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| Three-heads, six-legs: Frog spawns bio-query |
Times of India, Friday, March 05, 2004
LONDON : Wildlife experts in Britain were left dumbfounded Friday after claiming
the unique discovery of a frog with three croaking heads and six legs.
"I have never seen anything like this before and as far as I am aware it is
unprecedented," leading biologist Mike Dilger said after the frog was spotted
at a children's nursery in Weston-super-Mare , southwest England .
Staff at the Green Umbrella nursery at first dismissed claims of the mutant
amphibian, believing instead that the multifaced creature could be three frogs
huddled together.
"Frogs have a very primitive embryology -- so the occasional extra toe is not
that unusual. But this is something different," said Dilger.
Animal experts were trying to capture the frog to carry out further tests to
investigate its biological make-up.
| Frog in pickle jar jolts Howrah family |
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2003 02:00:35 AM ]
HOWRAH: Insects and blades have popped up in bottles of branded soft drinks
before, but a family in Howrah were horrified to find a dead frog in a jar of
pickle.
The Kanstiyas of Dwarka complex on Carrie Road were taken aback when they found
the dead creature in the pickle container bottled by one of the biggest confectioners
in the country. The company also has huge retail stores throughout the city.
Sisir Kanstiya had bought the pickle jar on November 22 from a shop in their
complex. His wife Vinita consumed a bit of the pickle and only then did she
discover that a little frog was lodged in the jar. By then, it was too late.
Vinita had to be taken to hospital with food poisoning.
Sisir, too, was admitted to hospital after a severe bout of vomiting on Wednesday
night.
The indifferent attitude of the manufacturers infuriated the couple. “We called
up the company in the morning, but instead of showing any sign of regret, they
were extremely rude,” alleged Sisir. He has complained to the police about the
incident. The jar bears the batch No 1/20 and was packed in October 2003.
Police officers at Chatterjeeh at investigating centre confirmed they had received
the complaint. “The in-charge will visit the Kanstiyas’ residence and action
will be taken,” said an officer. Company official Manish Agarwal, when contacted,
said, “Such a thing should not happen with our products. If it happens, we would
stop manufacturing pickles. But at the moment, we are worried about the well-being
of those concerned irrespective of whatever had caused the food poisoning.”
As for Vinita, she has lost her love for pickles. “I have a fetish for pickles
but after this horrible incident, I won’t be able to touch them. When you find
such things in reputed products, how can you trust the other brands?”
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2003 12:13:36 AM
]
VAISHNAVI C. SEKHAR
MUMBAI: It looks like a slimy earthworm but is much more well connected —it’s
a secretive, subterranean relative of the frog.
Scientists from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) have discovered a
new species of caecilians, or limbless amphibians, in the thickly forested areas
of Ratnagiri in western Maharashtra.
Caecilians are the least known of the three kinds of amphibians (the other two
are frogs and salamanders). They are legless burrowers characterised by rings
around their body and found largely in swampy tropical areas.
Like other amphibia, and unlike worms, they have jaws, teeth and sometimes scales,
a remnant of their piscean ancestry. The species is being named ‘Gegeneophis
danieli’ after eminent naturalist J.C. Daniel, honorary secretary of the BNHS.
This is the first time in more than 30 years that the BNHS has discovered a
new species. “They are good indicators of ecology and biodiversity since they
only survive in forests with good rainfall and rich loamy soil,’’ says Varad
Giri, who stumbled on the species while surveying the region with researchers
Sameer Kehimkar and Vithoba Hegde three years ago.
“Amphibians live on land and in water, so they are the first to reflect environmental
change,’’ adds BNHS member Isaac Kehimkar.
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, JANUARY 02, 2004 04:19:40 AM ]
2004 is here. Like the years before, this year will bring, life in its entirety
-joys and sorrows, successes and failures. Here’s how to cope.
The world needs more warm hearts and fewer hot heads. The heart of education
is the education of the heart. True wisdom is calming the mind and warming the
heart. It is the combination of head and heart which makes us inwardly rich.
Man is frozen with hurts and frustrations. If one can heal ones hurts and transform
frustrations into fascinations then worry will become wisdom. Let this dream
be our destination for the New Year.
We limit ourselves to boundaries for we are a victim of limiting and negative
beliefs. Action is a result of thought and thought a result of our beliefs.
Let us have the belief all difficulties are divine surgery. Then we will treat
difficulties with respect and not worry.
