COIMBATORE, 16/02/2012: Syed Sajjad Ahmed (left), a businessman dealing with electrical accessories in Bangalore, with his relative on a solar car in Coimbatore on February 16, 2012 as part of his tour of South India for 1,000 km to generate awareness among the people on pollution and corruption. Photo: M. Periasamy / The Hindu
Syed Sajjan Ahmed travels 3,000 km in self-built four-wheeler.
Bengaluru , KARNATAKA :
Sixty-three-year-old Syed Sajjan Ahmed arrived in Bangalore in a self-developed solar electric-powered car to cover 3,000 km from Bangalore to Delhi to participate in the first India International Science Festival (IISF).
It took Syed 30 days to cover the arduous journey, which included crossing the Vindhyas. Born in Kolar, 70 km from Bangalore, the standard XII dropout began his career as a fruit vendor and went on to set up a shop for electronics repair.
His work included assembly of electronic goods, starting off with transistors, tape recorders and television sets and antennae. Later, he moved on to computers, before attempting to realise his childhood dream to do something for society.
“I had to leave school when I was 15 to start earning for my family. But the fire to create something that would be of use to humanity kept burning within me,” he says.
The break came in 2002. “I told myself that I am 50 now, and I must do something before I become too old and infirm.”
Ahmed started by modifying a two-wheeler to run on electric power, and then a three-wheeler, and later a four-wheeler.
He bagged the Karnataka government’s award for environment protection, instituted in honour of former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in 2006, for his innovation. Ahmed says that the modified car is equipped with a set of five solar panels, each with a capacity of 100 watts.
The power generated by the panels propels the machine through a bank of six batteries, each with a capacity of 12 volts and 100 amps. He takes pride that his small car withstood the test of the 3,000-km trek. “There were times when we thought we would not be able to take the steep climbs on the ghat roads. But, it crossed all the hurdles without much trouble,” he adds.
Ahmed says he has travelled 1.1 lakh km in his four-wheeler across the country so far. He is accompanied by a cousin, Salim Pasha, who travels in a regular car alongside. Both started their journey to Delhi from Raj Bhavan in Bangalore on November 1.
Ahmed, who says his vehicle costs around one lakh rupees at present, would further be driving from Delhi to Dr. Kalam’s hometown of Rameshwaram. “I wanted to make this journey an adventure; I have driven this vehicle for 10 years and hope to keep it going,” he says. He will then return to Bangalore via Kanyakumari.
“Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is my inspiration. Through my journey, I want to inspire and educate the public, especially students, about Dr Kalam’s Vision 2020 for uplifting the country,” he adds.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / IANS / December 08th, 2015
N Sheik Abdullah at work in his organic farm at Kalakudi village near Manur in Tirunelveli | EXPRESS
Tirunelveil :
At a time when agricultural lands are turning into commercial housing plots, a youth has been silently transforming dry land into organic farming plots near Manur in the district.
Giving up his high salary job after working around nine years in West Asia, diploma holder N Sheik Abdullah (34) is busy now turning his integrated organic farm at Kalakudi village near Manur into a farm that grows watermelon, drum sticks and marigold.
“After completing a diploma in mechanical engineering, I worked in production arena in Erode and Coimbatore for around five years. Later, I took up the job of a design engineer in the West Asia. With the support of my family members, I later purchased dry lands at Kalakudi village,” Abdullah said.
He returned from West Asia in March last year to launch into agricultural activities.
Hailing from Pettai in Tirunelveli city, he travels about 25 km to reach his farmland from his house daily.Step by step, he is turning the dry soil into one that is suitable for organic agriculture farming.
Abdullah said he has plans to keep local breeds of cows, goats and chicken in the organic farm.
He has also planted local tree species of banyan, neem, pipul, fig, Poovarasu among others.
Abdullah, who considers organic farm expert Nammalvar as his role model, has undergone training at his organic farm ‘Vanagam’ in Karur district. He has cultivated paddy in the farm and plans expand it to more areas in his plot.
His idea is to produce healthy milk, egg and organic agriculture produces, which has no pesticides and chemicals.
