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India\'s Golden Generation of Cricket Stars Is Down to One

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

“No cricketer in history has been more accustomed than Sachin Tendulkar to playing five-day test matches, ” Huw Richards wrote in The International Herald Tribune.

“Tendulkar, whose career achievements have reached the point where he rewrites the record books every time he steps onto an international cricket pitch,” Mr. Richards wrote, will start his 189th test Thursday, when India plays New Zealand in Hyderabad.

“Yet there will be something unfamiliar about the teammates alongside him in southern India,” Mr. Richards wrote.

“Neither V.V.S. Laxman, who announced his retirement Saturday, nor Rahul Dravid, who quit in March, will be there,” Mr. Richards wrote. “Both were on the team when Tendulkar played his previous test, against Australia in January.”

The departure leaves Tendulkar as the last survivor of the golden generation of middle-orde r batsmen who have towered over Indian cricket's most fertile and successful era. Another in that group, and the oldest by a few months - the former captain Saurav Ganguly - played his final test in 2008.

Tendulkar is now, at 39, the oldest active player in international cricket - some achievement, as he started, at age 16, as the youngest player ever for India. It inevitably raises once more the question of his own retirement. “I don't think like that,” he told The Times of India this week. “It will come when it has to come.”

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A Conversation With: Assam Students\' Union Adviser Bhattacharya

August 23, 2012, 12:58 am
By NEHA THIRANI

Over the last week, the conflict between the indigenous Bodo tribe and Muslims in Assam has led to panic in various Indian cities. On Aug.15, rumors of possible violence led several thousand people from India's northeastern region to flee Bangalore. The exodus continued over the next few days as thousands flocked to train stations in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune, while Indian leaders attempted to restore calm.

India Ink spoke with Samujjal Bhattacharya, an adviser to the All Assam Students' Union, which was founded in the late 1960s. From its inception, the group has held a hard-line position on what it describes as unchecked illegal immigration from Bangladesh into Assam. The organization is best known for leading the six-year protest known as the Assam Agitation, which led to the Assam Accord of 1985. After the Assam Agitation, the leadership of the group formed a political party called the Asom Gana Parishad, which twice won elections for the state assembly in 1985 and 1996.

In the Assam Accord, then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi pledged to put up a barrier on the border, increase patrols and create more check posts at the Indiaâ€"Bangladesh border, but these measures have not yet been implemented. President Pranab Mukherjee said recently that the agreement “may have to be reconfigured.”

You have previously raised concerns about the emergence of fundamentalist elements, backed by Pakistan, in Assam. What role do you think the government can play to restore peace?

Despite having prior information about the Kokrajhar incident, the chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, and the government of Assam didn't act properly. They failed to send in the police, paramilitary or adopt any mechanism to control the situation. Even after the incident they did not control the spread of the violence to the Sirang and Dhubri districts.

In that incident, the people who are affected are the Bodos, the Koch Rajbongshi, the Gurkhas, the adivasis and the indigenous Muslims. There is no clash between the indigenous Muslims and the Hindus. They are both being affected and must be rehabilitated. Those who are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, who have come after 1971, should not get housing and land in the name of rehabilitation.

The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 but has yet not been implemented. If the government of India can seal the western border of the country in three years, why can't they seal the Assam sector of the India-Bangladesh border, which is merely a 272-kilometer (170-mile) stretch? Through this porous border there are illegal immigrants and fundamentalist groups gaining entry into the country.< /p>

There are now more than 40 fundamentalist groups present in Assam and the northeast. Illegal immigrants have encroached upon 49 tribal belts and blocks, forestland including Kaziranga National Park and agricultural land. Without implementing the Assam Accord, permanent peace will not prevail in Assam.

The movement of people between the India-Bangladesh border has historically always been quite fluid. Could it be that the roots of the current problem are more complex than simply an immigration issue?

Immigration is the main issue. There is a long history behind the problem that started at the partition, after which there was an influx of foreigners from Pakistan and Bangladesh into India. From 1979 to 1985, there was a six-year mass movement in Assam for which 855 sacrificed their lives and over 100 became physically handicapped. After that, the Assam Accord was signed. It goes to show that this is sentiment has broad-based support and is a burning issue.

