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 …
I heard in Baroda on June 2 that the authorities were planning to demolish Keshubhai's hut. That night, some of us sneaked past the police cordon around Manibeli and entered the hut. Around 11 am on June 3, some 100 police surrounded the hut to demolish it. But when we …
INSTEAD of taking a bus or car to your place of work, you may soon be considering teleportation. The idea of moving people and objects instantaneously from one spot to another is no longer just science fiction, suggests a group of US theoretical physicists (Physical Review Letters, Vol 70, No …
The Narmada Bachao Andolan, which wants a revaluation of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), says the review team should consist of pro-dam and anti-dam groups. The Prime Minister or the minister for water resources should lead the pro-dam group, which should include officials from the states concerned with the project …
FASTER, bigger and more comfortable. That's how one would describe the commercial jets of the 21st century, which will be superlative versions of the supersonic Concorde and the gigantic Boeing 747. While long-range, non-stop travel is on the increase, larger aircraft are needed to fly shorter routes so that congestion …
January 30, 1989: Official Secrets Act imposed on 10 villages around the dam site; 18 protesting activists and 500 villagers arrested. February 22: Medha Patkar and 8,000 others arrested near dam site. May 18, 1990: Armed police beat up people in 17 Madhya Pradesh villages that would be the first …
AFTER ten years of frustrating toil, a band of gene-hunters from USA and the UK have at last nabbed the gene that causes Huntington's disease, a debilitating disorder of the nerves. The researchers are hopeful the discovery will provide a better understanding of what causes the nerves to degenerate, and …
Just as environmentalists and the authorities thought they had finally Written the epitaph for miners in the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), its spectre Has come back to haunt them. According to Ashok Kamar, advisor to the Ministry of environment and forests (MEF), as many as 45 mines, ordered closed by …
Indian industrialists will now have few excuses for not undertaking Pollution control measures: the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) has offered Rs 150 crore as assistance to the most polluting industries. About 40 manufacturers of caustic soda, chlorine and paper, which ICICI says are the worst polluters, …
THE NUMBER of people in Bombay who are infected with the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus- 1 (HIV-1) are increasing at an alarming rate, says a recent study (The National Medical Journal Of India, Vol 6, No 1). H A Kamat and D D Banker of Bombay's Sir Hurkisondas Nurrotumdas Hospital, …
Mud housing enthusiasts received a blow recently when the Delhi High Court dismissed a writ petition by the Mud Village Society (MVS), staking claim to a 2.1 ha plot in East Delhi on which it intends to build a housing colony. The court held that as there was no letter …
SMALL farmers who cannot afford expensive rat-poisons now have a cheap, natural alternative: A fastgrowing tropical tree, Ghricidia sepium, whose leaves when fermented act as a potent rat-killer (Ceres, Vol 25, No 2). The vermin die of internal bleeding as the toxin reduces production of prothrombin, a blood-clotting agent secreted …
THE DAYS of the European corn borer, a notorious maize pest found in North America and Europe, seem numbered now that researchers have been able to inject into susceptible crops a gene fatal to the insect (BiolTechnology, Vol 11, No 2). But the gene, which has been taken from a …
VIRTUALLY all population growth is centred round the Third World. According to an annual survey by the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau, the number of people in the world is rising at the fastest pace ever. Population figures are expected to touch 5.5 billion by mid-1993 and 8.5 billion by 2025, …
With commerce minister Pranah Mukherjee and commerce secretary A V Ganeshan both indicating the government was veering around to the pro-Dunkel point of view, its opponents have become worried. The Karnataka Rajya Ryot Sarigha (KRRS), the most prominent critic of the proposals, said it would try to persuade opposition members …
A NEW COMPUTER voice synthesiser for people with speech disorders uses a rapid text facility that enables the users to conduct a near normal conversation and, more crucially, to alter. its speech mode to reflect their mood (Spectrum, No 233). Developed by scientists at Dundee University in Scotland, the system …
THE UNITED Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) may quit China, the most populous country in the world, following indications that China is planning a harsh family planning drive in the countryside. But UNFPA executive director Nafis Sadik hopes Beijing will itself take the initiative and announce the end of …
IN THE UN Year of Indigenous Peoples, Brazilian Indians have received a setback with the dismissal of Sydney Possuelo, head of Brazil's Indian Affairs Bureau, who was actively involved in protecting and demarcating Indian land. Under the constitution, all Indian lands must be demarcated by October 1993, but so far …
IN A SIGNIFICANT reversal of trends, the Philippines is studying the conversion of its stalled 620 mw nuclear power plant in Bataan province into a non-nuclear one. President Fidel Ramos announced the decision after the government lost a suit filed by former President Corazon Aquino against Westinghouse Electric Corp of …
WHEN RUDA Gugha of Udauna village in the Chotila taluka of Surendranagar district "spotted a tanker parked on the dry (Mahanadi) river bed in the dead of the night" in March, little did he realise the havoc that the tanker was to wring in the region. The next day, cattle …
SLASH-and-burn cultivation immediately conjures images of destruction. One imagines vast areas of smouldering forest land dotted with burnt out tree stumps. But this method of farming, also known as swidden cultivation, is actually a sustainable form of forest agriculture. The technique of slash-and-burn cultivation has been practised by generations of …
