The Great Indian Bustard makes a comeback

In a latest census, as many as 43 Great Indian Bustard have been spotted and 18 were in the Ramdevra closure in Jaisalmer. Recently, one of the birds was electrocuted when it came in contact with high tension wire of windmills in Jaisalmer.
The wildlife census was done at Desert National Park (DNP) in Jaisalmer-Barmer at 147 watering holes and it went on for full 24 hours. The number of water points are in DNP is 53 and forest department officers built machans at these spots with a dozen cameras to record the activities of the birds.
This has been reported in indiatimes.com dated 14 May 2017.

The breakup of the GIBs areawise is - 18 in the new closure of Ramdevra, four in the Loharki closure, in Sudasari closure there were 12 male and 4 female and in the Chauhani Myajlar area, there were one male and four females. Such a census is undertaken annually at DNP, and it is held during Vaishakh month on full moon night.
The birds come to the waterhole and a total 147 waterholes have been identified and 142 of them are in Jaisalmer and 5 are in Barmer. During the last wildlife census in 2016 on Vaisakh Purnima, only 30 godawans (another name for the Great Indian Bustard) were spotted.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Aloe Vera cultivation in Jaisalmer makes a man a crorepati

Just imagine becoming a crorepati by cultivating an ordinary plant called aloe vera. That has actually happened to a man with a farmer background who had a government job. He was not satisfied and wanted to do something different and a visit to an agri expo in Delhi was the turning point in his life. He quit his job and started cultivating aloe vera and other crops on his 120-acre farmland and today boats of an annual turnover of Rs 1.5 to Rs 2-crore.
One of his customers is Patanjali Food Products Limited who use it for making aloe vera juice.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 12 July 2016.

He has now started his own company at Dhaisar, 45-Km from Jaisalmer and the product grown in Thar Desert has found a ready customer in Patanjali Food Products Limited. He had started with around 80,000 saplings of aloe vera and it has now increased to seven lakh. In last four months, he has dispatched 125-150 tonnes of processed aloe vera pulp to Patanjali factories in Haridwar.
Incidentally, the quality of aloe vera grown in desert area is of a high quality and, hence, there is a heavy demand for it in national and international markets. He got an idea to grow aloe vera, amla and gunda after visiting an agro fair. Usually, in desert areas, bajra, wheat, moong, mustard etc are grown, but he went in for the 'babie densis' variety of aloe vera on his 120-acre field. This variety has a high demand in countries like Brazil, Hong Kong and America too.


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Water aplenty in Thar Desert - could be gift of River Saraswati, now extinct

Water is usually a scarce commodity in any desert but the Thar Desert appears to be an exception because, even as many parts of India are reeling under acute crisis of drinking water, this precious commodity is available aplenty at just 2 to 3 feet underground. Coming across water by digging just 2 to 3 feet in Thar Desert is not less than a miracle. There is an oasis amid the sand dunes in Shahgarh Bulge in Jaisalmer district and it boasts of wells and ponds. Sources attribute this to the long extinct Saraswati River.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 28 May 2016.

These water bodies are the source of water for BSF jawans positioned at India-Pakistan border. These sources never dry up and water that is drawn during the daytime gets replenished automatically at night. The quality and purity of the water is unquestionable - its quality is superior to mineral water.
Incidentally, the sand dunes in Shahgarh Bulge area has good vegetation and the trees and plants in this part never die. This leads one to conclude that there is a possibility that some there is some source of water flowing below ground level that feeds this oasis with fresh water. There are many wells in BSF outposts at Khara, Khajuria, Nalka, Jhalaria, Rohtosh, Veerhill, Kirarwali, Somgam and others that never go dry.
Another point to note is that consumption of water is very minimal in these areas and hence water level is very high. In the opinion of a historian, the water stems from the now extinct Saraswati river.


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Jaipur, New Delhi, Mumbai and Jaisalmer are four Indian cities that globetrotters prefer

#globetrotters #TripAdvisor #Jaisalmer #NewDelhi #Mumbai Jaipur, New Delhi, Mumbai and Jaisalmer are the choice of globetrotters for attractive tourist destinations in India and have been featured in the top 25 destination in Asia as per TripAdvisor.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 5 April 2015.

Pink city Jaipur is 12th in the list with the capital New Delhi at 15th position, the financial capital Mumbai coming in at 20th place and Jaisalmer ranked 22nd – this is the result of data furnished in the 2015 TravelLers' Choice Asia list for Destinations according to the leading global travel website TripAdvisor.
These Indian cities are rich in history, culture and beauty and offer places of interest for all kinds of travelers – these include historical places, unique architecture, abundance of natural beauty spots like gardens and parks and varied lifestyles that have an attraction of their own.
The assessment is based on the millions of reviews and opinions from travelers.

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