A one-day national workshop on “Emerging Trends for Commercial Goat Farming” jointly organized by the Department of Plant Science, Bharathidasan University and Saraswathi Foundation for Rural Development and Training will be held on July 5.
Scientists from various centres of Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University will be sharing their expertise on the emerging trends in commercial goat breeding and rearing. Day-to-day problems faced by farmers/entrepreneurs and pragmatic solutions to a given situation will also be discussed by the respective experts. Apart from scientists, bankers and insurance experts, successful entrepreneurs will also be sharing their expertise on various aspects of goat farming. The national workshop also encompasses a visit to an established goat farm.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy / TNN / June 29th, 2014
Nearly 12 years have passed, and it stands as a classic example
The successful rooftop rainwater harvesting structure has also given a scenic look to the Mariamman Teppakulam in Virudhunagar even during dry days. / Photo: G. Moorthy / The Hindu
Nearly 12 long years have passed, and the rainwater harvesting (RWH) system in Mariamman Teppakulam here stands as a classic example of how community involvement could bring about phenomenal changes.
Dubbed as the first project to have the biggest network of rooftop RWH structure in the State – set up in 2002– the temple tank in an arid town has descent storage of water even now when other parts of the district are reeling under water crisis.
The municipality along with Virudhunagar RWH Association and Hindu Nadar Palasarakku Mahamai began to connect the rooftops of buildings around the tank in early 2002. Water collected from the rooftops was made to drain in the tank through a network of pipelines.
“Every time, we completed a big portion of the network, we received rain within a couple of days. The raising water level in the tank encouraged more people to join us voluntarily,” said former municipal vice-chairman and Virudhunagar RWH Association joint secretary S. Balakrishnasamy.
Over 50,000 square feet of rooftops were brought under the RWH network.
Besides, the local people took up repairing a channel that supplied surplus water from the Kowshika river from where water was pumped to the tank with underground pipelines laid for more than three km. All that the then Collector K. Gopal did was facilitating the work by coordinating with all the government departments, he said.
Earlier, the tank was rendered dry for good parts of the year after fast urbanisation changed the course of rainwater that used to feed the 324 feet by 294 feet tank.
“When sewage water started mixing with the rainwater in the river, the Mahamai went a step forward and bought over four acres of land upstream to create a new water storage point,” former secretary of the Mahamai P.M.S.N.K.D. Rajavel said.
A leading channel was dug up to bring rainwater from Kowshika river into a small waterbody. An infiltration well was dug up in it from where water was pumped to the tank some five km away.
“The municipality takes care of the electricity bill for pumping water. We have erected a 40-KVA generator to keep the 25-Horse Power motor pump on as and when required,” Mr. Rajavel said.
The Mahamai has created a corpus fund of Rs.40 lakh for the RWH system. It spends around Rs.5 lakh on its maintenance and operation. Water from here and the rooftops fills up not only the tank, but also eight wells in the area.
Dedicated pipeline with a valve control has been provided allowing overflowing water from the tank to fill up the wells. “Almost the entire southern parts of the town are water- sufficient,” Mr. Rajavel said.
The pump room along Kowshika river from where water is pumped to the tank. Photo: R. Ashok / The Hindu
Water stored in the storage point as a result of one hour rain in three spells last year was good enough to draw a huge quantity of water which was at least two times the capacity of the tank.
Mr. Balakrishnasamy said most of the 3,000-odd borewells in the town continued to provide sufficient water for the residents. The municipality has also created smaller rooftop RWH structures in 10 places that help in rejuvenation of groundwater in different residential areas across the town.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by S. Sundar / Virudhunagar – July 18th, 2014
Madurai Trees 25’ being released in Madurai on Sunday. Author D. Stephen, left, Assistant Professor in Botany, The American College, is seen. / Photo: R. Ashok / The Hindu
Lists 25 species that are common in Madurai with details of origin and uses
‘Madurai Trees 25,’ a book on trees in Madurai was released by Madurai Green, a non-governmental environmental organisation, here on Sunday.
