CTC S

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WILDERNEWS
Spreading the love for Outdoors... RED GOLD
Nachiketha Janardhana

NATURE S WANDERER
V. Arun

KNOW YOUR ORGANISER

Nivya Sivakumar

Why Vegetarianism
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

Chennai Trekking Club

CONTENTS

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CONTENTS
03. RED GOLD 06. NATURE S WANDERERS 09. WHY VEGETARIANISM 11. PHOTO OF THE MONTH 12. KNOW YOUR ORGANISER
NACHIKETA JANARDHAN V. ARUN SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV NIVYA SIVAKUMAR

RED GOLD

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Our forests are under fire. Can we save them before its too late? Nachiketha Janardhan explains how the Red Sanders mafia operates and why they need to be stopped NOW.

GOLD

RED

The slope of the hill side was steep and the terrain slippery. Yet the trekkers did not slow down or rest, for the view from the top was reputed to be a stunning sight of green valleys where they could rest amidst the shade. Huffing and puffing they reached the top of the ridge, and paused to catch their breath. And got the shock of their lives. The entire stretch before them was bald as an old man's head. No shade from the hot sun, none of the famed green views and cool shade. Just a man in the distance chopping down yet another red sander tree. Unfortunately this is not a piece of fiction. Of late, such an experience has become depressingly common during CTC treks. A team climbs all the way to

the top of a ridge hoping to see some greenery only to be confronted with tree stumps, chopped down, burnt black and left for dead. In its place will be a palm or date sapling which is not endemic to the area and sticks out like an eyesore. " What is going on? " - You ask? Red sanders smuggling, That is what is going on. Red Sanders or Red Gold as they are called is an extremely rare species of tree that is mainly endemic to South India, especially the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh. The sweet oil that is extracted from this wood and the high quality wood is in high demand in Eastern Asia and in China. However, due to the endangered nature of these trees, the export of this wood is banned. And when the government restricts the supply

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of anything, in steps in the criminal element to supply it. According to news reports, the Red Sanders Mafia is highly involved in the illicit trade. The illicit trade in this precious resource has been going on for decades, but with the globalization and increased demand from far away places, it has reached alarming proportions. Last year, nearly 600 tonnes of Red Sander logs were seized. It can be assumed that this was a mere fraction of the trade. The trees are usually cut down by villagers who know the place well or by woodcutters brought from far away places. These men are paid well and hence take risks to cut and transport logs. But they are merely cogs in a well oiled machine. The mafia mainly provides the transport and the storage arrangements for the logs and arranges deals to smuggle these precious logs out of the country. Initially the main route for smuggling the precious cargo was through the Chennai and Vizag ports. But with increased surveillance and seizures of logs at these ports, the smugglers have now taken to smuggling the logs to China via the Myanmar border. Indeed, Red Sander

logs have been seized as far away as Bihar and Manipur. And where there is smuggling will be government corruption. It is alleged that some forest officials too are involved in these operations. Not only is this highly distressing, but also ecologically dangerous. By cutting down trees and replacing them with an invasive species like the palm, the mafia is destroying an ecologically sensitive area home to numerous endangered fauna as well. "What can we do about it?" - You ask? The first thing to be done is report any sightings of illegal wood cutting that you see. Or any stockpiles of wood along trails. Since forest officials are not able to police every bit of the forest we can atleast do a little bit of it. If public pressure is built, then we can persuade the government to take strict action on the mafia and save this precious national treasure. So, stand up my friends, and help us save our nation's wilderness. NACHIKETA JANARDHAN

NATURE S WANDERERS WILDERNEWS

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NATURE S
WANDERERS

There is intrigue in every speck of the universe. V. Arun takes us through the mysterious and fascinating world of one of nature's true wanderers - the sea turtle
across the world and that the young babies go back in to the sea as soon as they are born to fend for themselves. They are so small that they can fit into a match box and yet they venture out in to the open sea. What is fascinating is that many years later when they are mature and are ready to nest these turtles actually return to the beach they were born in. Science tells that they have magnetite in their brain and that they use the magnetic orientation of the earth to return again and again to the same beach. But imagine going in to the sea when they are merely hours old and getting washed by ocean currents for thousands of kilometres and years and years later returning to find the same beach!

Sea turtles seem to fascinate modern humans. Where ever they nest or congregate humans have developed an interest in protecting them or at least watching them. There are growing numbers of people for whom the sea turtle is a creature which evokes immense fascination and a sense of intrigue - after all it has survived for more than a 100 million years. People who watch a sea turtle nest always seem to feel a sense of the sublime for here is a creature from the past which has seen so much ice ages, global warmings, mass extinctions, and various other changes and has remained unchanged through it all. You can imagine a similar turtle nesting on perhaps this same beach when India was still a part of Africa! We still know very little about them. We know that they nest on tropical beaches

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The east coast of India is the preferred nesting beach for the Olive ridley turtles. Orissa is the world s largest turtle nesting beach where every year between 200,000 and 400,000 Olive ridleys come to nest. This phenomenon is called Arribada which means arrival.

