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 …
A DISCOVERY has been the existence of aands. Till recently one had been talking only of oraans as sacred groves. Aand is a vow, taken by a village, not to grow anything on a plot of land. The aands are dedicated to deities and have either a soil cover or …
THE ORAANS of western Rajasthan consist of, at best, 3 or 4 varieties of trees. Though part of this degeneration can be attributed to the breakdown of the local self-government system, the people have also ignored traditional values and principles of community conservation. Reviving the oraans is fraught with various …
THERE must be something in the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador, that attracts scientists in pursuit of life's mysteries. Charles Darwin spent a good chunk of his life wandering in these islands before formulating his theory of natural selection. And now, the waters around the islands have yielded …
RESPONDING to the lack of awareness on environmental and developmental issues in the country, some non-governmental organisations are trying to spread information in these areas on two fronts. The first is by providing news to agencies and individuals involved in environment-related issues, which is essentially an updating programme. The second …
ASTRONOMERS say the sun is losing its brightness and some billions of years from now -- a short period in astronomy -- it will disappear into cosmic darkness. But life on earth may still continue as particle physicists have conceived of a sun in the lab. Particle-hunters in the US …
If you're worried about your heart, there's good news and bad. First the good: there is strong evidence to support the theory that a couple of beers or glasses of wine daily help to prevent coronary heart disease. Now, the bad part: most heart attacks occur at dawn. Researchers at …
ADDING the genes of broccoli, cabbage or cauliflower to those of rapeseed could yield an oil that can be used to make superstrong plastics. Presently, rape-seed oil yields only 66 per cent erucic acid and is expensive to purify. Researchers at the National Research Council of Canada's Plant Biotechnology Institute …
IN THIS age of the media, images are too quickly ingrained into popular imagination. If someone were to tell you that smoking, which has been shown to cause heart disease and lung cancer, may protect against disease, then you would surely think the person is either a fag-fanatic or downright …
INDIAN traditional knowledge, as well as plants of the Amazon, continue to be "stolen" by scientists from other nations and used by pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs. And, says Peter Rudolf Seidl, chairperson of the Brazilian Chemical Association, those who supply the know-how do not receive any of the …
RELEASING the biggest wave of classified nuclear secrets ever to pour out of Washington, US energy secretary Hazel O'Leary admitted that between 1945 and 1990, the country had conducted 204 secret underground nuclear tests and 48 in the Pacific Ocean. These exclude the 826 tests the US had earlier admitted …
SINCE Independence, India's prime minister has delivered the inaugural address at the annual session of the Indian Science Congress (ISC). In recent years, a regrettable trend has been the tendency of the gathered scientists to forget this speech. The 81st session of the ISC, held in Jaipur from in January, …
IN CONTRAST to Indian Science Congress at Jaipur,the Children's Science Congress in the Capital was a vibrant affair. For the 350 youngsters who attended the National Children's Science Congress in the Capital recently, the projects they had prepared "were not science, they were fun." As a result, the projects were …
THE MINISTRY of environment and forests (MEF) has decided to launch a target-based action plan to stop the dwindling tiger population in the country. Measures proposed include hiking fores staff salaries by Rs 100-400, creating new tiger reserves, setting up special anti-poaching teams and forming a Global Tiger Forum. The …
THE NARMADA Control Authority (NCA) - a body controlling all aspects of the utilisation of Narmada waters - has restrained the Gujarat government from closing the sluice gates of the Sardar Sarovar dam until the three states involved in the project clearly state their rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R;) plans. The …
The Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) will conduct an experiment to improve weather forecasting by using additional parameters. The pilot project, which will be sponsored by the department of science and technology (DST) and carried out in the Sabarmati basin of Gujarat, will measure such parameters as the …
Delhi is sitting on an unstable pile of sand, warn seismic experts. Earthquake engineering experts thus recommend the micro-zonation (mapping of small areas) of the Capital and other important urban centres of the country. The department of science and technology, the Indian Institute of Technology and the department of earthquake …
A computer software that demonstrates animal dissections will soon help save the lives of countless animals. Once the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) completes its project for the computer dissection of frogs, these animals need not be killed in school and college laboratories. Similar software programmes for other animals …
Villagers of Jhadol district in Rajasthan are up in arms against the proposed construction of two dams under the Mansi-Wakal project, which will inundate their villages. In what is already being dubbed the "Narmada of Rajasthan", the Bhil tribals of the area, led by the Chandreshwar Kishan Sangharsh Samiti (CKSS), …
The State of the World's Children 1994, published by UNICEF on December 21, has commended India for its "steady progress". The report says India has shown a marked decline in mortality rates and considerable improvement in clean water supply, immunisation and salt iodisation. However, the report places India among countries …
Dental students of Bangalore University can now face the prospect of failure with a broad display of teeth. University authorities reportedly granted grace marks to several Bachelor of Dental Sciences students to enable them to pass the 1992 annual and 1993 supplementary examinations. University sources say more than 150 students …
