A photograph of a tree lit with the luminescence of a thousand fireflies has won Aishwarya Sridhar, 23, a young wildlife filmmaker and photographer from Panvel, Maharashtra, the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. Sridhar’s striking image won the “Highly Commended Award” in the Behaviour-Invertebrates category, making her the first Indian woman to bring home this award. “It’s a beautiful amalgamation of fireflies — the ‘stars’ on earth — with the actual stars in the sky,” said Sridhar about her photograph. “I found a tree with so many fireflies that it looked like it was decorated with Diwali (the…
Author: zenger.news
“If it were not for the pandemic, the whole town would have been celebrating — singing along and clapping to the beats of the kirtans (hymns) sung in the Ramlila,” said Vijayanand Tewary, a resident of Ramnagar, Varanasi that hosts the world’s oldest Ramlila. Ramlila is a dramatic folk enactment of the Hindu god-king Ram’s life through songs, narration, recital, and dialogue. It is performed across northern India during Navratri, a nine-day-long Hindu festival, held each year in autumn according to the ritual calendar. The most famous Ramlilas are those of Ayodhya, Ramnagar, Vrindavan, Almora, Satna, and Madhubani. The Ramlila festivities were declared…
For Indians, Khadi is not just another textile; it is synonymous with India’s freedom struggle. During India’s fight for independence from the British, Mahatma Gandhi urged his countrymen to boycott foreign goods and use Khadi, a hand-spun, natural fiber fabric, to promote self-reliance. Interestingly, Khadi has now found a home in Mexico, far from the land where it originated. In a village called Oaxaca, 400 families are involved in the process of making Khadi. And they are keeping the environment-friendly essence of the fabric alive by using natural fertilizers for the cotton plant, and natural, plant-based dyes for the cloth.…
New Delhi — India’s government has established a permanent commission to tackle the growing problem of deteriorating air quality in New Delhi, regarded as the world’s most polluted national capital. Under an ordinance passed by the government on Oct. 28, the ‘Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Adjoining Areas’ was established. The new law dissolves the Environmental Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) established in 1998 to address air pollution in the National Capital Region, which encompasses the National Capital Territory of Delhi and several adjoining districts in the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and…
Colombo — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is backing the full implementation of the 13th Amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution that would allow power-sharing for the Tamil minorities of the island state. “The Indian prime minister was keen on having a discussion with our party soon after the general elections. However, given the present predicament, we cannot say if the discussion would take place any time soon,” said R. Sampanthan, leader of the Tamil National Alliance. Sampathan said Modi asked him to set up a meeting after he addressed the issue of the Tamils in Sri Lanka during a virtual…
Kolkata, India — Bangladesh is planning to shift from coal-based power plants to those operating on liquefied natural gas due to the high cost of new power plants and the country’s peculiar topographic characteristics. As power demand in the country soars, authorities plan to review their construction options to reduce dependence on coal. The country has or has plans for 26 coal-based power plants, of which two are functional, six are undergoing construction and the remainder have yet to be built. Authorities plan to review all of them. “We are planning to continue with the three coal-based power plants among…
Bengaluru — Nine-year-old Garvit Sood, who had suffered from eye problems since the age of 3, created an eye-testing app, which he claims is one of its kind. The boy says all this in an advertisement for WhiteHat Jr, an online learning platform on coding for kids. Garvit will now be going to Silicon Valley as a reward for his innovation, the advertisement claims. “You can fix stuff or break stuff via coding. Coding is just great,” says 12-year old Arushi Saha in another advertisement. Saha says she is making an app to end world hunger and poverty by enabling people to donate food and clothes. These success stories, however, have also led to a slew of controversies…
Colombo — Calling the Chinese Communist Party a predator, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during bilateral talks in Colombo that America offers a different vision for Sri Lanka and its democratic values. “The bad deals from China are a violation of sovereignty and lawlessness on land and sea. The Chinese Communist Party is a predator, and the United States comes in a different way — as a friend and partner,” Pompeo said on Oct. 28. “The United States offers a different vision of shared democratic values and implementation of sovereign rights for Sri Lanka.” By “bad deals” he…
AMIENS, France—French bug-breeding firm Ÿnsect has an ambitious goal: to reinvent the food chain. To help make that happen, the firm just raised $224 million in additional investment capital from such backers as Robert Downey Jr. That money — in combination with $148 million the startup had received earlier — will be used mainly to complete what Ynsect describes as the world’s largest insect farm, whose products can be used to feed animals, plants and yes, humans. (Video above provided by RealPress) Insects are nutritious and a viable source of protein that can help solve the planet’s challenges with climate…
OFF THE COAST OF EXMOUTH, Australia—A man stranded on a sinking yacht off Australia’s west coast was rescued by helicopter, which dropped a life raft to him. An exact cause for the accident is not yet known, but authorities say there were high winds and waves in the area. Footage shared by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows the rescue as it unfolded, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) off the coast of Exmouth, Western Australia. (Video above courtesy of Clipzilla) The authority scrambled a Challenger jet from Perth and a rescue helicopter from Karratha to carry out the mission. When…