Arctic Ocean entering ‘new era’, say Norwegian scientists

Author(s): DTE Staff @ 

The Norwegian Young Sea Cruise aims to study the thin, young sea ice during the peak melting season

Scientists at work on the ice during the 2014 test cruise in preparation for the Arctic Ocean trip (Photo: Paul Dodd/Norwegian Polar Institute)

According to Norwegian scientists, the Arctic Ocean seems to be entering “a new era” due to profound changes in the region’s ice cover.

A transition from a thick ice layer to a thinner one which melts and subsequently vanishes in the summer will have far-reaching consequences on climate change, they warned.

The Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), which deals with polar research, sent an expedition to the Arctic Ocean in December last year. The aim is to study oceanographic properties, the marine ecosystem, the ice itself, radiation, meteorological parameters, ice dynamics and ice mechanics, according to the NPI website.

The cruise

Lance, the expedition vessel, on the Arctic Ocean (Photo: Tor Ivan Karlsen/Norwegian Polar Institute)

NPI launched the cruise named the Norwegian Young Sea ICE Cruise (N-ICE2015) last year in December. It aims to study the thin, young sea ice during the peak melting season in late July and early August. As part of the trip, a research vessel, the Lance, was deployed and allowed to drift with the pack-ice.

Institute director Jan-Gunnar Winther said measuring what happens in the winter season was vital as it would improve the scenario for climate change in future.

“We have almost no data from the Arctic Ocean in winter—with a few exceptions—so this information is very important to be able to understand the processes when the ice is freezing in early winter and we’ll also stay here when it melts in the summer,” he was quoted by the BBC as saying.

Scientists at work during night (Photo: Paul Dodd/Norwegian Polar Institute)

In September 2012, the institute had witnessed the smallest sea ice extent on record in the Arctic. “A new era has entered, we are going from old ice to young ice, thinner ice and the climate models used today have not captured this new regime or ice situation,” he added.

The expedition will attempt to provide a comprehensive view of all the key aspects of the Arctic Ocean.

Younger, thinner ice

The most important focus of the expedition is to examine the consequences of the Arctic Ocean having less of the so-called multi-year ice—older floes which have survived for years—and a greater proportion of younger ice which is thinner (see pic below).

Photo: Anja Rösel/Norwegian Polar Institute

“Typically, there’s much less life underneath first year ice—multi-year ice is more complex, with more ridging and typically has more animal life,” Haakon Hop, who is leading the team, was quoted by the BBC as saying.

According to Hop, both biodiversity and biomass have gone down in the Arctic region. The abundance of animals that live underneath the ice—crustaceans, amphipods, and copepods—have reduced. “(This) is a very serious concern because these animals are important prey items for sea birds feeding on the ice edge and for the marine animals that feed on them,” he said.

Second opinion

Another biologist, Philipp Assmy, has a different thing to say. According to Assmy, it is important to understand how some species may benefit from the ocean having less ice cover as more sunlight will allow plankton to flourish while others will suffer.

“We know that the organisms living in the ocean will actually increase because there will be more light available for them to grow. On the other hand, the organisms living within the sea-ice are likely going to decline as their habitat deteriorates and that will have cascading effects on the large charismatic marine mammals we are all familiar with,” he said.

Scientists say data gathered from the ice is invaluable as a way of calibrating measurements taken by satellites and overflights.

A scientist studies the nature of ice (Photo: Anja Rösel/Norwegian Polar Institute)

However, the work is not without risks. It involves operating in freezing conditions and there is a threat from polar bears too.

According to Winther, the younger ice more prevalent in the Arctic now is more mobile. “We know that the ice drift is faster now than it was 100 years ago.”

`I did not have a government for 36 hours'

Author(s): Soma Basu @sbasu_in , Jyotsna Singh @singh_jyotsna 

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah pleaded helplessness as the seat of his government went under water and his ministers and officials were marooned. As extreme weather events become more frequent and natural drainage systems collapse due to urbanisation, Indian cities have to be ready to deal with urban floods

Photo: Reuters

When the rains began in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on the morning of September 3, it was just another day for Vijay Gadhia. The 50-year-old employee of Jammu’s Power Development Department had gone to Srinagar with his colleagues for official work. He expected the next day to be bright and sunny. A day of rain in the region is usually followed by a day of sunshine. But the rain did not stop. Instead, he heard the news that a bus carrying 70 members of a wedding party was washed away by flash floods in Rajouri, of which 50 could not be traced.

