GOLAKGANJ, Jan 1: Dhubri district, situated on the western part of Assam, is famous for traditional crafts by the local artisans distinctly of their own. The jute craft works require only the raw materials jute, which is available in Dhubri district. There are many villages and at least 500 crafts persons practise this art in the district. The main products of the jute crafts are marketing bag, different designs of side bag, gents hand bag, money bag, Sikka, flower vase, carpet, Dolna, magazine holder, doormat, etc. The Dhubri Hasta Shilpa Samabai Samity, leading samity for crafts -- development will try to manufacture jute shoes, chappal room-divider, decorative door screen etc. through the craft development centre.

Wood carving is an ancient craft of Assam which found expression mostly on doors, walls, ceilings of Namghars and Satras. But in comparison to other parts of Assam the Dhubri crafts are different. So, the craft development centre, Dhubri is trying to improve the skill of the artisans through training, design and improved tools.

Villages like Asharikandi, Kaldoba, Bilashipara and Balazan are famous for making terracotta items, which have very good demand in the district as also outside the State. About 2,000 craftspersons are engaged in this art. The raw materials required are clay sand, red clay and firewood and a Bhalla shed during rainy season. The crafts persons produce Hatima mother with child, Hatima dolls, Hatima Pradipdani, motorcycle with rider water filter, flower tub, horse, elephant etc. Weaving is a way of life with the Rabha women of Dhubri district and they can weave beautiful Rabha and sophisticated design. The sholapeth craft is another craft of Dhubri district. The craft is a more ancient one. There are many references vis-a-vis this art in the Hindu Satras. This craft is practised by the Malakar community in Dhepdhepi, Uchita, Agomoni, Golakganj, Kaldoba, Sattrasal, Zhapusabari under Golakganj area, Gauripur etc. and there are about 350 craft persons engaged in it. The crafts persons produce Sholapith items like traditional Kali mask, Goda putul, Manasha putul, Tokha putul. Besides this, the Malakar community produces different designs of garlands, flowers, animals, fruits etc. with the Sholapith.

The Sholapith craft items are great demand in the local market. The traditional Kali-mask, Goda Putul, Manasha putul, Jokha Putul, Kali putul used for Puja purposes and other decorative items have big demand outside the State.

Dotara is the main musical instrument of Goalpariya culture of Dhubri district and is used in the Goalpariya lokageet, Paddapuran (Manasha) geeta etc. The raw materials required for making the musical instrument are jackfruit (wood), nylon thread, gui skin. A limited number of craft persons practise this art in Dhubri district.

GUWAHATI, Jan 2: Here is a man who wants to prove even Newton wrong so far as his second law of motion is concerned. Newton in his second law said that the rate of change of motion is directly proportional to the impressed force, that is -- Force is equal to the mass multiplied by acceleration (F=masss x acceleration).

But, Sri RK Debgupta, a retired Assistant Soil Conservation Officer and a resident of the Dakhin Basisthanagar area in the city, has developed a device which, according to his own claim, does not follow the law of Newton in matters of acquiring momentum.

The device of Sri Debgupta is a multiplicator of torque which is made to play within two iron discs adjusted to the crank or with a hub in a bicycle. The crank is also made of two iron discs. When force is applied on the paddle of the bicycle, both the lever discs in the crank and the rear wheel make the rear wheel to rotate.

But compared to the standard design bicycles, less than 30 per cent (approximately) force is needed to be applied on the paddle of the bicycle adjusted with this device, to make the bicycle acquire the amount of momentum for which the standard design bicycles require 30 per cent (approximate) more pressure, Sri Debgupta claimed.

The device has taken Sri Debgupta's 19 years of toil, since 1971. He also developed a similar device for automobile cars and patented the concept in 1984, he said, adding, the automobile car has the fuel efficiency equal to that of a Maruti 800 car. But this device of his did not contradict any set rule.

