EnviroApps

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Renewable Energy

Recently visited MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry).

At this recent bad times of Environmental Protection and Projects, the presentation there gave some positives.

Most of the countries want to phase out non renewable energy sources including Nuclear Energy,

They want to focus on Renewable Energy sources:

Renewable sources such as Bio, Wind and Solar (Good News on Solar):

Several countries want to tap into and develop renewable energy:

These renewable resources should be obtained sustainably, pollution free and efficiently:

Every household should utilize renewable energy:

As an Environmental scientist these were the positives.

At EA FARMS we already are utilizing the renewable resources (Bio & Solar):

Our area is also having biggest solar farm and utilizing wind energy:

It is better to focus on renewable energy rather than non renewable energy which will benefit humankind and the environment.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

I am Pi

3/14 -

Pi - is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter and it remains the same for any size. (Planet Jupiter size circle or penny sized circle). Pi is special.

A Poem on Pi

written by my daughter who is a 7th grader

I AM Pi

3.1415926535……

For years I have been lurking, elusive

Pursued by the brightest of minds, mathematicians

In the ancient times I have been studied relentlessly

By the Egyptians, Chinese, Indians by candlelight

Never ceased to be truly lost until one day

Archimedes thought of how to say

Numerically the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter

...89793238462…

Fast forward to the modern times

Believed to have been mastered by computers

Better yet, the human brain

Calculated to digits you cannot perceive

That’s the beauty of me

Left alone, I serve you well

Needed for all the calculations, the area, the circumference

Students toil over me

Trying to grasp my vastness, my complexity

I will never be contained… I am irrational

One of a kind, a juggernaut

You can’t stop me… Literally

...64338327950...

So what am I?

Sure, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter

But also a symbol, iconic to the essence of math

Used in trigonometry, geometry

Not just math, but also science

Prominent in astrophysics, thermodynamics, mechanics

I’ve been thought of 22/7

But that’s inaccurate, heed my warning

Don’t try to rationalize me

I am used to make sense of circles, spheres, ellipses

You think I was formulated just for mathematics?

If you didn’t know, for centuries, I’ve been a Greek letter

Surprised? Think of where I’ve come from

...28841971693…

Well, I’m so special

I’ve got my own holiday, March 14

You think other math terms have celebrations?

Didn’t think so

Students bake pies, decorate them with me

Frantically try to memorize my digits

It’s a day to commemorate

The abundance and benefits of math

But also to remember the struggles, the history

I was rooted in deep

Until you got me

Make the best of it, I will always change

From the ancient times to the contemporary

I am a juggernaut, irrational

Don’t try to approximate me...

Her poem about Bird's spot while on 4th grade.

Her article on everglades alligator importance

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Save Fisherman

Heartfelt condolences to the Tamil Nadu fisherman killed.

This is now regular occurrence and after a while we forget and then it repeats again.

Underprivileged poor fisherman is killed and his family has to undergo severe burden. Thinking of it gives a very bad heart ache.

What needs to be done.

As we know we have the money (second GDP in India all that) - so why not implement a project that will help fisherman not to enter other country's territorial waters. There are technologies. There are different types of Buoys already used in Oceans. There are even open source technologies. Some buoy are manufactured to even generate electricity. Why not build a buoy chain with alerts (In India mobile technology has improved, everyone now has mobile and mobile alerts have become common). The government can build stationary chained link of floating buoy with alerting sensors on them at least in the sensitive border areas (total coastal line is little more than 1000 Km only.). Fisherman should be educated on the territorial border, taught about the mobile alerts and respect these alerts and not drift to the hostile territories. This project will not be very expensive. Governments, Marine institutions should investigate and work on these techniques to thwart another poor fisherman's death as soon as possible.

About Buoy Installation

Higher level leaders should talk to their counterpart of the other country and tell them what has been done to prevent our fisherman to accidentally drift into their territory, Also should ask them not to kill poor fisherman. They should warn the fishermen without killing them. Killing will not solve the problem. Nothing is more important than the life.

Stricter Laws along with databases can be created. Already they are arresting these fisherman, so it won't be that difficult to warn them, note their details and maintain them in their databases. Repeated offenders can be noted, given to India and India should take action against them rather than other country's Navy killing the poor fishermen, Nothing is more important than the life of poor fisherman who is working so hard to support his already underprivileged family, This whole thing should be dealt in a humane way. No one can feel proud and think they have solved a problem by killing an unarmed poor fisherman. People who shot this poor fisherman may think they had done a wonderful job now, but think about his poor family, kith and kin - What have you done to them.

God is watching all the deeds.