On the night of September 4, the Doodh Ganga, a tributary of the Jhelum flowing through Srinagar, breached its embankment following a cloudburst in its catchment area. On September 5, the water level in the Tawi and Chenab rivers in Jammu rose dramatically. Flood control bunds were washed away, bridges collapsed and agricultural land got submerged. Rains continued to lash the region in the next few days triggering landslides that disrupted highways and snapped power lines. Till the afternoon of September 5, Srinagar residents were clicking photographs of the gradually swelling Jhelum to post on social media.

CHRONOLOGY OF A DISASTER   August 30  A cyclonic circulation coupled with a fresh Western disturbance moves towards J&K September 1-2 Rainfall starts in J&K September 3  Landslides claim 10 lives across the state. The Jhelum flows a metre above the danger mark September 4  The Jhelum rises to 5.43 metre above the danger level. Flash floods in Rajouri claim 50 lives September 5  Cloudburst in the catchment area of Doodh Ganga. Jhelum breaches embankment September 6 Water level reaches 7-8 metres in parts of Srinagar. Rescue operations start September 7  Prime Minister NarendraModi calls the flood a `national calamity' September 9  Death toll stands at 215 September 11  Floodwater starts receding

On the night of September 5, the Jhelum too breached its embankment at Padshahi Bagh, following which there was a half-hearted attempt by the state administration to warn the people. Announcements were made from several mosques in the city at 10 pm. Residents were asked to move to the first floor of their houses. But the announcements came late. Most people had gone to bed. Many of those who were awake ignored the words. According to Gadhia, it hardly sounded like a warning. Those who did not have a multi-storey building had no choice. By the time the announcements started, some parts of Srinagar were already submerged in waist-deep water.

Gadhia and his colleagues sensed trouble and fled Srinagar, spent four days in the wilderness without food and water before reaching the Shankaracharya hill on September 12. “After that we reached the Governor House from where we were airlifted to Jammu,” Gadhia told Down To Earth.

A city under water

In September, rainfall in Srinagar crossed its 10-year-high mark—151.9 mm of rainfall in September 1992—within 24 hours. This year, the city received 156.7 mm of rainfall on September 5 alone. The average monthly rainfall for Srinagar is 56.4 mm. The India Meteorological Department recorded more than 500 mm of rainfall in the first week of September. The floodwater started receding from September 11, but till September 13 more than 70 per cent of Srinagar was still submerged, with tens of thousands of people stranded.

The two distinct water channels flowing through the city—the Jhelum and the flood channel, an artificial outlet created in 1904 to drain out excess water from the Jhelum in case of flood—had merged into a big, brown lake. Some of the worst-affected areas include Allochi Bagh, Tulsi Bagh, Wazir Bagh, Rajbagh, Zero Bridge and areas along the right bank of the Jhelum. Maisuma, Natipora, Lal Chowk and several localities in Civil Lines remained submerged under two metres of water.

Murtaza Khan, a former legislator, spent three days on the roof of the MLA hostel building on M A Road. “The pace and level of rescue operation was only five per cent of the required scale. The Army or the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) hardly knew about Srinagar. They had no idea which area was densely populated with kuccha houses and which had high-rises, nor did they know where the water currents were maximum and why,” he says.

Gadhia and Khan were lucky to have been saved, unlike the 215 people who lost their lives in the deluge. The toll is likely to rise as the water recedes. Hectares of ripe crop and orchards have been lost, and the infrastructural damage is likely to cross Rs 6,000 crore.

Kashmiris have complained about the lack of coordination among the Army, NDRF and the local administration in rescuing people. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah pleaded helplessness. “I had no government for the first 36 hours as the seat of establishment was wiped out. My own residence has no power supply, and my cellphones had no connectivity. My capital city [Srinagar] was taken out. I resumed administrative operations with six officers in a makeshift mini secretariat,” he told journalists at a press meet on September 9. According to news reports, the six-storey secretariat was submerged up to the second floor.

