“Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher.” Gautama Buddha 02 ONE WORLD, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES Explore diversity in vision and figure out how the same topic may be viewed differently by different folks. This is a mirror to society and life L ast year, two ministers had got into a spat re- garding the culling of Nilgai in Bihar. Envi- ronment minister Prakash Javadekar defended the move and Women and Child Devel- opment minister Maneka Gandhi cried foul over the “lust for killing animals”. Indians have a consensus on co-existing with animals, said primatologist Anindya Sinha. “That’s a baseline in our society. So- cioeconomic conditions also decide the level of tolerance towards non- humans. At Delhi’s Hanuman mandir, beggars share their alms with monkeys, and try telling a pil- grim not to feed monkeys,” the Na- tional Institute of Advanced Stud- ies (NIAS) professor added. Why are monkeys a menace That said, for the average person, monkeys have become a bother, a source of destruction. India’s Rhe- sus macaque— behind activities that have earned all monkey species a poor reputation — has fascinated primatologists with its superb adaptability to habitats and foods. “Loss of habitat is there but the problem is people ensure monkeys have access to food,” said Sindhu Rad- hakrishna, primatologist at NIAS. This familiarity with humans eats up the distance between the two species, making monkeys less in- hibited. The Rhesus has displayed ex- tremely innovative behaviour — it learnt to barter, returning snatched spectacles and bags for food; to re- taliate fiercely to aggressive hu- man behaviour; to live as family in slums. And it learnt to steal — dis- playing super raiding skills, zip- ping into houses and making off with food. The other common species, the langur is a shy creature even in the city, keeping its distance from humans. Similarly, the Bon- net monkey, mostly prevalent in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, is reticent. The access to human food has also meant bodily changes, resulting in longer re- productive life spans. “Inter-birth (the time between two birth cy- cles) has reduced and so the num- ber of offspring in a short term has shot up,” said Radhakrishna. Sterilisation, contraception, re- location and culling, nothing has succeeded in keeping monkey numbers down. Possible solutions On the decision to cull, Qamar Qureshi of Wildlife Institute of In- dia said it’s not the answer to popu- lation management. “Culling mon- keys, nilgai and wild pig was allowed by several states in the past, too, but without any result as there is no or- ganised process to implement any programme. There are ethical rea- sons also it’ll not be appropriate,” he said. Uttarakhand forest department is planning a 100-hectare sanctuary near Haldwani for simians. The so- lution, Qureshi said, is in a multi- pronged approach of temporary translocation, surgical intervention and immuno-contraception. The lasting solution is stopping their food source. “Ours is among the few states which penalises people for feeding monkeys. We’re trying a state- of-the-art ‘monkey-keeping zone’ where people can come and feed the monkeys,” said forester-in-chief Jai Raj in Uttarakhand. Where the money is made The exciting part of asteroid min- ing is the asteroid belt itself, which lies between Mars and Jupiter. It is there that over 1 million asteroids exist, including about 200 that are over 60 miles (100 km) in diameter. Nasa estimates this belt to hold $700 quintillion of bounty. That’s about $100 billion for each person on Earth. There are obviously many technical challenges that must be overcome to make mining these pos- sible. As it stands, Nasa aims to bring back a grab sample from the surface of asteroid Bennu that is 2 and 70 ounces (about 60 to 2,000 grams) in size. The cost of the mis- sion? Approximately $1 billion. To do anything like that on a large scale will require robots, space- craft, and other technologies that simply do not exist yet. Further, mis- sions like this could cost trillions of dollars – a huge risk and burden in the case that a mission is unsuc- cessful. Until then, the near-Earth as- teroids are the fertile testing ground for aspirational asteroid miners. Near-earth mining targets Asteroid mining companies such as Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries are the first- movers in the sector, and they’ve already started to identify prospec- tive targets to boldly mine where no man has mined before. Water, the oil of the 21st century? Companies hope to develop tech- nology that can harvest metals like gold and platinum and water from asteroids. Nasa has said that the materials frozen in asteroids could “be used in developing the space structures and in generating the rocket fuel that will be required to explore and colonise our solar sys- tem in the twenty-first century.” Today’s space economy current- ly spends billions of dollars on rock- et fuel to get and keep spacecraft in their final orbits. Because of its high value for space exploration, water will likely be the first resource to be mined. Once it’s mined, water can be broken down into hydrogen- and