Gobar Times Magazine (Environment for Kids Monthly) - Centre for Science and Environment

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E-mail me at this address: panditji@cseindia.org

Hello Panditji

The water supply in Gurgaon's DLF city Phase 2 has calcium (ca) and magnesium (mg) salts. To tackle this, we have installed a reverse osmosis (RO) filter. But the removed salts make their way to the drain and a lot of water gets wasted this way. We have tried to utilise it, but since this water has a lot of ca and mg salts, it leaves white marks everywhere. Can you suggest a way of using salt rich water at home because I do not want to be responsible for any water wastage (specially in light of all the articles on the Gurgaon water table going down)?
Kriti Mittal, 14 yrs
Via Email

p64.jpg (9472 bytes) Dear Kritiji,
The waste water from the RO plant can be used for recharging groundwater or for gardening purposes. When this water is passed through a settlement chamber, the ca and mg salts will
settle down and the overflow from the settlement chamber can be diverted to recharge a well so that salt free water will be used for groundwater recharging. Moreover, when this water travels in the soil medium, natural filtration of the salts also happens. This water can also be stored in an underground sump and used for gardening purposes. The details of the settlement chamber is given in our website www.rainwaterharvesting.org.

I have always used Weldon’s Art brushes but they are not in the market nowadays. Dealers say the company has stopped making them because mongoose hair is no longer available to them. I want to know what is original sable hair and which company manufactures these brushes. Does Weldon have these brushes?
Anurag Jain
Via Email

(We had answered this query in the July 2003 issue of GT, but Ashok Kumar of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has sent us this update:)

There is no reason why Weldon brushes should not be available as long as they are not made from mongoose hair. Mongoose is a protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act (1972). The species was included in Schedule IV of the Act which allowed a regulated trade under license. Weldon company of Moradabad did not possess such a license and therefore their factory was raided in June 2002 by authorities, and they were fined Rs 5 lakh, which they paid. Based on distribution and trade data, an award winning film titled, A Brush with Death was made and screened in Delhi to wildlife authorities and the public.

After conducting a study, the Ministry of Environment and Forest upgraded mongoose species to a higher level of protection on 30 Sept 2003 to Part II of Schedule II. Despite that, a number of parties in Sherkote town in Bijnore district were found to making mongoose hair brushes.

Wildlife and Police authorities raided Sherkote on 11 December 2003 and arrested 11 manufacturers based on information made available by the WTI.

WTI zeroed in on factories making mongoose hair and another factory was raided on 25 February 2004 in Dehradun from which 6800 mongoose hair brushes were seized.The owner was also arrested. p64_1.jpg (5062 bytes)

Artists, we are told have not been put to problems. They can use brushes made from many other materials including sable which is a farmed species overseas and the animal is not killed for obtaining its hair.

Mongoose hair brushes have disappeared from all major towns surveyed, including Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Smaller towns are being surveyed. Some may have old residual stock, about which they have to inform authorities.

Mr.Anurag Jain's query may not be all that innocent. In some way he is associated with the brush industry. Some of the mongoose hair brush makers of Delhi had gone to Delhi High Court challenging the decision to upgrade the species. WTI intervened in the case and it was dismissed after just two hearings.