Massive Invasion Of 'Snowflake Soft Coral' Threatens Reef Ecosystem In Andaman & Nicobar Islands In India

By Bhagwati Nair | Port Blair

The soft coral was noticed in Wandoor jetty in the Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, Andaman, in June 2009. Snowflake coral (Carijoa riisei), a shallow fast-growing soft coral, is posing a major threat to the coral reef colonies in the Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Kutch and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Director of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) K. Venkataraman told INN Live that the invasion by this soft coral on the coral reef colonies was first reported in Kundol Island in Nicobar in May 2009.

Andaman's 'Jarawas' Comes Out Of Forest Demanding Food

By Salim Merchant / Port Blair

In an interesting development, a group of 10 people from the Andaman's Jarawa community have come out of the forest at Kadamtala Island in Middle Andaman and protested at the  Kadamtala panchayat office demanding that they wanted meet the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to lodge a complaint with him for shortage of food items.

City Of Fears: Is Delhi Any Safer For Women?

By Kajol Singh / INN Bureau

For a city that has witnessed unprecedented anti-rape protests, boasts four helplines for women — 100, 1091, 1096 and 181 — has Delhi become any safer? Not really. Revisiting the Munirka bus stop from where the young physiotherapy student took a private bus on December 16, while women continue to travel in buses that ply in late evenings, their journeys are fraught with  fear.

Deepa Joshi, a 25-year-old who boards a bus from the stand five days a week told the newspaper that her parents still get worried and call her up to ask her whereabouts.

Like many women who use public transport out of necessity, Joshi feels safer because she abides by a set of unwritten rules for women in the city. She dresses demurely, makes no eye contact, avoids the more crowded buses and gets home early. In short, she takes all the advice that was handed out to women by the police and politicians in the wake of the December protests.

Monsoon Session Agenda Of Political Parties Leaked

By Paagal Patrkaar / Delhi

With the Monsoon Session of the Parliament beginning today, Faking News has exclusive access to the strategies of various political parties through its secret sources.

Let’s take a snapshot of the strategies planned by each political party:

Congress
1. Full meal for Rs. 5 and Rs. 12
2. Is Tunch Maal unparliamentary?
3. How to prevent natural calamities from happening when Rahul Baba is out of country.

'MAJOR RISK INVOLVED IN HANDLING THE PRISON'

By Kajol Singh / New Delhi

For Vimla Mehra, running one of the world’s largest prison complexes is like managing a big household.

“Women can do it better, because it’s just an application of natural work that we do at home,” Ms. Mehra told INN on a recent afternoon interview.

The 57-year-old divorced mother is the second female director general of Delhi’s Tihar Prison, which has 12,000 inmates — 540 of them women — kept in 10 jails.

HYDERABAD SIZZLES ON SEASON'S HOTTEST DAY

INN News Desk

Did it seem like you had entered a blast furnace as soon as you stepped out of the house on Saturday? Hail the Hyderabad summer. The mercury shot up to a dizzying 45.2 ° C, the maximum temperature recorded at the Met office, making it the hottest day of the season so far. The temperature was six degrees above normal.

Sadly, there is no respite in sight with the Met department predicting that the sweltering weather will persist over the next week. The maximum temperature on Sunday is likely to hover around 43 ° C, while from Monday onwards it will be around 44 ° . It will be in the same range till Thursday.

IS INDIA READY FOR 2-FRONT WAR WITH PAK, CHINA?

INN News Desk

India continues to view Pakistan as the “real threat” even though it is adjusting its military strategy to include the possibility of a limited two-front war with both Pakistan and China, the first Blue Book on India published by a Chinese think tank said.

Pakistan is India’s main “real threat” to maintain a high degree of vigilance and preparedness, the summary of the Blue Book released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, (CASS) said.

THREAT TO INDIA : ANDAMAN FACES KARGIL-TYPE OF INVASION

By M H Ahssan / Port Blair

The 572 big and small Andaman and Nicobar Islands that are of enormous economic and strategic value to India are increasingly vulnerable to a Kargil-type foreign invasion, and the Union government has no policies to prevent this. 

The Indian Navy is setting up the Far Eastern Naval Command (FENC) off Port Blair in the islands to give it "blue-water" status but naval officials admit that the strategic command could become vulnerable if the foreign invasion is not checked. 

One-and-a-half-year-old official estimates of the foreigners in the Andamans top 50,000 but officials say the numbers are larger. The mainland Indian and aboriginal population is roughly 4 lakh though official figures are 2 lakh. 

Foreigners from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have permanently settled in the islands using fake Indian ration cards while citizens of Thailand, China, Indonesia and Malaysia have migrated temporarily to plunder the natural resources and leave. "Port Blair, Havelock Islands, Diglipur, Middle Nicobar, Campbell's Bay, Neil Islands and Rangott are mostly overrun by foreigners," said an official. 

The nightmare for officials is a Chinese takeover of the Andamans. China has already leased Coco Islands from Myanmar and set up a listening post against Indian naval activity in the Eastern naval command and the Bay of Bengal and the missile testing facilities in Orissa.

Now, Online 'God Will Bless' At Your Doorstep

Early morning on New Year’s Day last year, Goonjan Mall, 24, was on a bus from Gurgaon to Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. He was on his way to Rani Sati Temple to offer sweets (prasad). Later, he would deliver prasad—edibles which devotees offer to their favorite gods—from this temple to his first customer at Online Prasad, his startup venture in the e-commerce sector.

On a similar trip to Karni Mata Temple in Rajasthan, (the famous rat temple) in September 2011, where Mall waited patiently in the queue to offer prasad to the deity, it struck him that in reality visiting temples is an arduous task for many. He realized that if the process of getting prasad became easier, there would be several takers. Returning home, he talked to his friends  about it. The response he got was positive and he decided to start an online business of delivering prasad.

“I thought of easing the temple visit experience. I cannot bring a temple to people but I can bring blessings from temples in the form of sweets,” says Mall, Founder, Online Prasad. Since business was just at the initial planning level, he visited a few religious congresses to talk to people about the idea to get a first-hand understanding of people’s willingness and interest to source it online. “People got so excited that a few placed orders immediately. The company had not even started. I had not thought about the price points.”

In January 2012, he launched Online Prasad, self-funded through personal savings, which he believed would thrive on the back of religious sentiment. All this while Mall still held a job as a senior analyst at Bain & Company which he left in April last year, after starting Online Prasad.

Good deeds
When Online Prasad started taking orders, they had one temple (Rani Sati Temple) in their catalog. However, Mall’s frequent visits to temples across India brought four more to his venture by April 2012. “We have a tie-up with sweet vendors at each temple, who offer prasad to the deity and then send it by courier to the client,” Mall explains.

Currently they have a network of 16 temples across seven states in their ambit. Online Prasad also has a couple of persons posted at each temple (which are in their catalog) who, when an order is confirmed by the front team, deliver the prasad through courier after offering it to the deity. Apart from this, at a few temples, they also have a tie-up with priests to offer the sweet to the deity and then send it to the devotee who has placed the order.

Online Prasad uses the service of GharPay—another startup, which handles payment collections on behalf of the company they service before delivery of goods—to collect money from customers who confirm orders. “Ghar Pay has a transparent working style and we needed a service like this as many customers were not comfortable paying through debit card,” Mall says. Each delivery of prasad from any temple listed on their website, costs `501 for 500 grams.

In the first couple of months, delivering prasad was a challenge for the venture owing to the perishable nature of sweets. “With a little tweaking here and there in the packaging, we manage to keep sweets fresh for a longer time,” Mall explains. Uttam Dadhich, a priest at Balaji Temple in Salasar, Rajasthan and owner of a sweet shop, offers prasad at the temple once he gets an order confirmation from Online Prasad. He says sweets are packaged in a manner that they remain fresh for 15-20 days.