Also in environmental aspect of the issue, coastal management has failed. There are several proof that coastal areas have been polluted and water is more of a chemical soup, cesspool and less and less marine flora and fauna are able to survive. This needs to be taken into consideration soon. Marine and Coastal bodies need to work diligently to make the oceans fertile again, so lots of sea animals will start to revive and fisherman need not travel as much into other territories for finding fish and be killed for such reasons.

So to save the life of poor fisherman:

Build floating Alert Sensor Buoy Borders
Provide GPS alert systems when boat drifts towards other territory
Leaders should communicate, Create International Fishing Laws between these sensitive areas and adhere to them.
Warning Fisherman instead of Killing them
Revive Marine Environment instead of polluting them.

Environmental Research work @ Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean area

Governments need to spend money on these projects to make fishing more safe and
Save underprivileged poor Fisherman's life (Which is very very precious especially to his poor family that depends on him).

Politicians, Soldiers please think in humane way and do your part to save these poor fishermen. Solve this problem by communicating with all parties and device a solution rather than KILL a poor FISHERMAN (which will not solve this problem),

Until then We (normal people) all can only support and Pray to God for these poor Fishermen to be safe.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

TamilNadu Positives

In my previous article, I had listed lots of negatives that are happening in Tamil Nadu.
Historically, there have been many positives such as

Second-largest State Economy in India
Excellent Natural Resources,
Wonderful Culture and History,
Wonderful Fauna and Flora
Excellent former Political Leaders,
Scientists including Dr. Kalam,
More than 80% Literacy Rate and for more info - Tamil Nadu Wiki

செந்தமிழ் நாடெனும் போதினிலே - இன்பத்

தேன் வந்து பாயுது காதினிலே - எங்கள்
தந்தையர் நாடென்ற பேச்சினிலே - ஒரு
சக்தி பிறக்குது மூச்சினிலே

If I were the Environmental Minister, what I would do for more positives:

I will create an Environmental Team. Now instead of one man (The Minister), This team will work towards the benefit of Environment,

First let me go through more details and some numbers:

Tamil Nadu Total Square miles - 50,216 mi²

Forest Area - 8743 mi² (These have already been preserved and is under conservative area including UNESCO Biodiversity areas).

Agricultural Area - 23231.79 mi² - during 1960s and it may have been considerably reduced because of the Real Estate Boom.

Gross Domestic Product - ₹13,842 billion (US$210 billion)

Population - 72,147,030 approx. during last census taken living in 23,166,721 households.

Number of Urban and Rural Local Bodies - 12,524

There are 100s of Schools, Colleges under several Universities.

Now, The team's plan and action would be:

50216 (total sq.miles) - 8743 (Forest) = 41473 (remaining sq.miles) .

From the remaining sq. miles let us separate the agricultural land - 41473 - 18000 (reduced area due to real estate boom) = 23473 sq.miles.

Now we have 12524 government local bodies, if we divide the land 23473 by the local bodies - it is only 1.87 sq. miles (Let us even make it even - 2 sq. miles) that each local body has to take care.
We will form a team. In the team I would include students and teachers (who are willing to volunteer) from Schools, Colleges and Universities to assign simple environmental work along with the local bodies to make the work easier for local bodies.

Team will request retired people with experience to guide the youngsters.

Now, the top level team will assign the work to these local bodies, follow up with them at certain time. It would be similar to a Project Management of a project.

There are few Pollution Control Boards - Team will ask them to give them Air, Water, and other Environmental Quality Reports and discuss how we can improve.

As more and more climate changes are happening and we face both flooding and drought, the team will concentrate and save the water such as connecting water bodies and build better storm systems. The team will device proper Water Management Systems according to the area.

The team will tap into natural resources rather than non renewable resources, We already have sufficient Wind mills and Solar farms.

All industries will have Effluent Treatment Plants and will be asked to do Environmental favors such as planting trees and maintaining them.

The team will always see results of such activities and tweak them for more improvement,

In case of water scarcity we will tap into new methods. Water from sea (cost was a factor before - now we should have cost reduced because of solar and new techniques and technologies).

We will make sure 23,166,721 (there are so many rich house holds - so this number will be largely reduced) households have fundamental sanitation, water and other basic necessities.

We will work on sustainable technologies.

What about Funding:

When there is good GDP, there should be some percent going to welfare of the country. So we will request funding for the 2 Sq. miles per local body.

We will request (not mandatory) business institutions including banks to contribute towards welfare of the environment at least in their area,

We will request (not mandatory) rich movie actors and cricket players to contribute towards these projects.