Satisfied with the milk yield of local breeds of cattle, the 34-year-old is also chalking out measures to save them.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by M. Abdul Rabi / March 03rd, 2016
Follow your class 5 moral science lesson on cleanliness, take steps to rein in the garbage mafia and find a solution to sanitary waste -these are not the words of an urban planner but a humble waste picker’s advice to Bengalureans. Mansoor Ahmed, 33, whose hard work fetched him a seat at the Paris climate conference, is back in the city, enlightened and overwhelmed. Still in awe of the French capital, he aims to make Bengaluru the Paris of India.
Mansoor, a waste picker from ward no 198, Jayanagar, collects dry waste from more than 1,000 houses. The passionate worker who spoke about low carbon strategies in the waste sector at the Paris summit has set a threefold agenda for Bengulureans: Keep your surroundings as clean as your house, keep a vigil on the garbage mafia by equipping each ward with cameras and find a way to effectively dispose sanitary waste.
While this is his vision for the city , Mansoor wishes to have a uniform for waste pickers, so that they feel as respectable as any other civic worker. “I have a team of 12 waste collectors and the job we do is exhausting. We show up at people’s doors at 5am and I don’t know how many residents even remember our faces. A uniform will make us feel better about ourselves,” said Mansoor.
The waste picker who doesn’t charge a single paisa for his contribution (he’s not paid by BBMP either) earns a living through his “donate dry waste project”.He collects around 25 tonnes of dry waste in a month and sells it to recycling companies, making enough money for his daily expenses.
“We still don’t have a solution for sanitary waste. We know what to do with dry waste and wet waste but with sanitary waste, we have no option but to burn it.Also, where does all of it go? Even I’m clueless. “I am not educated but still I’m passionate about keeping mine and others’ houses clean. Only if the literate follow what they have been taught in school, their education won’t go waste,” said Mansoor, signing off on a hopeful note. Needed: A change in attitude
Asked what is the simplest thing he learnt from Paris conference that can be replicated here, Mansoor Ahmed said: “If people’s attitude changes, things will automatically change.When when we go to collect waste, residents are only bothered about the muck getting out of their homes. Whether it lands on the road or in a garbage dump is nobody’s concern. The garbage mafia is our biggest enemy; we should see that after the waste is picked up from a particular ward at 5am, no one uses it as a dumping ground.This can done only if the residents are vigilant and cameras are installed in wards”.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bangalore / TNN / December 11th, 2015
While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) plans to introduce stringent measures in the city to ensure proper waste segregation by Bengaluru’s citizens, 33-year-old Mansoor Ahmed, waste-picker from the city, will be in Paris for the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP (Conference Of Parties) 21, scheduled to be held from November 30 to December 11.
His hard work and vision in spreading awareness about waste management among the citizens has led him to Paris to present a talk to participants from across the world.
During his visit to Paris, he will talk about the importance of waste segregation and how he was able to create awareness and convince 75 per cent of his customers to segregate waste at source.
Mansoor speaks three languages: Tamil, Hindi and Kannada. He admits he cannot utter a single sentence in English. “English is not a problem as long as my work talks for me. I’m genuine and there is sincerity in my work which will speak for me. Besides, I will have a translator. As part of my talk, I will be narrating my journey from a seven-year old rag-picker to what I’m today,” he says. He has a team of 12 members at the Jayanagar DWCC who manage an inventory of 10-12 tonnes of dry waste every month.
Mansoor’s talk will be translated by Kabir Arora, who coordinates Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers (AIW) – an informal network of organisations, cooperatives, and companies working on waste management with the help of waste-pickers. Hasiru Dala, which is a coalition member the AIW and an organisation of waste-pickers and waste workers, is sponsoring Mansoor’s 10-day trip.
“The team from Hasiru Dala asked me if I was interested in going to Paris for a conference. I was elated and immediately said yes. My passport and visa had to be made,” says an excited Mansoor. He flew to Delhi from Bengaluru on Monday and will reach Paris later in the day.
