Monday, April 4, 2016

Opunt IAS

Opunt IAS

This is not about IAS ! 

It is Opuntias, the beautiful Cactus plant, the ficus indica. It's fruits are tasty. Children eat fruits available freely and had their nutritional supplements. Saurastra people enjoy it's juice in Summer. It's a food for the Tortoises. It has 14 varieties with some differences in spine, fruits, and flowers. With house and farm hedges of opuntias, so many different climbers birds butterflies get their biological niche. It's barbed spines can remain embedded in the skin, causing discomfort and sometimes injury. 

Jain Munis carry secret formulas of making Gold from silver, copper, brass or iron, fired with Arani wood and given cover (poot) 1-2-3-4 times with the help of Optuntias milk extracted on Ravipushya nakshatra.  But for that, you need Optunia (red) that that has one red fruit and two red flowers!

In cities when walls replaced hedges, the great biodiversity jeopardised. Hazira near Surat was once very rich, in fact whole of West coast was rich in having Opuntia groves. Lighthouse fence constructed by the britishers and the engineers wife (this is the legend) got a spine sting. Annoyed engineer, somehow managed to import some insect species (biological control through moth cactoblastis cactorum) that almost destroyed all Opuntias in the vicinity. 

Farmers in Saurastra and North Gujarat have replaced cactus green fence with the stoned or barbed wire fencing to restrict the movement of wild animals.

Australia imported Opuntias for gardens and agricultural fencing, but it's wide spread invasive weeds converting farming land into impenetrable jungle of prickly pear, made them "green hell". Australia federal government had to establish a board to eradicate the weed.

However, optuntias - cactus the green fence of bio rich diversity is better than the wire fencing of dead diversity. 

Punamchand
4 April 2016

NB: You may try making Gold from Silver/Copper/Iron. It is a legend that Harshadbhai Doshi of Vallabhipur had learnt some secret tricks from his Guru Jain Muni to make Gold from other mentals.

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