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Making fabric face masks to earn a living

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Dateline Dehradun: “Our household income had taken a hit owing to the lockdown but this is a great opportunity to generate some income while working from home,” says a happy Kusum Devi, from Jardhar village in Tehri district, one of the many women of over a hundred Self Help Group members from JICA-funded Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project who have embarked upon the task of preparing around 2 lakh face masks.

Scattered all over Almora, Bageshwar, Chamoli, Champawat, Nainital, Pauri, Pithoragarh and Tehri Garhwal, these women have begun preparing face masks using cotton cloth in order to cater to the shortage of home stitched and reusable masks in the light of COVID-19.

The brainchild of Chief Project Director of UFRMP, Shri Anup Malik (IFS), who thought of an initiative like stitching face masks not only being socially significant but also economically and environmentally crucial. He tells us,“Considering the demand for good quality reusable masks in large numbers we decided to support our SHGs members to manufacture face masks that are low cost, reusable, washable and also biodegradable,” adding that the initiative reflected project’s sensitivity towards the society, during Covid 19 lockdown as well. “This activity would engage the SHGs and their members during the lockdown thereby generating additional income for them. It is expected that these women can earn anything between Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 per day working for around 6 to 8 hours a day.”

The cloth used is being provided to the women through their district level Federation. In the days to come, UFRMP expects to manufacture close to 2 lakh masks within a month that will then be marketed within as well as outside Uttarakhand.

UFRMP is being implemented across 750 villages across 13 forest divisions in Uttarakhand. Under this project till date 1,379 Self Help Groups have been formed with 13,914 members. At the cluster level 18 Federations have been constituted.

Mountain massif in Uttarakhand visible from Saharanpur

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Tania Saili
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Pic Courtesy: Nidhi Saini

Dateline Saharanpur: Just when most of us were getting over the breath-taking images of snow-capped Dhauladhaar range from Jalandhar, Punjab, residents of Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh were in for a visual feast.

The magnificent Bandarpunch/Bandarpoonch mountain massif, in the Garhwal region that towers at 6,316 meters above sea level was visible in all its glory against the setting sun on the 26th of April after a heavy downpour, from Saharanpur, UP.

A thrilled Nidhi Saini, a teacher with the Uttar Pradesh Government tells us: “Around 5:00-5:30p.m. in the evening, on 26th April after two days of incessant rainfall, there was a brief break in the clouds. For ten minutes one could see the magnificent snow-capped Bandarpunch range in the Garhwal Himalaya from our rooftop. They were visible even to the naked-eye for well over ten minutes.”

These images were taken with Nidhi’s 300mm telephoto lens mounted on a DSLR Nikon camera that has captured these precious moments for all of eternity. Of course since then, the residents of Saharanpur have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the mountain chain at least twice in a row.

The last records of the visibility of ‘these snowy deities to the north’ finds mention in Northam’s Guide to Masuri Landaur, Dehra Dun & the Hills North of Dehra published in 1884: ‘In clear weather on a fine view of the snows’ is visible from Roorkee.”

Exactly 136 years later, the Covid-19 lockdown has had pleasant side-affects. From 150 miles away, the Greater Himalaya towering over twenty thousand feet, are visible, once again, re-writing history for generations to come.

When hailstorm lashed parts of Nagaland

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Tania Saili
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Dateline Nagaland: Feel-good images and write-up of how nature is rebooting itself during the Covid lockdown are to be seen all over the place. But on the other hand, in far off northeast, some ten villages in Nagaland are struggling in the face of Nature’s fury – ‘all tooth and claw.’

In the afternoon of April 21st, for close to half an hour, hailstones – the size of table tennis balls – battered five hundred homes in ten villages in the heart of Nagaland.

Such was the sharpness of this unrelenting hammering that they destroyed agricultural fields and shredded corrugated tin roofs within minutes.

Village Salomi was amongst the worst hit and the gigantic hailstones left behind havoc in its trail. Shelimthong, Yimchunger Tribal Council Executive Chairman, spoke to Newspost about the widespread devastation: “This is the first time in our lifetime that we came across nature’s fury lashing our villages. Over five hundred families have been affected in villages, namely Penkim Salomi, Khongsa Town, Pungro Town, Pungro village and others.”

The only saving grace was that there was no loss of life! Meanwhile, the standing crop of maize and the seasonal cabbage and cauliflower have been entirely wiped out. The tragedy is that these are the only source of income to most of these households.

