Lizard’s world lizard.pdfLet’s peep into the world of these ignored and perhaps creepy (to some)...
1
THE ASSAM TRIBUNE GUWAHATI, SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2010 Page 3 H OW often in the middle of a row with someone, a sound, “tik-tik- tik” asserts the truth in the topic! Yes, it’s the sound produced by our homely friend — the house lizard. How often do we ignore them, or maybe even do not acknowledge their existence? But really, don’t they deserve even our slightest attention? Let’s peep into the world of these ignored and perhaps creepy (to some) creatures. To majority of people lizards mean only the ‘house lizards’. But the fact is they come in var- ious shapes, sizes, colours and apendages. In India, we have more than 250 species of liz- ards. Norheast India itself horbours more than 44 species of lizards. The common house liz- ards are also of varied types. There are more than 21 varieties in India, and five of these are found in Guwahati. Lizards belong to the group of animals called reptiles. They are cold blooded or ‘ectotherms’ meaning they are unable to regulate their body temperature. Reptiles were the first land ani- mals to come into this earth or technically ‘evolve’ from amphibians (frogs, toads, etc) that had biphasic mode of life, involving both land and water. Evolutionary lizards are very inter- esting group of animals. Their adoptive fea- tures have taken them to extremes — some are the ‘spidermen’ of the animal kingdom. Have you ever wondered how some lizards manage to stay put in a wall? Or how wonder- fully agile they are while climbing trees? The lizards are able to accomplish such feats owing to the pattern of the digits or fingers on their limbs. Their digits (of both fore and hind limbs) contain special structures called ‘lamellae’ which help them to adhere to the surface they climb, whether it’s a tree, a wall or even a slippery glass. Another amazing thing about some liz- Know the WORD Deva Kumar Das T HERE is a belief that a person who knows proverbs cannot be bad. Listed below are ten proverbs. How many of them do you know? Find out. Match column A with column B. A B 1. Good people a) killed the cat 2. First come b) is the best policy 3. God sends meat c) without a thorn 4. Enjoy d) till you have the clean 5. Don’t throw away e) first served the dirty water 6. Care f) the present 7. At night g) the devil sends cooks 8. No rose h) is good news 9. No news i) are scarce 10. Honesty j) all cats are grey ANSWERS SCORES: All correct: Superior, Eight correct: Good, Six correct: Average tape TALK Devajit Chayengia SUPERNATURAL, BY SANTANA, SONY MUSIC, RS 399 RELEASED in 1999, Santana’s Supernatural is con- sidered one of the greatest comeback albums of all time. This critically-acclaimed, multi-Grammy-winning album has so far sold over 25 million cop- ies worldwide. Now ten years after its initial release the double-CD Su- pernatural: Legacy Edition is here with an aim of celebrating the mas- sive success of the album with the addition of an array of outtakes, remixes and unreleased material from the original recording sessions. All the original tracks find place here, newly remastered under Carlos Santana himself, besides a second CD of rarities personally se- lected by Carlos. The following tracks provide music buffs a rare chance to revisit the repackaged gems, besides some bonus tunes – Smooth, (Da le) yaleo, Love of my life, Put your lights on, Africa bamba, Do you like..., Maria..., Migra, Corazon Espinado, Wishing it was, El farol, Primavera, The calling, Bacalao con pan, Angel love, Corazon Espinado (Spanish dance remix), Ya yo..., Maria... (Pumpin’ dolls club mix), Smooth (Inst), The calling jam, etc. Supernatural is about magical music! THIS IS US, BY BACKSTREET BOYS, SONY MUSIC, RS 399 This Is Us is Backstreet Boys’ - Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and AJ McLean - seventh studio album as the original group and second as a foursome. Showing that they continue to produce pleasurable hooks and hummable vocal harmonies, the erstwhile top boyband here offers some standard bubblegum fare while also making a few intriguing forays into throbbing electronica. The album also marks the band’s return after a decade to its old teen-pop sound, and considering these guys’ combined age, the result is surprisingly quite effective. Check out how – Straight through my heart, Bigger, Bye bye love, All of your life (you need love), If i knew then, This is us, PDA, Mas- querade, Undone, etc. This package also includes the band’s ‘Live from London’ DVD. Pop fans should grab this with both hands! DEVOTIONAL GOLD, SPIRITUAL MUSIC, EMI, RS 395 RELIGIOUS or not quite so, a dose of devotional music can definitely work wonders for the stressed out souls. Meanings apart, only the sound vibra- tions of mantras, etc., can do the trick on our mind, body and soul. This dou- ble-CD album tries to achieve exactly that by compiling some of the most essential mantras, shlokas and dhuns, that too in the voice of some legen- dary singers as well as some top con- temporary artistes. So here they go – Gayatri Mantra & Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra - Pandit Jasraj; Hare Krishna..., Krishna Hai Shraddha & Shree Ram...- Jagjit Singh; Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha & Hanuman Chalisa - Shankar Mahadevan; Mahishasuramardini Stotra - Devaki Pandit; Om Namo Bhagavate..., Yaa Kundendu Tushar - Sanjeev Abhyankar; Sarva Mangala... & Gurur Brahma - SP Balasubramanyam; Govind Hare Gopal Hare - Suresh Wadkar, etc. This is food for the soul! Courtesy: Planet M M ANY people will still remember the speech that RK Narayan the novelist had made in Parliament. He said his heart bled whenever he saw young boys and girls going to school laden with books which they could hardly carry. This burden did not improve their minds; it only made them hunch backs. Heavy backpacks are one of the most distressing and unpleasant aspects of school life for many chil- dren. The heavy weight of books make school go- ing drudgery and irksome. This goes contrary to the current trend which insists that the learning process should be fun. Children who do not have to carry heavy loads, such as the resident borders, are more relaxed and at ease than those who have to carry heavy backpacks to school. Similarly, one of the appealing aspects of college life for students is that they do not have to shoulder the burden of heavy books. Heavy bags cause stress on the spine, back and shoulders, resulting in muscular pain, fa- tigue and strain. The excessive weight in bags may cause a child to develop poor posture or slouch excessively. Look for the following warning symp- toms that a school bag is too heavy. Q Tingling and numbness in arm. Q Pain while wearing the backpack. Q Struggling when putting on or taking off the backpack. Q Change in posture when wearing the backpack. Lifting heavy burden for a long time or distance is not good for children. Half of the school chil- dren develop pain in the back or shoulder. Carrying a heavy bag on the back causes forward leaning and bad posture, which can lead to improper weight bearing on the spine, and pains and aches in the shoul- der and back. Carrying a backpack weighing more than 15 per cent of body weight makes a child or ado- lescent unable to maintain proper standing posture. Children could get into bad habits like poor posture and slouching. Forward bending at the back (also called ky- photic pos- ture) makes the work of breathing harder. Chil- dren carrying heavy bags have been found to have poor lung function. Children A B 1. Good people i) are scarce 2. First come e) first served 3. God sends meat g) the devil sends cooks 4. Enjoy f) the present 5. Don’t throw away d) till you have the clean the dirty water 6. Care a) killed the cat 7. At night j) all cats are grey 8. No rose c) without a thorn 9. No news h) is good news 10. Honesty b) is the best policy ards, particularly house lizards, is that if they are threatened or touched, they have the ca- pacity to detach their tail, a phenomenon known as autotomy. The tail then tends to wriggle for a long time after it’s been cut off. Actually, this is a technique of these cunning animals to escape our assault. While we are busy staring at their wriggling tails they make good their escape! Interestingly enough, the tail regrows after some time and the tail is some- what as good as new. Some lizards even have wing-like projections and are known as flying lizards. But can lizards fly? Not really, rather these wings are used for gliding. The technique is generally used to avoid predation. Because of our lack of knowledge re- garding lizards and also because of their strange lifestyle, lizard inspires several myths and legends worldwide. In Egypt, people believe that during spring the lizard climbs the eastward wall of the house, thus announcing the onset of spring. In ancient Greece, the lizard repre- sented divine wisdom and good fortune. In Roman mythology, lizards supposedly sleep through the winter and so symbolize both death and