Chennai: The Greater ChennaiCorporation has inadequate spaceto house the stray cattle that havebeen rounded up and were yet to bereleased because the owners havefailed to pay the penalty.“The unclaimed cattle, which is

about 10 per cent of the impoundedcows, are sent to Blue Crossbecause of the lack of space and thenumber of cattle impounded everyday,” said Dr. J Kamal Hussain,Chief Veterinary Officer, GreaterChennai Corporation. The Corporation currently has

two cattle depots to accommodatethe impounded stray cattle, one inPerambur and the other one inPudupet. These facilities can hold up to 50

heads of cattle each. TheCorporation has no immediateplans of setting up another depot.The Corporation has sent about

30 heads of stray cattle to the BlueCross of India shed so far this year,said S. Vinod Kumaar, generalmanager-administration, BlueCross of India, here on February12. The ‘Corporation cattle’ are

identified with a yellow mark ontheir ears, are sent to the animalwelfare charity’s shelter. “They just get them here and

leave. No money is provided forthe upkeep. Neither theCorporation, not the owner comesback for them,” said Kumaar. About 90 per cent of such stray

cows have plastic in their stomachafter feeding on the trash in the bins

along the roads. Unless arumenotomy surgery is performed,it accumulates over time and endsup forming a ball in their stomach,weighing up to 45 kg in somecases.

“Once our doctors are doneperforming the surgery here, wesend them to gowshalas in Sirkazhiand Mayavaram because of spaceconstraints here. They(Corporation) keep sending morecattle,” said Kumaar. Over the past five years, the

Corporation has stepped up itsefforts to crack down on the straycattle menace. It has deployed 15cattle-catching vehicles for the 15zones. Fodder, basic emergency

medical care and water areprovided at the depots till the

owner claims the animal. A fine is levied on the cattle

owners and the cattle are releasedonly after they sign an affidavit.Last year, the fine amount washiked from Rs. 1,550 to Rs. 10,750in a bid to deter the cattle owners.The amount goes up by Rs. 250 foreach day after three days of thecattle being impounded. “We’ve definitely seen a dip in

the number of cattle beingimpounded of late. We’ll get a clearpicture next month,” said Dr.Hussain. According to the Corporation

data, the number of cattleimpounded from April 2018 toJanuary 2019 stood at 558 asagainst 1,667 from April 2017 toMarch 2018. The fine collected lastyear touched Rs. 26,99,200.

Hussain said that theCorporation had an official list ofcattle owners and Zonal Healthofficers, Sanitary inspectors andSanitary officers conductedmeetings with them once in threemonths to spread awareness. Hinting at the loopholes in the

implementation of the measures,Kumar said, “It’s a good thing thatthe fine is in place but the lack ofeffectiveness is evident on thestreets.” The owner’s failure to provide

food, shelter and protection is apunishable offence under Section11 of the Prevention of Cruelty toAnimals Act, 1960. Negligence andlack of responsibility on the part ofthe owners needed to be lookedinto in addition to the fine, headded.

CHENNAI February 15 , 2019 2THE WORDCITYSCAPE

Stray cattle crowd shelter SNEHA KANCHAN

Water woes beginahead of summer

Chennai: Standing near the stairs tothe four platforms, A. Vatsala, ahousekeeping staff at AlandurMetro station, guides everypassenger to the platform withoutgetting irritated by the constantflow of questions from cluelesspassengers.“I am given the extra load to

guide the passengers on these threedays, as there were not enough staffto manage the larger crowd,” shesays. A swarm of passengers took the

rides on Wednesday as free rideswere being offered by the ChennaiMetro Rail Limited on the occasionof the inauguration of the new linelinking AG-DMS station on AnnaSalai to Washermanpet station. “Usually, I work for eight hours,

from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. It gets 11when I reach home inMedavakkam,” says Vatsala, amother of two. “Sometimes, I have to stay

longer hours. I don’t demand moremoney, but respect is what I askfor,” complains 49-year-old Vatsalawho is constantly taunted by theauthorities and disrespected by thepublic. This is the everyday picture here,

says Sharmita, a ticket seller here.“All employees here complain oflow salaries, but the femalehousekeeping staff have to put upwith insults too,” she adds. Talking about her problems, she

says, “As per new timings, all thefemale ticket sellers work in themorning shifts, from 6 a.m. to2.p.m. The changes were madeafter some concerns were raisedover their safety, when they were

working in the second shifts from 2p.m. to 12 a.m.”“But, as one problem ended, the

other started. Ticket sellers workingon the first shift are burdened withdouble the work that we aresupposed to do, as employees onsecond shift don’t often show up.Our shift gets extended on thosedays, but our salaries remain atRs.9500.”The stipulated salary for the

ticket sellers is Rs.11,000, but forthe past few months, they are beinggiven only Rs.9500.Another female ticket seller at

Shenoy Nagar starts at around 5a.m. from Valasaravakkam, whichis 10 km away, to reach the stationon time. She thinks working in themorning shift now, despite the extrawork, is better than staying latenights.“Our colleagues, both men and

women, have faced harassments atnights, especially near theKoyambedu market, bytransgenders.” While the ticket sellers complain

of longer work hours, the female

Station Controllers complain ofodd timings. Their first shift startsat 4.a.m. Despite the odd timings,there is no cab facility for them. A male Station Controller says

that the new timings were a form ofrevenge taken by the ChennaiMetro Rail Limited authorities.“Earlier, all the station controllershad protested against CMRL forgiving away our jobs to contractors,who were being directly recruitedwithout appearing for any exams.There is no need to report at 4 a.m.All the work starts at 6 am.”According to him, some women

employees had earlier approachedthe State Women’s Commissioncomplaining about unsafe workculture. When asked about this, an

official from State Women'sCommission said, “A group of 23women employees had signed apetition three weeks back, but it isnot us who will oversee mattersconcerning the work. The petitionwas sent to the LabourCommissioner and we are awaitinga response from them.”