Reflect on this story
A farmer came and asked the owner of a restaurant if he could use a million
frog legs. The restaurant owner was shocked how he could supply so much. The
farmer told him he had a pond near his house with millions of frogs. The owner
agreed. The next day the farmer brought two frogs. "Where are the million frog
legs you promised?" asked the restaurant owner. The farmer said,"I thought there
are million frogs for there was so much of croaking whole night, hence I inferred
there are million frogs." Next time some one hurts you, in your mind millions
of thoughts will tell you he has hurt you million times, just remember the above
story. Keep in mind that problems always seems bigger in the dark. In the darkness
of our unawareness we kill ourselves not by the world but our thoughts and interpretations
Being hurt or upset whether you justify it or not it is self damaging. We suffer
from thought attack more than heart attack. Learn to entertain healing thoughts
and then you will find life having a new flavour. Frustration can be transformed
into fascination. Learn to have the belief if one door closes the other door
will open. There are two types of stress, inner and outer stress. Inner stress
is having wrong thoughts, wrong beliefs and wrong interpretations. Outer stress
is caused by pollution, wrong eating and working habits. Let the New Year bring
you the wisdom to convert worry into wisdom, frustration into fascination, suffering
into surrender and dream into a destination.
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2003 01:14:05 AM ]
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
WASHINGTON: The discovery of a unique, frog-like creature in India's Western
Ghats is making biologists go "well well well." The bloated, bright purple animal
unearthed in the Sahayadris is so exceptional that it merits the establishment
of not only a new species but also a new family, scientists said.
The novel, burrowing, gelatinous frog-relative was discovered by S D Biju of
the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Thiruvanantpuram and Franky
Bossuyt of the Free University of Brussels in Belgium.
It has been named Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis. Nasikabratrachus is a combination
of Sanskrit and Latin and translates as "frog with a nose".
Scientists say approximately 4,800 currently known species of frogs belong to
29 families, most of which were named by the mid-1800s. The newly-discovered
creature, described today in the journal Nature, diverged from its closest relatives
during the heyday of the dinosaurs some 130 million years ago.
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2003 02:58:59 AM
]
APARNA GUPTA
Last night, after encountering the 'hooker', the systems department in an organisation
was busy doing the 'rain dance'. Nothing scandalising though, we're just talking
shop in geek-speak aka computer lingo. For those not logged on, in the world
of virtual space, 'hooker' is a virus and 'rain dance' refers to any action
taken to correct a hardware problem with the expectation that nothing will be
accomplished!
"Similarly, to 'wave a dead chicken' means that, although nothing concrete has
resulted from a particular exercise, the bosses are satisfied that an appropriate
degree of effort has been expended," enlightens Dinesh Tyagi, a computer engineer,
"This term is also used to describe the futile, but nevertheless, necessary,
ritual of trying to repair crashed software or hardware."
Here's a tip: if your mouse cursor on the screen moves in random directions
and not in sync with the motion of the actual mouse, it is suffering from the
'drunk mouse syndrome'. Hic-hic? Well, it's not impossible that a drunk mouse
turns into a 'dancing frog' at the sight of the technician. Inspired by the
cartoon One Froggy Evening, 'dancing frog' refers to a problem which occurs
on a computer, but does not show up when someone else is watching!
Talking of frogs, beware of the 'leap frog attack', which is the use of user
ID and password information illicitly obtained from one host to compromise another
host.
"Last Sunday, my boss threw a 'dead-tree version' —a paper version of an online
document —at me for doing a rabbit job (read: a programme which does little
real work but creates one or more copies of itself, like breeding rabbits,"
informs Vivek Gupta, a software engineer. Yeh dil maange more? A slight disturbance
when the programmer is 'juggling eggs' (modifying a programme) is likely to
result in the programme becoming scrambled (junk)! Moreover, just because an
IT company is eating 'dog food' doesn't mean that it is cost-cutting. Dog food,
after all, is the interim software used internally for testing. It's a whacky
world out there... virtually!
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 2003 01:15:45 PM ]
PANAJI: The state government will vigorously implement the ban on catching,
killing and export of frog legs.
The government has said that "catching, killing and exporting of frogs for meat
contravenes the provisions of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and attracts stringent
punishment under the said Act." Chief conservator of forests, D Pandey said
the forest rangers chased away some people catching frogs in Valpoi area in
North Goa. With the onset of monsoon, the frogs come out of hibernation for
breeding and mating when the people catch them, said Mr Pandey who is also the
chief wildlife warden.