More than divine grace
In August 2012, Online Prasad joined The Morpheus, a Chandigarh-based accelerator that works with startups. Morpheus infused additional capital of `5 lakh of equity stake in the company. “We joined hands with Goonjan as we liked his idea and realized he was executing his plans well. The business idea made sense for The Morpheus as we thought religion is the most viral business in India,” says Sameer Guglani, Co-Founder, The Morpheus.

Guglani says he had advised Mall to go on a pilgrimage and visit as many temples, which he affirms Mall does consistently. “This resulted in gradually expanding his network of temples.”

Mall divulges little about his growth plan for Online Prasad. “This is a new business and not many people have done anything like this. So there is no road map yet and we are learning while experimenting,” he confesses.

Mall believes plans do not work in a startup and are prone to spontaneous changes given the nature of a nascent company. As of now he is happy with the customer response and the repeat orders he gets.

“We are getting known by word of mouth as this is an interesting service we are providing. People love to tell others that they ordered prasad of a particular temple from home.” Sanjay Agarwal, a resident from Bihar, has ordered prasad from seven to nine temples through Online Prasad. He says that barring the first delivery, his transactions were smooth and satisfactory.

“I placed an order after seeing their banner at one of the temples in Kodarma, Jharkhand. The order came in 10 days time but the box was open and it had only two sweets,” Agarwal remembers. However, when he informed them about the delivery, he got another package of sweets, in a couple of days.

“I can say it was from the temple I had ordered from as I have been there earlier and the sweets tasted just the same,” says Agarwal.

Growth metrics
The website sees daily traffic of 1,500-2,000 unique visitors, says Mall, and this figure goes down on some days. According to web information company Alexa, a California-based subsidiary of US-based e-commerce giant Amazon, which tracks traffic of websites globally, the portal ranks 222,176 globally and 25,219 in India.

Inevitably, the number of orders climb during festivals like Navratri, Janmashtami and New Year. “During Basant Panchami, the number of orders increase from 40 a month to more than 70,” Dadhich says.

Mall looks content when he tells us he has delivered prasad to almost all corners of India, except the Andaman and Lakshadweep islands. He has also received orders to gift prasad to relatives of customers living in Dubai and Singapore.

“This is a business which will always work in India given the number of temples we have and the opportunity it creates for us,” says Mall. Not surprising, as India is a land of religious fervor.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands, A Forgotten Paradise

During my two-week stay in the islands, this was one discussion constantly coming up no matter which island I went to. The beaches at Andaman and Nicobar islands are just as good. The waters here shimmer in a million shades of blue and the dive sites are one of the best all over the world. Everyone, from the tourism department to resort owners and private tour operators as well as the locals, talks about this.

They knew the answer lay in the lack of infrastructure. I can vouch for that. Having travelled to few remote islands in the Andaman group, I understood what they meant. My deep-rooted need to escape the crowd drove me to places as remote as Long Island and Little Andaman. I stayed in dingy places and stared alone, taking in the wondrous views. When my phone caught signal after a week, I called home. My family chided me because I didn’t take them with me to Andaman. I retorted saying they wouldn’t be able to stay at the places that I did and travel the way that I did. But in reality, I truly wished I could show them what I saw.

Port Blair and Havelock Island are the only places with good accommodation options. Elsewhere you are at the mercy of some enterprising locals who thought of setting up lodging facility. These places, mainly targeting the foreign backpacker, have put up extremely basic accommodation. Connectivity between the islands is a problem too, with ships running on limited schedules. While it sounds very exotic to stay in remote islands with absolutely no tourists and facilities, it doesn’t do much good to the locals.

Muthu, a migrant from Kovalam who now runs a surf board rental in Little Andaman, tells me the government decision to ban camping on the beaches has been good to the locals. “If everyone camps on the beach, then what do we get?” he asks. Indro’s family migrated to Andaman many years ago, even before he was born. Today, he lives in Kalipur with his wife and three children. Before the only private resort in Kalipur opened up, he couldn’t find much work and supporting his family wasn’t that easy. He tells me things have been much better since he got work at the resort. He now takes guests hiking up Saddle Peak among others.

In early 2000s, the three existing timber factories were shut down when the Supreme Court banned logging in the islands. This left the many migrant factory workers without a living. Today, they live off the island by fishing, few on pension and others take up small jobs here and there. But the youth still remains largely unemployed in most of these islands. Long Island is a remote island that can be reached by a six-hour boat ride from Havelock. Pawan, a teenager from this island, accompanied me on my three-hour trek to the pristine Lallaji Bay. When I asked him what he did for a living, spitting the tobacco, he answered very casually that he took up odd jobs on the island every now and then. Back at the resort in Long Island, a young girl named Soniya served me tea. Just about a month ago, having heard of this place, she convinced her parents in Rangat, a small town in Middle Andaman, to let her work here.

Tourism could be a key proponent in boosting the economy and solving the unemployment problem in the rising settler population. The islands have immense potential. But like any other place, this place is unique in its own right and tourism has to be managed carefully in a way not to disturb the delicate balance of the existing ecosystem. The forests are pristine and the marine life remarkable, lot of them endemic to these islands. In fact, the place is so remote and so pristine I have half a mind to not write anything about it and let it be the well-kept secret that it is today.

Havelock Island is already beginning to show effects of excess tourism. These islands survive on limited resources which makes it even more imperative to share the tourism load between different islands. In order to protect the islands, however, cutting down tourism at the roots is not the solution. The solution lies in managing tourism in collaboration with the locals to generate enough income and awareness.

Even before taking on tourism on a large scale, there are a few critical problems that have to be addressed first. The major one being that of power generation. Of the 572 islands, 38 are inhabited and almost all these islands depend on diesel for electricity! Considering diesel has to be imported from the mainland and electricity is provided at highly subsidised rates, the government incurs huge losses and I am scared to even consider the massive carbon footprint of the islands. Local resources such as solar, tidal, wind and bio-mass could be considered as alternative options for power generation. The second is that of solid waste management. I have seen parts of the pristine shore lines at Havelock and Neil filled with plastic waste that wash up from the sea.

When I was travelling from Port Blair to Neil by ship, many times the ship passed by plastic bottles floating in the blue waters. Apart from garbage generated by tourists, washed up plastic from the mainland also forms a bulk of the waste collected on the shore. As of now, most of the trash is either thrown into the sea or burnt. GreenLife Society, a local NGO, has tied up with several resorts in Havelock to collect and recycle the plastic waste and has seen some success. But steps have to be taken on a much higher level to deal with all the plastic in the islands.

Apart from these, the islands are also facing a lot of environmental issues, such as several endemic floras in the forests of Interview Island being destroyed by the abandoned elephants used for logging earlier or the introduced species of deer wreaking havoc on the growth of new forest or that of bleached corals. Despite all this, it is extremely sad that the only two occasions when Andaman & Nicobar was talked about was when Tsunami struck and the issue of Jarawas’ exploitation popped up.

About 1,200 km away from the mainland, we almost seem to have forgotten that this paradise is part of India too with its share of problems. These islands are too precious to be ignored and everyone deserves a chance to witness the extraordinary beauty here. The trick is in finding a balance between growing tourism and preserving the islands and that is a very delicate balance indeed.

The Impact Of Human Safaris

The ethical and moral implication of showcasing tribal communities for the purpose of tourism has often given rise to fierce controversy. Should these communities be made to expose their culture and lifestyle in return for money? The arguments are intense.

