Lions’ roar to echo in Porbandar's Barda Sanctuary

 Apr 4, 2012, 

Gujarat's 'pride' was so far limited to Gir alone, but if the plans work as per design, the big cats' roar will now echo loud and clear in Porbandar's Barda Sanctuary too from this August.

As many as eight Asiatic lions of Gir will make the sanctuary their home by August, 2012 as the state forest department has decided to shift four pairs of lions in the newly-developed gene pool centre in Barda Forest around 160 km away from Gir.

The principal secretary, state environment and forest department, SK Nanda said, "We will be shifting lions from Gir to Barda Sanctuary very soon. It is part of our gene pool programme for making the breed genetically very strong and to develop genetic diversity amongst big cats."

Confirming the developments additional chief conservator of forest, HS Singh said, "We are already having gene pool programme in Rampara vidi near Wankaner of Rajkot district. We have been successful in lion conservation programme, as three cubs have been born at Rampara vidi. Now, we will be shifting four pairs of lions to Barda Sanctuary post-monsoon, by August."

Singh further said that the present hot weather is not conducive for shifting the cats to a new location. "Lions find it extremely difficult to adjust to new environment. Therefore, when weather conditions become more favorable for lions post-monsoon season, we will shift them," he said.

Member of National Board for Wildlife in India, Divyabhanusinh Chavada said he is very happy that the lions have been moved to Barda Wildlife Sanctuary. "This is very good, but what's next? The lions are happily multiplying. Today, they are 411, tomorrow they'll be 500. Where will they go next? Gujarat government needs to conserve their traditional corridor. The land needs to be immediately acquired and conserved," he said.

The forest department, which has distributed the lion families in different grids, will ensure that those shifted to Barda have different family genes. "It is set process of selecting the animals for gene-pool conservation programme. We will be shifting lions and lionesses having different family genes for the breeding. So the genetic diversity can be maintained. Further, we will be picking lions who barge into human habitat often for shifting to the new place,” said Singh.

To feed these lions, a prey base has also been developed in Barda Sanctuary. "There has been a breeding centre for Sambar deer (Rusa Unicolor) at Killeshwar temple in Barda Sanctuary. This place was the forest reserve of erstwhile king Jamsaheb of Jamnagar.”

Rajkot machine tools industry grows despite slowdown

Apr 05, 2012

Despite an economic slowdown in economy, the Rajkot based machine tools industry is witnessing a steady growth in recent times. Thanks to increased automation in the engineering sector and good growth in manufacturing field, demand for machine tools, especially the ones with computer numeric controls (CNC).

"We were wary about our growth amidst the current economic slow down. But domestic demand for machine tools have been on a constant rise, not only in Rajkot but also across India. In fact, demand for CNC machine tools itself have increased by 30-40 per cent while that of conventional ones grew by 10-15 per cent as compared to last year," said Jay Mavani, joint secretary, Machine Tools Manufacturer’s Association of Rajkot (MTMA).

Mavani attributed the reason for growth in demand to increased automation in related industries.

"As most of the companies in Rajkot as well as in other parts of the country are moving towards automation, demand of automatic and semi automatic machines has increased during past one year and will continue this year too," he added.

At 450 units, the Rajkot machine tools industry stands at number position in the country as a cluster.

During financial year 2011-12, it pegged a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore, while this year the industry is expecting over 20-25 per cent growth, thereby tapping more than Rs 1,200 crore of turnover.

"Auto components and engineering sector is doing very well and automation progress is going on various sectors. Further, we have lots of orders yet to be completed and more are on their way in the coming days," Parakramsinh Jadeja, managing director of Jyoti CNC said.

One of the largest CNC machine manufacturing company, Jyoti CNC Automation Private Limited invested about Rs 250 crore last year on capacity expansion. The company also pegged a turnover of around Rs 400 crore.

