MALARIA BUSTERS
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.
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 - 110 002
or
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.
MUCK
- MAIL |
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.
You can email
your questions to
panditji@cseindia.org |
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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
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