With nowhere to go, stray ‘Corporation’ cows flood Blue Cross’ sheds

Long hours, less pay

Chennai: Many areas like T.Nagar,West Mambalam, Thousand Lights,Alwarpet and Sholinganallur arealready facing water shortagewhich could get worse when thesummer peaks.Balaiya (63), a resident of T.Nagar(Crescent Park Street) said, “MetroWater supply is only on alternatedays and the quantity is decreasingday by day. Many borewells in thearea especially near Natesan Parkare drying up”. Ramani (56), a resident of WestMambalam (Reddy Kuppam Road)said, “Normally people start buyingwater from private tankers only inmonth of March but this year theresidents have started booking inmid-February itself.” Someresidents are even thinking ofmoving out for the summer.A. Raja, a shop owner in ThousandLights, said, “We are used to this.In May, I go and stay with my sonin Hyderabad which is better inwater management than Chennai”.Thaheera Banu, a resident ofGhulam Abbas Ali Khan Street inthe same area, said, “Around theyear we are suffering from watershortage; but with the bore wellsdrying up, it will be a bad summer.”The situation in the southern partsof the city is no different.Ravi Prasanth (35), a resident ofSholinganallur said, “We are notfacing any dip in water supply tillnow and we are booking the same

number of tankers from MetroWater.” Ravi also said, “There are320 houses in the apartmentcomplex and only half have beensold because many fear thatChennai would go dry in comingyears.”In contrast, Vignesh Kumar whostays in Erikarai in Sholinganallursaid, “This whole street in GandhiNagar has only one hand pump andthat too malfunctions once amonth.”Jaya Rani, also a resident ofErikarai, said, “Last yearCMWSSB made arrangementsproperly by placing two additionalwater tanks which were filled uponce a week so we don’t go dry”.P.Raghavan, a resident of Alwarpetsaid, “there is a huge fuss inapartment associations after dryingup of bore wells because no onehere wants to share the cost indeepening the well as many aretenants who stay in rentedapartments and owners are inforeign countries.”Residents of North Madras have adifferent complaint. SaravanaKumar, a resident of Tiruvottiyur,said, ”We don’t face water shortageright now but the water suppliedhas a filthy smell here.”Saraswathi who owns a tea stallnear the Housing Board colony inNew Washermenpet said,”2017was the worst summer when wefaced shortage in mid January itselfbut now we are supplied sufficientwater on alternate days.”

SRAVANI NELLORE30 cattle have been sent to the Blue Cross’ shelter so far this year

What it takes tosave lives

Chennai: The need and benefits ofblood donation should be includedin the curriculum of primaryschools, according to V.Chandrasekaran, Public RelationsOfficer at the Lions Blood Bank, anorganization credited with aidingover 30,000 patients annually.“It can take up to two weeks to

organize a blood donation drive ofa hundred donors,“ saysChandrasekaran. “In addition to ourmobile bus, we need at least twodoctors, two lab technicians, andsix cots on the site,” he adds.

Such drives are usually hosted

by educational institutions,churches, and corporate offices,and it is necessary to ensure that thearea is hygienic and well-ventilated, he adds. S. Namachivayam, Admissions

Officer at the Red Cross Society,says, “We conduct as many blooddrives as possible to source 100 percent voluntary donors.”

Replacement donation, therestoration of blood by a relative orfriend of the patient requiring thetransfusion, is frowned upon in thecommunity. “It adds emotionaldistress to a family that is alreadyfacing difficult times,” he adds.Once the voluntary donors’

blood is screened for the five basicinfections of Hepatitis B, HIV,HCV, Syphilis, and Malaria, theyare asked the number of bags theyare willing to donate. Each bag hasa capacity of 350 ml.The collected blood is moved to

the banks within six hours.“Patients may require whole

blood or just specific componentsto treat their particular condition,”says Dr. Rahima (29), LabTechnician at Red Cross Society. While plasma has a shelf life of a

year, red cells last 42 days, wholeblood for 35 days, platelets for fivedays, and white blood cells for only24 hours.“As per the organization’s

policy, we are required to donate allexcess usable components togovernment hospitals at the end ofindividual expiration periods,” sheadds.The hospitals not finding a

purpose for the components either,hand it over to the biomedicalwaste department, resulting in theunits ultimately being wasted.Switching to a need-based

donation mechanism helps managethe wastage, but creates troubleother times.“We have an extensive network

of beneficiary hospitals who notifyus a week before the scheduledsurgeries of the patients requiringblood, and only then do we reachout to our donors,” saysChandrasekeran.“But the summer months are a

period of drought. A hugepercentage of the donors arestudents and corporate workersfrom other cities who leave duringthe vacations. It is tougher to manage open

camps during the monsoon as thechances of contracting seasonalinfections are higher,” he adds.

TULIKA CHATURVEDI

The TN branch of the Red Cross Society started in 1920 Adoption preferences form patterns in Chennai

VIVANESH PARTHIBAN

Chennai: A Chennai-based wastemanagement company calledKabadiwalla Connect has launchedmobile app-based smart trash cans(urbin) to motivate residents tocome forward and dispose ofplastic bottles for recycling.Kabadiwalla Connect helps

leverage a city’s existing wasteinfrastructure in the collection andprocessing of post-consumer waste.This team came up with the sensorbased dustbin mainly to overcomethe waste issue in the city.Siddharth Hande, Managing

Director of Kabadiwalla Connectsaid, “Our aim is to ensure that noplastic ends up in oceans andlandfills by making recycling fun,simple and effortless for theresidents of the city. Our target is toensure all households in Chennairecycle their plastic waste by theyear 2020.”