Mansoor operates the Dry Waste Collection Centre (DWCC) (recyclables and inorganic waste aggregation and sorting unit) in ward 168 of Jayanagar in. He went door-to-door in the area around the centre to encourage residents to segregate their wastes and drop it at the DWCC.
The daily collection of the DWCC is about 120 kg from waste-pickers. The DWCC receives one tonne of waste from apartment collection. Mansoor uses a rotating fund of `3,000 to buy wastes from the apartments.
He will be part of a joint delegation of Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) and Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers (AIW) for COP 21.
The IYCN is a network uniting Indian youth and youth-oriented organisations who are concerned about climate change and environment issues. The network works to generate awareness about and establish consensus on what role India should play in the global debate of climate change and how it should address its domestic issues.
Mansoor was just a seven-year-old when he began helping his parents collect waste by sorting it. At that time, he used to manage around 500 kg of waste every month.
He attended a small government school near his home but had to drop out of school in Class 5 when his father passed away.
He is the oldest among nine siblings (he has six sisters and two brothers), and the burden of responsibility to take care of them brothers and sisters feel upon his young shoulders.
He joined the informal waste sector with his mother to help supplement the family income.
They ran a small scrap shop near their home where all the waste-pickers from their slum would bring their daily collection. They would manage around 500 kg of waste every day.
Working with waste has therefore been the only job that Mansoor has known, but it has provided for him and his family. Thanks to the use of technology and people his people-management skills, Mansoor has been able to scale new heights.
He says he is eager to learn the concepts of solid waste management followed in Paris and will find ways to implement it at his centre too.
From the conference, he wants the countries to pursue the agenda of recycling (Waste to energy) in their climate action commitments as opposed to incineration of waste — which is currently being proposed as a climate solution by many governments. Incineration is being perceived as a threat to Mansoor’s and many other green entrepreneurs’ livelihood.
For his visit, he was asked to buy a pair of thermal wear as Paris would be freezing at this point of time. “I didn’t know that we could find thermal wear here. I was asked to buy them; but one pair costs `2,000. But it’s going to keep me warm when I land there. I have already purchased my formal wear two months ago. I am too excited about my trip. It all feels surreal,” he says.
With his contagious smile he has been easily able to build excellent relationships with his customers to whom he provides waste collection services. The last few days he has been flooded with congratulatory messages from them for this prestigious trip.
Today, with the Paris trip materialising, he feels his hard work has paid off although he claims never to have imagined that he would be able to visit a foreign country. “This is my first visit to a foreign country…and in an airplane. I’m feeling ecstatic and proud. Never in my life had I imagined that I would get such an opportunity. This would not be possible if it were not for the people who supported me throughout my life. I really want to thank my well-wishers, friends and relatives,” says Mansoor, who has three children: two boys and a girl.
He has enrolled his children in Oxford School in JP Nagar. And his aim now: To give his children a solid education … and the freedom to follow their dreams.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore> Civiv / Bangalore Mirror Bureau / November 30th, 2015
Waheeda Rehman’s passion for photogrphy matches her passion for acting. (PTI photo)
Bhopal :
Lights, camera, action and Waheeda Rehman would send the nation’s heart throbbing with her dignified allure. But there’s a best-kept secret about the starry-eyed actor, who ruled the silver screen in the Fifties and Sixties — Waheeda Rehman, the photographer. And this was revealed during an exclusive exhibition of her photography at Bhopal on Wednesday.
Photography has been a passion for the Bollywood star and she pursued this with similar verve while she would act before rolling cameras. The power, mystique and beauty of nature shot in the wilds of Kenyan safari of Masai Mara, South Africa and closer home in Bandhavgarh give a rare insight into her talent.
These 40 photographs — never-before-seen pictures — were clicked by her during her recent excursions.
“I have visited nearly every national park in India, including Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh,” said yesteryears screen goddess. “I am still learning photography,” she said.
By her own account, Guru Dutt was her mentor. However, for the elegant lady who took her own camera to the film set, said, “Noted Indian cinematographer Fali Mistry and his younger brother Jal Mistry and VK Murty (Guru Dutt’s regular cameraman) taught me the finer points of photography.”