oxy- gen-based rocket fuels. Water also plays a critical role in helping to keep astronauts hydrated in space. Finding a loophole But the future of asteroid mining hinges on interpretations of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which declares that no country, and by ex- tension no company, can own even part of a planetary body. There is one potential loophole in the treaty though: It states that “outer space shall be free for ex- ploration and use by all States.” If mining asteroids for resources qualifies as “use,” the companies could get the green light to go ahead with their plans. Feeding monkeys invites penalties in Hong Kong, which since 2007 has managed to curb the macaque numbers. Flou- ting the feeding restric- tion invites fines of about HK$10,000 (`88,000) upon conviction. If humans were ever able to get their hands on just one asteroid, it would be a game-changer TWO STATES WANT MONKEYS CULLED. BUT WILL IT WORK? Following Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand has recently allowed culling, after declaring the primates ‘vermin’, but killing the animals has seldom worked... IS ASTEROID MINING POSSIBLE? Water-rich asteroids would help make space exploration cheaper because it would elimi- nate the need to ferry water from Earth into space. It is possible that our planet will run out of key elements that are needed for modern industry within the next 50 to 60 years. Early evidence suggests that there are trillions of dollars’ worth of miner- als and metals buried in asteroids that come close to the Earth. Photo: Getty Images Photo: Getty Images It’s important to make your voice heard. Send Letters to the Editor at [email protected] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Angry? No way! Anger is a weakness but it’s mostly thought of as a strength. Initially, I too faced this is- sue but, thankfully realised that it hurts you more than it hurts others. In my school, we make it a point to smile at each other. There are no ‘Keep Quiet’ type of screaming teach- ers who bang their dusters on the table. In fact, as a principal, I look forward to cheerful greetings, endearing smiles and intelligent conversations from students. I feel I should be a role model as whatever I display as an indi- vidual, trickles down to all levels – teachers, students and the staff. In my staff meetings, emotion is a compulsory point of discussion. Our school recently organised an ‘EQ Festival’, which highlighted the different emotions and how to deal with them. It put the students, teachers and parents on a common platform. The solution to anger is actually very simple: first, identify the causes of your anger, then start dealing with them one by one; second, learn to forgive as it goes a long way. RANA KHAN, Principal, Span International Academy, Pune Be a warrior, not a worrier! All of us are destined for exceptional things. Exams are just one of the challenges and opportunities in store for us. Overcome all challenges and shine! For tomorrow be- longs to you! Ironically, the most common fear is the fear of unknown. It is natural to be mildly concerned before exams. How- ever, worrying will not help. Trying to be serious all the time may win you sympa- thy but not success. Be cheerful; there are no marks for looking worried! Why should the exam be characterised by grim-look- ing students, strict parents and anxious teachers? Learning should be fun, not rote learning, it should be practical not always theory- based. The aim of learning is to gain knowledge, and marks will automati- cally follow. The journey of acquiring knowl- edge is itself a rewarding experience. It leads you to joy and doesn’t burden you with pressure. Enjoy learning for what it is and not with any limitations. POORVI SANU, class IX, New Horizon Public School, Airoli, Navi Mumbai We can solve the issue of climate change The world has risen and has now united against the very thing that divided it in the first place - hazardously polluting industries. It needs to realise the opportunities in a newer fu- ture, and what's the way to get a cleaner and safer future? To start, make a change your- self to motivate others to make a change to- day. The conditions worldwide have not yet gone out of hand because if the human brain has enough potential to start global warm- ing, it also has enough potential to reverse it. Whenever we strive for success, it is nec- essary that we take others along with us - we cannot do this ourselves. NAVYA MEHROTRA, class VIII, Suncity School Gurgaon It’s important to make your voice heard. Send Letters to the Editor at [email protected] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Accept the change Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose the sight of shore. Changes in human life are like different spices in a dish. Different delicacies in the plate of our lives makes life enjoyable. I am not too welcoming to changes or risks. I fear I will lose something precious and never get it back. I want to be in my comfort zone. But changes bring very special experiences. We find new people who inspire, new locations to explore, learn and discover things we never knew, learn to adjust among people that are unknown. We