People are trying to make it a communal problem, but it is not a Hindu-Muslim problem. Assam does not have a history of communal problems. When the Babri Masjid (an ancient mosque in Ayodhya) was destroyed, there was not one violent incident in Assam.

What can be done in the long term to ensure that there are no further violent conflicts in the state?

The government has to implement the Assam Accord in a specific time frame. We have waited for 27 years - how much longer do we have to wait? They must also ensure the sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border.

There is an urgent need to update the National Register of Citizens in Assam that was last updated in 1951. It was decided to update the register in a tripartite meeting on May 5, 2005, but it has not been updated. There is a threat in the minds of the indigenous people in Assam that they are a minority in their own homeland, which must be removed.

What is the current sentiment amongst the communit y of students from the northeast in cities across India like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad? Is there still a lingering feeling of apprehension and fear?

We were very shocked and surprised by the situation in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. There is still this feeling of fear and insecurity in the minds of students and especially working people in these cities. We are urging the government of India to create an atmosphere so that the people of the northeast feel a sense of security. We have told our people who have yet not come back to stay where they are, you are also citizens of India, you should continue your studies and work. We must, however, express our gratitude to the people of these three states because they have extended their full support in this moment of crisis. The people of the country have stood behind the people of the northeast, and for this we are grateful.

In your opinion, what caused the situation to escalate to the level that peopl e from the northeast felt the need to leave their cities and head to their hometowns immediately?

There were two different factors â€" there was some rumor-mongering and there was some real threat that was engineered by some fundamentalist groups in some areas of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. We appealed to the people from the northeast that were there that if they face any threat they must inform the authorities.

In the future, what can be done to avoid the widespread panic that natives of the northeast experienced over the last week?

First and foremost, the fundamentalist groups involved should be given exemplary punishment so that no one tries to adopt this tactic again. Then, the concerned state governments and the central government must take some precautionary measures. They can depute nodal officers in the affected areas who people can contact in case there is a sign of trouble in the future. There should be a dedicated helpline for peop le from the northeast living in these cities and effective patrolling.

This interview has been edited and condensed.



Work at Slaughterhouse Is Halted After Graphic Undercover Videos

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

Compassion Over Killing video of slaughterhouse operations

Federal authorities have shut down a California slaughterhouse for investigation after an animal protection charity secretly filmed cows being electrically shocked, shot in the head, suffocated and undergoing other abuses.

The videos were filmed with a hidden camera by an investigator for the charity, Compassion Over Killing, who worked undercover at the Central Valley Meat Company in Hanford, Calif., from June 18 through July 2, the charity said. The investigator worked in the yard, then on the slaughter line, during that period, Erica Meier, the executive director for the charity group, said in an interview.

Raw footage was handed over to United States Department of Agriculture officials last Friday. Its Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a statement this week that it had received “distur bing evidence of inhumane treatment of cattle” at the meat company and suspended the work of inspectors there on Aug. 19, effectively forcing the plant to halt its slaughtering operations.

The U.S.D.A. statement continued:

Based on the videotape, in at least four instances, plant employees are observed excessively prodding cattle with an electric device, pulling their tails, or forcibly attempting to make cattle rise from a recumbent position. All actions are considered egregious humane handling violations or in regulatory noncompliance.

“Our top priority is to ensure the safety of the food Americans feed their families,” said Al Almanza, F.S.I.S. administrator. “We have reviewed the video and determined that, while some of the footage provided shows unacceptable treatment of cattle, it does not show anything that would compromise food safety. Therefore, we have not substantiated a food safety violati on at this time. We are aggressively continuing to investigate the allegations.”

U.S.D.A. food safety regulations state that, if an animal is non-ambulatory disabled at any time prior to slaughter, it must be condemned promptly, humanely euthanized, and properly discarded so that it does not enter the food supply.

While the decision affected companies and government programs, the U.S.D.A. said it did not issue a recall of any meat processed there. The slaughterhouse supplied about 21 million pounds of meat to the National School Lunch Program and other federal food initiatives in the year ending in September. One of its smaller buyers, the hamburger chain, In-N-Out Burger, said it stopped using the company as a supplier.

