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- Denis Giles
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What do you eat when you eat fish? Chemicals, human faeces and plastic. Lets discuss the plastic bit.
According to a recent study in Marine Pollution Bulletin done by scientists from Plymouth University, one third of fish off the coast of England have been found full of plastic bits. This is not just the fish of the North Sea or the Atlantic Ocean. “We have previously shown that on shorelines worldwide, on the sea bed and in the water column around the UK, these tiny fragments of plastic are widespread,” scientist Richard Thompson says in Planet Earth Online. The study shows how these plastic fragments are making their way into organisms.
504 fish include whiting, horse mackerel, John Dory and red gurnard were collected about 10 kilometres off the coast of Plymouth. 184 of the fish had between one to fifteen pieces of plastic in their gastrointestinal tracts. 351 pieces of plastic were removed from the fish, most of it from plastic bottles, single use bags. styrofoam, plastic gloves, lids, foam packaging, plastic rope, plastic fishing line, plastic bleach bottle, plastic egg cartons, lighters, plastic lids, straws, exfoliators, face scrubs, cosmetic and sanitary items. This is apart from the cigarette butts. Some dead ones had metal caps and glass pieces in them. All these fish would have ended up on a fisheater’s dining table.
In 2011, U.K. supermarkets handed out a total of 8 billion “thin-gauge” bags, a 5.4 % increase from the 7.6 billion handed out in 2010. Every U.K. shopper now uses about eleven plastic bags a month and most of them end up inside fish. Plastic microbeads used by cosmetic companies are easily eaten by fish and get passed up and down the food chain.
31 million tonnes of plastic waste was generated in 2010 in the USA – 92% was thrown into the ocean. In 2011 scientists found plastic in 10% of the lantern fish collected from the Pacific Ocean . These fish are commonly eaten by larger fish which are eaten by humans. A study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego estimated that fish in the middle depths of the northern Pacific Ocean are ingesting as much as 24,000 tons of plastic each year. The plastic in the fish may sometimes be large but is mostly broken down into small fragments that go unseen by the human eater. “10% is on the low side. We can't tell how many fish ate plastic and died and how many fish ate plastic and regurgitated it or passed it out of their intestines," said Rebecca Asch, one of the study's authors. A study by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation found plastic in the stomachs of 35% of fish in the same general area of the Pacific.
Cheap, durable and lightweight, plastic is used in countless industries. But little of it is recycled and much ends up in the environment, the rivers and seas, where it fragments without degrading and ends up doing a great deal of harm. Some of it, eaten by fish, goes right back into your body.
In India, Delhi alone produces 250,000 plastic waste annually - plastic bags, sheets, films – which is all thrown into the water. Plastic never degrades in a marine environment. It chokes wetlands and wildlife.
So much is the plastic that there is a Great Pacific Garbage Patch, made mainly of plastic, stretching for hundreds of kilometres across the North Pacific Ocean, an island bigger than U.P. and Madhya Pradesh combined, forming a nebulous, floating junk yard on the high seas. An alien looking out of an UFO could mistake it for a country.
Unlike most other trash, plastic cannot biodegrade as no microbes that break down other substances recognize plastic as food. So it stays forever. Eventually sunlight breaks down the bonds between the polymers reducing it to smaller and smaller pieces, but that makes matters worse because then it is eaten by tiny marine organisms, entering the food chain.
Sea turtles are especially susceptible. In addition to being entangled by fishing nets, they often swallow plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish, their main prey. Turtles that are caught and eaten, often have a great deal of plastic in their stomachs which has clogged their intestines starving them to death. Plastic resin pellets, which are tiny, industrial-use granules shipped in bulk around the world, are often washed into the sea and are eaten by sea birds who regurgitate them and feed their children. Decaying albatross chicks are frequently found with stomachs full of plastic debris. These small plastic particles have been found in the stomachs of 63 of the world's approximately 250 species of seabirds.
The plastic in the fish is toxic to the fish eater in many ways. It will have poisoned the fish because of its inherent toxicity as it contains colourants and chemicals like bisphenol-A, organic pollutants like PCBs and other toxins. The fish eater swallows all of these cancer causing and organ blocking elements.
