WATCH MT. EVEREST LIVE ON THE WEB

Now it became possible to watch live images of Mt. Everest (8,848 m) live on the web. This became possible after installation of web-cam by the non-profit research association Ev-K2-CNR in collaboration with  the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Nepal. They successfully installed web-cam on the top of Kala Patthar, at the height of 5600 m a.s.l..

The web-cam is installed only 11 kilometers from the mountain. The web-cam is active only during daylight, between 6 am to 6 pm nepali time (GMT + 5:45). 

The web-cam can be viewed following the link below:

http://www.evk2cnr.org/WebCams/PyramidOne/current.jpg  

The picture shows Mount Everest, 8,848 m, the highest mountain in the world. On the right you can see the South Col plateau, 8,000 m.

Orchid species richness along Himalayan elevation gradients

One of my paper on orchids from Nepal and Bhutan is published in an internal journal,Journal of Biogeography. The paper is available on line on 12 May 2011. Its great experience for me to publish article in such journal. Ohh... it took nearly 18 months to get published. Many many thanks to my two co-authors who from the very beginning encouraged me for this paper.

The study explores the relationship between orchid species richness along elevational gradients in the Central Himalaya (Nepal Himalaya) and Eastern Himalaya (this includes Bhutan and its adjoining areas).

This study is based on secondary sources. We used published data on the distribution of orchids to interpolate presence between maximum and minimum recorded elevations in 100-m elevational zones. These patterns were compared with previously published patterns for other plant groups, which were derived in the same way.

A hump-shaped relationship between orchid species richness and elevation was observed in Nepal and Bhutan, with maximum richness at 1600 m a.s.l. corresponding to c. 16 C mean annual temperature. The richness of orchid species that are endemic to central and eastern Himalaya showed a bimodal pattern. Richness of endemic epiphytes peaked at elevation zones similar to those for total richness, but the peak in numbers of endemic terrestrial species occurred at a higher elevation.

This study shows that climatic variables (temperature and precipitation) provide a good potential explanation for orchid species richness along the Himalayan elevational gradient, even when the effect of area is considered. The principal elevational peak in richness of central and eastern Himalayan endemics was consistent with the peak in total orchid richness, but maximum terrestrial endemic richness occurred at higher elevations.

To read full article click here.

REDD AND REDD+

What is REDD and REDD+ and what progress we achieved after Copenhagen? How the concept of REDD originated and how it works? To get answers of these questions, watch a video below by a Keynote speaker, Dr. Geneviene Patenaude, University of Edinburgh, UK during Commonwealth Forestry Conference.

INVASIVE SPECIES WIDESPREAD, BUT NOT MORE THAN AT HOME RANGE

It has been too long that i have not posted in my blog. This is partly due to lack of time and at the same time i have been lazy too. Today, i found one interesting news. The news is interesting in the sense that i am going to work with invasive species and more or less with the same theme.

It is a global assumption that when a plants invade in a new area, they become much more abundant in introduced habitat than in native habitat. But, study by Firn et al. (2011) shows that on average, invasive species are not any more abundant away from home than they are at home. The findings is published in March issue of Ecology letters. Link to the article

CONGRATULATIONS ANURADHA KOIRALA AND HER TEAM

Congratulations to Anuradha Koirala, chief of Maiti Nepal and her hardworking team for being CNN Hero of the year 2010. MS Koirala has been nominated for the award in recognition of her outstanding work against human trafficking through Maiti Nepal. The team has rescued more than 12,000 women and girls from sex slavery. She will receive $100,000 to continue her work with Maiti Nepal, in addition to the $25,000 awarded to each of the top 10 CNN Heroes.
The online edition of CNN reported today, Koirala was chosen by the public in an online poll that ran for eight weeks on CNN.com.
Maiti Nepal is working since 1993 with special focus on preventing trafficking for forced prostitution, rescuing flesh trade victims and rehabilitating them. This social organisation also actively works to find justice for the victimized lot of girls and women by engaging in criminal investigation and waging legal battles against the criminals. It has highlighted the trafficking issue with its strong advocacy from the local to national and international levels. Read more here.
"Human trafficking is a crime, a heinous crime, a shame to humanity," Koirala said earlier in the evening after being introduced as one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2010. "I ask everyone to join me to create a society free of trafficking. We need to do this for all our daughters," the report said.
Addressing the event Koirala said, "This is another responsibility to me to work with all your support. We have to end this heinous crime. Please join hands with me to end this crime". Shre further said, "Please try to respect the youth. They are the ones who are going to build the next generation.
Watch short footage of the program