resurrection. Early Christianity as- sociated the lizard with the devil and evil. Asian cultures believe that if a gecko calls from the bedroom of newlyweds, they shall lead a long and prosperous life together. We too have our own set of beliefs. Common garden lizard or tezpia is believed to suck blood off people from afar, thus giving the reddish colour of their throat. Interestingly, if it was true and could be implemented for human beings all the blood banks will turn non-functional. Actually the fact is, the garden lizard develops this coloura- tion in order to attract mates and also as a mechanism of self defence. Also most believe that lizards, more specifically the house liz- ards, are very poisonous and if they bite or fall in any food item, when eaten has the poten- tial to kill. Rationally speaking, the house liz- ard has teeth so small, insufficiant even to make any puncture in the skin. Regarding food item stuff, a person may die just by licking his fin- ger if it is contaminated. So does it mean that our fingers are venomous? The fact is there are only two known species of lizard in the world having venom and fortunately none can be found in India. The Gila Monster and the Mexican Beaded Lizard found in North Amer- ica, specifically in southwestern United States and Mexico, are the ones to watch out for. Though lizards (except these two) are not ven- omous, evolutionarily they have given rise to the most popular venomous group of animals, the snakes. It is worth mentioning even only very few snakes themselves are venomous. Ev- olutionarily it is the lizard-like life forms which lost the limbs in time and gave rise to snakes. The reminiscent of this fact can still be found in some snakes like pythons. Pythons still have two small spurs in their posterior part exactly in the place where in their ancestral form, the hind limbs may have existed. Lizards occupy various habitats and are found in almost all parts of the world co-existing with man. Some common lizards found in this part of the country are the house lizards — jethi in Assamese — with types such as Asian house gecko (tik-tik jethi), brook’s house gecko (khohota jethi), tokay gecko (keko jethi), Khasi Hills gecko (khasia jethi ), Assam day gecko (Aso- mi diba jethi), etc; the garden lizards ( tezpia), flying lizards (uronia tezpia), blue throat liz- ard (neelkonthi tezpia); the skinks or miniko- ra, and the monitor lizards or the gui saap. Lizards not only add to the diversity of fauna in any region but also contribute a lot to our environment, even though they may appear to be useless to some people. Lizards should be welcome guests in some houses, particularly the house lizards which feed on insects, mosquitoes, wasps, etc, thus diminishing their number and helping us get rid of these pests. Lizards on is- lands eat the partly digested food spilt by sea- birds, thus acting as ‘cleaners’ of the environ- ment. Lizards play a vital role in seed dispersal or pollination, but are not very popular pollina- tors as insects, butterflies, etc. Lizards have also found various other uses in human life, some at the cost of the animal’s own life. Many countries utilize lizards in cere- monies. Some Indian tribes of North America use lizard tails in a recipe for love potion. In India, live monitor lizards are used in fertility rites and serpent festivals, often bringing harm to the animal. They are also eaten and their skin used for leather. In the tropics, the green iguana is killed for its flesh and eggs. Lizards are also an important part of the food chain and environ- ment in general. Just like frogs, snakes and oth- er bigger animals, lizards also show variety of colouration, shapes and sizes, thus adding to the aesthetic beauty of any area. Owing to merci- less killing of these creatures, be it for skin, meat, or any other reason, some of them are even facing extinction. The Bengal monitor lizard (common gui saap) is an endangered species. In India, all trade in reptile products is prohibited under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, but still an undercover trade continues. As with most of wildlife today, lizards are also facing threats to their existence, mostly by hu- man activities. Also because of our ignorance and superstition regarding them, fate of these animals is almost sealed. How many of us re- member sighting a lizard? Whatever be the rea- son the sufferers are definitely these innocent victims who arrived on this earth much before the humans were even conceptualized. It becomes our imperative