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 …
• More than 1,000 delegates -- academics, activists, students and farmers -- attended the Congress on Traditional Sciences and Technologies of India, held in Bombay from November 28 to December 3, 1993. • The congress took nearly two years to organise and cost Rs 35 lakh, most of which was …
INDIA'S long history of excellence in science and technology is well known. There are several examples of Indian products -- not just textiles and spices -- that other civilisations admired for a long time. In AD 662, Syrian astronomer-monk Severus Sebokht wrote of the knowledge of the Hindus, "...of their …
AFTER the reserved forests surrounding Bhimashankar, a pilgrim spot in Pune district, were converted in 1985 to what is now known as the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary (BWS), the 3,000 tribals living around it have been victims of animal terror. Wild boars, attacking in herds of upto 25, damage more crop …
WOMEN have craved for diamonds and men have killed for them. The industrial revolution and the early economic development of the world would not have been possible without coal. Now, fullerenes -- the third form of carbon discovered only in 1985 -- promise exciting new applications from catalysis to superconductors. …
THE INDIAN government claims that during the final round of negotiations on the Dunkel Draft Text, it gained "significant assurances" on short-term access of trained, skilled and semiskilled Indian personnel to European and American markets. Experts in the field are, however, not as optimistic. Provisions relating to the proposed General …
COGNISANT of the limitations of various contraceptives, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore and at the National Institute of Immunology (NII) in Delhi have been trying to develop safe and effective contraceptive vaccines for both men and women. And, their efforts are soon to bear fruit. …
TWO PHYSICISTS in Hyderabad studying the properties of light have devised a way to expand the range of intensity of laser beams. G S Agarwal and S P Tewari, both from the University of Hyderabad, are working on methods to produce laser radiation of a desired intensity using the concept …
Imagine a gear only three hairs wide. Difficult? Not for Paul Christensen, president of Potomac Photonics Inc of Maryland, USA, who carved a miniscule gear into a flat diamond surface using a laser (Science, Vol 261, No 5129). The gear is about 300 microns (three hair-widths) across with a dozen …
Soon after the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar was freed of terrorists, several national dailies carried a photograph of an alleged terrorist peering out of a "detention centre" located at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Jammu. Sources at BARC headquarters in Bombay were understandably squeamish when confronted with the …
In the first week of December, the Prime Minister's office gave the go-ahead for the establishment of the National Drug Authority (NDA) to oversee the formulation and supply of medicines in the country. However, the scope of the NDA has been reduced drastically from what was envisioned when the body …
The administrators of India's nuclear establishments have always maintained that safety standards in their plants are stringent and strictly observed and do not require evaluations by external agencies. Participants at a symposium on Advances in Structural Dynamics, organised in December by the department of civil engineering, were thus pleasantly surprised …
Prescription of antibiotics in Northern Ireland increased 207 per cent during 1988-91, say researchers at the University of Belfast. Drugs for heart patients and antacids also registered boosts of 126 and 46 per cent respectively. Furthermore, the investigation revealed a three-fold increase in the prescription of oral antibiotics and that …
Officials in the department of science and technology (DST) have woken up to the necessity of low-cost housing. The department has set rolling a project to develop low-cost houses that are adapted to agro-climatic conditions and develop local building materials and skills of local artisans by linking them to appropriate …
Scientists are exploiting the pitter-patter of rain to measure rainfall over oceans, till now an impossible task. Under a US Navy-sponsored research project, scientists are using underwater microphones to listen to the rhythm of the falling rain and measure rainfall as accurately as a rain gauge. When rain hits water, …
If an initiative by the department of biotechnology (DBT) to push ecofriendly biofertilisers succeeds, it will revolutionise Indian agriculture and loosen the hold of chemical fertilisers. DBT has proposed that the production of biofertilisers be given industry status to promote mass production and ensure quality control. Says P K Ghosh, …
Environmentalists in favour of sustainable utilisation of wildlife have once more stepped up their campaign. In a letter to the Union environment ministry, herpetologist Romulus Whitaker reiterated his demand for the commercial exploitation of crocodiles, which are overcrowding his crocodile bank near Madras. Pointing out that crocodiles are no longer …
Two of the country's most widespread weeds, Parthenium (Congress grass) and water hyacinth, will be used to produce petroleum-based chemicals. The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in Nagpur has discovered these weeds and other cellulose-rich wastes such as banana stems can totally replace petroleum products used in the production …
A Supreme Court ruling in November upheld the rights of "marginalised" traditional fisherfolk in Kerala, but they continued clashing with mechanised vessel operators. A division bench of the Supreme Court ratified the Kerala government's 1984 ban order against purse seine fishing (fishing with large, mechanised nets) upto 22.222 km from …
Two amendments to the National Environment Tribunal Bill recommended by the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology and environment and forests, are likely to be tabled during the winter session of parliament. Though these will make the proposed tribunal slightly more powerful, it will not give it the teeth …
