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 …
VAN GUJJARS of the proposed Rajaji national park have asserted their right over the forest in no uncertain terms. And, unlike in 1992 when officials blocked their traditional migratory path, no attempt was made to stop them this year. The authorities, however, were stumped when the Gujjars put forward their …
PAKISTAN failed to warn India about the magnitude of locust swarms that flew into Kutch and Rajasthan between July 5 and August 23, complain Indian agriculture ministry officials, according to newspaper reports. Indian officials accuse Pakistani authorities of consciously neglecting the problem, knowing the swarms would soon be blown into …
Vilasrao B Salunke, father of the pani panchayat concept in the drought-prone Marathwada region in Maharashtra, has evolved quake-resistant houses in areas affected by the September 30 earthquake. Salunke, convenor of the Pune-based Earthquake Disaster Management Group, advocates ferrocement technology to build new houses on existing foundations of the recently …
Elders of the Navajo tribe still recount the legend of how the Bear, a great medicine being (What on earth does this mean?), instructed them to use a forest root for treating parasites, stomach problems and infections. There is now growing scientific evidence that this and other legends are based …
The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has started a 1,300-km yatra (journey) "to bind the valley together" against "destructive development". The yatra is an important step in the NBA's effort to augment the support of the people affected by dozens of dams under the Narmada Valley Development Project, even as negotiations …
THE WORLD'S first full-scale experiment to clean up municipal sewage with a reactor full of algae has recently started near Nottingham in the UK (New Scientist, Vol 140, No 1893). The reactor or "biocoil" system developed by Stephen Skill at the London-based Biotechna, contains chlorella algae packed into a 5-m-high …
Dense cinchona and silver oak forests covering 3,000 ha in Valparai in the Annamalai hills will be replaced by tea plantations if the state-run Tamil Nadu Plantation Corporation Ltd (TNPCL) has its way. TNPCL was set up in 1976 to rehabilitate Tamil refugees from tea gardens in Sri Lanka. Since …
BRAVO! No more burning bottoms. The next time you park your car in the sun, you needn't gingerly test the hot seat before getting in. Thanks to a new aerosol spray, which contains no ozone-destroying CFCs or alcohol, you can instantly cool off sun-baked vehicles, small spaces and even your …
THE INDIAN cotton crop, already attacked by several insects resistant to most insecticides, is now falling prey to a new insect -- the American serpentine leaf-miner. Scientists suspect this new threat, a native of southern USA, entered the country in 1990-91, probably from Kenya or Europe, along with chrysanthemum cuttings. …
ON NOVEMBER 6, 1993, a relatively rare celestial phenomenon enraptured Indian skywatchers. From many parts of the country, at 8.36 am, they witnessed a black spot -- the planet Mercury -- graze past the Sun. This phenomenon, known as the transit of Mercury, last occurred on November 13, 1986, and …
THE 7TH of November, 1631, dawned a cloudy day in Paris. Pierre Gassendi, an astronomer, had been patiently waiting with his telescope to catch a glimpse of Mercury, which had been predicted to appear by Johannes Kepler in 1629. Finally, at 9 am, he had a fleeting glimpse, but since …
Phulwari Ki Nal sanctuary, Udaipur There are 105 villages on the periphery of the Phulwari Ki Nal sanctuary in Rajasthan and about 15 villages in its core area. In 1988, a ban was imposed on collection of minor forest produce, and in 1990, gathering of tendu leaves by the local …
* The world is in the midst of an unprecedented population expansion. We face the prospect of a doubling of the population within the next 50 years. Most of this growth will take place in developing countries. * High fertility rates are related to poverty, high infant mortality rates, low …
THE FUNDAMENTAL theme of organic farming or natural farming is its ecological approach: It makes maximum possible use of organic wastes, originating from the farm, to keep up soil fertility. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), which has 360 member organisations in more than 65 countries, unites their …
AFTER 20 years of stringent policing of tiger reserves, foresters find a large part of the green cover nibbled and lost. A worried additional inspector general of forests in the ministry of environment and forests even admitted, "We must do a drastic review of our conservation approach." The status of …
THE NEXT electronics revolution may be round the corner. A group of scientists at the Delhi-based Solid State Physics Laboratory (SPL) claims to have produced a diode made of silicon, which will make tomorrow's supercomputers smaller and faster. "I think we are the first in the world to make a …
AS SOON as our nationalist forefathers succeeded in achieving independence, they began looking afresh at good causes to pursue. They believed, rather naively, that industrialisation would raise productivity and standards of living. Since productivity enhancing innovations then originated largely from the machine tools industry, the need to promote this industry …
Environmental issues in India are contested by different social groups, including the state. Since the law vests and divests contesting groups with rights and resources, it has itself become a subject of contest. Wildlife enthusiasts demand legislations to make sanctuaries inviolate from human interference, while others demand laws protecting the …
Isn't it time to evaluate our wildlife conservation programme? Notwithstanding the progress made in the past 20 years, tremendous obstacles have been faced by the Indian foresters who protect our wildlife reserves. The establishment of reserves, which increases availability of funding and the need for eco-friendly development to alleviate conflict …
A FURIOUS debate -- even one that degenerates into fisticuffs -- can offer some clear insight at the end of it. Crosstalk, a regular feature in the monthly video magazine, Newstrack, admirably puts across all aspects of a problem as well as all the personalities involved, under the spotlight on …