start finding solutions for our own problems to blend into the atmosphere. And then we start loving new situations, gather new expe- riences and build memories to cherish in lives. Change is the only constant. We need to over- come our fears and embrace changes to gath- er varied experiences in our lives. AARNA MALOT, class VIII, Lake Montfort School, Bengaluru Road trips are fun India encompasses numerous tourist spots across the country. So there is always an option of planning a short road trip. Most people prefer road trips of around six-seven hours. However, some even go for longer ones spread across days. They halt at dif- ferent places during the journey to take rest and explore the place. I had been on many road trips with my family. My father loves driving and is also fond of travelling. So we always travel by car. We have planned road trips to several places including Jaipur, Nainital, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Shimla and Vrindavan. My favourite was our trip to Nanital. My uncle, aunt and cousins accom- panied us on this trip. My uncle, aunt and parents travelled in one car while I and my cousins were in another. We had a lot of fun. We stopped at two places to have food. As we drove by, we saw the beautiful moun- tains and green valleys. The view was spec- tacular. We saw various lakes, enjoyed boat- ing and indulged in a lot of shopping. I believe road journeys are the best and I simply love them. VADAGA NIYATI, class X, Delhi School of Excellence, Manikonda Teenage anger Anger is a major issue with students these days, mostly with students who are under pressure from studies. Immaturity is also a major reason. The teen age is considered as ‘confusion years’ in every person’s life, but if anger is not taken seriously as an issue then, it can become a lifelong behav- ioural problem for high school students. If they get angry due to awkwardness in social situations then they should be coun- selled. Don’t force them to be part of social gatherings as this can have the opposite effect. I hope students manage their anger by meditating or practise calming themselves down. This will help them in a great way. ASHA JYOTHI, class X, KV No. 1, Tirupati, Hyd Photo: Reuters Photo: Getty Images i-OPENER
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“Do not believe what your teacher tells youmerely out of respect for the teacher.”
Gautama Buddha02ONE WORLD, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
Explore diversity in vision and figure out how the same topic may be vieweddifferently by different folks. This is a mirror to society and life
Last year, two ministershad got into a spat re-garding the culling ofNilgai in Bihar. Envi-ronment minister
Prakash Javadekar defended themove and Women and Child Devel-opment minister Maneka Gandhicried foul over the “lust for killinganimals”. Indians have a consensuson co-existing with animals, saidprimatologist Anindya Sinha.
“That’s a baseline in our society. So-cioeconomic conditions also decidethe level of tolerance towards non-humans. At Delhi’s Hanumanmandir, beggars share their almswith monkeys, and try telling a pil-grim not to feed monkeys,” the Na-tional Institute of Advanced Stud-ies (NIAS) professor added.
Why are monkeys a menace That said, for the average person,monkeys have become a bother, asource of destruction. India’s Rhe-sus macaque— behind activities
that have earned all monkey speciesa poor reputation — has fascinatedprimatologists with its superbadaptability to habitats and foods.
“Loss of habitat is there but theproblem is people ensure monkeyshave access to food,”said Sindhu Rad-hakrishna, primatologist at NIAS.This familiarity with humans eatsup the distance between the twospecies, making monkeys less in-hibited.
The Rhesus has displayed ex-tremely innovative behaviour — itlearnt to barter, returning snatchedspectacles and bags for food; to re-taliate fiercely to aggressive hu-man behaviour; to live as family inslums. And it learnt to steal — dis-playing super raiding skills, zip-ping into houses and making offwith food.
The other common species,the langur is a shy creature evenin the city, keeping its distancefrom humans. Similarly, the Bon-net monkey, mostly prevalent inTamil Nadu and Karnataka, isreticent. The access to humanfood has also meant bodilychanges, resulting in longer re-productive life spans. “Inter-birth(the time between two birth cy-cles) has reduced and so the num-ber of offspring in a short termhas shot up,” said Radhakrishna.Sterilisation, contraception, re-location and culling, nothing hassucceeded in keeping monkeynumbers down.
Possible solutions On the decision to cull, QamarQureshi of Wildlife Institute of In-dia said it’s not the answer to popu-lation management. “Culling mon-keys, nilgai and wild pig was allowedby several states in the past, too, butwithout any result as there is no or-ganised process to implement anyprogramme. There are ethical rea-sons also it’ll not be appropriate,” hesaid. Uttarakhand forest departmentis planning a 100-hectare sanctuarynear Haldwani for simians. The so-lution, Qureshi said, is in a multi-pronged approach of temporarytranslocation, surgical interventionand immuno-contraception.