Hailstone shred everything that comes in their way

Shelimthong and his team have made rounds of the affected area. They have, “Submitted the documents with estimates to the State government in the hope of getting some relief very soon.”

Ever since the disaster, the State administration has swung in action and has been working on a war footing. It is their fervent hope that no stone shall be left unturned, as they try to repair the devastation as soon as they can.

Within three and a half hours of the tragedy, the State administration, led by the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Pungro, Abhinav Shivam, arrived at the site with relief materials like food and tarpaulin to make sure that families donot spend night out in the open and have something to eat, until life comes back to normal.

The quenched forest fires of Uttarakhand

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Tania Saili
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In Uttarakhand, at February end one would witness garlands of forest fire wrapped around the hills at night. Daytime meant billowing clouds of smoke rising high into the sky. A sure-shot sign that our forests had fallen prey to greedy, all consuming flames.

Long spell of dry weather; low-lying land winds, rising mercury and forest fires ignited  by the two-legged creatures made the perfect recipe for disaster.

In the summer of 2016, Uttarakhand saw infernos rage that wiped out everything in its path to ashes, more so in the Kumaon region. And two years down the road, in the summer of 2018, 4,480 hectares of forest cover was hit by 2,150 instances of forest fires.

In 2019, by the first week of April, close to a dozen incidents of forest fire in Garhwal and Kumaon region had decimated 15 hectares of forest cover, which meant a clear inestimable economic loss to the ex-chequer.

But this year there is a different story that must be told: to date ten hectares of green gold has gone up in flames, with financial loss of close to twenty four thousand rupees. “If we talk about previous years, this number would have been close to thousands of acres being destroyed by fire. Weather and the Covid-19 lockdown has given time for the forest to rejuvenate and stay green.” Uttarakhand PCCF Jairaj tells us, adding, “75%-80% credit goes to the weather. We have had rains almost every week. The remaining credit goes to the Covid-19 lockdown as well, as most of the fire instances in the hill-state are unfortunately man-made.”

He reassures us: “Things are well and truly under control. Fire-lines have been put in place and with Weather Gods being kind there is little to worry about.”

Forest fires have always been a growing threat to Uttarakhand’s 3,400 sq km of green forest that comes under a dark cloud every fire season. Covid-19 lockdown has not only given water sources, water-bodies and our four legged friends a new lease of life. Mercifully, our forest cover too has been spared its annual ritual of ‘Death by Fire.’

2020 Chardham Yatra in the time of Covid-19

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Tania Saili
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Dehradun: Uttarakhand’s four world famed shrines – also called Chardham – will have a staggered reopening this year. Traditionally, the annual world-famous Chardham pilgrimage comes to an end around Diwali. Springs brings with it, the dates for the re-opening of the shrines.

This year due to the pandemic, three (Yamnotri, Gangotri and Kedarnath) will fling open their portals in the month of April, but Badrinath – the abode of Vishnu – will reopen on the 15th of May.

Far away in the remote Bhuyndar valley of Garhwal Himalaya is the Sikh pilgrimage site Hemkund and Lokpal Temple. Traditionally, they would open to pilgrims on the 1st of June. However the route is still snowbound and because of the present lockdown, it is still inaccessible. So a new date for the reopening of this pilgrimage destination will now be decided after 3rd of May.

Sprawled across Chamoli and Rudraprayag Districts, three of the Panch-Kedar temples dedicated to Lord Shiva, have the following schedule: Madmaheshwar will open on the 11th of May; Rudranath on 18th of May and Tungnath, the highest of them all will be the last to reopen on the 25th of May.

Despite inclement conditions, the Uttarakhand State administration has left no stone unturned to ensure that facilities and all-weather-road safety norms were in place before pilgrims from home and foreign shores throng to ‘Devbhoomi,’ to partake in what is considered, a pilgrimage of a lifetime.

While Chardham Yatra is one of the major sources of income for a State that thrives on spiritual tourism, this time around, Covid-19 has asked for a course correction, and where that will take us makes for another story. 

Chardham Opening dates:

Yamnotri : 26th April

Gangotri : 26th April

Kedarnath: 29th April

Badrinath : 15th May

Off-the-beaten-track temples:

Madmaheshwar: 11th May

Rudranath: 18th May

Tungnath: 20th May

No takers for free crude

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Capt. Angad Bakshi
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Pic Courtesy: Capt. Angad Bakshi

Difficult to comprehend! Prices of West Texas Crude Oil (WTI) the benchmark for U.S oil falls into negative territory — minus $37.63 a barrel.

