A WOMAN DIES EVERY TWO HOURS IN INDIA BECAUSE OF ABORTION: INDIA SPENDS ONLY 3-9 pc ON HEALTH OF TOTAL GDP !

NOTABLY, India has many wonders--evil wonders in malnutrition,  poverty, illiteracy, health, education etc, what not ,everythings ! Politicians and Planning Commission are playing cruel jokes with poverty and poor in India.Instead  identifying poverty and poor, who , in my opinion, constitute over 73 percent in India, by an independent and constitutional commission on the  patters of the Election Commission of India (ECI) , the union government is, sadly, banking on the data provided on poverty and poor by the so called economists and the Planning Commission, which have been misleading not only the union government but public also.

In this essay, I want to conststrate, one of the biggest 'wonder evil 'about  women and their death from an unsafe abortion in the country and to some extend global scenario on this score. This essay has been based on the report of World Population Day, concluded recently. Each year 19 million  to 20 million  women risk their lives, globally, while undergoing unsafe abortions, conducted in unsanitary condition by unqualified practitioners or practitioners, who resort to traditional but rudimentary means. To substantiate the facts Dr Gilda Sedgh of the Guttmacher Institute, a U S  sexual-and reproductive-health-and-advocacy centre, believes that " about  half of all abortions world-wide are unsafe"--an appalling number when  one considers that abortions are simple procedures when done correctly.Today,overcrowded planet of some7.1 billion people marks World Population Day, and with an ever growing number of teenagers giving birth, the United Nations Organisation (UNO) has decided that the focus of this World Population Day will be adolescent pregnancy. Currently, highest concentration of young people is found in India. With an average age of just 29, the country is home to 300 million people below the age of 25. Come 2028, it will also be world's most populous nation. For these reasons, there is need to highlight the state of sexual and reproductive health and rights in India !

In India, the problem of unsafe abortions is especially acute. There were 620,472 reported abortions in 2012; experts say the true number of abortions performed in the country could be as high as seven millions, with two-thirds of them taking place outside authorised health facilities. Not all of these are pregnancies out of wedlock. Many unsafe abortions are performed on married women unable to obtain contraception and unable to travel to a registered clinic, who for economic or personal reasons do not wish to have another child.

Notably ,a woman in India dies every two hours because an abortion goes wrong. That seems like an extraordinary number until one visits the sort of locations where abortions take place--where it can be seen that possibility for some thing to go wrong is high indeed..India's expenditure on health care is only 3.9 percent of its gross domestic products, strangely, putting at par with Gabon or the Central African Republic. Rural government clinics are often nothing more that skeletal brick structures with tin roofs or no roofs and  virtually no electricity supply. Women lie on old gurneys or beds if one is available, just so often, they bed down in dark rooms on mud floors scattered with bloody dressings. Less than 20 percent of these centres provide legitimate abortion facilities, compelling many rural women to seek alternative.

Because of demure saris and lashings of the Hindu  religion, many have formed an impression of Indians  as a sexually modest bunch. Even the country's most famous sexual text, THE KAMSUTRA, comes with singularly unsexy injunctions to self-improvement, portraying sex as means of spiritual enlightenment  rather than physical gratification. But the country that has been in the thores of a development boom, social change   has been exponential and attitudes to sex have been no exception--particularly among young. Three years ago , Tehelka, an Indian news website that specialises in exposes, found that "age was more than just a number to several young people-it is ticking stopwatch in the race to outdo each other in the bedroom". Reporters conducted interviews across urban India  and "met terrifying sexual creatures of all  shapes and size" from nine-year-olds who distributed porn in class to teenagers .who had made sex tapes. Unwanted pregnancies are, meanwhile, on the rise, so are Sexually transmitted infections (STIS). A hospital based study done over a five year period and   published last year reported a resurgence of syphilis in India and rising number of STIs. The study noted that all the evidence pointed towards a change in sexual practices.According eye -witnesses account teen young , in bold manner, are often found in medicine shops, openly asking for sex -simulating medicines like Viagra instead of contraceptives. Such scenes are variably seen in Patna town areas where the sales of sex simulating medicines demand have risen alarmingly high.

It must be noted that, there are barely any resources for young people curious about sex. Manak Matiyani of MUST BOL, Delhi-based group that works with youth on gender issues, is of  the opinion, " sexuality is some thing a lot of young people want to learn about, not only because it is new but also because it is some thing that is talked about." Only 15 percent of men and women between the age of 15 and 24 reported receiving any sex education, according to another study on Indian youths a few years ago. Alarmingly, only 45 percent of young women and 37 percent of young men were aware  of the possibility of pregnancy resulting from first intercourse. "Ignorance of sexual-and reproductive-health issues continues even after  marriage" said one government report. More than three quarters of young women and 70 percent of young men "did not know what to expect of married life," the study noted.

More over , sex education came into spotlight after Delhi-gang rape incident in December 2012, when the report of a committee k headed by J S Verma pointed to dire need for greater  gender-sensitisation  among young in India.Due to lack of sex education are plain from the millions of unsafe abortions performed each year to a skewed gender ratio that sees widespread abortion of females fetuses owing to cultural preferences for boys. The 2011 census in India detected that there were 914 females age six and under for every 1000 males. Even after all these social evils, the politicians, teachers and parents continue to oppose sex education, fearing that such programmes would promote promiscuity and undermine social values. The Indian government is dithering over the matters for over 20 years. It's futile attempt to launch sex education programme, the Adolescent Education Programme (AEP, in 1999, could not take off because experts and policymakers continued to deliberate over which topics to include and whether these would offend any prevailing inhibitions in society. And the dilly-dilling attitude of the government continued unabated. A consultant on sexual education says "conservatives found that the course material  allegedly featured offensives illustrations and class rooms exercise." The fear was that the programme "would ignite the curiosity of students about experimentation, resulting in teenage  pregnancies and promiscuity. By 2007, many largest states of India  including Gujarat, Madhjya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Keral , Chhatishgarh and Goa had banned sex education and federal government dropped its support for it as well. A report of the Indian government committee came to the startling conclusion that "there should not be sex education in schools." and that previous attempts at such education had been "quite reprehensible  in view of our sociocultural ethos." Indian youths, the committee, decided, needed nothing more than bracing doses of traditional medicines and yoga to cool their ardour.

Experts, however, say there are two possibilities for India. One is establishment of a sex-education programme that 'acknowldges the changing sexual landscape, parents accept that their children must know about safe sex, even if they are unwilling to communicate with their children on the subject and supplies and information  are available to young people', says Dr Shireen Jajeeboy of the Population Council of India. The second option is maintaining status quo. Rates of infection will jump and unintended pregnancies will rise, Jajeeboy adds.

Notably, India already has the dubious distinction of being global leader in teenage pregnancy. Around the world, there are some 16 million girls under the age of 18 years giving birth every year. Almost four million of them are in India. Granted, adolescent pregnancies in India are culturally complicated, given the incidence of child marriage and therefore,early child bearing.  study found that approximately 1 in 615 to 19-year-olds , "have already given birth or become pregnant, and about half of India's total fertility rate was attributable to those aged 15-24. "nonetheless, early child bearing poses significant b health risks for mother and baby-young teenage bodies are not mature enough to bear children-and maternal mortality rates are high. But facts are facts-Reflecting a trend seen all over urban India, the city of Gurgaon, near Delhi is seeing a marked rise in cases of adolescent girls seeking abortions at government hospitals but then vanishing when asked to return with parents. These are the young women who end up in the back street clinics.