He said the ban is always there but during the monsoon, due to the practice
of catching the frogs for consumption, the department has alerted the people.
"Frog legs are considered a delicacy and popular as jumping chicken. Some restaurants,
despite the ban serve the dish which is also known as white meat," said Norma
Alvares, president of People for Animals-Goa. Ms Alvares, who was awarded Padamshree
in 2002 for animal welfare activities, said frog catchers shine torches in the
night when frogs come out and stun the animals using a stick. The frogs make
themselves known by their croaks.
Select clients visit certain restaurants, which serve to orders placed in confidence.
The restaurants are said to be along the coastline, near the beaches. For its
high price and the confidentiality, the frog legs are made available very selectively.
The demand for the frog legs in coastal Goa is also because of the presence
of foreign tourists. Ms Alvares said "the cruelty is shocking as the animals
are left to die after the legs are chopped off." The frog legs, reportedly,
were exported some two decades ago.
The information department that circulated a press note has educated the people
of the importance of frogs because of their specialised feeding habits, insects
and vectors responsible for various diseases like encephalitis, malaria, filaria.
etc. The government has stated further that frogs play a vital role in the food
chain of an eco system and thus contribute greatly to the ecological balance
of nature.
It has requested the general public "not to indulge in catching, killing and
selling frogs or serving frog meat in eating places."
PTI[ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 08, 2003 11:19:17 AM ]
AJMER : Researchers have found a rare species of frog, claimed to be smallest
in the world, near here. The frog - Microhyla Ornata - is transparent and so
small in its early life that it cannot be seen with naked eyes, Prof K K Sharma,
head of Zoology department in the Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati university here,
said.
Some adult frogs reach maximum size of nine millimeters, Sharma, who is working
on their conservation, said. The tiny creatures were found near the university
campus besides nearby villages of Kayad and Chachiawas. The rare species of
frog is threatened by construction activities, he said.
The specimen collected by the researchers are sexually mature and are being
studied, he added.
[THURSDAY, JANUARY 09, 2003 01:57:37 AM]
AMARTYA SEN
On the occasion of the largest meeting ever of the Indian diaspora (the Pravasi
Bharatiya Divas in Delhi ), it is worth asking what we Indians - living in India
or abroad - have reason to be proud of. The sceptic might, of course, doubt whether
there is anything at all to make us proud to be Indian. That is exactly the point
of view of petty officers in minor consulates across the world, who keep us waiting
in long queues before giving us a visa to visit their country, while preoccupying
us with such uplifting questions as: "How do you actually manage to earn a living?
Or do you?"
It is not, however, silly to ask: What, if anything, should we be proud of? Is
it that we are very special and have done great things on our own, in splendid
isolation? I would argue exactly the opposite. We have a long tradition of being
globally interactive and of enjoying it. Our ability to be simultaneously receptive
and creative is, of course, well illustrated by recent achievements in, say, science
and technology, in world literature, in global business. Indians have been able
to give even as they have received. What needs emphasis today is that this give
and take is not new, even though some cultural separatists do their best to pull
the shutters down.
There is a warning in a parable about a well-frog - the kupamanduka - which occurs
in several old Sanskrit texts, such as Ganapath, Hitopadesh, Prasannaraghava,
and Bhattikavya. The kupamanduka is a frog that lives its whole life within a
well, knows nothing else, and is suspicious of everything outside it. Interactions
have been part and parcel of Indian civilisation - from very early days. Consider
Sanskrit. The generally agreed understanding that in an early form Sanskrit came
to India from abroad in the second millennium BC, with the migration of Indo-Europeans,
and then flourished here in India should not diminish our pride in that great
classical language and in the exceptional richness of the literature, culture
and science that found its expression in Sanskrit. And yet there are organised
attempts right now to eradicate this alleged "blot" of foreign connection by concocting
some fairy tale of an indigenous origin as officially approved history.
As it happens, it is also the case that the greatest grammarian in Sanskrit (indeed
possibly in any language), namely Panini, was an Afghan, who describes his origins
on the banks of the river Kabul . Indeed, interactions have enriched as well as
spread Sanskrit across the world over thousands of years. The seventh-century
Chinese scholar I-tsing learned his Sanskrit in Java (in the city of Shri Vijaya
) on his way from China to India . The influence of interactions are reflected
in languages and vocabularies throughout Asia from Thailand and Malaysia to Indo-China
, Indonesia , the Philippines , Korea and Japan . And China too.