The urbin has an ultrasonicsensor which checks the level ofgarbage filled in the dustbin andsends an alert to the municipal webserver once the bin is filled. Ashok Kumar, a resident of

Nugambakkam, said, “The idea isfantastic and the small Urbin isplaying a huge role in wastemanagement with its smartness anduniqueness.”Pramjit, one of the team

members said, “With the use ofUrbin we have collected 335 kg ofplastic waste in January alone.” So far 30 Urbins have been

deployed in Kilpauk, Mylapore,Besant Nagar and Nugambakkamareas. Dr. Sherrie Devile, who is with

the Centre for EnvironmentalStudies, said, “We have two urbinsin our campus placed by thecompany and we are very muchglad to work together as it is asolution to waste management.”

There is a mobile applicationcalled Recykle, which can keeptrack of the plastic waste dumpedby each individual by scanning thecode on the Urbin and awardcredits. This made the students onthe campus contribute more plasticbottles, she added. Ann Anra, a student at Women’s

Christian College here, said, “I gota credit of Rs 200 from thecompany for collecting maximumnumber of plastic cans in the bin.”

Chennai: Adoption rates for girls haveincreased in comparison to that of boysthroughout the country, but the same cannotbe said for Chennai, according to a recentreport released by the Ministry of Womenand Child Development. Orphanages here say there are certainpreferences of parents from differentbackgrounds that they have learned to expect. The Christ Faith Home for Children is anorphanage which is visited by couples everyfew months looking for a child to adopt.Jeyasingh Methusola runs a backgroundcheck on all the couples coming here. Shesays that couples from well off backgroundsas well as middle classes usually prefer adaughter. In most cases they come to theorphanage because of problems inconceiving. On the other hand couples whoare less well off usually come looking for ason. Kalpakam Narayanan of the Bala MandirKamaraj trust says that parents who have a

son come looking for a girl child to adopt andvice versa. In rare cases, the orphanage isvisited by parents with two children lookingto adopt a child. In most orphanages, couples prefer a childwho is between 4 and 10 years old. Childrenof these age groups are often reluctant toleave at first as they feel nervous aboutshifting into a completely new lifestyle.Orphanages in most cases also run a schoolfor the orphans as well as children fromeconomically backward families in theregion. Children, even after being adopted,are still sent to the orphanage’s school tomake the transition from the orphanage tobeing adopted easier. The gender of children being adoptedtherefore depends on the background of theparents. Out of ten couples, only one couplehas preferences that go against the expectedpreferences on the basis of their backgroundor existing child. The orphanages claim thatnone of their adoptions have faced issues dueto any chronic diseases that the child issuffering from.

Urbin by Kabadiwalla Connect to tackle the issue of waste management

First all-women run metro, Shenoy Nagar

SONAM CHOKI

Set up in 1949, the Bala Mandir Kamaraj trust houses 300 orphansranging from infants to 18-year-olds

Smart bins to tackle garbage

SOHEIB AHSAN

Our target is to ensure allhouseholds in Chennai

recycle their plastic waste bythe year 2020.

-Siddharth Hande(MD, Kabadiwalla Connect)

A closer look at the activities ofthe city’s blood banks

| TULIKA CHATURVEDI

| SHARMITA KAR

| METRO RAIL NEWS

| THE HINDU

| BALA MANDIR KAMARAJ TRUST

Edition 3 Page 2_Layout 1 2/18/2019 9:45 AM Page 1

Chennai: Students need topick up more skills than just ac-quire knowledge and practical,skill-based learning was the futureof the education industry, accordingto academics and officials.

“in the current scenario, there ismore emphasis given on know-ledge acquisition, while what isreally required are students to beskilled,” said prof. e. SureshKumar, Vice Chancellor, englishand Foreign Languages universityat a panel discussion on ‘are we in-vesting enough in education infras-tructure and research?’

the discussion was part think

eduConclave organized by thenew indian express here.

the industries are moving to-wards ‘industry 4.0’ – an a.i. dri-ven sector which heavily relies onthe workers being technicallyadept.

Shekhar C. Mande, Director Ge-neral, Council for Scientific and in-dustrial research (CSir), said“Lack of investment in researchand development on the part of thegovernment, and especially the in-dustries, have slowed downgrowth.”

according to Dinesh Singh, for-mer Vice Chancellor of the Delhiuniversity, infrastructural develop-ment was only an “aid” that enhan-

ced the quality of education.“Skill and knowledge are two

sides of the same coin. We mustseek to achieve a balance betweenthem,” he said. to achieve this, heemphasized the need for a “transdi-ciplinary” curriculum which ena-bled the students to exploredivergent branches of knowledgeand put them to practical use.

Quoting examples of newton,einstein, C.V. raman and Mendel,Singh highlighted the commonalityof “ordinary lives” that the inven-tors led – reinstating that skillsdon’t necessarily need to be acqui-red within a formal setup.

prabhat Jain, Director of thepathways World Schools, said

“Most learning takes place in theinformal, not the formal spaces.the individual is connected withthe (universal) reality around him –therefore, it is futile for us to learn

in silos. one must give importanceto community learning.”

the current form of learning is acolonial hangover according tothirumurugan Gandhi, activist andcampaigner. “Where education issupposed to liberate people, thepresent set up is like Manu Shastra(Scriptures of Manu), where onlythose who are from higher classesand castes are able to access it,” hesaid.

the 1964 Kothari commission’srecommendation of spending atleast 6% of the country’s GDp oneducation seems a distant possibi-lity, owing to the current spendingof about 2.4 % according to the2017-18 economic Survey report.