Public health experts promote contraception as protection against unintended pregnancies but it is not easily available in rural areas and where it is available, in the towns and cities, young Indians are either of embarrassed to ask for for it or do not know what to ask for. Because of lack of sex education ignorance is rife. A majority of young Indians do not use use protection during their first sexual encounter.. At the same time as with any country that is developing rapidly, sexual patterns are changing and premartial sexual activity is increasing Globally, women are not getting the contraceptives they need. The number of women with an unmet need for family planning is projected to grow from 900 million three years ago to 962 million by 2015. This increase, researchers, have noted will be driven by most developing countries. studies have shown that 82 percent of unintended pregnancies in developing countries occur among women "who have an unmet need for modern contraceptives." Still there are some glimmers of hopes. a study last year estimated that 272,000 maternal facilities around the world prevented by contraceptive use and that India accounted for nearly a third of averted deaths. But the fact remains that India is home to the most maternal deaths in the world and that 50 percent of those fatalities are in the 19 to 24-year-old age group. With these sorts of numbers, sex education, contraception and greater health -care spending are simply desirable !


SOURCES: THE WHO, THE WORLD POPULATION DAY, UNO ,THE ASIAN TIMES, GOVT OF INDIA HEALTH MINISTRY  (Detailed  facts on all these websites and their achieves)

'"MID-DAY MEAL OR MID-DAY DEATH" Scheme: Chapra tragedy results of mismanagement and Corruption !

Very sad ! It is "MID-DAY-MEAL (MDM)" or MID-DAY DEATH (MDD)" in Bihar. In many places in the country, particularly in Bihar, the MDM has turned into MDD because of corruption and mismanagement of the affairs of the scheme by respective state governments, which  are implementing authorities. In mismanaging the affairs and corrupt practices in its implementation, less said is better in Bihar . DEATHS of 27 school children in village Gandaman in Saran district, just a neighbourhood village where the first President of India Dr Rajendra Prasad was born and brought up, of Bihar in India after eating poisonous food  is worse tragedy and has turned into a full blown national crisis. The so called MDM, a policy conceived and  launched by India government throughout the country to improve nutrition and school attendance. recent outrageous deaths in Bihar have caused global outrage. Riots had broken out in entire Chapra district with distraught parents and relatives wrecking school kitchen and torching vehicles while the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar tried to insinuate that it is a political conspiracy to destabilise them in election year.Postmortems indicate the cause may have been adulterated cooking oil. This is terrible tragedy-awful, avoidable, unconscionable.


Instead of stern measures to streamline the scheme, the Bihar government continued in blame game-while its principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha shamelessly declining the statement of the union HRD minister M M Pallam Raju that Bihar government has been alerted Bihar government about irregularities like unhygienic food in MDM scheme specially in 12 districts of Bihar including Saran because of certain shortcomings in the implementation of the programme. Amarjeet Sinha, however, said, " for now this is confirmed that the oil used to prepare the meal was the major and immediate reasons behind the tragedy." The height of shamelessly shameness on the part of Sinha is that he had publicly told that no advisory had been received by Bihar government-now the question arises-who is liar Union HRD minister or  Principal Secretary of Bihar's HRD department ? Not only that Bihar's HRD MInister P K Sahi, who is protege of Nitish Kumar, is throwing blame game on opposition parties including BJP and RJD by declaring openly that there is political conspiracy behind the tragedy to defame CM Nitish Kumar. The inefficiency and callousness of Bihar government could also be gaused with a recent report that the Bihar government had returned to the Centre Rs 462.78 crore meant to built mid-day meal kitchen and buy utensils to serve cooked meals because Bihar government failed miserably to float tenders for the purpose, resulting into meal is prepared in open sky or in dingy rooms of respective schools.

There are diverse opinions about the utility of the MDM scheme because of harsh reality is that food provided to children all over the country, particularly Bihar, is often substandard and sometimes not even fit for human consumption. Snakes and worms have been reported in Mid-Day Meals and adulteration has been said to take place as well. A report has said that at another place in Bihar 15 children had been reported ill, after a lizard was suspected to have fallen into their lunch., the next day of Chapra tragedy Such reports have become very common in many states of the country. In Maharashtra, 31 children contracted gastroenteritis after consuming their school meals. A few days back , such report has also come from Tamil Nadu. One section of the society were of the opinion that MDM scheme should be delinked from the school management and may be handled by a separate government agency while another sections are of the views that result of MDM scheme results are not very encouraging-hence an alternative arrangements must be made to save the children from malnutrition as well as to encourage poor children for education !

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme was introduced to ensure that a hot cooked lunch would be provided to government supported schools. The meal was meant to contain at least 300 calories per child, with 8-10 gram of proteins. The policy was initially welcomed as it would mean that the children, many of whom come from the most vulnerable sections of society, might attend school because of it and also receive some much-needed nutrition. It is estimated that approximately 100 million school children are fed through the scheme. But, unfortunately, the leakage an d corruption in the system are said to be equally as large.

According to various studies in selected districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh; only 75 percent of the requisitioned food is usually doled out to the children. There are also issues of cleanliness. Often the cook hired for a task is some time not paid for months at a time. Even in particularly impoverished areas of Mumbai, school teachers have found that the children resist eating the food, because it is poor in quality.

A few years back, aware of the constant complaints, the central government had thought of replacing the hot food with prepackaged meals. But there have been instances when even biscuits given to the children have made them dangerously ill. Despite  all of this, for some peculiar reasons, the government has not taken into account the views of the scheme's stakeholders: the children who are recipients of all this deadly state-run charity.

The recent MDM scheme tragedy in  Saran district of Bihar has peculiar story.. Children started complaining of stomach pain while eating food, the school headmistress allegedly snubbed them and rather forced them to finish the meal. She is now evading arrest along with her husband. Notably death figures rose by mani-fold because there were no medical  facilities in and around the school on Chapra. Many children died on the way to Chapra Sadar hospital and Patna Medical College Hospital in the state headquarters in Patna. In Bihar medical system is also in disarray, you will find seldom hospitals in rural areas of Bihar and doctors also, thanks to lackadaisical approach of Nitish government !

Nitish Kumar, who claims good governance in Bihar and getting laurels throughout the country, is yet to speak about the gravity of tragedy. Kumar, however, announced freebies of a sum Rs two lakh each for every family of a child that has died,. The facts remain that these underprivileged children have become victims of these free school meals, rather than beneficiaries.

More over the problem in India is that both in acquisition as well as in the delivery mechanism corruption is rampant. Most of the food is acquired from the Food Corporation of India, also in spotlight for its less than satisfactory role in in the Public Distribution System , which provides rationed grains at subsidised rates to those who live below poverty line. Now the government is getting ready to launch food security A ordinance, w under which over 67 percent of the population will receive food every month at highly subsidised rates, it is not sure how corruption free manner it will ever ensure a corruption free system where the food actually reaches to the targeted people who need it most. Can the government ensure food's quality ? Even in Mid-DAy meal, there is little evidences to suggest that school children are actually getting any nutritional value from it all !

But another set of an essay in The Guardian, written by  Abhijeet Singh, Research officer, Oxford University, Department of International Development and a doctoral student of Economics, has different opinion about MDM in India. He says Chapra tragedy is urgent topic for soul searching about neglect of basic services in India, particularly among political classes. Singh is opposite to the opinion of Kishwat Desai's essay on Chapra tragedy and unsuccessful handling of MDM scheme in India, particularly in Bihar ! Singh's essay, particularly the tragedy in Bihar and scheme 's success, gives possitive impression. For this assertion, Singh has quoted Farzana Afridi of Indian Statistical Instituter's. there have been large benefits of the scheme . In a paper in the Journal of Development Economics, She says, " at the cost of between 1.44 cents to 3.04 cents per child per school day the  scheme improved nutritional intakes by reducing the daily protein deficiency of a primary school student by 100 percent, the calorie deficiency by almost 30 percent and the daily iron deficiency by nearly 10 percent."

