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 …
CHILIKA LAKE, Orissa: Remote-sensing studies indicate the area of Chilika has shrunk from 2,200 square kilometers originally to about 915 sq km now. The northern mouth of the brackish lake, reported to be India's largest inland lake, has been choked by heavy siltation. Nearly 200 sq km of the waterspread …
IN THE Vaddi villages of Kolleru, life is almost totally monitered and controlled by a Kula panchayat. The panchayat is headed by a pedda vaddi (sarpanch), who is assisted by a maximum of seven peddalu or peddas (members), depending upon the population. The kula panchayat enjoys total power and can …
KOLLERU lake is no ordinary wetland. Located in Andhra Pradesh, it is one of the country's largest freshwater lakes and a bird sanctuary, hosting 193 species of birds and a variety of flora and fauna, including medicinal plants. However, Kolleru today is threatened by economic and industrial development, expanding fisheries …
Microorganisms, earthworms enrich the soil Biofertilisers and earthworms are increasingly being used to replace chemical fertilizers NATURAL is better than artificial -- at least as far as agriculture is concerned. Chemical fertilisers and pesticides -- though effective to some extent -- have proved to have adverse effects in the long …
WITH THE commissioning of India's largest particle accelerator -- a machine that propels sub-atomic particles to high speeds -- at the Nuclear Science Centre (NSC) in New Delhi, research groups from all over the country now have access to state-of-the-art facilities for experiments in nuclear physics, material sciences and biophysics. …
AGRICULTURAL scientists and economists warn farm subsidies are leading to the wasteful use of resources such as land and water. Highlighting the grave consequences of electricity and fertiliser subsidies, they suggest any decision on public funding for agriculture should be based on an environmental cost-benefit analysis for sustainable use of …
TWO CHEMISTS in Hyderabad, working separately, have synthesised many complex organic molecules (those containing carbon) that are the basic constituent of most drugs. The chemistry of carbon is essential to understand the basis of all life, as most biological processes are mediated by organic compounds. Govardhan Mehta, a professor of …
THE INDIAN Forest Act (IFA) of 1927 is going to get a new look and name. The Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has distributed to all state governments the draft of a new act that provides for adequate community participation in forests and new concepts such as biodiversity …
MOST OF us are familiar with only three states of matter -- solid, liquid and gas. But there is another form of matter -- plasma -- that is neither solid, liquid nor gas. Plasma is composed of charged particles -- electrons and ions -- whereas other matter consists of neutral …
THE CENTRAL Intelligence Agency of USA believes that neither India nor Pakistan "maintains assembled or deployed nuclear bombs", writes George Perkovich in an article in Foreign Policy, a publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Perkovich noted the two countries could negotiate a detailed verifiable settlement based on "non-weaponised …
Indian companies need to triple the total investment for in-house research and development (R&D;) to Rs 3,000 crore by the end of the century, according to a document prepared jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Union government's department of scientific and industrial …
IF YOU are reluctant to leave bed on a dark, winter morning, stay right in there. People who wake up early in winters might be cutting short their required sleep, inviting unforeseen health problems (New Scientist, Vol 140, No 1899). Researchers say the natural sleeping patterns of humans are strikingly …
The wetlands of Bangalore are falling prey to rapid urbanisation, according to a paper prepared by a group of researchers. The report says urbanisation is also affecting water quality. It notes the number of water tanks within the city limits has declined to 16 from 140 in 1931, primarily because …
A sophisticated environmental pollution information and control system (EPICS) is being developed jointly by the Union ministry of environment and forests and the Delhi-based National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS). According to A K Mathur of NISTADS, the key feature of EPICS would be the production of …
The claim by Ayurveda practitioners that it can combat the dreaded HIV virus is only now being examined by the India's scientific establishment. Researchers at the National Institute of Immunology (NII) in New Delhi have begun investigating the anti-HIV properties of seven plants -- Tulsi (Ocimum), Brahmi (Centella), Ashwagandha (Withania …
UNLEADED petrol is being touted as a green fuel. But it does more harm than good if vehicles using it do not have catalytic converters to render the exhaust gases safe, according to Roger Perry, professor of environmental control at the Imperial College in London (New Scientist, Vol 140, No …
The Union government's department of science and technology (DST) and the Madras-based Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) held a show to demonstrate the country's skills and capabilities in leather processing technologies. The planned highlight was a 9-hour satellite-linked, video conference of leather producers and technologists from India, the United States, …
If there is one thing a mouse cannot stand, it is the smell of other mice. Male mice with high levels of testosterone -- a male sex hormone -- mark their territories by secreting an oil in their urine, which scares off other mice. Scientists at Indiana University in the …
To the delight of bird lovers, the first census of birds in India was initiated in the second half of November. Bird lovers throughout the country volunteered their time to take a head count of forest birds, water birds and shore birds under a national project undertaken by the Bombay …
CONTRARY to received wisdom, boxing may not be damaging to the boxer's brain. In fact, anti-boxing advocates may be surprised to learn that this "inhuman sport" may even improve boxers' skills at elementary arithmetic, a British trial has concluded (The Lancet, Vol 342, No 8877). The trial examined the mental …
