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 …
MOST INDIANS go berserk when baited with religion, but not the villagers of Sukhomajri who let secular principles take precedence. A few years ago, a self-styled god man from Sukhomajri placed an object of worship in the forest, which attracted several devotees. The god man, along with some of the …
IN THE early 1980s, the people of Sukhomajri village in Shivalik range of the Himalaya in Haryana's Ambala district earned nation-wide acclaim for the way in which they had utilised their forests and water to their benefit. But even they would never have imagined that the 400 ha forest of …
THE VILLAGERS of Gawandwadi in Maharashtra's Raigad district no longer fight over fish and water. Instead, they meet regularly to discuss strategies to share them. And, Dharmi Marohar Gavanda of the village, which is in Karjat tribal block, does not have to walk 3 km in the hot summer to …
In a typical case of technology coming to the aid of small paddy cultivators, the Kerala Agro Industries Corp (KAIC) has developed a paddy thresher that comes in handy for farmers who face problems in getting labour to harvest and thresh their crop. The mini-thresher is a simple mechanism, does …
PEOPLE who suffer wild swings of moods -- from ecstatic highs to melancholic lows -- have their mother to blame. At least this is what researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital, USA, suggest: Every woman on a sprawling family tree they have drawn up passes this disorder, called the manic-depressive psychosis, …
WITH THE Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) becoming increasingly incapable of dealing with the metropolis' mounting garbage, three agencies are working to make its disposal a paying proposition. The department of science and technology has set up a plant to convert organic waste into fuel pellets for industries; BMC has teamed …
EUCALYPTUS wood is a perfect contortionist -- when sawn, it can crack, bend, warp and twist. Making furniture out of this wood, therefore, has been a hopeless task. But now scientists at the Dehra Dun-based Forest Research Institute have developed a way of seasoning and sawing eucalyptus so that it …
SANSKRIT -- long the preserve of priests and Vedic scholars -- may soon become more accessible to the common person, thanks to a new computerised educational system being developed by researchers at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Says G V Singh, leader of the project that is being conducted at …
Workers at Baranagar jute factory in West Bengal, one of five shut down by the state pollution control board, have decided to contribute part of their wages to help install an effluent treatment plant (ETP) and get the factory reopened. Thousands of workers at the factory were affected by the …
TRADITIONAL Indian potters face both low availability and high cost of firewood, which is used as fuel in kilns, forcing several of them to the brink of closure. Now, two scientists at the Regional Research Laboratory in Bhubaneswar have devised a low-cost pottery kiln that operates on coal and hope …
Nine years after the world's worst industrial accident, an international team of 15 doctors and researchers arrived in Bhopal. Their objective: to "provide consultative support towards the Bhopal survivors' long-term medical care, health monitoring and attribution of their health problems to the exposure". The findings of the team, led by …
TWO RESEARCHERS have produced genetically altered potato tissue that can detect compounds like alcohol and drug products in body fluids. Garry Rechnitz and Ae-June Wang of the University of Hawaii in Manoa say the tissue contains an enzyme that produces a fluorescent product when exposed to the target molecule (New …
The National Literacy Mission (NLM) plans to lead Delhi's 2.48 million illiterates "from darkness into light". Besides reading and writing, the mission will focus on sex education, AIDS awareness, drug and alcohol addiction, greenery, sanitation and hygiene, physical fitness, family planning, first aid, legal education, women's empowerment and immunisation. K …
HOW DO Chinese tots outperform their American counterparts? Psychologist David C Geary of the University of Missouri at Columbia, USA, who has studied the performance of Chinese and American schoolchildren, found the Chinese kids got three times as many items right in a test and they could hold more digits …
The "greatest scientific fraud of the century", attributed to an Indian geologist, was in the spotlight once again recently in an article published in the scientific journal, Nature. The findings of Vishwa Jit Gupta of the department of geology at Punjab University in Chandigarh, which contributed to the scientific database …
The much-touted Puri-Konark Beach Resort Project proposed by the Orissa state government has received a setback with the rejection of the project by the Union environment ministry. The Rs 900-crore project, which is being pushed by the Union tourism ministry, envisages the construction of a multiple hotel complex on 890 …
Nomination to the fellowship of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is generally considered by senior scientists as one of the better indications of recognition of their talent. That at least some of its functioning is controversial was brought home sharply just prior to its diamond jubilee celebrations in January: …
CONTRARY to common sense, foul air may not be the cause of the rise in the number of asthmatics, at least not in Britain. Though the number of Britons with asthma has risen rapidly in recent years, with the number of deaths doubling over the past two decades, a recent …
Tribals in Nagarahole National Park in Karnataka are opposing a state government plan to relocate them within the park, claiming it would adversely affect their way of life. According to the plan, the 6,145 tribals living in 54 settlements spread over the park are to be relocated in a 2,000-ha …
NOT ONLY do smiles reflect happiness, they can even induce it, says psychologist Paul Ekman of the Human Interaction Lab at the University of California (Science, Vol 262, No 5132). However, not any smile will do. In 1862, French neurologist Duchenne de Boulogne noted that half-hearted smiles only involve mouth …
