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 …
KAREN Perremans and her colleagues at the Zoological Institute at Leuven in Belgium have discovered that birds have unique "featherprints," which may make it possible to identify bird species by analysing a small piece of feather (BBC Wildlife, Vol 10, No 12). Feathers from more than 200 species of birds …
INDIA faces resource constraints and environmental decline in meeting the growing energy needs over the next two decades. Fuel consumption in the household, industry and transportation sectors pollutes the atmosphere and leads to problems such as smog and acid rain. However, the TERI report says it is possible to provide …
FOR COMPOSITES National Aeronautical Laboratory Post Box No 1779 Bangalore (Karnataka) 560 017 Phone: (0812) 571112 Fax: 812-560862 FOR NON-FERROUS MATERIALS Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) 500 258 FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY Tata Energy Research Institute 9, Jor Bagh New Delhi 110 003 FOR FOOD TECHNOLOGY Central Food Technological …
DOORDARSHAN viewers in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and West Bengal can now watch a film simultaneously and read the subtitles in their own regional language -- thanks to a new, multilingual, telecasting technology called Language Independent Programme Subtitles (LIPS). The technology, evolved by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing …
"EVERY year, there is the same anarchy," moaned Shailendra Biswal, a 38-year-old physicist from Utkal University. Biswal was among several hundred delegates trying to obtain details of lodging and transport at the University of Goa on January 2, the eve of the inauguration of the 80th Indian Science Congress at …
FIVE WEEKS after an order to shut down Delhi's Rajghat thermal power station (RTPS) for excessive pollution, it was back in operation again, belching smoke and discharging overheated water and effluents. The polluting units of the power station were shut down on November 24 because they continually exceeded the Delhi …
NEARLY half the world's population depends on rice for food. Yet, it was only i.n the early :980~ thaHhe crop was Included in biotechnology research to enhance yield and quality. Since then, however, while the research has thrown up break-throughs, problems have cropped up that could hinder the development of …
ILL-CONCEIVED human intervention can all but destroy a wild animal's habitat and this has been amply illustrated at the Keoladeo National Park (KNP) in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. Successive years of worsening food and water scarcity are blamed for the lessening number of rare Siberian white cranes visiting the park. This year, …
SETTING up of an Indian Research and Development Authority (IRDA) and reviving the cabinet committee on science and technology are among the steps expected to be taken soon to boost science research, Union minister of state for science and technology P R Kumaramangalam has told Down To Earth. The minister …
A REVOLUTION is taking place in medical immunology with the discovery of a method to produce monoclonal antibodies, which offer a powerful and less toxic treatment for diverse diseases, from cancer to rheumatoid arthritis, than most available drugs (British Medical Journal, Vol 340, Nos 6864-6). In the mid-1970s, a group …
THE GERMAN minister for environment, nature protection and reactor safety, Klaus Topfer, is among those who blame the West for a major role in polluting the earth. Or, so he was at pains to establish during a recent visit to India. "The industrialised countries must make a conscientous effort," he …
BUCKYBALLS or fullerenes, a newly discovered form of carbon, have opened up a new field in carbon chemistry and new applications are coming to light in electronics and electrochemistry. Japanese scientists have recently made thin films of fullerene crystals that show the electrical behaviour of semi-conductors such as silicon. Other …
FOR SEVERAL centuries, Udaipur has been renowned for the exquisite use of marble in its magnificent palaces. But it was known only recently that the city rests atop the world's largest marble reserves, and the rush to exploit this bonanza is wreaking havoc on Rajasthan's beautiful lake city. The 'marble …
"WE CAN cut coke consumption in foundries by as much as a quarter by using a new technology, but nobody comes to us," says Rama Rao, Director of the Process and Product Development Centre (PPDC) in Agra. He adds, "It will also reduce pollution as the quantity of coke used …
TO ENSURE poorer Indians may not wind up lining the gowns of unscrupulous lawyers, the Free Legal Aid Scheme was introduced in 1980 by the Union government. Since then, many voluntary agencies have complained of the extremely tardy implementation of the scheme, meant to benefit those with an annual family …
IN A SHIFT from Japan's traditional eating habits, meat and dairy products have now overshot rice production as the Japanese take to a more westernised diet. The Japanese ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries recently reported that as compared to 25 years ago, the average Japanese now eats 40 per …
THE UNION surface transport ministry and the Delhi administration are at loggerheads over how to combat the capital's traffic pollution. Early in this year, the ministry suggested to the city administration that odd and even numbered vehicles should be allowed to ply on alternate days. The ministry's note urged the …
IN 1987, the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi offered to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Assam as one of the sops to quell the student agitation in the state. Five years later, the country's sixth IIT is all set to come up in Silagrant village in …
FOR NEARLY two decades, scientist bureaucrat M G K Menon has been envied and hated by jealous rivals for the favours he has enjoyed from successive Indian governments, whatever the ruling party. Following close association with Indira Gandhi as well as her son, Rajiv, during their premierships, Menon joined the …
WHEN THE Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) detected acidic effluents from a Birla sugar mill in a tributary of the Gomati, it thought it could bell the cat easily. But a Supreme Court order in an earlier environmental pollution complaint against the unit has left the board high and …