Human safaris basically refers to the practice of organizing tourist expeditions to areas inhabited by cut-off and isolated communities. The focus of these expeditions is the ethnic people and their lifestyle. There have been strong protests registered by various human rights and ethical groups over human safaris. The issue became the topic of fierce debate when it was revealed that tour organizers to the Andaman and Nicobar islands offered money to tribals living in the dense forests to perform their traditional dance for tourists. 

Reports also indicate that every often tour operators try and incite tourists to these human safaris by offering titillating accounts of the experience awaiting them. An article published in the Guardian, UK quotes extensively from brochures published by various tribal companies. Some of the brochures make for shocking reading. For example, the Guardian has republished an excerpt from a travel brochure exhorting people to take a tour to see the Bonda tribals in Orissa states, “The scanty dress of the Bonda women and the homicidal tendency of the Bonda males make them the most fascinating people.” Yet another brochure claims that the agency would show tourists “The lifestyle of tattooed, heavily beaded, nearly naked tribal people, their day to day activity and their extremely primitive way of living.”

Human rights activists and non-government organizations working for the welfare of the tribals have flayed the practice of human safaris. The main argument is that by asking tribals to dance and sing for the amusement of tourists is reducing them to a sub-human level. Such tours are against the very concept of human dignity.

There is also a danger that the exposure can do incalculable harm to the tribal’s lifestyle as well as their health. There have been instances when entire isolated communities have been totally wiped out once they were exposed to “outsiders” and “outside influences.” Continuing with the examples of the Andaman and Nicobar tribes, experts quote the example of the Great Andamanese. The tribe which numbered 3000 was wiped out once their traditional lands were encroached upon by timber companies. In fact, studies indicate that it is communities who fiercely protect their isolation who continue to survive.

The human safaris also pose a health hazard for the tribals. These areas have no medical facilities and the tribals are not immunized against diseases like measles and mumps. As a result, exposure to such diseases from the tourists who come to see them could result in serious health problems for the tribals.

But there is the other side of the coin too. There are critics who flay the policy of isolation that ensures that the tribals will continue with the present lifestyle. Their argument is that it is not right to deny the benefits of modern living to the tribals. The state or human right organizations, they claim, cannot decide how the tribals will live. If the tribals wish to make contact with the outside world and earn money by exhibiting their traditional skills, they cannot be deprived of this right. The choice about what kind of lifestyle they should lead should be a decision made by the tribals themselves.

Perhaps the best way to avoid the demeaning aspects of the human safari would be up to the tourists themselves. People visiting such areas should be sensitive enough to ensure that the dignity of the tribals is maintained and that there is no exploitation.

Human safaris basically refers to the practice of organizing tourist expeditions to areas inhabited by cut-off and isolated communities. The focus of these expeditions is the ethnic people and their lifestyle. There have been strong protests registered by various human rights and ethical groups over human safaris. The issue became the topic of fierce debate when it was revealed that tour organizers to the Andaman and Nicobar islands offered money to tribals living in the dense forests to perform their traditional dance for tourists. 

Where Are Our Missing Children?

In India, a child goes missing every eight minutes, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau. Almost 40 percent of those children haven’t been found.

If you are a parent, go hug your child before you read this piece. We have an epidemic on, an epidemic that gets but a passing mention in the newspapers, an epidemic that is real and tangible only for those parents who wait for the call that never comes, the child who never returns, who do the rounds of the police stations, photographs in hand, who put out advertisements in the newspapers, describing what their child was wearing when he or she went missing, who live a life in limbo. Our children are going missing. One child every eight minutes across India. 

“In India, a child goes missing every eight minutes, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau. Almost 40 percent of those children haven’t been found.” Wall Street Journal India Realtime.

On October 25, 2012, firstpost.com stated, 

“According to the police, a newborn boy was kidnapped from Wadia Hospital in Central Mumbai. The day-old boy was stolen during visiting hours when his mother, Jasmine Naik (28), was taking an evening walk in the corridor of the hospital, they said. She had left the baby unattended in the ward and was taking a stroll when someone took him away, police said, adding the hospital, run by a private trust, didn’t have CCTV cameras.” 

DNA pointed out in its October 26, 2012 issue, 

“The Bombay High Court in 2009 issued 23 guidelines for enhancing security in government, semi-government and BMC-run hospitals after a four day old baby of Mohan and Mohini Nerurkar was kidnapped from the maternity ward of BMC-run Sion hospital. The HC order said that sensitive areas such as the neo-natal, post-natal and paediatric wards should have CCTV cameras. The court said they should also be installed at all entry and exit routes. However, not one camera has been installed inside the premises of Wadia Maternity Hospital. The management has left a proposal to install CCTV cameras worth Rs 1 lakh pending for three years.” 

In its July 8, 2012 issue, DNA pointed out, 

“Three year old Sangita, who was kidnapped from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) on June 10, was rescued from her kidnapper at the Haridwar bus station by the Haridwar Police on Saturday afternoon. The alleged kidnapper, identified as Raju, was also arrested by the Haridwar police. The Government Railway Police (GRP) of Maharashtra recently released shocking CCTV footage of the kidnapping. It shows a limping man alighting from a train and wandering about the station before spotting the sleeping family and three year old Sangita, who was not asleep at the time. The man then sat beside her and took her away.” 

Sangita’s parents were lucky that she was found. Not all kidnappings have a happy ending; some children are never found, or are found dead. 

Perhaps the most chilling are the 2006 Nithari killings, where remains of 17 children were found in drains outside a bungalow. 

“For the last two years, more than forty young children and women went missing from a small urban hamlet of Nithari, at the centre of Noida, a satellite town bordering Delhi (India). The local media regularly covered the incidents of missing children; the National Commission for Women also took cognisance of the matter, but the children continued to vanish in thin air. However, in the last week of December 2006, by sheer chance some human remains were spotted at the backyard of a palatial house situated at the edge of the village of Nithari. When the spot was searched further what emerged was a chilling tale of cold blooded serial murders that perhaps qualify as the biggest serial killings any where in the world.” http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Child/2007/nithari.html 

The unimaginable horror of Nithari killings, were further abetted by a lackadaisical police force that refused to take complaints of missing children. 

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), almost 60,000 children were reported missing in 2011. Of these, 22,000 are yet to be located. However, according to a report by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), nearly 11 children go missing every hour, and at least, 4 of them are never found. According to BBA, the number of missing children could be as high as 90,000 per year. West Bengal topped the charts of missing children with 12,000 children missing in 2011. Madhya Pradesh followed with 7,797 cases, while Delhi had 5,111 cases. These are merely reported cases that discount those children who might run away due to various factors, ranging from abuse to dysfunctional homes, and exam stress, or some who might get lost while families travel. Majority of the missing children are just taken away. The statistics are scary – in 2011, 15,284 cases of kidnapping were reported. This was up 43 percent from the previous year. 

Children are kidnapped for human trafficking, illegal organ transplantation, prostitution, child porn racketing, child labour in factories and unpaid domestic help. Many children are forced to beg; some are mutilated to evoke sympathy for more earning potential, and a small percentage for ransom. 

Kidnappings for ransom are on the rise, and in some cases even after paying up, the parents never see their children again. According to a report in the Guardian, 

“Figures from Delhi police show that kidnap for ransom is on the rise. In 2008, there were 1,233 cases in the national capital; by last year that had soared to 2,975. In the first three months of 2011, 802 cases were registered.” 