So the plastics floating down your sewers, flushed down your toilets, thrown out as medical waste, tampons, diapers, condoms, thrown out of boats that empty their trash directly into the ocean (In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that 14 billion pounds of garbage was being dumped into the ocean every year. That's more than 1.5 million pounds per hour. A 1985 report estimated that merchant ships dump 450,000 plastic containers each day into international waters. The oceans received tons of plastic products dumped daily by commercial fishermen, military vessels, merchant ships, passenger liners, pleasure boats, offshore oil and gas drilling operations, the plastics industry and sewage treatment plants). These are eaten by small fish who are eaten by larger fish who are eaten by you.
Humans love freebies. And you get lots of plastic free when you eat fish. Small fish mistake plastic particles for plankton, their normal food. There are many estimates about the ratio of plastic particles to plankton. They range from 6:1 to a catastrophic 46:1. The point is, there is MUCH more plastic than plankton. Soon the fish body is eating more plastic than food.
So the fish is caught and wrapped in plastic and sold to you. Plastic inside, plastic outside. Why not just cut out the “middle man” and eat your plastic bag for lunch?
Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.peopleforanimalsindia.org
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Is a dog sensitive to your emotions? Or is it just a coincidence that he seeks you out when you are emotionally distressed? Plenty of pet owners are comforted by a pair of puppy-dog eyes or a lick of the tongue when their dog catches them crying. Now, research suggests that dogs really do respond uniquely to tears.
Dr. Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer of the Department of Psychology at the University of London Goldsmiths College, developed a procedure in 2012 to examine if domestic dogs could identify and respond to emotional states in humans. In their finding, published in the journal Animal Cognition, eighteen pet dogs of different ages and breeds were exposed to four separate 20-second scenes in which either the dog's owner or an unfamiliar person pretended to cry, hummed in an odd manner, or carried out a casual conversation.
The dogs responded in a way that made it quite clear that they knew the difference and they knew which human was in trouble. Significantly, more dogs looked at, approached and touched the crying humans. They nuzzled and licked the person, the canine version of "there there." Some went to the odd-humming ones. No dogs responded to the talking ones. The dogs approached the crying person in a submissive manner consistent with empathic concern and comfort-offering.
The humming was added because it was new to the dogs and the researchers wanted to gauge whether the dogs were motivated by curiosity at the noise or whether they understood human distress. The experiments proved “the crying carried greater emotional meaning for the dogs and provoked a stronger overall response than either humming or talking."
The study also found that the dogs responded to the person who was crying regardless of whether it was their owner or a stranger: Initially it was thought that dogs would respond only to their owners. According to the researchers “No such preference was found. The dogs approached whoever was crying, regardless of their identity. Thus they were responding to the person's emotion, not their own needs, which is suggestive of comfort-offering behaviour without discriminating among familiar and unfamiliar people.”
In another study, researchers at the University of Otago , New Zealand , put 90 dogs through their paces - showing some recorded images of babies laughing, crying and babbling. Professor Ted Ruffman said the dogs’ responses indicated that they could understand, they could tell the difference between a happy and an angry person, and a laugh from a cry. He said dogs who saw the crying baby searched behind the television screen to "find" the baby, cocked their head and expressed concern.
That dogs can understand us is something that every dog owner knows. They have been bred over centuries to be companions in every way to humans. Are they sensitive to our moods? Look at the phenomenon of yawning: if a human yawns, so does a dog.
Almost every dog owner has found out that when they are really sad, their dog acts differently toward them. A dog may approach its disturbed owner with a concerned look and, quite out of character, hunker down next to them as if to provide some emotional support. It is as if they are saying, “I know there's something wrong, I don't know what it is but I'm here for you, anyway.”
Many dogs slink away and hide or sulk when their human "parents" argue. A major fight between adults really seems to take its toll on some dogs. It appears from the dog's behaviour that he understands discord and does not want to be around it. Of course, it can be argued that raised voices might drive the dog away, but there are dogs that fret even when their owners purposely keep their voices low. It's almost as if you can't hide anything from a dog.
If an owner comes home and finds the home trashed by their dog, the guilty party will often be found hiding, perhaps with a hangdog look. Owners believe their dog is feeling guilty about what he has done. If you accept the guilt explanation, you must also accept that the dog is able to understand your feelings of disappointment or anger.
In another study done on 84 dogs and published in Animal Cognition in February 2013. Dr Juliane Kaminski, of the University of Portsmouth's Department of Psychology, has shown that when a human forbids a dog from taking food, dogs are four times more likely to disobey in a dark room than a lit room, suggesting they take into account what the human can or cannot see. The study shows dogs understand the human can't see them, meaning they understand the human perspective and realize that it is safer to steal food in the dark.
