Natural dye: colours to boost economy
Anupa Lahkar
Guwahati, May 8
While organic colours and natural dyes have become the in-thing for the sartorial lot, in terms of merchandising, a number of entrepreneurs in the State have realised that the North Eastern region is the home to a number of products which emanate from a major source of natural dyes and they could reap maximum benefit through its production and sale in the international market.
Chandan Keshav, an entrepreneur in the Boko area of the Kamrup rural district, who has been actively involved in the production of natural dye for the last one year claims that the many trees and their bi products growing in the North Eastern region can be a major source of natural dye and organic food colour.
Marketing his products to Canada based brand MAIWA and US based brand Big Jenny and a number of other apparel brands in the country, Keshav claims that this is one industry with massive potential for growth in the future.
“Around a hundred organic products in this region can be used to produce natural dye or organic food colour which are healthy and have tremendous demand in the global market,” added Keshab.
Natural dye has demand in overseas market
Currently around 30 youths are involved in this organic colour production which finds a good market in countries like France and Canada, and Keshav claims that this is just the beginning. “The natural dye that we produce is in great demand and every month we produce tonnes of colour which finds a ready market both in the local as well as in the international market.”
Despite low level awareness about the production and usage of natural dyes in Assam and also in India, it is noteworthy that a Canada based company MAIWA has shown keen interest in the natural dye production in the North Eastern region and has also taken initiative to train a number of people in this organic colour production which could lead to a foundation for the dye market.
According to dyeing experts many colours of dye can be derived from some of the basic commodities like jackfruit which gives bright yellow and also green tinge, marigold flower which gives a yellow tinge, sendur tree which is the source of red colour and mora tenga which gives a rich magenta shade.
Natural dye for making antiseptic garments
Noteworthy among other varieties are the special antiseptic garments which are processed with the help of neem or marigold. “These varieties of garments have their antiseptic element for a span of six months and are usually bought by countries abroad where these garments are used for babies or even expecting mothers. Also we export garment sprayed with aloe vera extracts for the young ones,” informed the entrepreneur.
What has also become evident is that the global market has decided to set up workshops in different parts of the region in order to create awareness about the cultivation, production as well as the applicability of natural dye. A workshop is likely to take place in the beginning of next year where Michel Garcia from France will display his expertise in producing natural colour. Garcia is also the founder of Couleur Garance and of the Botanical Garden of Dye Plants set in the Château de Lauris, with a collection of more than 350 natural dye plants.
“Right now we are concentrating on the cultivation of Annato which is a derivative of the achiote trees and used to produce food colouring and also as flavour. Currently the world is experiencing a shortage of 4,000 tonnes of natural dye in the international market. We have planted more than one lakh saplings and in a span of a few years now we plan to go for massive production,” claimed Keshav.
With ambitious plans set for the future with massive production of reetha, annato and organic cotton in the future, the entrepreneur is confident that the industry is definitely here to stay.
(The story was published in the newspaper Eastern Cjhronicle)
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Black Panthers: No census, more ferocity, yet non-priority
Anupa Lahkar
Guwahati, February 17: Wildlife experts are worried that with no census ever conducted on black panthers, or for that matter, even leopards in Assam, the population of this “secretive and the smallest of the big cats” – assumed to be dwindling now – might not be known to environmentalists for in-depth research.
“How can we know how many black panthers are there in the state when we do not even have the figures for the overall leopard population?”, questioned wildlife biologist Feroz Ahmed, who has done a study on leopard–human conflict in Assam.
Black panthers belong to the leopard family and are more ferocious than tigers. “It’s a secretive animal which sleeps during the daytime, mostly on treetops, and hunts during the night. Many a time, they carry their kill – rabbits, dogs, calves, rats and the like - to treetops and tend to eat leisurely”, Ahmed, who is associated with the wildlife NGO, Aaranyak, said.
“A survey of leopards in Assam – which will also cover black panthers – is urgently required. However, the state forest department has not done anything in this regard, perhaps because it a non-priority animal for them compared to tigers and rhinos”, the wildlife expert observed. “I believe the forest department does not have the resources to carry out such an exercise, as most of their staff are busy with anti-poaching activities.”
Ahmed attributes the recent incidents of black panthers straying into human settlements due to a lack of prey base and decreasing forest cover.
