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 …
SCIENTISTS from the University of Michigan in the US have discovered that stony lumps of calcium carbonate, known as otoliths, found in the ears of most fishes, can offer clues to seasonal temperatures thousands or even millions of years ago (Science, Vol 258 No 5085). The finding has given a …
When 35-year-old Jayamma was brought to the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology ((KMIO) in Bangalore for advanced cervical cancer treatment, little did she anticipate the nightmare that lay in store for her. Jayamma was selected for Brachy therapy, in which sources of radiation are kept inside the affected part of …
The West Bengal government has begun work on developing an elephant sanctuary in the contiguous forest areas of Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. The state government's decision has been prompted by regular clashes between the local population and elephants, both of which are growing in number and need more space. Inhabitants …
NOTHING is forever. Not even IBM. International Business Machines, which called the shots in the computer industry worldwide for about half a century, announced sharp cuts in jobs, manufacturing capacity and development spending because of poor fourth-quarter sales. IBM plans to slash its workforce this year by more than 8 …
When disaster struck the Tehri-Garhwal region in Uttar Pradesh last year, several voluntary agencies rushed in to offer rehabilitation services. The most popular form of assistance was to "adopt" disaster-struck villages and build fresh shelters for the homeless. A recent report by the Dehra Dun-based People's Science Institute brings to …
THE NEPAL Supreme Court has ruled that the government's so-called understanding with India on the Tanakpur Barrage was a treaty that has to be ratified by Parliament. Under the treaty, signed in December 1991, Nepal agreed to provide 2.9 ha of land to India for tying the 577-metre left bund …
WHAT HAPPENS when the environment ministry violates environmental rules? The home ministry admonishes it. Or so it would seem from the predicament environment minister Kamal Nath finds himself in -- he has been asked by home minister S B Chavan to explain why his ministry issued quotas far in excess …
WHEN HARVARD researchers Bruce Yankner and Neil Kowall discovered in 1991 that amyloids -- small proteins -- injected into the brain of rats could destroy nerve cells in the same manner as observed in Alzheimer's patients, there was much excitement. Alzheimer's disease is the fourth largest killer in the developed …
Doesn't your protest against Cargill amount to terrorism? It is what the multinationals are doing that is terrorism. The Cargills are the terrorists. They are here to set up their empire and fleece innocent farmers, just like the East India Company did earlier. Are you against the domestic private companies …
THAT LITERACY is liberation may be rhetoric in many parts of the country, but not in Tamil Nadu's Pudukkottai district. Total literacy was reported in this granite quarry region in August 1992, and it brought with it, for the scores of women workers, freedom from bondage and penury. Today, a …
EFFORTS are on to develop cleaner technologies for the highly polluting two- and three-wheelers, whose number has increased six-fold from 1976 and 1992 and drastically brought down air quality in metropolitan areas. Some 94 per cent of the two- and three-wheelers in India are powered by two-stroke engines that are …
1992 has been a watershed year. Trends that were visible over the last few years came to a head, both globally and locally. At the global level, the events that preceded the Rio summit and took place at the meet were fascinating proofs that micro movements at the community, state, …
THE INDIAN women's movement faced several challenges last year: continued violence against women; the effects of the new structural adjustment policies on women's status; the question of political power for women; issues of health and population policies; and the threats posed by religious revivalism to women's rights. Protest against violence …
NO OTHER region of India has paid a heavier price for India's industrialisation than the Damodar valley, which traverses the poor states of Bihar and West Bengal. Rich in coal resources, the region has been extensively mined for this valuable mineral, which energises domestic hearths and industrial furnaces throughout the …
MOST OF us at some point of time have stayed up all night. The next day finds us slightly under the weather. Why does this happen? Why do some people cope better with night shifts, while other find it easier to work early in the morning? The world we live …
WE WERE a group of college students on our way up to Kaza in the Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh, and the large flocks of sheep that greeted us on our way were our first introduction to the world of the Gaddis. According to anthropological studies, the Gaddis are an …
THE WIDOWS of Vrindavan -- heads shaven, white sari-clad, their devotional routine veiling the indignity of penury and starvation -- have long been an emotive subject for photographers the world over. But who are they? What does their plight say for the status of women in rural Bengal -- where …
NEW FORMS of nutritional diseases can appear with environmental change, warns C Gopalan, former ICMR director-general. Increased use of chemical fertilisers with intensive cropping results is steadily depleting the soil of micronutrients such as sulphur, iron, manganese, zinc and cop- per. A majority of soils and crops in Andhra- Pradesh, …
AS INDIA plodded along the road. to world market integration, structural reforms initiated in 1991 resulted in the government's near- total dependence on market forces for price corrections. A study by S P Gupta, research director at the New Delhi-based Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, indicates growth …
AN ENVIRONMENTALLY safe, biotechnological toxin that kills mosquito larvae has been produced by the Centre for Biotechnology (CBT) at Anna University in Tamil Nadu. Named Biocide-S because it is produced from the Bacillus sphaericus bacterium, the pesticide has been successfully field-tested in a yearlong project at Kochi in Kerala. The …