Sellers are actually paying buyers to take liquid gold off their hands!

The reason: Covid-19 Pandemic! World economy has come to a juddering halt. American Energy Companies have run out of storage space, both ashore and offshore, hence volumes of unused crude oil is flowing close to the brim.

Crude oil products such as aviation fuel, gasoline and gasoil are not being used by aircrafts that aren’t flying and vehicles that arent plying, world wide.

Traditionally, crude oil is always traded on its FUTURE price. June, 2020 prices for WTI (West Texas Intermediate) plummeted, trading for 20 USD a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent Crude the benchmark used by Europe and rest of the world has already been trading on weaker grounds i.e. around 26 USD a barrel.

Presently the Oil market has coined a new term “contango market.” It simply means, prices in the short-term are way lower than in the coming months. This encourages traders to store oil and sell it in the future at a higher price. Oil is filling up to the brim at a speed that most oil producers did not see coming. The input is more than the output.

Within a month, storage costs onshore and offshore have skyrocketed. Super tankers (Very large Crude Carriers) are being hired at a whopping cost of around 10,00,00 USD a day for a years time charter, 15,00,00 a day for 6 months charter and approximately 20,00,00 USD a day for a single voyage charter.

Earlier this month Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC members agreed to sign a historic record deal to reduce global output by approximately 10%. The deal was the largest cut in Oil production ever, but experts wonder if that is enough to make a difference.

So what does this translate for Indian consumers? In June 2018, to benefit from the fluctuating International crude and product prices, state-run fuel retailers had already switched to daily price revision, from a fortnightly pricing system.

More so, petrol and diesel prices in India are not linked to that of crude oil per se, but to that of fuel prices in global markets. Besides, with high tax component, consumers may not get the desired relief that they are wishing for.

At the end of the day there are no takers, even for free crude.

HH Dalai Lama’s message on International Earth Day

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On this 50th anniversary of Earth Day, our planet is facing one of the greatest challenges to the health and well-being of its people. And yet, in the midst of this struggle, we are reminded of the value of compassion and mutual support. The current global pandemic threatens us all, without distinctions of race, culture or gender, and our response must be as one humanity, providing for the most essential needs of all.

Whether we like it or not, we have been born on this earth as part of one great family. Rich or poor, educated or uneducated, belonging to one nation or another, ultimately each of us is just a human being like everyone else. Furthermore, we all have the same right to pursue happiness and avoid suffering. When we recognize that all beings are equal in this respect, we automatically feel empathy and closeness towards others. Out of this comes a genuine sense of universal responsibility: the wish to actively help others overcome their problems.

Our mother earth is teaching us a lesson in universal responsibility. This blue planet is a delightful habitat. Its life is our life; its future, our future. Indeed, the earth acts like a mother to us all; as her children, we are dependent on her. In the face of the global problems we are going through it is important that we must all work together.

I came to appreciate the importance of environmental concern only after escaping from Tibet in 1959, where we always considered the environment to be pure. Whenever we saw a stream of water, for instance, there was no worry about whether it was safe to drink. Sadly, the mere availability of clean drinking water is a major problem throughout the world today.

We must ensure that the sick and the valiant health-care providers throughout the world have access to the fundamental necessities of clean water and proper sanitation to prevent the uncontrolled spread of disease. Hygiene is one of the bases of effective health care.

Sustainable access to properly equipped and staffed health-care facilities will help us meet the challenges of the current pandemic that ravages our planet. It will also offer one of the strongest defenses against future public health crises. I understand that these are precisely the objectives set forth in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that address challenges to global health.

As we face this crisis together, it is imperative that we act in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation in order to provide for the pressing needs, particularly of our less fortunate brothers and sisters around the world. I hope and pray that in the days ahead, each of us will do all we can to create a happier and healthier world.

Dalai Lama
22 April 2020

(Message requested by Global Water 2020/Shared with Newspost by Tsering Luding, Vice President of Doon Buddhist Committee, Dehradun)

Five Lakh Fruit Trees to add to India’s Green Gold

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Dateline Dehradun: He who plants a tree, plants hope. And in these troubled times of COVID-19, the gloom and doom of air about an uncertain future, vowing to plant trees is  perhaps what the world needs.

April 22, 2020 marks Earth Day’s 50th anniversary. United States-based reforestation non-profit One Tree Planted has committed to helping plant five lakh fruit trees across India during the Great Indian monsoon.