According to an estimate by NGOs, only 50 percent of missing children are actually reported to the NCRB. Urban slum children are the most vulnerable as they are easily lured into promise of good food and clothes. According to news reports, there are over 800 gangs with 5,000 members involved in the kidnapping and trafficking of children, much in the same way they would traffic drugs, or contraband. Some parents are so poor; they don’t have recent photographs to give the police. Children between the ages of 6 and 13 are the most targeted and vulnerable. Infants are also taken; sometimes from the very hospitals they are born in, or from railway stations, and other crowded places. The children, who are lucky enough to be found and rescued or have the presence of mind to run away, speak of being sold into agricultural or factory labour. 

Why do we have so many missing children and why are they not found? 

It starts with how the investigation is done. Very often, First Information Reports are not registered; just an entry is made into a list of missing persons at the police station, and a photograph of missing child sent across city police stations. Cases are only investigated if the person reporting the missing child files a case of kidnapping. 

Delhi scores better in this regard – if a child is not found within 24 hours, a case of kidnapping is to be filed mandatorily. An initiative called Pehchaan (recognition) in Delhi has policemen taking pictures of children in slums for record, and copies are provided to their families. The Crime Branch has launched an exclusive portal (www.trackthemissingchild.gov.in) to track down missing children across the country. All states have to compulsorily put this facility into place. A PIL filed by Bachpan Bachao Andolan, states that over 1.7 lakh children have gone missing in the country between January 2008 and 2010. In response to this PIL, Supreme Court has instructed the chief secretaries of all states and union territories to ask police stations to register an FIR, and start an investigation. Supreme Court also directed that all police stations should have a special juvenile police officer. 

This may be too little, too late for those parents who have waited endlessly. For those children, who have already become statistics in the long lists, these measures might not be of any help. But we can, and we must push for more attention to the growing menace; we cannot let this get brushed under the carpet.

Nobody’s Missing Children

NGO’s working in the field estimate that barely 10 percent of all missing children cases are registered with the police. An overwhelming 90 percent disappear into the great morass of the Never Seen Never Heard of Again.

“Nobody seems to be concerned about the missing children. This is the irony,” stated a bench of the Supreme Court on Feb 5. The remark is indicative of the apathy shown by the Centre and state governments toward the issue of missing children. The court had directed the Centre and the various states to file status reports on the status of the missing children in the country and in their states in March 2012. The notices were issued by Justices Altamas Kabir and SS Nijjar in response to a Public Interest Litigation by the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan on the escalating numbers of missing children in India. Unfortunately, a year later, these status reports are still to be filed by the Centre and several state governments.

The Supreme Court, taking serious note of the absence of the chief secretaries of Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu despite being directed to be physically present and not through their counsels, threatened to issue non bailable arrest warrants against them. The West Bengal counsel incidentally submitted that the status report had not been filed since there was no instruction, which the SC took exception to. Of the five States whose chief secretaries had been specifically asked to be present, only the chief secretaries of Goa and Orissa were present. Not only the Centre but also the governments of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Uttrakhand, West Bengal and Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, NCT of Delhi and Lakhshadweep have not filed their status reports, the court noted.

The numbers are scary. According to the figures filed by BBA in its PIL, over 1.7 lakh children had gone missing between January 2008 and January 2010. The exact figures given were 1,17,480 children who had gone missing, of which 41,546 children were still untraced. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, one child goes missing in India every eight minutes. Forty per cent of these children will never be found and will end up as mere statistics in an ever growing list of missing children in this country, children who are picked up from streets, from outside their homes, from railway stations, even from hospitals as newborns. Many of these children will end up trafficked, either as cheap labour, or to beggar syndicates or into the sex trade. For their parents it is a nightmare they live through every single day, the waiting for news that their child has been found, the hoping against hope, catching a sudden glimpse of someone in a crowded place who resembles their child, receiving information from distant places, that perhaps their child has been spotted there, only to rush there and be disappointed.

In 2011, 15,284 children were kidnapped, up 43 percent from the previous year. Around 3,517 cases of child trafficking were reported in the same year, buying and selling girls for the sex trade, for marriage, as well as trafficking of children for the organ trade, as drug mules, into bonded labour in the unorganised sector and to begging syndicates across the country. According to unconfirmed reports, there are close on 800 organised child trafficking gangs across the country. Traffickers target children from the lower income groups, where the families do not have the financial strength or the political connections to pursue their cases with the authorities. They pick up children who aren’t watched over too carefully from slums and congested areas. Merely a handful of the children who get kidnapped are taken for ransom. Sometimes, if the parents pay up, or the police locates the kidnapped child, the child is reunited with its family. Sometimes, despite paying up, some kidnapped children are brutalised and killed.

The highest number of untraced children are from Delhi, followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bangalore, city wise. According to the BBA, the number of missing children is highest in Maharashtra followed by West Bengal, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh and the number of untraced missing children is highest in West Bengal followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Sadly, 75 per cent of missing children in Kolkata and 65 per cent in Delhi “continue to remain untraced” according to a two-year study, titled ‘Trafficking of Women and Children in India’, compiled by Shankar Sen and P M Nair, with a team of ISS researchers. The report also found that sometimes, these children are actually sold to traffickers by their own family or people who know them, at times for as little as Rs 5,000. The survey interviewed over 500 rescued children who were now in homes. Of these, 40 percent told the surveyors that they had been sold when they were younger than ten, the rest were sold when they were between 11 and 14 years of age. Of these, only a mere seven percent of the rescued children stated they had been trafficked by total strangers.

India has the largest number of child labourers in the world, even though child labour is prohibited by the law. Data suggests that 12.66 million children are employed illegally in cigarette, bidi, firework and carpet weaving factories. Children are also employed at construction sites and in homes as domestic workers. Many of these are victims of child trafficking.

NGO’s working in the field estimate that barely 10 percent of all missing children cases are registered with the police. An overwhelming 90 percent disappear into the great morass of the Never Seen Never Heard of Again. The way missing children are investigated by our authorities is another reason why recovery rates are so low. Except for a few states, FIRs are not registered for missing children. The name of the missing child is just entered into a list of missing persons at the police station where it is reported. This does not lead to an in depth investigation. Photos of the missing child are sent to all police stations in cities like Mumbai but no active investigation into the disappearance of the child is done, unless the person who reports the child missing asks the police to file a case of kidnapping. Post the horrific Nithari murders in 2006, the law in Delhi requires a case of kidnapping to be filed by the police if a child is not located within 24 hours of being reported missing. In the Nithari killings, children had begun going missing from the neighbourhood for two years, but the police refused to register complaints or investigate the cases.

As a start, the police have begun sharing an integrated database of missing children, www.zipnet.in, as well as unidentified children found. Some of the parents of the children on the database are so poor, they don’t even have a recent photograph of the child they can provide. There is an interesting recent initiative by the Delhi police where it goes into the slums, photographs and registers all the children so that in the event of the child going missing recent photographs and details of the child are available. What is of immediate need though is an integrated country wide database that allows states to track missing children who are trafficked across states and work in tandem to rescue trafficked children, as well as trace children who might have run away for reasons ranging from dysfunctional homes, to exam pressure to a desire to see a big city. A standard protocol procedure to deal with a case of missing children needs to be put into place across the country by investigation and law enforcement agencies.

The Supreme Court’s annoyance on this issue is well justified. The “last opportunity” given to the Centre and the states to file their affidavits is now February 19. Whether the status reports will be filed by February 19 or not remains to be seen, but the fact remains that we, as a country, are not concerned about our missing children. They disappear into files, remain photographs on posters and morph into mere statistics. The parents live through the nightmare every single day of not knowing whether their child is alive or dead, or if alive, living under what unimaginable conditions. And we need to hang our heads in shame at our collective apathy to this terrifying issue.

