www.expressindia.com H.S. Rao (Press Trust of India)

London, March 14: Founder-Director of the Bangalore-based Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre Professor Raman Sukumar has won the Whitley Golden award, the most prestigious international award in the field of environment conservation, for his work in saving endangered Asian elephants.

Sukumar received the award popularly known as the "Green Oscar" along with a cash prize of 50,000 pounds from Princess Anne at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Thursday night.

This is the fourth year in succession that an Indian has bagged the award. Last year, a Pune scientist, Dr Anand Karve won the award for developing a technique to produce clean fuel from sugarcane waste.

In 2001, Vivek Menon, Chief of the Wildlife Trust of India, was chosen for the award for his fight against poaching of elephants. In 2000, Gargi Banerji, a botanist, won the golden award for work in conserving medicinal plants in Himachal Pradesh.

After receiving the award, Sukumar said he planned to spend the cash prize to provide support to local farmers to mitigate the impact of elephants on their lands as well as to help his field research team which acts as a "watchdog"—identifying threats such as poaching for ivory and monitoring the health of the elephant population.

The Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre, founded by Sukumar works closely with the government's project elephant. His area of operation is the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu where there are 8,000 elephants in the wild, the largest concentration in the world.

He said it offered the best opportunity of ensuring the long-term survival of the species.

Sukumar said his work dealt with three main problems—destruction and fragmentation of the elephant's habitat as a result of development projects; conflict between elephants and humans; and reduction of the herds by poaching.

To provide a safe habitat to the pachyderms, Sukumar carried out surveys and sought to establish protected corridors, so that elephant herds could move from one area to another. To prevent conflict, he experimented with forms of fencing and sought to get the co-operation of villagers in schemes to keep the animals away from crops and human habitation. He coordinated with the wild life authorities to combat poaching.

Others who received cash awards of 25,000 pounds each included Jon Paul Rodriguez of Venezuela for his work on saving yellow-shouldered parrot in Venezuela, Victor Vera of Paraguay for his conservation work in the Paraguayan Atlantic forest, John Waithaka of Kenya for developing community-based eco-tourism business, Gregor Maclennan of Peru, for helping local people in the Peruvian rainforests and Dale Lewis of Zambia, for converting poachers into skilful farmers.

At the award ceremony, Edward Whitley, the founder of the Whitley awards, described Sukumar as "a truly exceptional person, who most probably knows more about elephants than anyone else in the world and has devoted his professional life to their survival."

abc.net.au Friday, 14 March  2003

A long dry period punctuated by three intense droughts probably played a major role in the mysterious collapse of Mayan civilisation in Mexico, according to a new study. The severe droughts, each lasting between three and nine years, may have the been the final straws for a civilisation already on the verge of collapse, says a report published today in the journal Science. "Between about 750 and 950 AD, the Maya experienced a demographic disaster as profound as any other in human history," said the report, by an international research team led by Dr Gerald Haug of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. The Mayan were so successful that at their so-called Classic Maya peak, around 750 AD, the civilisation supported a population of between three and 13 million people, the researchers said. But then it progressively collapsed and by the early 9th century, many of its cities and towns had been permanently abandoned. The study details new evidence that the three droughts occurred around 810, 860, and 910 AD - corresponding to the three phases of Mayan collapse suggested by archaeological evidence. The researchers also found that a more subtle but long-term drying trend was ongoing during the collapse. The droughts may have been what specifically "pushed Mayan society over the edge," they said. The findings are based on an analysis of long-term climate records as revealed in pristine undisturbed sediments from the Cariaco Basin, off northern Venezuela. The distinctly layered sediments, washed out from land by rivers, show up as pairs of light and dark bands that correspond to annual wet and dry seasons. Within them, the team identified yearly variations in titanium levels, which reflect the amount of rainfall each year. They correlate well with palaeoclimate data obtained elsewhere from sources such as ice cores and tree rings. Until now, however, climate records from the time had not been precise enough to test the relationship between drought and the Maya's downfall during the 9th and 10th centuries, the report said. The Mayans began cultivating maize in the region about 2000 BC, using dryland farming techniques that depended on fallowing to rest the soil and needed relatively little labour. Like other Native Americans, they went on to develop sophisticated ways of intensively cultivating fertile soils associated with seasonal and permanent wetlands, on which multiple crops could be grown year after year. Living in the Yucatan lowlands of Mexico and depending mainly on an inconsistent rainfall cycle, the Maya developed labour-intense networks of raised fields as well as canals, reservoirs and other systems for storing and gravity-powered distribution of rainwater. The Mayans had abandoned their major cities once before - between about 150 and 250 AD - an incident that may also be due to drought. But their population constantly recovered, cities were reoccupied and their culture blossomed. "The control of artificial water reservoirs by Maya rulers may also have played a role in both the florescence and the collapse of Maya civilisation," the researchers wrote. Other scientists have suggested that drought may have undermined the institution of Mayan ruling class when existing ceremonies and technologies failed to provide sufficient water. The Mayans were an ancient people whose high civilisation flourished in what is today Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. They created monuments as impressive as those in ancient Egypt, were proficient in mathematics and astronomy and invented a unique written language.