Mark Taylor, the chief operating officer of In-N-Out Burger, said in an e-mailed statement that the slaughterhouse provided the company with beef in chuck form that it used to make its own patties. Mr. Taylor wrote:

As soon as we became aware of the allegations regarding Central Valley Meat Company and their handling of cattle, we immediately severed our supplier relationship with them. In-N-Out Burger would never condone the inhumane treatment of animals and all of our suppliers must agree to abide by our strict standards for the humane treatment of cattle.

The action was widely followed on Twitter by animal rights organizations and advocates linking to the coverage.

Brian Coelho, the president of Central Valley Meat Company, told The Los Angeles Times that his company was cooperating fully with federal investigators. The meat plant has been in Hanford, about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, for 23 years.

Ms. Meier of the animal rights charity said the slaughterhouse was chosen randomly, although such undercover work starts with the expectation that the investigators are going to see cruelty, “We had no prior knowledge of specific violations or suspicions. The facility was hiring and our investigator applied for a job.”



Japanese Journalist\'s Last Report Released After Her Death in Syria

By ROBERT MACKEY

Two days after the Japanese journalist Mika Yamamoto was shot and killed in the Syrian city of Aleppo, her news agency released some of the footage she recorded in her final hours.

The video, posted online with subtitles by Britain's Telegraph, shows that Ms. Yamamoto, 45, was filming Syrian rebel fighters alongside her partner, Kazutaka Sato, when she was shot and killed.

Video recorded by the Japanese journalist Mika Yamamoto in the Syrian city of Aleppo this week, shortly before she was shot and killed.

According to a biographical note on the Web site of her agency, The Japan Press, Ms. Yamamoto was an experienced war correspondent who produced a report on the oppression of women in Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule, and later reported on the American-led wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Colleagues told The Japan Times that she was a careful reporter a nd “wasn't a reckless type.”

Her father, Hiroshi, a retired journalist, told the same newspaper: “She is not a war journalist, but rather a human journalist,” who was determined to “come home alive to tell the real stories of women and children in battlefields.” He added: “She always talked about the miseries of people involved in conflicts, human lives and world peace.” His daughter was “a far better journalist than I was,” Mr. Yamamoto said.

In another video report published on Wednesday, Mr. Sato recounted his partner's death and said that she had been shot at close range by a Syrian Army gunman.

Kazutaka Sato, a Japanese journalist, recounted the death of his partner and fellow-reporter, Mika Yamamoto, in Syria this week.

Ms. Yamamoto's death was announced on Monday, when graphic video of her dead body being transported out of Syria was uploaded to YouTube by supporters of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

As The Associated Press reported, the clip announcing the reporter's death included a statement from Capt. Ahmed Ghazali, a rebel fighter in Azaz, on the Turkish border, who said: “We welcome any journalist who wants to enter Syria.” He added: “We will secure their entry, but we are not responsible for the brutality of Assad's forces against the media.”

Activists also recorded far more graphic and distressing video of Mr. Sato weeping as looked at his partner's bloody and bullet-scarred body in a field hospital. According to The A.P., Mr. Sato said, as pressed his cheek against hers in that video, “Why? You are wearing a flak jacket.” Looking at the grave wounds to her head and arm, he added: “That must hurt. Did you suffer?”



Image of the Day: August 22

August 22, 2012, 11:21 am
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Supreme Court Castigates Government for Poor Tiger Conservation Efforts

August 22, 2012, 10:14 am
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday extended the temporary ban on tourism in the core areas of the country's tiger parks by another week, as it criticized the government for its inaction in protecting the endangered animal.

The court's initial ban, which went into effect on July 24, aims to protect the endangered big cat, whose numbers are dwindling. The ruling followed a petition filed by a tiger conservation activist, Ajay Dubey, last year that demanded that tiger habitats be kept “inviolate of human activities.”

The temporary ban on tourism will last until Aug. 29, when the Supreme Court will issue its final decision.

On Tuesday, the central governm ent had filed an affidavit asking permission to review its guidelines on tiger conservation and requesting that the court review the tourism ban. But the two-judge bench that presided over the hearing on Wednesday scolded the government for its lack of effective measures to protect the tiger population.

