and dal in bulk? I’ve been searching online and discovered many articles about organic food retail outlets, but haven’t found any commercial website where we could order in bulk. Thanks, Rebecca Norman Becky (Volunteer Coordinator) SECMOL P.O. Box 4 Leh, Ladakh -194101 India Tel. 91-1982-226120 or 226117 Dear Rebecca ji, Organic food in bulk is readily available through various suppliers of organic food in India. You can check the links given below which provide a list of Indian wholesale organic food suppliers. These suppliers would be happy to take in your order and supply accordingly. http://www.exportersindia.com/indian-suppliers/organic_food.htm http://www.organicindia.com/organic- foods.php