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 …
Mining inside and on the boundary of Sariska National Park in Rajasthan's Alwar district has resumed despite a Supreme Court ban. Enquiries with the Zilla Khaniz Udyog Sangh (ZKUS), the local mine owners' representative body, revealed the action followed a recent letter from the Union minster for environment and forests …
The public sector Delhi Transport Corp (DTC), whose buses have a reputation for being polluting, has received an award by the Indian Oil Corp (IOC) for saving fuel. Presenting the award, instituted by IOC to encourage state transport authorities to conserve petroleum products, secretary to the ministry of surface transport …
Socialist economist Ignacy Sachs of the Centre de Recherches Sur le Bresil Contemporain ***(translation) in Paris has severely criticised current Indian development policies. Addressing scientists at the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) in Delhi on November 25, he said, "The present policies seek to cater to …
With the demise of Sunil K Roy, often described as "a soldier, diplomat, administrator and environmentalist, all in one", environment has lost one of its best friends. Starting his career in the army and later, the foreign service, Roy was appointed director general of tourism by former prime minister Indira …
The recent death in police firing of 15-year-old Rahimat Punya Vasave, a tribal from Surung village in Dhule district in Maharashtra, created ripples of protest all the way to the Capital. Three other tribals were injured in the firing when villagers of Akrani taluk in Dhule district -- one of …
FORON, a firm formerly called DKK Scharfenstein based in eastern Germany, was on the brink of bankruptcy last year after reunification when Greenpeace, an international environment group, gave it orders for 10 prototypes of refrigerators that use eco-friendly chemicals as coolants. FORON turned out a prototype that uses a mixture …
The problem coolant:CFCs-To be phased out ine developing world by 2010 under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer. Deplete the Ozone Layer. Deadlines could be advanced by 4 years. The possible substitutes In favour Against Hydrochloroflurocarbons such as HCFC-22 Can only be a temporary substitute to …
MAHATMA Gandhi dreamt of an India where villages would be independent entities, supporting themselves by harmonising human needs with local resources. Today, driven by the bogey of over-exploitation and the steady depletion of natural resources, researchers are frantically trying to find ways to realise the Mahatma's vision by making the …
INDIAN fridge manufacturers may find an alternative to chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) in a technology that is being revived in some European countries. Besides being eco-friendly, the adoption of this technology will rid Indian manufacturers of dependence on Western companies for a CFC substitute. Most substitutes on offer today for ozone-depleting CFCs, …
IT ALL began in the early 1980s, when the village of Seed near Udaipur in Rajasthan registered itself under the Rajasthan Gamdhan Act of 1971 that gave the gram sabha full control over all the land within the village boundary, including erstwhile government land. The sabha, consisting of all adults …
SCIENTISTS at Hyderabad's Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) recently announced they can now produce in the laboratory HFC-134a, a hydrofluorocarbon that is seen as the best substitute for CFCs, especially in USA and Japan. With access to the multilateral fund set up under the Montreal Protocol, IICT scientists plan …
LEPROSY afflicts about 12 million people worldwide, of which about a third are in India. Though the bacteria that causes leprosy -- Mycobacterium leprae -- was discovered 100 years ago, it is only recently that Indian scientists at the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) in Bombay and at the National Institute …
Indian lasers among the world's best The Centre for Advanced Technology in Indore is playing a pivotal role in the indigenisation of lasers and making them easily available. SOME OF the world's most advanced lasers, with a wide range of industrial and medical applications, are now being made in India …
DEVELOPMENT does not imply destruction of the environment. This was a message sought to be given by the India International Trade Fair held in the Capital in November. Essentially an exhibition on consumer goods, the fair also featured a section on the environment with examples of eco-friendly products and technologies. …
AN UNEQUAL world will always be a divided world -- and a divided world can never be sustainable. During the last year and a half of my "academic existence" in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I had many opportunities -- mainly through the Coolidge Centre for Environmental Leadership -- to speak to various …
What do you think went wrong with scientific progress and the scientific establishments in Europe after the Second World War? The Second World War was a period of rapid technical achievement. Radar, jet engines and nuclear energy were successfully put to use in a very short period of time. As …
IT WAS nearly a decade ago that the government of India had tried to revise the Indian Forest Act of 1927, a British legacy that brought immense misery to forest-dwellers and has been unable to save the forests. The row that took place over the last revision forced the government …
THE TRUE test of a development video is whether it informs and motivates its viewers or sends them to sleep. And this is where many of the entries for the 'Women in Development' video competition, organised recently in New Delhi by the British Council, failed miserably, for this viewer was …
NESTLED in the hills of the Aravallis about 12 km from Udaipur, Eklingapura shines as one of the first successful instances of participatory forest management. Eklingapura has a population of 1,400 over 200 households of various castes and 1,600 livestock. The land was once covered with dense forests of Salar, …
THERE is something very beautiful about lakes -- not just aesthetically, but also intellectually. Lakes do not just mirror their environment. They also mirror the society around them. Clean water in a lake is either the result of an absence of humanity or the presence of very disciplined human beings …