Abdullah added that his officers could not be located for at least three days after the floods began. “People’s anger is justified, but we were caught off guard.” His minister for irrigation and flood control, Shyam Lal Sharma, told Down To Earth that his department had given a warning which was not taken seriously. “We issued a warning on September 5. People were alerted in various parts of the state,” Sharma said.

Floods not unprecedented

Jammu and Kashmir has a long history of floods. From 1905 to 1959, the state was hit by flood 14 times. The memory of the 2010 floods in Leh was still fresh when disaster struck again last month.

In 2010, the Jammu and Kashmir Flood Control Ministry had prepared a report and issued a warning that the state is likely to face a major flood catastrophe in the next five years and that the government is ill-equipped to save lives and property. The Irrigation and Flood Control Department had proposed a Rs 2,200 crore project to put the required infrastructure in place. The report was submitted to the Union Water Resources Ministry, but nothing happened.

The Jhelum is one of the most important natural drainage channels of Srinagar, which is otherwise like a bowl having no outlet for water. Silt has accumulated in all of its major tributaries and the flood channels are blocked. The wetlands of Nadru, Nambal, Narkara Nambal and Hokarsar that absorb rainwater have been replaced by residential colonies (see ‘Srinagar’s lost saviours’). Whenitrains for two to three days, the city gets flooded with water from the Jhelum. “Srinagar faces flood every 50 years. It has a cycle. But encroachment has killed its flood channels. Bemina used to be a flood basin, but many residential and commercial buildings have come up in its place in the past 10 years,” Sharma says.

Srinagar's lost saviours   The entire city of Srinagar was flooded after Jammu and Kashmir received more than 550 mm of rainfall in one week. Would the city have faced the same catastrophe had its wetlands and other water bodies been in good shape?

Urban floods increasing

Srinagar was once famous for its traditional ponds and tanks, which have been erased to house commercial complexes and parks. This has become a widespread practice across India. Every year floods are reported from cities like Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Surat, Rohtak, Gorakhpur and Guwahati. Factors are many—inadequate drainage systems, constructions on flood plains and river beds and loss of natural water storage areas. It only shows how rapid urbanisation in and around a city makes floods inevitable. In the past decade alone, India witnessed numerous incidents of floods in Mumbai (nine times), Ahmedabad (seven times), Chennai (six times), Hyderabad (five times), Kolkata (five times), Bengaluru (four times) and Surat (thrice).

Abdullah defended himself by saying that state capitals had never been hit by a disaster in recent memory. But the devastating flood could have been averted had his administration and the Union government taken necessary steps to save the drainage channels of Srinagar when an alert was sounded in 2010.

‘Countries’ carbon pledges not enough to keep temperature rise under 2°C’

Author(s): DTE Staff @ 

Intentions announced by countries so far could lead to a 3-4°C rise in temperatures, worsening the effects of climate change, says economist Nicholas Stern

Nicholas Stern (Source: Wikipedia)

The emission cuts announced by countries so far will not be able to contain global warming under 2°C, said Nicholas Stern, economist at the London School of Economics.

Stern and other researchers have analysed commitments announced by the European Union, the US, China and other countries in the run up to the new climate deal to be signed in Paris later this year. The Guardian quotes a paper released by the analysts which says: “It seems likely that there will still be a significant gap between aggregate national intentions and a pathway that is consistent with avoiding” dangerous climate change.

Stern told Australia’s Fairfax Media that "it would be like a path upwards of three degrees on the basis of current intentions". If warming is not restricted to under 2°C, a three-degree rise would trigger “a very radical transformation" while four degrees would be "potentially devastating", with societies disrupted by extreme weather events and sea-level rises, he said.

Stern is the author of a 2006 report commissioned by Gordon Brown, then UK chancellor of the exchequer, on the economic costs of climate change.