“it has been 60 years since rightto education was introduced, but ithas failed to serve its purpose,”Gandhi said. initiatives like the na-tional policy of education andSarva Shiksha abhyan have alsonot fulfilled their potential.

Gandhi said the influx of privatecompanies in education had madethe sector a “non-inclusive, profit-centric industry.”

Kumar, however, claimed thateducational schemes were just“temporary solutions” which over-looked the larger issues. he alsosaid that coaching had replaced tea-ching, owing to the lack of com-mitment on the part of teachers. inDecember 2016, prakash Javade-

kar, the union Minister for humanresource Development, said inLok Sabha that 17.51% and14.78% posts for government tea-chers were vacant in the elementaryand secondary level respectively.

the interim budget presentedthis month stated that rs. 93,848crore - 3.3 % of the total budget ex-penditure was to be spent on edu-cation. however, the allocation forhigher education Financingagency (heFa) has had a rs. 650crore reduction this year. the actualspend by heFa last year was justrs 250 crore.

the panel discussion was mode-rated by Dr. Debashis Chatterjee,Director of iiM Kozhikode.

Chennai: the term ‘indian epics’ was wrong as it sug-gested that the ramayana and Mahabharata were mythical sto-ries, author bibek Debroy told a panel discussion at thethinkedu Conclave.

Such stories should be referred to as ‘itihaasa’ (history) tomake children aware that all this had happened in the past, headded.

Debroy and amish tripathi were the key speakers at thediscussion on the indian epics and whether they should be apart of education system.

Debroy is reputed for being only one of three people to havetranslated the unabridged version of the Mahabharata.

Debroy is also known for translating the Gita, Vedas andthe Valmiki ramayana. amish tripathi is renowned for hisnovels based on characters from the ramayana and the Vedas.

Debroy talked about the lack of knowledge of such storiesamong the younger generation.

Debroy said, “there is a vacuum as the younger generationdoes not read these stories and if they do, they only read theenglish translations.”

tripathi said there were multiple accounts of ancient indiaas it was a decentralized culture.

tripathi added that because of this the emphasis should beon learning morals from the stories instead of fighting overwhich version was true.

he also claimed that the ancient culture was an unrecogni-zed ally for fighting all kinds of contemporary issues andcould prove to be useful in the fight for the rights of womenor the LGbt community.

“the education system disconnects us from the roots andreality of our country and tries to turn us into europeans,” hesaid.

Chennai: the State offersscale, putting in the hardware whilethe private sector puts in the know-how that is the software, both ofwhich are essential to have a win-ning model in the education sys-tem, according to ashok Kamath,Chairman, akshara Foundation.

this was the general sentimentthat ran throughout the panel dis-cussion on the topic- ‘is the public-private relationship actually Skil-ling india or Killing education’ aspart of the thinkedu Conclave2019 organised by the new indianexpress Group here on February13.

parth Shah, Founder and presi-dent of the Centre for Civil Society,said there was lack of quality assu-rance in training institutes whichposed a huge challenge in the fieldof skilling, discouraging trainees

from investing money where re-turns are not guaranteed. he sug-gested development of an app thatranked and rated skill training ins-titutes, thereby functioning like afeedback instrument.

t. V. Mohandas pai, Chairman,Manipal Global education, pointedout that the number of children en-tering schools was much higherthan the students who made itthrough to colleges and universi-ties.

“the quality of education needsto be improved and school childrenneed to be taught how to becomeproblem solvers,” he added. hisemphasis was on the need to bridgethe gap between the skill set taughtas part of the school and collegecurriculum and the ones consideredemployable skills at the industrylevel.

pai added that the political sys-tem played an important role in

education, citing the example oftamil nadu’s progress in the fieldowing to its policies in favour ofthe underprivileged classes as op-posed to West bengal which hadbeen losing out on its student po-pulation over the years.

“there is a foundational learningissue,” said Kamath who was verymuch in favour of the idea of a pu-blic private partnership model. heused the Sarva Shiksha abhiyanscheme as an example, to explainhow it had provided better accessto schools but hadn’t been equallysuccessful in ensuring qualityschooling. the private sector wasgood at management of schools, hesaid, and should help publicschools improve their management.

Dilip Chenoy, Secretary Genaral,FiCCi, asked how many students inthe hall had joined college withoutthe aim of getting a job and onlyfive or six students raised their

hands. he believed that impartingskills to students was as importantas educating them since the skillswere good employable traits neces-sary to grab employment opportu-nities.

however, bhaskar ramamurthy,Director, iit Madras, had a slightlydifferent opinion on the subject. “idon’t think there’s a simple linkbetween quality and public or pri-vate education,” he said.

“there are public schools whichare as good as private ones and pri-vate schools which are as bad aspublic ones,” he added. however,he did agree that imparting skills tostudents was an important factor.

ramamurthy suggested that astrong apprenticeship based modelof skilling programme, with properaccreditation and certification nee-ded to be in place. Something likethis would especially help in thefield of engineering, he added.

CHENNAI February 15, 2019 3THE WORDCITYSCAPE

Skill-based education is the pathway forwardThe panel discussion on education infrastructure and research investment brings skill acquisition on the forefront

SrinJoY DeY

Focus on improving education The panel weighs in on public-private partnership in the sectortanYa KhanDeLWaL

Panelists debate historyand mythology, point tolack of readership today

Chennai: all indians have the same Dna andthere is only one race in the country, bJp leader Su-bramanian Swamy at the thinkedu conclave 2019, or-ganised by the new indian express Group onFebruary 13 and 14.