Bob Beale - ABC Science Online

More Info? Sun cycle may have affected the Maya, News in Science 23 May 2001 El Nino cycles ancient and peaking, News in Science 20 Nov 2002

www.iol.co.za March 14 2003 at 06:04AM

Baghdad - For months, this city's residents have tried to maintain the appearance of normality while the threat of war grew closer.

But the city seems to have finally dropped its business-as-usual pretence, succumbing to the reality that a United States attack could come soon.

Embassies are closing. The United Nations is pulling out expatriate staff. Residents are hoarding food, water and fuel, buying generators, drilling neighbourhood wells and cleaning out basements to use as bomb shelters.

Throughout the city, workers are building sandbagged positions and digging trenches.

'We must defend our nation because right is on our side'Members of the ruling Ba'ath Party are organising neighbourhood resistance cells. The dinar, Iraq's currency, is slumping and food prices - especially for canned food and bottled water - are soaring.

As recently as a few weeks ago, many Baghdad residents had at least publicly adopted a fairly laid-back attitude toward the threat of war, reflecting the experience of having lived through two wars and periodic US strikes over two decades.

Now store owners have begun moving their merchandise to warehouses. Others are not replenishing their stocks. Some residents are honing their evacuation plans, making arrangements with relatives in what they see as the relatively safe countryside.

Families can be seen moving out from central Baghdad's apartment blocks, loading trucks with suitcases and boxes.

On Wednesday, 35 high school students filled burlap sacks with soil and piled them into a defence position opposite the Al-Rashidiyah Bridge over the Tigris River.

'My wife Mariam prayed all night and I could not sleep until daylight, when I felt safe'"This is a sensitive area and it must be defended," said Ahmed Yassin, 16. "We must defend our nation because right is on our side."

Baghdadis whisper rumours that authorities are preventing people from leaving the city, but motorists reported on Wednesday that traffic in and out of the city was normal, with routine identity checks at roadblocks.

Only the wealthy can afford to leave the country for Jordan or Syria. Most of the city's five million people must face the grim prospect of war. Their fears are accentuated by nightmarish memories of a similar situation 12 years ago.

Muwafaq Fadil, a 54-year-old taxi driver, said his son Simon, then four, was so afraid during the six-week bombing campaign in the 1991 Gulf War that he hid under the sofa every night. His daughter Mariam, 6, fell unconscious when the bombing grew intense.

"My wife Mariam prayed all night and I could not sleep until daylight, when I felt safe," Fadil said. "I wish we could go abroad, but I don't have money."

Fadil said that for the past few weeks, his son has been unable to concentrate and suffers from stomach aches. Fadil blames this on the prospect of war.

The war jitters are also being felt in Baghdad's limited nightlife. Fewer patrons show up at restaurants.

Many of Baghdad's estimated 60 embassies - including those of Portugal, Spain, Thailand and Japan - have pulled out their staff. A rapidly shrinking number of others remain, including most countries vocally opposing a war: France, Germany, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and most Arab countries.

Grace Princesa Escalante, the Philippines' top diplomat in Iraq, remains as well. She has enjoyed a reputation for giving the best parties in Baghdad since she arrived two years ago. They have become a symbol of normality in a city where such symbols are increasingly in short supply.

But she may have given her last party this week - and even that didn't prevent war talk from dominating the conversation. It wasn't until she switched on the karaoke machine that the pace picked up.

Guests sang a rendition of the Eagles' 1970s hit Hotel California, replacing the chorus with "Hotel Al Rasheed", the name of Baghdad's most famous hotel. The evening's finale was another apropos 1970's classic: Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive. - Sapa-AP

• This article was originally published on page 6 of The Cape Times on 14 March 2003

www.sun-sentinel.com By Joe Kollin Staff Writer Posted March 14 2003

PEMBROKE PINES · The owners of a 5,500-student private university in Venezuela have leased space for a campus off University Drive that will offer classes in education, computers and business graphics.