responsibility to save our elders and many others who are in need, and that’s be- cause we have the power to do it. who use one-strap bags (which put weight on one shoulder only) have a particular problem. These bags cause sideways deviation of the spine (scoliosis) be- cause of the asymetric weight distribution and this can cause long lasting backaches and damage. Sling- ing the bag over one shoulder causes spine damage. Here are some tips how to buy the right back- pack. Don't buy a big backpack; it should be appro- priate to your child's size. Choose a backpack with moulded frame and adjustable hip strap, so that the weight of the filled backpack will rest on your child's pelvis instead of their shoulder and spine. The shoul- der straps should be adjustable, and the rear of the backpack padded for comfort. To help with pack- ing, the backpack should have a few separate com- partments. Canvas bags are lighter than leather va- rieties. Consider buying a backpack with built in wheels. The backpack should weigh less than 10 per cent of your child's body weight. For example, a child of 20 kg should carry less than 4 kg in their backpack. Ideally the child in this example should carry around 2-3 kg of books. Pack the heaviest items so they are closest to the child's back. If the heav- iest items are packed further away, this throws out the child's centre of gravity and causes unnecessary back strain. Make sure that items can't move around during tran- sit as this could upset your child's cen- tre of gravity. Use the backpacks with compartments. Data shows that more than 75 per cent of school children carry more than the recommended safe weight in the school bag. Some solutions for this back breaking burden: Q Loose sheets for homework. Q Individual lockers for students in school. Q Class work notebooks kept in school. Q Consecutive periods for one subject. The Central Board of Secondary Ed- ucation has directed the af- filiated schools to main- tain the school bags of the students up to Class II. School bags of stu- dents up to Class II should be kept in school itself. Student of this age group should come with a lunch box and the pencil box only. CBSE also recom- mends a class library system so that stu- dents get used to the habit of read- ing books in school. [The writer is a consultant paediatrician in Rungta Hospi- tal, Jaipur] Lizard’s world Madhurima Das/Jayaditya Purkayastha Back burden Dr Vivek Sharma
Transcript of Lizard’s world lizard.pdfLet’s peep into the world of these ignored and perhaps creepy (to some)...
THE ASSAM TRIBUNEGUWAHATI, SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2010
Page 3
HOW often in the middle of a rowwith someone, a sound, “tik-tik-tik” asserts the truth in the topic!Yes, it’s the sound produced by ourhomely friend — the house lizard.
How often do we ignore them, or maybe evendo not acknowledge their existence? But really,don’t they deserve even our slightest attention?Let’s peep into the world of these ignored andperhaps creepy (to some) creatures.
To majority of people lizards mean only the‘house lizards’. But the fact is they come in var-ious shapes, sizes, colours and apendages. InIndia, we have more than 250 species of liz-ards. Norheast India itself horbours more than44 species of lizards. The common house liz-ards are also of varied types. There are morethan 21 varieties in India, and five of these arefound in Guwahati.
Lizards belong to the group of animals calledreptiles. They are cold blooded or ‘ectotherms’meaning they are unable to regulate their bodytemperature. Reptiles were the first land ani-mals to come into this earth or technically‘evolve’ from amphibians (frogs, toads, etc) thathad biphasic mode of life, involving both landand water. Evolutionary lizards are very inter-esting group of animals. Their adoptive fea-tures have taken them to extremes — someare the ‘spidermen’ of the animal kingdom.
Have you ever wondered how some lizardsmanage to stay put in a wall? Or how wonder-fully agile they are while climbing trees? Thelizards are able to accomplish such feats owingto the pattern of the digits or fingers on theirlimbs. Their digits (of both fore and hind limbs)contain special structures called ‘lamellae’ whichhelp them to adhere to the surface they climb,whether it’s a tree, a wall or even a slipperyglass. Another amazing thing about some liz-
Know theWORDDeva Kumar Das
THERE is a belief that a person who knowsproverbs cannot be bad. Listed below are tenproverbs. How many of them do you know?
Find out. Match column A with column B.
