Hyderabad, Oct.23 (ANI): A sweetmeat confectioner here has decided to sell his products in paper bags to his customers with a message to avoid using polythene bags. Thirty-six-year-old Vijay Ram distributes hard-paper made carry bags to his customers that have a social message: “Be eco-friendly” printed on them. "I am trying to put across my message to prevent pollution,” said Vijay.

He narrates how it perturbed him for years to notice polythene or plastic bags being dumped into the dustbins by people which harmed helpless animals, whose daily meal depends on thrown away food items. Polythene bags failed to decompose in the soil and create a lot of problems for humans, animals as well as nature. Vijay has decided to do something in his own small way to prevent the harm caused to the environment by polythene bags. “My message to preserve the environment is printed on the sweet boxes. I also make pure sweets and use herbal colours for the preparations," said Vijay Ram, sweetmeat confectioner, Hyderabad.

“I am an artist too so I tried to use herbal colours in my paintings. I wish to convey my message to the people through my paintings too,” Vijay said. Customers patronising his shop agree with Vijay Ram’s concerns and appreciate his noble initiative. Many people have expressed support to his efforts. "I like all his programmes. I even attended one of the programmes conducted by Vijay Ram in which he showed how the cows are affected by the polythene waste and what could be done," said Venkateshwar, a customer.

With the festive season on in India, Vijay hopes that people would think twice before throwing synthetic bags in the garbage bins. (ANI)

Labels: Health, Hyderabad

Srikakulam (Andhra Pradesh), Oct 22 (ANI): At least ten people were trampled to death and dozens of houses were destroyed by a herd of rampaging elephants in Andhra Pradesh recently.In the latest incident, two persons - Tentu Srinivas Rao, a resident and one reporter G Nagaraje were trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants.

People in the area are scared for their lives and complain about the administration's apathy to the whole situation."The elephants are destroying everything in the village. The minister has visited the place, but nothing concrete has been done to end the elephant terror. Villagers are very worried about their safety", said D.Rama Rao, a resident.However, forest officials are confident that in another three-four days they will drive these elephants back into the Lekhari Sanctuary in Orissa with the help of experts who are arriving from Assam.

"Actually, the Andhra Pradesh Government represented by the forest department is taking action to drive away these elephants towards Lekhari sanctuary which is situated in Orissa across the border in three-four days", said P.V. Padmanabham, Conservator of Forest. (ANI)

Labels: Srikakulam, Top Stories

Hyderabad, Oct 21 (ANI): Curtains came down on the fourth World Military Games here today amidst a grand finale showcasing a blend of tradition and modernity. Union Defence Minister A K Antony declared the Games closed at the GMC Balayogi stadium after a four-hour long closing ceremony.

Thousands of spectators filled every inch of the stadium to join the celebrations of the Games in which nearly 5000 athletes from 101 countries participated. Russia emerged on top of the Medal Tally with 42 Gold, 26 Silver and 28 Bronze medals. China came second with 36 Gold, 22 Silver and 13 Bronze medals, while Germany came a distant third with 7 Gold, 10 Silver and 13 Bronze. India won 10 medals including 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 7 Bronze, its largest haul ever in the two editions of the Games that it participated in. During the Games, 3 world records and 27 CISM records were either set or overhauled.Of these 17 were set alone by women athletes.

A record of 49 countries won medals during the competitions, the highest ever in any edition of the Games. (ANI)

Labels: Hyderabad, Sports

Srikakulam (Andhra Pradesh), Oct 18 (ANI): Elephants are frequently rampaging a village in the Srikakulam District of Andhra Pradesh, and have already killed at least seven people in the last two months.

Frightened villagers of Donubai village say that elephants are attacking the village since the death of a fellow elephant at Darsi.Since then the herd of elephant is refusing to leave the area and goes on a periodical rampage, thereby destroying standing crops and several houses. In a latest incidence, two persons -K Appa Rao (40) and S Mariamma (45)- were trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants. People in this village are in a state of shock, as they can't more around freely.

"My father went to the hospital, while he was returning he was attacked by a herd of wild elephants. They first killed a woman named Mariamma and later they killed my father," said K. Das, whose father was a victim of the rampaging pachyderms.Complaining about the current state of affairs was another local named G. Mallesh.

"We are helpless and the elephants are destroying our fields and killing us. We do not have anything in our hand. We have approached the government authorities and let's see what they do," he said.

Incidents of man-animal conflict are common with the depletion of forest areas, and cases of animals straying into areas inhabited by humans for food are common. But here in Donubai village, the residents are facing the elephant menace for altogether different reason -the 'revengeful' elephants. (ANI)

Labels: Srikakulam, Top Stories

Hyderabad, Oct 15 (ANI): Union Minister for Science and Technology and
Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal inaugurated the National Tsunami Early
Warning System at the Indian National Centre for Ocean lnformation
Services (INCOIS) here today. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr. Y. S.
Raja Sekhar Reddy was also present on the occasion.

