The Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) has initiated steps to investigate the ‘scorching wind’ phenomenon that lashed parts of the coastal belt in the State over the last few days, even as scientists have come up with divergent theories to explain the occurrence.

Suresh Das, KSCSTE Executive Vice President, said on Friday that directives had been issued to the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Peechi, and the Centre for Water Resource Development and Management (CWRDM), Kozhikode, to collect soil and vegetation samples and collect information from the people in the affected areas. The unusual phenomenon had left a trail of scorched vegetation in its wake, sparking concern among the local population. Dr. Das said the samples would be analysed before drawing a conclusion about what caused the scorching wind.

Meanwhile, there have been different inferences on the phenomenon. While one section feels that the searing vegetation could have been caused by a localised heat wave, others have come round to the possibility of acid rain or continuous exposure to the spray of seawater. The scorching wind has been reported from the coastal belt in Kannur, Kozhikode, Thrissur, and Alappuzha, sending people into a frenzy.

Another section of earth scientists believes that a thorough investigation of the complex processes at play at the tri-junction of land, sea, and air would be needed to identify the cause of the phenomenon. The State Disaster Management Authority is deploying an expert team to the affected areas to investigate the phenomenon.

Image: Banana crops affected by the heat burst phenomenon that hit the Panamood area of Kollam city on Friday.

Link:  http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/question-mark-over-cause/article7359742.ece

Rahul was selected as one of the top 20 innovators in India at Best Able India, a competition held in Bangalore in 2012. He also represented his university at the ‘Best Entrepreneurship Workshop in 2013. The event was organised by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India for developing ‘Chitosan Nano Particle Based Polyherbal Wound Healing Spray’.  This is a natural spray that helps healing of diabetic wounds, burn wounds, electrocution wounds and normal injuries in a short period of time and is also reasonably priced.

He won the third prize at InnovationExpo organised by the National Research Development Corporation, Ministry of Science and Technology, for developing the waste management and energy generation strategy, ‘Waste oil to Biodiesel’.

“I had decided to take up biotechnology as a career when I was in school itself. I always wanted to apply biology for applicative purposes, specifically targeting the environmental sector,” he says. He presented a paper at the 12th Japan-China-Korea Joint Symposium on Enzyme Engineering held at Kanazawa, Japan in 2012. The Development Commission, MSME (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), Government of India, funded some projects which Rahul worked on. He has also received innovation fund support from KIIT-Technology Business Incubator. Rahul is currently laying the foundations for establishing a firm named Indian Food and Beverage Company, at Bhubaneswar. This is his first entrepreneurial venture aimed towards providing nutrition to the masses and to make eating healthier and tastier in India. The company would focus on creating innovative packaging systems for food products and beverages, to deliver quality food with higher nutritional value to the consumers. Rahul is also part of the project Indian Bio-Energy Company, which aims at producing clean and green biofuels (solid/liquid) using biotechnology at affordable costs. ‘Need rather than greed’ would be the agenda of this firm, catering to the demand for clean energy.

He believes that northeast has ample talent and a lot of scope to develop. Rahul intends on investing his knowledge, innovation and money in contributing to the development of the region as well as the country at large.

“My parents, who have taught me the art of ethical living and mentors who guided me to enrich the skills I have acquired today, have been my source of inspiration,” says Rahul.

Touted to be first-of-its-kind project in the state, MBG plans to conduct a detailed exploration and identification of lichens from different parts of the state, spanning over a period of three years, and subsequently establish a conservation repository of lichens in the garden. Officials said that the proposal to establish a lichen house assumed significance from the fact that, till date no substantial documentation had been carried out on lichens from the entire Kerala region.

“An exhaustive survey through various ecosystems in the state will definitely  identify more number of species from Kerala. Hence, it is necessary to explore the unexplored and under-explored areas to know the diversity and to develop suitable conservation measures,” MBG director R Prakashkumar said.

Further, he noted that a detailed study on the medicinal uses of lichen was inevitable, as the wonder group was known for the treatment of even some deadly diseases.

In the proposed project, investigations will be carried out in various phases, which include taxonomy, distribution and establishment of lichen conservatory by transplantation method.

Besides, the centre will also focus on the conservation of rare, endemic and endangered lichen species.