We will also request NRIs who wish to contribute to these projects

We will write proposals and get funding from any contributing bodies towards these necessary projects.

These are some of the aspects. Basically it is your 2 square miles that you need to take care.
It is already seventy years of independence. If only these 2 square miles was taken care by corresponding local bodies, it would have already been the golden era that Dr. Kalam dreamed about. Anyway, let us leave out the negatives.

I think together we together can do it.

I am not just saying for the sake of it.

My Qualifications:

Bachelor in Biological Sciences, Masters in Environmental Sciences, Master of Philosophy in Environmental Sciences (India- Bharathiar University)

PhD in Environmental Science and Masters in Computer Sciences (USA - Univ. of Maryland).

Successfully completed several Projects.

My Motto: Make Something Happen.

One of the Project is

EA Farms - A Sustainable Organic Natural Agricultural Land Development.

Let us stop the negatives such as non renewable resources and Destructive Development and work towards these positives such as clean environment and Sustainable Developments.

When you take care of the ENVIRONMENT,

everything else is taken care off automatically.

Makesh Karuppiah, PhD
Environmental Scientist and Information Technologist.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

TamilNadu

On December, 2011 in my 100th blog post I wrote:

I was born in Tamil Nadu and had good education there until M.Phil (Bharathiar University - Environmental Sciences specializing in Environmental Physiology). Moved to USA to pursue
Ph.D in Environmental Sciences. God gave me privilege to complete MS in Computer Science also. During this period I have traveled so many places and had vast experiences.
Acquired environmental knowledge from excellent people who were very knowledgeable in these fields and want to do something for Environment.

Even after several decades of independence and great rulers with future vision, Tamil Nadu state still have not lived up to its potential.
We have best institutions - IIT, Anna University, REC, several other universities and best schools in India. But what has improved in these years of independence.
We still have poverty, lots of pollution and environmental problems. For example - we have so many polluted areas where so many industries pollute the fertile resources.
Several part of the state are without trees. We don't care for our soil resources - river beds are dug for using soil for constructions and more and more buildings are built in agricultural areas.
We spoil our lands, forests, soils and marine environments, as much as we can. Foreign industries also flock over here. We did not learn even several years after Bhopal disaster. Proper Environmental laws and mitigation have to be designed, implemented and strictly followed. Escrow accounts should be maintained by the Government, funded by all these industries for environmental benefits. These industries should show their environmental improvement plans, how they are going to implement them and what actions will they take in case of environmental issues. I am certainly sure that these foreign industries will do these things to save their environments in their country. So they should equally treat the country they are using to manufacture their products and getting the profit. These environmental benefits can be efficiently implemented with very little percentage of their profit.

We have best natural resources such as SOLAR and WIND. We have been utilizing wind (I personally feel we went overboard in putting up the so many windmills). But we need to tap on Solar energy.
Also in Tamil Nadu, We always have been fascinated by the movie industry. We have been selecting movie people as our rulers for the most period after the independence. I am not against movie people coming into politics, but all I am asking them is to do GOOD AND MOVE FORWARD if they end up as political winner.

These days I see more and more people flocking to TASMAC - irony is that their main office is in a road that has a name starting with Gandhi ( who stood against liquor - Still Prohibition is practiced in Gujarat - his birth state).
As an Environmental toxicologist, I am always against any toxic substance affecting health. I am crying from my heart seeing our young resources flocking into these liquor stores. See how this bad and evil industry have flourished in front of us.
Already we live in extremely polluted Area (AIR, WATER, SOIL and FOOD). Along with that TASMAC products will do a symbiotic effect on these people's health. These people also smoke. How much one's heart, kidney and brain can take.
I need not say this, they themselves have said that in their website - http://tasmac.tn.gov.in/brands.htm - The topmost letters in the webpage in red letters - MADHU - NAATUKKU, VETTUKKU, UYIRUKKU KEDU = meaning - ALCOHOL - BAD FOR COUNTRY, HOUSE AND LIFE. Even the government is knowingly doing this evil thing for money.

So many negatives - industries flocking (wrote an earlier article on 2008) and polluting Tamil Nadu environment, Negative Politics with only greed as objective and no ethics, abusing environment (extracting non renewable resources and depleting the sterile agricultural lands, building non environmental friendly system which would affect exponentially in the case of natural disasters) without proper following of environmental law.
Building systems without any limits with greed as only objective and not caring for environment, human health and future generations.Fracking can cause pollution and additives that are needed can cause so many adverse affect on human health, animal health and environment, contamination, toxic chemical exposure, sterile lands and Earthquakes. Now without any hesitation you are trying to do fracking in the rice bowl area. Please don't do for the sake of future generations.
Cutting off trees, creating concrete jungles on lakes and watershed areas, building non environmental system all along polluted coast, removing top soil from river beds and rivers, removing mountain tops - all these are leading to desertification. Already the area is affected by severe droughts,
God men, Politicians, Educators, Hospitals to name some - You know who you are and you have earned enough for your eight generations to follow - so Please do something good for all the people especially future generation (which includes you children also).