A B1. Good people a) killed the cat2. First come b) is the best policy3. God sends meat c) without a thorn4. Enjoy d) till you have the clean5. Don’t throw away e) first served
the dirty water6. Care f) the present7. At night g) the devil sends cooks8. No rose h) is good news9. No news i) are scarce10. Honesty j) all cats are grey
ANSWERS
SCORES: All correct: Superior, Eight correct: Good,Six correct: Average
tapeTALK Devajit Chayengia
SUPERNATURAL, BY SANTANA, SONY MUSIC, RS 399RELEASED in 1999, Santana’s Supernatural is con-
sidered one of the greatest comeback albums of all time.This critically-acclaimed, multi-Grammy-winning album
has so far sold over 25 million cop-ies worldwide. Now ten years afterits initial release the double-CD Su-pernatural: Legacy Edition is herewith an aim of celebrating the mas-sive success of the album with theaddition of an array of outtakes,remixes and unreleased material
from the original recording sessions. All the original tracksfind place here, newly remastered under Carlos Santanahimself, besides a second CD of rarities personally se-lected by Carlos. The following tracks provide music buffsa rare chance to revisit the repackaged gems, besidessome bonus tunes – Smooth, (Da le) yaleo, Love of mylife, Put your lights on, Africa bamba, Do you like...,Maria..., Migra, Corazon Espinado, Wishing it was, Elfarol, Primavera, The calling, Bacalao con pan, Angellove, Corazon Espinado (Spanish dance remix), Ya yo...,Maria... (Pumpin’ dolls club mix), Smooth (Inst), Thecalling jam, etc. Supernatural is about magical music!THIS IS US, BY BACKSTREET BOYS, SONY MUSIC, RS 399
This Is Us is Backstreet Boys’ - Nick Carter, HowieDorough, Brian Littrell and AJ McLean - seventh studioalbum as the original group andsecond as a foursome. Showingthat they continue to producepleasurable hooks and hummablevocal harmonies, the erstwhiletop boyband here offers somestandard bubblegum fare while alsomaking a few intriguing foraysinto throbbing electronica. The album also marksthe band’s return after a decade to its old teen-pop sound,and considering these guys’ combined age, the result issurprisingly quite effective. Check out how – Straightthrough my heart, Bigger, Bye bye love, All of your life(you need love), If i knew then, This is us, PDA, Mas-querade, Undone, etc. This package also includes theband’s ‘Live from London’ DVD. Pop fans should grabthis with both hands!
DEVOTIONAL GOLD, SPIRITUAL MUSIC, EMI, RS 395RELIGIOUS or not quite so, a dose of devotional music
can definitely work wonders for the stressed out souls.Meanings apart, only the sound vibra-tions of mantras, etc., can do the trickon our mind, body and soul. This dou-ble-CD album tries to achieve exactlythat by compiling some of the mostessential mantras, shlokas and dhuns,that too in the voice of some legen-dary singers as well as some top con-
temporary artistes. So here they go – Gayatri Mantra &Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra - Pandit Jasraj; Hare Krishna...,Krishna Hai Shraddha & Shree Ram...- Jagjit Singh; OmGam Ganapataye Namaha & Hanuman Chalisa - ShankarMahadevan; Mahishasuramardini Stotra - Devaki Pandit;Om Namo Bhagavate..., Yaa Kundendu Tushar - SanjeevAbhyankar; Sarva Mangala... & Gurur Brahma - SPBalasubramanyam; Govind Hare Gopal Hare - SureshWadkar, etc. This is food for the soul!
Courtesy: Planet M
MANY people will still remember thespeech that RK Narayan the novelist hadmade in Parliament. He said his heartbled whenever he saw young boys andgirls going to school laden with books
which they could hardly carry. This burden did notimprove their minds; it only made them hunch backs.
Heavy backpacks are one of the most distressingand unpleasant aspects of school life for many chil-dren. The heavy weight of books make school go-ing drudgery and irksome. This goes contrary to thecurrent trend which insists that the learning processshould be fun. Children who do not have to carryheavy loads, such as the resident borders, are morerelaxed and at ease than those who have to carryheavy backpacks to school. Similarly, one of theappealing aspects of college life for students is thatthey do not have to shoulder the burden of heavybooks.
Heavy bags cause stress onthe spine, back and shoulders,resulting in muscular pain, fa-tigue and strain. The excessiveweight in bags may cause achild to develop poor postureor slouch excessively. Look forthe following warning symp-toms that a school bag is tooheavy.
Tingling and numbness inarm.