Chennai has its own little population which loyally comes here to nest every year. During the Pallava period Adyar was called amaiur and there is even a poem from the Sangam period which accurately records a nesting turtles actions.

PHOTO : STUDENTS' SEA TURTLE CONSERVATION NETWORK

NATURE S WANDERERS WILDERNEWS

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Unfortunately turtles which managed to survive all of natures travails are in recent decades succumbing fast to uncontrolled development. Industrial fishing which is ravaging marine ecosystems to cater to the unending consumption of humans is also killing turtles. Despite worldwide conservation efforts their future is a big question mark. Turtles like all the other creatures, play a vital role in the health of the marine ecosystem. Unless all of us urgently take note of natures signals and stop the overexploitation of our limited resources, our position will soon not be very different from that of the turtles! V. ARU N

WHY VEGETARIANISM WILDERNEWS

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WHY VEGETARIANISM
What kind of food you eat should depend not on what you think about it, or on your values and ethics, but on what the body wants. Food is about the body. When it comes to food, don't ask your doctors or your nutrition experts because these people keep changing their opinion every five years. When it comes to food, ask the body with what kind of food it is really happy. Try different foods and see how your body feels after eating the food. If your body feels very agile, energetic and nice, that means the body is happy. If the body feels lethargic and needs to be pumped up with caffeine or nicotine to stay awake, the body is not happy, isn't it? If you listen to your body, your body will clearly tell you with what kind of food it is happy. But right now, you are listening to your mind. Your mind keeps lying to you all the time. Hasn't it lied to you before? Today it tells you this is it. Tomorrow it makes you

What is the benefit of eating a vegetarian diet and how it can be easily implemented in a person's life, is what Sadhguru explores in this article
feel like a fool for what you believed yesterday. So don't go by your mind. You just have to learn to listen to your body. Every animal, every creature knows what to eat and what not to eat. The human species are supposed to be the most intelligent on the planet, but they don't even know what to eat. Forget about how to be, human beings do not even know what to eat. So, it takes a cer tain mindfulness and attention to learn to listen to your body. Once you have that, you know what to eat and what not to eat. In terms of the quality of food that is entering you, definitely vegetarian food is far better for the system than nonvegetarian. We are not looking at it from a moral standpoint. We are just looking at what is suitable for the system we try to eat foods which would make you comfortable in the body. Whether you want to do your business properly or study

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properly or do any activity properly, it is extremely important that your body is at ease. So, the kind of food with which your body would be most at ease and would not struggle to get nourishment out of, that is the kind of food we should eat. Just experiment and see, when you eat vegetarian food in its live form, what a difference it will make. The idea is to eat as much live food as possible whatever can be consumed in its aliveness. A live cell has everything to sustain life. If you consume a live cell, you will see the sense of health in your system will be very different from anything that you have known. When we cook the foods, it destroys the life in it. Eating foods after its process of destruction does not give the same amount of life energy to the system. But when you eat live foods, it brings a different level of aliveness in you. If one eats lots of sprouts, fruit, and whatever vegetables that can be eaten in a live condition, if you bring in at least thirty to forty percent live food things that are alive you will see, it will sustain the life within you also very well. Above all, the food that you eat is life. It is other forms of life that we are eating the other forms of lives are giving up their life to sustain our life. If we can eat with enormous gratitude for all the living things which give up their life to sustain our lives, then the food will behave in a very different way within you.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet, and internationallyrenowned speaker, Sadhguru's wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life.

www.ishafoundation.org blog.ishafoundation.org

PHOTO OF THE MONTH WILDERNEWS

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PHOTO : RAVIKANTH

KNOW YOUR ORGANISER WILDERNEWS

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KNOW YOUR ORGANISER

T h e " O rg a n i ze r " b e h i n d t h e m o s t wonderful trek experiences, a role model, a mentor, a friend and a leader. Anyone in CTC would definitely know by this time. Premkumar has been a role model for several new comers and the experienced trekkers for the way a trek should be organized. Everybody in a trek is involved for every activity, so that each one feels important of taking the ownership. His delegation of activity makes him free to look into the safety aspect of every participant and make sure that a fresher is accompanied by an experienced trekker. His motivation skills during difficult times have been a gift for the new comers. Prem has played a key part in making people realize the importance of fitness for life by organizing swimming camps and morning walks. Prem hails from Namakkal and is an entrepreneur by profession. Prem's brain child is the "Emperor" team of CTC. The "Emperors" have

CTC is what it is today is all because of its self less Organisers. In this Column Nivya SivaKumar writes about the founder of Emperors Team Prem.

completed more than 50 treks till now. The 50th trip was planned to a never before place called "Kollegal" which was a mind blowing experience for all the participants. Nagala has been the trekking spot for the "Emperors" for as much number of times. Masannamuthu and Shankar has been part of the "Emperor" since its inception and have been groomed by the leadership skills of Prem. There are so many good organizers who were mentored in the Emperor team and the ultimate credit goes to the leader, Prem. A real nature lover, explorer, wanderer and a gift to CTC NIVYA SIVAKUMAR

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