Subramanian Swamy who spoke at the session titled‘are we producing hyper nationalists or pseudo- secu-larists’ made several controversial statements, drawinga loud response from the audience.

Known for his staunch hindutva leanings, Swamysaid former president pranab Mukherjee, who spokethe previous day, was wrong when he said that indiawas a country of different races.

according to Swamy, there is only one race in thiscountry and everyone in this country have the sameDna. he challenged every doubter to prove himwrong, much to the amusement of the audience.

Swamy endorsed the “superior status” of Sanskritamong all the indian languages. recalling an interac-tion with the late DMK leader M Karunanidhi, he said,“Karunanidhi used to say that tamil is a separate lan-guage. i once asked him then why he had a Sanskritname instead of a tamil name.”

“the term ‘Dravidian’ was coined by adi Shankara.Sanskrit is much older than the tamil language, andshould be considered the source of all indian langua-ges,” he added.

on the babri Masjid issue, Swamy said “peoplehave said that a hospital can be built instead of a Man-dir or Masjid. Yes, build the hospital, but elsewhere.that place belongs to Lord ram. the archaeologicalSurvey of india found evidence that there was a Vishnutemple in that place before the Mughal emperor baburdestroyed it. the hindus need to get what is rightfullytheirs.”

Swamy said he was proud to state that the hinducommunity was seeking help from the law and notusing arms, unlike as in a country like turkey wherechurches were destroyed in order to create mosques.

referring to Swami’s call that india should be calledhindustan, prabhu Chawla, editorial Director of thenew indian express questioned how a country couldhave two names, a practice not found elsewhere.

Swamy responded by giving the example of China. according to Wikipedia, the word "China" has been

used in english since the 16th century. it is not a wordused by the Chinese themselves. the official name isthe people's republic of China which in Chinese isZhōnghuá rénmín Gònghéguó. the shorter form isChina or Zhōngguó

Swamy said that the increasing number of pseudo-secularists was a threat to the country. For the deve-lopment of india, the number of nationalists shouldincrease and only the ramjanmabhoomi would be ableto produce more real ‘bharatiya’, a term he used as analternative for ‘indian’.

Swamy sings Hindutvapraises amidst applauseSWapnaJit KunDu

Chennai: the work done by the un-sung women of science in india was ack-nowledged on the un international Dayfor Girls and Women in Science on Fe-bruary 11 at the institute of Mathemati-cal Sciences here.

Journalist nanditha Jayaraj and hercolleague aashima went around labora-tories all over india looking for womenwho had done pioneering work in thefield of science.

Jayaraj and aashima then brought outthe interesting research work of thesewomen in their online magazine, theLife of Science.

“We always imagine a male scientistwhen asked about scientific research.Women are hardly of heard in this field,”said Jayaraj.

“the ones who are recognized areoften from the elite groups. So we went insearch of the unheard scientists,” Jayarajadded..

among the women scientists mentio-ned at the event was rosy Mandal, a bio-logist whose work is focussed on Dnaanalysis for the early detection of headand neck cancer .

this cancer is primarily caused due totobacco use especially in paan. Shecomes from assam where paan is offeredto guests.

the incidence of cancer in this regionis 33 percent.

Sanju nanda, Kavita Vemura andSurya harikrishnan were the others.

Sanju nanda sets the guidelines to bechecked before cosmetic products are im-ported. She studies how these productspenetrate the skin.

Kavita Vemura is a Cognitive neuros-cientist who works on alternative seriousgaming for people recovering from acci-dents and stroke instead of physiotherapy.

Vemura’s lab focusses on creating newvideo games which indirectly makes thepatients move the specific body partwhich is in need of physiotherapy.

She also makes people watch emotio-nal movies and studies the changes thathappen in their brain at that time usingfMri (functional Magnetic resonanceimaging).

Surya harikrishnan is an archaeopho-tonicist who uses archaeological techni-ques to check whether a painting or anyart work is fake or genuine.

Laser technology is used in this pro-cess.

to make the session interactive, Jaya-raj gave a picture presentation of these re-search works and asked volunteers fromthe crowd to make a choice.

the works that were chosen by themost number of people were described indetail.

Spotlight on unsungwomen scientists Sruthi V.

CHENNAI: The Neutrino Obser-vatory (INO), to be set up in Thenidistrict, continues to wait for ap-proval after an appeal was filedagainst the project by an environ-mental activist G. Sundarrajan inthe Supreme Court. “If we had started the constructionby 2011 which would take fiveyears for completion, then, wewould have been the first in theworld to do this research but nowthere are three other similar pro-jects around the world which arebeing built already,” said Dr. D. In-dumathi, a particle physicist at theIndian Institute of MathematicalSciences (IMSc) in Chennai andthe out-reach co-ordinator of theproposed INO.“There is still a narrow window tostart the project, even though wewon’t be the first to do it. The mainissue is to get through all these clea-rances,” she added. MDMK (Marumalarchi DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam) General Se-cretary, Vaiko first filed a case inthe Madurai branch of the Ma-dras High Court against the INO.

