| A.S.R.P. MUKESH | ||
Suman, Suraj, Adi, Raman, Arjun, Babu and more. Don’t just plant a tree, plant a namesake.
Next time you drive down the 2.5km Jagannathpur-Sai Mandir stretch in Dhurwa, don’t forget to see saplings with names painted on the boards mounted on protective bamboo gabions.
In a first of its kind plantation drive organised by the forest department on Sunday, Ranchi residents had the chance to name saplings after themselves or their loved ones.
Ranchi divisional forest officer Rajiv Lochan Bakshi explained the concept of allowing people to name saplings. “Plantation is a routine job. But this time the department did some out-of-the-box thinking and let capital residents take lead,” Bakshi said.
The concept — advertised on signboards — seemed to have worked. Around 1,000 people from various walks of life, including children and the elderly, attended the programme that went on from 10am to 2pm.
“Honestly, we didn’t expect such a big turnout. I guess the personal touch worked. People kept coming, planted saplings and got excited about naming them,” Bakshi said, adding they would try to hold similar Sunday events during monsoon.
According to A.T. Mishra, conservator of forests (territorial division, Ranchi, Khunti and Gumla), the department embarked on this “plantation drive with a people connect” with a dual purpose in mind.
“First, a person who plants a sapling and names it develops an emotional connect with it. If the person discovers lack of proper maintenance, he or she will raise some hue and cry. Secondly, this is not about just one person, it is about a group. So, a people’s vigilance movement will be created to help the department protect trees in the future,” he said.
Though it is too early to predict the future, Sunday’s plantation drive was different from a pure bureaucratic exercise.
“I planted two saplings, one for me and one for my unborn child. Since we haven’t decided the name of our child yet, we named a plant Babu,” said Rita Kumar, a 30-year-old homemaker and expecting mother.
Five-year-old Anisha Kumar, who came with her grandfather, wasn’t aware of global warming. “I planted a mango tree and I will eat mangoes every year from it,” she giggled.
“If we monitor saplings, they should survive with the forest department’s help,” schoolteacher Kishori Yadav added.
The department will maintain saplings —fruit and shade bearing species, including gulmohar, mango, peepal, banyan, jackfruit and neem — for three years. “After this period, a tree doesn’t need maintenance and becomes self-sustaining,” Mishra said.
Let’s hope this drive doesn’t end like the one barely 1.5km away, on the approach road to the JSCA stadium. In January, around 800 saplings were planted on both sides of the 1km approach road before the India-England ODI on January 19. Seventy per cent saplings have vanished while most gabions are empty or stolen or broken.
Will you keep track of a tree you have planted?
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Sunday, June 23, 2013
Plant a name to grow a bond
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Cyber cops blunt hacker attack on CBI website
A.S.R.P. MUKESH/Ranchi
For a few minutes on Monday evening, panic gripped officials at the state-run Cyber Defence Research Centre (CDRC) in Ranchi when they suddenly sensed unusual activity in the CBI’s central server in New Delhi. According to CDRC sources, unidentified hackers — whose digital footprint roughly indicated a remote location in Southeast Asia — had left a rogue spam application that could completely compromise the CBI server and website.
But, the cyber prowlers had not taken the Dhurwa-based cyber watchdog CDRC into account. A little ethical hacking on the part of the CDRC team, which falls under the state’s home department, helped avert the unseen danger.
“Such attacks on Indian security agency websites aren’t new. But an attack on the CBI’s server means someone, somewhere was trying to poke here and there, hijack files, details, among others. Anything could have happened. However, the fact that CDRC managed to block the menace is a great achievement because it is only two or three months old,” said an intelligence source not willing to be identified.
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| Digital vigil: Project Building in Ranchi |
A CDRC official said they sensed something amiss in their cyber intelligence gadgets around 6pm on Monday. “In no time, we alerted higher officials here as well in New Delhi. Things are under control now. Security forces generally don’t leak such news to avoid panic among people,” he added with a smile.
But S.N. Pradhan, IG (operations), who is instrumental in forming CDRC and heads a core team of two or three ethical hackers — their identities under wraps for security reasons — as well as 10 trained constables, confirmed the incident.
“The CDRC team has been bang on target. The organisation is very young but we are doing our best to give intelligence support to the state and Centre. Not that we are the best, but the months-old CDRC has made a pretty good start,” he said.
Over a month ago, the CDRC raised an alarm, informing the Union home ministry about a possible threat to the Trinamul Congress party’s website. Unfortunately, within a day or two, the website got hacked, as the party failed to take adequate precaution.
The CDRC’s main tasks are keeping the government and its agencies safe from cyber malfunction, undertaking research for better protection and creating awareness among people about cyber activities and activism.
Right now, the CDRC functions out of a space at police headquarters near Project Building, Dhurwa. According to Pradhan, they were in a buy-buy mode, with a slew of latest gadgets under the procurement process to add more security teeth.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Burnt crops bare Kanke's furnace
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| Two village kids walk past the dry check dam on a scorching afternoon |
Water bodies in form of perennial streams, check dams or
small ponds have choked in patches while a canopy of dust storm engulfs almost
all in the whole region because of myriad forms of civil works that are underway.
What’s more shocking about the place in 2012, is that majority
of the farm lands have either turned pale or spot burnt look because of the
blistering heat.
On Wednesday (May 30) It temperature was 41.3 degrees. It is
also the highest it witnessed at least in the last four years. In 2008, the
temperature here on May 30 was 33.8 degrees.
