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indianexpress:  Nearly 50 km from Pune, at Bhandgaon village, 70-year-old L N Nahar has been cultivating pulses and fruits for the last 10 years on his 28 acres of land — half of which is rocky. Falling in the rain shadow region of Yavat, Nahar has been able to achieve this feat using a soil conditioner that he developed over 25 years.

“This region gets very little rainfall. The soil is rocky and hardly any crops could be cultivated,” he says. This prompted Nahar to check out alternative ways and means to cultivate his land.

“I started a small project as an alternative to chemical fertilisers which have not only rendered the soil useless after a couple of years but also given rise to several crop diseases. Using the soil conditioner called Aafi, over the last 10 years, I have grown fruits here,” he says.

Aafi is a mixture of herbs and oil cakes and can be used with organic manure like cow dung and compost but not with chemical fertilisers.

Nahar says Aafi restores fertility and original quality of soil, improves the quality of crops and fruits and maintains the pH factor (acidic or alkaline nature) of the soil.

“The mixture has, among other ingredients, karanja seeds, compost, herbs like daicha and tag. When it is added to soil, it first strengthens it by bringing back its nutrients. After a few days, Aafi enables the formation of humus and once the texture of the soil improves, it ensures that that the crop is disease-resistant. Earthworms appear in soil when this product is added,” Nahar explains.

indianexpress: * In August last year, the Central Excise Department officials intercepted a CD sent from Australia in the name of a Pune student and found drugs hidden under the CD cover. Subsequent investigations revealed the student was to deliver the CD to a man in Goa.
* Last month, the Central Excise Department officials again intercepted a parcel of books sent from Pune to the US through a courier and found drugs.
* In 2006, Anti Narcotic Cell (ANC) of the Pune police seized 247.5 kg of ganja, 4.5 kg of opium and 130 gm of brown sugar.
* In the last month-and-a-half, ANC had recovered 4.8 kg of ganja, and over 1.3 kg of brown sugar estimated to be around Rs 3.9 lakh.

With Pune gaining notoriety as a transit point for drug trafficking, officials said covers of compact disks and book parcels are being preferred by the drug pushers to conceal narcotics. “It is being done to avoid attention of the authorities concerned,” Central Excise Department officials said.
 
A senior police official said the city was becoming a transit point as it was the route used by drug cartels for drug trafficking from the North to the South and most of the large recoveries were made during transit.

For instance, in June last year, the Anti Narcotic Cell of the Mumbai police arrested a resident of Alandi Road along with his driver for alleged links with a drug cartel at Wadgaon Maval on Pune-Mumbai highway and seized 2 kg of heroin from them.

Inspector Sheshrao Suryavanshi of Anti Narcotic Cell of the Pune police said involvement of foreign students and people coming to Pune from other states either to pursue education or in search of jobs was found in drug trafficking. He said drug peddlers have been targeting not only youths coming from well off families, but also working class staying in slums.

indianexpress:  Disparity among tribal communities is a key cause of dissent among them that was leading to social evils like ‘Naxalism’, according to Mizoram Governor Lt. Gen. (Retd.) MM Lakhera.

Speaking at the inauguration of the 2nd Indian Anthropology Congress organised by the University of Pune’s Anthropology Department and the Maharashtra Association of Anthropological Sciences (MAAS) on Wednesday, the former governor of Pondicherry expressed concern about the current situation of tribal folk in India.

“Although there have been several steps taken for their benefit, like establishing the ministry of tribal development, autonomous tribal councils and tribal rights under the constitutional category of Scheduled Tribes (ST), there are many cases of pseudo-tribals issuing false certificates to derive benefits guaranteed by the constitution, while others live under dire circumstances,” Lakhera pointed out.

This disparity was causing unrest among tribals, who constitute for 8 per cent of the population. “We need to see how tribals can also derive the fruits of development while holding on to their unique cultural heritage at the same time,” said Lakhera.

The former administrator of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the time of the tsunami also stressed on the need to preserve indigenous knowledge systems among tribals through focused scientific research.

“A lot of rich heritage is being lost because it is locked away in tribal languages. There is need for coordinated research in indigenous tribal systems like language and medicine,” he said. Lamenting on the condition of anthropology research in India, Lakhera said many anthropology departments in universities were shutting down, especially in universities in western India. “Gifted anthropologists are also shifting to other professions, which is worrisome,” he averred KK Basa, director of the anthropology museum Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, said anthropological theory needed to keep pace with rapid globalisation.

indianexpress: The state unit of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) on Tuesday threatened to launch a state-wide agitation if the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) fails to end the power woes of the farmers in the next 15 days.

A BKS delegation, led by state chief Mauli Tupe, called on chief engineer R B Gautam in Pune to present its demands. “On one hand farmers are committing suicides due to the wrong policies of the rulers. Farmers want uninterrupted power, not free power. The MSEDCL needs to reduce its power losses from the current 40 per cent by at least 15 per cent,” said the memorandum.

Tupe has also alleged malpractices in the purchase of transformers, cables and other equipment that resulted in huge power losses.

Meanwhile, the city unit of Republican Party of India (Jai Bhim) too has threatened a stir over the power shortage issue.