Will General Sherman survive the Californian blaze? |
General Sherman is 275 feet tall and over 36 feet in diameter,
the largest tree in the world. Most of the giant trees in
California's Sequoia National Park are as old as 2,500 years to
7,500 years. They are considered the oldest in the world.
Wildfires in drought-stricken California this year damaged more
than 3,000 homes and torched well over 7,770 sq km of forest
land. The raging fires have entered the park. Thousands of
workers and aerial sprinklers are on the job of saving the
precious heritage. Some believe nothing will happen to Sherman!
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SACRAMENTO, Sept 21: The US National Park Service (NPS) firefighters are wrapping
the 2,700-year old historic giant General Sherman, the world's largest tree,
in California's Sequoia National Park, and other such huge trees with fire-proof
aluminium blankets to save them from the blaze raging though drought-hit western
US.
At the same time, Park officials believe these giant sequoia trees are adapted
to fire and will survive, especially as the thick bark could insulate the base
and the leafy branches are up too high to catch fire.
The base is swaddled with the blanket "to prevent embers from getting into
the tree." NPS said aluminium blankets can protect trees and homes for short
periods.
Workers are also moving away duff lest it will attract fire. Because duff will
catch fire easily and smolder longer to damage the trees by flashing embers.
Aircraft have also been deployed to fly over the area, dropping fire retardant.
Sprinklers too are at work.
Some saving grace is that the sequoia forest area had had controlled (strategic/prescribed
fires) burns previously.
According to NPS, General Sherman is 275 feet tall and over 36 feet in diameter. Most of the giant trees in California's Sequoia National Park are as old as 2,500 years to 7,500 years. California's sequoias are considered the oldest
in the world. The forest houses more than 2,000 giant sequoias.
"We have reached a tipping point — lack of frequent fire for the past century
in most groves, combined with the impacts of a warming climate, have made some
wildfires much more deadly for sequoias," the NPS said. Two-thirds of all giant
sequoia grove acreage across the Sierra Nevada burned in wildfires in the last
five years.
As California’s Sierra Nevada wildfire started threatening to enter the Sequoia
National Park, the NPS officials closed the park for the public. On September
14 officials started evacuating nearby homes. Two wildfires are threatening
Sequoia National Park's giant trees.
Over the weekend parts of California received rain and relief from wildfire
can be expected, but continuing extreme to exceptional drought may not provide
the needed relief. There is a general decrease in the intensity elesewhere but
wildfires in southern California are active.
Wildfires in California this year have damaged or destroyed more than 3,000
homes and other buildings and torched well over 3,000 square miles (7,770 square
kilometres) of forest land, according to the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection. Over 10,600 of the trees were lost in last year's fire.
Seventy one large fires have burned 3,219,092 acres in 12 States. More than
17,000 wildland fire personnel are assigned the job of putting out the blaze.
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SELECTIONS FROM OUR ARCHIVES |
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Top Govt officer thrashed, kicked inside Bhubaneswar office: Incident sparks a debate
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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
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UK's House of Commons votes to legalise assisted dying: What it means | |
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
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What caused Air India Boeing 787 crash? Some questions, some answers | |
The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.
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Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line brings Kashmir Valley on India's rail map |
- The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
- The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
- The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest
railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)
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Work done, Elon Musk steps down from DOGE, leaves White House | |
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
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Ailing Asiatic lion Pataudi too dies of bird flu at Kanpur zoo
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Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
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48 tourist destinations closed in Kashmir following Pahalgam terror attack
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As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.
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Trump slaps ‘kind’, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on trading partners; a 'lenient' 26% on India!
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ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!
What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
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Trump signs order to shut Education Dept - And the contrast with India
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PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).
In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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Sunita, Wilmore's Dragon splashes down in Gulf: What delayed their return? |
THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.
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All 80k health workers in US offered $25,000 voluntary buyout: Administering wrong prescriptions!
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The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.
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Visit Indian Travel Sites
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