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 …
INDIA has become a dumping ground of lead battery waste. Almost all the batteries at Siraspur and Mundka have foreign markings. According to the international environmental NGO, Greenpeace, about 346,000 kg of lead battery waste from Australia alone was brought into the country between January and September, 1993. Of late …
Kalpavriksh C-17/A Munirka New Delhi -110 067 Indian Institute of Ecology and Environment (IIEE) Paryavaran Complex, Saidulajab Saket-Maidan Garhi Road New Delhi - 110 030 Centre for Environment Education Nehru Foundation for Development Thaltej Tekra Ahmedabad - 380 054 Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History Kalayampalayam (PO) Coimbatore …
Residents of Bhubaneswar were in for a hot shock when the temperature soared to 46.3 degrees Celsius on May 7. According to environmental scientists, the climatic disorder was caused by the large-scale construction of concrete houses and falling of the groundwater levels. Bhubaneswar has now earned the dubious distinction as …
THE long anxious wait for a sputum or blood test report to confirm whether that persistent cough is tuberculosis, or the unexplained, but constant fatigue and failing appetite is hepatitis B could soon be shortened from days to just a few hours. Results of recent clinical trials of techniques developed …
CAN India suddenly go vegetarian? Several animal rights activists have come forward with offers of alternative employment for the butchers who have lost their jobs as a result of the High Court order passing the closure of Delhi's Idgah slaughterhouse. But will this sardonic professional rehabilitation solve anything? As long …
What do you think are the emerging trends in the field of zoo design? Earlier, zoos were human-dominated. They were not only run by people for people, but also presented animals in settings dominated by humans. For a decade and half, zoos have copied each other, and the model for …
LITTLE attention has been paid to the effects of current and emerging trade arrangements, vis-a-vis GATT, on Indian food security issues. A number of related issues have been given more serious pondering: negative impact on the economic status of food producers and processors; minus marks for the state of the …
I READ the film review, Patent prejudice in the May 15 issue of Down To Earth with a great deal of amusement, anguish and embarrassment. Amusement because the caption under a photo taken from the film makes a false claim. Nobody has patented the use of neem as a pesticide. …
"DELHI will not have to beg for water any more," was the preening claim of chief minister Madanlal Khurana on May 12, after his counterparts from Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh had put their signatures on an agreement that almost doubles the quantity of Yamuna water available to …
FOREIGN exchange, the so-called panacea to Third World economies, has led policymakers in India to install a export-oriented model of development. They want to import development through export, sometimes forcibly replacing traditional activities. The way the oil trade in India has been moulded to make it a medium of earning …
KISKI Suraksha is a film made by Shree Prakash, who spent several months watching and documenting a movement in progress. Netarhat is a small but pretty hill station in the Palamau district of Bihar. In and around Netarhat, there are several tribes that have long been declared close to extinction …
ABOUT 25,000 people formed a 10 km hand-linked human chain in the Jeerakappara forest in Kerala recently and vowed to save trees. The human barricade, called the Manushya Prathirodha Nira, was a part of an ongoing struggle to protect resources that are integral to their lives. It was organised by …
A RECENT report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) indicates that polluting industries in non-conforming areas are not solely responsible for the growing pollution in the Capital: established industrial estates are also to blame and the report emphasises the need for remedial action in them. CII stresses the need …
A GROUP of adivasis in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, are confident that they will no longer be cheated by the patwari. Shedding centuries of mathematical ignorance, the tribals have grasped the concepts of the weights and measures, with the help of origami -- traditionally associated with creating beautiful figures by folding …
A LITTLE learning is a dangerous thing. That wisdom is increasingly dawning on scientists who are unravelling the truth about genes and diseases. Thanks to breakthroughs in molecular biology, scientists can ascertain from blood or tissue samples the presence or absence of genes that are responsible for about 10 to …
* Fragile X mental retardation * Alzheimer's disease (Brain degeneration) * X-linked bulbo-spinal muscular atrophy * Myotonic dystrophy (Muscle disorder that later affects other body systems) * Huntington's disease (Degeneration of the nervous system) * Ataxia (Lack of muscle coordination) * Cystic fibrosis (Blockage of airways to the lungs) * …
THE history of water management in the Netherlands is remarkable for the technological feats down the ages, till as late as the '90s. But there is another story that geography books always ignored. Through the ages, as the Dutch literally carved land out of water, they also developed local social …
* WHEN Delhi industry minister Harsharan Singh Balli announced the formation of a panel to resolve the vexed issue of shifting polluting industries, he also spoke of fostering another industrial revolution in the Capital -- and granted ad hoc licences to illegal factories. * THE ministry of environment and forests …
THE complaints kept pouring in. For the past few months, residents of Siraspur village in North Delhi had badgered the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) about noxious fumes emanating from illegal cottage lead smelters in their locality. A CPCB team paid a "surprise visit" to the area on May 2, …
DEOLI had seen nothing like it. On April 25, over 500 villagers took out a rally through this small township in the Tonk district of Rajasthan, under the banner of the Samanvay Samiti, Bisalpur Bandh Doob Kshetra. They were protesting against the inadequacy of rehabilitation measures for the Bisalpur Drinking …