Can dogs read emotion on human faces? When humans look at a new face their eyes tend to wander left, falling on the right hand side of the person's face first. This "left gaze bias" only occurs when we encounter faces, and does not apply any other time, such as when inspecting animals or inanimate objects. A possible reason for the tendency is that the right side of the human face is better at expressing emotional states. Researchers at the University of Lincoln have now shown that pet dogs also exhibit "left gaze bias", but only when looking at human faces.
The more tests that take place, the more we realize that dogs are like humans. It seems odd that so many people want to be mean to them.
Maneka Gandhi
To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.peopleforanimalsindia.org
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- Denis Giles
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Two months ago I held a meeting with the Ministry of Animal Husbandry officials. I went to ask them to change their policy on things that were killing India: the growing of emus and rabbits, the hundred percent subsidy on slaughterhouses, the bad slaughter practices. They heard me out in silence – and the next day Sharad Pawar told me that none of these things would be changed because he was personally in favour of them.
One of the things I asked for was for a policy decision to be taken on the terrible physical mutilations done to cattle – dehorning , castration and nose-roping. The Commissioner for Animal Husbandry, a horrible, foolish man who epitomises the illiterate and pompous bureaucrat that has ruined India felt he had to add to the discussion. So he butted in “I am a vet and I believe that animals do not feel any pain when these things happen to them, because they are not capable of feeling pain. So we cannot change these procedures.” I asked him “Do you think that a living being whose testicles are being crushed without anaesthesia does not feel pain?” He answered “Pain is relative, madam.” At this point, I really wanted to apply that procedure on him. How unlucky animals are that these kind of people, who fail at ten exams, then take up veterinary science and then pay their way into government jobs, are the people who are put in charge of their lives. No wonder there is so much cruelty.
This is the problem:
Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 certain procedures which are commonly done on cattle are exempt from being technically known as cruel. These include: “the dehorning and disbudding of cattle or the castration or branding or nose-roping of any animal in the prescribed manner”. They can be done by anybody to these poor beasts and still not be considered cruel.
Dehorning is the removal of cattle’s horns and Disbudding means destroying the cells which produce horns. These procedures are performed not to make the animals more comfortable but to make them defenceless when they are mishandled, beaten, pushed into trucks for slaughter etc. It is also done because when animals are squeezed together into small spaces, they do not hurt each other so that the owner earns more from their sale.
Both dehorning and disbudding are extremely painful.
Disbudding methods include searing the horn buds using a hot iron, which is extremely painful and can damage underlying bone; applying or injecting caustic materials or cutting the bud using knives, shears or dehorning spoons. Dehorning methods include surgically removing the horns or physically cutting them off using wires, guillotine shears, dehorning knives, saws or spoons. No anaesthesia is used – not even by a vet. Compounders, village quacks, animal husbandry officials – anyone can do it.
The cattle are in extreme pain during and after the procedure which causes tissue damage to the most sensitive part of the body, the head. Blood tests show all the pain indicators: increased plasma cortisol concentrations, increased adrenaline and noradrenaline concentrations. The poor mute animal physically shows all the pain response that he can : tail wagging, head movement, tripping and rearing during dehorning and head rubbing, head shaking, neck extension, ear flicking, tail flicking, restlessness, lying and getting up frequently, lack of appetite. Because of the inept way it is done, diseases such as tetanus, bovine cutaneous papillomas and bovine leukosis virus infection are a common result.
All we are asking for is that there should be anaesthesia before, and painkillers and human handling. This is a major operation. If you cut off my ears and then sear the nerves and bone with common iron applied to the side of my head, would I not go mad with pain? Why should this be any less?
Castration is another common procedure on male cattle. It is done to prevent unwanted breeding and reduce aggressive behaviour so that the animal becomes docile even when he is overloaded, beaten, mishandled, starved and eventually crowded into trucks for slaughter. The Bail or castrated bull is the backbone of the agricultural economy. This is how it is done in India:
In most deep rural areas, you truss the animal after forcing him on his side. Then you crush his testicles using a heavy stone. The “approved” method is not much better: Apply a rubber ring to the neck of the scrotum above the testicles and use a clamp (called testicle crusher) to crush the animal’s spermatic cord. The chemical method involves injecting toxic agents (eg, lactic acid) into the testicular parenchyma, and the hormonal method requires injecting immuno-contraceptives into the animal to induce antibody production against gonadotropin-releasing hormone, resulting in decreased production of hormones such as testosterone.
