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 …
The country's first high-tech butterfly conservatory is being established at Burdwan in West Bengal, as part of an environmental education programme by the National Council of Science Museums (NSCM). The Burdwan Butterfly Centre will have a 3,000 sq m main display glasshouse, without any internal support structures. According to Saroj …
An agreement between the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) and Enron Corp, a US-based multinational power company, to set up a 2,015 megawatt power plant in Dabhol in Ratnagiri district has come in for criticism. The plant is to be set up by General Electric and Bechtel Corp of the …
Union environment minister Kamal Nath will release 1,500 ha of forest land in Maharashtra's Dhule district for oustees of the Saradar Sarovar Project. This follows a directive issued by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao after a meeting in January with the chief ministers of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya pradesh, …
Under a 1978 agreement between the ministry of health and the Delhi Medical Students' Association, 33 per cent of all post-graduate seats in AIIMS were reserved for AIIMS graduates because they were not eligible to apply in regional medical colleges. As SC/ST students found it difficult to qualify for the …
DURING the last few days of 1993, about 60 pachyderms were chased and tormented over 400 km in southwestern West Bengal. The episode dramatically highlighted the increasing tension between human being and beast in various parts of the state. The elephant herd migrates from Dalma Reserve Forest in Bihar to …
URBAN protests that greeted the sudden Rs 15 increase in the price of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) led the petroleum minister to quickly retract and slash the hike to Rs 10. But was the increase really unjustified? In fact, between 1984-85 and 1994-1994, the cost advantage of LPG has actually …
In a bid to keep Shimla and its surroundings free from ecologically damaging activities, the Shimla High Court has come down heavily on stone quarry owners and stone crushers in and around the town. A court judgement on January 7, 1994 in effect preempts clearance from the Union ministry of …
ANGER should, ideally, lead to introspection. But all the anger generated by struggles women have waged in India over the last 15 years has not yielded a mature body of thought. So when someone like Gabriele Dietrich sets out systematically to examine issues like caste, class, sex, religion, development, science …
CAN REGENERATING villages revive denuded hills? And, vice versa, can regenerating hills revive impoverished villages? Daulat Ram, the old man of Sukhomajri, a Gujjar hamlet near Chandigarh, once said, "Hills and human beings have the same power. If their energies are put together instead of being set against each other, …
How did you switch from mathematics to agriculture research? Since childhood, I was fond of growing crops and the yields were impressive. Kitchen garden and wasteland research gave me enough confidence to start experimenting with other crops. On the terrace of my house, I successfully raised sandal, which needs special …
FARMERS and agencies in many parts of the country are experimenting with organic farming-using natural products such as manure - because it is ecofriendly and because such farm products are gaining in popularity. But there is a dearth of literature on organic farming. The Centre for Science and Environment, involved …
WHOEVER said scientists were boring obviously hasn't attended the annual session of the Indian Science Congress Association. The 81st session, held in Jaipur recently, dispelled any doubts that when 4,000 scientists decide to congregate, they are far from dull, never mind that much of the fun took place outside conference …
"WE WILL be back. The revolution will continue." Such was the graffiti left by the Zapatista National Liberation Army as they withdrew from San Cristobal de las Casas in the face of the Mexican army. The abortive uprising in Chiapas province indicates clearly that the poor and powerless even now …
A FILM from Hyderabad on a subject quite different is one produced by the Centre for Development Communication for the ministry of rural development. Credit Where Credit is Due is a how-to film that explains what the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) is and how borrowers can benefit from it. …
A 4.80 m long shallow water sediment core, collected from the inner shelf (at 22 m water depth) off Karwar, near Kali river mouth is studied for foraminiferal tracers of palaeomonsoons. The climate history of this core which represents the last 4,500 years approximately revealed the evidences of a significant …
FIVE YEARS ago, the social forestry department in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra cleared several trees from a forest near Nandivse village to plant acacia trees. It did not know that the 4-ha patch was a sacred grove surrounding the temple of a powerful local deity, Kal Bhairon. The villagers, too, …
Though the sarnas of south Bihar have declined under pressure from development projects and urbanisation, there are instances when survival instincts revived them. They were one of the factors that stalled the Koel-Karo twin-dam project a decade ago. The Munda tribals living in the 112 villages in the submergence area …
"NO, THE dhanesh doesn't nest here anymore," said Shankar Chandrakant Sakpal, referring to the Great Pied Hornbill. "They disappeared quite a few years ago." Sakpal was standing in the dev rahati (sacred grove) of Nandivse village in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. The 4-ha sacred grove of the village is a …
Sacred groves dedicated to snakes, called naga kavus, are unique to Kerala. Most of them adjoin places of worship or are independent and privately owned. But a growing disbelief in the power of the snake gods, among other factors, is leading to the decline of these groves. In the Ezhimala …
Soil erosion caused by wind is a major problem not only in Rajasthan, but also in the southeastern parts of the Indian peninsula and the foothills of the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu. According to A M Mahmood Husain, the principal investigator of the Shelterbelts and Crop Yields Project, under …
