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 !

CORRUPTION AND SYSTEM FAILURES COST INDIA'S DEMOCRATIC FABRICS !

Should the Indian citizen be silent over rampant bribery, scandal, power-brokering ? Of course not we as citizen of India must hammer upon these evils to eliminate the society for going into decadent stage ! Now a days, bribery and scandals are dominating the headlines not only in India but in several countries in recent years, among them India and Nigeria figure most corrupt countries in the globe. A new survey of corporate officials and employees in 36 countries-in Europe, Africa and Middle East as well as India-indicates  that there is plenty of corruption that needs deeper investigation. the survey was conducted late last year by Ipsos, a market research firm, on behalf of Ernst & Young, a major accounting firm.

The survey and responses of the people of various countries, however, indicated that corruption and bribery are rare in the Scandinavian countries, but common in some southern  and Eastern European countries as well as in India, the Middle East and Africa. According David Stulb, the global leader of the group; it was growing in part because many countries were worried about enforcement of the American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars the bribing of foreign officials and of similar laws in other developed countries. The survey revealed what Ernst called a "corruption perception gap" in many countries where respondents said bribery and corrupt practices were far more common in other parts of their country than they were in their own industry. At the extreme, 94 percent of respondents in Kenya though corruption was widespread in the country, but only 34 percent thought it was a problem in their own industry.

In the last three years, in the wake of serious cases of corruption in corridor of power in Delhi, like telecommunication scam, coal allotment scams and corruption in government offices in Delhi and at every nook corner of state governments' offices etc, have made the life of Indian people miserable because ultimate fall-out of corruption falls on the general people of India. MY TWO BLOG TOPICS:- RAMPANT CORRUPTION IN INDIA SIGNALLING CIVIL WAR , written on December 11, 2012 and LOOT OF PUBLIC MONEY BY POLITICIANS, MEMBERS OF EXECUTIVE AND JUDICIARY , POWER BROKERS, written on August 10, 2012 on my site-www.kksingh1.blogspot.com have deliberated at length how India has gone down to the drains in corrupt practices !

Although the  political corruption was there even during the primeministership of Pundit Jaewahar Lal Nehru, it has deteriorated because the political system is self-perpetrating and no party is accountable except a coterie of people that dominates all decisions-( recent example is sacked railway minister Pawan Bansal's nephew). Apart from that, there have been rapid erosion in the selfless dedication of leaders led to the growth of corruption in the entire body politic. National interest has become no body's concern. In India, welfare schemes turned the biggest source for sip honing off public funds, And the poor are worst affected ! Criminalisation of politics is also one of the main reasons in abnormal rise in corruption in India. Before deliberating the menace and its reason, I just want to mention major scandals and corruption cases in India since the independence of India. All the figures are converted to the 2011 price level to make them comparable. Thus Wholesale price index numbers are used for the period. In the post independence period, only six out of the 14 prime ministers had a term of five years or more: Nehru about 17 years, Indira Gandhi-16 years, Rajiv Gandhi-five years, Narsimha Rao-five years, Atal Behari Vajpayee-six years, Manmohan Singh-over eight years to date..Out of these six prime ministers who really matter, five were from the Congress, accounting for 51 years of Congress-led governments. Out of these 51 years, 38 years belonged to Nehru dynasty.

