Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of In Re: Zudpi Jungle Lands. A batch of applications involved a peculiar issue concerning the situation prevailing in the six districts of eastern Vidarbha region namely Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. The issue pertains to the status of the …
ANTI-GATT ALL the major opposition parties, with the help of mass-based organisations, are planning either demonstrations, rallies, civil disobedience movements or study camps for farmers throughout the country to protest GATT. In the Rajya Sabha, where the Congress is in a minority, opposition parties are getting together to prevent GATT-related …
MORE than a month after the signing of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), ignorance and uncertainty about its implications continue to prevail among Indian agriculturists. The principal issues for farmers is whether they can retain and sell seeds and whether they will be able to compete in …
THE temporary check dams (locally known as bandharas) across streams, have made a huge impact on the agricultural system in Hivare, a drought-prone village 35 km from Pune on the Pune-Saswad road. Even a year ago, the villagers of Hivare wouldn't have dared to dream of watering their fields all …
Year Vilalge/police station Description 1953 Pipra Five thousand santhals perfromed Gopikandar bitlaha on a boy and a girl for having illicit sexual relations. Both their houses were damaged 1956 Kharibari The police had to open fire at Maheshpur; 20,000 Santhals assembled to perform the bitlaha for sexual intercourse between a …
In a crusade to weed out corrupt officials, noted social activist Anna Hazare, widely acclaimed for his innovative conservation efforts that transformed the Ralegan Siddhi village in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra into a green belt, went on an indefinite fast to protest government inaction against some corrupt forest officials in …
A NEW variety of a human-made cereal called triticale that is nutritionally superior to wheat will be planted in India's hilly tracts in the next rabi, or winter crop, season. Developed after 7 years of efforts by a team of scientists of the Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute, the new …
The local fishing community around Chilika continues being terrorised by a mafia bent on silencing popular discontent against the infiltration of outsiders out to mint gold by farming prawn in the lake, Asia's largest brackish water lagoon. The Orissa government has yet to show an inclination to protect the people's …
A CHINESE herb, Artemisia annua, say scientists, has yielded a wonder drug -- artemether -- which is 3 times more effective than quinine in treating malaria that is resistant to most drugs. They have also found that artemisinin, an oil extracted from the plant, has cut to about 1/5th the …
In a complete reversal of its stand, the union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has cleared the 73.5 mw Pooyamkutty hydroelectric project in Idukki district in Kerala, endangering about 2,870 ha of state forest and the traditional way of life of thousands of mat and basket weavers. Although, the …
NEW discoveries in astronomy are sometimes linked to serendipity. It was by chance that astronomer Alexander Wolszczan and his team at the Pennsylvania State University found evidence for what appeared to be the first planetary system outside our solar system. Another 3 years of data on the finding has confirmed …
THERE is a growing interest worldwide in synthetic substitutes for enzymes -- substances produced by living organisms that catalyse or speed up certain chemical reactions in their bodies -- which can save energy required for several industrial processes. Recently researchers J K M Sanders, Mary McPartlin and their colleagues from …
THE AIDS drug zidovudine can retard the transmission of the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from a mother to her foetus, a recent study reveals (Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol 271, No 11). Trials carried out by the US-based National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) show …
SCIENTISTS at the University of Minnesota in the US have developed a new strain of bacteria to fight pollution caused by organohalides -- compounds of carbon and halogens such as chlorine and fluorine which cannot be degraded by naturally occurring bacteria (Nature, Vol 368, No 6472). Pseudomonas putida G786 -- …
RECENT research findings have come as a breath of fresh air. A study based on data from 27 monitoring stations all over the world reveals that the carbon monoxide levels in the atmosphere have taken a nosedive and the atmosphere is getting cleaner for the first time in 3 decades …
WHEN Ganga Murmu, a 5-month pregnant Santhal tribal of Bhangabandh village in West Bengal's Medinipur district, was raped in February by the son of the landlord in whose field she used to work, the members of her community decided to take the law into their own hands. Instead of going …
On May 12, women activists protesting the commercial launch of the controversial contraceptive, Depo Provera, stormed a press conference held in the Capital by Max Pharma, the company launching the contraceptive in India. Max Pharma -- licensed to market Depo Provera in the country in collaboration with the US-based company …
RETIRED police officer Tarif Singh and his friends in North Delhi's Siraspur village heaved a sigh of relief as the last of the 23 clandestine lead-smelting units closed shop in their neighbourhood on May 7. "Many of my neighbours had serious breathing trouble because of the smoke," Singh says. Many …
THE increased momentum of the environment movement and the rising media attention paid to environmental issues has created a great demand among the general public, non-government organisations (NGOs), professionals and the youth for environmental education and awareness. This demand is being met by some of the state-run universities and the …
A 25-year-old dispute over sharing of the Yamuna waters has at last been settled with Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi signing an agreement on March 12 -- reached after grappling for hours in the 6th round of talks on the issue, held at the initiative of the …
AS IF science isn't perplexing enough to most people, here's a technology that believes not in removing hurdles but putting them up. Fortunately, "hurdle technology" seeks not to confound reason but tries to hamper the growth of bacteria and fungi whose company spoils food and, like other technologies, is aimed …