Pain while wearing thebackpack.
Struggling when putting on ortaking off the backpack.
Change in posture whenwearing the backpack.
Lifting heavy burden for a longtime or distance is not good forchildren. Half of the school chil-dren develop pain in the back orshoulder. Carrying a heavy bag onthe back causes forward leaningand bad posture, which can leadto improper weight bearing on thespine, and pains and aches in the shoul-der and back. Carrying a backpackweighing more than 15 percent of body weightmakes a child or ado-lescent unable tomaintain properstanding posture.Children could getinto bad habitslike poor postureand slouching.
F o r w a r dbending at theback (a lsocal led ky-photic pos-ture) makesthe work ofb r e a t h i n gharder. Chi l -dren carryingheavy bags havebeen found tohave poor lungfunction. Children
AB1.Good peoplei)are scarce2.First comee)first served3.God sends meatg)the devil sends cooks4.Enjoyf)the present5.Don’t throw awayd)till you have the clean
the dirty water6.Carea)killed the cat7.At nightj)all cats are grey8.No rosec)without a thorn9.No newsh)is good news10.Honestyb)is the best policy
ards, particularly house lizards, is that if theyare threatened or touched, they have the ca-pacity to detach their tail, a phenomenonknown as autotomy. The tail then tends towriggle for a long time after it’s been cut off.Actually, this is a technique of these cunninganimals to escape our assault. While we arebusy staring at their wriggling tails they makegood their escape! Interestingly enough, thetail regrows after some time and the tail is some-what as good as new. Some lizards even havewing-like projections and are known as flyinglizards. But can lizards fly? Not really, ratherthese wings are used for gliding. The technique
is generally used to avoid predation.Because of our lack of knowledge re-garding lizards and also because of theirstrange lifestyle, lizard inspires severalmyths and legends worldwide. InEgypt, people believe that during springthe lizard climbs the eastward wall ofthe house, thus announcing the onset
of spring. In ancient Greece, the lizard repre-sented divine wisdom and good fortune. InRoman mythology, lizards supposedly sleepthrough the winter and so symbolize bothdeath and resurrection. Early Christianity as-sociated the lizard with the devil and evil. Asian
cultures believe that if a gecko calls from thebedroom of newlyweds, they shall lead a longand prosperous life together. We too have ourown set of beliefs. Common garden lizard ortezpia is believed to suck blood off people fromafar, thus giving the reddish colour of theirthroat. Interestingly, if it was true and couldbe implemented for human beings all the bloodbanks will turn non-functional. Actually thefact is, the garden lizard develops this coloura-tion in order to attract mates and also as amechanism of self defence. Also most believethat lizards, more specifically the house liz-ards, are very poisonous and if they bite or fallin any food item, when eaten has the poten-tial to kill. Rationally speaking, the house liz-ard has teeth so small, insufficiant even to makeany puncture in the skin. Regarding food itemstuff, a person may die just by licking his fin-ger if it is contaminated. So does it mean thatour fingers are venomous? The fact is thereare only two known species of lizard in theworld having venom and fortunately none canbe found in India. The Gila Monster and theMexican Beaded Lizard found in North Amer-ica, specifically in southwestern United Statesand Mexico, are the ones to watch out for.Though lizards (except these two) are not ven-
omous, evolutionarily they have given rise tothe most popular venomous group of animals,the snakes. It is worth mentioning even onlyvery few snakes themselves are venomous. Ev-olutionarily it is the lizard-like life forms whichlost the limbs in time and gave rise to snakes.The reminiscent of this fact can still be foundin some snakes like pythons. Pythons still havetwo small spurs in their posterior part exactlyin the place where in their ancestral form, thehind limbs may have existed.
Lizards occupy various habitats and are foundin almost all parts of the world co-existingwith man. Some common lizards foundin this part of the country are thehouse lizards — jethi in Assamese —with types such as Asian house gecko(tik-tik jethi), brook’s house gecko (khohotajethi), tokay gecko (keko jethi), Khasi Hillsgecko (khasia jethi), Assam day gecko (Aso-mi diba jethi), etc; the garden lizards (tezpia),flying lizards (uronia tezpia), blue throat liz-ard (neelkonthi tezpia); the skinks or miniko-ra, and the monitor lizards or the gui saap.