“Everyone is hurting in different ways right now due to Covid-19, and we’re honoured to be able to help through the simple act of planting trees. These trees will support with cleaner air, water, food, and social impact for families. It’s a humble offering that can have a ripple effect of benefit for years to co­­me,” says Matt Hill, Chief Environmental Evangelist at One Tree Planted.

These trees will be planted in the land of marginal and small farmers in India. For these families, fruit trees are a double bonanza as it means nourishment and supplementary income from the harvest.

At a time when migrant laborers are making their way home fast-fruiting trees, such as banana and papaya, could go a long way in keeping hunger at bay. While Moringa, papaya, and banana trees can produce food and fruit within 8-10 months of planting. Lemon, guava, apricot, pear, peach, and jujubes produce fruit in their third year and onward.

Beyond the nutritional and social benefits of reforestation with fruit trees, this project will support cleaner air and help reduce the effects of climate change.

Kathleen Rogers, President, Earth Day Network said, “Trees not only filter the air and fight climate change — they provide food, energy and income to communities. Planting trees improves our shared environment while supporting some of the communities most affected by coronavirus and climate change.”

Reforestation will begin as early as June, 2020, just in time for World Environment Day on June 5th. Plantation will begin in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Odisha with local community involvement.

Made in Roorkee: Screening-Booth for COVID-19 sample collection

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Roorkee: A team of researchers led by Prof. Soumitra Satapathi has developed a portable COVID-19 screening booth in collaboration with the Roorkee Nagar Nigam for sample collection of the suspects.

Prof. Manish Shrikhande, Dean Research, IIT Roorkee, in the presence of Municipal Commissioner Mrs. Nupur Verma, has handed-over this screening booth to Roorkee Civil hospital for installation and use by healthcare workers. Prof. K.L. Yadav, Head, Department of Physics and Dr. Alok Anand, Medical Officer, IIT Roorkee were also present on the occasion.

“IIT Roorkee’s telephone booth style screening platform will eliminate the need for costly PPE kit currently used for medical staff for screening COVID-19 patients,” said lead researcher Prof. Satapathi.

The booth can house medical personnel and is completely vacuum-sealed. It enables healthcare personnel collect the swab samples of the patient through long gloves and therefore eliminates the chances of any potential human contact. The whole sample collection procedure can be completed in five minutes. The booth will be sanitized after each sample collection.

The project has been financed by the Roorkee Municipal Corporation. The team of IIT Roorkee behind this innovation comprises research scholars Mr. Prathul Nath, Mr. Naveen Kumar Tailor, Ms. Tejasvini Sharma and Mr. Anshu Kumar from Laboratory for Integrated Nanophotonics and Biomaterials (LINB) in the Physics Department.

Fighting COVID 19 the MCF way

By
Tania Saili
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Dateline Dehradun: Dealing with something as pervasive and fast spreading as a pandemic is particularly challenging in a mountainous state like Uttarakhand. Dispensing critical information and too at the soonest, is an uphill task, but this is where eighteen year old Mountain Children’s Foundation steps in.

Mountain Children’s Foundation/MCF is a local organization deeply rooted in the communities all across the hill-state. Its unique strengths: “we know our people, we know the region and we know how to communicate in relevant ways,” Aditi Kaur, MCF President, assures us. And for this they have a team of young ambassadors between the age group of 11-17 year olds, leading from the front.

Young achievers of MCF Uttarakhand

Early March, when the news of the COVID 19 was gathering steam, these young warriors were out in the community sharing information about the virus and why hygiene was necessary. Children were reminded of what they had learnt about hygiene under different WASH programs, in turn taught their parents and grandparents. Again, children were the most informed agents of change and improvement for their families during the pandemic.

MCF teams were out in the field reaching out to one and all. Comprehensive lists of families most in need were handed over dry rations and been put in direct contact with the village Pradhan (Headman) for future needs.

MCF CHILDLINE program has been able to facilitate support for over 45 families. “In fact the Pradhan of Prithvipur was so impressed with Arti, our facilitator, that she wrote a letter to the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Block officer and Head of the Police Station in Vikasnagar, praising her and the MCF for the work she had done for the community,” adds a proud Aditi Kaur.

With an outreach to over hundred families and counting,Mountain Children’s Foundation is multi-tasking by providing information, reassurance and resources to children. Once motivated to keep going, and empowered with the knowledge they need to be protected and secure,Mountain Children’s Foundation is constantly striving to reach every child and in turn help every community.

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