The High Court said the TamilNadu Pollution Control Board(TNPCB ) nod was enough to startthe project. G. Sundarrajan of Poo-vulagin Nanbargal , an NGO fileda case in the southern branch of theNational Green Tribunal (NGT). Itstayed the project until clearancewas obtained from the NationalBoard for Wildlife. Sundarrajanfiled a case against NGT decision inthe Supreme Court insisting thatthe project should be scrapped.A financial support of Rs.1500 cro-res was provided by the CentralGovernment in 2015. After the fi-nancial sanction, the Tamil NaduPollution Control Board (TNPCB)was approached with the surfacefacility drawings to obtain its clea-rance. At that time, there was noTNPCB office in Theni and thecase was dealt with by the one inMadurai.Within a week of getting the finan-cial sanction, Vaiko filed a petitionalleging that the INO was a ‘secretproject’.“There was a lot of discontinuitywhen a TNPCB office came up inTheni which didn’t have any pre-vious account of the project. This

adversely affected the case,” saidDr. Indu.Sundarrajan, filed a case againstthe project in the National GreenTribunal on March 2015.The state asked for clearance fromthe Wildlife Board as the proposedsite is near the Mathiketta nationalpark. An Environmental ImpactAssessment (EIA) was done by theSalim Ali Centre for Ornithologyand Natural History, Anaikatti, butthe absence of accreditation of theinstitute led to the rejection of theassessment.Dr. Indu said, “Many assume it tobe vertical tunnel but it is a hori-zontal. Last year in July one roundof outreach was done in whichschool students participated. A Re-search & Development centre ofINO, IICHEP (Inter InstitutionalCentre for High Energy Physics) isset up at Madurai which has 85tonne prototype equipment and anexact replica of the project.”“People say that this magnetic fieldproduced can affect the brain andheart but this prototype proves thatthere is no such thing as the magne-tic field is completely confined inthe instrument,” said Dr. Indu.

INO hopes for SC approval Sruthi V.

The ThinkEDU Conclave was held on 13 and 14 February in Rajendra Hall, ITC Grand Chola, Chennai | SRINJOY DEY

Soheib ahSan

Proposed site for Indian-based Neutrino Obervatory at Theni district | INO OFFICIAL WEB

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CHENNAI February 15, 20194 THE WORD CITYSCAPE

Minting cash this V-dayCupid’s not the only one busy in this season of romance and love

CHENNAI: Florists, bakeries,jewellers, restaurants and otherbusinesses had a busy weekmeeting orders for Valentine’sDay .“Two to three weeks before, we

started getting hit with phone callsfor orders,” said the owner ofKreative Chocolates, T Nagar.“The closer we got to the day; thephone was ringing off the hook.”Chocolates aren’t the only ones

that are timeless favourites.Flowers, especially red roses, aresought after. “Though, sales ofother flowers such as carnationsand orchids were on the rise, redroses remained much in demand,”said Mintu Maity, the owner ofLaxmi Florist, T Nagar.The price of the flowers and

chocolates soared for the lastminute planners.“On regular days, we sell a red

rose for Rs 10. However, in thisseason we sold one flower for Rs20 and on the day we charged Rs

40 for each flower,” he added.Maity said that the business

was always difficult to gauge assome suitors waited until the lastminute to order flowers. “Wecannot keep flowers in stocksunlike chocolates or other giftitems. These last minute buyersgive us a hard time when theycome with demands for rareflowers. This season is the busiesttime of the year for us.”The trends seem to have

changed this year with people

opting for jewellery a lot.Jewellers said that they earnedtwice the amount this Valentine’sseason.Thangam Raju, Manager at

GRT jewellers, T Nagar said, “Wesaw a lot of male customerswalking in to buy jewellery asgifts for their lovers. Earrings,bracelets, pendants and rings arethe new favourites.”Sahil Rohan, a salesman at

Archies gift shop in PhoenixMarket City mall, Velachery said,

“Teddy bears were out offashion,We sold more glitter pens,ribbons and stickers this year thancards or other gifts and soft toys.”“People are eyeing the do-it-

yourself and customised gifts thangoing for the regular photo framesor diaries,” he added.The food business too got a

boost this year. The online fooddelivery app Swiggy offeredspecial coupons and 50 per centdiscount on food and desserts forthe entire Valentine’s week. Therewere queues outside somerestaurants, cafes and bakeries. “We had to make people wait

for more than two hours this weekas a lot of couples came on dinnerdates. We had thrice the numberof walk-ins that we usually see inan entire year. Thanks toValentine’s day at least this waywe are able to get money out ofpeople’s wallets,” said InfantroJohn, Manager of Mamagoto, apan-asian restaurant at PhoenixMarket City, Velachery, wherespecial offer was on for couples.

ANUSHKA DEEPAK

Roses are lovers favourite on V-day|JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

Some love it, some hate it“Western concept detrimental to Indian heritage”

CHENNAI: The possibility ofbeing harassed by moral policeand right wing groups have notdeterred couples from displayingtheir affection for their partner.Last year, an organisation called

the Bharat Hindu Front conductedthe “marriage” of a dog and a don-key in protest against Valentine’sDay.“We celebrate Valentine’s week

as a way to express our love. Wedon’t intend to break any societalnorms. We just expect the societyto understand our emotions,” saidRohini S and Shanto Das, a coupleworking at an IT park in Chennai.Chennai being the land of rich

cultural heritage has mixed opinionabout Valentine’s Day.“Though both my children had

love marriage, I still don’t approveof this concept of celebrating a dayof love. Seeing couples doing inde-cent acts in public places doesn’tdefined love,” said Geetha Rajan, a65-year-old retired bank manager.