To substantiate his claim, Sri Debgupta furnished a certificate issued by Dr Jaya Bhattacharjee, a medicine specialist of Beltola Tiniali in the city. Dr Bhattacharjee said in the certificate a 22 year-old man of sound physical health covered the distance of one kilometre in 2 minutes' time on an ordinary bicycle and his pulse rate increased by 75 beats per minute in covering the distance that way, while he covered the same distance in 1 minute 55 seconds with the modified bicycle showing an increase in his pulse rate by 65 beats per minute. The normal pulse beat of the man is 60 beats per minute, Dr Bhattacharjee said.

Commenting on the device developed by Sri Debgupta for automobile cars, the then Head of the department of Physics, Cotton College, Dr KD Krori said in a written letter to whom it may concern, that he (Dr Krori) along with Sri A Dutta Choudhury, former Secretary, Irrigation of the State, observed the working of the device at Sri Debgupta's residence on February, 1987.

"We are satisfied about its efficient performance and are of the opinion that Sri Debgupta deserves all sorts of encouragement, financial and spiritual, so that he may put it to industrial application", said Dr Krori, adding, "We hope, this will promote the cause of industrial growth of our State".

On March 17, 1998, Sri Shyamal Bhattacharjee, BE (Mech), Sri Dipankar Roy, BE (Elect), Dr Mohan Bora, M Sc, PhD, DICICC Phys, M Inst, M IM (London), Sri Anupam Das, AMIE (Mech) and Sri Ramesh Jaiswal, ITI (Automobile) examined the performance of the device and observed that 10 per cent fuel efficiency could be obtained with the application of the device in the city areas of Guwahati, while the benefit could be raised to 50 per cent outside the city in a long journey.

The device developed by Sri Deb Gupta for automobile cars is a simple nine-toothed iron disc, which is required to be attached to differential of the vehicle with the propelling shaft.

GUWAHATI, Jan 5: A documentary titled "The Stilwell Road - Revisited" produced by Images Inc; a Delhi-based production house, was screened at the Udeshna cinema hall here this morning. Over two years of research and co-ordination with various agencies in China and Myanmar, as also in India, led to the creation of the documentary. A co-production with the Institute of South Asian Studies of Kunming in Yunnan province in China, the documentary emphasizes the fact that if the Stilwell Road is reopened, the entire economic and industrial scenario of North-east India will be revolutionized since it will open up the vista for vigorous business transactions with China and Myanmar.

The Stilwell Road was constructed during the second World War II starting from Ledo in Dibrugarh district of Assam to Kunming in China with Mongyu on the Sino-Burmese border, to supply men, arms and other materials to the Chinese nationalist forces by the allied forces of Britain and America from India. The documentary depicts that the 1,079-mile Stilwell Road was an engineering marvel and it took tremendous effort by thousands of Indian, Burmese and Chinese workers, along with the allied troops, to build the road.

The road begins from Lekhapani on the outskirts of Ledo beyond Dibrugarh and Margherita in Assam. It transverses through thick jungles through Jairampur to reach Nampong in Arunachal Pradesh. From Nampong to Pangsau Pass on the Indo-Myanmarese border, the stretch of about 12 miles is in bad shape. A 4-wheel-drive vehicle is required for this stretch. The border at the 3,727 feet high Pangsau Pass overlooks a huge valley containing the so-called "Lake of No Return".

The documentary shows that in the Pangsau Pass a stretch of about 140 miles of the road does not exist, and has to be trekked. Juglo paths are used to communicate by the locals. The road re-emerges in fairly good condition at Tanai and goes through thick forests up to Mytkyina. Mytkyina is the capital of the Kachin State. About 25 miles downstream lies the beautiful confluence of the Mekha and Melika rivers forming the great Irrawady river.

The historic road after passing through some of unique and exotic landscape, reaches at its final destination that is Kunming, the bustling modern City of China. Known as the "City of the Eternal Spring", Kunming's skyline is dotted with skyscrapers and the tremendous construction activity is a pointer to more of these in the offing.

SIVASAGAR, Jan 5: The Sivasagar district administration, under the leadership of the Deputy Commissioner, Dr Ravi Kota, has given a twin-thrust on maintaining peace, harmony and normalcy in the district by streamlining the law and order machinery in the district on the one hand and by maintaining the spurt of developmental activities in the district on the other. Accordingly, the district administration has taken effective steps to maintain peace, harmony and normalcy in the district and in this area, the district administration has been able to achieve commendable success.