Waheeda pursued her passion with an old standard ‘Rolleiflex’ (twin lens reflex camera). “Don’t go crazy clicking, we were told. Those were the days of film rolls and we waited for developed shots to arrive. It is something youngsters today cannot relate to with everything digital,” she said.
The veteran actress is admittedly not tech savvy or ‘active’ on social networking. However, she has kept pace with developments in photography. In short kurta and slacks, she boarded a jeep on a Kenyan safari, where one of her team members was a young 15 year-old-girl.
“Youngsters need to experience wildlife. It should be mandatory in school,” she said, when asked if she considered herself an wildlife activist.
Photographs shot by Waheeda Rehman were displayed at Samanvay Bhawan. “We did not tell Waheedaji that her collection of photographs would be displayed,” said Tigerland India film festival (TIFF) organiser.
“She was unable to email it herself. When we received wildlife photographs clicked by Waheedaji I was surprised. We decided to hold an exhibition and inform just ahead of the event,” a TIFF organiser said.
TIFF is an initiative to promote wildlife conservation and awareness through visual media.
Nagaland principal chief conservator of forests M Lokeswara Rao received the first Tigerland India Bio-diversity Conservation Award here on Wednesday. Top forest official of Nagaland received the award in presence of Waheeda Rehman. TIFF recognised Nagaland forest department’s contribution to conservation of migratory Amur falcons, which arrive at Nagaland’s Wokha district during winter.
Enabling Amur falcons’ migration pattern, the department used satellite, an intervention for which won them an international award. Few Amur falcons were tracked with 5gm transmitters.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> Entertainment> Hindi> Bollywood / by Jamal Ayub, TNN / August 28th, 2015
Volunteers of Wipro Care Trust plant saplings at Perumbakkam. Photo D. Gopalakrishnan
The event was organised by TIST Tree Planting India in association with Wipro Care Trust.
Over 2,000 saplings were planted in Perumbakkam village on Sunday as a mark of respect to former President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
The event, organised by TIST Tree Planting India in association with Wipro Care Trust, a corporate social activity arm of Wipro Limited, Bengaluru, marked the launch of the program to plant 25,000 saplings sponsored by WCT for the current year.
Creating biodiversity
Speaking to The Hindu , B. Praveen, programme manager, said Wipro sponsors 25,000 saplings every year and plants them in five northern districts of Tamil Nadu through local groups formed by TIST-TPI.
The main objective of TIST India’s programme is to create islands of biodiversity in an already fragmented landscape to help farmers said A. Joseph Rexon, director, TIST-TPI. He said around 1.8 million saplings were planted in Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai and Villupuram districts since 2003.
Over 5,500 farmers have been enrolled as members of this programm that is sponsored by Corporates including Wipro. Mr. Rexon said participants were also entitled to avail greenhouse gas (GhG) credits after 20 years.
This would be paid based on the World market price of GhG credits, as on December 1 of the year for which payment was made, he added.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / by Staff Reporter / Kancheepuram – September 08th, 2015
Jute making workshop at Queens Mary’s College in the city. Photo: Paul Joshua
Dhanalaxmi teaches jute-bag making and helps student start their own businesses
Over 100 students of Queen Mary’s College learnt the nuances of jute bag-making from Dhanalaxmi, who has been encouraging woman to become entrepreneurs. The owner of IVERS Bags, Dhanalaxmi has been in this business for the past 11years. Five years ago, she started helping others start their own businesses. She has been training self-help groups and NGOs in making and marketing jute bags and jewellery.
“A few years ago, when the IT scene was bad, one couple from the IT industry approached me, asking me to train them in the art. Today, they run a successful jute business,” she said.
In the session conducted at the college, students from corporate secretaryship, sociology, zoology and B.Com departments walked away with certificates presented by Akathar Begum, principal, on successful completion of the workshop.
