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 …
LEWIS Carroll would have been delighted to put Alice into this wonderland. And James Thurber's Walter Mitty would have found in it an excellent refuge from his importunate wife. Virtual Reality (VR) is the latest in fantasyware -- a three-dimensional, computer-simulated landscape in which, unlike the dreamworld created by novelists …
THOUGH the State of Forest Report 1991 says India's forest cover increased from 6,40,134 sq km in 1989 to 6,40,694 sq km in 1991, the feat the report describes is impossible: Forest products are primarily used for human and livestock consumption, and as human and livestock population increased by about …
IN THE context of the forest department's increasing sensitivity to participatory programmes such as joint forest management, the "anti-people" stance of the article by a senior forester like A N Chaturvedi is shocking. In his article, he gives priority to specific uses of forests than to people and thus advocates …
JOINT implementation was the main point of discussion at the recent meeting of the intergovernmental committee on climate change in Geneva. The idea of joint implementation has been promoted primarily by industrialised countries seeking ways to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Unable to face the politically difficult choice of reducing …
IT HAS become fashionable to argue that the private sector manages resources more efficiently than the state sector. However, this does not hold true for health care, especially primary health care, which, according to Andrew Green, must remain the key responsibility of the state. In An Introduction to Health Planning …
What led to the formation of KER? Kodagu is divided both politically and according to caste and politicians exploit this. We are the smallest district, yet our contribution to Karnataka's kitty is the highest. When Kodagu was merged with Karnataka in 1956, development stopped. Politically, the scene is dismal. The …
The powers of local government in the UK derive from acts of Parliament -- not from the Constitution -- and can be amended to suit the wishes of the central government. The future of local government at the district (borough) and county levels is currently under review. The ruling Conservatives …
IT IS THE economics of a dam and not the plight of the people it displaces that makes a good news report for national and international media and earns a quick invitation from the government for a dialogue. Citing the Sardar Sarovar as an example, a senior Union government official …
France has 58 million people living in 22 regions, 96 departments (counties) and 36,000 municipalities, varying in population size from 100 to 2 million. Two-thirds of the municipalities have less than 500 inhabitants and so several municipalities are grouped into boards to deal with, for example, management of water or …
THE WORST fears of the people living in the Thar Desert are coming true: Hoppers -- new-born locusts -- that could not be eliminated by pesticides, have formed mature swarms in the westernmost parts of Jaisalmer district. The locusts have now taken wing in search of green food, and havoc …
With the desert locust infesting an area of 30 million sq km in 66 countries and constantly migrating over political boundaries, multilateral contact between countries for locust control is unparalleled. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation is at the hub of efforts to combat the locust -- probably the only …
WHAT CAN you do, as a citizen of India, if someone decides to set up a power plant or a polluting factory in your neighbourhood? Probably precious little. You could appeal to the local pollution control board, but if its bureaucrats disagree with you, you could demonstrate on the streets. …
Some are lawyers, others are teachers, doctors or businesspersons. Many are retired defence personnel and coffee planters, in addition to being paddy cultivators. This diverse group makes up the Kodagu Ekikarna Ranga (KER), an organisation fighting to preserve and protect the culture and heritage of Karnataka's Kodagu district (formerly known …
MEDICAL wisdom has it that parasites evolve to become less harmful to their hosts. For if they became more virulent and killed off their hosts, they would be terminating their own lives, too. But, a recently published 10-year field study of the relationship between Panama's fig wasps and roundworms that …
CONFUSION reigns in the hills of Uttar Pradesh (UP) where a decade-old ban on the felling of trees growing above 1,000 metres in the Garhwal Himalaya has been lifted by the state government. However, in the face of protests by environmentalists and the displeasure of the Union ministry of environment …
DESIGNER science is coming of age. Scientists are combining the growing understanding of processes and structures at the molecular, atomic and subatomic levels with computer modelling techniques to synthesise new products. And, they are now discovering that their theoretical simulations are borne out by reality. Scientists hitherto used trial-and-error methods …
IN JUNE 1983, the ministry of agriculture recommended certain measures for the protection of the Himalayan ecology, on the basis of which the Uttar Pradesh government imposed a ban on felling of trees above 1,000 metres. The Centre's recommendations were: • Imposition of a complete moratorium, for one growth cycle …
TWO HOARDS of banned animal skins and bones, worth about Rs 3.5 crore in the international market, were seized in Delhi on August 30 and September 1. The seizures exemplify the intelligence-gathering skills acquired by the Indian arm of the Trade Record Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC), …
IS THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), proponent of saffron Hindutva, turning green? In Maharashtra, the party recently led two anti-pollution agitations that have impressed even the BJP's opponents, save the ruling Congress, which dismissed the protests as an "unnecessary politicisation" of environmental issues. Both campaigns targeted new industrial projects -- …
Nearly a decade after N C Mehta filed a public interest petition for the closure of industrial units in Agra, whose atmospheric pollutants he alleged were damaging the Taj Mahal, the Supreme Court (SC) has ruled in his favour. This is Mehta's second victory in less than six months -- …