In a paper in the Journal of Development Studies, she found that attendance rate of girls in grade one rose by 12 percentage points because of meals. Rashri Jayaraman and Dora Simroth at the European School of Management and Technology In Berlin said enrolment went up substantially as a result of the introduction of school meals, similar to evidence reported in other studies. In yet another recent paper co-authored with Stefan Dercon and Albert Park, forthcoming in Economic Development and Cultural Change in the Oxford university Singh found that children  whose households experienced droughts when they were very young (under two years) had higher levels of malnourishment but if they had since been enrolled in a government school, the meals compensated for the early nutritional deficits-put simply, there was no physical evidence of worse nutrition by the  time they were aged five to six years compared with children who had not experienced drought. In a country with high child nutrition and with agriculture often at the mercy of the monsoon rains, these are encouraging results there are other effects possible that are less easily quantified: on every school day, million of school children, from different castes and religions , eat  meals from the same pot together-in a socially stratified society, this cannot be seen as being anything but good for social equality. Mid-day meals, which reach about 120 million children every school day, are probably the most successful of all interventions in education that the Indian state delivered in the past decades. On any school day, a quarter of teachers are absent from government schools, only 45 percent of those in school are teaching but in 87 percent of schools, a hot meal is served, Singh commented.

The Chapra tragedy has given signal to various state governments, particularly Bihar government as well as Union HRD ministry and govt for better monitoring and control to save the noble MDM scheme from mismanagement and corruption !

"USA, A CRIMINAL THUGS AND PAKISTAN. A FAILED STATE", Says Judicial panel on Abbottabad raid and killing of OSAMA bin LADEN.

IS  UNITED STATES OF AMERICA  acts like "criminal thugs ? Is PAKISTAN  withering away as "dyfunctionmal institutions" ? Both these big questions have been proved beyond doubt with the leaking of the report of the Abbottabad commission, probing the circumstances leading to the USA's NAVY SEAL raids in killing the world's most wanted man-OSAMA bin Laden- to al-Jazeera. While both Pakistan and USA have been facing much more criticism over the report of the commission, headed by a judge of the Pakistan Supreme Court and comprising three military and police officers thievery in raiding Pakistan territory without any information to the Pakistan government  by  American raiders and Pakistan government's notorious military intelligence apparatus-ISI- and police and civil machinery's failure to track the dreaded bin Laden, who was living in the military areas of Abbottabad for over six years.The commission was entrusted to trace the lapses of the Pakistan government as well as USA's unwanted raid of the sovereignty of the Pakistan by raiding and killing bin Laden in Abbottabad on the night of May 02, 2011.

Before I refer in detail the report of the commission, I must mention that I had written an essay on my blog-JINX of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein continues to haunt America and Europe!-August 28, 2012 and another one-Why This Hate Campaign against Muslims of the World-October 16, 2012- www.kksingh1.blogspot.com  And also some backgrounders about bin Lasen. Osama bin Laden, the man who has struck terror in the hearts of Americans, the man, who has dared to take on the might of the greatest super power, continued to remain a mystery and  enigma for the world today !

 Osama bin Laden was a dissident Saudi businessman, who had amassed a fortune in oil and construction business with his family fortune estimated at $ 5 billion  during early 1990s of which he has access to an estimated $300 million. A graduate of Riyadh University's management economics department, he saw himself as a model businessman. but later on his products had been terrorists around the globe. Till his killing bin Laden enjoyed the unenviable position of being hated by one part of the globe and at the same time being worshipped by another part. Osama, who was once referred as "KING OF TERROR", had once declared jihad-a holy war- on America ! His extensive Al-Qaeda network had spread over 35 countries in the world

. On September 11, 2001, terrorists dealt a devastating blow to the United States of America. They hijacked four air crafts of the United and American Airlines at roughly the same time. Two of them were used to hit and destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, the symbol of American capitalist power. One was used to hit and destroy  a third of the Pentagon in Washington, a symbol of America military might. The fourth one apparently aimed At the White House or the Capitol, symbols of American democracy, failed to reach their destination and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. It was said that such attacks were worse in the century and greater blow than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. All  suicide attackers, who carried the hijacking and attack, were trained  as pilots in aviation schools within the US so that they could take over from pilots of the air crafts, which they had hijacked under the precision  and planning of bin Laden !

The then President of USA George W. Bush , who had vowed to smoke out Osama and his Al-Queda group and get them dead and alive, could not succeed but his successor Obama not only traced out the hide-out of Osama in Pakistan but raided and killed him and his body was cremated at an unknown destination in the sea. Today in the world, Osama had been killed but his Al-queda network of terrorists are still spreading terror in many parts of the globe. Laden had publicly issued  his "Declaration of war" against the United States in August 1996.. Osama bin Laden was one of the 53 children of the Saudi construction magnate Muhammad Awad Bin Laden. His mother was reportedly a Palestinian and the least favoured of his father's ten wives. After his holy war against Soviets in 1979 in Afghanistan on the secret support of the USA ,It is said that USA had spent $500 million per year to arm and train the impoverished and outgunned mujaheddin guerrillas of Laden to fight the Soviet Union.

Finally, Laden was shifted to safe haven in Afghanistan by Talibans. From there Bin Laden had spread  his extensive international network to effective use. Bin Laden told Qatar's Al-Jageera television in a rare interview in 1999 that even when he was on the same side as the United States-fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan-he always "hated the Americans because they are against Muslims...... We did not want the US support in Afghanistan, but we just happened to be fighting the same enemy" Following intensive hunts of Laden in mountain range of Afghanistan, Laden crossed to Pakistan border and aided and abetted by Pakistan military, secret service-ISI- and Pakistan government, Laden built a house in Abbottabad and started living there as an ordinary fellow but actively working through couriers.

Now the report of Abbattobad commission, which made startling revelation about the dreaded terrorist and connivance of Pakistan authorities.The 336-page report has said, " it is glaring testimony to the collective incompetence and negligence, at the very least, of the security and intelligence community in the Abbottabad areas", which criticised the Pakistan's military spy agency, the Inter-Service l Intelligence directorate (ISI) for having proximity "closed the book" on Bin Laden in 2005.. Nor does the 336 page report rule out the possibility of involvement by rogue Pakistan 's intelligence agency officers, who have been accused of deliberately shielding bin Laden by some commentators. Given the length of stay and the changes of residence of (Bin Laden) and his family in Pakistan......the possibility of some some such direct or indirect and "plausible deniable" support cannot be ruled out, at least, at some level outside formal structures of the intelligence establishments.". It warns that the influence of radical Islamists inside the armed forces had been "underestimated by senior military officials whom the commission met."

Notably, the report of the commission's documents reflect official fury at the behaviour of the USA. It adds the US " acted like a criminal thug" when it sent the special forces or Navy Seal raiding party into Pakistan territory. The report further says, " the  incident was a "national tragedy" because of the "illegal manner in which (Bin Laden) was killed along with three Pakistani citizens". It says the operation on May two, 2011 night was an" American act of war against Pakistan", which illustrated the US's "contemptuous disregard of Pakistan sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in the arrogant certainty of its unmatched military might".

In addition to its scorching criticism of Pakistan institutions, the documents also points out begun soon after dramatic US raid, the judge-led enquiry by the Abbottabad commission heard testimony from some of the country's most important players including the ISI chief, Ahmad Suja Pasha (now retired), who shared much of the authors' despair about Pakistan, warning that "it is failing state". In remarks that will be seized on by critics of the CIA's use of drone strikes against suspected militants inside Pakistan, Pasha admitted to a "political understanding"on the issue between Islamabad and the USA-something Pakistan has officially denied. Pasha said there were no written agreements, and that Pakistan did subsequently attempt to stop drone attacks but added that "it was easier to say no to them at the beginning". Pasha was very much critical of the quality of Pakistan's civilian leadership, accusing his nominal boss, the defence minister, of failing to have read "the basic documents concerning defence policy There was simply no culture of reading among the political leadership and thinking process was non-existence."