GLOBAL TEMPERATURE TO RISE 3.5 DEGREE C BY 2035

Accroding to IEA (International Energy Agency), glogal temperatures are projected rise 3.5 degrees C. over the next 25 years. This shows rise in temperature prediction which was supposed to be 2-degree increase meaning meaning that governments worldwide will have failed in their pledge to hold global temperature at a 2-degree increase.
However, there is still a little hope if governments remove subsidies for fossil fuels and increase investments in renewable energy to make them cost competitive, then the Copenhagen Accord can still be upheld, says, Fatih Birol, the chief economist for the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA).
This information came just ahead of a summit starting Nov. 29 in Cancún, Mexico, for another round of climate talks.
Now it is utmost for the governments to support renewable energy to maintain 2 degree C rise. According to IEA, to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C., the share of renewables among total energy use must reach to 38 percent by 2035, governments must end their subsidies on fossil fuels, and global demand for coal, oil, and gas must plateau before 2020. The longer the world waits to tackle the issue the more expensive it will become. The IEA estimates the price tag of meeting the Copenhagen Accord pledges at $11.6 trillion through 2030, which is a $1 trillion increase from the IEA's projection once year ago.
But the world has never been quick to adopt new energy policies, as Monitor correspondent Douglas Fox pointed out in his cover story on the future of energy.
"Energy revolutions have usually been slow, starchy, conservative affairs, not overnight explosions; and the next one promises to be, too -- never before has humanity replaced 15 trillion watts of worldwide energy production," writes Mr. Fox. "Our success in making it happen quickly enough to stave off climate change will depend every bit as much on strategic use of fossil fuels now as it does on flashy new technologies in the future.

PLANT JATROPHA - GO GREEN AND REDUCE POVERTY

Demand for energy is increasing worldwide. According to the world energy outlook, the demand is expected to increase by 1.7%. Increasing demand for fossil fuels, agriculture and fire wood for energy are causing landslide degradation in many developing countries. Land degradation has become a major threat to world food security with about 2000 million ha of soil (15% of earth's land area) have been degraded due to human activities.
Increasing population density and decline in availability of productive land due to degradation would further fuel the large-scale migration of people into the already overpopulated metropolis in Asia and Africa in future, unless urgent corrective measures are adopted to increase rural incomes and generate new perspectives in the weaker regions. Rapid population increase has lead to huge increases in the energy demand. Highly dense developing countries have to depend on other countries for fossil fuels as they don’t have sources of fossil fuels. Thus energy security has become a key issue for many countries. Increased consumption of energy and fuels has resulted in increased release of green house gases into the atmosphere which is mainly due to transport-related pollutant emissions. These have already exceeded critical levels in many overcrowded metropolis in the developing countries. The increased presence of green-house gases and the resultant climate change has dramatically increased the number of natural disasters that cost the world around $60 billion. The severest effects of the natural calamities are known to affect the poorest people in the developing countries the most.

It is in this background, production of bio- diesel from Jatropha plantations set up on degraded land become highly relevant for energy importing developing countries with large tracts of land already degraded or under the threat of degradation. There is no loss of land for food production or other purposes as only degraded land where profitable food production would not be possible are foreseen to be used. On the other hand lack of urgent protective measures would lead to expansion of the degraded areas and hence intervention have to be taken up on a priority basis.

Jatropha as an income generation
Jatropha plantation is labor intensive hence creates jobs for poor indigenous people who otherwise are forced either to migrate to dense cities or are forced to live poor lives. Nepal has huge amount of degraded and waste land in rural areas that can be utilized for jatropha plantation.
Jatropha cultivation has a huge potential to alleviate soil degradation, desertification and deforestation by greening this vast wasteland while providing employment to rural extremely poor and marginalized communities. In this back ground, Everest Biodiesel Company Pvt. Ltd. in cooperation with DC Nepal and with a financial support from The Embassy of Finland is conducting program in five districts of Nepal for mass scale plantation of Jatropha curcas. Around 1500 households have actively participated in this program. To date, the company has successfully planted Jatropha in around 150 ha. area in five districts and further planning to extend these programs in other districts.

GOOD LUCK FOR JATROPHA BIODIESEL

Although it has been already around one month i quitted my position from Everest Biodiesel Company Pvt. Ltd. (EBDC), I am posting this post today. I was busy with preparation for my departure. So, i could not post on time. I worked with EBDC for around 10 months. My stay in EBDC has been very successful in collecting funds from different donor agencies. We received funds from The Embassy of Finland for three years for promotion of Jatropha plantation and Biodiesel production in Nepal and from Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) for biochemical analysis of Jatropha seeds collected from different samples along different altitudes of Nepal. The Embassy of Finland funded through a local NGO, Development Center Nepal and AEPC funded through a research consultancy, Himalayan Forum. In both the projects, I was signatory. In both the funds I was working as Project Manager. I wish good luck for my successor and all the team members involved for the betterment of Jatropha Biodiesel in Nepal. Hope Nepal will produce Jatropha Biodiesel in Nepal.

ONE ORCHID SPECIES FIRST TIME REPORTED FROM CENTRAL NEPAL

One orchid species (Spiranthes spiralis L. Chevall.) is firt time reported from Pokhara valley, Central Nepal at an altitude of around 900 m asl. Information based on this species is published in 2010 issue of international journal, Hardvard Papers in Botany. This is my first article on orchid from Nepal where i am first and corresponding author. If you are interested in this article, you can contact me for further details.

ARTICLE ON JATROPHA

An article containing basic information on biodiesel, feedstocks used for production of biodiesel in world, importance of Jatropha curcas for production of biodiesel in Nepal, distribution of jatropha in nepal with its local names, progress in production of biodiesel in Nepal and Jatropha crop extension program is published in local newspaper, "Adarshasamaj". The news paper is published from Pokhara. The article is in Nepali language aimed to dissiminated information to local communities. The article is published on 4.07.2010.

Full article can be read online in the link below:
Adarshasamaj daily news paper