Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
ECONOMIC & POLITICAL WEEKLY: TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vol. 53, Issue No. 6, 10 Feb, 2018
Meaning of Shivratri
SWAMI VISHWANANDA
Shivratri is an auspicious night when we receive something very special through the grace of Shiva, by chanting Aum Namah Shivaya. Actually, it does not matter whose name we chant, the main point is that we connect with God throughout the night. When the moth has seen the light, does it go back into darkness? No, it would rather die at the flame. When we have cleansed the outside, our true Self reveals itself, and when this happens, the dissolution of your identity and of your mind occurs. Why do we adorn Shiva with vibhuti? Just to remind us that everything is ash. This body is ash and it will become that ash.
Shiva is a great Yogi, who is seated within each one. That’s why when we say Shivoham, we identify ourself with Shiva. We say Aham Brahmasmi; I am Divine. I am Divine because this is the essence of human nature. When the outside identity is dissolved, the true identity, the Divine identity of who we are, is revealed.
Shiva is sitting in meditation to represent that the mind has to calm itself. As long as the mind is wandering around, there will be misery. But when you have learnt to calm yourself, then God will reveal himself.
When we do abhishekam, we offer the panchamrit that represents the five senses that we surrender to Shiva so he can purify them. We offer flowers, we offer bilva leaves that symbolise the unity of the body, mind and spirit in one. We are offering it outside but in reality, we are asking Him to make us realise this unity of the body, mind and spirit.
India Among Top 10 Nations in Terms of Forest Area
Our Political Bureau
New Delhi: India has increased its forest and tree cover 1% since 2015 to 802,088 square kilometres despite population and livestock pressures.
India State Forest Report 2017, the 15th in the series of biennial reports that officially record the country’s forest and tree cover, shows the country has added 8,021 sq km of forest and tree cover in the past two years. The report, released on Monday, reveals that India now stands 10th in the world in terms of forest area and eighth in terms of annual forest gain. “The total forest cover of the county is 708,273 sq km, which is 21.54% of India’s geographical area. The tree cover of the country is estimated to be 93,815 sq km, which is 2.85%,” the report said.Three states – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala – have contributed the most to increasing the forest cover, according to the report.
The overall increase in the forest and tree cover notwithstanding, the report has flagged two areas of concerns – decrease in medium dense forest cover and the decreasing forest cover in states in the Northeast. Twelve states and Union territories have seen a dip in their forest cover.
These include Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and six naturally rich states in the Northeast – Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.
The maximum forest cover reduction in the north-eastern states has been reported by Mizoram (531 sq km), Nagaland (450 sq km) and Arunachal Pradesh (190 sq km).
Source: Economic Times, 13-02-2018
India’s forest cover increases by 1%, but NE a cause for concern
Shrinkage In ‘Moderately Dense’ Areas Worries Experts
Vishwa.Mohan@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: India’s forest cover increased by 6,778 sq km over the last two years with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Telangana increasing their green footprint during the period though there is a worrying decline in six northeastern states, including a shrinkage of 630 sq km in the eastern Himalayas.
While overall green cover, including tree patches outside recorded forest areas, reported an incremental 1% increase (8,021 sq km) over the last assessment year in 2015, the quality of forests remain a hotly debated subject even as satellite monitoring has increased availability of data.
The increase, which is based on satellite data and subsequent ‘ground truthing’, has put the total forest cover at 7,08,273 sq km which is 21.54% of the country’s geographical area.
Releasing the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2017 on Monday, the environment ministry looked at the overall green cover (total forest and tree cover) of 8,02,088 sq km and pitched it as a success of multiple afforestation programmes.
Though this figure puts the green cover at 24.39% of India’s geographical area, this does not reflect a complete picture as it includes tree cover of 93,815 sq km, primarily computed by notional numbers.
In the past, studies have argued that the problem of depletion and over-exploitation of forests has taken a toll of India’s forests and their sustainability and the problem of simplifying a maze of rules and tune conservation with the needs of local communities remains a challenge Taking into account the density (canopy covering branches and foliage formed by the crowns of trees), forest cover is divided into ‘very dense’, ‘moderately dense’ and ‘open’ forest. The ‘very dense’ forest cover has increased over the last assessment of 2015, but the ‘moderately dense’ category reported a decline — a sign which environmentalists consider quite worrying.