The following three scandals surfaced during Nehruvian period:- The jeep scandal (1948) Rs 80 lakh (Rs 36.52 crore); the Muindra scandal (1958-Rs 1,20 crore)- Rs 47.73 crore and the Dharma Teja loans Rs 22 crores (Rs 785.32 crore). The Indira Gandhi tenure saw at least three scandals-totalling indexed value worth Rs 244.70 crores. These are Nagarwala scandal (1971)-Rs 60 lakh ( Rs 11.10 crore); the Kao oil scandal (1976)-Rs 2.2 crore (Rs 22.80 crore) and the cement scam- Donation for the  Indira Pratishthan Trust collected by A R Antulay Rs 30 crore (Rs 208.80 crore). Than comes the Rajiv Gandhi's prime minister ship. In his regime, Bofor scandal of Rs 64 crore in 1987 (Rs 313.72 crore). Thereafter Narsimha Rao's period when economic liberalisation policy in full n bloom, there were many scandals. They are: Lakhubhai Pathak pickles scam (1984) $ 1,30,000 equivalent at the conversion rate to Rs 22.75 lakh and indexed value Rs 7.79 crore; the sugar import scam (1994)-Rs 650 crore (Rs 1627.99 crore); the Sukhram telecom scandal (1996)-Rs 3.6 crore (Rs 12.33 crore); The C R Bhansali scam (1998)-Rs 1100 crore (Rs 2438.60 crore) and the fertiliser scam (1996)-Rs 133 crore (Rs294.85 crore). Thus total indexed value during Rao's tenure comes to Rs Rs 4,381.50 crore. Next ccomes to Atal Behari Vajpaye led BJP government at the centre. Scandals are Kargil coffin scabdal (1995) $ 1.87 lakh equivalent at the then  conversion rate to Rs 80.64 lakh (Rs 1.87 crore) and the Barrack missile scabdal (1995) $ 80.64 lakh equivalent at the then conversion rate Rs 36.29 crore (Rs 66.13 crore). In this way , the total indexed value would be approximately Rs 68 crore.The last but not the least Manmohan Singh government led by Congress, although Singh's personal integrity is doubted by none but mired in cobweb of corruption ! The scams are- the Scorpene submarine deal (2006)-Rs 500 crore (Rs 685.80 crore); the cash-for-votes scandal Rs 50 crore (Rs 59.95 crore); the 2G p spectrum (2010)-Rs 1,76, 000 crore (Rs 1,89,200 crore)  and Coal scam totalling to Rs 1.87 lakh crore and and  Commonwealth game scams Rs 8,000 crore ( Rs 8,599.99 crore. The coal scam is latest one which I have not calculated in indexed value amount !  Thus total scams and scandals,  reach to  over Rs 3, 00,000 lakh crores till date during Manmohan Singh's tenure. In all these scams and scandals ministers and the then as well as the present prime ministers are involved directly or indirectly.

Apart from that almost all state governments led by chief ministers of different political affiliations have ship honed off over  Rs 50 lakh crores public money in different smas and scandals since independence. More over criminal cases were filed in all these cases but net results came out zero in all these years.

Not only that politicians, bureaucrats , smugglers, drug-traffickers etc have stashed huge amount of black moneypoutside India According to a White Paper brought out by the government of India black money stashed away in Swiss banks by Indians stood at Rs 9,295 crore during 2010 while FICCI figures ; by July 2012 this figure stood at Rs 45 lakh crore.. The then CBI director A P singh, in his address to the Interpol Global program on anti-corruption and asset recovery, said such amount stood at $ 500 billion. His statement came before in a case in the Supreme Court in February 2012. These estimates excluded money stashed away abroad as valuables in Safe Deposit Boxes, a recent innovation by Swiss Banks to overcome international treaties.

On the other hand , over 70 percent families are below poverty line, who do not have sufficient food, drinking water, shelter clothes to cover their bodies what to speak of health and education care in India ! And these political classes, power brokers, capitalists, corporates are grabbing public money and the country's wealth in truckloads. Prof K C Mehata, former pro-vice-chancellor and professor of finance, MS University of Baroda has remarked , while elaborating these sordid facts, " unless people rise in revolt against this demon and punish the corrupt by refusing to vote for them, a time will come (if it has not already) when we get used to the debased public life."

Similarly the writer and activist Arundhati Roy, commenting on the corruption in India , has said, in an interview to a senior journalist Saba Naqvi  " scams smaller than a few lakh crores will not ven catch out attention. In the election season, for political parties to accuse each other of corruption or doing shady deals with corporations is not new-remember BJP and the Shiv Sena's campaign against Enron ? Advani called it looting through liberalisation. They won the election in Maharshatra, scrapped the contract between Enron and the Congress government and then signed a far worse one. Corruption is a symptom of a widening gap between the powerful and the powerless, which in India, is one of the worst in the world. Moral policing or even  actual policing  cannot be solution..........hence remove these filthy illegal slums, clear away these illegal vendors crowding pavements-and so on.....the point is how to define corruption?........they can only be addressed if you know your people, if you have vision and ideology, not by just changing the props or costumes activists wear on stage when one or the other group accuses them of some thing or the other.Being against corruption is not in itself  a political ideology.Even the corrupt people will say they are against corruption............Pantomine is a harsh word. I see what happening now as psrt of the unrest, anger, and frustration that is building up in the country. Sometimes the noisiness of it makes it hard to see clearly. But unless we look things in the eye-instead of heading off in strange quixotic directions-we vcan look forward to the civil war, which has already begun, reaching our doorsteps very soon." My blog topic_ RAMPANT CORRUPTION IN INDIA SIGNALLING CIVIL WAR- Written on DECEMBER 11, 2012-www.kksingh1.blogspot.com