“These are the bags we have made. Dhanalaxmi ma’am also gave us a kit box with materials to try more designs at home,” said a student showing off a table full of sling bags, pencil pouches and tambulam bags made by her.
Dhanalaxmi is ready to conduct training for groups and individuals . “This is an eco-friendly product and helps reduce the use of plastic. People should make a switch to jute product.”
Dhanalaxmi can be contacted at 92831 35238/98405 33611.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Downtown / by Flavia Plaidus / Chennai – July 04th, 2015
It is believed that good things are difficult to get.
Perhaps that’s why every mango grower lives with the fact that his mango orchard will follow the accepted alternate bearing pattern. This pattern, common to mango and several other fruit crops, means that the yield of fruit will not be the same year after year. A heavy yield one year could be followed by a dismal one another year and vice versa.
However, if you pass through Kunwarpur village on Sitapur Road, there will be one mango orchard outshining all others. Here, unlike others, each tree is laden with the king of fruits, waiting to be plucked. This delighting yield is no freak of nature but a result of a well-researched technique and years of hard work.
City-based mango grower Kunwar Raghavendra Singh introduced the canopy management technique in his orchard over a decade ago.
Under this, trees are pruned regularly to turn the upper part of the tree to look like an inverted umbrella, instead of a canopy. Using this technique, Raghavendra has turned his barren land into a 100% productive mango orchard, producing varieties of mangoes including dussehri, langda and chausa.
Even when the weather was playing havoc with all kinds of crops and subsequently with the fate of farmers, Raghavendra was not worried.
His more than 3,500 mango trees were safe from the untimely rain and thunderstorms. “The most harmful factor for any mango tree is the canopy shape. It can have good flowering but not good fruiting. Apart from the fact that it hardly bears any fruit, this form limits the penetration of sunlight in the tree. This affects photosynthesis and the health of the tree,” says Raghavendra. The central shoots are the fastest growing in any tree and draw most of the nutrition and hormones. When the central shoots are removed, the nutrition flows side ways to lateral branches. This results in better size of the fruit, he explains.
Efforts must also be made to see that trees are gradually brought down to a maximum height of 22 feet-a manageable height which makes spraying pesticides easier, he adds.
Ready to extend a helping hand to other mango growers and also to the state horticulture department, Raghavendra claims that unlike a dense mango orchard, an open one reduces the cost of management and results in optimum flowering and fructification even in inclement weather.
The inverted umbrella structure allows free movement of air thus facilitating cross pollination. After untimely rain, the free movement of air helps evaporate moisture, the most devastating factor in the growth and spread of fungal infections.
Dr Mansoor Hasan, a city-based cardiologist, has also implemented this technique in his orchard in Manikpur, near Unchahar since 2011, with the help of his son Aly Hasan.
Happy with his produce, Dr Hasan says, “I have observed that fruits of a well-managed tree are also bigger in size and qualitatively better as compared to a taller tree. Even trees which were not giving any fruit for past many years have gradually started bearing fruit once they were pruned,” he adds.
In the case of mango trees, it seems, bigger is not better.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Uzma Talha, TNN / June 28th, 2015
Tasneem Fathima Khaleel has had a successful career in academia. However, quite remarkably, she came back to where she started – teaching. M A Siraj reports.
Few people end their careers where they first began; Professor Tasneem Fathima Khaleel is among those few. “I am excited about the opportunity to finish my career in the classroom. And, with a little help, I will be teaching in a new state-of-the-art facility,” says Tasneem, the first-ever woman to have obtained a doctorate in the State of Mysore in 1970. Prior to returning as a professor of Botany, she served as the dean of faculty at College of Arts & Sciences for a decade at the Montana State University at Billings (MUSB).
Paving a new path
Tasneem has been teaching Botany in the United States for over 40 years and has received many awards for her teaching and research. She has headed, or has been a member on as many as 23 different academic bodies or advisory councils in the US. For her contribution to research, with nearly 50 research publications on subjects ranging from cyto-embriology to plant reproduction, she was awarded the ‘Outstanding Research Award’ in 1995 by the Montana Research Academy and has also won the Faculty Excellence Award five times.
