Thursday 8 July 2004

Desi Fowl like bird developed in Hyderabad

Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, July 8: The city-based Project Directorate on Poultry has developed a chicken variety that closely resembles the jungle (desi) fowl in colour and plumage pattern for backyard farming in villages and tribal habitations.
While chicken varieties are generally white in colour without any plumage pattern, this variety of poultry bird named Vanaraja, is multi-coloured and has attractive feathers. The male bird is a coloured Cornish strain while the female parent bird is a synthetic multi-coloured meat population.
It is difficult to rear common poultry birds in the backyard in villages and hilly terrain as they become easy prey to predators but Vanaraja has the ability and agility to escape predators. The Vanaraja variety is light in weight and has long shanks and is capable of protecting itself.
The PDP has developed the male parent for moderate juvenile body weight, long shanks and good immune competence. On the other hand, the female parent gives high egg production with better egg size and high hatchability. It is also immune to general poultry diseases. The bird easily adapts to local climatic conditions even they turn adverse like extreme cold or hot.
Without extra feeding efforts the Vanaraja male bird attains moderate body weight within eight weeks. The female bird lays between 160 and 180 eggs in a laying cycle. A team of scientists led by Dr SV Rama Rao has developed the bird.
According to PDP officials, the Vanaraja birds can be used to improve the genetic potential of the jungle fowl or desi hens through crossing. "The upgraded progeny from such a cross has been found to perform better than the jungle fowl both in terms of overall body weight and production of eggs," Dr Rao points out.
The chicks need to be acclimatised to the backyard conditions before they could be let free in the open environment. The Vanaraja variety does not need any special diet supplement once let free in the backyard. It will feed on worms and other food material available to it unlike the poultry bird where special care need to be taken.
The Project Directorate has supplied the germplasm of Vanaraja to different parts of the country. The birds are found to be performing well everywhere.
Vanaraja has been a hit in the rural environments and local population has accepted it for backyard farming as the bird attains a body weight of 1.5 kgs in six weeks and reaches up to 1800 grams in seven weeks.
The mortality rate is very low in this variety. The rate is as low as three per cent both at six weeks and seven weeks of age. The bird gives good quantity and quality of meat. There is a wastage of just 30 per cent.
The PDP based at Rajendranagar has also developed a crossbreed called Krishibro, a variety of broiler which does not require high content of nutrients in its feed.
In this case also the mortality rate up to six weeks is just three per cent with a survival rate of 97 per cent as in the case of Vanaraja variety. The broiler chicks in this case are also coloured. Both the varieties have high immunity against common poultry diseases like Ranikhet.

Wednesday 7 July 2004

Wakf Board: Manipulative politics of the Majlis

2004
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, July 7: Playing manipulative politics, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has successfully prevailed upon the Congress government to amend the Wakf Act to facilitate its re-entry into the multi-crore State Wakf Board.
The MIM, which sailed with the Telugu Desam when it was in power, suddendly changed its political stand to support the Congress after the State Assembly elections. The MIM enjoyed power in the State Wakf Board by joining hand with the TD and keeping the Congress off Wakf politics.
Now that the Congress is in power, the MIM has dumped the Telugu Desam to make a re-entry into the Wakf Board. To facilitate election of an MIM member, the Congress government amended the Wakf Act to increase the overall strength of the Board from nine to 11.
It also reduced the strength of MLA-members from two to one and increased the strength of MP-members from one to two. Earlier, the State government used to nominate four members to the Board and it has now increased it to six.
For the first time in a decade, the TD will go without a representation in the Board while the MIM will enjoy power in the country's largest Muslim endowment body for a successive second term despite a change in government.