From 2010, in a span of just two years, as many as 10 anti-corruption bills have been tabled including the disputed Lokpal bill, the forfeiture of benami property, foreign bribery , money laundering and whistle-blowing bills plus five more-all aimed at deterring specific acts of corruption or uprooting to give corruption free public service as a  right. None of these bills or laws addresses the fountainhead of corruption-the opaque management of political parties which includes sources and deployment of their funds. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC-2009 had noted that large scale f criminalisation of politics, noting that how participation by criminals in the electoral process  was " the soft underbelly of the Indian political system" leading to "flagrant violation of laws, poor quality of services, protection from lawbreakers n political, group, class, communal or caste grounds, partisan interference in the investigation of crimes, the poor prosecution of cases, inordinate delays that last for years, high costs of judicial process, mass withdrawal of cases and indiscriminate grant of  parole." Votes are fetched through large, illegal and illegitimate expenditure on elections, a starting point of corruption in public life.. Money power controls vote in India. Poor are penalised for not obeying the dictum of feudal landlords and state power-police. Earlier criminals were envisaged by political parties to win the elections. In the last 20 years, criminals have tasted the blood and they themselves win election by utilising their muscle and money power.

According to annual report of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR among 543 elected members of Parliament, who were elected in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, 162 (32 percent) have criminal records and criminal cases are pending against them. Five years earlier, the figure was 24 percent. ethics in political life in India is laughed at. Illegal and indiscriminate expenditure in election by political parties and candidates in the elections ave become order of the day.. Interestingly , the ruling of the Central Information Commission that political parties should also be termed as public bodies and they are liable for all information under Right to Information Act. The ruling was vehemently opposed by all political parties -even by left parties because they will be exposed by their huge expenditures and sources of funds for the elections !

More over there must be drastic change in our electoral laws even after some drastic reforms brought by the then Chief Election Commissioner T N Sheshan.. This apart , elections be made state funding like other many countries. State funding may overcome clandestine collection of election funds. A bill called the Registration and Regulation of Political Parties (2011) has been drafted by a committee chaired by Justice M N Venkatachaliah, former chief Justice of India. The bill envisages a democratic process for selecting party office-bearers as well as those given the tickets. The committee has also spoke about limitation on donations by individuals and corporations and also recommends l penalties for non-compliance and addresses the vexed question of how to deal with with support groups that spend ,money that remains unaccounted.

Another, most alarming issue is rampant corruption  among judges right from lower courts to high courts and the Supreme Court.Mechanism for appointing judges is not full-proof. Supremer Court and high courts are appointing judges on their whims. Quality of judges has deteriorated. Sons and daughters of the judges, former judges , VIP politicians and officials have become very common. Judicial accountable bill is facing vehement opposition from the Supreme Court and high courts judges. Judges and government have no concern over pend ency of  huge number of cases for years together. Approaching courts by poor has become impossible as they cannot bear the cost for getting justice Judges , by compelling their own mechanism for pay and perks, are today said to be leading most comfortable and luxurious life by getting extra money and facilities !

SOURCES: WEBSITES OF VARIOUS NEWSPAPERS, NEWS MAGAZINES, NEWS SITES etc 

Judges and Political Classes are sensitive to criticism in India !

In India, these days, judges and political classes have become 'sensitive' to criticism of 'public interest'. Raising of voices by public, press ,while expressing freedom of expression ,etc have become crimes in the eyes of power-that-be and particularly judges of even of the apex court-Supreme Court- To suppress the voices of agitating people, suffering immense agonies of poverty, lack of education and health facilities, is going to be common refrain. Curb on freedom of expression has become rampant in India ! Signals of the founding fathers of the Constitution and the Constitution  itself  are being violated by all wings of the Indian Union-the Legislature,the  Judiciary and the Executive. Other 'misdeeds' of all these three wings, exposed by vigilant media and persons, are suppressed and ignored in this country. A recent example must be cited-the Central Information Commission has rightly called political parties , public institutions and these political parties must be brought under the preview of the Right to Information Act. But sadly, almost all political parties are opposed to this directive of the commission-perhaps being afraid of their being stoppage of muscle and money power in the elections!

