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 …
BANGALORE is witnessing dramatic protests these days against foreign businesses. Less than a fortnight after agitated farmers raided the offices of Cargill Seeds India Pvt Ltd (Down To Earth, January 31), there were demonstrations in the city against the state government's intention to approve construction of a model township near …
Why are you opposed to the township? The Japanese are coming to make money for themselves. We do not agree this will benefit Karnataka or India. Moreover, the government has been so secretive about the nature and features of the township. The chief minister has given contradictory information. What are …
Why do you want the township? It will bring in an investment of more than Rs 20,000 crore. Nobody in India can match this scale of investment in the present economic situation. What do feel about the fears expressed by environmentalists? The Japanese are extremely quality conscious. They will go …
THREE years ago, the state government directed the Uttar Pradesh Ground Water Board (UPGWB) to carry out a detailed survey of the fluorosis-affected villages in Unnao district. But it has yet to release the Rs 7 lakh that such a survey would cost. Despite this, the UP government recently directed …
PRESSING need for foreign exchange is pushing the country on to the international timber trail. Though the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) chooses to be tight-lipped, official sources admit timber exports have been given a green signal. To begin with, timber traders will be allowed to re-export teak wood …
A PROPOSAL by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to ban use of timber in construction from April 1993 is pitting the plywood and wood panel industry against wood substitute manufacturers. The former stand to lose CPWD orders worth Rs 70 crore and even more should state construction departments implement …
Trade unionist Datta Samant has helped 2,500 families of quarry workers in Bombay to get their settlement recognised as a slum. The 35-acre plot amid sand quarries at Powai lake was notified as a slum in 1984. But plot-owner Jitendra Sheth was more interested in developing the site as prime …
The dons of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have devised a way to get around cuts imposed by the University Grants Commission's in fund allocations that threaten teaching and research programmes in several of the country's universities and colleges. After six months of negotiations, senior economics professors at JNU struck a …
The full moon is said to drive people loony. Now, a scientist says the sun makes them murderous. V S Venkatavardhan, director of the Nehru Planetarium in Bombay, asserts major disturbances on earth occur during solar flares, which are increased eruptions of nuclear protons, electron particles and gamma rays oii …
Conservationists in Kerala want to ban an arrack shop located in the heart of the Chinnar wildlife sanctuary because it endangers the grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura dandolena). The Idukki district sanctuary is one of only two places in India where the giant squirrel exists. Wildlife lovers contend the land …
Six months ago, the Union department of electronics (DoE) announced an ambitious plan to create electronics hardware technology parks (EHTPs) in order to help the country's stagnating electronic components industry by giving it access to international technology and to collaboration with multinationals. However, EHTPs have, failed to take off owing …
The controversy over the Konkan railway route through Goa is acquiring communal hues. The Diocesan Pastoral Council, which has adamantly opposed the coastal route contending it would cause dislocation, served notice last month on the state's Roman Catholic legislators to oppose the proposed railway actively or face the wrath of …
WITHIN hours of being alerted by a French news agency about the worst-ever oil spill in Indian waters, a government crisis control group was huddled in emergency session. Their major concern: how best to contain oil leaking in a steady flow from a ruptured tank of the blazing, Tokyo-bound supertanker …
THE TREMENDOUS surge in prawn farming, fueled by the high prices they fetch abroad, is threatening ecological disaster for the Sundarbans, a fragile area of mangrove swamps in West Bengal. Several major business houses, including the Tatas, ITC, Britannia and Hindustan Lever have been allowed to operate hatcheries. The local …
What is your assessment of CG's handling of the spill? I visited the area a few days after the spill along with the environment secretary, the assistant inspector general of wildlife and the NIO director. CG did a commendable job, with the limited expertise at its command. During the 60 …
FISHERFOLK get to see little of the fabulous profits prawns fetch exporters. Between harvesting and exporting, the prawns multiply money 80 times over. Prawn seedlings are sold to middlemen at Rs 20 to Rs 50 a kg in summer -- when the seedlings are abundant -- and Rs 150 to …
THERE are a few standard procedures to tackle oil spills. They can be contained by booms (inflatable lengths of rubber that float around an oil spill) and collected by using oil skimmers. Or, they can be dissipated by spraying chemicals called dispersants on a spill. The chemical emulsifies the oil …
DOWN TO EARTH has been consistently arguing that people"s self-management and control are the best ways to deal with the critical problems facing India, namely, declining productivity and the steady destruction of natural resources such as forests, grasslands, ponds, tanks and wetlands -- problems that result in extreme poverty and …
Whose ideals inspire you the most? I am a Gandhian. I will work to the end to realise Gandhiji's gram swaraj. How can Gandhi's dreams be realised? Through people's participation. Every community has tremendous amount of hidden energy. Therefore, what needs to be done is to make people realise their …
"WE ARE happy without government help for our agriculture. Our lands now yield thrice what they used to four years ago," says 36-year-old Jagdish Gujjar of Guwara Dewari, a village of 60 households in the green belt of the Sariska reserved forest in Rajasthan's semi-arid Alwar district. Agriculture in the …
