📰 In one of India’s oldest port cities
A walk through Lothal takes you back 4,500 years to the Harappan Civilisation
•No child growing up in India fails to study the Indus Valley Civilisation, which is now more popularly referred to as the Harappan Civilisation after Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated in the 1920s by British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler. Growing up, I was fascinated by Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, which now top my bucket list. I remember being awestruck, like many, when I saw in Delhi’s National Museum the famous bronze beauty, the ‘Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro’, cast some 4,500 years ago.
•The Harappan Civilisation was widespread: it covered parts of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Even though, post-Partition, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro fell in Pakistani territory, there are many sites of the Harappan Civilisation in India too. I intend to learn as much about them as possible before my dream of visiting Mohenjo-daro and Harappa comes true.
The importance of trade
•Indian archaeologists started the search for cities of the Harappan Civilisation post-1947 in Saurashtra, Gujarat, and were amply rewarded. Archaeologist S.R. Rao led teams who discovered a number of Harappan sites, including the port city of Lothal in 1954-63. Two sub-periods of Harappan culture are marked out: period A dating to 2,400-1,900 BCE, and period B dating to 1,900-1,600 BCE. The word Lothal, like Mohenjo-daro, means the mound of the dead. Lothal is located between the Bhogavo and Sabarmati rivers near the Gulf of Khambat.
•When I got a chance to visit Lothal recently, I jumped at it. It was a long and dusty ride from Ahmedabad to the village of Saragwala where the archaeological site of Lothal is located, but it was well worth it. I really couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw the remains. The bricks truly look as though they are from the recent past and not from 2,400 BCE!
•My first stop was the rectangular basin that was said to be the dockyard. It is 218 m long and 37 m wide and is bound on all sides by baked bricks. It had gaps for a sluice gate and inlet. As we haven’t yet deciphered the Indus script, we don’t know if this was really India’s first port as is claimed by some and questioned by some historians. But it is true that the discovery of Lothal seals in other ancient cities points to its importance in trade that was conducted with other ancient civilisations. The dockyard proves the maritime activity of the Harappans.
•The 4,500-year-old city was mathematically planned. It had a grid pattern with proper streets crossing at right angles, drainage systems, and a great bath. The emphasis on cleanliness can be judged from the discovery of toilets and lota-like jars described by Tony Joseph in his fascinating book, The Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From. He writes that “the way South Asians wash themselves hasn’t changed all that much”. Imagine, our fixation with washing up goes back all the way to the Harappan Civilisation!
•As this thought was crossing my mind, I made my way past an ancient well, the remains of a storehouse, and found myself in the upper town or citadel. The city was divided into two parts: the upper town and the lower town. The remains of the brick walls there suggest wide streets, drains and bathing platforms.
Off to a bead-making factory
•After spending some time in the citadel I followed the signs to a bead-making factory. I wish the signs were more accurate. Amidst ruins, my search turned into a guessing game with all the signboards being so vague.
•Lothal was in the thick of Harappan maritime trade, and beads made from semi-precious stones, terracotta, gold, etc. were popular in areas as far as Sumer (modern-day Iraq), Bahrain and Iran. The Lothal bead-makers were highly skilled. According to the signboard in the Archaeological Survey of India museum there, which displays these beads, a bead-maker’s house was excavated in the lower town. It had several rooms and a kiln. Eight hundred cornelian beads in various stages of production and tools and raw materials were also recovered from there. In the cool confines of the museum, I was also bewitched by the unicorn seal. There must be few students in India who have not seen that seal in their history textbooks.
•I also learnt from The Early Indians about a vase discovered at Lothal. It has the painting of a crow standing next to a pitcher with a deer looking back at it. It reminds one of the tale of the thirsty crow in the Panchatantra. As Joseph writes, “So some of the tales we tell our children may have been the same ones told by the Harappans to their children.”
📰 Swine flu resurfaces in Delhi; two deaths reported
State Health Department issues advisory asking people not to panic, lists out a series of preventive measures to follow
•Following two suspected swine flu deaths in a city hospital here, doctors have confirmed that the number of suspected swine flu cases in Delhiare on the rise with symptoms being very similar to normal influenza.
•“We have reported a few cases for the influenza virus. This virus spreads like common flu. It is a droplet infection which spreads through act of sneezing, coughing and close contact with a known case of influenza infection,” said Colonel Vijay Dutta, senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre at Vasant Kunj.
•He explained that the dry winter chills has led to a spurt of swine flu/influenza cases in the Capital. Swine flu has common symptoms for a common cold and can thus, be ignored or misdiagnosed.
Patients complain
•“Patients usually complain of irritation/sore throat, running nose and abdominal ache, cough. Usually in most of the cases, the symptoms subsides with symptomatic treatment alone within a week’s time. But if the patient is having co-morbid disease like diabetes, cancer, kidney disorders, such patient need to be careful,” said Anil Bansal from Delhi Medical Association.
Get vaccination
•Doctors advise maintaining hydration, hand hygiene, cough hygiene (coughing and sneezing into the disposable tissue), suitable disposal of this infected waste material.
•Travelling to places where such cluster cases are reported should be avoided. Getting yourself a vaccination with quadrivalent flu vaccine shot before the weather becomes extreme is important and recommended for high-risk cases.