In this nefarious game, direct responsibilities go to the mainly political classes except a few, who are law-maker and the judiciary, which  interpret the Constitution so that no wrong is done  in violating the Constitution, laws, rules etc. Strangely, when the interest of these sections come to fore, these two wings at least do not lag behind in subverting the Constitution. In case of politicians, they amend the Constitution, okays  laws,  frame rules  as well as raise their salary and perks whimsically beyond imagination, ignoring the interest and prevailing poverty in India. With regards to judiciary and its judges, they think beyond  the Constitution and laws. It is seventh wonder in the world while Supreme Court judges have framed their own mechanism to appoint judges in the high courts and the Supreme courts. Not only that Supreme court judges have managed to set-up their own commission to determine their pay-perks, which is highly exorbitant comparing the sad and deteriorating economic condition of over 73 percent of population in the country while other wings of services' salary and perks are determined  the time-to-time setting-up of commissions and committees. As if there are no rule of laws for at least judges and political classes in the country.

A recent eye-brows by the Supreme Court judge Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra, through the registry of the court, in response to an article by the Senior Editor of The Times of India Dhananjay Mahapatra titled "IN VACATION, S C BENCH LATE BY AN HOUR "on June 15 edition of The Times of India , has created piquant situation as well as ripple among the freedom-. loving persons of the country. I must  mention here a few sentences of the letter from Gyan Sudha Mishra , bullying the prestigious English daily and  its Senior Editor. The letter mentions "..............while the Court during the vacation resorted to some flexibility in fixing its time schedule for taking up the matters, it also functioned beyond court hours to cater to the heavy Cause List mentioned at the last moment by the counsels to take up matters out of turn in view of their urgency due to which it had to sit late in the evening daily at least up to 7 p. m in order to clear the orders for their dispatch as the orders were of the urgent nature. Therefore, the judges also had to go through.............In the process, if the court exercised some discretion by keeping the time schedule during the vacation...........................devote beyond the working hours in the court and yet expect them to give an account of every single minute or else face derogatory publicity."

More over the arguments in the letter of Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra appears to be one-sided- report in the The Times of India had simply mentioned late coming of judges during vacation to attend the court matter, listed as scheduled. Host of litigants and their counsels, coming from far-flung areas had to wait long because of late arrival of judges to the office. Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra, perhaps, forgot such miseries of the litigants and their counsels. Apart from that, Justice Mishra also did not ,perhaps, keep in mind the unannounced schedule of the "so called late coming of judges during vacation". In my opinion, if it is fact than court must publicise the matter well in advance. Why this emotional outburst on Mohapatra's report in The Times of India. ? As far as my feeling goes, even the judges are public servants-if they have to work extra hour-they are paid handsomely. Apart from this, colonial hang-over still exists in the judiciary-Leave and vacations and other freebies for judges are beyond imagination in poor country like India.

In my opinion, the Supreme Court of India must ,first, keep its house in order instead of swaying into emotion and sentiments. There are many judgements, delivered by the judges in recent years, are contradictory in nature, converting the Indian Constitution as "Pandora's Box". Cases of corruption among judges in various high courts, particularly in Allahabad and Patna High Courts, as well as some time among judges of the apex court have also surfaced. Appointment of judges in various high courts by the apex courts in recent years have been questioned. Is it not true that some incompetent judges have been appointed in recent years? Is it not fact that some judges, appointed, are put on further probation in view of their incompetency ? Is it not facts that relatives of judges of the Supreme Court and various high courts have been and are being appointed judges in various high courts ? It is a fact that certain sections of the society like backwards, SC, ST and other backwards and dalits are ignored in the appointment of judges even after the facts that many of them qualify for judgeship in the high courts-not only that many good persons, practising in various high courts and the Supreme Court are ignored for appointment as judges under the present system ?  Even a person , having criminal background have been appointed judges of the high courts ?Why the judges of the apex court and high courts are opposed to parliamentary legislative on the appointment of judges and the judicial accountability ? These are the big questions to be replied by only the Supreme Court !