The year 2014 was a special year for Tasneem – she had the rare honour of an award being named after her, for mentoring at the MUSB. Reno Charette, director for American-Indian Education, was adjudged the winner of the first ‘Prof Tasneem Fathima Khaleel Award for Mentoring’.
Tasneem studied in Bengaluru, before heading to the US in 1975 after marriage. An alumna of Central College, Bengaluru, she has coveted every opportunity to visit her ‘City of Gardens’ – which she ruefully admits is more a part of nostalgia rather than reality.
A passionate researcher, she recalls that very few women could be seen in higher studies in those days. Only a couple of them were pursuing PhD while she was registered in Bangalore University as well as teaching biology as an assistant professor at the University of Agricultural Sciences at Hebbal between 1968 and 1975. Her study of ‘Flora at the GKVK Campus’ and ‘Weeds in Karnataka’ are still quoted as seminal works.
Writing her own destiny
Tasneem had finished her BSc and MSc by the time she was barely 19 years old. Wanting to be a teacher, she had put in her application, but was rejected, as the dean told her, “You look like a school girl, how would the students take you
seriously?”
Instead, he directed her to register for a PhD programme, which had just been started in the Bangalore University. The Doctorate took longer than usual to complete because there was lack of guidance and direction, and the programme had several fits and starts.
Finally, at 26 when she got her her doctorate, she was being looked as ‘a confirmed spinster’ in her own cultural surroundings. Marriage was nowhere on her mental radar. It took her brother several sittings to convince her of getting married.
Tasneem travelled a long and twisted path – one shaped by her culture and her drive to excel, to become the distinguished professor that she is today. For most Americans who had only preliminary idea of Islam, a woman with covered head and such drive for excellence and perseverance was a combination of incongruities. “Women have rights in Islam. Muslim women didn’t even have to fight for those rights. The religion has given them those rights,” she says.
Dr Stn Waitr, her successor, says, “Dean Khaleel has raised the level of rigour, excellence and success in the College of Arts & Sciences to a standard that should serve as a model for the entire institution.” Interestingly, Tasneem even built a herbarium at the MUSB, which has around 17,000 specimens and is currently engaged in digitising it. She recalls with pride that she was the most productive member on the faculty of science at the MSU, which has nearly 22,000 students today in two campuses. Tasneem’s most significant discovery was the finding of mammalian steroids in plants, which she says, are responsible for sex expression in plants.
Author of four books, 10 external and 17 internal grants at the MSUB, Tasneem is excited about beginning her teaching career once again. “It had never ended. I had maintained a room in my department building, even while I headed the faculty,” she says.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements > She / by M.A. Siraj, DHNS / June 27th, 2015
Vamanapuram block panchayat president Baby Sulekha leading members of the Vamanapuram block in a procession kicking off ‘Mazhaneermahima’, a project which aims to carry out rainwater harvesting of pre-monsoon showers
Thiruvananthapuram :
Can rainwater harvesting of mango showers solve drinking water crisis this summer? The panchayats in Vamanapuram Block are attempting to do it, with ‘Mazhaneermahima’. The slogan of the rainwater harvesting project is ‘Let’s welcome the monsoon by harvesting rainwater.’
On Sunday, the project was kicked off with a ‘Mazhaneermahima Vilambara Yatra’, a procession from Vamanapuram block. ‘Mazhaneermahima’ is implemented as part of the Integrated Watershed Management Programme. The project lasts till May 21. In the first phase of the project, notices spreading awareness on water conservation and rainwater management were distributed in the houses in Nellanadu, Manikkal, Vamanapuram, Pullambara, Pangode and Kallara panchayats.
A group of people will visit 300-odd households in each panchayat to spread awareness.
Sunday’s event was inaugurated by Vamanapuram Block Panchayat president Baby Sulekha. Block secretary Sarina A Rahman, vice-president G Purushottaman Nair and various panchayat presidents in Vamanapuram block were present at ‘Mazhaneermahima Vilambara Yatra’.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Express News Service / April 06th, 2015