One of the important steps taken by Dr Kota to maintain peace, harmony and normalcy in the district is the identification of the 91 most sensitive areas in the district for providing an intensive security umbrella. Eighteen among these areas have been brought under the intensive security umbrella and the rest 73 areas have been subjected to monitoring through Village Defence Parties (VDPs) and gaonburas. Meetings have been held with gaonburas and the revenue staff in all revenue circles of the district and peace committees have been formed in these areas, by including representatives from all sections of people. These peace committees have been able to restore confidence among all sections of the people and exodus of people from the district because of the fear-psychosis in the wake of the mass killing of Hindi-speaking people in some places, including one in the Sivasagar district, has been minimal in comparison with many other places in Assam. This correspondent personally came across a l arge number of Hindi-speaking people who, at one time, decided to leave the place but, later, decided to stay back because of normalcy in the district. Security in all these areas has been beefed up through coordinated action involving the Army, CRPF and police. All border areas with Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh and the riverine area along the Brahmaputra river falling within Sivasagar district, have been brought under the strict surveillance of the Army, CRPF and police. The market areas and religious congregation places in the border areas with Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have also been brought under the strict security umbrella.

Meanwhile, both the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police, Sivasagar district, held a series of meetings with leading citizens and representatives of various political parties in all the important places of the district and identified areas for forming anchalik committees. To ensure peace in the tea garden areas of the district, a meeting of all the tea garden managers of the district was convened by the Deputy Commissioner to thrash out ways and means to streamline security measures in the tea gardens of the district.

Discussions were also held between the DC and SP of this district and their counterparts in Mon district of Nagaland as security measures in the border areas cannot be effective without the help and cooperation of authorities in Nagaland as criminals in the border areas in this part can easily make good their escape to Nagaland.

Peace rallies involving all sections of people were organized in every nook and corner of the district, to create awareness among the people regarding the need to resist anti-social activities. Besides, dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed along the 82-km-long border with Nagaland for an indefinite period.

The district administration has also taken some radical steps to speed up the developmental activities in the district, which have been virtually at a standstill. At the initiative of Mr L N Tamuly, the predecessor of Dr Kota, the UNESCO had agreed to enlist the 215-km-long historic Dhodar Ali running through four upper Assam districts, namely, Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar and Dibrugarh in the heritage list for renovation and repair of the road. After the transfer of Mr Tamuly, Dr Kota has been trying his best to implement this project through the UNESCO and the preliminary steps have already been initiated. Dhodar Ali is among the 690 heritage sites in the world and one among the 22 projects in India identified and selected for inclusion in the heritage list. Running almost parallel with NH-37, Dhodar Ali has the potential to link this part of the country with China through Stillwell.

CHHAYGAON, Jan 5: Just one and half hours drive from the din and bustle of Guwahati city is situated the west Kamrup township of Boko, near which, at Aagia is situated the Regional Muga Research Station (RMRS), the country's best known research centre for entomology dealing with muga (Antheraea assama). Muga is an insect in the silkworm group which is well-known for its exquisite golden yellow silk. The most popular and sought after two-piece wonder of Assam Mekhela-Sadar is produced out of this silk-yarn.

In an interview with The Northeast Daily, the RMRS joint director, P K Das, said that the station has fabricated a most cost effective and highly productive reeling machine named "RMRS-VI".

To be made operational by a single operator, the RMRS-VI can produce 120 gms of raw silk per day. On the other hand, in the traditional Bhir (machine) for which at least two operators are required, one can produce only 80-85 gms per 8 hours.

"The RMRS-VI wooden machine that produces relatively more uniform yarn (of muga) and whose operator feels free of fatigue, would replace the Bhir within the next five years," Das said, adding that the machine costing Rs 3000 has already been supplied to the governments of Assam & Meghalaya as well as private reelers.