Another opinion veering round is that a greatest blunder has been committed while reservation in services to backward classes under the V P Singh regime. Why this country and its dalits were deprived of such facilities in the appointment of judges in high court and the Supreme Court under Mandal Commission provisions ? Majority of Indians belong to dalits category-than why this discrimination ? The Country must reflects its citizens and system not pick and choose for a chosen few !

Now enough is enough-there must be way out in improving judicial system. End must come to an end over the so called supremacy of Supreme Court and Legislature in determining the criterion for the benefits of rich only-India lives in villages and rule of law must prevail to determine all these burning factors instead of silencing the people through bullying-respected Supreme Court must spell out the system beneficial to dalits and downbtroddens under the existing frame work of the Constitution.

USA exposed for sweeping world-wide surveillance: India among five countries most affected by America's snooping !

While the Unitest States of America is struggling to contain one of the most explosive national security leaks in  US history as world-wide public criticism of the sweeping surveillance state revealed by  whistle blower 29-year-old  Edward Snowden  former technical assistant of the CIA and currently an employer of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, apart from the entire nations of the globe, India is among top-most countries in the globe, whose data have been compromised by the US National Security Agency (NSA) through various Internet networks like  Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Paltalk, AOL, Skype, Youtube and Apple. Not only that data of personal\individual throughout the globe connected with internet network are being snooped by America !

The historic leak of the US's NSA  surveillances of most secrets, first to the journalists,  from the Guardian  and Washington Post ..The National Security Agency of America has been monitoring telephone calls and e-mails and even social media stuff of the sort., violating civil liberties throughout the globe..Snowden like  Daniel Ellsberg, who had revealed the Pentagon papers to the Post and the New York Times more than four decades ago, has stirred the world by the current revelation of the facts by NSA of America. It may be recalled that Pentagon Papers proved that a succession of US presidents had lied about their intention regarding Vietnam- Lyndon Johnson above all.As the Times put it in a 1966 story, the Pentagon Papers "demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson administration had systematically lied, not only to the public but also the Congress, about a subject of transcendent national interest and significance." A big debate has been sparked over surveillance and privacy among the people of the globe nations.

Snowden, an intelligence analyst and computer geek, who leaked some of the NSA's most precious secrets to journalists, is now on the lam, having checked out of the Hong Kong hotel where he holed up for several weeks as he orchestrated a worldwide media splash that shows no sign of ending. Snowden himself admitted that he has betrayed, the consulting firm Boos Allen Hamilton and his promise not to divulge classified information. He paints what he did as an act of civil disobedience, but he has decided to seek political asylum abroad rather than surrender to authorities and accept the consequences. In published interviews, he comes across as grandiose to the point of self- parody, a legend in his own mind.

"Did you know that the NSA is compiling and storing a massive, comprehensive log of our democratic phone calls ? I did not nor did I know that agency can access huge volume of e-mails traffic and other electronic data overseas-not just communications originating in trouble spots such as Pakistan but also in countries such as Germany and Britain. I would have thought that anyone who accused the US government of omniscient, automatic, mas surveillance, as Snowden did in exchange with the post contributor Barton Gellman, was being paranoid. Now I am not sure."

But here is a big issue. The NSA, it now seems clear, is assembling as unimaginably vast trove of communication data and the bigger it gets, the more useful it is in enabling analysts to make predictions. It is one thing if the NSA looks for pattern in the data that suggest a nascent overseas terrorist group or an imminent attack. It is another thing altogether if the agency observes, say, ;patterns that suggest the Birth of the next tea party or Occupy Wall Street Movement.

Political opinion was split with some members of the Congress in America calling for immediate extradition of a man they consider a "defector" but other senior politicians from both parties questioning whether US surveillance practices had gone too far.. Daneiel Ellsberg, the former military analyst, who revealed secrets of the Vietnam war through Pentagon Papers in 1971, described Snowden's leak as even more important and perhaps the most significance leak in American History. British foreign secretary, William Hague,  was forced to defend the UK's use of intelligence gathered by U S. Other European leaders also voiced concern.On the other hand, in Washington, Obama administration offered no indication on Monday about what it intended to do about Snowden, who was praised for privacy campaigners but condemned by US politicians keen on for him to be extradited from Hong Kong and put on trial.. The White House, however, made no comments beyond a short statement released by a spokesman for the U S director of national intelligence on Sunday last, Shawbn Turner said Snowden's case had been referred to the Justice Department and that U S intelligence was assessing the damage caused by the disclosures.

