Highly endangered Chiru or Tibetan antelope(Click on photo to enlarge.)
Here is a fascinating first person account of the journey across the roof of the world by Jane Macartney of The Times.
“AS THE train climbed towards the highest railway pass on Earth, funny things began to happen. Pens leaked. Air-tight bags of crisps and peanuts burst open. Laptops crashed and MP3 players stopped working. Passengers began feeling nauseous, and some reached for their oxygen masks. A few were sick.
“But few of the 500 passengers on board were complaining. For railway buffs, this was as close as it came to paradise. We were on board the first passenger train to journey the 4,000km (2,500 miles) from Beijing to the ancient Tibetan capital of Lhasa and the final 1,110km yesterday took us up through the 5,072m (16,640ft) Tanggula Pass and across the roof of the world…”
While Boston Globe has an interesting story about three foreigners demonstrating in Beijing against the newly opened China-Tibet rail.
“In a rare protest by foreigners here, three Western activists who oppose China’s new rail link to Tibet clambered up the façade of the central train station yesterday and unfurled a banner that read “China’s Tibet Railway: Designed to Destroy.”
“Within minutes, security officers detained the trio, pulled down the banner, and bundled the activists out of sight as curious travelers watched.
“The London-based Free Tibet Campaign identified the protesters as Kathy Ni Keefe, 36, of Sante Fe, N.M.; Katie Mallin, 34, of Britain; and Omi Hodwitz, a 29-year-old Canadian. They were released after three hours.”
Then there are environmental concerns. “Billed as the highest railway in the world, the Qinghai-Tibet line will run over 1000 kilometers from central China to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. Environmental groups, including WWF, are concerned that the railway will threaten fragile ecosystems.
“With an average elevation of 4000 meters and covering an area of 2.5 million square kilometers, the Tibetan Plateau shelters a wide array of unique species, including the Tibetan antelope, Tibetan gazelle, wild yak, blue sheep, snow leopard, brown bear, Bengal tiger and black-necked crane.
“The plateau is also the source of almost all of Asia’s major rivers, including the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong and Indus.
“Because of its high elevation, the ecosystem here is extremely fragile,” said Dawa Tsering, Head of WWF China’s Program Office in Lhasa.
“Once damaged, it is extremely difficult to reverse. Integrating the needs of local development with conserving Tibet’s biodiversity is in need of urgent attention.”
“WWF and TRAFFIC plan on distributing brochures to train passengers and visitors to the region (in English and Chinese), asking them to refrain from buying products made from such endangered species as tigers and Tibetan antelopes.”
The WWF website also gives details about the environmental concerns in the Tibetan region.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.