The report also includes much more criticism  of the US, in particular its CIA for its failure to share intelligence fully with ISI. At one point of time,the CIA  gave Pakistan the phone numbers to monitor that would ultimately help identify Laden's personal courier-the all important lead that eventually brought  the manhunt to al-Qaida chief's Abbottabad home. The CIA never explained the significance of the phone numbers and the ISI failed to properly monitor them.The Guardian, quoting al-Jageeera, said that but in striking echo of US unwillingness to share intelligence with its Pakistani partners, Pasha also said the ISI was reluctant to work with Pakistan's own law enforcement organisations because "there were too many instances where information shared with the police had been compromised". It may be mentioned here that with passing of time Pasha has become strong defender of Laden and has said to a TV channel that he was hero of Islam

The report suggests that his evidence highlights the ISI's distrust of and anger at the CIA, which Pasha claimed deliberately prevented Pakistan from claiming the glory for finding Laden, which he said would have improved Pakistan's international reputation. The "main agenda CIA was to have the ISI declared a terrorist organisation" he is quoted as saying. Pasha reports the words of a US spy: "your are so cheap.......we can buy with a visa, with a visit to the USA, even with a dinner......we can but anyone."

The report asks whether the ISI had been compromised by CIA spies. One lieutenant colonel who "disappeared" with his family the day after the Abbottabad raid a profile that " matched that of a likely CIA recruits."The document repeatedly returns to what it describes as "'government implosion syndrome" to explain the failure of any institution to investigate Laden's unusual hideout.The report further says, "how the entire neighbourhood, local officials, police and security and intelligence officials all missed the size, the strange shape, the barbed wire, the lack of cars and visitors.....over a period of nearly six years beggars belief."

Significantly, the report notes in disgust that the house was even declared uninhabited in an official survey of the area even though 26 people were living there at a time. The documents also gives fascinating glimpse into the day -to-day life of Laden: according to account given to the Abbottbad judicial panel by his wives, he wore a wide-brimmed cowboy hat to avoid detection from spy satellites above, liked to have an  apple and a bit of chocolate  to perk himself up when he was feeling weak, and encouraged his grandchildren to compete over who could tend best vegetable patch. The children  one  of Laden's trusted Pakistan couriers knew him as "Miskeen kaka" or "poor uncle"-after one asked why the tall Arab never went out on shopping expedition, the child was told he was too poor to buy anything. In tantalising moment when the car of Laden was riding in was stopped by police in the picturesque region of Swat. The policemen was not quick-witted enough to spot the then clean shaven bin Laden and the group were allowed to pass.

Moreover the report further point out that Laden must have required a support network "that could not possibly his couriers, security guards have been confined to the two Pasthun brothers, who worked as  his couriers, security guards and general factotums." While expressing concern over non-existence of effective intelligence agency to contact, infiltrate or co-opt them and to develop a whole caseload of information, the report voices shock over US helicopters carrying members of Navy Seal team of six were not spotted as they swooped in over Abbatobad on May two night. A lack of operational radar meant the Pakistani  Air Force only became aware of the attack from media reports after it was over ! Thus report concluded that Pakistan failed to detect Osama bin Laden during six years he hid in Abbottobad because of the "collective incompetence and negligence of the country's intelligence and security forces.


SOURCES: al-Jazeera news  website, a book-Osama bin Laden: King of Terror or Saviour of Islam ?, written by Luis S R Vas, The Guardian, The Time weekly websites.

GAYA TEROR ATTACK MAY BE RESULT OF ATROCITY ON MUSLIMS BY BUDDHIST MONKS ?

Today the entire globe is shamed ! There have been series of bomb explosion to damage the Boddh-Gaya  or Gaya , Buddhist monasteries  or Gaya in Bihar in India, about over 100 kms from the Bihar's capital-Patna,  where the incarnation of the Almighty, Siddhartha Gautam, the Buddha, 2500 years ago got enlightenment under a "Boddhi (PEEPAL) tree to spread compassion, peace, kindness, non-violence throughout the planet.There are many theories of attacking the Buddhist monasteries  by the "terrorists or extremists or militants "? But could we not call it a bloat on the man-kind ?

Siddharth Gautam would have never imagined that his "apostle of peace" will turn into violence instead of peace and compassion. Perhaps because of his such hunch, Gautam after getting "enlightenment", had gone to Sarnath, in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh , to begin his pious journey of preaching  his message of peace and compassion to the world. Boddh-Gaya or Gaya, which has historical importance since ancient days, and  , has been always considered , a region of feudalism and violence since the early days of the ancient period. It is based in MAGADH zone where only ruthless kings and kingdoms existed. The notoriety of Magadh is also described in  famous, well-known and mythological book-Shree Ramcharit Manas, written by TULSI DAS, while depicting the noble character of 'RAM, and his "RAM-RAJYA". A verse in the book says, " Lagahi kumukh bachan subh kaise, Magahn (Magadh) nawadik tirath jaise; Ramanhi matu bachan sab bhaye, jimi surasari gat salil suhaye- ( Step motherof  Ram-Kakeiye's speaking resembles like notorious place Magadh where sacred 'Gaya 'exists ).  Gaya or Boddh-Gaya  has at least two golden feathers in its cap in ancient and historical parameters ! Apart from Buddhist shrines ,the Boddh=Gaya is also famous and well-known for the "VISHNUPAD TEMPLE" for Hindu worship. This temple is visited by Hindu pilgrims for the performances of 'pindaddan' rituals for the final salvation of their ancestors' souls. Hindu during the rainy season , well before  Durga puja, come from different parts of the world for this performances.

Terror attacks and serial bomb blasts, although, could not make  major damages to the Buddhist shrines of thousands years-old Boddhi (Peepal tree) under which Buddha got enlightenment, but it has sent strong signals for the followers of Buddhist religion ! Again , I must put it probably, the recent happenings of damage of Buddhist shrines in Afghanistan and Middle east by Muslims as well as Buddhist monks, spreading terror and atrocity against Muslims in Burma (now Myanmar) , Thailand, Sri Lanka and other Buddhist-dominated countries in  Asia have been root cause of terror attacks and serial bomb blasts.Instead of spreading peace, compassion, non-violence, the Buddhist monks are indulging in violence and terror activities Forgetting Gautam Buddha's preachings in Gaya or Boddh-Gaya in Buddhist shrine a few days back. I must point out series of facts on Buddhist monks' terror attacks against Muslims- (MY blog essays- Dalai Lama has failed failed Buddha's teachings of compassion, peace , happiness by encouraging self-immolation in Tibet- May 25, 2013, Why this hate campaign against Muslim of the world ?- October 16, 2012;  Buddhism:What a wonderful religion in the world !- July 06, 2012 -www.kksingh1.blogspot.com ). Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru, in his Discovery of India, has written, "Buddhism has started at the time of soul and spiritual revival in INdia-it infused the breath of new life........................"

 A few months back, THE TIME INTERNATIONAL EDITION, had carried cover story on The Face of Buddhist Terror, depicting that straying from the middle way, extremist Buddhist Monks target religious minorities! It is proper to highlight the Buddhist terror tactics against Muslims, which might have resulted into terror attacks and serial bomb blasts in Bodh-Gaya, one of the most important places in the globe for the followers of Buddhism.

Buddhist monks' shaven heads and richly hued monastic robes; the swirls of incense; the pure expressions of devotees to a religion whose first precept is "do not kill" are being marred by radical strains that marries spirituality with ethnic chauvinism. In Buddhist-majority Burma, where communal clashes have proliferated over the past year, scores of Muslims have been killed by Buddhist mobs, while in Thailand and Sri Lanka, the fabric binding temple and state is being stitched ever tighter.