After disclosures of the NSA secrets, Snowden chose Hong Kong because "they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent." In an explosive interview with the Guardian, published on last Sunday, Snowden revealed himself as source for a series of articles in the Guardian last week, which included disclosures of a wide ranging secret court order that demanded Verizon pass to the NSA the details phone calls related to millions of customers and a huge NSA intelligence system called Prism, which collects data on intelligence targets from the systems of some of the biggest tech companies.Snowden said he had become disillusioned with the overarching nature of government surveillance in the US."The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight.. The result is people like myself have the lattilatitude to go further than they are allowed to." he said and added ,"my soul motive is to inform the public as to what is done in their names and  which is done against them."

Moreover, Snowden drew support from civil liberty activists and organisations. Esberg wrote to the Guardian, " In my estimation, there has been in Americans history a more important leak than Edward Sonowden's release of NSA material-and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago." Thomas Drake, a former NSA executive who famously leaked information about what he considered wasteful data-mining programmer at the agency, said  Snowden: "he is extraordinary brave and courageous,"

Meanwhile China watchers also wonder if Beijing would wish to become publicly involved in such a huge-profile case-particularly given China's doctrine of non-inter fence in other countries' domestic affairs and that it comes days after a meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama, as the countries seek to improve bilateral ties.!

Interestingly, the Internet network- Google, Apple, Facebook, Facebook, Paltalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Microsoft, who are trying to salvage their reputation, are facing a battle to maintain their trust after disclosures that the US government was given access to their customers' data on line via the Prism programme operated by the NSA.. The involved companies vigorously deny giving the Obama administration backdoor access to users' Internet information but the potential damage to their brand reputation has left the companies foundering for a way to respond. Victor Mayer-Schnbeger, professor of Internet governance and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, believes there could be serious consequences for the collective reputations of all Internet companies, who have meticulously built their trade and trust.

Thus  what the NSA is doing in turning the US-and by extension, the rest of the world-into a Big Brother surveillance state. THE USA is spying the world ! Julian Assannge, Wiki-Leaks founder, hold up in Ecuadorain embassy in London since June 19 last year, told  in London to TNN India has been targeted in a big way , as alleged by whistle blower Edward Snowden while exposing the US cyber snooping programme. In view of  Indian government and its data are being compromised by the U S A 's NSA, the Indian government, which is in dilemma, is considering a new cyber security. A cyber security and protection umbrella coordinator will be named at the end of June for new security structures.


SOURCES:-THE GUARDIAN,  THE WASHINGTON POST,THE NEW YORK TIMES and other Internet connected to the world !

BUMPER POPPY CROP IN AFGHANISTAN TO DISTRIBUTE POISON IN ENTIRE GLOBE!

Notwithstanding the US and its NATO forces are preparing for withdrawal of their forces from  the war-ravaged-Afghanistan and hand over the security of the nation to the Afghan National Army under the president ship of Hamid Karzai, Taliban still continued to be a formidable force. Not only that, voter registration has begun in Afghanistan for general election in Afghanistan, scheduled for next year..Both US and NATO have promised support to the Afghanistan even if they withdrew from the country in near future. But the manner the US and NATO forces are fighting with Taliban to save Hamid Karzai and Afghanistan from Taliban has many important aspects.

One of the worst menace in Afghanistan the abundance "illegal and  unauthorised  poppy farming during Karzai regime. Huge export of poppy to almost all countries of the globe in stealth manner has created big problems in developed and developing countries of the world. Young and old both are being addicted to heroin, smacks etc, prepared from poppy.  Thus Afghanistan is spreading poison throughout the globe nations !Twelve years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan is heading for near record opium crop as instability pushes up the amount of land planted with illegal but lucrative poppies, according to a bleak UN report.

