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 …
A COMMITTEE that has been reviewing regulations governing coastal tourism recommends that decision-making in these matters should be left to the states concerned because they "are aware of the local constraints and the extent of demand for beach tourism" and it was upto state officials to determine how best to …
THE MOST significant case on an issue of scientific integrity in recent times, that of AIDS researcher Robert Gallo, has yet to be settled. The Office of Scientific Integrity (OSI) of the National Institute of Health (NIH) cleared Gallo of misdemeanour early this year, (Down To Earth, July 31). Now, …
THE QUALITY of mathematics education in the land that produced the mathematical genius Ramanujam has fallen considerably over the years, if India's poor showing at the recent international maths Olympiad (IMO) in Moscow is any indication. But according to some educators, the fault also partially lies in the selection process …
STATIC library budgets in India and soaring printing costs abroad have drastically reduced the inflow of foreign science and technology (S & T) journals. Indian institutions subscribe to less than 20 per cent of the 60,000 S & T journals published the world over. The number has dropped alarmingly -- …
THE ELUSIVE sandalwood smuggler Veerappan has dealt another blow. Last month, he lured Mysore superintendent of police T Harikrishna and his men into a trap and mercilessly killed him and five other policemen. Harikrishna headed the special task force set up to nab the smuggler and had been 'informed' earlier …
MEDICAL practitioners in the West are resorting to traditional oriental medical systems in seeking to cure diseases that do not respond to conventional treatment. British dermatologists say they have confirmed that traditional Chinese herbal therapy can be used to treat resistant skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis (The Lancet, Vol. …
AN ADVANCED, ultraviolet (UV) light-water disinfection system has been installed at a water pumping station in UK. The system, developed by Hanovia Ltd, differs from earlier systems in that it can automatically regulate UV intensity in response to changes in water quality and water flow. UV disinfection has normally been …
THE PROMULGATION of the Public Liability Insurance Act (PLI) -- to ensure that victims of chemical accidents get quick compensation -- is brewing into a controversy with public sector enterprises reluctant to take out policies under the new scheme. Under this law, insurance cover of a maximum of Rs five …
THE SUPREME Court has exempted the sale of steroid-antihistamine drug combinations for treatment of asthma from a ban until the next hearing in August. In 1981, the Drug Technical Advisory Board had recommended a ban on all steroid combinations, excluding asthma drugs. The ban was extended to asthma five years …
MOST CITY dwellers are acutely aware of the growing problem of pollution. Now, action against this scourge seems to be heating up. Hyderabad's polluted Hussain Sagar lake may get a new lease of life with Rs 10 crore of Australian aid pumped in to clean it up. In Bombay, a …
ELEPHANTS are fast becoming a law and order problem in some parts of the country. A herd of elephants crossed over from Bihar into the tribal district of Sarguja in MP, attacking villages and fields. In the last few years, officials say 14 people have been killed but tribals say …
SCIENTISTS have good news for tea and coffee drinkers: they need not kick the habit for fear that the caffeine in the beverages causes cancer. Research indicates that caffeine may actually help prevent cancer caused by radiation and certain chemicals and that it can be useful in radiotherapy. Till 20 …
TO THE thousands of tourists who flock every year to Chittaurgarh, the best known of Rajasthani hill-forts is an impressive reminder of the golden years of Rajput chivalry and the courage of Rajput wives, who would immolate themselves on funeral pyres rather than submit to the enemy. What the tourists …
WHEN ARMIES march, they usually leave a trail of barren, brown desolation in their wake. But in parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, former Indian army personnel are embarked on greening projects involving the most degraded tracts. Operating as units of the so-called Eco Task Force (ETF), …
SOLAR cells used to tap energy from the sun are made up of photovoltaic substances such as silicon which, when combined with suitable additives and exposed to sunlight, produce electricity. Extracting crystalline silicon from the compounds in which it is found is highly energy-intensive and the element itself accounts for …
THE BOOK under review is an exhaustive, intensely researched, painstaking study of the social organisation of the Munda of Central India. This area is not the same as the historical or the political region, and is being increasingly referred to now as middle India. The author disarmingly admits he was …
BASUDEO ORAON had lost all hopes of ever retrieving his young son Daham from the bondage of Jagdish Kushwaha, a carpet loom owner of Lohara village in UP's Mirzapur district. Daham had been working for the last two years for Kushwaha and Basudeo's efforts to secure either his son's release …
WHEN animals live in groups, many paradoxes occur that are hard to explain within the framework of the classical Darwinian theory of natural selection. For example, a honey-bee spends its entire life working selflessly for the welfare of its queen mother and thousands of its sibling larvae. In 1964, scientist …
THE GARBAGE heaps of Kathmandu, which rise in ugly mounds against the breathtaking beauty of the Himalayan ranges, tell a story -- a story of blind, lopsided, urban growth in one of the poorest countries in south Asia. And what is happening in Kathmandu is symptomatic of the growing urban …
IN 1894, when the colonial government imposed a countervailing excise duty on Indian cotton goods to offset the advantages that may have accrued to the Indian textile industry because of a 5 per cent import duty levied on all foreign goods, it became yet another symbol of British imperialism. Nationalist …
