In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
TOBACCO-exporting nations flayed a new US legislation on prohibiting the use of more than 25 per cent imported tobacco by US cigarette manufacturers, even as three leading aerospace companies accused the US of using the current trade negotiations to undermine the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) subsidies agreement …
ZIMBABWE has been dehorning rhinos for almost a year in a desperate attempt to save them from poachers. The country's rhinoceros population has declined from 2,000 a year ago to less than 500 today. The animal is sought for its horn, which is coveted as an aphrodisiac in the Far …
THE WORLD'S largest exporter of hardwood plywood, Indonesian tycoon Prajogo Pangestu, is having to defend himself against criticism that he has close links with President Suharto. Prajogo has diversified into huge state-subsidised softwood plantations in partnership with Siti Hardijanti Rukmana, Suharto's eldest daughter. The criticism comes even as Prajogo launches …
SEVEN minutes. That's how much every cigarette reduces a person's life, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US. A study conducted by the institute's researchers found that every minute spent in smoking robbed the smoker of one minute of life and it took, on an …
WHILE burning sugarcane leaves makes harvesting the stalks easier, the practice is damaging to the environment. So Cinecana, the Colombian sugarcane industry's research arm, has come up with a way to help farmers harvest their cane in an environment-friendly manner. Says Cinecana director James Cock, they recommend harvesting the cane …
MALAYSIAN authorities, still irked by the costly campaign they had to wage in the US to revive their palm oil export trade (Down To Earth, August 15, 1993), are livid because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Washington is being reported to require by the year-end that all latex-based …
WEALTHY Arabs, who angered environmentalists in India for hunting the rare Great Indian Bustard, have touched Tanzanian wildlife experts in the raw for allegedly using automatic weapons to mow down buffalo and antelope. What has enraged Tanzanian wildlife lovers even more is that UAE deputy defence minister Mohammed Abdul Rahim …
Ranging behaviour of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) was studied using radio telemetry in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve had home ranges of over 500 sq km. These sizes are much larger than those defined by earlier studies. The study ranged across the three southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and …
ENVIRONMENTALISTS and civil rights lawyers strongly oppose the Sri iLankan government's move to shift jurisdiction of all cases involving projects approved by, the Board of Investments (BOI) from district courts to the court of appeal in Colombo. This means that a person may no longer petition a district court for …
TUCKED away on the southern outskirts of Bhavnagar town is a dreary stretch of wilderness that once was a beautiful forest with leguminous trees and bushes spread over the rocky terrain. Creepers wove a delicate tapestry of bright flowers on the spiky branches of acacias and jujubes. Nilgai, jackal and …
MOUNTAINS have always enjoyed a special status. Their beauty and mysticism have inspired poets, philosophers and even fairy-tale tellers. We accept their importance as sources of minerals and water, rare plants and wildlife. But what we have never realised is the plight of mountains. Though uplands cover roughly 20 per …
WHICH wildlife sanctuary in India is the world's only floating sanctuary? And, did you know the giant clam lays one billion eggs at a time? These are some of the fascinating facts on natural life put together in multiple-choice, question-answer format in Deep Narayan Pandey's two books. One wonders why …
IT WAS a strange case of politicians taking out their venom on snakes. Angry CPM workers in Kerala vandalised and set fire to the Parassinikkadavu Snake Park in Kannur. The reason for the wanton destruction of what was one of the finest snake sanctuaries in Asia, was the defeat of …
Conservationists in Kerala want to ban an arrack shop located in the heart of the Chinnar wildlife sanctuary because it endangers the grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura dandolena). The Idukki district sanctuary is one of only two places in India where the giant squirrel exists. Wildlife lovers contend the land …
ILL-CONCEIVED human intervention can all but destroy a wild animal's habitat and this has been amply illustrated at the Keoladeo National Park (KNP) in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. Successive years of worsening food and water scarcity are blamed for the lessening number of rare Siberian white cranes visiting the park. This year, …
THYROID cancer has started appearing sooner and spreading faster than expected among children exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April, 1986, according to two studies. A World Health Organisation team of pathologists and epidemiologists detected 102 cases of malignant thyroid cancer, usually not found among the children …
AIDS HAS claimed another victim -- this time one who is serving a four-year prison sentence after paying 500,000 franc (Rs 3.1 lakh) fine. The trial on a charge of distributing HIV-tainted blood through the French National Blood Transfusion Centre in 1985, ended with the centre's director, Michel Garretta, the …
WILDLIFE officials in Namibia are battling to save the world's last herd of desert elephants. The herd of 50 is threatened with the anthrax virus. As the disease can kill within 24 hours, officials are trying to vaccinate the elephants with darts fired from a helicopter. Desert elephants are no …
HOW DO you go beyond mere attempts to evoke pity and outrage in films that purport to be about conflicts between common people and the state? It is so easy to make these: Let the camera pan from one lamenting tribal to another, sweep over their habitat, still picturesque despite …
THE MADAGASCAR pochard, a duck species thought extinct 22 years ago, has been resurrected with the recent finding of a lone male in the island nation in the Indian Ocean. The duck was nabbed by a poacher in Lake Aloatra and recovered from him. It has since been kept at …