“What are you going to do to save tigers?” the judges asked the attorney representing the government, according to the Press Trust of India. “What have you done for the tiger project? The Union of India has not done anything except filing affidavits.”

“Earlier it was 13,000; now it has come down to 1,200,” they said, referring to the tiger population. “You are more worried about the commercial activities.”

In an earlier post on India Ink, Heather Timmons of The New York Times wrote that the “number of visitors to India's more than three dozen tiger parks has skyrocketed in recent years as domestic tourism increased, bringing facilities like luxury lodges with swimming pools to the edges of parks, and tourist-friendly fare like jeep safaris and New Year's Eve parties.”

The court's interim decision could “cost India's tourist trade millions of dollars in income,” Ms. Timmons wrote. She noted that tour operator groups were against the ban, arguing that well-organized tourism could be good for tiger populations.

Some wildlife experts in India have in the past opposed proposals for such bans, saying that wildlife tourism helps in protecting tigers from poachers, Ms. Timmons wrote.

Wildlife organizations estimate the global tiger population to be about 3,000, down from as many as 7,000 from 10 years ago. India is home to nearly half of the world's tigers.

A 2010 tiger census, conducted by the World Wildlife Fund in India and other agencies, reported an increase in the country's overall tiger population since 2007. But the organization also found an “an alarming decline in tiger occupa ncy from 36,139 to 28,108 square miles outside of protected areas” and an “increase in human-tiger conflict around tiger reserves.”



In the Lap of Himalayas, Luxury Ski Resorts Are a Distant Dream

By NEHA THIRANI

Manali, a hill station in the Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh state, has long been seen as a potential hub for skiing in India. Witnessed the efforts of a group of foreign investors who have been trying to build the Himalayan Ski Village there for nearly a decade.

For many residents of the valley, like Shiva Keshavan, an Olympian who won the Asia Cup gold medal in luge last year, the area's potential remains largely untapped. He recalls skiing the hard way when he was growing up. Because there were no ski lifts or ropeways in the valley, he and his friends would trek up hills with their skis hoisted on their shoulders.

“You would get two to three runs a day,” he said at his family's Italian restaurant just north of Manali. “It took one and a half hours to walk up and 10 minutes to come down.”

Because they didn't have snow beaters, machines used by ski resorts to clean and smooth runs, the group would do i t by jumping up and down on the snow. “We did it with our own feet,” said Mr. Keshavan, who is now preparing for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Many Indian ski enthusiasts have similar tales of perseverance and grit. Mahavir Thakur, who is deputy director of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports in Manali, also grew up skiing the hard way.

“When I joined the institute in 1978, it was very primitive,” said Mr. Thakur, a native of Himachal Pradesh. “We used wooden skis, and there was no ski lift.”

India now has several skiing destinations - Gulmarg and Pahalgam in Kashmir; Manali, Kufri and Chambra in Himachal Pradesh; and Auli in Uttarakhand â€" but it still lacks world-class skiing facilities and resorts.

Though a handful of resorts now have ropeways, cleared slopes and professional medical facilities, they remain exceptions and serve just a tiny niche, said Sudeep J ain, executive vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels India.

Skiing in India suffers from a classic chicken-and-egg problem: The country doesn't have many places to ski so most Indians haven't tried it. And because they are not exposed to the sport, there hasn't been much demand for it.

That India has access to ski-worthy mountain slopes is beyond question. But analysts say it remains difficult to develop the slopes for skiing because policy makers have largely given it short shrift and, in some cases, stood in the way of resort development.

“Private efforts can only go so far in promoting an activity like skiing,” said Shushmul Maheshwari, the chief executive at the market research firm RNCOS.

There has, however, been a little progress. In early 2011, a Manali company started operating a gondola in Solang, about four kilometers, or 2.5 miles, north of the city, that rises to a height of 500 meters, or 1,640 feet. A ride up and down the gondo la costs 500 rupees ($9).

“The equipment and technique has improved; there are snow beaters to prepare the slopes,” Mr. Thakur said.

Mr. Thakur says that financing for skiing and other winter sports has been increasing each year, attracting more tourism to Manali, with hotels opening to cater to skiers. His institute trains 1,000 skiers each season.