All types of physical and chemical methods of castration cause animals to endure tremendous stress and pain. The testes and scrotum are heavily supplied with nerves, and any damage to them causes immediate and prolonged pain for several weeks. Following the procedure, cattle’s blood cortisol concentrations have been found to increase and it takes a long time for them to return to normal.
The intense pain that animals experience during and after castration causes many cattle to exhibit acute pain responses, including struggling, kicking with the hind legs, tail swishing, foot stamping, head turning, restlessness, a stilted gait, reduced activity, increased recumbency, abnormal standing posture, glazed expressions and reduced feed intake.
Analgesics, sedatives and anaesthetics can reduce or eliminate fear and pain during castration..
Immuno-castration is a much better alternative: injections given every six months, which reduce a bullock’s testosterone production – is a humane alternative to conventional castration.
Cattle in India are commonly subjected to painful hot-iron branding and freeze branding to signify ownership. Both are extremely painful and lead to moaning out loud by the animal, an increase in the heart and respiratory rates. Kicking, tail flicking and trying to escape are other reliable indicators of their pain. This branding should be strictly banned unless accompanied by local anaesthesia, pain killers and done by an experienced vet. It would be much better to outlaw the process and replace it with ear tattooing or microchipping.
Nose roping involves piercing an animal’s nasal septum in front of the cartilage using an iron rod, passing a rope through the hole and permanently fastening the rope behind the animal’s head below the base of the horns. Pulling or twisting the rope exerts pressure on the extremely sensitive septum, causing the animal pain and making it easier for handlers to force him or her to move in the desired direction.
In addition to the initial pain of piercing, nose ropes cause cattle chronic pain and injuries. Once in place, the nose ropes are pulled, yanked and jerked, causing immeasurable pain and suffering. According to a recent study, moderate to severe injuries in the nostrils were noted in 62% of cattle. 3% lesions bled continuously and 44 % had pus discharge.
A halter (called a morkee) is a simple, effective, inexpensive and humane alternative to nose ropes. This could be official policy and people taught how to use properly fitting gear and instructed to control bullocks through the use of positive training methods, including treats such as sweet grass, calmly talking to and gently stroking the animal.
Castrations must be performed by a registered veterinary practitioner. Anaesthesia should be mandatory for any invasive husbandry procedures in cattle. Why should we be so mean to those animals that help us in every way to survive? India will not be viable if we remove her cattle. But how viciously we treat them. Animal husbandry practices should be refined and state animal husbandry departments should define a standard operating procedure. And take extremely strict action against those who violate them. Each rural hospital should have inventories of drugs, instruments and equipment for humane procedures. The Veterinary Council of India should issue directives to veterinary colleges and universities to amend their veterinary curricula to teach students to administer sedatives, analgesics and anaesthetics during field procedures. The old procedures must be banned in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960.
Maneka Gandhi
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In a previous article I told you about some plants that keep away mosquitoes. Here are some more. None of these are difficult to get: try your local nursery.
The European Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) is a member of the mint family.
It is a low, spreading perennial herb, native to Europe and western Asia. Reaching a height of 0.3 meters, the plant has ovate to nearly round leaves with hairy undersides and lilac flowers in dense whorls. Crushed Pennyroyal leaves have a very strong fragrance similar to spearmint. It is used as a mosquito repellent in the environment and a flea repellent on the body. It is cultivated in parts of India for its essential oil.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is a perennial mint family shrub that can reach 1.5 meters in height. It is a drought tolerant plant with pleasantly fragrant needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers. Like many of the plants used as repellents, it can also be used in food and medicine.
Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) is also a member of the Mint family. A perennial, it grows to 0.6 meter high. Its leaves are joint toothed pairs, broadly ovate or heart-shaped, which emit a fragrant lemon odour when bruised and can also be used in salads. They are rubbed on the skin as a repellent, though the essential oil would be more effective here. It repels flies and ants as well. It has small white flowers full of nectar . Lemon balm grows in clumps The stems of the plant die off at the start of the winter, but shoot up again in spring.
Peppermint (Mentha piperita), pudina, is a perennial plant growing to 0.3–1 meter tall, with smooth stems. The leaves are from 1.6–3.5 cm long, dark green with reddish veins, and coarsely toothed margins. The leaves and stems are usually slightly hairy. The flowers are purple; they are produced in whorls around the stem, forming thick, blunt spikes.