Juvenile crimes: Over 33,000 minors arrested in 2011 for rapes, murders

Over 33,000 juveniles, mostly between the age group of 16 to 18, have been arrested for crimes like rape and murder across the country in 2011, the highest in last decade.

According to a Home Ministry data, of the total of 33,387 juveniles apprehended in 2011, 21,657 were in the 16-18 age group, 11,019 of 12-16 age group and 1,211 between 7-12 age group.

A total of 33,628 adolescents were held in 2001, 35,779 in 2002, 33,320 in 2003, 30,943 in 2004 and 32,681 in 2005 for their involvement in different criminal acts.

Whereas, 32,145 such youngsters below 18 years of age were held in 2006, 34,527 in 2007, 34,507 in 2008, 33,642 in 2009 and 30,303 during 2010, the data said. The data also shows increasing cases of rape by juveniles. As many as 1,419 such cases were recorded in 2011 as compared to 399 cases in 2001, it said.

It is pertinent to mention that a juvenile and five others were arrested by Delhi Police for brutally raping and assaulting a 23-year-old girl in the national capital on 16 December. The victim later succumbed to her injuries.

The cases of murder by juveniles have also shown a surge in last ten years. As many as 531 youngsters below the age of 18 were apprehended for murder in 2001 as against 888 arrests between January and December 2011.

According to the data, 6,770 juveniles were arrested in Maharashtra, 5,794 in Madhya Pradesh, 2,692 in Chhattisgarh, 2,542 in Rajasthan and 2,510 in Gujarat among others in 2011.

In the same year, a total of 2,474 adolescents were arrested in Andhra Pradesh, 2,083 in Tamil Nadu, 1,204 in Uttar Pradesh and 1,126 in Bihar, the data said.

Whereas, 942 juveniles were arrested in Delhi, 159 in Chandigarh, 85 in Puducherry, 22 in Dadar and Nagar Haveli, 16 in Daman and Diu and eight in Andaman and Nicobar in 2011.

Of the total number of juveniles arrested in 2011 under different sections of IPC and Special and Local Laws (SLL), 6,122 were illiterate, 12,803 were primary passouts, 10,519 were above primary and below matriculation qualified and 4,443 were matric and higher secondary qualified, the data said.

A total of 27,577 juveniles, who were held for criminal acts, were living with parents, 4,386 were living with guardians and 1,924 were homeless, the data said giving details of their family background.

Telemedicine in Rural India

By M H Ahssan

In a developing country such as India, there is huge inequality in health-care distribution. Although nearly 75% of Indians live in rural villages, more than 75% of Indian doctors are based in cities. Most of the 620 million rural Indians lack access to basic health care facilities. The Indian government spends just 0.9% of the country's annual gross domestic product on health, and little of this spending reaches remote rural areas. The poor infrastructure of rural health centers makes it impossible to retain doctors in villages, who feel that they become professionally isolated and outdated if stationed in remote areas.

In addition, poor Indian villagers spend most of their out-of-pocket health expenses on travel to the specialty hospitals in the city and for staying in the city along with their escorts. A recent study conducted by the Indian Institute of Public Opinion found that 89% of rural Indian patients have to travel about 8 km to access basic medical treatment, and the rest have to travel even farther.

Can Telemedicine Bridge the Divide?
Telemedicine may turn out to be the cheapest, as well as the fastest, way to bridge the rural–urban health divide. Taking into account India's huge strides in the field of information and communication technology, telemedicine could help to bring specialized healthcare to the remotest corners of the country.

The efficacy of telemedicine has already been shown through the network established by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which has connected 22 super-specialty hospitals with 78 rural and remote hospitals across the country through its geo-stationary satellites. This network has enabled thousands of patients in remote places such as Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Lakshadweep Islands, and tribal areas of the central and northeastern regions of India to gain access to consultations with experts in super-specialty medical institutions. ISRO has also provided connectivity for mobile telemedicine units in villages, particularly in the areas of community health and ophthalmology.

This encouraging early success in reaching patients—together with recent technological advances in India, such as the proliferation of fiber optic cables, the expanding bandwidth, and the licensing of private Internet service providers—has encouraged ISRO to set up an exclusive satellite, called HealthSAT, to bring telemedicine to the poor on a larger scale. The proposed satellite would not only serve remote areas of India but also those in other poor countries in Asia and Africa. In the government of India's current budget, INR102.8 billion has been allocated for health. HealthSAT is expected to cost only about 1% of this budget, that is, between INR600 million to INR1 billion. Each receiving terminal (where patients and rural doctors are present for audiovisual conferences) in the villages is expected to cost only about INR0.5 million. This telemedicine service will save some costs, for example the money that patients would have spent on travel and accommodation.

A telemedicine system in a small health centre consists of a personal computer with customized medical software connected to a few medical diagnostic instruments, such as an ECG or X-ray machine or an X-ray scanner for scanning X-ray photos. Through this computer, digitized versions of patients' medical images and diagnostic details (such as X-ray images and blood test reports) are dispatched to specialist doctors through the satellite-based communication link. The information, in turn, is received at the specialist centre where experienced doctors examine the reports, diagnose, interact with the patients (along with local doctors), and suggest appropriate treatment through video-conferencing. The entire system is relatively user-friendly, and only a short period of training is needed for doctors at super-specialty centres and rural health centres to handle the system. And hospital technicians can take care of the operation and maintenance of the equipment.

M. N. Sathyanarayan, Executive Director of Space Industries Development, and organising secretary of the 2005 International Telemedicine Conference, said: “In the pilot phase of the telemedicine project, ISRO is providing telemedicine equipment as well as making available the required bandwidth on INSAT satellites. The main criteria for funding by ISRO are that the hospitals have to be government-run—state or central—or belong to public sector industries. The hospitals have to provide infrastructure as well as doctors and technicians for operating the system.”

“ISRO also provides the equipment and bandwidth to private specialty hospitals and hospitals run by Trusts, if these hospitals provide free service, including specialty consultation to rural hospitals that have been connected in the telemedicine network of ISRO. These hospitals have to provide follow-up treatment to teleconsulted patients at government rates.”

In its telemedicine initiative, ISRO intends to connect different types of Indian health care centers in a series of phases. L. S. Sathyamurthy, Programme Director of Telemedicine at ISRO said: “There are 650 district hospitals, 3,000 taluk [subdistrict] hospitals, and more than 23,000 primary health centers in the country. We must aim to connect all these in phases—first the district hospital connected to speciality hospitals in major cities, then the taluk-level hospitals, and finally the primary health centers, so that nobody, irrespective of his location, is deprived of lifesaving specialty consultation.” When the network grows, it may even include private hospitals as well as hospitals in Asia and Africa. Although the network will initially be used for teleconsultation and postoperative consultation, in the future it may accommodate even telesurgery and telerobotics.

The Impact So Far
Starting with pilot projects in the year 2001, together with a “proof-of-concept” technology demonstration, ISRO has established the facility in nearly 60 remote hospitals, which have been connected with 20 super-specialty city hospitals. A report presented at the Rajya Sabha (the House of States, or Upper House) of the Parliament of India suggested that the initial results of India's telemedicine initiative are encouraging. The report states that several telemedicine projects in India have been successfully interlinked—for example, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands telemedicine project links the G. B. Pant Hospital at Port Blair with Shri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai, while in Karnataka, Narayana Hrudayalaya is connected to District Hospital, Chamarajnagar and Vivekananda Memorial Hospital, Saragur.