Recognizing the need for an Early Warning System for mitigation of
oceanogenic disasters that pose a severe threat to nearly 400 million
people who live along the state's coastal belt, the Ministry of Earth
Sciences (MoES) took up the responsibility of establishing the
National Tsunami Early Warning System. The warning system has been
established at a cost of Rs.125 crore in collaboration with
Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Space (DOS)
and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Tsunamigenic zones that threaten the Indian coast have been identified
on the basis of history, location of the area relative to a fault, and
also by tsunami modelling. The east and west coasts of India and the
island regions are likely to be affected by tsunamis generated mainly
by subduction zone-related earthquakes from the two potential source
regions, viz., the Andaman-Nicobar- Sumatra island arc and the Makran
subduction zone north of Arabian Sea.

The Indian Tsunami Early Warning System comprises a real-time network
of seismic stations, Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPR) and tide gauges
to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes and to monitor tsunamis. The Early
Warning Centre receives real-time seismic data from the national
seismic network of the lndian Meteorological Department (IMD) and
other International seismic networks. The system detects all
earthquake events of more than six Magnitude occurring in the lndian
Ocean in the less than 20 minutes of occurrence.

BPRs installed in the deep ocean are the key sensors to confirm the
triggering of a tsunami. The National Institute of Ocean Technology
(NIOT) has installed four BPRs in the Bay of Bengal and the two BPRs
in the Arabian Sea. In addition, NIOT and Survey of India (SOI) have
installed 30 Tide Gauges to monitor the progress of tsunami waves.
Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management (ICMAM) has customized
and run the Tsunami Model for five historical earthquakes and the
predicted inundation areas. The inundated areas are being overlaid on
cadastral level maps of 1:5000 scale. These community-level inundation
maps are extremely useful for assessing the population and
infrastructure at risk. High-resolution Coastal Topography data
required for modelling is generated by the National Remote Sensing
Agency (NRSA) using ALTM and Cartosat Data.

INCOlS has also generated a large database of model scenarios for
different earthquakes that are being used for operational tsunami
early warning. Communication of real-time data from seismic stations,
tide gauges and BPR's to the early warning centre is very critical for
generating timely tsunami warnings. A host of communication methods
are employed for timely reception of data from the sensors as well as
for dissemination of alerts. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
has made an end-to-end communication plan using INSAT. A high level of
redundancy is being built into the communication system to avoid
single point failures.

A state-of-the-art early warning centre is established at INCOlS with
all the necessary computational and communication infrastructure that
enables reception of real-time data from all the sensors, analysis of
the data, generation and dissemination of tsunami advisories following
a standard operating procedure. Seismic and sea-level data are
continuously monitored in the Early Warning Centre using a
custom-built software application jointly developed with MIS Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS) that generates alarms alerts in the warning
centre whenever a pre-set threshold is crossed. Tsunami warnings
watches are then generated based on pre-set decision support rules and
disseminated to the concerned authorities for action, following a
Standard Operating Procedure.

The efficiency of the end-to-end system was proved during the large
undersea earthquake of 8.4 M that occurred on September 12, 2007 in
the Indian Ocean. The National Early Warning Centre will generate and
disseminate timely advisories to the Control Room of the Ministry of
Home Affairs for further dissemination to the Public. For the
dissemination of alerts to MHA a satellite-based virtual private
network for disaster management support (VPN DMS) has been
established. This network enables early warning centre to disseminate
warnings to the MHA, as well as to the State Emergency Operations
Centres. In addition, messages will also be sent by phone, fax, SMS
and e-mails to authorised officials.

In case of confirmed warnings, the National Early Warning Centre is
being equipped with necessary facilities to disseminate the advisories
directly to the administrators, media and public through SMS, e-mail
and fax. The cyclone warning network of IMD and electronic ocean
information boards of INCOlS could be effectively used for
dissemination of warnings directly to the public. Periodic workshops
will be organized for the user community to familiarize them with the
use of tsunami and storm surge advisories as well as inundation maps.
Easily understandable publicity material on earthquake, tsunami and
storm surges has been generated and will be distributed to the general
public. (ANI)

Hyderabad, Oct 10 (ANI): Food lovers in Hyderabad recently took part in a unique competition of gobbling up ‘Haleem’ as much as possible in one minute.Hyderabad is famous for its non-vegetarian dish "Haleem" which literally means patience, because it takes long hours to prepare the dish. It is made of wheat, mutton, gram, pulse, curd, onions and vegetable oil with a sprinkling of spices. It is served with lemon juice.The contestants were given two kilograms of vegetarian haleem in three boxes.

The winner of the competition was Mohammad Saleem who managed to eat two kilograms of Haleem in 30 seconds."I am feeling really good. They gave us two minutes to finish it but I don't know in how much time I finished that much," said Saleem.

An eatery in the city, called 'Pista House', started organising this competition in 2003 with vegetarian versions of Haleem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The owner of eatery said he organised the competition despite recent terror attacks in the city to ease tension among residents. "We have organised this competition to make people feel a little relaxed," said M. A. Majeed, organiser of the competition. Haleem, a preparation that has its roots in the Arabia, is the most sought after dish during Ramadan. During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims observe a day-long fast without water and end it in the evening, by partaking water and dates. Ramadan, the ninth month of the Hijri lunar calendar, commemorates the revelation of the Holy Quran, and has traditionally been a time of religious fervour, settling old disputes and behaving charitably towards neighbours.(ANI)

Labels: Tourism