Morpankhi (Thuja orientalis) is a bush common all over India . It is also known as mayurpankhi • Manipuri: Lairikheibi * Sanskrit: kshirakakol * Bengali: bilatijhau.
Belonging to the cypress family, it is a densely branched evergreen conifer that can become 16 meters tall but is usually grown as a smaller, bushier shrub. The overall shape is conical. The bark is rusty-brown and fibrous. The numerous slender ascending branches are spread out in flat, vertical planes. The leaves are like little scales overlapping and tightly packed. The odd shaped cones are 15-25 mm long, green ripening brown in about 8 months, and have 6-12 thick scales arranged in opposite pairs. Its oils are mosquito repellents. Many villagers squash and rub the seeds on their skin to keep away mosquitoes.
Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) is a perennial, herbaceous flowering plant of the aster family, native to Asia. It is also known as Common Tansy, Bitter Buttons, Cow Bitter, Mugwort, or Golden Buttons. It has finely divided compound fernlike leaves and yellow, flat topped button-like yellow flowers. It has a stout, somewhat reddish, erect stem, usually smooth, 50–150 cm tall, and branching near the top. Bunches of tansy were traditionally placed at windows to keep out flies.
Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides) is a perennial grass native to India. In western and northern India , it is popularly known as khus. Vetiver can grow up to 1.5 metres high and form clumps. The stems are tall and the leaves are long, thin, and rather rigid; the flowers are brownish-purple. Unlike most grasses, which form horizontally spreading, mat-like root systems, vetiver's roots grow downward, 2–4 meters in depth. Vetiver grass grows in bunches. The vetiver plant is highly drought-tolerant and, if made into a hedge barrier, can keep away mosquitoes and other pests.
Sagebrush, Wormwood, Mugwort are all members of the Artemisia family of plants. All of these species can be used as an aromatic smudge that is known to be a very effective mosquito repellent. The crushed leaves can also be applied directly to the skin. These species grow in drier habitats.
Mosquitoes are repelled by a type of lemony scent. The most effective is citronella grass. In Africa they use the Citronella mucrunata a tree /hedge which has proven most effective in repelling mosquitoes. This serves two purposes; first by exuding the scent which repels mosquitoes, and by providing a habitat and food for birds that eat mosquitoes. The citronella compound has also been bred into the “lemon geranium” which exudes the same scent, and is being used to repel mosquitoes. Lemon geraniums, which I wrote about last time, can be planted under or around windows, or can flank the sides of doorways to repel mosquitoes while providing beautiful flowers and a pleasant lemon scent.
Mosquito repellents should be adopted by housing societies. Vetiver and Citronella are grasses that can be planted round the periphery of the complex. The clove tree Syzygium aromaticum could be planted, but until it grows, use clove oil as an insect repellent by diluting it with distilled water, and using 1 part clove oil to 10 parts of the diluting solution, pour into a plastic spray bottle. Apply the solution to outdoor areas such as broad-leafed plants, planters and fences, forming a perimeter around your outdoor activity area. You may need to reapply the solution every 1 to 2 hours for maximum protection, so use it before a party or a sit out.
Citrus trees of any kind – lemon, lime, pomelo, grapefruit, for instance - grow easily and are definite mosquito repellents. So are tomatoes that could grow on pots on windowsills. Eucalyptus trees are definitely mosquito repellents but I hesitate to recommend them because they drink so much water.
Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
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One of the most important side effects of global warming is more erratic rain and greater heat. This simply means more mosquitoes and new types of mosquito related diseases.
You know all the standard ways to repel mosquitoes. Today I am going to suggest some plants that keep mosquitoes away. You can plant them round the house or in pots near the doors and windows. Making window boxes outside each window is something that all builders of flats should do. Use the plants in containers around your verandah or outdoor living space. Some of these plants can be cut and used in flower arrangements in the house. It is the oils extracted from these plants which mosquitoes hate. Crush the leaves to release the fragrance and rub it on parts that usually get bitten
If you are in a municipality you can recommend these plants to be put in colonies, near water bodies or near garbage dumps.
1. The best plant to use is Cymbopogon or Lemongrass. You can even cook with it.
This is a tall perennial grass of about 55 varieties. Common names include lemon grass, barbed wire grass, silky heads, citronella grass, fever grass, cochin grass. In Malayalam: inchippullu, Marathi: gavati chah.