Speaking of his team's achievements outside northeast, Das, who is also the director of Central Silk Board, northeast regional office located at Guwahati, maintained that a team from RMRS in association with a team of the Central Silk Board, Bangalore, have fabricated the country's most effective motorised reeling machine.

The RMRS has already leased out 110 machines to 20 NGOs at one per cent of the total cost of Rs 10,000. The station further supplied 300 such machines to other beneficiaries at 50 per cent subsidy.

Das added that the station has developed an "incubation schedule to obtain uniform and regular hatching" which ensures more than 80-85 per cent hatching as against 50-80 per cent hatching under room condition. "Gall infection and stem borer of muga food plants, have been managed", he pointed out. He joined Central Silk Board, ministry of textile in 1974.

The RMRS has carved a niche for itself in specialised fields like preservation of muga seed cocoon during winter season, evolving cold storage of muga silkworm egg for hatching, preservation of damage to silkworm eggs during inclement weather condition and propagation of suitable variety of genetically uniform type of muga host plant (Som, Soalu) in large scale. "Now one hectare of land can accommodate 200 muga host plants as compared to 156 plants per hectare under traditional farming method," Das pointed out.

Asked to comment on raising of muga production, the veteran entomologist who has 26 years of expertise on muga cultivation said that the United Nations had launched a three year project in India from 1999-2000 that included assistance to seed rearers, commercial rearers, reelers, spinners and weavers in addition to beneficiary training.

Altogether seven districts have been covered under the United Nations Development Programme. "The project for Assam which stresses on high quality cocoon production, improvement of loom with computer designs, is estimated to cost Rs 5.7 crore," Das said.

The NGOs will be the implementing agencies. The project is expected to yield 16 metric tonnes of raw silk valued at Rs 6.45 crore and 12 metric tonne of spun silk valued at Rs 0.57 crore. "Preliminary inspection has shown positive results," he said.

GUWAHATI, Jan 7: The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi) has started an initiative to add glitter to the traditional brass and bell-metal handicraft industry in the State by inculcating quality consciousness in local cratfsmen.

According to Dr Jayanta Madhab, Chairman of the NEDFi, the initiative is aimed at making the traditional brass and bell-metal products of the State marketable in the international market and thereby rejuvenate the centuries-old handicraft industry here.

As the choice of the buyer in the international market is determined more by quality of products than by anything else, the NEDFi realised the urgent need to improve the quality of local brass and bell-metal products to suit international standards.

For the purpose, the NEDFi roped in three German experts on handicraft products design to train a select group of craftsmen in Sarthebari and Hajo to start with.

German expert Alexander Zickendraht has co-ordinated the training project while his other two colleagues, Michael Pfister and his wife Dr Ute Mazur, were here in the field training craftsmen at Sarthebari and Hajo for about two weeks. The German couple preferred to stay in the local villages of craftsmen while conducting workshops so that they could get the first hand experience of the working and living conditions of these involved in brass and bell-metal industry in the State.

During an interaction with the media persons here on Saturday evening, Alexander Zickendraht who has been associated with the National Centre for Product and Development, New Delhi, for the last three years, said buyers in the international market especially those from Europe, were really aware of what quality is all about.

"To create a steady market for brass and bell-metal products of Assam abroad, we have to make people aware through quality of the products that something special is going on here in Assam as far as the traditional handicraft industry is concerned", he said.

When asked what will be the use of the traditional bell-metal and brass products of Assam for the people in Europe and any other parts of the globe, Sri Zickendraht said the utility of the items could very well be redefined for the international buyer.

Lauding the effort of the NEDFi, the German expert said there must be somebody or some institutions to look after the traditional handicraft industry here for a longer period so that international standard of quality could be maintained for the products and also to ensure prosperity of the industry and the artisans involved in it.

German expert Michael Pfister told this correspondent that products of international standard could be manufactured by a section of gifted artisans from Sarthebari and Hajo with the same traditional tools provided they were sensitised on proper maintenance of these. "During the workshop I have shown them what difference is made to the finished product if one uses tools with very smooth surface", he said while pointing towards a few bell-metal items manufactured during the training period.

