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 …
NOVEMBER 28 was the 102nd death anniversary of Jotiba Phule. Though his centenary was not celebrated with the same national fervor as B R Ambedkar's, mass rallies were held to renew the realisation of the importance of Phule as a social radical, especially among the awakening dalit and low-caste masses. …
NATURE Scope-India, one of the first publications of its kind in the country, is being brought out on the lines of the Washington-based National Wildlife Federation's NatureScope. The first issue deals with different aspects of mammal life. A variety of interesting activities are suggested and graded according to the education …
THIS BOOK is a misnomer for "heritage" connotes something far removed from the present. Kautilya's work, for example, might be described as India's heritage. The book, however, presents 10 autobiographical articles by Raghu Raj Bahadur, Debabrata Basu, Vasant Shankar Huzurbazar, Gopinath Kallianpur, Debabrata Lahiri, Pesi Rustom Masani, Keshavan Raghavan Nair, …
REMOTE sensing is slowly changing the contours of planning in India. In time, it could do away with conventional methods of data collection involving laborious field studies and replace dusty files in the large cupboards of officialdom with computer tapes, discs and video monitors. Providing such relatively easy access to …
Katchi abadis (illegal squatter colonies) are a common feature in Pakistan's rapidly expanding cities. Karachi alone has 362 such colonies, housing more than 3 million people -- about 40 per cent of the city's population. These settlements have sprung up since the 1970s as a result of immigration from rural …
SCIENTISTS are discovering that specialised structures in the minute world of cells do not float randomly from place to place but are actively transported along well laid out tracks by a veritable menagerie of motor molecules (Science, Vol 256 No 5065). The motor molecules play a fundamental role in the …
A PROPOSAL by the National Dairy Development Board to import bovine somatotropin (BST), a synthetic growth hormone for cattle, has run into objections from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), which insists it must first clear BST for safety before it can be used in field tests. The European …
CREEPY, CRAWLY strands are not looked upon with gusto by children, however hungry. And, it took loads of icing sugar to make a test food supplement palatable to about 5,000 primary schoolchildren. They were fed high-protein spirulina algae as part of the noon meal in a programme evolved by the …
THE NEXT time you pluck a flower, take care: you could hurt it. And, if you are a plant-lover, stop talking to them and try touching them instead. Researchers say seemingly passive plants can feel and react to touch in their own special way (New Scientist, Vol 136 No 1843). …
The one-man inquiry commission appointed to investigate reports of poaching in the Ranthambhore tiger reserve has turned out to be a sham, say conservationists. The report has indicted the park's management for poaching, but has stopped short of actually pinning blame and recommending action. The report has generally criticised the …
VICTIMS of Parkinson's, Huntington's and Alzheimer's diseases have reason to cheer: scientists may soon be able to treat -- if not cure -- their illnesses. Cyto Therapeutics, a US firm that develops cell implants, has signed an agreement with biologists Sam Weiss and Brent Reynolds of the University of Calgary …
The public humiliation of B D Sharma, social activist and former Commissioner of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, has stirred up a hornet's nest. "It has come as a shock to all of us... But what else can you expect from the fascist regime of (Madhya Pradesh chief minister) Sunderlal …
DOCTORS in Africa are debating whether severely anaemic children should be given blood transfusions because of the risk of their getting AIDS-infected blood. Researchers, however, have found ways to reduce the frequency of transfusions by 55 per cent without increasing mortality (The Lancet, Vol 340 No 8818). Severely anaemic children …
For officials in the power sector, setting targets for electricity generation has become a leap in the dark. Because of environmental considerations, all targets for producing power from conventional sources have been upset and several hurdles have been placed in the way of securing international assistance for power projects. Prime …
After years of inaction, things seem to be moving with lightning speed in Bhopal. The Supreme Court has directed the Reserve Bank of India to transfer the money paid by Union Carbide as compensation to welfare commissioner A G Qureshi for payment to victims after the processing of claims. Almost …
GUAYULE is an arid-zone crop that is one of only two species yielding rubber in quantities substantial enough for commercial use. Unlike the rubber tree, guayule can be cultivated in marginal lands and provide income to desert dwellers. The whole plant, except the leaves, produces rubber. Scientists at Haryana Agricultural …
The Indian government has once again rejected an allegation that 27.5 tonnes of heavy water produced in Norway was diverted from Romania and Germany to India. Atomic Energy Commission chairman P K Iyengar said in his reply last month to the Norwegian foreign office India produces and even exports heavy …
ZOOLOGISTS have always wondered why the females of two African antelope species repeatedly mated with only certain males. A further clue was provided by James Deutsch and Rory Nefdt of Cambridge University who discovered female antelopes always chose mates who occupied certain territories in the mating grounds. The researchers then …
NEXT YEAR, a longer-lasting and more efficient bulb known as the electronic light, or "E-Lamp," will hit the US market. A magnetic coil generates a radio signal that interacts with the gas inside the bulb, as a result of which a phosphor coating on the inside of the bulb starts …
THE FOURTH Conference of Parties (CoP) to the Montreal Protocol, scheduled for later this month in Copenhagen, promises to be a hot affair. The government of India has prepared a detailed report on its strategy to phase out ozone-depleting substances, in which it has criticised the inequitable nature of the …