Lemongrass is native to India. It has a subtle citrus flavour and can be dried and powdered, or used fresh. It grows to about 6.5 feet. You can use the oil as an insect repellent as well in sprays and candles. Brush the planted Lemon Grass to release more of its fragrance.
2. Ageratum conyzoides or A. houstonianum is originally from outside India but has become an invasive and common plant here. It is an annual plant which belongs to the sunflower family. It thrives in any garden and agricultural soils and is very common in disturbed sites and degraded areas. It is found in all habitats, specially near ricefields or where it is damp.
Its common name is Goat weed, Billy goat weed, Tropical whiteweed. In Hindi it is known as jangli pudina, visadodi, semandulu, gha buti, bhakumbar • Manipuri: khongjai napi • Marathi: ghanera osaadi • Kannada: oorala gida, helukasa • Tamil: pumppillu, appakkoti • Malayalam: kattappa, muriyan pacca • Bengali: uchunti • Sanskrit: visamustih.
It is an erect softly hairy annual plant which grows up to a height of 2.5 feet. Its hairy leaves are coarsely egg shaped and have a toothed margin. The small threadlike flowers range from white, purple, pink to blue, and form dense domed clusters. It flowers most of the year. It grows in full sun to partial shade.
You must be very careful about growing this plant and not allow it to spread at random as it takes over areas and does not allow other plants to grow. Ageratum is not just a repellent; it can render most insects sterile if ingested in large enough quantities.
3. To reduce numerous other flying insects, including mosquitoes, plant marigolds in containers or in the ground in full sunlight. Marigolds are known commonly as gainda and have many varieties ranging from light yellow to deep orange. It is used for medicines, garlands, salads, dyes. You can even dry it and burn it to repel insects and flies. If you choose marigolds for your garden they must be scented.
4. Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is a herb from the Tulasi family. Hindi: babuyi tulsi, bawari bawai • Malayalam: ramatulasi. It can grow to 2 feet and can be planted in full sun to partial shade. A number of varieties exist today, ranging from a tiny-leafed Greek basil to robust 2-feet-high plants with large succulent leaves. Some varieties have deep purple leaves. While flowers are usually small and whitish, some can be pink to brilliant magenta. Leaves can be dried for later use. Lots of people keep pots of basil on their tables to keep mosquitoes away. You can rub it on your skin as well.
5. Catmint or catnip is a plant of the mint, Nepeta, family found all over the world. Catnip is a gray-green aromatic perennial that grows to 3 feet, with fuzzy leaves, and twin-lipped flowers. The oblong pointed leaves have scalloped edges and gray or whitish hairs on the lower side. Nepeta cataria (Urdu: badranj boya) is a hairy aromatic perennial herb with whorls of small white purple-spotted flowers that grow in spikes. It is s an effective mosquito repellent both by growing the plant and applying its oil. Nepetalactone, the active ingredient in catnip, repels mosquitoes 10 times more effectively than DEET, the active ingredient in most insect repellents.
6. Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is an evergreen perennial plant that grows upto 1.5 feet. It requires full sun to partial shade. It has silvery green, long, narrow leaves and stems and tall, colourful, violet-purple flowers growing in whorls. The oil glands that appear among the flowers are responsible for the plant's scent. If you are using lavender for its oils, cut it before the flowers open fully and dry them by hanging bundles upside down in a cool, dark location. Plant lavender in garden beds and in pots, to repel mosquitoes naturally. Cluster pots of lavender around seating areas to keep the mosquitoes away. Lavender is skin safe and can be used topically. Disperse lavender essential oil in water and spray it on your skin for a refreshing and mosquito-repelling spray.
7. There are lots of different varieties of geraniums in India and the rose scented one is even exported for its oil. The Lemon scented geranium (Pelargonium crispum) is not common but it is very useful against mosquitoes. It is a perennial which grows in full sun to partial shade. It is a nectar plant for butterflies and can be used for potpourris, and sachets. It is lemon-scented, with pale pink flowers and small wavy crinkled leaves. Originally from Africa, geraniums were believed by many that they helped to keep away evil spirits (which included mosquitoes!)
The chief constituent of the oil are geraniol and citronellol.
Go to a nursery and ask for these plants. All of them are sweet smelling and will help keep away the biggest nuisance of the summer and monsoon. I will give you the second list in another article.
Maneka Gandhi
To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.peopleforanimalsindia.org