The US and China are among the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. The emissions deal between the two countries, announced in November 2014, was widely criticised with Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) saying it is neither historic nor ambitious. CSE Director General Sunita Narain had said, “It is a self-serving deal in which both countries have agreed to converge their per capita emissions at 12 tonne in 2030. This is a high level of emission and not in line with meeting the 2°C temperature target mandated by the IPCC.”

CURRENT AFFAIRS MAY/05/2015

CURRENT AFFAIRS MAY/05/2015

1.WORLD ASTHMA DAY OBSERVED: YES, YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR ASTHMA

To most people ‘breathtaking’ means unique or spectacular, to those with asthma the meaning is different; Asthma can literally take your breath away

World Asthma Day is celebrated every year on the first Tuesday of May the world over by Global Initiative for Asthma Management (GINA), a collaboration of National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA and the World Health Organization.

This year, the theme for World Asthma Day is, “You Can Control Your Asthma”. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 60,000 die of asthma in India every year.

2.NABARD SANCTIONS RECORD RS 12,406 CRORE IN PUNE ACHIEVED ALL TIME HIGH PERFORMANCE

Maharashtra Regional Office of NABARD in Pune has achieved all time high performance with sanction of Rs 12,406 crore and disbursement of Rs 11,315 crore for various development programmes during last fiscal year 2014-2015

Refinance support of Rs 700 crore for rural infrastructure and Rs 409 crore to other new business products was also provided by NABARD in Maharashtra

NABARD has supported rural population by increasing capital formation in agriculture and towards drought mitigation measures NABARD has extended refinance assistance of Rs 3082 crore primarily under minor irrigation, land development, farm mechanization and Horticultural sector

MoU was also signed between Government of India, Government of Maharashtra and NABARD for Revival Package of 3 Unlicensed District cooperative banks, Wardha, Nagpur and Buldana involving financial assistance of Rs 379 crore

3.INDIA'S TOP SHOOTERS WIN 3 GOLD, 2 BRONZE MEDALS AT INTERNATIONAL SHOOTING COMPETITION OF HANNOVER IN GERMANY

India's top rifle shooters have brought glory to the nation by winning a rich haul of three gold and two bronze medals at the International Shooting Competition of Hannover in Germany

Beijing Games gold medallist Abhinav Bindra has won both the individual and team gold in his pet 10 metre air rifle event.

Upcoming talent Chain Singh added the 50 metre men’s rifle prone yellow metal to his 10 metre air rifle team gold, which he won alongside Bindra and Gagan Narang.

The two Bronze medals came though Narang in the men’s 50 metre rifle 3 positions event, and Apurvi Chandela in women’s air rifle event

4.ARMY ATHLETES EMERGE CHAMPIONS IN 19TH FEDERATION CUP NATIONAL SENIOR ATHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIP

The Indian Army team emerged champions in the 19th Federation Cup national senior athletic championship, scoring 123.5 points at the end of the four-day event at the Mangala stadium ,Karnatka

The Tamil Nadu team came second by securing 114 points The overall men's championships also went to the Army and Tamil Nadu with 123.5 and 48 points respectively.

Kerala claimed the overall championship in the women's category with 86 points followed by Karnataka with 68 points

5.BHEL COMMISSIONS BIJLEE UTPADAN'S THERMAL UNIT IN (KBUNL) BIHAR

Bhel commissioned a thermal unit of Kanti Bijlee Utpadan Nigam Limited (KBUNL) in Bihar

This is the first 195 MW unit to be commissioned by Bhel at the 2x195 MW Muzaffarpur thermal power station of Kanti Bijlee Utpadan Nigam Limited (KBUNL) in Bihar

KBUNL is a joint venture of NTPC and Bihar State Power Generation Company Limited The second 195 MW unit is expected to be commissioned in the current financial year (2015-16)

6.Mazen Darwish winner of UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize

The winner of the 2015 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize is Syrian journalist and human rights activist, Mazen Darwish, currently imprisoned

The Prize will be awarded during the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, 3 May, which will this year be hosted by Latvia

Mazen Darwish has been recommended in recognition of the work that he has carried out in Syria for more than ten years at great personal sacrifice, enduring a travel ban, harassment, as well as repeated detention and torture

About Mazen Darwish

Mazen Darwish, a lawyer and press freedom advocate, is the president of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (CMFE), founded in 2004

He is also the founders of the Voice newspaper and syriaview.net, an independent news site, which has been banned by the Syrian authorities In 2011,

Darwish established Media Club, the first Syrian magazine about media affairs

He has been detained since February 2012, when he was arrested with colleagues Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Ghareer.

