In many cultures, tracts of forest were set aside, and all the trees and wildlife within were

venerated and given total protection. Jim Carbet: **Jim Corbett National Park India had the proud distinction of being chosen as the venue for the inauguration of Project Tiger in India; earlier part of Uttar Pradesh now comes under Uttaranchal, the newly found state. Jim Corbett National Park India is home to a variety of flora and fauna, Corbett park is famous for its wild population of Tigers, Leopards and Elephants. Corbett Tiger Reserve has a great variety of fauna on account of habitat diversity. In the Jim Corbett National Park are found 110 tree species, 50 mammals' species, 580 bird species and 25 reptile species **Jim Corbett National Park India has always been famous for their resident tigers. Initially Jim Corbett National Park reserve was named as 'Hailey National Park' in 1936. Jim Corbett National Park was renamed in 1954-55 as 'Ramganga National Park' and again in 1955-56 as 'Jim Corbett National Park' after Jim Corbett who hunted down tigers that had turned man-eaters, between 1907 to 1939. Jim Corbett National Park India is the 1st and oldest National Park of India. Jim Corbett National Park India was one of the nine Tiger Reserves created at the launch of the Project Tiger in 1973.

**Jim Corbett National Park India is a haven for Tigers as well as its prey, which include four kinds of Deer, Wild Boar and some lesser-known animals. Leopards are mostly found in the hilly areas of the Corbett park. Some nocturnal cats found here are the Leopard Cat, Jungle Cat and Fishing Cat. Sloth Bear is found in the lower regions of the park while the Himalayan Black Bear is seen in the higher hills only. The Dole or Wild Dog, though they can be seen in the southern areas of the park along with the Jackal. Some of the smaller residents of the park are Himalayan Palm Civet, Indian Gray Mongoose, Common Otter, Blacknaped Hare and Porcupine. Elephants are among one of the main attractions of Jim Corbett Park. Along the Ramganga River shores, one can spot the long-snouted, fish-eating Gharial Crocodile and the 'Mugger' Crocodile. Also seen on the rocky hillsides is the Ghoral or Goat Antelopes. The Langur and Rhesus Monkeys are well distributed through out the jim corbett national park and warning the whole Jungle with alarm calls when they see either a Tiger or Leopard from tree-top perches.

Women: Prachi Mishra, Miss India Earth 2012, Vanya Mishra, Miss India World 2012 and Rochelle Maria Rao, Miss India International 2012 are the winners of Pantaloons Femina Miss India 2012.

Opec OPEC The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, was founded in Baghdad, Iraq, with the signing of an agreement in September 1960 by five countries namely Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. They were to become the Founder Members of the Organization. The five Founding Members were later joined by nine other Members:

Qatar (1961); Indonesia (1962) suspended its membership from January 2009; Libya (1962); United Arab Emirates (1967); Algeria (1969); Nigeria (1971); Ecuador (1973) suspended its membership from December 1992-October 2007; Angola (2007) and Gabon (19751994).

OPEC had its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in the first five years of its existence. This was moved to Vienna, Austria, on 1965. From December 1992 until October 2007, Ecuador suspended its membership. Gabon terminated its membership in 1995. Indonesia suspended its membership effective January 2009. Currently, the Organization has a total of 12 Member Countries. These countries account for 2/3 of the known deposits of crude oil (2/3 of which are located in the West Asia) whereas obviously Non OPEC Countries hold less than 1/4 of the total amount of the word known oil reserves. In 1996, OPEC Members represented 33.3% of the oil world production (including crude oil, natural gas liquids, etc). At the end of 1999, OPEC Crude Oil production amounted to 26,507 b/d, in July 2000 OPEC supplied approx.28, 172 b/d. The OPEC headquarters is located in Vienna (Austria) and the organizations Secretary General is Mr.Abdallah Salem el-Badri, elected in January 2007. OPEC's objectives are, to co-ordinate and unify petroleum policies among Member Countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers; an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations; and a fair return on capital to those investing in the industry. The organization has three main weak points: Its decisions require unanimity for adoption. Its members do not always abide (keep) by the decisions which are taken. The Organization does not include all the major players in the Oil Market arena such as Angola, Bahrain, Brunei, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Norway, Oman, the United States, Russia and the former Soviet republics. The events of September 11, 2001, the invasion of Afghanistan in the same year, the Iraq war launched in 2003 whose consequences prevail today have caused an important surge in oil prices in recent years, pushing countries such as Indonesia to remove itself from the Organisation in a desperate effort to protect its national oil interests. Simultaneously, the OPEC has to confront the issue of declining global oil demand.