The book authored in Tamil by D. Stephen, Assistant Professor in Botany, The American College, has a list of 25 species that are common in Madurai, with elaborate details of the origin and uses of the trees. The book was released by P. Saravanan, managing director of Saravana Multispeciality Hospital, at Gandhi Memorial Museum where the 25 Green Walk of Madurai Green was organised on Sunday.
Speaking on the occasion, N. Chidambaram, coordinator of Madurai Green, said the organisation, established 22 years ago, had conducted 25 Green Walks in the past two years. “Involvement of people in green walks has given us fresh hope that the environment of Madurai can be conserved in a better way in the coming years. The participation of youth is laudable,” he said.
“One of the major environmental issues Madurai faces is improper disposal of garbage. Sewage and garbage disposal should be done properly by the public,” Mr. Chidambaram added.
Mr. Stephen said the book would serve as guide to people on the different trees in Madurai. Purasu, nuna, athandai, vattakanni, oduvan, banyan, peepal, palm, neem and coconut were some of the trees mentioned in the book.
M.P. Vasimalai, executive director of Dhan Foundation, emphasised that the city’s green cover should be improved. “We should start planting saplings of rare and traditional trees,” he said.
President of Madurai Green D. Raghavan pointed out that the city’s temperature had rapidly increased in the three decades because of felling of trees. “In 1982, the maximum temperature here was 27 degree Celsius, whereas it was 32 degree Celsius in 1990 and now it is 39 degree Celsius,” he noted.
Members of Nanal Nanbargal and other youth organisations that took part in the green walks regularly also shared their experiences.
A.K. Xavier, Principal of St. Joseph ITI, Edwin Rajkumar, Professor of CSI Jayaraj Annapackiam College of Nursing, Ranjitham, Principal of St. Teresa Teacher’s Training Institute, and several others spoke. Free saplings of trees were distributed to those who attended the programme.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by Staff Reporter / Madurai – June 30th, 2014
Picture for representational purpose (Photo: DC archives)
Erode:
The newly-declared Sathyamangalam tiger sanctuary has emerged the largest tiger country in Tamil Nadu, with at least 60 tigers stalking the sprawling jungles. According to the latest official count, the population of the big cats has more than doubled and about 60 tigers have been captured on the hidden cameras in just four blocks of the 1405 sq.km Sathyamangalam jungles in Erode district, which was once an infamous haunt of bandit Veerappan.
“We have visual evidence of a vibrant tiger population with an attractive prey base in the Sathyamanglam jungles. The camera trappings have spotted between 50 and 60 tigers. However, the sprawling forest has the capacity to carry at least 100 tigers,” the Erode Conservator of Forests, I. Anwardeen told DC.
Interestingly, the tally of tigresses spotted in the four blocks surveyed by the Word Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Sathyamangalam unfolds a tale of huge hope for the big cats.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC / by H. Zakeer Hussain / June 28th, 2014
Its not all about technology at the IIT-M. Showing concern for the blackbuck population on its campus, which has increased from 13 in 2007 to 34 this year and other deer roaming its grounds, the institute has decided to create deer corridors with adequate space between buildings to allow the animals free movement.
“The architects drawing up a master plan for the institute have recommended that we demolish the old buildings and construct six storey ones with space in between for the deer to roam the grounds. We have decided to go along with this,” said IIT-M director, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi.
Noting that the institute had always given priority to conserving nature and animals on campus, he explained that the idea was to create more open space as several old buildings had hardly any distance between them. “We have several buildings like these at Triplicane and Mylapore, which we will now replace with taller more widely spaced constructions,” he added.
The institute has also identified a couple of houses near the lake for demolition to preserve its natural surroundings.
“As it is a low-lying area the houses are often flooded. Whenever these houses get condemned we will demolish them and their occupants shifted to multi-storey buildings that will be constructed in areas where they are permitted,” he assured, adding that the new area identified by the architects was less than three per cent of the cap placed by the institute.
Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi has been associated with the institute for over three decades as student ,faculty and director.
The IIT-M’s annual animal census last year found 34 blackbucks, 238 bonnet macaque and 403 chital deer on campus.
Wildlife conservationist R.J. Ranjith Daniels said the increase in number of blackbucks on IIT-Madras campus could be termed a success story in conservation and planning.
“We recommended to the institute to identify critical habitat, identify territories and the area of herds to preserve them, which the institute did and the number of blackbucks increased. With equal number of male and female population we now have good scope for breeding,” he said.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / by N. Arun Kumar / June 15th, 2014
Sugarcane Breeding Institute develops varieties that can be alternative energy source
Coimbatore :
The Sugarcane Breeding Institute in Coimbatore has developed two types “energy canes” – one which can provide sugar and energy and the other which can be a feedstock for ethanol.
The canes are being field tested, according to institute Director N Vijayan Nair said.
He told Business Line on the sidelines of a National Symposium on “Bio-energy for sustainable development – the Potential Role of Sugar crops” that a few clones of energy canes are being tested at Samalkot in Andhra Pradesh.
The institute has registered the clones with the National Bureau of Plant Registry.
Stating that the energy canes were only at the testing stage, he said that the can which can produce sugar and energy can be processed in the existing sugar factories.
The second type, which can be handy for generating energy, has high fibre and biomass yield. It has been developed with an eye on the future. “This can be used for production of cellulosic ethanol,” Nair said.
The Institute plans to promote cultivation of such canes in marginal lands, he said adding that the initial results have been positive.
Nair also said that the technology for cellulosic ethanol was changing rapidly. It nevertheless offers enough opportunity in the coming years.
The Institute, he said, was not a front-runner in this technology, but foreseeing the requirement of feedstock for ethanol, developed bio-energy canes.
“While the development this far has been appreciable, the issue is, we are not integrated on feedstock development or integrating other technologies or in development of research labs that work on process optimisation and other related technologies. Each exist in silos,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Markets> Commodities / by L N Revathy / Coimbatore – June 25th, 2014
The government’s fruit farm in Karumandurai in Salem district has received three stars in the agriculture ministry’s five-star rating system. Spread over 1,050 acres, the farm produces varieties of mango and other fruits.The National Horticulture Board, part of the agriculture ministry, gave the Karumandurai Tamil Nadu Government Fruit Farm the rating for its nursery maintenance and plant and fruit production.”This rating would be applicable for two years. We are growing more than two lakh saplings of alphonso, neelam, malgova and imam pasanth mangoes every year. We also raise one lakh guava plants, 20,000 sapota and 10,000 pomegranate plants. Apart from these, we grow other fruits such as banana and jackfruit. Every year, we grow more than 6 lakh fruit plants and made a profit of 17 lakh in the last financial year,” said A Mohan, horticulture officer at the farm.He said a farm should have consistently produced good quality fruit plants for at least three years before it is eligible for the rating. The volume of production should increase every year.
The horticulture department has 66 fruit farms across the state, of which Karumandurai farm is the biggest. The farm, started in 1981, is one of the largest in south Asia.
He said TNGFF has insect-proof screen houses, soil sterilisation yards and indexing against viral and virus-like diseases. Nursery plants are reared under the care of pathologists, entomologists and horticulturists.
The horticulture officer said this year they have planned to sell more than 6 lakh fruit plants to growers and nursery owners and that targets for coming years were also being fixed. The nursery plants of sound health ensure better life expectancy and performance in the orchards, he added.
(AM Shudhagar will send fruit farm photos)
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by B. Senthil Kumaran , TNN / June 25th, 2014
A farmer explaining the salient features of cultivating kuthiraivaali (Barnyard millet) during summer, in Watrap region of Virudhunagar district./ Photo: G. Moorthy / The Hindu
Virudhunagar district to produce 12.5 tonnes of seeds
Summer cultivation of ‘Kuthiraivaali’ (Barnyard Millet), introduced for the first time by the Department of Agriculture, has been a hit among farmers of Virudhunagar district.
While, initially, officials found it tough to convince farmers to come forward to cultivate the minor millet as a major alternative crop to cotton and paddy, the success tasted by a few farmers has helped more farmers evince interest in this crop.
Virudhunagar has been chosen to produce 12.5 tonnes of ‘Kuthiraivaali’ seeds as part of the State government’s ambitious project to increase the area under millet cultivation to ensure food, fodder and livelihood security.
“We have given 125 kg of CO (KV) 2 seeds provided by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to 25 farmers. Cultivation of minor millets has been taken up on 50 acres,” Joint Director of Agriculture K. Subbiah said. The seeds are expected to be ready by August for sowing in September across the State.
Assured yield
Deputy Director P. Vanniyarajan said diversification to millet cultivation, especially during summer, would give assured yield with higher returns.
P. Poongavanam, a farmer in W. Pudupatti, said he had increased the extent of summer cultivation to eight acres because of ‘Kuthiraivaali’ that consumed less than 50 per cent of the water required for paddy or cotton.
S. Vijayakumar (54) of Maharajapuram is used to rain-fed irrigation of ‘Kuthiraivaali.’ He expected more than double the yield now, thanks to the improved variety of seeds and modern irrigation technique.
Another farmer, R. Gnanagurusamy (63), said that cultivation of the minor millet had the advantages of less water and fertilizer, no pesticide and free from crop damage by birds and animals.
Input cost less
“The input cost is less because of decreased need for weeding and farm preparation,” he said.
Stating that the plants grew taller (up to 6.25 feet) under irrigated condition, the Assistant Director (Seed Certification), S. Ramamoorthy, said farmers had the benefit of getting more quantity of fodder.
Besides getting higher yield and higher price, farmers who have taken up ‘Kuthiraivaali’ for seed production are given higher price. “While the market price is Rs. 25 to 30 a kg, we have promised to give them Rs. 50 a kg,” Muthaiah, an Agricultural Officer, said.
The officials are also planning to set up a unit to process the minor millet at a cost of Rs. 2.20 lakh after forming a cluster of ‘Kuthiraivaali’ farmers. “The farmers will get a better price for value addition,” Mr. Vanniyarajan said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by S. Sundar / Virudhunagar – June 21st, 2014
Established in 1892 by the British, Arapalayam Water Works is the first modern drinking water scheme in Madurai. An initiative of J A Jones, a British engineer, the project enabled the British to provide drinking water to Madurai city.
However, the scheme was abandoned after 1980 due to contamination of the riverbed and decaying of the stone structure which hosted the water works after city corporation dismantled its roof for renovation. Almost after a year, renovation was not carried out and the otherwise heritage structure is at peril. Residents and conservationists advocate that the structure and place surrounding it – being used as two-wheeler stand at present – can be converted into a beautiful park and heritage centre.
After capturing power in Madurai, the British constituted the city as a municipality in 1866 . To provide clean drinking water, Arapalayam Water Works was developed by the municipal administration by constructing a check dam and sand aquifer wells were sunk. The British were able to pump 30 lakh litres per hour through this system and were able to provide drinking water to the entire city. They also took care in protecting the check dam and aquifers by deploying a mounted horse battalion. According to a book titled ‘Neerinri – the water resources of Madurai’, the project, which had a long run was abandoned in 1980.
R Shivakumar, author of Neerinri, stresses that the structure should be protected considering its heritage value. “It could be turned into a park and the building could be used to host an event exhibiting photos and models of drinking water schemes of Madurai,” he said.
R Jothiram, 60, a resident of Arapalayam, recalled that a park existed some decades ago. “Some 40 years ago there was a park surrounding the water works. The Vaigai river itself was in good condition. The corporation and PWD failed to prevent contamination of the river and subsequently abandoned the project,” he rued. “There is no proper park for Arapalayam and Ponnagaram regions and converting this land at Arapalayam as park will be ideal. Besides hundreds of passengers utilizing nearby Arapalayam bus stand can cool their heels in this park,” said A Ramesh, a resident of Ponnagaram.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / by J. Arockiaraj, TNN / June 11th, 2014
A shop in the region with Pennycuick’s face on its hoarding.