Tuesday 6 July 2004

India is a land of prophets, say Muslim scholars

2004
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, April 13: Two days after RSS chief KS Sudarshan asked Muslims to recognise Sri Krishna as one of the prophets of Islam, city Islamic scholars have declared India as the land of holy prophets and the first soil on the earth to receive the Divine Message from Allah.
"Islamic traditions hold that the first Prophet of Islam and progenitor of humanity, Hazrat Adam, descended on Sarandeep Island (now in Sri Lanka) after he was sent down from the Heaven in the wake of the Adam-Eve episode of eating the forbidden fruit. Since India is one of the oldest civilisations, many prophets may have been sent to guide humanity," says Mufti Sadiq Mohiuddin of the Department of Fatwas of 135-year-old Jamia Nizamia Islamic University.
The Mufti in his opinion (Fatwa) told this correspondent that early Islamic personalities including Ibn Asakir and Allama Ibn Saad had mentioned in their sayings (Riwayat) that Adam had landed on the Indian soil. Even famous Arab traveller Ibn Batuta had mentioned in his travelogues of having visited Sarandeep island where the first prophet of Islam had descended from the Garden of Eden.
Muslims believe that God had sent about 1.24 lakh prophets to all parts of the earth. However, the names of only 25 prophets have been mentioned in the Holy Quran.
Stating that the Holy Quran holds that Allah had sent His Prophets to all places at different times, Mufti Sadiq Mohiuddin points out that while Islamic scholars all over the world are of the view that India had been the land of prophets, they are divided on whether Sri Rama and Sri Krishna were prophets of Islam. "They may or may not have been the Prophets. We want to remain silent on the issue. But it is the duty of every Muslim to respect the religious personalities of other religions," he observed.
According to All-India Muslim Personal Law Board general secretary Abdur Raheem Qureshi, some Indian Islamic scholars believe Dhul-Kifl, one of the
holy personalities mentioned in the Quran, refers to Gautam Buddha. "There's no "P" sound in Arabic. Dhul Kifl means resident of Kifl or Kapil (Kapila Vastu). Some scholars also hold Mahavir was also a Prophet of God.
Islamic scholar Hafiz Shujat Hussain refers to the writings of eminent Islamic personality Moulana Tayyab Qasmi of Darul-Uloom Deoband who had held that Sri Ramachandraji and Sri Krishnaji could also be the prophets. "We should give utmost respect to Hindu prophets as we give respect to prophets from Hazrat Adam to Hazrat Muhammad including Hazrat Musa (Moses) and Hazrat Isa (Jesus).
City Muslim scholars also quote from "Subhatul Marjan Fi Tarikhe Hindustan", written by eminent Islamic scholar Allama Ghulam Ali Azad Bilgrami in Arabic, which describes India as the first domicile of Adam.
"In Ayodhya, the birth place of Sri Rama, there is a long grave. This grave is said to be the burial place Adam's son, Prophet Hazrat Shish," Hafiz Shujat points out.
Though Islamic scholars have different opinion on the prophet-hood of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna, they all agree that since India is the place where Hazrat Adam had descended, it had acquired the status of the first capital of entire humanity. Since Adam received angels and revelations from God, India could be called the first land where man ever received the enlightenment.
"Indian Muslims have always believed that God had sent His prophets, messengers and guides to India. We all hold Sri Rama and Sri Krishna in high esteem, not because Sudarshan advises us to do so, but because the Holy Quran and Islamic traditions wants us to. There are Islamic traditions that Prophet Muhammad used to say that he gets the smell of Paradise from India," says Peerzada Syed Shabbir Naqshbandi, president of All-India Religious Leaders' Association.

Mother's Care

Mother's Care
Minnu The Cat & Her Kittens Brownie, Goldie & Blackie

Someone with Nature

Someone with Nature
Syed Akbar in an island in river Godavari with Papikonda hills in the background

Recognition by World Vegetable Centre

Recognition by World Vegetable Centre

Under the shade of Baobab tree

Under the shade of Baobab tree
At Agha Khan Akademi in Kenya

Gateway to the Southern Hemisphere

Gateway to the Southern Hemisphere

Convention on Biodiversity

Convention on Biodiversity
Syed Akbar at the 11th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity