Satellite images of India

India from space

This week most of the on line editions of national news papers 

covered a report about India's satellite images, 

which were thankfully received from: 
nasa.gov

ISS

Chandrayaan-1

Mangalyaan

ISRO

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These images are very interesting as they show:

Indo-Pak border that is lit by floodlights. 

The floodlights dot the border in Gujarat to prevent smuggling and arms trafficking.
 (certain borders are fortified more than others. The US-Mexican border, the India-Pakistan border, the separation wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories, and the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea are among the places where the toughest national security and anti-movement policies are in force.
The border between these two countries is hotly contested, especially in the region of Kashmir. India is also wary of terrorist infiltration along the entire border. Sometimes called the “Berlin Wall of Asia”, the border has only one road crossing. Half of the border is floodlit, and hence can be seen from space.)

NASA has also captured some amazing photos 

of the Sundarbans area and the Ganges valley in Brahmputra.

These unseen photos of India from space show cities 

like Mumbai and Delhi, forest fires, and lakes. 

There are also images of India taken from Indian satellites Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan here. 

(shared thankfully from: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/)

Photograph taken from International Space Station, you can clearly see border between India and Pakistan due to special security lighting in orange. The Indian government sanctioned a move to erect floodlights along the terrain separating India and Pakistan in the Gujarat sector in 2003 to prevent smuggling and arms trafficking. Courtesy: ISS

his image of New Delhi was captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite on September 22, 2003. The dramatic differences in the landscapes tell some of the city’s history. Little vegetation interrupted the urban expanse. In contrast, the buildings of New Delhi were laid out along wide, tree-lined avenues that connected monuments, parks, and government buildings. Among the most obvious of these avenues is the Rajpath, visible as a green strip across the heart of New Delhi. The Rajpath connects the grounds of the President’s estate on the west to the India Gate (a World War I memorial) on the east. To the west of New Delhi is the Central Ridge Forest Reserve, which gives a hint of how the landscape would have looked before human development. Courtesy: nasa.gov

In this true-color MODIS image from October 23, 2001, the semi-arid Tibetan Plateau (upper left) meets up with the Himalayas to the south. From the heights of the Himalayas, snow-covered on their northern flanks, and lush with vegetation to the south, numerous rivers, brown with churned up sediment, flow into the valley of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, India. Courtesy: nasa.gov

India’s Hugli River (sometimes spelled “Hooghly”) is a Ganges River distributary, one of the many branches of the river that are collectively known as the “Mouths of the Ganges.” As the Ganges approaches the coastal plain, the river fans out over the flat terrain of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, as numerous meandering channels. The Hugli branches off the Ganges about 200 kilometers north of Calcutta, and the river flows past the city before emptying into the Bay of Bengal. Courtesy: nasa.gov

A large fire was burning in India’s Sri Venkateshwara National Park on March 24, 2014, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image. The fires are outlined in red. The park consists of dry deciduous forest, and is home to a wide range of rare wildlife, including tigers and the golden gecko. According to local news reports, several forest fires have burned in national parks and wildlife reserves in the hills of Andhra Pradesh over the past week. The protected forested land is dark green in contrast to the surrounding tan landscape. Courtesy: nasa.gov

This image, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, shows Lake Sambhar’s eastern saltworks in detail. Today, they are operated by a joint venture between Hindustan Salts and the Government of Rajasthan. East of the dam is a railroad, built by the British (before India’s independence) that provides access from Sambhar Lake City to the salt works. Courtesy: nasa.gov

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Cyclone Lehar after it weakened to a depression and neared the coast of India on November 29. Lehar made landfall south of Machillipatnam. Courtesy: nasa.gov

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) flying on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image of Lonar Crater on November 29, 2004. In this simulated-true-color image, pink-beige indicates bare ground, blue and off-white indicate human-made structures, dark blue indicates water, green indicates vegetation, and dull purple indicates fallow fields. A vegetation-lined lake fills the crater, one of the few natural features of this scene. Signs of human habitation surround the lake, especially the cluster of blue and off-white points to its immediate northeast. Outside of this settlement, the vicinity is a patchwork of agricultural fields. Courtesy: nasa.gov

This image mosaic is comprised of three astronaut photographs acquired within ten seconds of each other as the International Space Station passed over India. Almost cloud-free conditions reveal the continuous urban land cover of the megacity extending north to south across Salsette Island—a distance of nearly 50 kilometers. Sanjay Gandhi National Park, bordered on three sides by the urbanized area, is the largest national park in the world located within city limits. In addition to providing a refuge for native plants and animals (including humans), the park also includes two lakes that form part of the Mumbai drinking water system. Courtesy: nasa.gov

With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and data products. Courtesy: nasa.gov

North of the Bay of Bengal in eastern India, the city of Calcutta (large purple area) hugs the eastern bank of one of the myriad channels that split off the Ganges River before it empties into the Bay. The arm of the Ganges that runs through Calcutta is known as the Hooghly River. It is the large, pale green river running through the left side of the image. Calcutta, also referred to as Kolkata, is about 100 miles north of where the Hooghly empties into the Bay via the Mouths of the Ganges. Courtesy: nasa.gov

Bangalore as seen from space. Courtesy: nasa.gov

Southern region of India with the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. Courtesy: nasa.gov