Just 14 of the Afghanistan's 34 provinces are now poppy free, down from 20  in 2010. In three provinces, the spring sowing was the first time this decade that farmers had risked an attempt at growing opium. If  this year's poppy fields are harvested without disruption, the country would likely regain its status as producer of 90 percent of the world's opium. Afghanistan's shares of the deadly and illegal market of opium slipped to around 75 percent after bad weather and and a blight slashed production over the past two years."Poppy cultivation is not only expected to expand in areas where it already existed in 2012 but also a new areas or areas where poppy cultivation was stopped," The Afghanistan Opium Winter Risk Assessment found.

According to UN report; the growth in record opium cultivation reflects both spreading instability and concerns about the future. Farmers are more interested in planting to plant the deadly crop in areas of high violence or where they have not received any agriculture aid. Opium traders unauthorised provide seeds, fertilisers and even advance payments to encourage crops, leaving farmers who do not have western or government agriculture help very vulnerable to their inducements.

"Opium cultivation is up for the third successive year, and the production is heading towards record levels," said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Afghanistan head of the U N Office on Drugs and Crime. " People are hedging against an insecure future both politically and economically." Prices of opium rose to a record$300 a kilogrammes. Prices have now slipped by over $100 but are still far above historic level, helping tempt more farmers to land over to poppy.

A report says the growth of poppy farming as western troops head home reflects particularly badly on Britain, which was designated lead nations for counter-narcotics over a decade.. But  overall the government and aid community has not prioritised efforts to cut back a crop and trade that feeds global markets for heroin, Lemahieu said, despite its corrosive effect on security, corruption and trust in Kabul.

In this nefarious game, peoples' close to power and even close relatives of Hamid Karzai are involved in this nefarious farming of poppy just to placate the defiant Talibans although the letters were at one time opposed to narcotics ! Reasons are eradication programmes that do not provide farmers of Afghanistan with benefits such as health care and education and support for growing other crops will just push the Taliban or other insurgent groups that do tolerate or encourage poppy production, said Lemahieu. The increase in production and poppy farming has come despite a marked improvement in Afghanistan's specialised counter-narcotic units, Lemahieu said and added h fear of eradication has become a far more significant reason for farmers of Afghanistan to stick to legal crops than in the past, the report found.

In the meantime, Afghanistan continues to limp back to normalcy and reign of terror by Taliban and US and NATO forces continued unabated. The US war in Afghanistan has cost $4 trillion and Iraq-$6 trillion, taking into account the medicare of wounded veterans and expensive repairs to a force depleted by more than a decade of fighting, according to a new study by a Harvard researcher.

According to Harvard researcher and a public policy professor Linda J. Bilmes; Washinton increased military benefits in late 2001 as the nation went to war, seeking to quickly bolster its talent pool and expand its rank. Those decisions and the protracted nation building efforts launched in both countries-Iraq and Afghanistan- will generate expenses for years to come.

DANGEROUS SIGNAL FOR NEPAL BECAUSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN HIMALAYAS, ADJOINING INDIA REGION IS ALSO THREATENED !

NEVERTHELESS  tourism is now Nepal's largest industry and the greatest source of foreign exchange and revenue as over seven lakh foreigners descend the country each year , mostly for trekking, mountaineering and adventure holidays; in the areas they frequent,( there tends to be little malnutrition, better housing and clean water), the entire Himalayan country is on the front line of climate change and is highly vulnerable to flash floods, landslides and droughts (As the entire Himalayan mountain range in said to be highest, youngest and largest in the world-rocks are yet to form in the mountains as well as large scale denunciation of forest). Glaciers are melting at an increasing rate and major climate changes are taking place today. Entire Himalayan range have become definitely warmer ! Such changes are not seasonal change any more. It is rapid. Is is so apparent.

Narrating the story of Nepal, once among the world's poorest people, The Guardian, in a recent report, has said the Nepal has eight of the 10 highest mountains in the world -Khumbu, in north-eastern Nepal, is bustling region that earns millions of dollars a year from hundreds of expeditions, Mountaineering, a form of extreme tourism, has grown to point where Sherpas-the ethnic group, who mostly live in the infertile mountains and became load carriers for foreign mountaineers-now run their own businesses, contracting much heavy work to other Nepali ethnic groups. Sherpas are said to earn between seven and 10 times the average Nepalese wage. Significantly, many are able to send their children to the best schools. The new generation like Dawa, are likely to spend much of the year in Kathmandu or abroad; they aspire to start businesses or to become doctors, engineers or airline pilots. Mountaineering industry changed the face and brought real progress. Most of the Nepalese are not so fortunate. The country is unrecognisable from isolated Himalayan kingdom that the British expedition in 1953 found, and now at major trading crossroads with its mighty neighbours China and India. New roads are being bulldozed through previously isolated region, western influences are every where.

