Green Options

Officials from 13 nations are meeting to discuss conservation efforts to save the endangered tiger.   Officials from countries where tigers still roam - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam -  are taking part in the Asia Ministerial Conference (AMC) on Tiger Conservation. The conference runs from January 27 to January 30, 2010,  in Thailand.

Continuing a series on Ecovillages I started last month, this article delves into some of the unique features and successes of the extraordinary Auroville ecovillage in India.

Auroville’s main goal has always been “to realise human unity — in diversity”. It is also concerned with “sustainable living and the future cultural, environmental, social and spiritual needs of mankind.” It is involved in ongoing researching on these topics. Ideally, it’s intended that Auroville (City of Dawn) eventually consist of 50,000 people from India and around the world.

The idea for the ecovillage or township started to sprout in the mid-1960s by its main founder, Mirra Alfassa, “The Mother” (born in Paris by an Egyptian mother and Turkish father), and the project was founded in 1968.

In 1966, before it was founded, the project (located in southern India) had already received the backing of UNESCO, support which has continued in a variety of ways since then. “In 1966 UNESCO passed a unanimous resolution commending it as a project of importance to the future of humanity, thereby giving their full encouragement.”

Average surface temperature predictions for the Indian sub-continent

In keeping with the recently announced voluntary and unilateral targets to reduce the emissions intensity of its increasing GDP, the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) of the Government of India has just put together an Expert Group with an objective of making India a Low Carbon Economy. Predicted to be one of the worst climate change affected regions in the near future, India has already gotten on its toes with the various Indian states putting together their Action Plans on tackling climate change and by taking the lead in calling for global cooperation on green technology.

A report, citing figures obtained from the government, says Hong Kong’s roadside air pollution reached life-threatening levels one in every eight days last year.

The air pollution index was recorded by the Environmental Protection Department. It said there were 44 days of “very high pollution” last year. That number is up from the 39 reported days in 2008 and the 13 days in 2005.

Time is running out for one of the world’s most beautiful, charismatic and powerful species, the tiger.  According to conservationists, the wild tiger population has declined by 95 percent during the past century.  Only 3,200 tigers, Panthera tigris, remain in the wild today.

A Chinese court has sentenced a man to 12 years in jail, plus a fine, for killing an endangered Indochinese tiger - which was made into a stew and eaten.

The Mengla county court in Xishuangbanna has sentenced Kang Wannian to 12 years in jail, plus a fine of over $14,642 USD, for killing an endangered Indochinese tiger in southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

Kang claimed he did not know the animal he shot was a tiger.

Two greater one-horned rhinos were found murdered with their horns missing inside India’s Kaziranga National Park - and authorities believe it was the work of poachers posing as park visitors.

Forest guards covering the Agartoli range of Kaziranga National Park have discovered the bodies of a male and female rhino - both with their horns removed.

Officials say the killers simply entered the park posing as visitors.

Past attempts to reintroduce these last remaining, truly, wild horses to the Central Asian steppe country have been unsuccessful. Now, after assessments of two horse projects–one at Hustai National Park (with 171 horses living on their own, as of 2006) and the other at Takhin Tal (with 115 horses, as of 2007)–ecologists and wildlife conservationist are confident enough in the animals’ chances for long-term survival to upgrade its status from “extinct in the wild” to “critically endangered”.

India’s Bagha-Chitauni rail link has unexpectedly created a swampy new home for a family of rhinos.

Although in the 1990’s, Bihar forest officials fought - and lost - a legal battle to stop the railway track relaying project, today they couldn’t be happier: The obstruction has created 1,000 hectares of swampy rhino habitat.

Only 80 wild elephants are left in Vietnam, according to Vietnam’s state-run newspaper, Lao Dong.   Experts at the Vietnam Forest Management Agency workshop, held earlier this week, reported the elephant population in Vietnam is in rapid decline. 

“There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That’s a fact
It’s a thing we can’t deny
Like the fact that I will love you till I die.”

Enjoy these great bicycle photos from Beijing while listening to the beautiful song by Katie Melua that starts with these lines.