As a cluster, Rajkot alone consumes about 600-650 high value fully automatic CNC machine every year and according to industry sources, it is expected to cross over 750 this year. "It is hard to convert conventional machine tools to CNC as it requires huge amount of investment but capable players are now manufacturing both simultaneously," Mavani added

Gujarat households better off in basic amenities

Apr 1, 2012

Households in Gujarat fare much better than those in other parts of the country as far as amenities such as availability of bathroom, closed drainage and kitchen are concerned, the Census for Household Amenities 2011 shows.

The total number of households in Gujarat was recorded at 1.21 crore, of which bathroom was available in 56.5% houses. As against this, bathroom was available in 42% of the 24.66 crore households in the country.

The number of households in cities such as Ahmedabad (81.9%), Surat (76.4%) and Rajkot (71.6%) was sharply higher than the state's average. Districts in the eastern belt of the state, which have a large tribal population, fared extremely poorly.

"Bathrooms were available in 30.1% households in Banaskantha, 37.7% in Sabarkantha, 35.3% in Kheda, 24.5% in Panchmahals, 12.2% in Dahod,17.2% in Narmada, 13.7% in Dangs and 21.8% in Tapi," the data show.

In 11% households in the state, bathing facility was without a roof as against the national average of 16.4%. 32.6% households in the state were without a bathroom, while the corresponding national figure was 41.6%. Again, many of the tribal-dominated districts fared poorly on all these parameters.

However, the percentage of households in Gujarat without a drainage connection was much higher than the national average.

The data show that 48.9% households in the country had no drainage facility, while the number in the state stood almost five points higher at 53.3%.

However, closed drainage facility was available in 37.3% households in the state - more than double the national average of 18.15%. One-third households in the country had open drainage facility, while the number was less than one out of every 10 households in the state.

The state also fared far better than the country in kitchen availability. Kitchen was available in 61.3% households in the country, while the number stood at 72.3% in the state. There were 31.5% households in the country which did not have a kitchen. As against this, the number of such households was 21.2% in the state. In 6.8% households in the country, cooking was done in the open, while the number was 6.1% in the case of Gujarat. There were 0.3% households in the country where no cooking took place. In Gujarat's case, this number was 0.4%, which could be due to the large migrant population in the state.

Leopards struggle in lions’ den, prowl outside Gir Due to Growing Population

Apr 02 2012

Fight for space and food in the only abode of Asiatic Lion is forcing leopards to move outside the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary (GWS), which has led to more man-animal conflicts of late.

In the last 15 days, at least five children have fallen prey to the big cat while 13 persons have been attacked by the beast over the last one year in the coastal areas of Junagadh and Amreli districts, located in the periphery of the sanctuary.

According to the forest department, three leopards have been captured in the last 15 days from outskirts of villages in Veraval taluka of Junagadh.

Top forest officials, who came running to examine the sites of recent attacks, said the department is mulling over some population control measures for leopards, as their number is rapidly increasing both at GWS and Sakkarbaug Zoo.

The zoo, one of the oldest in India, is basically a lion breeding centre, but it is packed with man-eater leopards, which are now considered too dangerous to be released in the forest.

In fact, officials said, leopard population is increasing as fast as that of Asiatic lions.

As per the 2011 Census, the population of leopards in the sanctuary — spread over 1,412 sq km in Junagadh — touched the mark of 450, almost same as that of Asiatic lions. And nearly 170 of them have dispersed to peripheral areas on the coastline. This has become a cause of concern for humans, especially labourers working in mines and sugarcane fields in Veraval and Kodinar talukas.

Officials say that shrinking natural habitat coupled with increasing lion and leopard population has led to dispersion of these two big cats outside forest areas. They generally take shelter in mango and sugarcane fields for days.

Leopard, which is an opportunistic hunter, prefers to stay in the revenue areas, which increases the chances of conflict with humans, they said.

“All the children who have fallen prey (to leopards) in the last couple of days are of labourers working in agricultural fields or mines,” said Principal Conservator of Forest K Gohel. Forest teams led by Gohel asked labourers to take precautions like avoiding sleeping in the open. They were specifically asked not to eat and throw non-vegetarian cooked food in the open.