However there are some elderlycouples still celebrating the day.G Anand (70) and G Sujatha,

(60), residents of Kodambakkamsaid, “We eloped and got married.Even now we celebrate Valentine’sDay. Even if it is a western conceptadapting to new things is not wrongwhen it comes to showing love.”Some young couples seemed the

least interested in the celebration.“We love each other but we

don’t feel that there is a need to ce-lebrate a day dedicated to love. Wefind Valentine’s day to be over

rated,” said Alfred (27) andDivya(25). The activists of Bajrang Dal

have claimed that they were notagainst love; they were against thecommercialization of love by com-panies for profit making. According to a report by The

News Minute, Subash Chandra, theState Convener for Bajrang Dal inTelangana said, “Pubs and mallsgive offers to attract couples. Theyspoil our culture. In the name ofselling goods, they created this dayto mint money,” he added.

ANUSHKA DEEPAK

Activists burn valentine’s day greeting cards |NEWS 18.COM

More plastic than lotus: Moovarsampet pond lies in a pitiful stateIt will take another four to five months to start the restoration process, says Moovarasampet Panchayat Secretary

The pungent smell of urine fillsthe air as one walks along thebroken compound wall of theLotus Pond. Plastic covers andbroken alcohol bottles liescattered along the wall of thepond, also known as PeriyarThamarai Kulam, atMoovarsampet near Madipakkam.The 60 year-old pond that

comes under the MoovarasampetPanchayat has been lying in a

neglected state for over five yearsnow.“Two months ago, it seemed as

if there was more plastic than thelotus flowers,” says NandaKumar, head of the Makkal PathaiNGO, which has been involved inrestoring the pond for the past twomonths.“Every weekend, a group of

25-30 volunteers and residentsfrom all walks of life gather hereto clean the pond,” he continues.The one-acre pond located at

the confluence of Nanganallur andMoovarasampet, has a bus stopand a few food stalls around it.

“A decade back, the water fromthe pond was used for drinking bythe village. But slowly, people

started throwing in the garbagehere. People waiting at the busstop or eating at the food stallshere toss the trash into pond,”says Senthil Kumar, a shopkeeperhere. There are three dustbins on the

right side of the pond, whichcomes under the Greater ChennaiCorporation, but not one in thearea that falls under thePanchayat. S. Narayan, Secretary of the

Moovarasampet Panchayat, says

they did away with installingdustbins five years ago as theythought it would only add to themess. “People never threw thegarbage in the dustbins.Moreover, the street dogs wouldlitter all the waste on the roads,”he explains. The garbage collectors,

numbering 15, collect waste fromevery door without missing a day,he adds. The waste is thencollected in a lorry and dumped atKolathur dump yard, which is 50

km away from here. According to G.P. Babu,

Secretary at the Federation ofMoovarasanpet WelfareAssociation, an allocation of Rs32 crores was made last year toclean up the pond, but theimplementation was stalled due toincessant rain from July toSeptember. “This time, if there is no delay,

the restoration of both the pondand the lake will start by August,”he said.

SRAVANI NELLORE

Lotus pond waiting for restoration |SRAVANI NELLORE

A night out with muggers, dragonsDaily night safari for over 2000 animals at the Madras Crocodile Bank

CHENNAI: "Keep your torch ateye level, and when you turn thebeam it into the compound, you'llsee red eyes shining at you," saysArul CV, zoo educator and guidefor the Night Safari conducted atMadras Crocodile Bank,Mahabalipuram. A hundred pairsof eyes stare light up in the darkas the first leg of the Safari beginsat 8 p.m. The Madras Crocodile Bank was

started in 1976 by an Americancouple called Romulus and ZaiWhittaker to conserve and breedthree species of crocodiles in India- Muggers, Gharials, and Saltwatercrocodiles. This was because oftheir dwindling numbers in the1970's due to illegal hunting activi-ties. "We've bred and reintroduced

about 1500 crocs in the wild tillnow," says Arul.Arul warns visitors to keep an

eye on the trees, for any 'creepycrawlies' around. These includeunique frogs, lizards, and even treesnakes such as the green vine snakeand the bronze back. The park hou-ses the appropriate habitat for suchcreatures, who even gather fromurban areas. If one had imagined meeting a

dragon in real life, this would bethe opportunity. Smog, a 4-year old

and 6 feet big Comodo dragon pro-cured from the Bronx zoo in Lon-don lies huddled up in hisenclosure. "Comodos are the largest lizards

on earth, and can grow to a size ofabout 10 feet. They're found in fiveIndonesian islands where they arethe top predators, with their veno-mous glands and saliva. They aredangerous enough to take down afew men on their own," says Arul. Next, is the African Dwarf Cro-

codile inappropriately calledJumbo. He stays hidden in thewater, and only displays his smallsnout to us. This is followed by the Yacari

Caiman, which is also as shy as itspredecessor in the Safari. The 14feet long Gharial looks majestic inits dark green abode; suspended ee-rily inside the water. An underground room displays

the tank from inside through a glasswall, and the Gharial can be seen in

all clarity, from the tip of its narrowsnout to its tail. Small fish and tur-tles also accompany it within thetank. Talking about the importance of

conservation of the species, Arulsays "Gharials are pretty endange-red in the wild, and it's important toprotect them because they're onlyfound in India. Many fishermen killthem, or chop their jaws off. Thesecreatures even drown after gettingtangled in fish nets, and the sand

mafia causes a lot of destruction totheir natural habitat."Thus, Arul explains, the Madras

Crocodile Bank runs the 'GharialEcology project' where Gharials aretagged with radio telemetry devicesand observed. Fishermen are edu-cated on wildlife tourism and areeven encouraged to help with theproject. “The fishermen that used to kill

these Gharials before now help ustag them. There is a huge change inperception and now they are awareof the importance of these crocodi-les in the ecological system theyfish in,” he says. Another threatened species that

is safe at the Crocodile Bank is theSiamese Crocodile. These are oftenmated with Saltwater crocodilesand the hybrid breed is grown fortheir skin. "Saltwater crocodilesgrow to huge sizes in a shortamount of time and the Siamesehave great skin," says Arul. Pablo, a tiny dwarf caiman, lives

inside a small tank, but is a feistyfellow. Captured illegally and keptin small spaces by sellers, the res-cued South American cannot growto its full size. However, the wor-kers have finally begun to befriendthe previously hostile creature. "We have plans to expand the

park and our conservation efforts,these reptiles are really worth che-rishing," says Arul.

