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 new land reform law in the country aims to strike a balance between conservation and community development. The reforms seek to restore property taken from some 3.5 million South Africans during the apartheid era. Large areas of national park; as well as some farms and primate game reserves, will …
A GOVERNMENT decree which had put the indigenous lands of Brazil up for grabs, is being contested for demarcating 70 indigenous areas and reserves. Till this date, more than 1, 100 actions have been registered with the National Indigenous Foundation (Funai) in this regard. This is seen as a direct …
Participants from five Commonwealth countries met in Nairobi recently to undergo training in environmental impact assessment in project planning and management. Kenya showed them a model of development sans pollution: a hi-tech geothermal power plant, the first of its kind in Africa, lies 120 km from Nairobi near Lake Naivasha, …
An expedition was launched recently in a bid to clean up the mess atop Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. Fifteen Nepali climbers set out with empty sacks to collect 1,500 kg of garbage in 50 days from the peak, which is now known as the highest junk yard on …
THE second session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) was held from March 11-22 in Geneva. Delegates conducted their first substantive discussions of six programme elements: underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation; fragile ecosystems affected by desertification and the impact of air pollution on forests; needs and requirements …
Continued trade in the Spur-thighed tortoise Testudo graeca has sharply reduced the number of these creatures (by 86 per cent) in the country. Morocco has been the major supplier of these reptiles to the European pet market. Its exports peaked during the '50s and ' 60s, when several million tortoises …
The Amazon jungle may have actually been the handiwork of humans rather than a natural feature. This startling find is the result of a recent exploration of a cave - Caverna da Pedra Pintada - in Monte Alegre in the north bank of the Amazon in Brazil, which has revealed …
Lying at the heart of Africa's largest and last belt of rainforest is the Minkette equatorial forest, which is home to Gabon's pygmies. But environmentalists fear that it may soon become endangered with the onslaught of development. A few dozen miles from the northern Gabonese village of Evela - which …
In order to prop up the disastrous food reserves in Bangladesh, the European Union (EU), under the Integrated Food-Assisted Development Project (IFADEP) is sending, over a period of six years, a total of 562,000 tonnes (t) of wheat. EU has already delivered 135,000 t of wheat to date. The 9w, …
The new Decree 1,775/96 signed by President Fernando Cardoso on January 8, allows Brazilian states, municipalities and other parties to contest and oppose the delimitation of indigenous lands (Down To Earth, Vol 4, No 19). Says Beto Borges, Amazon Campaign Coordinator of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), "Brazil has taken …
The president of the Dallas-based Maxus Energy Corporation, Roberto Monti, got an unexpected bouquet of rose flowers while addressing the recent Inter-American Petroleum and Gas Conference in the us. Only the roses, presented by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) activists, a group which works to protect rainforests worldwide and also …
An additional search for neem-related patents through the US patent database, carried out in late December, 1995, revealed the existence of two more patents. Both were obtained by US corporations: patent no 5411736, dated May 2, 1995, held by W R Grace and Co, called Hydrophobic extracted neem oil -a …
MIGRATORY birds may not find their return journey to their homelands in Europe as hazardous as before. The European Parliament, after a heated debate, has finally agreed for the hunting season to close on January 31 each year. 'Environmentalists and anti-hunters won the day after the amendment to close the …
BETA carotene, the amazing vitamin found primarily in carrots and promoted as a preventive cure for both cancer and heart disease may not work wonders after all. Contrary, to popular beliefs, two studies financed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), US, reveal that beta carotene is completely ineffective in preventing …
TO MEET the rising demands of electricity, the Chinese government plans to augment its nuclear facilities by constructing 12 more nuclear plants apart from the present two. Nuclear power is projected to rise from the current one per cent usage to six per cent in AD 2020. Being cash-strapped, however, …
NEARLY a decade after the world's worst nuclear disaster, Ukraine has finally decided to close the Chernobyl nuclear power station. Ukraine and the Group of seven industrial nations met recently at Ottawa, Canada and finalised the deed to bring the curtains down on Chernobyl. The memorandum Of Understanding involves US …
THE one-horned rhinos of Kaziranga National Park, Assam, may yet get a fresh lease of life. Park officials, dismayed by poaching incidents, have demanded an additional 400 sq km area to the park to prevent poaching. In 1995 alone, the poachers had killed 25 rhinos. Every year during the floods …
What are the results of tests carried out with Immuno QR? Effect of treatment of herbal medicines to study the serological status of 10 HIV patients (arranged by Anand) was carried out by ELISA test at day 0 and thereafter at days 30, 60 and 90, after the initiation of …
TRADITIONAL crop enemies should make themselves scarce. Out to get them are genetically engineered bugs from the laboratory of Marjorie A Hoy, a University of Florida entomologist. Hoy recently became the first scientist to ask the us department of agriculture for permission to release the genetically altered mite into a …
A NUCLEAR reactor in your vicinity could be the best way to contract breast cancer, as the latest Greenpeace report reveals. The report titled, "Nuclear Power, Human Health and the Environment: The Breast Cancer Warning in the Great Lakes Basin", endorsed by 13 us cancer experts, indicates that toxic chemicals …