With a fan club, several memorials and induction into the local Hindu pantheon, the legend of John Pennycuick, British engineer and chief architect of the disputed Periyar waterworks, lives on in southern Tamil Nadu
The fabled rice paddies of the Cumbum valley in Theni district, one of the most fertile belts in south India lying west of Madurai in southern Tamil Nadu, are girded by dense canopies of banana, grape and coconut. Here and there, Jersey cows look up from patches of serrated foliage, and rows of onion and beet saplings dance like so many chiffon-clad starlets before them in these bucolic uplands beloved of Tamil filmmakers. The road to Kumili, on the Kerala border, is a ribbon unspooling atop this parcel of green and surging towards the Cardamom Hills, wherein lies the fount of all this bounty: the 119-year-old Mullaperiyar dam, the source of a long-standing conflict between Tamil Nadu, which wants more of its water, and Kerala, which is concerned about the dam’s safety.
Last month, in a major victory for Tamil Nadu, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court upheld a 2006 judgment on the height and safety of the dam and allowed the water level to be raised to 142 ft. The move could mean that farmers in the state, who had settled into a bi-annual cropping pattern and suffered crop losses after the reduction in the height of the dam to 136 ft in 1979, may go back to raising three crops a year. It was amid this wave of hope that we visited Theni, one of five districts — including Madurai, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram and Dindigul — in the barren rain shadow region of Tamil Nadu that sprang to life with the opening of the 155 ft-high masonry dam in Kerala’s Idukki district in 1895. The spirit of the ruddy, mustachioed Colonel John Pennycuick (January 15, 1841 to March 9, 1911), the British chief engineer of the Periyar Waterworks, bestrides the low hills of Cumbum, which he is said to have surveyed on horseback over a century ago with his local aides, Aanaiviratti (tamer of elephants) Aanaithevar and Kaduvetti (clearer of forests) Karuputhevar. Over the years, legend of his largesse has snowballed and he has been assimilated into the local Hindu pantheon, with farming families offering the first harvest of the year in the form of pongal to a kumkum-anointed portrait of Pennycuick — a balding man in a white collared shirt and a dark jacket, his white-flecked moustache carelessly framing thin lips.
The legacy of a man who changed the course of the Periyar river, and the lives of millions of people, with the gravity of his actions and his sheer strength of purpose looms large over Theni. “If it wasn’t for Pennycuick, our fields would be fallow. Over 2.17 lakh acres of paddy, cultivated by 32,000 small farmers, are impacted by the dam. Every day, a crore or more people drink from its waters,” says KM Abbas, president of a farmers’ forum in Cumbum and author of a book on Pennycuick. In Cumbum, says Abbas, children know him as Pennycuick thatha (Tamil for grandfather) and are often named after his associates, a popular name being Logandurai, for ER Logan, who oversaw tunnelling works for the Periyar project.
For most of its 300-km length, the Periyar, literally, the Big River, flows through Kerala before emptying — wastefully, according to Tamil Nadu — into the Arabian Sea. Pennycuick’s great ingenuity was that he dammed the river at its confluence with the smaller Mullaiyar river, and diverted the water from the reservoir through a 1.6-km-long tunnel to Tamil Nadu, where it goes on to feed the Suruliyar river and the Vaigai dam. This water then passes through a grid of canals to irrigate vast tracts of land in the state. It would seem that the man who diverted a river from west to east for the first time in India’s history, charted a similar course for himself as he settled down to work at his modest cottage on the dam site at Idukki. Locals say he spoke fluent Tamil, relished biryani and made sure his workers never wanted for food or liquor. When torrents of rain washed away his labour of love three years into its construction, around the year 1890, he is said to have wept and struggled to gather funds for rebuilding the masonry dam in the face of scepticism from the British government.