7.INDIA HOME TO 48 DIFFERENT SPECIES OF BUMBLEBEES

Of the 250 known species of bumblebees,India is home to 48 different species species Indian Bumblebees written by entomologist M.S. Saini and co-authors Rifat H. Raina and Harpeet Singh Ghator, revealed this fact

They are mostly characterised by black, yellow and reddish body hair, and often striped, bumblebees are generally found on altitudes of 2,000-15,000 feet along the entire Himalayas, from Jammu & Kashmir to Nagaland.

Bumblebees are important to the ecosystem, as without them seed setting and fruiting will not take place in many plants as they pollinate vegetables, fruit trees, cash crops and even ornamental and medicinal plants high in the Himalayas

Like the honeybees, bumblebees are social insects and live in colonies — the size of which depends on the species

8. AUTHOR AND SCREENWRITER MICHAEL BLAKE OSCAR - WINNING "DANCES WITH WOLVES " WRITER PASSES AWAY

Author and screenwriter Michael Blake, who won an Oscar for his movie "Dances With Wolves" which was made own novel, has died at the age of 69.

Michael Blake wrote the novel Dances With Wolves in 1988, which he turned into an Oscar-winning film starring Kevin Costner in 1990

The 1990 film, which Kevin Costner directed and starred in, won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Screenplay for Blake

9. SANDEEP JAJODIA REMOVED FROM THE FROM THE POST BOXING INDIA PRESIDENT

Boxing India president Sandeep Jajodia was removed as the president of the Boxing India as he lost the no-confidence motion 2-55 in a special general meeting 

Accepting the defeat, Jajodia sent a letter to all the members appealing them to think for the betterment of the sport

The Boxing India took charge on September 11 last year, and received a huge blow in just eight months

CURRENT AFFAIRS MAY/04/2015

CURRENT AFFAIRS MAY/04/2015

1. 14 TH INDO - FRENCH NAVAL EXERCISE "VARUNA 2015" CONCLUDES

The ten day long indo-french naval exercise, 'varuna', concluded off the goa the exercise presented the extrordinary naval strength and close ties between the two countries.

Exercise varuna included the entire convergence of maritime operations ranging from aircraft carrier operations, anti submarines warfare exercises, maritime interdiction operations to multi-ship replenishment exercise

The 14th edition of the naval exercise "varuna" was started on april 23 and included both harbour and sea phase.

French navy was represented by aircraft carrier charles de gaulle, two destroyers chevalier paul and jean de vienne, replenishment tanker meuse and a maritime patrol aircraft atlantique 2

Indian side aircraft carrier ins viraat, destroyer mumbai, stealth frigate tarkash, guided missile frigate gomati, replenishment tanker deepak, submarine shankul and a few fast attack craft participated

The indian navy and the french navy have been conducting naval exercises since 1983 but this naval exercise was termed as "varuna" in 2001

Since 1983 thirteen such exercises have been conducted last time such naval exercise was conducted in 2001 off toulon a city in southern france

2.NEW DELHI'S INDIRA GANDHI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (IGIA) ADJUDGED AS THE WORLD'S BEST AIRPORT FOR THE YEAR 2014

New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has been adjudged the world's best airport for the year 2014, under the category of handling 25 to 40 million passengers per annum

Airports Council International (ACI) presented the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) award to IGIA at a ceremony of the ACI Asia-Pacific/World Annual General Assembly on April 28 in Jordan

The Delhi airport scored 4.90 on a scale of 5 points measured by 300 members of the ACI ASQ benchmarking programme

It was on Second Position for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 but now it bettered it's position and emerged as the top

On a scale of 5 points it's score was 3.02 in 2007

As many as 40 million passengers used IGIA to reach 58 domestic and 62 international destinations in 2014-2015

During the period the average flight movements were 885 per day while 696,000 metric tonnes of cargo was handled.