The incidents have led to changes in the lifestyle in the coastal belts of Veraval, from where all the recent incidents were reported. Labourers no longer work after sunset and prefer to work only in groups during the day. “Parents now accompany their children on their way to school and also while returning home. Children are no longer allowed to play in the fields,” said Umeshsing, a labourer.

Gujarat: Minor girl gang-raped, four arrested

April 01, 2012

Ahmedabad: Four persons have been arrested for allegedly gangraping a 14-year-old girl in Viramgam town of the district, police said on Sunday.

The incident came to light yesterday, when the girl's parents filed an FIR and based on the information given by the girl, three persons were immediately arrested, they said.

According to police, the fourth accused was arrested today and was taken to the city civil hospital for medical testing. Police have not divulged the name of the accused.

According to police, the victim, who is studying in class 9 had gone to borrow a notebook from her friend on Friday afternoon, when four youths came in an autorickshaw and abducted her.

They took her to a secluded place and raped the girl. Following this, they threatened the girl of dire consequences if she revealed the incident to anyone, and then let her off near her house, police said.

The girl, who was traumatised due to the incident, did not tell about it to anybody. However, when she started suffering from health problems, she broke down before her mother and narrated the incident to her.

Following this, the girl's parents lodged an FIR yesterday and three accused were immediately arrested.

Police said that tension gripped the small town with people gathering at the police station, as the girl belonged to a majority community, while the accused were from the minority community.

However, the situation has been brought under control.

Asmita Parva to kick start in Mahuva from tomorrow

RAJKOT: The 15th edition of the four-day Asmita Parva will kick off from Tuesday at Kailash Gurukul in Mahuva town of Bhavnagar district. Technocrat Sam Pitroda will deliver a lecture at the opening ceremony of the dance, music and literary festival, which is being organized annually by religious preacher Morari Bapu wherein writers and artistes are also honoured for outstanding contributions in their respective fields.

Jaydev Mankad, a member of the organizing committee, said Asmita Parva is organized during Hanuman Jayanti. "During the four-day event, there would be programmes on dance, music, poetry, art and scholarly discussion on literature, including Gujarati. A dance drama 'Ekatva' will be presented by students of Manavsadhana. It will be choreographed by Mrinalini Sarabhai and Mallika Sarabhai of Darpan Dance Academy, Ahmedabad."

This year, the award for lifetime achievement in painting (Kailas Lalitkala award) will be given to Amit Ambalal. The lifetime achievement awards in Indian classical music and dance (Hanumant awards) will be given to Ustad Sultan Khan: saarangi; Pandit Anindo Chatterjee: tabla; Mrunalini Sarabhai: dance; Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra: vocal music. The lifetime achievement awards in acting will be conferred on Balkrushna Nimbark for Gujarati folkdance (Bhavai), Markand Bhatt for Gujarati theatre and Waheeda Rehman for Indian films.

Mirchi Shahi Carnival held in city

Apr 1, 2012 

VADODARA: Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM organized a two-day Mirchi "Shahi" Carnival at M S University (MSU) Pavilion grounds as an initiative to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of visionary ruler Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III.

The royal (shahi) from the kitchen of Gaekwad's of Baroda was opened for Barodians on Saturday and the funds generated from this will be donated for girl child education and widow empowerment.

The inauguration of the royal food (three dishes - royal pherani, shahi pulao and rajwadi bhakharwadi) was done by Radhika Raje Gaekwad and Samarjitsinh Gaekwad, scion of the royal family of erstwhile Baroda state in the presence of municipal commissioner Ashwini Kumar and mayor Jyoti Pandya. Apart from this, different performances like 'malakham' (by Laxminath Vyayam Mandir Akhada), 'mushayara' by Makrand Mulay and ghazals by Rahul Ranade with RJ Kshitij on guitar were organized on Saturday evening. The carnival ended on Sunday night with singer Atul Purohit's garbas to mark the last day of 'Chaitri Navratri' and Ram Navmi while there were school performances, 'malakham' and 'lezim' performances among others since evening.