The godfather of radical Buddhism is a monk named  U Wirathu, a slight presence with an out sized message of hate, who has taken the title of "Burmese bin Laden" around Mandalay in central Burma, as he preached his loathing of the country;s Muslims minority to school children and housewives alike. In March, tension detonated in the town of Meikhtila where communal violence ended dozen of lives, mostly Muslims.Entire Muslim quarters were razed by Buddhists hordes. Even today, anxiety churns. Muslim Rohingyas in Rakhine state in the west of Burma were subjected, once again, to atrocities by Buddhists and security forces. Last year alone, at least 192 people were killed and 1,40, 000 rendered homeless.An estimated 8,00,000 Rohingyas live in Rakhine state. Many of them remain in camps which they are not allowed to leave. Burma's heroic freedom fighter for freedom Aung San Sau Kyi, who also appears to tell some thing about the atrocity of Buddhist monks on Muslims, simply said she was for the "rule of law", that is she is for virtue and against sin. However, She criticised the district government's policy to limit Rohingya families to two children-"this is against human right".

In southern Thailand, which was once united as a Muslims Malay sultanate, monks count on solders to shield them from harm.a  separatist insurgency has claimed around 5,000 lives since 2004 and while more Muslims have died, it is Buddhists who feel particularly vulnerable as targets of shadowy militants. Wirathu, who is an abbot in the New Maesoeeyin in monastery, leading over 60 monks and having influence over 2,500 residing there, the Burmese bin Laden begins his sermon, inciting monks for communal clashes.. According to the THE TIMES  International cover story on Buddhist terror, in the reckoning of international extremism-Hindu nationalists, Muslim militants, fundamentalists Christians, ultra-Orthodox Jews- Buddhism has largely escaped trial. To much of the world, it is synonymous with non-violence and loving kindness, concept propagated by Siddharth Gautam, the Buddha, 2,500 years ago. But like adherents of any religion, Buddhists and their holy men are not  immune to politics and on occasion, the lure of sectarian chauvinism............"

When  Asia rose up against empire and oppression, Buddhist monks, with their moral command and plentiful numbers, led anti-colonial movements. Some starved themselves for their causes, their sunken flesh and protruding ribs underlining their sacrifices of  for the laity. Perhaps most iconic is the image of Thich Quang, a Vietnamese monk sitting in the lotus position, wrapped in flames, as he burned to death in Saigon while protesting the repressive South Vietnamese regime 50 years ago. In 2007, Buddhist monks led a foiled democratic uprising in Burma:image of columns of clerics bearing upturned alms bowls, marching peacefully in protest against the "janata", earned sympathy around the world, if not from the soldiers who slaughtered them. But where social activism end and political militancy begins ?  Every region can be twisted into destructive forces poisoned by ideas that are antithetical to its foundations. Now it is Buddhism turn !

Over the past year in Buddhist-majority Burma, scores if not hundreds, have been killed in  communal clashes, with Muslims suffering the most causalities. Burmese monks were seen goading on Buddhist mobs , while some support the authorities of having stoked the violence-a charge the country's new quashi-civilians government denies. In Sri Lanka, where a conservative, pro-Buddhist government reigns, Buddhist nationalist groups are operating with apparent impunity, looting Muslims and Christian establishments and calling for restrictions to be placed on the nine percent of the country that is Muslims. Meanwhile Thailand's deep sea, where a Muslim insurgency has claimed some 5,000 lives since 2004, desperate Buddhist clerics are retreating into their temples with Thai soldiers at their side. Their fear is understandable. But the close relationship between temple and the state ifs further dividing this already anxious region.

As the violence mounts, will Buddhists draw inspiration from their faith's sutras of compassion and peace to counter religious chauvinism ? Or will they succumb to the hate speech of radical monks like Burma's Wirathu, who goads his followers to rise up against Islam? The world's judgements awaits ! Apart from that good sense prevails ion Buddhist Guru Dalai Lama to stop encouraging Tibetans for self-immolation to protest Chinese presence in Tibet. Can compassion, non-violence not win Chinese for suitable welfare measures for Tibetans 'And Dalai Lama must initiate process for peaceful dialogues with China ?

With these developments, my hunch goes that Gaya terror attack might be result of Muslims terrorists anger against atrocity on fellow -Muslims by Buddhist monks in different parts of the world !

THREAT TO LIFE ON THE EARTH VIS-A-VIS THE EARTH IS ITSELF THREATENED

Is life facing real threat on the EARTH ? If population level continues to rise at the current rate, our grand children will see the Earth plunged into an unprecedented environmental crisis ! This startling fact has come to light in a well-known well-researched book- TEN BILLION, written by the Computational Scientist Stephen Emott. I got a chance to see the book at a glance and complete review of the book in The Guardian. Apart from describing the real facts, prevailing on the Earth, the writer has enumerated various problems, being faced by the people on the globe!  Notable among those are climate problems and growing population responsible for large scale of deforestation as well as water crisis.

Earth is home to millions of species. Just one dominates it. Us.Our cleverness, our inventiveness and our activities have modified almost every part of our planet. If fact we are having a profound impact on it. Indeed, our cleverness, our inventiveness and our activities are now the drivers of every global problems we face. And every one of these problems is accelerating .. In fact, the writer says, "   I believe we can rightly call the situation we are in right now an emergency-an unprecedented planetary emergency. We human emerged as a species about 200,000 years ago, there were one million of us . In geological time, that is really incredibly recently.y 1800, just 10,000 years ago, there were one million of us.. By 1960, just over 50  years ago, there were three  billion of us.. There are now over seven billion of us. By 2050, your children's children, will living on a planet with at least nine billion other people. Some time towards the end of this century, there will be at least 10 billion of us.Possibly more." (My Blog essay: "The World as '100';Christians  dominate the globe- Muslims come second-May 30, 2013-www.kksingh1.blogspot.com).

" we got to where we are now through a number of civilisation-and society shaping events, most notably the agricultural revolution, the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution and in the west-the public-health revolution. By 1980, there were five billion of us. By this point initial signs of the consequences of our growth were starting to show. Not the least of these was on water.our demand for water-not just the water we drank but the water we needed for food production and to make all the stuff we are consuming-was going through the roof. But some thing was starting to happen to water.......

In 1984 , journalists reported from Ethiopia about a famine of biblical proportions caused by widespread drought. Unusual drought and unusual flooding was increasing everywhere:Australia,Asia, and the US and the Europe.  (My blog essay: "Hunger looming large over Globe"- June 19, 2012-www.kksingh1.blogspot.com) . Water, a vital resource we had thought as abundant, was now suddenly something that had the potential to be scarce.

GLOBAL WARMING:  By 2000 there were six billion of us. It was becoming clear to the world's scientific community that the accumulation of CO2 methane and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere-as a result of increasing agriculture, land use and production, processing and transportation of everything we are consuming-was changing the climate. And that as a result, we had a serious problem on our hands: 1998 had been the warmest year on the record. The ten warmest years on record have occurred since 1998........"we hear the term climate every day, so it is worth thinking about what we actually mean by it. Obviously, climate is not the same as weather. The climate is one of the Earth's fundamental life support system, one that determines whether or not we humans are able to live on this planet. It is generated by four components: the atmosphere (the air we breathe); the hydrosphere (the planet's water); the cryosphere (the ice sheets and glasciries); the biosphere (the planet's plants and animals). By now, our activities had started to modify everyone  of these components...............