Saser Mustagh- The Saser Muztagh is the easternmost sub range of the Karakoram range, in the Kashmir region of India. Courtesy: nasa.gov

The Palk Strait. Courtesy: nasa.gov

An aerial view of Mumbai. Courtesy: nasa.gov

The Sunderbans area of West Bengal and Bangladesh. Courtesy: nasa.gov

The Chandrayaan-1 Image: Photograph of the earth with India at its center. The photograph was taken on March 25, 2009 at 07:03:03 UTC from Chandrayaan 1 - India's first satellite to moon. Courtesy: ISRO

The Mangalyan Image: Photograph of India along with the some other parts of Asia and Africa taken by our first interplanetary space mission officially known as the Mars Orbiter Mission on November 19, 2013, from a 70,000 kilometers above Earth. Courtesy: ISRO

Arjun: the warrior prince

A film:

Arjun: The Warrior Prince
is an animated mythological action film
that recounts the untold story of Arjun. 

He is a precocious child plunged from boyhood and innocence into a murky world of deceit and betrayal, coming of age to become the most powerful warrior of his time. 

Spanning the dusty plains of Hastinapur to the icy peaks of the Himalayas,
Arjun: The Warrior Prince is the story of a man discovering what it takes to be a hero. 

(http://www.autodesk.in/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=5967151&id=20437769)

Mythological history:

The story is based on the early life of the Pandava brothers, 

loosely taken from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. 

The storyline begins with Arjun as a nine-year-old boy, 

and follows him until he grows into the warrior that the world knows him as. 

It explores his life with his brothers in Hastinapur, 

his training and education, and his ultimate discovery of the warrior within himself. 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjun:_The_Warrior_Prince)

Some pictures from the film:

#pic credit:various sites related to film Arjun: The Warrior Prince

Stories in stone

Communicates with the stone is hard to put into words but nonetheless very tangible.

The magnificent roof of blue sky in a dense forest, beside a river, 

are one of the great hidden glories of medieval art. 

There are over hundreds of these delightfully carved keystones, 

dating 6th to 8th century and measuring various sizes. 

(http://throughpicture.blogspot.in/2012/11/stony-emotions-from-maheshpur-india.html). 

The vast majority are figure carvings uniquely linked together in storytelling patterns,

Maheshpur in Chhattisgarh, India 

(http://throughpicture.blogspot.in/2012/10/culture-embeded-in-stone-maheshpur.html) 

is situated some 80 kilometers away from the district headquarter, 

these ornaments are too distant to have been fully appreciated by worshipers over the centuries; 

by the same token, their inaccessibility has protected them from vandalism. 

Until recently their character and detail have been discernible to only a dedicated few. 

“It would have been not just a random building. 

The structure and basis of the temple depends on the deity, and the energy. 

Ancient temple sculpture was carefully thought out”.

“Temples celebrate our historical inheritance. 

First we know, then we appreciate, then admire, then celebrate. 

Every temple has its story. It’s beautiful”. 

(master sculptor Ganesh Bhatt tells us of the procedures involved in temple architecture)

If carefully read, these figures in consecutive series with various figures, 

may reveal stories of their times, deity or king of the period. 

It could be a imaginative brain exercise for a beginner....

Living harmony with nature

Various Y chromosome studies show that the San carry some of the most divergent (oldest) human Y-chromosome haplogroups. These haplogroups are specific sub-groups of haplogroups A and B, the two earliest branches on the human Y-chromosome tree.

Mitochondrial DNA studies also provide evidence that the San carry high frequencies of the earliest haplogroup branches in the human mitochondrial DNA tree. This DNA is inherited only from one's mother. The most divergent (oldest) mitochondrial haplogroup, L0d, has been identified at its highest frequencies in the southern African San groups. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_people)

pygmy pic credihttp://www.survivalinternational.

org/tribes/pygmies

The importance of the forest as their spiritual and physical home, and as the source of their religion, livelihood, medicine and cultural identity cannot be overstated.

Traditionally, small communities moved frequently through distinct forest territories, gathering a vast range of forest products, collecting wild honey and exchanging goods with neighbouring settled societies.

Hunting techniques vary among the forest peoples, and include bows and arrows, nets and spears. (http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/pygmies)

Our human population is a progeny of an African woman some 150,000 years ago, whose genetic evidence is still present in South African San, Vianca pygmy of Central Africa, some tribes in east Africa, as they are twice ancient than the remaining in the world.  

And human species Homo sapiens started migrating some 50,000 to 74,000 years ago, inhabiting various parts of the earth.

Age of our earth is some 4,500,000,000 years.

Our species Homo sapiens originated some 150,000 years ago.

And this species of ours started migrating  some 50,000 to 74,000 years ago.
Our survival has never been so endangered due to our own action against nature 

in last 200 years of so to say development.
We know that previously many civilizations were lost due to one or more reasons.
Before it's too late, shouldn't we get going near to nature 

by establishing closer contact with the mother once again, 

like our ancestors had with....

'Kailash Gufa', a hilly place in Chhattisgarh state of India is like that !!

Where people love and live with nature, animals therein, products of forest, amiably without harming it !!

A pictorial thought on 'World Environment Day' !!

run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)