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.

20 Years in US, EA Project,Thanks to Teachers, Friends & Family

Today had opportunity to sit in Washington DC Dulles airport and write this blog. Twenty years back I came to this same airport for the first time to enter into US for pursuing PhD in Environmental Sciences. Successfully completed that. Went forward and completed additional Masters in Computer Sciences. How have I used my education towards real time projects:

We started a project called EnviroApps Sustainable Land Development Project on Feb, 2007. Slowly, A land used for agriculture using chemical methods were changed to Natural methods. Last year we produced Organic Produce. Hopefully within few more years we will have beautiful environmental project in real world. Flowering plants, bees, trees, ecosystems, natural agriculture and so many other activities associated with environment - all in our EA FARM.

All these ideas came to me because of my great teachers (Drs - Gupta, Sankaran, Vasanth Kumar (Sad that they all passed away), Dr.SS, Dr. RavinderRaju, Dr. Rajkumar, Dr. Pattabhi, Dr. Palanivel, Dr. Rajaguru, Dr.Shanthi, Dr. Kalaiselvi, Dr. Subburam, Dr. LakshmanaPerumalsamy and long list of other teachers and school teachers...) friends (so many - the list will never end) and family (without them I could not have implemented what I had envisioned). Even though I had all the fun in the world during my undergrad degree years, my biology teachers have shaped me towards the environmental field. I had wonderful years during my Master's (MSc - PSG and MPhil - MPhil) - Environmental Sciences. During my PhD in US, I had great opportunity to work on Chesapeake Bay Environment. I thank God for giving all these opportunities and the great project we are currently implementing.

Collecting Sediment Samples

 Analyzing Sample

 Presenting Scientific Papers

Happy to Save the Bay

 Teaching Environmental Science to Grads

Also excited, that I will be writing my EnviroApps 100th blog soon.

Aim High and Achieve

After an enjoyable and wonderful vacation with family and friends, regular life has started in year 2014.

Chesapeake Bay Area -

This was my research area and it is good to know that it is getting better day by day. Some times life throws several negatives at you, even though they are small negatives, they start to pile up. But always focus on positives. It is going to change. Aim high and Achieve. Once again give what you can. If you are educated, and have excellent knowledge on subjects, teach that to youngsters and others. I do it by teaching Information Technology, Programming, Databases (Oracle and others)  and Environmental sciences. It is a great feeling when a person, whom you taught and trained does well in real world. Those people, when they give their knowledge back to others, it is going to be excellent World. Today I read Mr. Gates envisioned poverty will be eradicated by 2035 from the face of the Earth. I hope it happens before that and spreading the knowledge will aide that. I think anyone can learn Computer Programming easily with so many available technology. With as much as $35, one can assemble a Raspberry Pi and learn computing.

Raspberry Pi

With internet access, one can get hands on programming experience at www.codecademy.com in php, javascript, jscript, ruby, python, API's and more. I strongly recommend this site for learning coding. It will be helpful for anyone even though they don't intend to become a computer programmer. When you start learning, create a profile in linked in and update every step that you are mastering and join different related groups, which will also improve your chances of getting job.

 If you are naturalist and have access to places with soil try to grow plants and trees like we did at eafarms,
which will help the environment.

Trees at EA Farms

Each and everyday you hear about pollutants that are affecting the environment. Recently air pollution was at its worst in China. People were told to be in indoors. When you cannot step out freely, then what kind of life is this?. If we don't contain or reduce the pollutants, future generations will have to wear gas masks or even astronaut suits to just go out. Let us start to follow the reduce, reuse and recycle rules to at least postpone the situation. Never give up. Even though we face lots of destruction, we have to be positive and be constructive. Aim High and Achieve.

One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower)

Happy 2014.

River Ganga: Holy for most, septic almost

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/30ganga.htm:
Despite hundreds of crores of rupees being spent to clean the Ganga, the lifeline of north India, pollution levels in the river have reached septic levels at certain points with dissolved oxygen dropping to alarmingly low levels.
Ninety Five per cent of the pollution in the river is caused at point sources at which sewers and open drains bringing pollutants in domestic and municipal limits fall, while only five per cent is by the direct users.

As an Environmental Scientist who was involved in Pocomoke River(Chesapeake Bay tributary) Sediment toxicity research,

I am not at all surprised at this level of pollution in Ganges River. Non-point Agricultural runoff, very few sewage treatment plants outlet and polutry litter runoff has caused Pocomoke River disaster(massive fish kills). I would also say that Pocomoke River Pollution may be very very less compared to that of Ganges River Pollution. More studies on Ganges sediments must be done. Ganges sediments must also be analyzed for levels of various pollutants and steps needs to be taken along those lines in the cleanup process.

Makesh Karuppiah, Ph.D