......Our emissions of CO2 modify our atmosphere. Our increasing water use had started to modify our hdrosphere'. Rising atmospheric and sea-surface temperature had started to modify the cyosphere, most notably in the unexpected shrinking of the Arctic and Greenland ice sheets. Our increasing use of land for agriculture, cities, roads , mining -as well as all the pollution we are creating-had started to modify our biosphere. Or , to put it another way:we had started to change our climate......There are now more than seven billion of us on Earth. As our numbers continue to grow, we continue to increase our need for far more water, far more food, far more land, far more transport and far more energy. As a result, we are accelerating the rate at which we are changing our climate. In fact our activities are not only completely interconnected..

CLIMATE  PROBLEM: Moreover the emerging climate problem is entirely on different scale. The problem is that we may well be heading towards a number of critical tipping points in the global climate system. There is politically agreed global targets-driven by the Integrated Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)-to limit the global average temperature rise to 2C. The rationale for this target is that a rise above 2C carries a significant risk of catastrophic climate change that would almost certainly lead to irreversible planetary tipping points, caused by events such as melting of the Greenland ice shelf, the release of frozen methane deposits from Arctic tundra or die back of the Amazon. In fact, the two are happening now-at below the 2C threshold.

As for the third, we are not waiting for climate change to do this: we are doing it right now through deforestation. And recent research shows that we look certain to be heading for a larger rise in global average temperatures than 2C-a far larger size. It is now very likely that we are looking at a future global average rise of 4C-wand we cannot rule out a rise of 6C. This will be absolutely catastrophic. It will lead to runaway climate change, capable of tipping the planet into an entirely different state, rapidly. Earth Will become a hellhole. In the decades along the way, we will witness unprecedented extremes in weather, fires, floods, heatwaves, loss of crops and forest, water stress and catastrophic sea-level rise. Large part of Africa will become permanent disaster areas. The Amazon could be turned into savannah or even desert. and the entire agriculture system will be faced with an unprecedented threat.

More fortunate countries such as the UK,the USA and most of Europe may well look like something approaching militarised countries with heavily defended border controls designed to prevent millions of people from entering, people who are on the move because their own country is no longer habitable or has insufficient water and food or is experiencing conflict over increasingly scarce resources. These people will be climate migrants. The term climate migrants is one we will increasingly to have to get used to. Indeed, anyone who thinks that the emerging global state of affairs does not have great potential for civil and international conflict is deluding themselves. It is coincidence that almost every scientific conference that I go to about climate change now has a new type of attendee: the military.

WATER USE:  ........there are increasing aspect of water use.:hidden water. Hidden water is water used to produce things we consume but typically do not think of as containing water. Such things include chicken, beef, cotton, cars, chocolate and mobile phones. For example: it takes around 3,000 liters of water to produce burger a burger. In 2012 around five billion burgers were consumed in the UK alone. That is 15 trillion liters of waters-on burgers. Just in the UK. Some thing like 14 billion burgers were consumed in the United States in 2012. That is around 42 trillion liters of water. To produce burgers in the US. In  one year, it takes around 9,000 liters of water to produce a chicken. In the UK alone we consumed around one billion chickens in 2012. It takes around 27,000 liters of water to produce one kilo gram of chocolate. That is roughly 2,700 liters of water per bar of chocolate. 

This should be surely be something to think about while you are curled up ion a sofa eating it in your payjama as there is bad news of pyjamas. Cotton pyjamas take 9,000 liters of water to produce. And it takes 100 liters of water to produce a cup of coffee. And that is before any water has actually been added to your coffee. We probably drank about 20 billion cups of coffee last year in the UK. And- irony of ironies-it takes something like four liters of water to produce a one-litre plastic bottle of water. Last year, in the UK alone, we bought, drank and threw away nine billion plastic water bottles. That is 36 billion liters of water, used completely unnecessarily. Water wasted to produce bottles-for water. And it takes around 72,000 liters of water to produce one of the chips that typically powers your laptops, Sat Nav, phone, iPad and your car. In short, we are consuming water, like food, at a rate that is completely unsustainable.

LAND FOR FOOD:  Demand for land for food is going to double--at least- by 2050 and triple-at least-by the end of this century. This means that pressure to clear many of the world's remaining tropical rain forests for human use is going to intensify every decade because this is predominantly the only available land that is left for expanding agriculture at scale. Unless Siberia-thaws out before we finish deforestation. By 2050 one billion hectare of land is likely to be cleared to meet rising food demands from growing population. (My blog essay: World-wide poverty alarm man-kind- September seven 2011 and Poverty and starvation deaths-July 10, 2011-www.kksingh1.blogspot.com ) 

This is an area greater than US.a nd accompanying this will be three gaga tons per year extra CO2 emissions. If Siberia does thaw out before we finish our deforestation, it will result in a vast amount of new land being available for agriculture as well as opening up a very rich source of minerals, metals, oil and gas, In the process this would almost certainly completely change global geopolitics. Siberia thawing would turn Russia into remarkable economic and political;l force this century because of its newly uncovered minerals, agricultural and energy resources. It would also  inevitably be accompanied by vast stores pf methane-currently sealed under the Siberian permafrost tundra-being released, greatly accelerating our climate problems even further.

Notably, another three billion people are going to need somewhere to live. By 2050, 70 percent of us are going to be living in cities.. This century will see the rapid expansion of cities as well as the emergence of entirely new cities that do not yet exist. It is worth mentioning that of the 19 Brazilian cities that have doubled in population in the past decades, ten are in Amazon. All this is going to use yet more land. (My blog-64 million urban population in major cities live in slums-March 26, 2013-www.kksingh1.blogspot.com)

Currently the globe has no means of being able to feed 10 billion of us at our current rate of consumption and with our current agriculture system. Indeed, simply to feed our selves in the next  40 years, we will need to produce more food than the entire agricultural output of the past 10,000 years combined. Yet food productivity productivity is set to decline, possibly very sharply, over the coming decades due to : climate change; soil degradation and desertification-both of which are increasing rapidly in many parts of the world; and water stress. By the end of this century, large parts of the planet will not have any usable water. 

POLLUTION &DISEASES:At the same time, the global shipping and airline sectors are projected to continue to expand rapidly every year, transporting more of us and more of the stuff we want to consume, around the planet year on year. That is going to cause enormous problems for us in terms of more CO2 emissions, more black carbon and more pollution for mining and processing to make all this stuff. In transporting this stuff all over the planet, we are also creating a highly efficient network for the global spread of potentially catastrophic diseases. 

There is a global pandemic just 95 years ago-the Spanish flu pandemic, which is now estimated to have killed up to 100 million people. And that is before one of our more questionable innovation-the the budget airline-was invented. The combination of millions of people travelling around the world every day, plus millions more people living in extremely close proximity to igs and poultry-often in the same room, making a new virus jumping the species barrier more likely-means we are increasing, significantly, the probability of a new global pandemic. So no wonder then that epidemiologists increasingly agree that a new global pandemic is now matter of when not if.

ENERGY OUTPUT: It is expected to have triple-at least energy production by the end of this century to meet expected demands. To meet that demand, we will need to build, roughly speaking, something like: 1800 of world's largest dams or 23,000 nuclear power stations, 14 m wind turbines, 36bn solar panels or just keep going with predominantly oil, coal and gas-and build the 36,000 new power stations that means we will need. Our existing oil, coal and gas reserves alone are worth trillion of dollars. Are governments and the world's major oil, coal and gas companies-some of the most influential corporations on Earth-really going to decide to leave the money in the ground as demand for energy increases relentlessly ? Three is doubt !

OPTIONS AND SOLUTION:  A planet of ten billion look like a nightmare !  The only solution left to us is to change our behaviours, radically and globally on every level. In short, we urgently need to consume less. A lot less. Radially less. And we need to conserve more. A lot more. To accomplish such a radical change in  behaviour would also need radical government action. But as far as this kind of change is concerned, politicians are currently part of the problem not part of the solution because the decisions that need to be taken to implement significant behaviour change inevitably make politicians very unpopular-as they are too aware.