The lasting solution is stoppingtheir food source. “Ours is among thefew states which penalises people forfeeding monkeys.We’re trying a state-of-the-art ‘monkey-keeping zone’where people can come and feed themonkeys,” said forester-in-chief JaiRaj in Uttarakhand.
Where the money is made
The exciting part of asteroid min-ing is the asteroid belt itself, whichlies between Mars and Jupiter. It isthere that over 1 million asteroidsexist, including about 200 that areover 60 miles (100 km) in diameter.
Nasa estimates this belt to hold$700 quintillion of bounty. That’sabout $100 billion for each personon Earth. There are obviously many
technical challenges that must beovercome to make mining these pos-sible. As it stands, Nasa aims tobring back a grab sample from thesurface of asteroid Bennu that is 2and 70 ounces (about 60 to 2,000grams) in size. The cost of the mis-sion? Approximately $1 billion.
To do anything like that on alarge scale will require robots, space-
craft, and other technologies thatsimply do not exist yet. Further, mis-sions like this could cost trillions ofdollars – a huge risk and burden inthe case that a mission is unsuc-cessful. Until then, the near-Earth as-teroids are the fertile testing groundfor aspirational asteroid miners.
Near-earth mining targetsAsteroid mining companies suchas Planetary Resources and DeepSpace Industries are the first-movers in the sector, and they’vealready started to identify prospec-tive targets to boldly mine whereno man has mined before.
Water, the oil of the 21st century?Companies hope to develop tech-nology that can harvest metals likegold and platinum and water fromasteroids. Nasa has said that thematerials frozen in asteroids could“be used in developing the spacestructures and in generating therocket fuel that will be required toexplore and colonise our solar sys-tem in the twenty-first century.”
Today’s space economy current-ly spends billions of dollars on rock-et fuel to get and keep spacecraft intheir final orbits. Because of its highvalue for space exploration, water
will likely be the first resource to bemined. Once it’s mined, water can bebroken down into hydrogen- and oxy-gen-based rocket fuels. Water alsoplays a critical role in helping to keepastronauts hydrated in space.
Finding a loopholeBut the future of asteroid mininghinges on interpretations of theOuter Space Treaty of 1967, whichdeclares that no country, and by ex-tension no company, can own evenpart of a planetary body.
There is one potential loopholein the treaty though: It states that“outer space shall be free for ex-ploration and use by all States.” Ifmining asteroids for resourcesqualifies as “use,” the companiescould get the green light to go aheadwith their plans.
Feeding monkeys invitespenalties in Hong Kong,which since 2007 hasmanaged to curb themacaque numbers. Flou-ting the feeding restric-tion invites fines of aboutHK$10,000 (`88,000)upon conviction.
If humans were ever able to gettheir hands on just one asteroid, itwould be a game-changer
TWO STATES WANTMONKEYSCULLED.BUT WILLIT WORK?
Following Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand hasrecently allowed culling, after declaring the primates‘vermin’, but killing the animals has seldom worked...
IS ASTEROIDMININGPOSSIBLE?
Water-richasteroids wouldhelp make spaceexplorationcheaper becauseit would elimi-nate the need toferry water fromEarth into space.
It is possible that ourplanet will run out ofkey elements that areneeded for modernindustry within thenext 50 to 60 years.
Early evidence suggeststhat there are trillions ofdollars’ worth of miner-als and metals buried inasteroids that comeclose to the Earth.
Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images
It’s important to make yourvoice heard.
Send Letters to the Editor
at ttooiinniiee117755@@ggmmaaiill..ccoomm
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Angry? No way!Anger is a weakness but it’s mostly thoughtof as a strength. Initially, I too faced this is-sue but, thankfully realised that it hurts youmore than it hurts others. In my school, wemake it a point to smile at each other. Thereare no ‘Keep Quiet’ type of screaming teach-ers who bang their dusters on the table. Infact, as a principal, I look forward to cheerfulgreetings, endearing smiles and intelligentconversations from students. I feel I should be
a role model as whatever I display as an indi-vidual, trickles down to all levels – teachers,students and the staff. In my staff meetings,emotion is a compulsory point of discussion.Our school recently organised an ‘EQ Festival’,which highlighted the different emotions andhow to deal with them. It put the students,teachers and parents on a common platform.The solution to anger is actually very simple:first, identify the causes of your anger, thenstart dealing with them one by one; second,learn to forgive as it goes a long way. RANA KHAN, Principal, Span InternationalAcademy, Pune
Be a warrior, not a worrier! All of us are destined for exceptional things.Exams are just one of the challenges andopportunities in store for us. Overcome allchallenges and shine! For tomorrow be-longs to you! Ironically, the most commonfear is the fear of unknown. It is natural tobe mildly concerned before exams. How-ever, worrying will not help. Trying to beserious all the time may win you sympa-thy but not success. Be cheerful; there areno marks for looking worried! Why shouldthe exam be characterised by grim-look-ing students, strict parents and anxious
teachers? Learning should be fun, not rotelearning, it should be practical not alwaystheory- based. The aim of learning is togain knowledge, and marks will automati-cally follow. The journey of acquiring knowl-edge is itself a rewarding experience. Itleads you to joy and doesn’t burden youwith pressure. Enjoy learning for what it isand not with any limitations.POORVI SANU, class IX, New Horizon Public
School, Airoli, Navi Mumbai
We can solve the issue ofclimate changeThe world has risen and has now united againstthe very thing that divided it in the first place- hazardously polluting industries. It needsto realise the opportunities in a newer fu-ture, and what's the way to get a cleaner andsafer future? To start, make a change your-self to motivate others to make a change to-day. The conditions worldwide have not yetgone out of hand because if the human brainhas enough potential to start global warm-ing, it also has enough potential to reverseit. Whenever we strive for success, it is nec-essary that we take others along with us -we cannot do this ourselves. NAVYA MEHROTRA, class VIII,
Suncity School Gurgaon
It’s important to make yourvoice heard.
Send Letters to the Editor
at ttooiinniiee117755@@ggmmaaiill..ccoomm
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Accept the changeMan cannot discover new oceans unless hehas the courage to lose the sight of shore.Changes in human life are like different spicesin a dish. Different delicacies in the plate ofour lives makes life enjoyable. I am not toowelcoming to changes or risks. I fear I will losesomething precious and never get it back. Iwant to be in my comfort zone. But changesbring very special experiences. We find newpeople who inspire, new locations to explore,learn and discover things we never knew, learnto adjust among people that are unknown. Westart finding solutions for our own problemsto blend into the atmosphere. And then westart loving new situations, gather new expe-riences and build memories to cherish in lives.Change is the only constant. We need to over-come our fears and embrace changes to gath-er varied experiences in our lives.AARNA MALOT, class VIII, Lake Montfort
School, Bengaluru
Road trips are funIndia encompasses numerous tourist spotsacross the country. So there is always anoption of planning a short road trip. Mostpeople prefer road trips of around six-sevenhours. However, some even go for longerones spread across days. They halt at dif-ferent places during the journey to takerest and explore the place. I had been onmany road trips with my family. My fatherloves driving and is also fond of travelling.So we always travel by car. We have plannedroad trips to several places including Jaipur,Nainital, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Shimla and
Vrindavan. My favourite was our trip toNanital. My uncle, aunt and cousins accom-panied us on this trip. My uncle, aunt andparents travelled in one car while I and mycousins were in another. We had a lot of fun.We stopped at two places to have food. Aswe drove by, we saw the beautiful moun-tains and green valleys. The view was spec-tacular. We saw various lakes, enjoyed boat-ing and indulged in a lot of shopping. Ibelieve road journeys are the best and Isimply love them. VADAGA NIYATI, class X, Delhi School ofExcellence, Manikonda
Teenage angerAnger is a major issue with students thesedays, mostly with students who are underpressure from studies. Immaturity is also amajor reason. The teen age is consideredas ‘confusion years’ in every person’s life,but if anger is not taken seriously as anissue then, it can become a lifelong behav-ioural problem for high school students. Ifthey get angry due to awkwardness insocial situations then they should be coun-selled. Don’t force them to be part ofsocial gatherings as this can have theopposite effect. I hope students managetheir anger by meditating or practisecalming themselves down. This will helpthem in a great way.ASHA JYOTHI, class X, KV No. 1, Tirupati, Hyd
Photo: Reuters
Photo: Getty Images
i-OPENER
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