VIDUSHI SAGAR

Nile crocodiles waiting to be fed at Madras Crocodile Bank |VIDUSHI SAGAR

Youth endorsessocial changeCHENNAI: Child marriagescontinue to be rampant in TamilNadu despite a law fixing 18 yearsas the minimum age for girlsgetting married.“About 85,000 child marriages

take place every year in TamilNadu alone, and yet not more than55 cases are reported,” said JobZachariah, Chief of the TamilNadu and Kerala branch offices ofUNICEF India. Despite being a primary reason

for death due to malnutrition,underage pregnancies, high schooldropout rates, and significantlylowering girls’ productivity andthereby the GDP of the country,the issue of child marriageremains invisible as it isn’tincluded in public discourse, hetold a youth symposium on endingchild marriages at the Stella MarisCollege on February 12.Students from colleges of

Chennai, Coimbatore, andMadurai attended the eventorganized by Unnathi Students’Forum, a student committee of thecollege’s department of socialwork, and human rightsorganization Thozhamai, inassociation with UNICEF andYouth Advocate for Children(YA4C). The campus wasplastered with posters depictingvarious forms of child exploitationand buzzed with activity. Scoresof students lined up at theregistration desk, receiving clothtote bags bearing information kitsfor the programme.Seema Agarwal, ADGP of State

Crime Records Bureau, Chennaiargued that although childmarriages are prevalent inpoverty-stricken areas and couldbe linked to illiteracy and poorhealth, they could be overcome if

the nation developed a strongpolitical will and got involved inadvocacy strategies forformulation of better policies.Dr. K. Manivasan, an ex-IAS

officer currently with the SocialWelfare and Nutritious MealProgram, said “Besides thepsychological, biological, andfamilial issues that arise due tochild marriages, the improperhandling of sensitive cases alsocauses problems.” added thatunderage boys involved inconsensual relationships becameincidental victims when they werecriminalized under the ProtectionOf Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act, while little wasdone to put involved adults behindthe bars. In her keynote addressJustice Dr.S. Vimala, formerJudge at the Madras High Court,said that education remains themost powerful tool to combat theviolation of child rights, and thatraising awareness is the first steptowards ensuring a gainful futurefor children from underprivilegedcommunities.Students took part in panel

discussions on the social contextand civil issues of child marriage.The sessions were chaired bymedia anchor, Karu Pazhaniappanand Dr. Revathy Robert, assistantprofessor from Loyola College,Chennai, respectively.S. Albert Fernando, Advisor at

Tamil World Trust, Wisconsin, theUS, said “Social media platformsplay a huge role in makingadvocacy more inclusive andgetting people to believe thatevery action counts.”G. Kumaresan, Child Protection

Specialist at UNICEF India, said“The violation of human rights isan appalling state of affairs, butwe must create an empoweringenvironment for children.”

TULIKA CHATURVEDI

Students performing a play on domestic violence | TULIKA

Kindness wall for the poorCHENNAI: A wall of kindnesswas set up by Non-GovernmentOrganization Called Candleoutside the Revenue DivisionalOffice (RDO), on Ambattur EstateRoad in Mogapair, to help thepoor. The wall, apparently has its

origin in Iran, where a largenumber of people gatheredtogether to help the homeless andthe destitute. The initiative, whichhas been replicated in othercountries, has found space in Indiain places like Chennai, Hyderabadand Kashmir. In Tamil Nadu itwas first initiated in Tirunelveli. Anyone can donate clothes,

books, toys, foot wear andblankets to the needy people bykeeping them in a place reserved

for this purpose. A wooden rackhas been installed on the wall ofRevenue Divisional office (RDO),where anyone can just leave thematerial they wish to donate. Navroz Mahudawala, Joint

Director of Candle Foundationsaid, “Since our wall of kindnessis in a government building a lotof people will be able to access itwithout any hesitation.”A lot of economically well

settled people in Anna Nagar andMogapair are coming forward tohelp the underprivileged peopleliving in and around the area. “If people wish to donate and

they are busy, they can call theorganization so, that volunteerscan come and collect the materialsfrom their doorsteps,” he added.Krishna a member of the

organization said, “Initially, we

were not expecting much responsebut we are extremely happy thatpeople are respondingspontaneously.” M. Prabu (38), a donor said, “It

will help more people if suchwalls are spread across the city.”The concept has not only

brought happiness among slumdwellers but also to homelesspeople living in the city street, headded.T. Payal a resident said, “Many

of us might not be able to take outtime and donate to orphanages,even if we want to. The idea of akindness wall comes as a greatoption.”K. Sharmila a student said. “I

like the idea of bringinghappiness. I donated a shirt, I’mhappy that it will be useful tosomeone.”

SONAM CHOKI

Skulls of various species of crocodiles |VIDUSHI SAGAR

These skulls of various crocodiliians have been acquired fromaround the world and kept on display at the Madras

Crocodile Bank, Mahabalipuram. They are polished withcalcium from time to time. One can observe the teeth of thesespecies closely through these skeletal structures, which haveunique feature of double capping. If a crocodile loses a teeth

during hunting, they already have a capped replacementsitting right underneath it, provided by nature.

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