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 …
PERHAPS one of the worst fears a woman harbours is that of getting breast cancer, a justifiable fear for, in USA alone, 46,000 women die every year of breast cancer -- and, this rate is increasing by 1 per cent annually. Despite the vast amounts of time and money pumped …
CONSUMPTION is a constantly evolving process influenced by a multiplicity of factors, of which the major ones are disposable income, level of awareness and standard of living. Different societies go through specific consumption patterns at different points of time. Mahatma Gandhi's statement that "India lives in her villages" was apt …
BIRDS are among the most fascinating of creatures. They tirelessly build exquisite nests and care for their eggs and nestlings. But even birds have their parasites, the most famous being the cuckoo, which never builds its own nest and spends no effort in incubating its eggs or caring for its …
QUEST, the science quiz on Doordarshan, has jazzed up its act with buzzers. But it is still conducted by a trio of earnest Bengalis and continues to lean heavily for its content on national science museums, such as the one in Delhi. Those who frequent this interesting museum may often …
IN APRIL this year, some US communities found themselves seeking cover from helicopters spraying the pesticide malathion. This is the starting point for an investigation in the BBC series, Nature. The episode, called Medfly Madness, shows the manner in which saving a $18 billion fruit and vegetable industry takes precedence …
ECOLOGISTS and large-scale industrialists fear India's liberalisation policies will lead to a runaway growth in the dyestuffs sector, which will cause unimaginable damage to the environment. They say the Indian small-scale dyestuffs industry is a prime example of a dirty industry. K R V Subrahmanian, managing director of Colour Chem, …
FOR 11 years now in Bangladesh, transnational pharmaceutical firms have been squeezed out of the market because of a drug policy that has kept down prices of medicines, increased their production and encouraged the local drug industry. But the big firms looking for big bucks may be back if the …
THE FIRST patient of the day at M A Muttalib's clinic in Dhaka is a 6-year-old boy. After asking the boy's mother a few questions, Muttalib prescribes medicine for a parasitic and then comments, "The child goes back into the same unsanitary environment and becomes re-infected. Within six months, he'll …
BANGLADESH'S national drug policy is based on the essential drugs concept propounded by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It says that drugs that satisfy the health needs of the majority of the population should be available at affordable prices at all times in the right dosage. Since 1977, WHO has …
In Andhra Pradesh dip their hands in fresh milk while transplanting seedlings.They know - but until now, not why - that this traditional practice prevents the spread of tobacco mosaic virus. Researchers at the Centre for Cellular and Mollecular Biology in Hydrabad say their studies indicate that an enzyme in …
AMRITBHAI Agrawat, a blacksmith from Pikhor village in Gujarat, stared fascinatedly at a barber shaving a customer. Intrigued by the barber's twin-blade razor, Agrawat's agile mind started a process that ended months later in his fashioning a new tool for harvesting groundnuts. An inveterate inventor, with a tally of more …
SEVEN years ago Haribhai Patel of Alindri village in Gujarat's Junagadh district stopped using pesticides and chemical fertilisers in his fields because he noticed birds that ate pests killed by the chemicals, died in turn. He began experimenting with organic farming and after a lengthy process of trial and error, …
RESOURCEFUL villagers in Badi, about 40 km from Jodhpur, resorted to a traditional Indian water-harvesting technique to overcome extreme water shortage. They constructed a small embankment (khadin) to collect rainwater. Building a khadin begins with locating a natural depression. The depression acts like a basin into which rainwater channels run. …
WHEN THE farm animals of the Raika tribals, a sect of the Bishnois in Khejadli village, some 30 km from Jodhpur, are struck by certain diseases, they quarantine the infected animal but slice off slivers of flesh from its ear and insert them into the ears of the remaining herd. …
SEVEN entrepreneurs from chemical units at the Jeedimetla Industrial Estate (JIE) near Hyderabad have shown how effluent discharge can be collectively reduced. In 1987, they conceived the idea of a cooperative effluent treatment plant, and two years later, a one million-litres-a-day effluent treatment plant, was set up by Jeedimetla Effluent …
PEOPLE in Orissa's famine-hit regions are desperately selling their children -- not for the money but to ensure two square meals a day for them. So far, 16 cases of children being sold have been exposed in the local media, but the state government is yet to admit even one. …
IT TOOK a series of dogged protests by farmers to get small-scale textile dyeing and printing units near Pali in Rajasthan to get together to set up effluent treatment plants jointly so that pollutants need never again paint the Luni river red and blue. The town and its more than …
BESET by famine and drought, large sections of Orissa and Bihar are beginning to mirror the stark images of hunger in Somalia and Sudan. In Orissa, more than 10 million people -- the majority of whom are tribals -- are reeling under a famine. In tribal-dominated south Bihar, too, more …
THE EFFICACY of azidothymidine (AZT) in delaying the onset of AIDS symptoms is in serious doubt following a three-year study in Europe, which indicates it makes little difference whether AZT treatment starts early or late. The Anglo-French study, called Concorde, found 29 per cent of the volunteers who took AZT …
The Indian government and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) are trapped in a cleft stick because of five million defective copper-T contraceptives given by UNFPA to Hindustan Latex Ltd, a government of India undertaking. The copper-T contraceptives were part of batches manufactured by US-based Finishing Enterprises that …