In Palani Chettipatti, a small town near Theni through which a canal of the Mullaiyar flows, a legend reverberates with variations: the Chettiars from the area, locals say, donated liberally to the cause and Pennycuick gave them free access to the waters as a token of his gratitude. In yet another elision between fact and fable, solid gold offerings are said to have been consigned to the river at the behest of Pennycuick ahead of the opening of the sluice gates. We find a scant bit of history in Cumbum at the house of the descendants of Angur Rawther, Pennycuick’s contractor and supplier of labour and provisions. Rawther’s grandson, silver-haired Jafferulla, has preserved records of his family’s association with Pennycuick, including a note of thanks from the Government of Travancore for hosting dignitaries on their visits to the Periyar project.
In Thekkady, on the inter-state border, where the language changes abruptly to Malayalam as though we flicked a switch, the Rawthers still grow cardamom on lush slopes dotted with resorts. This side of the border, Pennycuick’s bust is the centrepiece of a well-tended garden facing the PWD bungalow at the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, where the artificial lake formed by the damming of the river is an important habitat for elephants and other wildlife. The 777-sq-km area was declared a sanctuary in 1934 and by 1978, it had become Kerala’s only tiger reserve. “All this tourism here is because of Pennycuick and the dam. But Kerala will never acknowledge him,” says a PWD worker, on condition of anonymity.
In Tamil Nadu, Pennycuick is both hero and victim. His face has became a trope for the troubled history of Mullaperiyar and a receptacle for political interests after the two states came to a head in the late 1970s. Photoshopped posters of chief minister Jayalalithaa and MDMK’s Vaiko sharing the stage with Pennycuick’s likeness are now plastered on public walls across the Cumbum valley. The Colonel even has his own fanclub, the Pennycuick Rejuvenation Forum led by O Andi of Palarpatti, a village near Thevaram in the Cumbum valley that hosted Pennycuick’s grandson in 2003. In December 2011, Andi led an agitation by over 1,200 farmers against Kerala’s stance on the dam. “We used Pennycuick’s posters to communicate our point of view — that the dam, after it has been strengthened, poses no threat to Kerala,” says Andi, in his dimly-lit home where a wall with a large, garlanded poster of the Englishman is the first thing that meets the eye. “We have been working for a decade to raise awareness about the great man,” says Andi, who began printing and distributing pamphlets on Pennycuick while still in college. “Not many people had heard of him before the Mullaperiyar issue became a movement in these parts. Now he is the face of the movement,” he says.
The largest and the latest of memorials to Pennycuick, with a giant bronze statue and black-and-white photographs of the dam, was inaugurated at Lower Camp near Gudalur in Theni last year by Jayalalithaa. It is here that Sanjeevi, 65, and her cousin Maragadham, 57, have come to pay their respects to a man who, they say, “did more than anyone ever could for Tamil Nadu”. “When we heard about the Supreme Court verdict, we set out on this pilgrimage,” says Sanjeevi, who spent her youth gathering forest produce near Gudalur before moving to Coimbatore to find work as a cook. In two days, Sanjeevi will leave for the city, but not before casting a final glance at Pennycuick at the Theni bus stand, which bears his name like so many restaurants, salons and cabs do in the region. “It is believed that his picture brings good luck,” says Rafiq Raja, of Hotel Mullai, a restaurant on the Theni-Kollam highway near Chinnamannur. “He gave us life. This is the least we can do to remember him,” Raja says.
Upon retiring from the PWD, Pennycuick returned to England to serve as president of the Royal Indian Engineering College, an institution on Cooper’s Hill near Egham, Surrey, that trained civil engineers to work in India. But for the people of the Cumbum-Theni region, Pennycuick is forever sutured into their consciousness, a flame of aspiration glowing through their darkest and driest years.
source: http://www.financialexpress.com / The Financial Express / Home> Economy / by V. Shoba / June 15th, 2014
