<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of In Re: Unchecked cattle sheds on the opposite side of police outpost in Bidhannagar, dispute regarding its demolition
The 10th Venu Menon National Animal Award's Ceremony was recently held here. Kapila Vatsyayan, Member of Parliament; Sathya Saran, renowned journalist and editor, DNA; MK Ranjitsinh, chairman Wildlife Trust of India; KB Menon, chairman, Venu Menon Animal Allies Foundation graced the occasion and conferred awards on six individuals, two organisations and one community for making a difference to the lives of animals by acts of kindness and extraordinary courage. Fred O'Regan, president of International Fund for Animal Welfare, delivered the 8th Venu Menon Memorial Lecture on the occasion. Vivek Menon, managing trustee of Venu Menon Animal Allies Foundation and executive director of Wildlife Trust of India while addressing the event said, "In ten years, the awards ceremony has grown to a national event of great importance among the animal welfare and wildlife fraternity. This is the best tribute to Venu's memory that the foundation can hope for.' The Venu Menon Animal Awards are India's premier private awards that commemorate excellence in animal welfare. Started in 1998 in the memory of Venu Menon, an animal lover and a highly respected and successful Communications Consultant.
Eight-year-old Pooja visits India for the third time to meet
Mr. P.G. Jayachandran of Thrissur district in Kerala in his farm. Generating a better income from a limited area is an art, especially in farming operations, where judicious use of available space is an important factor. Very fewfarmers who practise integrated farming succeed in generating a good income from it. Managing successfully Mr. P.G. Jayachandran of Thrissur district in Kerala seems to be case in point. He has been successfully able to manage both crops and animal husbandry in his seven acre farm and integrate the different components into a single unit. He has a dairy unit of nine cows, with a daily milk production of about 60 litres. A part of the milk is sold to a milk society and the rest is used for making value added products such as buttermilk and ghee. Organic manures Fodder grass for the cattle is raised as an intercrop in his farm and coconut oil cake is used as feed for the animals. Organic manures such as cattle manure are the main source of nutrients for his crops. He also has a collection of Malabari, Jamnapari and Sannan goat breeds which are mainly used for kid production. A piggery unit comprising large White Yorkshire and Landrace breeds, is primarily used for utilisation of agricultural waste. The piggery unit provides him considerable income without much expenditure, according to Dr. Sabin George, Assistant Professor (Animal Husbandry), Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Thrissur. Back yard poultry with about 50 layer birds of Gramalakshmi and Rhode Island Red breeds yield about 40 eggs daily which are sold in the market. In addition, he also has turkey, quail and guinea fowl. Good demand He has about 200 coconut palms, yielding 150 nuts a year, a part of which is used for seed nut production for his own nursery. The remaining nuts are used for production of coconut oil which has a good demand at his farm itself. He earns aboutRs. 1lakh a year from coconuts alone, after meeting all the expenses. According to Dr. T.N. Jagadeesh Kumar, Associate Professor, KVK, Thrissur, the different enterprises in his farm are arranged systematically to encourage maximum utilization of land and resources and integration of various components. Plantation crops such as rubber, coconut, and arecanut occupy the prime area of the farm. Other crops such as vegetables, banana, pepper, cocoa, colocasia, elephant foot yam, and yams are intercropped, wherever feasible. The animal sheds are situated at the middle to facilitate transport of manures to all parts of the farm. Water harvesting Water harvesting devices (tanks lined with silpauline sheets) are located at an elevation which permits gravitational flow of water to all parts of the farm. Fish varieties such as Rohu, Catla, Grass carp and Mrigal are bred in a twenty-five cent pond in the farm, and the slurry used for irrigation. In addition, Mr. Jayachandran maintains a biogas plant and vermicompost unit for organic manure production. He raises azolla in shallow tanks for feeding poultry and cattle, which improve the quality of produce. Intercropping The coconut and arecanut gardens are intercropped with banana, colocasia and yams. He has a wide collection - about 15 types of banana. He considers banana as a maximum utility crop since all the plant parts are used - bunches harvested, suckers sold and the pseudostem used for mulching and vermicompost production. Banana cultivation, mostly intercropped, alone gives him an annual return of Rs.85,000. The farmer also has about 50 nutmeg trees, intercropped with garcinia, and coffee. Part of the garcinia and coffee is used for home consumption and the balance, marketed. He maintains a nursery in his farm where good quality seedlings of all the crop varieties grown and sold. Readers can contact Mr. P. G. Jayachandran, Puthuppally House, Kaniarkode Post, Pin 680 659 Thiruvilwamala Via, Thrissur 680 594 and Dr. T N. Jagadeesh Kumar, Associate Professor (Agronomy), mobile: 9447467288 and Dr. Sabin George, Assistant Professor (Animal Husbandry), K.V.K, Thrissur, Vellanikkara, KAU Post, pin 680 656, mobile: 9446203839.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has denied reports that 600 rare Himalayan goats
The spotting of nearly 100 dead chickens on Sunday at two spots near the famous Buddhist pilgrimage site of Sarnath has triggered a bird flu scare in the area. The birds were seen lying along the Varanasi-Ghazipur railway track in Lohia Nagar area under the Sarnath police station. The locals informed the State Animal Husbandry Department, and a team, led by Chief Veterinary Officer (Varanasi) B B Sings, visited the spot. The owner of a nearby poultry farm, Sudhir Singh, has been detained for questioning by the police. Officials also visited the farm, where they found 21 live birds. CVO Sings said the farm owner had denied that the dead birds belonged to his farm. It was while they were making preparations to bury the dead birds and to collect serum and blood samples of the birds alive, that news came of the recovery of more dead birds a short distance from Lohia Nagar. Fifty birds were found dead near a culvert at Nevadhi Sandaha village under the Chaubeypur police station, a kilometre from the Sarnath railway station. Villagers told officials that the birds had been lying there since Saturday. Since the birds were suspected to have been dead for more than 48 hours, they couldn't be used for collecting samples and the officials are in the process of burying them. "The dead birds from Lohia Nagar will be sent to the High Security Diseases Control Lab in Bhopal, while serum and blood samples taken from the living birds at the poultry will be sent to the lab in Pune. Only after the samples are tested at Pune and Bhopal can anything be said about possibility of bird flu,' the CVO said. While he added that the birds may have died due to overcrowding during transport or lack of water at a time when temperatures are on the rise, Sings did not rule out chances of bird flu. Additional City Magistrate Devi Das, who accompanied the team, has directed inspection of all the 14 poultry farms in a 5-km radius around Sarnath. Incidentally, on January 26, a consignment of 5,000 birds had arrived at Varanasi railway station on the Vibhuti Express from the bird flu-infected district of Birbhum in West Bengal. The consignment was brought by a local poultry owner, Dipu Sonkar, and immediately sent to poultries in Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Buxar in Bihar. The birds were later culled in Bihar and Shahjahanpur. "Though there are remote chances of bird flu at a time when summer is setting in, we are not taking any chances,' said the CVO.
Sydney: Organic chickens might have a better life but when it comes to the end, there is no difference in the taste between free range and factory-raised birds, according to a taste test by Australian food experts. Consumer advocate Choice lined up a panel of four food experts to taste eight different roast chickens
In a bid to check the increasing number of stray cattle on the Capital's roads, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will now tag each animal with a microchip to facilitate easy tracking and keep a ta
A walk was organised to raise awareness against chopping of trees and hunting of animals and birds in Thar here on Sunday.
A two-month-old male elephant calf that got separated from its mother from the wild was rescued by forest officials in Erode district.
The next time you see an injured dog or bird and want to nurse it, just call Animal Link at 9932170235.
