| MALARIABUSTERS  Children in Goa
are now real malaria busters! Armed with an optional course in Malariology, they know more
about the little terror called Anopheles than most other 12 to 18-year-olds in
India do.
Malaria has been a big challenge and cause for
concern. Vectors and parasites are developing resistance to chemicals and insecticides and
refuse stubbornly to die. The chemicals on the other hand are harming us by entering the
food chain. Local communities have little or no awareness and understanding about malaria
and they are thus unable to fight it effectively. The Malaria Research Centre (MRC)
started its work in Goa with these thoughts in mind. It also realised that unless local
communities are involved, it is difficult to understand the dynamics of mosquito spread in
that region and then devise control strategies.
FUNDUNG |
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Various training workshops were organised in the
state and children were involved in a number of programmes in this fight against the
mosquito. The Goa State Board included Malariology as an optional subject spread over 8th
to 12th standards. About 50,000 students have already opted for the course. In order to
provide uniform teaching of new concepts, a textbook titled, Elementary Malariology,
was developed by Dr Ashwini Kumar, Senior Research Officer and Incharge, MRC, Goa.
The book documents the history of malaria and
moves on to the many attempts to combat malaria in the past few centuries, its symptoms,
diagnosis, treatment and management. Students learn about the ecology of mosquito vectors,
their breeding ecology, the role of vectors in malaria transmission and various methods of
protection from mosquito bites. There is a critical review of malaria control in India and
the latest global strategies of malaria control.
What about starting your own anti-mosquito club
where you can invite people from the local MRC, if there is any? Or you can call a doctor
to talk to you about the symptoms and precautions...and clean up your surrounding
environment!
For more details contact:
Dr V P Sharma
Consultant, Malaria Unit,
World Health Organisation
Mahatma Gandhi Road,
Indraprastha Estate
New Delhi - 110 002or
Malaria Research Centre
2, Nanak Enclave, Delhi - 110 009 |
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Namaste Panditji...
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ASK ME, NO?
Pandit Gobar Ganesh
I am being too much happy that you are
asking me. I am thanking all you askers.
Here are my answerings. Only to good
questioning.I really wreck my brains for it.
You also wreck your brains. And send more
question. Anything on environment, kutta billi and air water...Write me in Gobar Times.
I am impatient waiting. For environmental question. Okay, no? |
Is it
right to eat food which comes to India from halfway round the world?
Shaymala Sanyal
Lonavala
| Ask your grandparents and they would say that
most likely everyone's food came from nearby - no further than someone could walk or a
bull could pull a cart to the local haat. Nowadays, the food you buy comes from
miles away travelling thousands of 'food miles’ around the world before you eat it.
In three central London supermarkets, researchers found apples 4,700 miles from the USA,
onions over 12,000 miles from Australia and New Zealand, carrots from South Africa (51,000
miles) and beans from Kenya (3,600 miles). Britain now consumes more French apples than
British ones. Since April 1 of this year the government of India has allowed the import of
foreign agricultural produce. City folks can now munch apples from New Zealand, swallow
bananas from brazil and glug milk from Australia. Good for rich city-wallahs and
traders…not-so-good for farmers and the environment. An analysis of the resources needed to produce food can be
startling. According to the Living Earth and The Food Magazine, ten litres of orange juice
needs a litre of diesel fuel for processing and transport, and 220 litres of water for
irrigation and washing the fruit. Imagine all the environmental damage it causes.
In poor developing countries, traditional
sustainable farming methods are replaced by environmentally destructive intensive
agriculture and horticulture, to grow crops for consumption in richer developed countries.
Local food for local people! Think about it…
What is CNG? Its
sources, chemical composition , difference between LPG and CNG, pros and cons, the
government’s role and its use in other countries
Priyanka Ahluwalia
New Delhi
CNG is compressed natural gas. Natural gas is produced,
sometimes along with oil, by drilling into the Earth's crust where pockets of gas were
trapped hundreds of thousands of years ago. Once the gas is brought to the surface, it is
refined to remove impurities, like water, other gases, and sand. Then it is transmitted
through large pipelines to factories and power plants. When this gas is stored after being
compressed, it is called CNG.
CNG is mainly methane while LPG is mainly propane
and butane in the liquid form.
CNG is a very clean burning fuel. It emits very
low amount of toxic pollutants. Thus it is better for public health than any other fossil
fuel. The greatest benefit over other fossil fuels is that the emission of particulate
matter when CNG is burnt is negligible.
Although vehicles in Delhi are being converted to
run on CNG by the order of Supreme Court, it is the responsibility of the government to
see that the time schedule is maintained. Moreover, the government can frame new policies
with incentives to use more of this clean fuel to bring down the levels of air pollution
in the city.
More and more countries across the world are
choosing CNG as a much cleaner option to dirtier fuels like diesel and petrol. At present
there are almost 2 lakh CNG vehicles in the whole world. Places like Sacramento,
California have a declared policy of buying only those buses which run on CNG. Los Angeles
has more than 900 CNG buses. Other major cities like Bangkok, Santiago, Cairo and Beijing
have also established natural gas bus programmes.
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To give you a glimpse of our activity here in a Steel Plant, let me tell
you about the recent environmental quiz, that was held on the 12th/26th May, 2001, in Tata
Steel, Jamshedpur.
This plant level environment quiz has been an annual affair in Tata Steel for the last
ten years or so, in which we have teams participating from all
over the steelplant. This time ,we had forty teams (of two each)
participating, out of which six were selected on the basis of an half an hour
elimination test; then these six appeared in an oral round. GT gives us a lot of ideas for
framing questions.
Dr S.
Chakravarti
via email
You can
email your
guestions to
panditji@cseindia.org |
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The Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia was founded in 1953 and
is probably the oldest and most established environmental NGO in Zambia. We produce
educational material on environment, natural resources and why conservation is important,
mainly in rural areas.
We need to know more about the environment and the function of nature so that we can
learn to protect it from careless destruction. In Zambia, we have clubs which are
registered with the Society. The Society’s main campaign is its educational programme
which involve production of educational material such as the Chongololo and Chipembele
Magazines, distributed to over 3400 Schools & Communities, associated with Chongololo
and Conservation Clubs in Zambia catering for well over 50,000 pupils and a weekly
Environmental radio programme. Chongololo Clubs of the Air has 80,000 members, making it
probably the largest Environmental radio club in Zambia.
Patrick Shawa
Lusaka, Zambia
Hi! I am studying in class ten in Delhi and I would like to be a member of your
environmental project. I would be more than happy to volunteer to help you in any way.
Even though this is my board year it doesn't come in my way to help the environment in
whatever way I can.
Anasuya Agarwala
via email
Note from the Editor :
Dear Readers, please don’t forget to mention your age, what you do and postal address
in case you write in via email. |
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A Down To
Earth Supplement
