UNDP India Blogs

• Let There be Sun Shine in Their Lives With Solar Lanterns!! | Chitra Narayanswamy

  17 Oct 2012

  
  Hirappa has a green job! He helps in charging & renting out the lanterns. [PHOTO: UNDP INDIA]

  Maheswari and Chandrakala come towards us with beaming smiles. They belong to one of the 250 households housed in the Thubrahalli slum by Kundanahalli gate at Bangalore. The houses are shanties made of mud, bamboo and covered with plastic tarpaulin. Some of the households though are lit with modern energy, LED based solar lanterns. GMRVF, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) wing of the GMR infrastructure company runs a school in the slum premises housed in 2 permanent structures, while their third housing with sloping roofs operates as an Integrated Energy Center (IEC). The IEC is the first step taken by Selco Foundation to show the slum dwellers an alternate to kerosene for lighting. Solar panels (total capacity of 75 Watts) help to charge 60 such solar lanterns. The slum dwellers rent a lantern every evening for Rs 5/day, handing it to the center operator Hirappa in the mornings for charging. It is also a first step to show the residents their need for better lighting options - easing the burden on kerosene purchases, and eliminating the toxic fumes inhaled as it burns to light the gas lamps. Does the need arise in the shanty next door since it gives them a Read More

• Fast Facts on India’s Biodiversity Part 2 - Ecosystems and Habitats | Pramod Krishnan

  17 Sep 2012

  
  PHOTO: SHASHANK JAYAPRASAD/UNDP India

  India has a wide range of ecosystems and habitats that includes forests, wetlands, grasslands, coasts, marshes and deserts. Almost all the major ecosystem types in the world can be found in India. I have been fortunate to have visited and soaked in the beauty of all these habitats. Forests - India is among the top 10 forested countries in the world. The actual forest cover (as determined through remote sensing during 2008-2009) is about 69.2 million hectares or 21.1 percent of the geographical area (see Figure 3 and Table 1). In addition, estimates suggest the tree cover (patches of trees that are less than one hectare in area and thus not assessed through remote sensing) to be a little over 9 million hectares. Thus, total forest and tree cover in the country is over 78 million hectares, or 23.8 percent of the country’s geographical area (FSI 2011). India’s forests are home to a number of charismatic mammals such as the Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), the Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica), the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus), Leopard (Panthera pardus), Wild Water Buffalo (Bubalus arnee), Indian Bison (Bos gaurus) and the Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus). In addition, a number of deer Read More

• Fast Facts on India’s Biodiversity Part 1 – Biogeographic Zones | Pramod Krishnan

  12 Sep 2012

  
  PHOTO: SHASHANK JAYAPRASAD/UNDP India

  Three unparalleled factors give India its biological opulence. First, there is an astounding spectrum of habitats and ecosystems existing over a wide range of latitudes and longitudes. These, together with varied climatic regimes, have resulted in an impressive range of bio-physical environments. Second, India lies at the confluence of three global centres of origin of life or ‘Biogeographic Realms’, viz. Indo-Malayan, Eurasian and Afro-tropical. India’s flora and fauna have been enriched by elements from each of these realms. Third, India has a legacy of co-existence of humans and nature and a longstanding tradition of conservation. In this blog, I will introduce the 10 biogeographic zones that India has been divided into: Trans-Himalaya: Constituting 5.6 percent of the country’s geographical area, this zone includes high altitude cold and arid mountain areas, including cold deserts. An extension of the Tibetan Plateau, this zone has sparse alpine steppe vegetation with many endemic species. It supports some of the biggest populations of wild sheep and goats in the world as well as some rare species of fauna such as Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia). Himalaya: Consisting of the entire Himalayan mountain range, this zone covers 6.4 percent of the total geographical area and has alpine and Read More

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