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 …
INCREASING the level of oxygen in blood could cure impotency in humans because it would stimulate production of nitric oxide, which causes penile tissue to relax and better engorge blood from the penile artery. This is important because any restriction of oxygen supply to penile tissue because of excessive smoking, …
More than two children in a family could land one in serious trouble, if the recommendations of the population committee of the National Development Council are an indicator. Transgressors of this family norm, the committee recommends, should be excluded from the public distribution system. Taking a leaf from the population …
HUMAN activity makes Madras city 10 C hotter than its suburbs, according to researcher N Jayanthi of the Regional Meteorology Centre there. In a paper presented at the recent national symposium in New Delhi on meteorology and national development, Jayanthi says the city is also hotter by 0.50 C to …
REOPENING the Metsamor nuclear power plant is turning out to be a devil of a problem for beleaguered Armenia. The plant had supplied almost half of Armenia's electricity requirements, but was shut down after a devastating earthquake in the area killed 25,000 people in 1988 and raised fears that radiation …
Soon after the gas leak at Century Rayon's Thane plant, which took a toll of 10 dead and 125 injured, the company was issued a closure notice by the Maharashtra state environment ministry. The Birla-owned company flouted the notice for nearly one month, citing financial reasons. But a subsequent 72-hour, …
The number of one-horned rhinos in the Kaziranga National Park has risen to 1,160 from 1,129 in 1991, Assam state wildlife officials say. But Assam's principal conservator of forests (wildlife) in Assam, K K Baruah, concedes the number of rhinos killed by poachers in Kaziranga has increased greatly in recent …
SOME HIMALAYAN species of Ficus -- the genus to which the pipal and the banyan belong -- yield fruit that have high nutritive value and are excellent for making into jams and jellies. Scientists say these species should be considered favourably for social and agroforestry programmes. P P Dhyani and …
THE UN Common Fund for Commodities has a problem that many would envy -- too much money. The Amsterdam-based body with 105 members has received $140 million in its first account, with the money earmarked for loans for buffer stock operations. However, the collapse of commodity agreements with economic clauses …
HOECHST, the German chemical company, continues to be plagued by accidents with the ninth so far since February 22 (See Down To Earth, April 30, 1993) consisting of toxic fumes that leaked from the main plant near Frankfurt. Neighbourhood residents, facing a danger from spreading fumes were asked to remain …
SINCE US President Harry S Truman proclaimed the dawning of the Age of Development in his inaugural speech on January 20, 1949, the accepted measure of a modern society"s civilisation is the standard it has achieved in science and technology. So it is that from Kashmir to Kerala, the toothbrush …
RESIDENTS of hill stations in Tamil Nadu are sceptical that much-publicised legislation by chief minister J Jayalalitha can protective the states hill stations from ecological devastation. The law enforced as an amendment to the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act of 1920, seeks to protect the Nilgiri and Palni hills from …
A PROTECTED forest with unclear boundaries, a tiger reserve chalked out in a limestone-rich area, mining leases whose legality is questionable -- all these have created a mess in the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) in Rajasthan, resulting in the Supreme Court having to intervene once again. On April 8, the …
TILL THE 16th century, so little was known in Europe of Africa and Asia that the main task for Western scholars in the 16th and 17th centuries was to record the bewildering variety of strange new worlds and reconcile them with their constricted medieval vision of the earth. The works …
THE NEW legislation comes into effect too late to save Udhagamangalam's famed Boat Lake, which has become a dead water body because of the sewage and silt accumulated in it. Unaffected by laws and legislation, the town's ancient sewerage system, built over a century ago for 10,000 residents and now …
ON OCTOBER 11, 1991, the Supreme Court appointed a five-member committee, headed by retired Rajasthan high court judge M L Jain, to determine the boundaries of the areas in Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) notified under various acts as protected forests and Tiger Project Reserve. The committee also was required to …
THERE is a resurgence of interest among urban builders in mud, the traditional construction material of rural India, and many government housing schemes are adopting itMud's low cost and easy availablity, compared with conventional building material, make it a viable construction option for the poor. Other appreciate its malliability, good …
THE GOVERNMENT has decided to allow higher royalty payments than its present 8-per cent ceiling, on a case-by-case basis, to improve the quality of technology being imported. Finance secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia says royalty payment norms are being reviewed, indicating a change of heart that hopefully will reassure multi-national companies …
MEDIEVAL theologians would have burned Wolfgang Sachs, the editor of The Development Dictionary, and his fellow contributors as heretics and proscribed the book. A second reading has convinced me of this. A dictionary is rarely re-read, but the explosive ideas in this one demanded it. The book debunks all human …
I LIVE in Delhi, India's capital and one of its oldest cities. Seven times it has experienced a violent death and like the phoenix, seven times it has risen from its ashes. The city's historical monuments span its founding by the Pandavas who called it Indraprastha to its seventh incarnation, …
What has gone wrong with Indian science? Does it lack a personality of its own or does it lack confidence in its personality? You ask what is wrong with Indian science. May I ask what is wrong with Indian society, our management, our priorities and what have you? Why just …