A female black panther was rescued from the Ethal Tea Estate in Maijan of Dibrugarh district last year and later shifted to the Assam State Zoo Cum Botanical Garden on December 31. She will now have company, with another adult male panther rescued on January 3 this year from Kaheng tea estate getting shifted to the zoo on Tuesday.
“For the first time, we have a black panther pair in the zoo and we are quite excited about it,” said Narayan Mahanta, Divisional Forest Officer in charge of the zoo. He added that in order to increase the population of this rare species, the zoo authorities are planning to go for captive breeding between the two black panthers.
A worried Ahmed, on the other hand, informed that during the last five years, more than 50 leopards were killed because of leopard-human conflict. 13 of these were killed last year in Jorhat district alone.
“These animals generally sneak into small forests and tea gardens, which act as a cover for them, and they prey on the domestic animals of tea labourers,” added Ahmed.
(The story was published in the newspaper eastern chronicle)
Guwahati, February 17: Wildlife experts are worried that with no census ever conducted on black panthers, or for that matter, even leopards in Assam, the population of this “secretive and the smallest of the big cats” – assumed to be dwindling now – might not be known to environmentalists for in-depth research.
“How can we know how many black panthers are there in the state when we do not even have the figures for the overall leopard population?”, questioned wildlife biologist Feroz Ahmed, who has done a study on leopard–human conflict in Assam.
Black panthers belong to the leopard family and are more ferocious than tigers. “It’s a secretive animal which sleeps during the daytime, mostly on treetops, and hunts during the night. Many a time, they carry their kill – rabbits, dogs, calves, rats and the like - to treetops and tend to eat leisurely”, Ahmed, who is associated with the wildlife NGO, Aaranyak, said.
“A survey of leopards in Assam – which will also cover black panthers – is urgently required. However, the state forest department has not done anything in this regard, perhaps because it a non-priority animal for them compared to tigers and rhinos”, the wildlife expert observed. “I believe the forest department does not have the resources to carry out such an exercise, as most of their staff are busy with anti-poaching activities.”
Ahmed attributes the recent incidents of black panthers straying into human settlements due to a lack of prey base and decreasing forest cover.
A female black panther was rescued from the Ethal Tea Estate in Maijan of Dibrugarh district last year and later shifted to the Assam State Zoo Cum Botanical Garden on December 31. She will now have company, with another adult male panther rescued on January 3 this year from Kaheng tea estate getting shifted to the zoo on Tuesday.
“For the first time, we have a black panther pair in the zoo and we are quite excited about it,” said Narayan Mahanta, Divisional Forest Officer in charge of the zoo. He added that in order to increase the population of this rare species, the zoo authorities are planning to go for captive breeding between the two black panthers.
A worried Ahmed, on the other hand, informed that during the last five years, more than 50 leopards were killed because of leopard-human conflict. 13 of these were killed last year in Jorhat district alone.
“These animals generally sneak into small forests and tea gardens, which act as a cover for them, and they prey on the domestic animals of tea labourers,” added Ahmed.
(The story was published in the newspaper eastern chronicle)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Cartoons For Climate Change
While a lecture on some serious issue can probably influence the minds of some, humourous pictorial illustrations of those in power or mocking the policy of the policy makers can surely grab the interest of innumerable and make them sit up and take a serious note on the situation.
Martin Rowson, renowned cartoonist of The Guardian newspaper, United Kingdom who has to his credit millions of illustrations and cartoons with a satirical take at politics and serious social issues spoke on the power of cartoons and the impact that these caricatures can create on human mind in a two day workshop on ‘Cartoons for Climate’ organized by British Council in collaboration with the Regional Science Centre, Guwahati.
Terming cartoons as a ‘sugar coated bitter pill’, Rowson stressed on the seriousness of global warming and said that awareness is the most important thing in this moment of crisis.
Involved in the art of cartoon making for the past 27 years, Rowson’s work appeared regularly in The Guardian, The Daily Mirror, The Independent on Sunday, The Times, The Scotsman, The Spectator, The Morning Star and many other papers and magazines.
Chairman of the British Cartoonists' Association he has won several awards, including the prestigious Premio di Satiri di Forte dei Marma's International Satire Award he has authored a number of books and is currently working on a comic book version of Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
Around 25 interested participants inclusive of students, artists and media persons attended the workshop and works of other cartoonist featuring the issue of global warming were displayed inside the Regional Science Centre.