Source: Times of India, 13-02-2018
While overall green cover, including tree patches outside recorded forest areas, reported an incremental 1% increase (8,021 sq km) over the last assessment year in 2015, the quality of forests remain a hotly debated subject even as satellite monitoring has increased availability of data.
The increase, which is based on satellite data and subsequent ‘ground truthing’, has put the total forest cover at 7,08,273 sq km which is 21.54% of the country’s geographical area.
Releasing the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2017 on Monday, the environment ministry looked at the overall green cover (total forest and tree cover) of 8,02,088 sq km and pitched it as a success of multiple afforestation programmes.
Though this figure puts the green cover at 24.39% of India’s geographical area, this does not reflect a complete picture as it includes tree cover of 93,815 sq km, primarily computed by notional numbers.
In the past, studies have argued that the problem of depletion and over-exploitation of forests has taken a toll of India’s forests and their sustainability and the problem of simplifying a maze of rules and tune conservation with the needs of local communities remains a challenge Taking into account the density (canopy covering branches and foliage formed by the crowns of trees), forest cover is divided into ‘very dense’, ‘moderately dense’ and ‘open’ forest. The ‘very dense’ forest cover has increased over the last assessment of 2015, but the ‘moderately dense’ category reported a decline — a sign which environmentalists consider quite worrying.
Source: Times of India, 13-02-2018
Monday, February 05, 2018
ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY: TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vol. 53, Issue No. 5, 03 Feb, 2018
Death Is A Button For Continuity Of Life
Kamal Jain
Despite our fear of death, we have to confront it one day. Like change, death is inevitable. Life can’t move on without death. In fact death is the ‘off ’ button of life and life is the ‘on’ button of death. German philosopher Martin Heidegger said, “Man is being towards death.” It means that we start dying with our birth itself.
Animals and trees die, but they don’t know that they die. Since as human beings we are aware of death, we can outgrow fear of death. We have the potential to face death and overcome our fear of it. It is death which has inspired human beings to contemplate on life and this has given birth to metaphysics. After birth, death is the only guaranteed happening in the world, albeit with the uncertainty of when, where and how.
The body plays the important role of being the instrument of soul or consciousness in carrying life. Body tends to decay and perish over a period of time as per laws of nature. Once the body is unable to sustain itself beyond a point, the soul departs and starts afresh with a new body. This departure is termed as death and the starting of new life is birth.
The Gita terms it as change of cloth. Change of body is a necessity; that’s what makes death imminent. Though we can’t outgrow death at the physical level, change of body might facilitate continuity of the journey of the life of the same soul with the legacy of past impressions and conditionings. We may find some element of immortality in the natural process of reproduction by which we continue to live by passing on our biological traits to our offspring.
Death plays a positive role in the universe. On the one hand, life seems transient like a dewdrop; and on the other hand, it is permanent with the potential for eternal continuity. At the level of body, life is temporary and at that of soul, life is a continuum and permanent. Life in itself is immortal since it keeps assuming new shapes and forms even in the midst of destruction.
Growth, progress and evolution of the universe necessitate change which happens with death – destruction of old and creation of new to replace the former.
It is our desires which propel and bind us with the cycle of creationprotection-destruction. Our desires necessitate birth and we later meet death, all part of the circle of birth and death. As long as desires are there, we all are constrained to keep settling the account of karmas.
Since we can’t remain in body forever, why not seek immortality through our thoughts and actions? Mind is the faculty of soul, able to interact with the external universe through the body’s sense organs. Whatever we gather as knowledge, experiences and wisdom during our whole life must be shared and passed on as a legacy to the new generation for continuity of our ideology to further the progress and development of humanity and its prosperity.
This is the eternal aspect of life which outgrows individual death. This can be a way also to contribute a bit of ours in return for whatever we get abundantly from Mother Nature and society.
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