•Meanwhile, the State Health Department too, has issued an advisory asking people not to panic and listing out a series of good practices to follow.
•“Seasonal influenza (H1N1) is a self-limiting viral, air-borne diseases spread from person-to-person, through large droplets generated by the act of coughing and sneezing, indirect contact by touching a contaminated object or surface [fomite transmission like telephone, cell phones, computers, door handles, door bells, pens, toys etc.] and close contact [including hand shaking, hugging, kissing],’’ said a senior health official.
•Many people in the Delhi-NCR region have already become victims of seasonal influenza (H1N1) virus, commonly known as swine flu. H1N1 has three categories – A, B and C.
•While A and B categories need home care, category C requires immediate hospitalisation and medical intervention as its symptoms and outcomes are extremely severe and could result in death.
•D.S. Chaddha, director, Internal Medicine, Fortis Flt. Lt. Rajan Dhall Hospital added that swine flu is resurfacing in India.
•“Check with the healthcare provider about any special care that might be needed if the patient is pregnant or has a health condition such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma or emphysema. Also ensure that you seek doctor’s advice on whether the patient should take anti-viral medications. Keep the patient away from other people as much as possible. They should not be going to school or work,” added Dr. Chaddha.
📰 Demolish wall on elephant corridor: Supreme Court tells Assam’s Numaligarh Refinery
•The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal filed by Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. (NRL) and ordered demolition of a 2.2-km boundary wall erected on an elephant migration corridor in eastern Assam’s Golaghat district.
•Environmentalists had objected to the wall the refinery had erected in 2011 for a proposed township in – as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had observed later – a part of the Deopahar Reserve Forest.
•The refinery received flak from wildlife activists when a seven-year-old male elephant died of haemorrhage in May 2015 after trying to force its way through the wall. Videos also captured herds trying to cross the high boundary wall with barbed wire in vain. In August 2016, the NGT ordered NRL to demolish the wall within a month, but only a 289-metre stretch was demolished.
•Dismissing the NRL’s appeal in the apex court, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said there cannot be any township as elephants have the first right on forest. “Elephants do not go to office in a designated route. We cannot encroach upon the elephant’s area,” he observed.
📰 Why the confusion over construction plan in Bandipur?
•The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has opposed a proposal to construct elevated roads over the Bandipur Tiger Reserve. The proposal had triggered outrage and protests from NGOs. The tiger reserve, spread over nearly 912 sq km, is located in Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka, constitutes an important component of a forest landscape comprising Nagarahole (Karnataka), Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam (Tamil Nadu) and Wayanad (Kerala). The tiger reserve is home to nearly 120 to 150 tigers as per the 2014 estimates made by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). Bandipur also supports nearly 1,600 elephants, according to a 2012 count by the Karnataka Forest Department. Conservationists feel any infrastructure project through the forests is bound to impact the wildlife habitat and should be dropped. But there are supporters of the project who want the night traffic ban lifted. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court.
What does the view signify?
•In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Environment Mahesh Sharma said the Ministry had not concurred with the proposal for elevated roads, but supported strengthening of the alternative route. While wildlife activists have welcomed the statement, they have underlined the contradictory stance of the government. Conservation biologist Sanjay Gubbi argued that different Ministries were holding divergent views. While the MoEF& CC was against the project in principle, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways was for it. “In case the Centre was against the elevated road, the MoRTH, which has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on September 19, 2018, in support of the project, should be made to withdraw the affidavit and respect the views of the Ministry of Environment on forest issues,” he said.
Why was the project proposed?
•The ban on traffic through Bandipur, located 80 km from Mysuru in Karnataka, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. was introduced on the directives of the High Court of Karnataka to reduce disturbance to wildlife and curb road kills. It has been in place since 2009. But the ban evoked opposition from a section of stakeholders, including the Kerala government which challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it was impeding economic growth of the region. The Supreme Court constituted a committee to examine the disputes between Karnataka and Kerala. In an affidavit, the MoRTH, which was part of the committee, proposed construction of elevated highways: five sections of 1 km each (four in Bandipur and one in the Wayanad sanctuary).
Why is it being opposed?
•Activists have argued that such projects are prohibited under the final notification of the Eco-Sensitize Zone for Bandipur issued in September 2011 based on the Environment Protection Rules, 1986. The guidelines make it clear that in the areas of threatened taxa, there should not be infrastructure development, and since Bandipur is a source habitat for tigers, flyovers cannot be constructed, said Mr. Gubbi. Wildlife activist Santosh Pavagada pointed out that the Centre had also ignored the Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP) for Bandipur, which was prepared under Section 38V(3) of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and it had recommended night closure of highways passing through the tiger reserve.
What is the State’s view ?
•The Chief Conservator of Forests and Director of Bandipur, Ambadi Madhav, said the State government was consistent in opposing the project and developed an alternative road that bypassed the core forest area. The State has spent over ₹75 crore to develop an alternative road (SH-90) through Hunsur, Gonikoppa, Kutta and Kartikulam and another stretch between Konanur and Makutta and Madikeri and Kutta that links northern Kerala. The detour is 30 km longer. The Board for Wildlife has exempted ambulance and fire-service vehicles from the ban and 16 State transport buses are allowed to pass through at night.