The new university, however, won't be affiliated with the Venezuelan operation, Universidad Jose Maria Vargas, and will seek all students rather than targeting those from the South American country. It will use the same name.

The owners of the new college are awaiting approval from three state agencies before opening in the 24,530 square feet of space leased from the city of Pembroke Pines. The space is in the Senator Howard C. Forman Human Services Campus -- the old South Florida State Hospital.

Alicia Parra de Ortiz, the university's vice president for administration, declined to discuss the plans for the new college until the state approves her application.

But Bill Edmonds, spokesman for the state Education Department, said his information shows the college will be independent rather than a branch of the Venezuelan operation and that it won't appeal strictly to Venezuelans.

According to the 2000 census, 8,807 Venezuelans live in Broward County, and 21,593 live in Miami-Dade.

The college, in its application to the state, said it plans to apply to the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools in Atlanta for accreditation, but it must graduate its first class first.

The state permit will have no limit on the number of students it enrolls.

The state Commission for Independent Education on March 21 will consider the owners' application for a license. The commission licenses independent schools, colleges and universities.

The Universidad Jose Maria Vargas was started in 1983 and has two campuses in Caracas. It offers graduate and undergraduate degrees in law, political science, architecture, business, education and engineering, according to its spokeswoman, Mercedes Montilla in Caracas.

Sandra M. Hernandez contributed to this report. Joe Kollin can be reached at jkollin@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7913.

www.nj.com Friday, March 14, 2003 BY KITTA MacPHERSON Star-Ledger Staff

Scientists have decoded a grave lesson from the past that they say could shed light on whether global climate change really matters.

A long period of dry climate, punctuated by three intense droughts, probably played a major role in the collapse of Mayan civilization, researchers report today in the journal Science.

Studying ancient cores of mud drilled from the Cariaco Basin off the coast of Venezuela, researchers have found that the prolonged dry spell, with 10-year droughts in the years 810, 860 and 910, doomed a culture renowned for its wealth, might, art and inventiveness.

"Here they were, this prospering civilization with a relatively large population that was very active in agricultural pursuits, and they apparently suffered due to natural climate change," said Daniel Sigman, an assistant professor of geosciences at Princeton University and one of the authors of the study. "I'm not totally confident that we would do better than the Maya."

The Mayan civilization was at its peak from about 250 to 900. During that time, known as the Classic Period, it was centered in the tropical rain forest of the lowlands of what is now northern Guatemala. Many of the major Mayan cities, such as Piedras Negras, Tikal and Uaxactun, developed in this area.

Living in both desert and cleared jungle and depending on an inconsistent rainfall cycle, the Maya developed a variety of reservoirs, canals and other systems for catching and storing rainwater.

Until now, climate records from this time period have not been precise enough to test the relationship between the Maya's mysterious decline during the ninth and tenth centuries, Sigman said.

The scientific team, with members drawn from Switzerland, Florida, Massachusetts and New Jersey, was searching for clues about ancient climate in sea sediments, a field known as paleoceanography. To do this, the researchers scooped long cylinders of mud from the deep, undisturbed Cariaca Basin.

They identified annual variations in titanium levels, which reflect the amount of rainfall each year. The pristine sediment layers in the basin form distinct bands, corresponding to yearly dry and wet seasons.

The three drought periods identified through the samples correspond to the three phases of Mayan collapse suggested by archeological evidence. The three droughts may have been what "pushed Mayan society over the edge," the authors wrote.

By about 900, most of the Maya abandoned the Guatemalan lowlands and moved to areas to the north and south, including Yucatan and the highlands of southern Guatemala. In those areas, they continued to survive until Spain conquered almost all of the Maya in the mid-1500s.

Today, descendants of the Maya live in Mexico and Central America. They speak Mayan languages and carry on some religious customs of their ancestors.

The results also suggest that a more subtle but long-term drying trend was occurring during the collapse.

"This fits, it makes sense," said Gillett Griffin, the faculty curator of ancient American art at the Princeton University Art Museum. "It corroborates what I thought must have happened."

The Mayan civilization reached its period of greatest development in the year 250. They produced remarkable architecture, painting, pottery and sculpture. They made great advances in astronomy and mathematics and developed an accurate yearly calendar. They were one of the first peoples in the Western Hemisphere to develop an advanced form of writing.