It is not often realised that even such a central term in Chinese culture as "Mandarin"
is derived from a Sanskrit word, namely "Mantri", which went from India to China
via Malaya . The first printed book in the world was the Chinese translation by
Kumarajiva (a half Indian, half Turkish scholar) of a Buddhist Sanskrit text,
Vajracchedikaprajnaparamita. To take another subject, viz mathematics, there is
no need to invent, as is being attempted, some imaginary "Vedic mathematics" -
allegedly pursued with great sophistication and in resplendent isolation in the
second millennium BC. Indian mathematics and astronomy actually flourished particularly
in the first millennium after Christ. Arabic and Persian writers are extremely
generous in acknowledging what was achieved in India then - a long list including
the development of the modern form of the decimal system, the emergence of trigonometry
and Aryabhata’s identification of the diurnal motion of the earth.
But all this was going on in an interactive world, in which Indians mingled with
Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Iranians, Chinese and others. For example, the Sanskrit
astronomical work Paulisa Siddhanta focused its attention on longitudes at three
place in the world: Ujjain , Benares and Alexandria . Not only were there interactions
between Chinese and Indian astronomers in the seventh and eighth centuries, an
Indian astronomer, Gautama, became president of the Chinese board of astronomy,
and produced the great Chinese compendium of astronomy called Khai-Yuan Chan Ching.
Or consider the basic trigonometric concept of the "sine". Why is it called that?
There is clear evidence that the concept of "sine" found its early formulations
in the hands of Aryabhata in India in the fifth century, who called it jya-ardha
("chord-half"). Arab mathematicians derived from jya the word jiba, which, following
Arabic practice of omitting vowels, was written as jb. However, since jiba is
not an Arabic word, the Arab mathematicians soon started reading the consonants
jb as jaib, a word that means a bay or a cove in Arabic. When, around 1150, the
Italian mathematician Gherardo of Cremona adopted the idea of the sine, he translated
the Arabic word jaib as "sinus", which is the Latin term for a bay or a cove.
Thus came the word "sine". India has been in the middle of global associations
for a very long time. There are reasons for us to take pride in India ’s role
not as an imaginary culture in static isolation, but as a dynamic civilisation
interacting vigorously with the world. We do not have to seek our pride in the
fanciful world of a flourishing well-frog.
By P. Venugopal
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Oct. 20. A slimy, rubbery, burrowing frog has sent S.D. Biju
leapfrogging from the marshes and forests of the Western Ghats, where he had
been engaged in rigorous field research for the last nine years, to a world
of international recognition.
His discovery of this three-inch-long purple, snub-nosed frog (in picture) of
the Western Ghats, which he and a Brussels-based scientist, Franky Bossuyt,
have reported in the latest issue of Nature, is being described by biologists
as a special, "once-in-a-century find''. Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis, represents
not only a new species but also a new family of frogs.
Its internal anatomy and DNA sequence data show that it belongs to a species
that existed in the age of the dinosaurs. Its closest relatives now live in
Seychelles, 3,000 km south of the Indian peninsula, providing yet another piece
of evidence in support of the theory of continental drift. According to the
theory, India was part of a southern supercontinent called Gondwanaland 160
million years ago. Seychelles is believed to have broken away from the Indian
landmass some 65 million years ago.
This is how S. Blair Hedges, who reviewed the find in the `news and views' section
of Nature describes it: "Just how significant is the discovery of another family
of frogs? Only 29 families are known, encompassing the approximately 4,800 known
species. Most of these families were named by the mid-1800s, and the last discovery
of a species of frog belonging to a new family, as opposed to merely a taxonomic
rearrangement, was in 1926. All others date to the 1700s and 1800s, making this
a `once-in-a-century find'.''
Dr. Biju, a conservation biologist at the Tropical Botanical Garden Research
Institute at Palode here, is acknowledged as an authority on frogs. A synopsis
of the frog fauna of the Western Ghats, which he brought out recently, mentions
four new genera and about 115 new species. They are awaiting scientific description.
"The Western Ghats is considered one of the `hottest of hot spots' of biodiversity
in the world. It is a gold mine for the biologist,'' Dr. Biju, who is now in
London undertaking a research programme at the British Museum, told The Hindu
over the phone.