Kerala Dance
Thullal is a modification of the Koothu. It is characterised by simplicity of presentation, wit and humour. This dance form was originated by Kunjan Nambiar, one of the leading poets of Malayalam. Ottan Thullal is a solo dance form created 400 years ago by Kalakath Kunjan Nambiar. The basic element of Ottan Thullal is satire,

through which Nambiar set about correcting the evils that prevailed in the society of his time. To Nambiar, it was a medium to bring out the social conditions of his time. The distinctions of class, and the weakness, the whims and fancies of the rich and the great were presented in a mock- heroic form. Thullal is a type of performing art from Kerala and have a poem composition as its script. Podzodization

Podzolization is the comprehensive name for the process of mobilization and precipitation of dissolved organic matter, together with aluminum Al and iron Fe as they are leaching down from the A and E horizons to the B horizon

Drought: What is drought? Droughts can be of three kinds:(i) Meteorological drought: This happens when the actual rainfall in an area is significantly less than the climatological mean of that area. The country as a whole may have a normal monsoon, but different meteorological districts and sub-divisions can have below normal rainfall. The rainfall categories for smaller areas are defined by their deviation from a meteorological area's normal rainfall Excess: 20 per cent or more above normal Normal: 19 per cent above normal - 19 per cent below normal Deficient: 20 per cent below normal - 59 per cent below normal Scanty: 60 per cent or more below normal (ii) Hydrological drought: A marked depletion of surface water causing very low stream flow and drying of lakes, rivers and reservoirs (iii) Agricultural drought: Inadequate soil moisture resulting in acute crop stress and fall in agricultural productivity

Central Adaptation Resource Authority (CARA) Esker: What Is an Esker?: It is a winding ridge of gravel and sand which geologists believe mark the sites of sub-glacial streams and rivers. An esker can be 40-80 feet in height and its length may be anywhere from 1 to 20 miles. To describe this formation in laymans terms, some say an esker resembles a standard railroad embankment.

Most eskers are believed to form in ice-walled tunnels by streams which flowed within and under glaciers. After the retaining ice walls melt away, stream deposits remain as long winding ridges. Eskers may also form above glaciers by accumulation of sediment in supra-glacial (water flowing atop glacier) channels, in crevasses, in linear zones between stagnant blocks, or in narrow embayments (formation of bays) at glacier margins. Eskers form near the terminal zone of glaciers, where the ice is not moving as fast.

Eskers may exist as a single channel, or may be part of a branching system with tributary eskers. They are not often found as continuous ridges, but have gaps that separate the winding segments. The ridge crests of eskers are not usually level for very long, and are generally knobby. Eskers may be broad-crested or sharpcrested with steep sides.

Cirques
What are Cirques , Horns and Aretes ? ***Cirques are the bowl shaped depressions found at the head of glacial valleys. For most alpine glaciers, cirques are the areas in the alpine valleys where snow first accumulated and was modified into glacial ice. The glaciers that occupy cirques are called cirque glaciers. ***Horns are pyramidal peaks that form when several cirques chisel a mountain from three or more sides. The most famous horn is the Matterhorn found in the Swiss Alps. ***Artes are the narrow serrated ridges found in glaciated alpine areas. Artes form when two opposing cirques back erode a mountain ridge. Cavery River The Tamil Nadu government has approached the Supreme Court seeking urgent directions to restrain Karnataka from taking up summer irrigation and consequent depletion of storages in the reservoirs in Karnataka, in contravention of the final order passed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in February 2007. It said in the last few years after the final award was passed Karnataka had been increasing its summer cultivation and had been depleting its reservoirs by huge quantities during the summer months for irrigation almost emptying the storages. They deliberately deplete their reservoirs during summer months (January to May) and keep the storages at a very low level so that they could impound more water from June onwards and use them for irrigation, thereby depriving Tamil Nadu of its due share of water to be released from June onwards when the water year would commence. The application said as on March 15, the storage in the four reservoirs had been depleted and only about 20 to 30 tmcft would remain by the end of May, as against the full storage of 114.5 tmcft. Tamil Nadu contended that no depletion should take place from the Karnataka reservoirs during the summer months other than for reasonable needs of perennial crops and drinking water requirements. Hence, it sought a direction to restrain Karnataka from taking up new irrigation projects that would affect release of water to Tamil Nadu from June.