Adding to these early reports of successful linkage, there are also reports that telemedicine has helped to save lives in crowded pilgrimage centres and military outposts connected with mobile telemedicine units. For example, the Amrita Telemedicine Programme reports that on 13 January 2003, the programme's first remote telesurgery procedure was performed. The Amrita Emergency Care Unit at Pampa was able to save the life of a pilgrim by a telesurgical procedure using the local telemedicine facility. The cardiothoracic surgeon guided the procedure remotely, and the pediatric cardiologist at Pampa performed the procedure. Mobile telemedicine units were also rushed to the coasts and islands of India after the 2004 tsunami to provide medical consultation and relief to the affected people.

There are other indications that the telemedicine initiative may have had a positive impact. ISRO's annual report for 2004–2005 states: “More than 25,000 patients have so far been provided with teleconsultation and treatment. An impact study conducted on a thousand patients has revealed that there is a significant cost saving in the system since the patients avoid expenses towards travel, stay, and for treatment at the hospitals in the cities”. Dr. Devi Shetty, a cardiac surgeon and the Chairman of Narayan Hrudayalya, a hospital that has served thousands through telemedicine, said: “We have treated 17,400 patients using telemedicine connectivity in various parts of India, mainly from rural India, and [a] few patients from outside India. We use both satellite as well as ISDN connectivity. Now, with the Indian Space Research Organisation, which is our associate in this project giving us the satellite connection free of cost, we have a [larger] game plan of offering health care to African and other Asian countries.”

The Challenges and Controversies
The telemedicine initiative in India has not been free of challenges and controversies. “There are inevitable difficulties associated with the introduction of new systems and technologies,” according to Sathyamurthy. “There are some who needlessly fear that they will lose their jobs. Although the systems are user-friendly, there are others who are affected by the fear of the unknown in handling computers and other equipment. There is a feeling that the initial investment is high and hence financially not viable.” In addition, there may be technical hitches, such as low bandwidth and lack of interoperability standards for software.

Discussing HealthSAT, Dr. D. Lavanian, an Indian expert in telemedicine affiliated with the Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, India, said: “[HealthSAT] is excellent, but some questions remain. Presently HealthSAT connectivity is expected to be given free of charge to certain government entities. This is unsatisfactory as a large percentage of health care in India is by private entities.” Dr. Lavanian added: “On my requesting to ISRO to open up the same to the private health industry, of course for a fee, I have not received any positive answer. This means that a large percentage of the population of India will be denied healthcare via telemedicine.”

These difficulties can probably be surmounted. In the late 1980s, when computers came to India, similar kinds of problems were seen in different parts of the country. That is, people showed technophobia and expressed their fears that computers would cause unemployment and would also be prohibitively expensive. But the country overcame these challenges and fears, and eventually became a superpower in the field of knowledge and information technology.

With the aid of HealthSAT, India's telemedicine initiative has the potential to provide specialized health care to millions of poor Indians. This potential was well summed up by Dr. Devi Shetty: “In terms of disease management, there is [a] 99% possibility that the person who is unwell does not require [an] operation. If you don't operate you don't need to touch the patient. And if you don't need to touch the patient, you don't need to be there. You can be anywhere, since the decision on healthcare management is based on history and interpretation of images and chemistry … so technically speaking, 99% of health-care problems can be managed by the doctors staying at a remote place—linked by telemedicine.”

Incredible India: When public sector advertising turned savvy

By M H Ahssan

If the recent Lok Sabha elections are any proof, then no matter how great an advertising agency is and how lavishly the client spends, there is always a sarkaari look to public sector advertising.

Small wonder when the Incredible India campaign was launched, it came as a welcome change from the fuddy-duddy public sector advertising.

The man at the centre of the campaign is Amitabh Kant, who was a joint secretary in the tourism ministry then. He is also the one to have steered the 'God's Own Country' campaign for Kerala for several years.

In his recent book, Branding India -- An Incredible Story, Kant chronicles the story of Incredible India, one of the most awarded and successful destination campaigns worldwide.

Kant begins with the domestic tourism scenario in the backdrop of the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001. It was a time when tour operators thought there was nothing that could boost consumer demand.

"Global tourism saw a sharp decline... countries like Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia had sharply cut their advertising, promotion and marketing budgets," he writes.

Kant points out that till 2002, India had opened 18 tourism offices abroad, yet none of these gave a clear and singular positioning for India. "One foreign office called it 'Spiritual India', another termed it 'Cultural India', and the third termed it 'Unbelievable India'.

The cliched visuals, the saffron clad sadhus and rope tricks performed amidst crowds..." he laments, "did nothing to reflect the changes India was going through."
That's when a vision statement was drawn out to promote India as a "premier holiday destination for high-yielding tourists".Grey Worldwide and Wieden+Kennedy were roped in as key advertising agencies for the campaign.

Perhaps one of the best chapters in the book is the one where Kant draws from his experience in Kerala and describes the wrong flight of the state's tourism in the 90s, which was punctuated by high volume, low value tourism -- "A solitary ITDC hotel, mass tourist arrivals in the form of garbage collectors from Manchester and cobblers from London contributing not more £15 a night."

The tourism ministry then decided to do away with mass tourism and soon products exclusive to Kerala were promoted to the affluent traveller -- the backwaters, ayurveda, kettuvallams (houseboats), the tree house, butterfly holidays, and traditional cuisines became the rallying points.

"How can India's first communist state be called 'God's Own Country'? There was no end to criticism," he writes. The turning point came when after a series of familiarisation tours with tour operators and travel writers, the National Geographic Traveller featured Kerala among 'fifty destinations of a lifetime'.

In subsequent chapters, Kant describes other tourism makeovers -- Ajanta Ellora, Kumbalgarh, Mahabalipuram and Hardwar -- and also throws light on parallel growth stories such as low carrier airlines, enhanced air connectivity, online travel portals and growing macro-economic confidence about India.

Kant admits that branding a destination is a multi-sectoral challenge. "I was dealing with home ministry for visas, state governments for taxi drivers, there were challenges in customs and immigration, tour operators, ASI sites -- all of them have to become your brand ambassadors," the author states. This was the backdrop when a parallel campaign -- 'Atithi Devo Bhava' -- was conceived.

Indeed, the book effectively conveys the importance and greatness of the Incredible India campaign, but it also gives a feeling that the campaign was too dependent on the success of 'God's Own Country'.One may also feel that the book -- designed stylishly by Wieden+Kennedy's V Sunil -- underplays the role of advertising's contribution to the 'Incredible India' campaign.

Lines such as 'An island a day, keeps the doctor away. Vitamin Sea'for Andaman islands; 'Not all Indians are polite, hospitable and vegetarian,' to talk about the Royal Bengal tiger, and 'One day, man will travel at the speed of thought. Pity,' to describe a calm meditative journey through Kerala's backwaters, are indicative of not just the tourism ministry's welcome savviness as a client, but also of a bureaucracy agreeing to promote Brand India in a slick manner.

True, Incredible India is a rare instance of savvy public sector advertising, which dared to poke fun at the country's glorious self.

INDIA TOURISM: Going Beyond Borders

By M H Ahssan

As the overcrowded plains of India wither in the heat of a merciless summer, the nation’s annual season of travel is ready with irresistible temptations. It is not so much stymied by the ongoing global economic slowdown as it is aided and abetted by superb discounts and better value for the same money. “We are at a very unique point in time,” says Rakshit Desai, executive director for travel at Thomas Cook India, in Delhi. “Holidays are cheaper than they were last year and they are cheaper than they will be next year.”

The trends are already clear. While traditional hotspots in Europe (France, Switzerland and the UK) continue to attract significant numbers of Indian tourists, the South-East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore) segment heads the charts, thanks to its proximity, affordability and diversity. Anyone wanting a quick getaway can just buy a tour package from a local travel agent and get a visa on arrival at, say, Thailand. “We are promoting Thailand’s excellent value for money under the Amazing Thailand, Amazing Value theme,” says Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, director of Tourism Authority of Thailand, in New Delhi. In 2009, Thailand expects to receive 550,000 visitors from India.

The top picks are culture trails to Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Macau, the fabulous beaches of Pengang and Langkawi in Malaysia and Krabi in Thailand, and the exotic appeal of New Zealand, Scandinavia (Finland, Denmark, Sweden), Ireland and Scotland. On the value-for-money front, Philippines, Hong Kong and Dubai are scoring well. The US is back in the reckoning as a very desirable destination because of the exceptional value the dollar is able to fetch now. Surprisingly, as opposed to the attractions of America’s big cities (New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles), it is Florida’s Miami that has emerged recently as a well-liked hub for tours of the US.

As the overcrowded plains of India wither in the heat of a merciless summer, the nation’s annual season of travel is ready with irresistible temptations. It is not so much stymied by the ongoing global economic slowdown as it is aided and abetted by superb discounts and better value for the same money. “We are at a very unique point in time,” says Rakshit Desai, executive director for travel at Thomas Cook India, in Delhi. “Holidays are cheaper than they were last year and they are cheaper than they will be next year.”

The trends are already clear. While traditional hotspots in Europe (France, Switzerland and the UK) continue to attract significant numbers of Indian tourists, the South-East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore) segment heads the charts, thanks to its proximity, affordability and diversity. Anyone wanting a quick getaway can just buy a tour package from a local travel agent and get a visa on arrival at, say, Thailand. “We are promoting Thailand’s excellent value for money under the Amazing Thailand, Amazing Value theme,” says Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, director of Tourism Authority of Thailand, in New Delhi. In 2009, Thailand expects to receive 550,000 visitors from India.

The top picks are culture trails to Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Macau, the fabulous beaches of Pengang and Langkawi in Malaysia and Krabi in Thailand, and the exotic appeal of New Zealand, Scandinavia (Finland, Denmark, Sweden), Ireland and Scotland. On the value-for-money front, Philippines, Hong Kong and Dubai are scoring well. The US is back in the reckoning as a very desirable destination because of the exceptional value the dollar is able to fetch now. Surprisingly, as opposed to the attractions of America’s big cities (New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles), it is Florida’s Miami that has emerged recently as a well-liked hub for tours of the US.

Shore Leave
Beaches would probably win the most laid-back destinations award, if ever there was such a thing. Indians, these days, are bestowing the best beach holidays title on the Key West in the US, the nearby Maldives and Mauritius, and Penang and Langkawi in Malaysia. “They are off-beat destinations and more experience-centred,” says Thottathil of Cox & Kings. For instance, Langkawi showcases some of the prettiest beaches, mangrove tours, island cruises and stunning experiences such as the Pantai Cenang, a walk-through oceanarium with over 5,000 marine and freshwater species.
The really well-heeled, though, favour the Mediterranean, with its trendy hotspots in south of France (Nice, Provence, Toulon, Saint Tropez, Cote d’ Azur), Greece and even the nouveau chic Italian Riviera. Down Under, it’s the Bondi beach outside Sydney and the Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast that are most loved. Honeymooners, on the other hand, favour places such as Tasmania.

“Indian tourists have graduated from sight-seeing and shopping to more novel experiences such as snorkelling, self-driving and adventure sports,” says Jain of Tourism Australia.

In Thailand, since many Indians have already been to Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya, they are actively seeking the less-unexplored charms of Koh Samui, Krabi and Koh Chang. “We are also receiving more high-end visitors who want exclusive services such as chauffeur-driven limos and pool villas,” says TAT’s Ayudhya.

Another name that keeps popping up this season is Macau. Sitting on the western edge of the Pearl Estuary, this unlikely part of the People’s Republic of China is a beguiling mix of east and west, rich with ancient Chinese culture and Portuguese colonial influences.

It’s not so much a beach holiday as it is a vacation that offers good beaches apart from a whole lot of other things including, naturally, its famous casinos.

That said, it would be remiss not to mention that some of the world’s best beaches — and resorts by which to enjoy them — are right here in India. Marari, Poovar, Kovalam, Bekal, Alappuzha and Varkala in Kerala, Alibag, Ratnagiri and Murud-Janjira in Maharashtra, Pondicherry and Tranquebar all by themselves, Goa’s fabulous coastline (Anjuna, Calangute, Dona Paula, Miramar, Bogmalo, Palolem, Majorda), the crystalline waters of Lakshadweep (Bangaram, Agatti, Kadmat, Kalpeni, Kavaratti and Minicoy) and Andaman and Nicobar (Port Blair, Havelock) islands, and the Om Beach in Karnataka’s tiny Gokarna, now also home to a couple of high-end resorts, all display the sure signs of being happening tourist destinations. They don’t necessarily come cheap but the experience can be entirely international.

Take A Hike
The adventurous are doing a great deal more than climbing every mountain. The Swiss Alps remains the Indian adventure enthusiast’s paradise. There are many picture-postcard options here that offer great local stays that enable the entire family to enjoy. One of them is to cycle from Switzerland’s Romanshorn along the Lake Constance to any town on a handy bike trail, passing by fruit orchards, ferry rides, spa towns, plentiful museums and quaint towns — all of which can be rounded off with a spot of skiing at St Moritz and a ride on the Glacier Express rail line from the world-famous resort town to Zermatt. Flyer bikes, available at Romanshorn railway station, come with a little battery that makes it easy to pedal uphill and on long stretches — anybody can do it, kids included.

With Nepal’s many easily accessible hikes invalidated by the incessant political turmoil in that country, the Indian traveller is shifting his craving for adventure to another scenic neighbouring country — Bhutan, which ends, it is said, when a stone rolling off a mountain stops. This beautiful land of steep climbs, dense forests, charming monasteries and sleepy villages is full of luxury travel experiences to its west and pristine budget travel to its east.

There are other favourites in the trip-of-a-lifetime category: the best place to bungee jump remains Australia’s varied and rugged terrain; the expression, though, is from New Zealand. The coast of Queensland has some of the world’s most celebrated bungee jumping sites — among them is the 50-metre high AJ Hackett tower, in north Cairns, which overlooks the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef. Look out for full moon celebrations, and packages that range from the ‘classic’ to the ‘unlimited’ — even video filming of your adventure is handy.

And for the truly intrepid, there is nothing that quite beats a climb up an active volcano in the world’s greatest volcano country — Indonesia. Undoubtedly formidable, Mount Bromo (also nearby are Batok and Kursi) is also astonishingly accessible. Located at the centre of the Tengger Massif, an eye-popping 10-km wide sea of lava sand, Bromo straddles a national park not far from the bustling city of Jogjakarta. A trek up to its picturesque crater adds a whole new perspective to life.

Jungle Book
At Indian wildlife parks, which come with luxury resorts in the stressed-out buffer zones and rudimentary forest lodges inside the sanctuaries themselves, sighting increasingly rare species is entirely a game of chance. An African safari, though, operates at a different level altogether.

With almost their entire tourist economy tailored around their great national parks, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa are not only well-equipped to handle tourists, nowhere else in the world would you find such a diversity of animal life visible at such close quarters.

Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski provides an evocative glimpse of this in his African memoir The Shadow of the Sun, which has a chapter devoted to a journey from Dar es Salaam to Kampala. “We drove onto the enormous plain of the Serengeti, the largest concentration of wild animals on earth. Everywhere you look, huge herds of zebras, antelopes, buffalo, giraffes. And all of them are grazing, frisking, frolicking, galloping. Right by the side of the road, motionless lions; a bit farther, a group of elephants; and farther still, on the horizon, a leopard running in huge bounds. It’s all improbable, incredible.” Widlife experiences in India can never hope to match this sort of magic.

