DCI team to study Sukhna Lake
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 20 — A team of senior functionaries of the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) will visit the city on October 27 for a study of the topography of Sukhna Lake and to suggest ways to start wet dredging of the lake. The team will also hold a meeting with senior functionaries of the Engineering Department.

Wet dredging of the lake had run into problems following objections by the Department of Forests and Environment. It maintained that the lake had been declared a wetland since 1991 and cuttting trees to facilitate wet dredging could not be permitted.

The department relented a bit and asked the Engineering Department to conduct a topography survey of the area where the construction of a second 'bundh' was proposed. The Engineering Department invited bids till October 5 to undertake this survey. A Panchkula-based firm offered to conduct it.

The Administration decided to hold further negotiations with the DCI so as to work out an alternative. Though a patch of land without tree cover has been located inside the lake, its size is too small.

On the basis of the survey, the local office of the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Environment will make a recommendation to the Union Government before any green signal to start wet dredging is given. The process may take some months. The Engineering Department is keen that actual work must start before the current financial year ends.

The Administration had approved wet dredging of Sukhna Lake this year and Rs 200 lakh was earmarked for the project. This money was transferred to the Engineering Department to get the work started on the first phase of the project. The Engineering Department could only float tenders.

The Administration was toying with the idea of awarding the wet dredging work to the DCI on a long term basis. In that case, a part of the money earmarked during the last financial year was to be released to the DCI to facilitate movement of heavy machinery to the city. Later it was decided that tenders be invited only from government and semi-government agencies. The Administration decided to give them sufficient notice to assess the work by visiting the site.

The Administration had decided to go for wet dredging more than a year ago. For the past couple of years, the focus had shifted from 'shramdan' to mechanical desiltation.

The Administration has drawn a long-term plan to restore the Sukhna Lake to its original shape. The first phase of the wet dredging will cost Rs 475 lakh. The bed level of the lake has been silted upto 1,153 feet. Once wet dredging starts, it will be brought down to 1,148 feet and then to 1,145 feet. As the lake has been declared a wetland, funds are provided under Ecology and Environment head.

In May, DCI officials visited the city and held negotiations with the Engineering Department after inspecting the site. But objections raised by the Forests Department forced the Engineering Department not to award the work to the DCI.

The Engineering Department, in consultation with the DCI, proposed to construct two 'bundhs', one in the present water body and the second in the silted portion, which was a part of the reserve forest. While the Department of Forests and Environment has no objection to the 'bundh' in the water body, it has objected to the outer 'bundh'. The 'bundhs', say engineers, are necessary to avoid total draining out of the lake for dredging. By using 'bundhs', water will be rerouted within the bound area to minimise its loss.

A notification under Section 4 of the Indian Forest Act was issued in 1991 to declare the silted portion of the lake with thick vegetative growth as 'reserve forest'. But since Section 4 only indicated the intention of the Government or the State to declare a particular area as reserve forest, the Administration notified nearly 260 acres of the lake and its surrounding areas as 'reserve forest'.

The initial area of the lake was 2.24 square km. At present, the area of the water body is only 1.5 square km.

Under the Indian Forests Conservation Act, entry to a 'reserve forest' is restricted. But since the lake is an important feature of the city, the Ministry of Environment and Forests may permit wet dredging.

There are alternatives to solve the problem, say experts. One alternative is to offer equal piece of land to be notified as reserve forest and the other is temporary diversion. The Ministry may agree to either of the suggestions or to some other alternative.

‘New’ maths methods demonstrated
From Our Correspondent

SAS NAGAR, Oct 20 — Mr R.N. Maggo, a teacher at the local Yadavindra Public School, gave a demonstration of his “new” mathematical methods in front of a few students and teachers here today.

Two of those present to assess his claims were teachers from the Department of Mathematics, Panjab University.

Mr Maggo took an amazingly short time to recognise odd perfect square numbers and factorise large numbers. Another aspect demonstrated by him was the divisibility rule of every prime number.

Mr Maggo, a mathematics teacher, challenged “wizard” Shakuntala Devi or anyone else to find the factors of large numbers in 10 different cases by taking less time than he did. He offered a cash award of Rs 1 lakh to the person who could beat him.

Prof A.K. Aggarwal of Department of Mathematics, PU, said it was difficult to comment on the originality of the work until Mr Maggo disclosed the formulae he was using. It was also to be seen, he said, whether his methods could be used on the computer.

Prof Sudesh Kaur Khanduja, from the same PU department, said Mr Maggo had an extraordinary sense of checking prime numbers. He took half a minute to tell whether a 16-digit number was a perfect square or not. He took 1 minute and 40 seconds to find the square root of a 16-digit number.

She said Mr Maggo certainly knew some method. Whether the method was original or had been learnt from a book could be determined only after he disclosed the theory behind his calculations, she added.

Mr Maggo said he would disclose his methods to the world of mathematics within six months.

Extra precautions at Chhat Bir
Safety norms to be strictly enforced
By Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 20 — With a view to preventing any mishap in the Chhat Bir zoo in future, the Punjab Wildlife Department has decided to take extra precautions, following the killing of a visitor by a black Himalayan bear in its enclosure yesterday.

The Dera Bassi police, in the meantime, has been able to establish the identity of the victim, Baldev Singh alias Bittu of Chetta Camp in Jammu, a truck driver working with a Jalandhar-based operator. A post-mortem on the body was conducted at AP Jain Civil Hospital in Rajpura today after which it was handed over to relatives of the victim.

To take stock of the situation and suggest remedial measures, a high-level meeting of the department and the zoo officials was convened by Mr B.C. Bala, Chief Wildlife Warden of Punjab, here today. He also directed Dr Venod Sharma, Director of MM Chaudhary Zoological Park Chhat Bir Zoo, to conduct an enquiry into the incident to check whether there was any negligence on part of any zoo official which led to the death of Baldev Singh.

According to sources in the department, looking into the incident and circumstances in which it happened, it was felt that more emphasis should be laid on creating awareness among people, particularly school children. "We have decided to educate visitors before they enter the place so that they might not do anything in violation of rules and norms prescribed for them," said Mr B.C. Bala. Officials would be deployed at the gate of the zoo where people would be acquainted with the norms of the place, since most of visitors, particularly children, resorted to unruly acts like teasing animals.

Increasing the density of hedges around enclosures and even replacing these with thorny ones is also on the agenda of the zoo authorities. At present, there were no hedges around a number of enclosures, reportedly, due to a paucity of irrigation water, said the sources. "We have taken this incident very seriously, but, we can not enforce drastic changes as such an arrangement might be in violation of the norms fixed for animals by the Central Zoo Authority," said Mr Bala.

Dr Venod Sharma said stringent measures were being taken to discourage the incidence of teasing of animals by visitors. The zoo authorities were going to strictly enforce a clause of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, under which, any person found to be indulging in teasing of animals in a zoo could be challaned and even imprisoned for a minimum six months, said Dr Sharma. The functioning of zoo guides and other officials would also be streamlined, said Dr Sharma. He added that the norms would be enforced strictly from tomorrow. Enquiries with the department revealed that though anyone found teasing animals could be challaned, no one had been booked by the authorities till date.