In order to encourage students to inculcate the art of cartoon making for climate change, an all India competition on 'Interpretation of climate change in cartoon' was organised by the British Council and Ken Sprague Fund UK in October 2009 which was also judged by Rowson.
(This story was published in teh newspaper Eastern Chronicle)
Martin Rowson, renowned cartoonist of The Guardian newspaper, United Kingdom who has to his credit millions of illustrations and cartoons with a satirical take at politics and serious social issues spoke on the power of cartoons and the impact that these caricatures can create on human mind in a two day workshop on ‘Cartoons for Climate’ organized by British Council in collaboration with the Regional Science Centre, Guwahati.
Terming cartoons as a ‘sugar coated bitter pill’, Rowson stressed on the seriousness of global warming and said that awareness is the most important thing in this moment of crisis.
Involved in the art of cartoon making for the past 27 years, Rowson’s work appeared regularly in The Guardian, The Daily Mirror, The Independent on Sunday, The Times, The Scotsman, The Spectator, The Morning Star and many other papers and magazines.
Chairman of the British Cartoonists' Association he has won several awards, including the prestigious Premio di Satiri di Forte dei Marma's International Satire Award he has authored a number of books and is currently working on a comic book version of Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
Around 25 interested participants inclusive of students, artists and media persons attended the workshop and works of other cartoonist featuring the issue of global warming were displayed inside the Regional Science Centre.
In order to encourage students to inculcate the art of cartoon making for climate change, an all India competition on 'Interpretation of climate change in cartoon' was organised by the British Council and Ken Sprague Fund UK in October 2009 which was also judged by Rowson.
(This story was published in teh newspaper Eastern Chronicle)
Think Global, Act Local
As the world leaders and national delegations attend the Coppenhagen summit for developing a meaningful framework on climate change, nothing substantial really developed for overcoming the consequences of climate change.
Though the issue of climate change has reached global frontiers many environmentalist in the state believe that the action has to also take place locally.
Dr Surajit Barua, State Coordinator, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) feels that Assam also needs to wake up to the reality of Global warming and contribute in its own means to ensure sustainable livelihood in the state and understand ways through which it can conserve and protect the environment.
Many environmentalists in the state also feel that Assam should take up serious steps for curbing pollution in the state and must also go for eco friendly Technologies.
“A state like Assam cannot adapt to latest technologies for tackling climate change but can resort to large scale afforestation and plantation programme in order to deal with the increase emission of carbon dioxide from vehicles,” claimed Baruah.
Studies have found out that 25 percent of the greenhouse gases triggering climate change are emitted from vehicles plying in the streets in the world. Sadly Guwahati city has a number of vehicles which are very old, leaving behind a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Recently the German Government has committed to finance a sum of Rs 56 million Euros in the departments of Forestry for the Climate Change Adaptation Project for the North East and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Territorial, R P Agarwal feels that as north east is regarded as an eco sensitive zone in the wake of climate change such a programme is extremely essential.
Though plans have been taken up by the state government a large scale awareness campaign is the utmost requirement in a growing city like Guwahati which is also feeling the heat of global warming.
(This was published in Eastern Chronicle newspaper on December 5, 2010)
Though the issue of climate change has reached global frontiers many environmentalist in the state believe that the action has to also take place locally.
Dr Surajit Barua, State Coordinator, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) feels that Assam also needs to wake up to the reality of Global warming and contribute in its own means to ensure sustainable livelihood in the state and understand ways through which it can conserve and protect the environment.
Many environmentalists in the state also feel that Assam should take up serious steps for curbing pollution in the state and must also go for eco friendly Technologies.
“A state like Assam cannot adapt to latest technologies for tackling climate change but can resort to large scale afforestation and plantation programme in order to deal with the increase emission of carbon dioxide from vehicles,” claimed Baruah.
Studies have found out that 25 percent of the greenhouse gases triggering climate change are emitted from vehicles plying in the streets in the world. Sadly Guwahati city has a number of vehicles which are very old, leaving behind a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Recently the German Government has committed to finance a sum of Rs 56 million Euros in the departments of Forestry for the Climate Change Adaptation Project for the North East and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Territorial, R P Agarwal feels that as north east is regarded as an eco sensitive zone in the wake of climate change such a programme is extremely essential.
Though plans have been taken up by the state government a large scale awareness campaign is the utmost requirement in a growing city like Guwahati which is also feeling the heat of global warming.
(This was published in Eastern Chronicle newspaper on December 5, 2010)
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