But the development has come at a huge price. The air pollution and traffic jams of Kathmandu are among the worst in the globe, the cities are chaotic, unemployment is massive, and the predominantly rural population remains mostly locked in subsistence farming. Tens of thousands of young men now work in Saudi Arabia and Gulf states as labourers and the Maoist revolution grew of deep poverty and worsening conditions in rural areas. Only about 40 percent girls and 45 percent boys go to secondary schools.

On the other hand melting glaciers and rising temperatures are forming a potentially destructive combination in the deep ravines of Nepal's Himlayan foothills and the Phulping bridge-on the Araniko Highways linking Kathmandu with the Chinese border-is a good place to see just how dangerous the pairing can be ! A report in The Time says, "a bare concrete pillar stands there, little noticed by the drivers of the truck, laden with the Chinese goods, that rattle  along at high speed across the bridge, about 111 km from Kathmandu. The pillar is all that's left of the original Phulping bridge, which was swept away by flood waters in July 1981. The deluge was not caused, as in common, by monsoon rains, but by the bursting of glacial lake. The force of the raging torrent was strong enough to dislodge boulders 30 meter across. They still lie in the Bhote Koshi river."

Glacial-lake outbursts, as they are known, are not new. They occur every time the natural dams of ice or accumulated rock deposits that hold back glacial lakes give was because of seismic activity, erosion or simple water pressure. Millions of cubic meters of melt water can be released as a result, some time over course of a few days or -far more frighteningly-in a mater of minutes. During past century, at easy 50 glacial-lake outbursts were recorded in the Himalayas; according to data maintained by the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). But what is new that the lakes are forming and growing much more quickly because the glaciers are melting faster than ever.

According to the programme coordinator of ICIMOD Pradeep Mool; the potential of Himalayan tsunami is a hazard of global warming that has yet to be given much attention by outsiders but it is a daily preoccupation. There were some 20000 glacial lakes in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region, extending Afghanistan to Burma. In some parts of Himalayas like Dudh -Koshi are in eastern Nepal, the melt rate is alarmingly high.

Mool says, " almost all the glaciers in Dudh-Koshi are retreating at rates of 10 to 15 meter annually-but the rate for some has accelerated during last half-decade to 74 meter annually." He explained that this had  created 24 new glacial lakes in the area, which now had total of 34 such bodies of water. At least ten of them are considered dangerous.

Research papers by a team from the University of Milan, released this month, found that in the past 50 years glaciers in the Everest region had shrunk by 13 percent and snow-line was now seen about 180 meter higher up. Sandeep  Thakur, a researcher with  the team says the meeting was most likely caused by warming temperature and was certain to continue. Since 1992, premonsoon and winter temperatures in the Everest region has increased by 0.6_0C

Earthquakes also add to the risk. Earthquake could act as major triggers for glacial-lake outbursts, Mool says. He feels that much better monitoring of the lakes is needed to get a proper assessment of the dangers.

Moreover, down in Bhote-Koshi valley, villagers now rely on text messages for warnings of potential floods, landslides and other hazards. The power station near village of Jhirpu Phulpingkatt will issue warning of a glacial-lake outburst, but people in the areas will only have a few  minutes notice before flood waters arrive and only glacial-take outbursts in Nepal territory can be immediately detected. There are at least six glacial lakes close by in Tibet that lie outside the warning system and outbursts will be detected only when Waters enter Nepali territory; according to the plant's acting manager Janak Raj Pant. But regardless of where an outburst originates, he says,, " all of us would have to run for our lives

Apart from that the plain areas of Nepal, towards north, adjoining the land-locked border with mainly  Bihar and  Uttar Pradesh in India have become  most vulnerable of flood devastation, coming from Himalayan range because of outbursts as well as major melting in glaciers due to climate changes and also large scale of forest denunciation by the Nepalese in the forest areas.. Janak Raj Pant disclosed that all of " us would have run for our lives."

Seaborne tsunami have already unleashed enough devastation this century-let us hope that  no comparable disasters dwell in the Himalayas' icy ravines !