I visited several areas in Kanke like Sangrampur, Patratu
and adjoining areas en route only to discover how both local and global
climatic changes have led to shrinkage of summer crops here, thereby, pushing
farmers into doldrums.
 |
| A view of sun burnt cauliflower farm |
“My entire crop has burnt under the sun. I don’t know what
to do now,” remarked Anand Linda, a farmer in Patratu in this block. Anand took
cauliflower, tomato, brinjal, and cucumber on his four acres of land but
majority of the field are deserted now.
The nearby check dam from where he used to fetch water too
is dried this time.
Forty year old Pahan Munda too is suffering similar fate but
more than complaining about the weather, he is upset by the government’s apathy
and rising prices. “Heat is normal in summer but still there is availability of
water in the nearby pond. Since there is no electricity here, irrigation
facility has failed,” he said.
Cost of farming has also gone up, he added. “I am surviving
because kharif harvest was good due to better monsoon this time. Otherwise, I
would have committed suicide,” said Munda.
“Till last year, Kanke has seen 40 plus degrees but
for a day or two. But since May 19, the place witnessed over 40 degrees. As a
result there is moisture in the area that helps in creation of clouds for rain,”
he said.
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| Pahan Munda, a farmer showing his destroyed crops |
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Pray, bear the stench
A.S.R.P. MUKESH
1.jpg) |
| The prayer hall at RIMS in Ranchi lies deserted on Monday. Picture by Hardeep Singh |
Ranchi, May 30: Call it a funeral of faith.
Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), the touted premier hospital in the capital, boasts an 1,800sqft, marble-floored prayer hall, albeit repulsively close to the mortuary on its premises.
Two years ago, former director of the state-run hospital N.N. Agarwal had loosened purse strings to build the hall for friends and family members of patients, but had apparently failed to notice the terrible bloomer in the blueprint. Result: the Rs 1 lakh structure lies abandoned today, a solitary witness only to the putrid stench of death and decay.
“Normally, a prayer hall is located close to the intensive care unit or operating theatres so that family members of critical patients can find some solace in praying for the well-being of their near ones. But here, the hall is a stone’s throw from the morgue. No one goes there to pray and it has just become the siesta shelter of dogs,” said a senior doctor and forensic faculty member at RIMS.
According to norms, even a temporary shelter for people waiting to collect bodies must be built at a minimum distance of 300 metres from a mortuary. At RIMS, the prayer hall is within 15 metres of the post-mortem cell.
“Log zindagi ki dua karte hain. Maut ke baad, prarthna kar ke kya faida? (People pray for life. What is the point of praying after someone’s death?),” Dinesh, a mortuary attendant, said. “So, people do not come here to pray. They wait only to collect bodies after autopsy,” he added.
Sources maintained that nearly Rs 1 lakh was spent on the marble flooring and seating area, but the hall had rarely been used since it came up two years ago. “I never spotted a single person praying under this shed,” another hospital staff said.
Madan Sahu, whose wife is admitted to the hospital with high fever, said he did not feel like venturing anywhere near the prayer hall. “It is close to where they keep dead people. You get negative vibes. How can you pray at a place like that?” he said.
RIMS director Tulsi Mahto admitted that the prayer hall’s proximity to the mortuary was indeed a cause of concern. “But then, it wasn’t built during my tenure. The erstwhile management had thought of setting up a prayer hall on humanitarian grounds. Besides, the purpose of the hall is also to give shelter to those who want to meditate after the death of their loved ones,” he contended.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Traffic cops don’t say it with flowers
| A.S.R.P. MUKESH | ||
Ranchi, May 28: Saying it with roses might have been innovative but it certainly was not economical. The tactic of public chastisement by handing out flowers to traffic violators, perhaps made famous by a Sanjay Dutt starred Bollywood film, might have served the cause, but soaring flower prices, thanks largely to weather disturbances and a number of shutdowns observed, has broken the back of the police department’s finances. So its back to the tried-and-tested method of distributing pamphlets to create awareness among the masses for the city traffic police officers. SSP Praveen Kumar inaugurating the awareness campaign here today, however, took a diplomatic stand towards the sudden change in stance. “The purpose is to make the denizens familiar with fundamental traffic rules and regulations in place. Although we are cracking down on violators by conducting regular checks, we thought of educating masses before imposing fines on them,” Kumar said. He added that the response on the first day was good but there was a lot of ground to be covered. “Our men are doing their best to create awareness. The campaign will gain pace in the coming days, when we will aim to spread the message of safe road habits throughout the city,” the SSP said. The traffic police have also put up hoardings and posters (with illustrations) at various traffic points like Kanta Toli, Sarjana Chowk, Sujata Chowk and Doranda, among other places, to reach out to people. A bunch of 40 from Ranchi University and NCC cadets also joined hands with the police officers and are working as volunteers to make the campaign success, sources said. Prodded about the most common traffic violations, Singh was quick to list parking of vehicles in No Parking zones and stopping vehicles on zebra crossings at traffic intersections, not wearing a helmet and talking on your mobile phone while driving consisted some of the oft repeated violations. Meanwhile, with the administration cracking down on autos plying without proper permits, the three-wheelers have gradually tried to fade away from Ranchi roads. “We had received a notice from the district administration to phase out autos without permits. Only 1,006 autos have been issued permits till date and we will try and clear the rush of applications seeking permits from today,” Singh said. |
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