So What politicians have opted for instead is failed diplomacy. For example: The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, whose job it has been for 20 years to ensure the stabilisation of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere: Failed. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification, whose job it has been for 20 years to stop land degrading and becoming desert:Failed. The Convention on Biological Diversity, whose job it has been for 20 years to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss: Failed. those are only three examples of failed global initiatives. The list is depressingly long one. And the way government justify this level of inaction is by exploiting public opinion and scientific uncertainty. It used to be a case of, " we need to wait for science to prove climate change happening". This is how beyond doubt. So now it is, "we need scientists to be able to tell to us what the impact will be and the costs" And "we need to wait for public opinion to get behind action" But climate models will never be free from uncertainties And as for public opinion, politicians feel remarkably free to ignore it when it suits them- wars, bankers' bonuses and heath care reforms  to give just three examples.  What politicians and governments say about their commitment ti tackling climate change is completely different from what they are doing about?"

TRADE AND BIODIVERSITY:  What about business? In 2008 a group of highly respected economists and scietists led by Pawan Sukhdev, then a senior Deutsche Bank economist, conduxcted an authoritative economic analysis of the value of biodiversity. Their conclusions? The cost of of the business activities of the world's 3000 largest corporations in loss or damage to nature and the environment now stands at $2.tn per year. And rising. These costs  will have to be paid for in the future. By your children and your grandchildren. To quote Sukhdev, " The rules of business urgently need to be changed, so corporations comptete on the basis of innovation, resource conservation and satisfaction of multiple stakeholder demands, rather than on the basis of who is most effective in finfluencing government regulation, avoiding taxes and obtaining subsidies for harmful activities to maximise the return of stake holders. Do  I think that will happen. No . What about us......".

" I confess I used to find it amusing but now I am sick of reading in the week-end paper about some celebrating saying, I gave up my 4x4 and now I haver bought a Prius. Are not I doing my bit for the environment " they are not doing their bit for the environment. But it not their fault. The fact is that they-we- are not being well informed. And that is part of the problem.  we are not getting the information  we need. The sacale and nature of the problem is simply not being communicated to us. And we are advised to do something, it barely makes a dent in the problem. Here are  some of the changes we have been asked to make recently, by celebrities who like to pronounce on this sort of things and by governments, who should know better than to give out this kind of nonsense as solutions. Switch off your mobile phone charger; wee in the shower ( my favourite); buy an electric car (no, do not); use two sheets of loo roll rather than three. All of these are token gestures that miss the fundamental facts that the scale and nature of the problems we face are immernse, unprecedented and possibly unsovelable." 

The behavioural changes that are required of us are so fundamental that no one wants to make them. What are they? We need to consume less. A lot less. Less food, less energy, less stuff. Fewers cars, electric cars, cotton T-shirts, laptops, mobile phones upgrade s. For fewer. And here it is worth pointing out that "we" refers to the people who live in the west and the north of the globe
There are currently almost three billion people in the world, who urgently need to consume more: more water, more food, more energy.

GLOBAL POPULATION :  Saying, " do not have children" is utterly ridiculous. It contradicts every genetically coded piece of information we contain, and one of the most important (and fun) impulses we have. That said, the worst thing we continue to do-globally- is have children at current rate. If the current global rate of reproduction continues, by the end of this century there will not be 10 billion of us. According to the United Nations, Zambai's population is projected to increase by 941 percent by the end of this century. The population of Nigeria is projected to grow by 349 percent-to 730 million people. Afghanistan by 242 percent, Democratic Republic of Congo 213 percent, Gamia by 242 percent, Gautemala by 369 percent, Iraq by 344 percent, Kenya by 248 percent, Liberia by 300 percent, Malawi by 741 percent, Mali by 408 percent, Niger by 766 percent, Somalia by 663 percent, Uganda by 396 percent, Yemen by 299 percent.

Even the United States of Americca's population is projected t grow by 54 percent by 2100, from315 million in 2012 to 478 million.  If the current rate of global reproduction continues, by the end of this century there will not be 10 billion of us-there will be 28 billion of us.

EARTH'S COLLUSION:  If we discovered to morrow that there was an asteroid on a collusion course with the Earth and -because physics is fairly a simple science-we are able to calculate that it was  going to hit Earth on June 3 2072 and we knew that its impact was going to wipe out 70 percent life on the Earth, governments worldwide would marshal the entire planet into unprecedented action. Every scxiuentist, engineer, university and business would be enlisted:half to find a way of stopping it, the other half to find a way for our species to survive and rebuild if the first option proved unsuccessful. We are in almost precisely that situation now, except that there s not specific date and there is not an asteroid.

The problem is "us". Why are we not doing more about the situation we are in-given the dscale of the problem and urgency it needed-I simply cannot under stand. We are sending eight billion at Cern to discover evidence of a particles called Higgs bosom, which may or may not eventually explain mass and provide a partial thumbs-up for the standard model of poaryicle ohysics. And Cen's physicists are  keen to tell us it is the biggest, the most important experiment on Earth.It is not. The biggest and most important experiment on Earth is the one we are all conducting, right now, on Earth itself.ONLY an idiot would deny that there is a limit to how many [people our Earth can support. The question is, is i t seven billion (our current population), 10 billion or 28 billion

Science is essentially organised scepticism. One can rightly call the situation is an unprecedented emergency. There must be some urgent measures to avoid a global catastrophe !

SOURCES:- POPULATION TEN BILLION By DANNY DORLING and TEN BILLION BY STEPHEN EMMOTT; THE GUARDIAN ARCHIEVES and other internet websites.

UTTARAKHAND TRAGEDY DUE TO NATURE'S FURY : ULTIMATELY A MAN-MADE DEVASTATION !

Any conflict with 'NATURE' results into huge tragedy. India has witnessed many disasters since long but  some of the 'key' natural disasters since independence over 60 years ago appear to be fall-out of 'playing with nature' by WE Indians as well as successive union and state governments. India is mainly a nation of 'water (sea and rivers), mountains including most fragile mountain Himalayan range and huge forest ranges, particularly Dandakaranya, which stretches from West Bengal through Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhatishgarh, Madjya Pradesh and parts of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, now popularly known as "red corridor" and home to millions of  India's tribal population. The naxalites are running parallel government in the entire Dandakaranya forest range !

The recent Himalayan tragedy in Uttarakhand and havoc followed by torrential rains has caused huge loss to life and property in the newly created tiny states, particularly to the Pilgrims of 'chardham' for the worship of Kedarnath and Badrinath (abode of the Lord Shankar and  the Lord Vishnu). Over 10000 people are estimated to have perished besides huge loss of property and infrastructures of the state. Before this Nature has also played havoc in the form of earthquake in Latur in Maharshtra and Gujarat, sea tusmaniu in the coastal areas of sought India , huge flood of Kosi, originating from Nepal, in north Bihar and much -much and more-more.

Are the nature furies being caused by unnecessary interferences in the courses of nature in mountain, sea, forest etc ? The hill state-Uttarakhand- is originating point of Ganga river from Himalayan mountain range. These areas have 'chardham pilgrimage', which draws Hindu believers to undertake 'yatra' once in a life time. Since the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1980s in the name of 'so called development'  Uttarakhand has witnessed rampant construction and unmindful digging and explosion of hills, resulting into unbalances in the preserving ecosystem and the harmonious balance with human beings. Such practises are being adopted in almost all the states by disturbing forest, rivers, sea, mountain etc in almost all parts of India !( My earlier essays on my link-www.kksingh1.blogspot.com  -Dangerous signal for Nepal and India because of climate changes in Himalayas.......June 04,2013; Beautiful Mount Everest......April, 27, 2013; Tribal and poor are being uprooted....February 22, 2013; Great loot of farm and forest land in India......July 11, 2011 ).