He also said that the quality of raw materials used, greatly determined the quality of the finished products. Because of non-availability of good quality raw materials, craftsmen from Sarthebari and Hajo were using moulded raw materials or scraps available in the local market.

Three of the artisans from Sarthebari, Parikshit Deka, Bhabesh Talukdar and Subhas Tamuli -- who were among those who attended the workshop conducted by the German couple -- told the media persons that they had learnt a lot from the workshop.

"We have been taught how to give a sparkling finishing to the products. For that the German experts have introduced us to different but easily-available rubbing materials like coal and sand paper", Parikshit Deka said.

They said they realised the need to acquire some fresh tools to improve the quality of the products. Another most important requirement, according to them, is the good quality raw materials which are not available locally.

In order to make good quality raw materials available, the NEDFi has drawn out a scheme. The Executive Director, M K Sharma said that a 'micro-credit scheme' would be introduced soon for the benefit of the artisans. For individual borrowers, the loan amount will be in the range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 4 lakh while for joint ventures, the maximum limit will be Rs 8 lakh. At the same time, the NEDFi is also planning to adopt a village to ensure large-scale production of high-quality bell-metal products to be marketed internationally.

The NEDFi will procure class-I raw materials from Mineral and Metal Trading Corporation (MMTC) and will set up a raw material bank for artisans. This will be necessary as the MMTC does not sell raw materials in quantity less than a truck-load.

The raw material bank will be put under the responsibility of an industrial society to be formed by seven craftsmen from Sarthebari, handpicked by the NEDFi on the basis of performance in the workshop conducted by the German experts. All other interested artisans will be able to procure raw materials from the bank as and when they require it.

The expert couple from Germany also conducted workshops on traditional jewellery in Jorhat and Guwahati and visited several such jewellery shops in the two places to gauge the quality of products.

JORHAT, Jan 7: At a time when there is violence everywhere in the State Jorhat looks like an island of peace. If a person visits Jorhat now he/she will see a quite different picture. While a record number of visitors throng the trade fair at Kachari field here in the afternoon, sports lovers of the district and from other parts of the State and the nation are having a nice time at the tennis club here where the ITF Tennis Tournament is currently under way. As a whole the town wears a festive look.

Companies from outside the State, who are participating in the trade fair, are making a brisk business without any fear despite there are killings, abductions etc., elsewhere in the State. The foreign players who have come here to take part in the ITF tournament are visiting various parts of the town freely. The massive response to the trade fair and the tennis tournament once again proved that the people of Assam want peace and not violence.

Apart from the trade fair and the tennis tournament, what the town experienced today is the crowd of picnickers. Kokilamukh at Nimatigaht, Daklangia on the bank of the river Bhogdoi, Sonowal etc., are the spots where a large number of picnickers assembled today.

"Seeing is believing," a North Indian businessman said while admitting before this correspondent that he and his colleagues were surprised to see friendly atmosphere here. The panic, which had been created in the minds of the businessmen from outside the State by newspaper headlines on killings, abductions, extortions etc., in Assam before their journey to Assam to take part in the trade fair, has been proved wrong when they saw the friendly atmosphere here.

Children and women too enjoy the friendly atmosphere, not only by just window-shopping at the trade fair or crowding the gallery at the tennis club, but also by spending their leisure hours in the parks or holiday spots in the town.

JORHAT, Jan 9: "Assam has an attractive scenic beauty. It has a number of historic places and sanctuaries which can attract foreign tourists," a number of foreign sportsmen, who have come to Jorhat to take part in the ongoing ITF tennis tournament here, said this after visiting the Kaziranga National Park (KNP), the catchment areas of the Brahmaputra, tea estates, etc.

Tomajic Davor of Croatia and Peter of Austria visited the Kaziranga National Park and the catchment areas of the Dhansiri river. Most of the players were given the board and lodge in the guest houses of tea estates. The foreign players also enjoyed the scenic beauty of tea plantations of the State. Some of the players played soccer in the floodlight-lit field of Mariani Club last evening. The foreign players, while talking to the office-bearers of Jorhat Tennis Club, said that they were mesmerized by the scenic beauty of Assam and the hospitality of the Assamese people.