Lizards not only add to the diversity of faunain any region but also contribute a lot to ourenvironment, even though they may appear tobe useless to some people. Lizards should be
welcome guests in some houses, particularly thehouse lizards which feed on insects, mosquitoes,wasps, etc, thus diminishing their number andhelping us get rid of these pests. Lizards on is-lands eat the partly digested food spilt by sea-birds, thus acting as ‘cleaners’ of the environ-ment. Lizards play a vital role in seed dispersalor pollination, but are not very popular pollina-tors as insects, butterflies, etc.
Lizards have also found various other uses inhuman life, some at the cost of the animal’sown life. Many countries utilize lizards in cere-monies. Some Indian tribes of North Americause lizard tails in a recipe for love potion. InIndia, live monitor lizards are used in fertility ritesand serpent festivals, often bringing harm to theanimal. They are also eaten and their skin usedfor leather. In the tropics, the green iguana iskilled for its flesh and eggs. Lizards are also animportant part of the food chain and environ-ment in general. Just like frogs, snakes and oth-er bigger animals, lizards also show variety ofcolouration, shapes and sizes, thus adding to theaesthetic beauty of any area. Owing to merci-less killing of these creatures, be it for skin, meat,or any other reason, some of them are evenfacing extinction. The Bengal monitor lizard(common gui saap) is an endangered species. InIndia, all trade in reptile products is prohibitedunder the Wild Life (Protection) Act, but still anundercover trade continues.
As with most of wildlife today, lizards are alsofacing threats to their existence, mostly by hu-man activities. Also because of our ignoranceand superstition regarding them, fate of theseanimals is almost sealed. How many of us re-member sighting a lizard? Whatever be the rea-son the sufferers are definitely these innocentvictims who arrived on this earth much beforethe humans were even conceptualized. It becomes
our imperative responsibility to saveour elders and many others who
are in need, and that’s be-cause we have the
power to do it.
who use one-strap bags (which put weight on oneshoulder only) have a particular problem. These bagscause sideways deviation of the spine (scoliosis) be-cause of the asymetric weight distribution and thiscan cause long lasting backaches and damage. Sling-ing the bag over one shoulder causes spine damage.
Here are some tips how to buy the right back-pack. Don't buy a big backpack; it should be appro-priate to your child's size. Choose a backpack withmoulded frame and adjustable hip strap, so that theweight of the filled backpack will rest on your child'spelvis instead of their shoulder and spine. The shoul-der straps should be adjustable, and the rear of thebackpack padded for comfort. To help with pack-ing, the backpack should have a few separate com-partments. Canvas bags are lighter than leather va-rieties. Consider buying a backpack with built inwheels.
The backpack shouldweigh less than 10 per centof your child's body weight.For example, a child of 20kg should carry less than 4kg in their backpack. Ideallythe child in this exampleshould carry around 2-3 kgof books. Pack the heaviestitems so they are closest tothe child's back. If the heav-iest items are packed furtheraway, this throws out thechild's centre of gravity and
causes unnecessary back strain. Make surethat items can't move around during tran-
sit as this could upset your child's cen-tre of gravity. Use the backpacks withcompartments.
Data shows that more than 75 percent of school children carry morethan the recommended safe weightin the school bag. Some solutionsfor this back breaking burden:
Loose sheets for homework. Individual lockers for students in
school. Class work notebooks kept in school. Consecutive periods for one subject.
The Central Board of Secondary Ed-ucation has directed the af-
filiated schools to main-tain the school bags ofthe students up to ClassII. School bags of stu-dents up to Class IIshould be kept inschool itself. Studentof this age groupshould come with alunch box and thepenci l box only.CBSE also recom-mends a class librarysystem so that stu-dents get used tothe habit of read-ing books inschool.
[The writer isa consultantpaediatrician inRungta Hospi-tal, Jaipur]
Lizard’sworld Madhurima Das/Jayaditya Purkayastha
Backburden
Dr Vivek Sharma