In Africa, Indian tourists appreciate the improved chances to see the Big Five (in South Africa’s Kruger National Park that would be the elephant, rhino, buffalo, leopard and lion but even here the big cats can be elusive). Other universally famous legends include the eponymous Serengeti, as well as the Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara in Tanzania, and the exceptional Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara in Kenya.

Accommodation is wide-ranging and includes caravan and tent campsites that have restaurants and shops with basic supplies, bungalows, family cottages and guest houses as well as luxury high-end properties. On some package tours, it is possible to camp, hike, cycle, river-raft and even take a hot air balloon or a chopper over the sweeping treasures of a national park.

But, “much as it is tempting to conclude that more and more Indians are re discovering nature by travelling for wildlife safaris to Africa, in truth, this sector has seen a significant rise in bookings because of the IPL Twenty20 matches — cricket fans who have travelled to catch the games live are quite willing to book a tour or two to one of Africa’s fabled national parks for a spot of wildlife watching,” says Thomas Cook’s Desai. The call of the wild rings far louder in Africa.

Discover The Deep Blue Sea
“A cruise offers everything that Indians look for in a holiday,” says Desai of Thomas Cook. “It is a predictable expenditure product, multiple destinations are covered, the entire experience is very luxurious, and there is a great variety in food and drink.” So fantastic are modern luxury liners that “a cruise typically exceeds the accommodation expectations of a traveller”, he adds.

Indeed, the largest cruise liners are veritable floating cities with something for everyone — from classical music concerts to four-deck-high water slides. Multiple restaurants ply food round the clock — most South-East Asian cruises that draw large contingents of travellers from India not only have Indian food but also vegetarian and Jain options. The day’s schedules are packed to the brim with relentless excitement. There are spas, pubs, discothèques, mahjong parlours, health clubs, casinos, live bands, swimming pools, libraries, games, costume evenings and the aforementioned restaurants. The shore excursions, which offer synopsised sight-seeing at exotic ports of call, have passengers spending their vacation in Penang on one day and Phuket the next. There are also super luxury river boats and expedition cruises to commune quietly with the sea, or even spa cruises that rejuvenate guests as they sail.

While the most number of Indian tourists cruise South-East Asia (Singapore serves as the most convenient hub), the Mediterranean (possible itineraries include Barcelona, Marseilles, Genoa, Naples, Palermo, Tunis, Palma de Mallorca), Scandinavia (Copenhagen, Kiel, Stockholm, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, or Dubrovnik, Istanbul, Izmir, Olympia, Bari and Venice), and the eastern and western Caribbean cruises also draw a discerning and dedicated clientele. The surprise winner, though, is a cruise to Alaska (ex-Seattle to Ketchikan, Tracy Arm Fjord, Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Prince Rupert and British Columbia), which draws top money for its value as an exotic experience.

Keep these tips in mind while booking a cruise: a fun-filled cruising experience is best enjoyed when you are feeling energised and fit. Going direct from airport to harbour after a sleepless night flight and some jet lag is not such a good idea. If you are sailing in South-East Asia, look out for better value deals from the Singapore and Malaysia tourism boards. Examine the offer carefully: sometimes, meals and beverages at only a few of the restaurants on board are included in the ticket price and, almost always, excursions cost extra.

Falling Off The Map
The most exciting segment for tourists and industry insiders alike is that which is off the beaten path. Tour operators that BW spoke to say that Indian travellers have now also grown into two distinct segments: the seekers of exotic and novel experiences, and those who still want to travel to the tried and tested.
The new, evolved outbound Indian tourist is “internet savvy, more willing to experience local cuisines, is adventurous and ecologically sensitive, and enjoys wildernesses”, says Bharati of Finpro. The high-visibility Visit Finland and Finnair promos, which included media campaigns, seminars, road shows and freebie trips, spotlit the charms of this faraway land, drawing the second type of Indian traveller.

In surreal Finland, where the Sun does not set for almost two months, it is possible to cross the Arctic Circle and read a book by a lakeside at midnight. It helps that there is no language problem as English is commonly spoken, the atmosphere is virtually zero pollution, vast swathes of the land are inhabited by very few people, and the infrastructure is very highly developed.

On the other hand, shopping, food, wildlife parks and historical sites are the reason why Australia lures travellers every year. Festivals — such as the forthcoming Vivid Sydney, the southern hemisphere’s biggest international music and light fest, held in May-June — also attract Indian tourists. It helps that Tourism Australia’s Baz Luhremann-directed ‘Come Walkabout’ global campaign, based on the movie Australia, has attracted attention. Ireland, Scotland and Korea are other new entrants into this high-stakes arena.

Niche tailor-made itineraries include Holy Land tours that begin from Amman along the ancient King’s Highway stop by Madaba (the ‘City of Mosaics’), the Bahai shrine in Haifa, Golan Hills, Nazareth, Jericho, the sacred sites of Jerusalem city, Bethlehem and Sinai, ending with a round-up of Egypt’s historical wonders around Cairo.

The smart marketing of international destinations in a market with as vast a potential as India succeeds not only because of glamorous advertising but also because “the underlying product works”, notes Desai. “Marketing can take you only so far and no further. The Incredible India campaign, which is fabulously marketed, has inherent limitations, particularly with reference to tourist infrastructure. The sustained interest in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore is also because they maintain constant quality in the overall infrastructure, visa processes, and accommodation and transport — what they say is what you get.”

See France The French Way
Been there and done the eiffel tower, EuroDisney, Louvre and Champs Elysees already? Don’t write off France from your travel map just yet. France-born and bred Caroline Juneja, through her website www.francedecoded.com, promises to show you her country the way only a local can. Juneja chalks out itineraries (including special ones for kids) that allow you to drive through France, stay in amazing castles, tour vineyards, and enjoy nature in luxurious comfort, if that’s what you wish. It is a France you might never see otherwise: at the Puy du Fou Historical Park, for instance, events of French history are recreated with live shows in period villages. Ordering a pizza and soft drink in a 10th century tavern can be huge fun. Shows feature Roman gladiators (a whole stadium has been recreated), the 100-year war of the Knights Templar, the legendary musketeers, and Vikings invading on their drakkars: the use of birds of prey in the Middle Ages is amazingly beautiful.

Caroline’s accrobranches, literally translated as ‘holding to branches’, an obstacle course set 50 ft high amidst the splendid oak trees of a forest, is another big hit with kids. For water lovers, Provence’s gorgeous Verdon offers another not-for-the-faint-hearted activity: canyoning down the river’s waterfalls and gorges without a raft.

Via Ferrata is for those who don’t mind heights — this mountain-and-cliff route is equipped with fixed cables, ladders and bridges. For art lovers, there is the Avignon and its astonishing Popes’ Palace, ‘just down the road’ from the perched villages of the Luberon, where one can retrace the steps of some of the greatest artists of all time — Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso and Cezanne. But if France can only mean romance, head for Grasse, just off the French Riviera, where you can actually visit one of many perfumeries and spend an afternoon making your very own fragrance to take home as a special souvenir — in fact, they note down all your secret ingredients, so you can order your signature perfume for the rest of your life.

Caroline’s other secret is her network of B&Bs (Bed and Breakfast) along the way. A renovated mill, a XVIIth century manor house or a traditional Provence farmhouse. And for breakfast, a taste of the best of French breads, croissants and home-made jams.

And all this ranging from E100 to E150 a night for two with breakfast. A car for five days will range between E260 and E430 depending on the car, and activities vary per person between E25 for an afternoon of Accrobranches, to E60 for Via Ferrata.