The flash floods in Uttarakhand have caused damage in all the hilly districts and also parts of Nepal. But Rudraprayag, the home of Kedarnath shrine, which draws thousands of pilgrims every summer, has experienced much -much devastation. This disaster was much more beyond one's imagination. Floods and landslides washed out 41 roads and 28 bridges , both small and large and also damaged 188 state government buildings. Apart from unstimulated death figure of over 10000 people, many continued to be stranded and missing despite best efforts of Indian Army, Indian Air force, and paramilitary forces, who worked for continuous relief and rehabilitation iin the devastated Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.  The calamity  was caused by cloudbursts and unprecedented heavy monsoon rainfalls. Eminent journalist and writer Praful Bidwai, who  has written an article in the Guardian under headline-India floods: a man-made disaster, says, " the true causes of the epic tragedy lie in the grievous damage recently wrought on the region's ecology by the runaway growth of tourism, unchecked proliferation of roads, hotels, shops and multistory housing in ecologically fragile areas and above all mushrooming hydroelectricity dams that disrupt water balances. Underlying the disaster are multiple government failures too."

In this way man-made  ruins have converted the entire region into extreme weather event into a social catastrophe. It is a fact that the region experienced heavy rainfall of 340-370mm within 24 hours on June 16-17, resulting into flash flood. But such thing is not unprecedented. Cloudbursts, floods and rapid swelling of fast flowing rivers are not uncommon. Uttarakhand has had recorded single-day rain fall in excess of 400mm several times, including 450 mm in 1995 and 900mm in 1965. But this time the flood waters, laden with tens of thousands of tonnes of silt, boulders and debris from dam construction, found no outlet. The routes they took in the past including ravines and streams were blocked with sand and rocks. The water inundated scores of towns and villages submerging some buildings under several feet of mud, smothering life. aggravating the devastation were downpours of water and rocks from higher mountain ranges in all probability caused by glacier lake outbursts and l floods, which deluged the Kedarnath temple, a major Hindu pilgrimage centre. Because of that the explosive bursting of glaciers lakes are thought to be a consequence of human-induced climate, which is causing rapid melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, themselves warming at twice the global rate.

If one take all these things into consideration, if an early warning system existed, such a massive loss of life could have been averted. There were no effective  warning system and evacuation plan as well as a responsive disaster management system. Notably the comptroller and auditor general of India  (CAG) had pointed out in April itself that Uttarakhand Disaster Management Authority, formed in October 2007, has never met or formulated :"rules, regulations, policies or guidelines" Modestly priced radar-based technology to forecast cloudbursts would have been saved lives. But it was not installed. Nor was emergency evacuation plans drawn up. Praful Bidwai again writes, " there was local-level governance failure, too,. Haphazard, unregulated construction of roads and bridges was allowed on crumbling, landslide-prone ridges and steep slopes, ignoring the region's fragile geology and high earthquake vulnerability. Forest were destroyed on a large scale. Hundreds of buildings were constructed in the flood plains of rivers, their natural terrain, which should be no-go areas. Riverbeds were recklessly mined for sand. And construction debris accumulated, land contours and flows of streams and river changed."

More importantly, indiscriminate building of hydroelectric dams was the worst culprit, These involve drilling huge tunnels in the hills by blasting rocks, placing enormous turbines in the tunnels, destroying soil -binding vegetation to built water channels and other infrastructures, laying transmission lines and carelessly dumping excavated muck. Many dams have been built on the same rivers so close to one another that they leave no scope for its regeneration. Interestingly dams  water  are stolen from local people. They alter the hydrological cycles and natural course of rivers. Uttarakhand's 70 completed large dams have diverted more than 640 km, equivalent to half length of major rivers. They have profoundly destabilised its ecology. Yet another 680 dams are reportedly in various stages of commissioning, construction or planning, mainly by private companies, which will be largely unaccountable..

A 2009 CAG report complained that the government was "pursuing hydro-power projects indiscriminately" ignoring the damaging "cumulative effect" of multiple run-of-the river dams. Technically, India's environment ministry follows and environmental impact assessment process but that badly compromised by the Indian elite's insatiable appetite for electricity and promoters' pressure. Boom in religious tourism and hydroelectric projects may have contributed to disaster in Uttarakhand. Hundreds of new multistory hotels, apartment blocks and religious centres have sprung up in Uttarakhand, often on the flood plains of the capricious Mandakinin and Alaknand rivers, in defiance of building regulations. Several were washed away. The Himalayas are relatively young mountain range with fragile geology prone to landslides. The deluge of June 17 destroyed towns, villages, roads and bridges for more that 60 miles along the bank of Mandakinin and Alaknanda, two important tributaries of the Ganga river. The glacier ruptured under pressure of water from a severe cloudbursts, raining tonnes of ice, water and rock on the Hindu pilgrimage town of Kedarnath on the left bank of Mandakinini. The boom in religious tourism in recent years has also put a severe strains on the state's shaky infrastructures. Domestic tourism traffic has jumped up by 300 percent in a decade, to more than 30 million a year. This number is expected to be double by 2017.

 Quoting a recent article in Science magazine, Mahraj K Pandit, Director of the Delhi University's centre for interdisciplinary studies of mountain and hill environment, says , "The magazine has warned against damage to the ecosystem from badly planned, poorly monitored projects. The region is known for its biodiversity-its flowers, butterflies and Mahseer  fish. Science estimated that habitat degradation from dam building in the Himalayas could lead to the disappearance of 29 species of flowering plants and terrestrial and aquatic life. Nobody is saying there should be no dams-but the emphasis should be on securing the Himalayan landscape after understanding in fragility, not on uncontrolled development.The Himalaya is an earthquake-prone zone-so god forbids, if a major dam ever bursts the destruction it will cause will be unimaginable".

The Chennai-based think tank Tashkhashila Foundation Pawan Srinath remarks ," the devastation would have been even more widespread if the reservoir of the region's biggest dam m Tehari had not contained a significant volume of the deluge. Dams can also prevent disasters-the critical issue is not dams but proper dams management. In India we do not have a culture of public safety."

It is said that National Hindu leaders had appealed to the Prime minister not reallocate the shrine  of Dhari Devi, a local 'Avatar' (incarnation) of the fierce Hindu Goddess Kali  in Srinagar by a power company to construct reservoir as shrine will be submerged under the reservoir. But it was not heard ! The power company stealthily reallocated the   and moved 'black stone' of idol  of the shrine on the night of June 16 to save it from the swollen dam reservoir and within hours, the disaster struck. According to local lore, the Goddess protected Uttarakhand from calamities so her shrine could not be touched.

As the Himalayan mountain range is youngest, highest and longest in the globe. Rock formation in the mountain range is yet to start. There are dense forest in the areas. But its denunciation in large scale is going on in both Nepal and India sides. If such trend trend continues further, the days are not so far off when entire India region up to Ganga river in both Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will be wiped out with huge deposit of silts from the rivers of Nepal, eroded from mountain range. Kosi and Gandak rivers in Bihar and other rivers in Uttar Pradesh will bring huge miseries of flood water from Nepal side and the region will be practically wiped out from the scene. There is urgent need for permanent solution of flood coming from Nepal rivers to Indian rivers and plains, adjoining specially Bihar. A few years back when flood from Nepal in Kosi river had played havoc in entire north and eastern Bihar  , the union and Bihar  government had assured the people that there will be comprehensive talks with Nepal government for permanent solution of flood-but since than  nothing tangible has been done and mater  is where it lies ! People of Bihar are especially on the mercy of God !