GUWAHATI, Jan 16: Two Assamese women -- Rita Banerjee and Shibani Choudhury -- are doing commendable jobs as an editor and a scriptwriter-cum-assistant director respectively, in one of the world's most acclaimed natural history filmmakers company -- the Riverbank Studios, headed by the famous filmmaker Mike Pandey. The team has so far produced over 20 films since 1991 on wildlife, environment, social and developmental issues and also on children education. Two of its films -- The Last Migration -- Wild Elephant Capture in Sarguja and the Shores of Silence -- Whale Sharks in India, have won the Green Oscar at the Wildscreen 1994 and 2000 festivals respectively. Wildscreen is the world's premier festival for films on natural world held biennially in Bristol, UK. Limca Book of Records also mentioned Rita and Shibani as the first Indian women wildlife film makers. The Last Migrationwas the first Asian film to win a Green Oscar instituted by the Wildscreen Trust in association with the WWF, UK. Shores of Silence was one of the 425 international entries which were submitted to the Wildscreen 2000 festival. Altogether 47 of these films were nominated for the final awards and of them, 17 films received the Wildscreen Panda -- The Green Oscar, for various categories. The Shores of Silence, -- a hard-hitting portrayal of the slaughter and trade of whale sharks on the western coast of India, won the Television Trust for Environment (TVE) award and was also nominated for the animal planet category in the festival. The film also received a tremendous response at the Wildscreen festival and could draw the attention of conservation groups all over the world.

Wildscreen Panda is considered to be the highest honour for a natural history filmmaker. Many of the world's renowned natural history television filmmakers like Sir David Attenborough of the UK, Jim Murray of Canada, Nikolai Drozdhov of Russia and Alan Roof of Kenya were awarded earlier with the Widescreen Panda. Shores of Silenceis the first Indian film to focus on a large marine species -- the whale sharks. It was shot under difficult conditions and took almost three years to complete. It was aimed at moulding public opinion for policies to conserve this largest fish, some of which grow even 60 feet in length, and, has a life span of 100 years or more. Though in other parts of the world, this fish is treated as an endangered species, in India, particularly in the Saurashtra coast between Veraval and Okha, it is hunted for the oil of its liver, soft white meat and the fin, usually between May and June every year and at the alarming rate of four to five a day! While the oil from the liver of the fish is used by the fishermen of the Bidiva community in Gujarat to make their boats water proof and, on occasions, sold to the shoe polish manufacturers, the meat of the fish along with the fin, is exported to the Southeast. A single whale shark can now provide on an average, around Rs 1.3 lakh to its exporter and of it around Rs 20,000 goes to the team of the fishermen catching it. The 1972 Wildlife Protection Act of the country has not made the whale shark a protected species. The Last Migrationwas filmed on the herd of the elephant, which was captured in December 1993, in a teak plantation of Sarguja district, after a six-year-long futile exercise to rehabilitate them, by the Madhya Pradesh forest department. The herd was originally displaced from the Singhbhum forest of Bihar as a result of the mining operations and deforestation there. The herd had originally 18 members and had their numbers coming down to 12 when captured in 1993. The captured elephants were trained and pressed into service in Madhya Pradesh forest department.

GUWAHATI, Jan 21: Keeping pace with the rapid strides in the field of general agriculture in Assam, organic farming too has come of age in the State. This has the potential of opening up the doors of foreign markets, particularly Europe, where consumption of organically grown foodstuff is currently the rage. Organically cultivated joha rice from Assam will be one of the prized exhibits from India at the world-level Bio Fach-2001 that is to be held at Nurumberg, Germany, from February 15 to 18. Bio-Fach is an exclusive exhibition of organic food and drinks, farm shop supplies, natural cosmetics, detergents and cleaning agents, textiles, toys, etc. Exhibitors and visitors to the fair, since 1990, have been taken with the successful mixture of high quality product displays, meetings with important trading partners, up-to-date information at the recognised congress and a host of other events. Bio-Fach is a must for anyone seriously concerned with organic market. The credit for taking Assam's joha rice to the fair goes to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), an agency under the Ministry of Commerce, which had launched a project for the development of model organic farms for a few selected agricultural and horticultural commodities. Accordingly, model farms were set up for pineapple (Sonamura, Tripura), passion fruit (at Mao, Manipur), sugarcane (at Sipajhar, Assam) and joha rice (also at Sipajhar). The model organic farms, co-ordinated by selected local NGOs through the farmers who own the land, were financed partly through subsidies from APEDA and partly from loan from the Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN). The technical consultant for the project is Biotech Consortium India Ltd, Kolkata. While the other selected crops in the model farms are in different stages of development, joha rice from Assam is ready.