He said Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis was, in fact, widely distributed in the
forests of the Western Ghats and the adjoining plantations in Kerala and Tamil
Nadu. A specimen was first handed over to him by villagers digging a well at
Kattappana in Kerala's Idukki district, who found it sitting immobile nearly
seven feet down in the mud.
According to Dr. Hedges, more than anything else this discovery shows how incomplete
the knowledge of biological diversity is today, even at the higher taxonomic
levels. "Extraordinary discoveries such as this show that there is an urgent
need for more biotic surveys. Many species which occur in biodiversity hot spots
like the Western Ghats are found nowhere else, but such repositories are fast
drying up all over the world,'' he says.
Dr. Biju, who hails from Kadakkal village in Thiruvananthapuram district, is
basically a botanist. His interest in frogs was sparked by the many odd specimens
of frogs he encountered during his botanical surveys in the Western Ghats forests.
The frogs in some of the photos he brought back from the forests could not be
identified even by experts in the field. Identifying them by looking up the
available literature on the subject became a challenge for him and soon he found
himself drawn into the world of frogs.
Dr. Bossuyt is an evolutionary geneticist at the Brussels Free University in
Belgium and his role in tracing the evolution of the frog by analysing DNA clues
has been crucial in this finding.
The Hindu, Feb 14, 2004
MYSORE, FEB.14. Forest fires have broken out in parts of Nagarahole National
Park in Mysore district and large tracts of forests have been destroyed in D.B.
Kuppe and Mettikuppe range. The fire has also engulfed a part of the Kalahalla
range, and the stretch near Aanemala, Odakanamala, and Balle in D.B. Kuppe has
been badly affected.
Nagarahole National Park, which was recently brought under Project Tiger, is
highly vulnerable to forest fires during summer and a blaze was anticipated
this year also following drought in the region. Sources in the Forest Department
told The Hindu that forest fires had been reported at Metikuppe and D.B. Kuppe
range in the past and though such a situation was anticipated this year also,
the authorities failed to release sufficient funds to prevent the outbreak of
fire. This happened despite the availability of funds from Forest Development
Agency floated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
Under this, every national park is allocated Rs. 3 crore spread over three years
and the Nagarahole National Park should have sought the release of Rs. 1 crore
for the current season. The objective of the FDA is to enhance natural vegetation
and instead of using the funds to protect and conserve forests they are allocated
for activities civil works like digging pits and planting trees in a natural
forest which is unwarranted, sources say.
The funds were essentially meant for investing on fire protection mechanism
and if utilised properly, could have protected the natural vegetation, they
said. As Nagarahole is a part of Project Tiger, allocation of funds for fighting
forest fires should have received priority. But the blazing fires prove that
there were no proactive steps, including appointment of fire guards in many
ranges, due to paucity of funds, sources added.
RAKESH SOOD New Delhi, Feb 17, 2004
The government will soon be coming out with a national
environment policy. The draft of the policy has already been circulated among
various stakeholders, central ministries concerned and the state governments for
wider consultations. "The draft policy formulated by The Energy and
Resources Institute (TERI) is expected to be finalized by May this year for
consideration by Union Cabinet" the Minister for Environment and Forests,
Ramesh Bais told Financial Express when approached for his comments.
Reform of the process for review and approval of environmental impact assessment
and revision of the Coastal Zone Regulations in the light of Supreme Court
decisions are amongst the major issue identified by the Committee on Economic
Reforms (CCER) headed by the Prime Minister. Similarly, action plan under the
new policy envisages increase in forest cover from the existing 23 per cent of
the country's land area to 33 per cent by 2012 and priority will be given for
setting up public-private partnership for implementation of various plans
schemes including management of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Also,
an action plan addressing pollution in all major rivers of the country by the
year 2012 has been included in the new policy said a senior officer in the
Ministry of Environment.
Meanwhile, a taskforce has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Secretary of the Ministry, Pradipto Ghosh to monitor the progress of the forest diversion clearance procedures. Mr. Bais said "Every effort will be made to ensure that these issues are sorted out within the prescribed tine frame by March 31 and the policy is placed before the union cabinet for approval by May end". He said that efforts will he made to ensure the livelihood of tribals and forest dwellers while taking care of conservation needs. In this regards, process of regularization of pre-1980 encroachment on forests, settlement of claims of tribals on forest land and conversion of forest villages into revenue villages will be speeded up. There are over 600,000 villages in the country Of these 1,73,000 villages are located inside forests or are on the fringes of forests.
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