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 …
APRIL has been the cruellest month for the much-hyped department of wasteland development, when it came under ruthless criticism for the perennial drought of information regarding its performance. Little is known about the department's performance, even 2 years after its inception. Its annual report, presented in the 3rd week of …
ARE Indian researchers being taken for a ride? A Japanese method propagated as a surefire way to boost crop production and slash input costs and fertiliser use is now in the midst of a controversy. The experiment, which was cleared by the Union agriculture ministry, is now caught in a …
AS THE link between cigarette smoking and cancer and heart disease is more firmly established, scientists are increasingly looking at the impact a parent's smoking has on both the unborn and the growing offspring. Two recent studies reveal that not only does a mother's active smoking expose her young children …
* Bepin Behari Das, a self-taught mechanic, manufactured India's first motor car in his small shed. Aptly named Swadeshi, it was a 15-hp, 4-cylinder, 5-seater, touring model car with four doors. Das sold his car to the Benares Hindu University in 1931. Though the vehicle was used by Motilal Nehru …
CONCERNED at the lack of action by 2 Delhi agencies on the Yamuna Action Plan launched in June last year, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has decided to refer the matter to the prime minister. The MEF said that the Delhi Water Supply and Sewage Disposal Undertaking …
SILICOSIS -- an incurable lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica, a component of dust -- has debilitated several workers in cement and brick factories and sandstone mines in the country, recent research reveals. In its later stages, the disease can lead to respiratory or cardiac failure. The finding …
What have been the major sources of inspiration for your poetry? My experiences in my village. The school in which I studied was across the river from my village, and ferrying across was a normal thing, just as swimming was. Memories of the many moods of the river, the nights …
EVERY once in a few years, the authorities of the National Capital Territory of Delhi appear to notice with considerable shock that industries in the city may be polluting the city's atmosphere. When this periodic spasm hits them, it does little but give birth to a committee to look into …
AS GOVERNMENTS the world over loosen their grip over their economies and markets go global, structural adjustments and a rapid economic transition has placed agencies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the driver's seat. But the scenario of improving balance of payments and reduced debt crises goes hand in …
FOR sheer numbers, the coming together last fortnight of the dam-affected people of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan at Deoli in the Tonk district of the last named state was a small affair, but nonetheless significant. It is yet another reminder of the myriad of struggles over the destruction of …
WHEN a ten year old boy in a remote Kerala village was spraying the Bordeaux Mixture, a concoction of lime and copper sulphate used as a fungicide, on jackfruit trees to protect it from wood-rotting mushrooms, he did it with all the care one could expect from a 10-year-old. Yet …
AGENDA 12 resources to the South have been consistently falling - and there hangs the threat of a further plummet. Even the North- initiated Global Environment Facility has failed to raise the finances agreed upon. The promise by industrialised countries at the Rio summit to provide access to eco-friendly technologies …
THE TRAIN from Londa to Dharwar on the Miraj-Bangalore metre gauge in Karnataka passes through the jungles on the fringe of the Western Ghats. I asked my co-passengers, Hussainbi and Moinbi, a mother-daughter duo which is responsible for denuding these jungles. They are both headloaders. For the past 15 years, …
"WE ARE not interested in how to kill pests or how cowdung cakes are to be made. We know all these things. We only want entertainment and cinema songs. Let the city dwellers who do not know anything about these things learn these so that they can appreciate our problems." …
WHEN the Slovak, Gregor Mendel, wrote an obscure paper in 1866 after experimenting on peas for about 7 years, little did he realise that he had stirred a hornet's nest. His experiments were perhaps the world's first brush with what is today known as "biotechnology". It was not until much …
AS PART of an unique attempt to educate nomads, when the restive Van Gujjars of Uttar Pradesh"s Dehra Dun and Saharanpur districts and Himachal Pradesh"s Sirmaur district move in summer to hill pastures near Shimla with their cattle, their teachers will tag along. Naya Safar (New Journey), a 3-part primer, …
THE emergency tag attached to the rehabilitation exercise notched up yet another 'victim' when renowned architect Laurie Baker, who was designing Banegaon in the Latur district as a village which would conform entirely with the requirements of the villagers, resigned in mid-April due to authoritarian pressure to switch to the …
FIFTY years ago, Killari village in Latur district of Maharashtra was famous for its long-horned bulls. "Bullfights were held every year and the bulls of our village always emerged champions," recalls septuagenarian Baburao Umte. Now, the village is being regarded as the "earthquake capital" of the world. After the September …
Ya apo divya uta va sravanti khanitrima uta va yah svayamjah samudrartha yah suchayah pavakasta apo deviriha mamavantu Apah Suktam, Rigveda, VII. 59.2 "May the waters that are in the sky, or those that flow (on the earth), those (whose channels) have been dug,* or those that have sprung up …
DHOLAVIRA, the first known Indian city, ranks with Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Ganweriwala (now all in Pakistan) and Rakhigarhi (India) as one of the 5 largest urban centres of the Harappan civilisation. A series of excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India uncovered Dholavira as a major Harappan city, exquisitely planned, with …