IGIA hosts six domestic carriers, 56 international carriers and also has the capacity to handle the gigantic Airbus A380 aircraft

3.WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2015 OBSERVED

Information and Broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley Extended his wishes on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day and told to uphold the constitutional principles of independent, free and pluralistic media

Minister of State for I&B Rajyavarhdan Rathore also extended his greetings said that the government is fully committed to freedom of Press.

Independent and Quality Media was the theme of World Press Freedom Day 2015

About World Press Freedom Day :-

Every year, 3 May is a date which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession

Over 100 national celebrations take place each year to commemorate this Day. UNESCO leads the worldwide celebration by identifying the global thematic and organizing the main event in different parts of world every year

4.RUSSIAN BALLET LEGEND MAYA,89, PLISETSKAYA TAKES HER LAST BREATH

Russian ballet legend Maya Plisetskaya, considered one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, has died at the age of 89 in Germany

Not just Russia but the entire world knew that Maya Plisetskaya was the symbol of Russian ballet in the 20th century

Plisetskaya joined the Bolshoi in 1943 her career at Russia's Bolshoi Theatre spanned more than 35 years Owing to the purity of her performence she had audiences around the world

Plisetskaya left the stage aged 65 she became choreographer and started giving master classes around the world.

In 1991 Plisetskaya moved to the German city of Munich with her composer husband Rodion Shchedrin

5.Dr. Mahesh Sharma inaugurates the first ever Science Centre and Planetarium in Puducherry

The Union Minister of State for Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation, Dr. Mahesh Sharma inaugurated the first ever Science Centre and Planetarium in the Union Territory of Puducherry

Built at a cost of approximately Rs. 5.50 crore, the Puducherry Science Centre and Planetarium has interactive exhibition galleries on Marine Biology and Fun Science, in addition to a 8m dome digital planetarium and an open-air science park.

The Science Centre Puducherry is the 47th Science Centre in the country which has been opened to the public and the 48th Science Centre in Dehradun shall be opened shortly Centre will organize year round activities to popularize science and enhance public understanding for science and technology.

6.C.N.R. RAO HONOURED WITH JAPAN'S HIGHEST CIVILIAN AWARD

Eminent scientist C.N.R. Rao has been honoured with Japan's highest civilian award for his contribution to promoting academic interchange and mutual understanding in science and technology between Japan and India.

The Emperor of Japan conferred the country's highest award, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, on C.N.R Rao the Bharat Ratna awardee

C.N.R Rao is also the only Indian to be elected as a foreign member of the Japan Academy in Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research

C.N.R Rao is a National Research Professor, Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research

About C.N.R Rao :-

C.N.R Rao is an renowned scientist who has worked mainly in solid-state and structural chemistry

He currently serves as the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India Rao has honorary doctorates from 60 universities from around the world

He has authored around 1,500 research papers and 45 scientific books.

7.HARYANA CHIEF MINISTER MANOHAR LAL KHATTAR LAUNCHED SEVEN IT BASED E-SERVICES

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar launched seven IT based e-services in the State at Panchkula

These services include:-

e-Stamping

Jeevan Pramaan

Revised State Portal

Aadhaar-enabled biometric Attendance System (AEBAS)

CM Window,Mobile app

Aadhaar-linked registration of birth

8.COW-URINE REFINERY FOR RESEARCH OPENED IN JALORE, RAJASTHAN

Rajasthan medical and health minister Rajendra Rathore on inaugurated a cow-urine refinery at Jalore

The refinery, set up at Pathmera Gaushala, will prepare cow-urine extract for use in the formulation of various products.

A MoU to this effect has been signed between Jodhpur's Dr S Radhakrishnan Ayurveda University and the Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Bikaner

By-product derived from cow-urine extract will be used for cleaning at the SMS Hospital in Jaipur and other by-products would be used by govt.for various purposes

Besides the cleaner, pesticides would be prepared using the cow-urine extract. "This pesticide will be absolutely an organic product and would prove a boon for organic farming,"