“When people think of India, they think it is a hot country and could never imagine that there is a snowbound area where skiing is possible,” he said. “But that is changing.”

Skiing in India was first introduced in the British colonial era, when two officers of the British Army first established the Ski Club of India in Gulmarg, Kashmir, in 1927. Gulmarg has some of the highest ski areas in the world, and the Gulmarg Gondola, which started operations in 1998, is one of the highest and largest ropeways in Asia.

However, Gulmarg remains an underdeveloped destination because of the strife in Kashmir. “People were scared to come here,” said Colonel J.S. Dhillon, the director of the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering in Gulmarg. “But now peace has returned and the fear is going and the number of tourists is increasing.”

Kashmir had 1.1 million visitors in 2011, the most the state has had in 25 years. Colonel Dhillon said 2,000 skiers visit Gulmarg every year, and the numbers are on the rise, though challenges remain.

“Unfortunately in India, people have not been able to understand the potential of adventure sports to promote tourism and yet be environmentally safe,” he said.

What Gulmarg lacks in luxury ski resorts and state-of-the-art equipment, it makes up in beauty, according to visitors like Nitesh Thattasery, 36, an executive at the advertising firm Leo Burnett in Mumbai, who skied in Gulmarg earlier this year and plans to return again next year.

Auli, in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand state, is the most rece ntly developed skiing destination in India. In January 2011 it hosted the first South Asian Winter Games. Auli has a cable car covering a distance of four kilometers, two international-standard ski lifts, a chair lift and several slopes.

“Hosting the winter games helped vastly to improve the facilities in Auli as the government allocated funds to host the event,” said Brigadier S.S. Patwal, president of the Winter Games Federation of India.

Still, Mr. Patwal said the government has not committed funds to his federation, and he has to apply for grants for each event or every time he wants to send Indian athletes to international competitions. “Most people in the government don't understand winter games,” he said. “This makes it quite difficult to plan ahead.”

Currently about 50 Indians participate in international skiing competitions every year. “Skiing is an expensive sport â€" a good pair of skis can cost up to 80,000 rupees â€" and we are n ot exactly a winter game country,” said Mr. Patwal. “But popularity is increasing. A lot of the youth from the Himachal area are becoming interested in the sport.”

Because there are few ski lifts in the Indian Himalayas, some well-heeled Indian and foreign tourists use helicopters to access snow-laden slopes in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

Murlidhar Negi, a skier who runs an adventure sports company in the Manali area, said the sport is unaffordable to all but a few. A weeklong package can cost about $10,000 and includes airport transfers and accommodations, he said. “It's for the millionaires,” Mr. Negi said.

The latest ski-related activity attracting followers in India is grass skiing, in which athletes zoom down slopes in the summer using special skis fitted with wheels. The Vajpayee Institute in Manali has set up a 120-meter-long grass skiing slope in Solang Valley that is open from June to October.

“The activity is already quite popu lar in Europe as it allows athletes to train themselves over the summer, keep in shape and improve their technique,” Mr. Thakur said. “Also it generates a lot of excitement as it's a new experience for tourists visiting Manali.”

Vikas Bajaj contributed reporting.



American Thwarted in Quest to Build a Ski Resort in India

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

“To John Sims, the Himalayas, with some of the finest mountain slopes in the world, seemed like the perfect place to build India's first Western-style ski resort,” Vikas Bajaj wrote in The New York Times.

But he got his first clue “about the uphill challenge he faced when the local gods - or at least the holy men who claimed to speak for them - came out against his project,” in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, Mr. Bajaj wrote.

In the seven years since, Mr. Sims, an American hotel developer with years of experience working in India, “has encountered seemingly endless setbacks,” Mr. Bajaj wrote.

Some opponents claimed falsely that the 115-acre project would take over the entire valley. Others complained that the developers had underpaid landowners for their property. The state of Himachal Pradesh, which had once championed the $500 million proposal, moved to scrap it after a different political party took over. Now, a court has allowed it to go forward but has given the developers just six months to secure environmental permits from a government that has repeatedly stalled the project.

“My fundamental complaint is only this: Why did you invite us?” Mr. Sims said. “Why did you take our deposit? Why did you encourage us to spend money and then make a 180-degree turn?”

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