Sister Rosario Lopez, the recipient of this year's Pa Togan Nengminza Award for social service, has, ever since her arrival in the Garo Hills, virtually changed the living conditions of the blind and the disabled. She has made the lives of these neglected groups of people proud by educating them, teaching them to earn their livelihood and most of all, making them aware of their rights and proud of what they are.

Sr Rosario was born in 1930 at Granada, south of Spain to Emmanuel Lopez and Rosario Haerrera. She was the sixth child in a family of four sisters and three brothers. She did her studies in Granada and in 1951 joined the Society of Christ Jesus at Zavier, north Spain, the place where the great saint Francis Xavier was born. After five years of training, she went to England and in 1965 arrived in Meghalaya to be part of the newly-opened Nazareth Hospital at Shillong where she rendered her services for four years. She was then appointed to run the medical services at Mawlyndeng, Raliang, in Jaintia Hills where she toured the far-flung areas of Karbi Anglong, Nongpynluh for the next 12 years giving medical aid and educating the people living in the interior areas. She also established a Community Health Project which she looked after from 1975 to 1980.

In 1881, she came to Mendal in East Garo Hills to open a mission. She was part of the three-member team who started the Bethany convent-cum-dispensary at Mendal. It being the first such health centre in the area, the mission had to cover a large area which included places like Jengjal, Samanda, Bajengdoba, and also Gabil. The people of these areas fondly remember Sr Rosario trekking up hills and crossing rivers just to reach the people living in the interior villages so as to educate them and to tend to the sick. There was not a day she would stay back at the mission. Her most challenging task was the Gabil project, a place believed to be the most backward and neglected part of Garo Hills, where she began educating the people on the need to use preventive medicines, started a nutritional project for the children under five years of age, and a literacy programme. She taught the people of Gabil on the need to use safe drinking water and the dangers posed by mosquitoes, and unhygienic conditions. She is well known in Gabil for initiating the "Food for work" project. Through the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), she was able to provide food for the poor villagers who in turn rendered their services. In the voluntary sector, she co-ordinated 17 rural dispensaries and also took up a project called the "Hunger Campaign" through a non-governmental organisation (NGO) from Spain for three years. The main objective of this campaign was for providing nutritional food and medicines. Sr Rosario was also involved in the adult and non-formal education programme in East Garo Hills which she co-ordinated simultaneously. She was moved by the large number of blind children who lived unattended in the Garo Hills. She began a movement called Comprehensive Eye Service under which curative eye camps began to be organised in the rural areas of Garo Hills. She felt the need to establish an educational institution which eventually became a reality with the setting up of the Marian Centre at Aramile on the 2nd of February 1988. The centre caters to the needs of the visually and hearing impaired and those mentally retarded. This centre has set an example for the setting up of nine other such institutions in the whole of the State.

In 1995, she started a project called Centre for Appropriate Technology and Sustainable Agriculture Practices at Tebronggiri, near Rongram. The aim of the project is to train adult disabled persons to earn a livelihood. The Council for the Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), under the Ministry of Rural Development, has been supporting this project having realised its effectiveness. As part of the community-based rehabilitation, the past pupils of this project are able to live in decent homes constructed by the society through the active support of CAPART. The housing project is supported by the DRDA and also partly by Spainsh NGO called "Pueblos Hermanos". A total of forty houses for the disabled have already been completed under this project.

Sr Rosario Lopez is also a member of the District Blindness Control Society and regularly conducts eye camps in the rural areas.