Previously wrote:

மலையை, மண்ணை சுரண்டி எடுத்தாலும் ... Mountain Mining
மரத்தை அறுத்து போட்டாலும்...Deforestation Cutting Trees
பல மணி நேரம் மின் வெட்டு செய்தாலும்...
தண்ணீரே கிடைக்காமல் போனாலும்...
இயற்கை வளத்தை அழித்தாலும்...Titanium Mining
விவசாய நிலத்தல் வீடு கட்டினாலும்...Industries Flocking
கழிவுகளை கொட்டினாலும்...Cancer Village, Dumping
அரசாங்கமே சாராயத்தை விற்று மக்களை குடி மகன்களாக்கினாலும்...Liquor
தமிழ் மீனவனை சுட்டாலும்...
இனத்தையே அழித்தாலும்...Innocent Deaths
கோடி கோடியாய் ஊழல் செய்தாலும்...Food Adulteration
அரசியல்வாதிகள் என்ன சொன்னாலும்... என்ன செய்தாலும்..Selling Expired Drugs
தமிழ் நாட்டு மக்கள் சகித்து கொண்டே இருப்போம்...

பாலைவனம் ஆக்காதீர் தமிழ் நாட்டை.

தற்போதைய சராசரி தமிழனின் நிலையை நினைவு படுத்த -

எவ்வளவு மொட்டை அடித்தாலும் தாங்குவான் தமிழன்.

I can only pray for the future generations. Youngsters should learn from all these happenings and take control for the future generations to come. Internationally, Hate crimes have increased and some of the innocent people have been killed. Where is the World going?. We need good leaders to take control of the situation and provide appropriate solutions.

Now it is February, 2017 and the state of Tamil Nadu has become more worse. I am settled in USA and I always wanted to do good things for the ROOTS. We are doing that in many ways. But Nature - rainfall has almost stopped and slowed us down.My brother who was an IT expert in Singapore has become sustainable Farmer. He started farming in 2010 and until now we did not get proper power (utility) even after 7 years for agricultural purposes. As educated farmers, we face these So think about the normal farmers what they had to go through.

We are proud of our cattle we rear.

But we are more worried about the negatives that are taking place.

As a son of a honest Tax Officer,

Dad

who worked in Tamil Nadu Government - Department of Commercial Taxes, I am too worried about the corruptions. and non ethical happenings, All I can do is do our good deeds such as helping and training people and businesses to get better opportunities and Pray to God for Positives to Tamil Nadu. Historically, We had very very positive personalities such as Thiruvalluvar (who contributed the great Thirukural which gives us details of how to lead, live a life), Avvaiyar (who gave us Aathichoodi which starts with அறம் செய விரும்பு meaning - Intend to do right things), Bharathiar and several greats from Kamarajar, to the recent Great Dr. Abdul Kalam. So along those lines praying for Positives to my Brothers and Sisters. On May 2011, I wrote this blog topic on leaders and youngsters should select and elect good leader(s). Praying for everyone. Peace and prosperity for All.

எத்தனை காலம் தான் ஏமாற்றுவார்... கொஞ்சமாவது  நல்லது செய்யுங்கள்...

விவசாயிகளுக்கு நல்லது செய்யாவிட்டாலும், வயிற்றில் அடிக்காதீர். அது நல்லது அல்ல. நாட்டிற்கும் உலகத்துக்கும் அது கேடு விளைவிக்கும்

பிறக்க போகும் நாட்கள் எல்லாம் நல்லவையாக பிறக்கட்டும்.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Pongal - Jallikattu

Pongal - great festival celebrated by us.

We are proud of our project EA FARMS - Sustainable Organic Natural Agriculture and we celebrate Pongal especially Mattu Pongal with Pride at our farms.

During this festival we treat our cattle with full respect and thank them for the help they provided the whole year towards our farm improvement.This project is brain child of me (My Educational qualification - Ph.D in Environmental Sciences, Masters in Computer Sciences (USA) and Masters in Environmental Sciences and Environmental Physiology (INDIA)) and with the help of my beloved brother and friends it is moving forward as a great project. We are happy that it has created great awareness and producing great agriculture produce without chemical contamination. Yes, we are certified as ORGANIC by India Organic department.