The bulk of pesticides used in India are organochlorines which have an immense capacity to persist in the environment and accumulate within living bodies. Pesticides like dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), hexa-chloro cyclohexane (HCH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) enter the body through intake of grains, vegetables, fruits, edible oils, dairy …
THE deadly DDT was banned for agricultural use in India in 1992, when it was found that the daily diet of Indians contained 0.27 milli grams (mg) of this pesticide. Recently, India saw the banning of Benzene Hexachloride (BHC), a pesticide which causes turnours, leukemia, liver and kidney damage and …
A LARGE number of tea gardens in Darjeeling have switched over to organic tea. No inorganic fertilisers, pesticides and wcedicides are used. The planters only use bio-compost, biomass-based mulching is being used as fertilisers. Similarly, only neem-based pesticides and weedicides like Neerrigold and Neemazol are used. Organic tea is meant …
ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE when I received the invitation to release your report on the pollution of the Yamuna and its effect on Delhi's drinking water supply, I was a little hesitant. I cannot claim any expertise in this field. But since pollution control and preservation of the environment is central …
This article began with a very simple thought. The Centre for Science and Environment’s (cse) campaigner on sustainable water management, Himanshu Thakkar, had prepared a draft paper on urban drinking water in which he had reviewed a number of documents and newsclippings that the Centre’s library had gathered on the …
• Yamuna (mainstream): 37.50 per cent (546 million litre per day (MLD) treated at Wazirabad; 409.50 MLD at Chandrawal) • Western Yamuna Canal: 33.36 per cent (910 MLD, treated at Haiderpur) • Ranney wells (huge wells on the riverbank) and tubewells: 10.81 per cent (295 MLD) • Ganga: 18.33 per …
On May 20, 1993, 17 persons died and 250 were seriously affected owing to consumption of the town’s polluted water. The tragedy was the handiwork of the Agra Jal Sansthan (AJS)
Troubles over water treatment don curious colours. In January 1997, Lyonnaise des Eaux, France's largest water distribution company, did the unexpected: It sued the government for failing to meet European Union (EU) directives on the maximum permissible level of nitrates in one of the rivers of the nation. The EU …
There are a total of 19 drains in Delhi. Of these, three discharge into the Agra canal, one into downstream Yamuna and 14 into the Delhi segment of the river. Nearly 2,800 million litres daily (MLD) of sewage/industrial effluents containing 200 tonnes (t) of BOD and 160 t of suspended …
A study carried out by H C Agarwal, P K Mittal, K B Menon and M K K Pillai of the department of zoology, University of Delhi, published in August 1985, traced DDT residues in water, bottom sediments and certain organisms from four different sites in the river. Total DDT …
“Round-the-clock monitoring by a network of zonal laboratories and a central laboratory ensures water quality. In Delhi, where people are very vocal, we cannot afford to be lax even for a moment,” claims a dwssdu spokesperson. However, Delhi itself is the Yamuna’s biggest polluter. “The stretch in the vicinity of …
Segment I: Himalayan: From source to Tajewala; 172 km Segment II: Upper: From Tajewala to Wazirabad; 224 km Segment III: Delhi: Wazirabad barrage to Okhla barrage; 22 km Segment IV: Eutrophicated (Eutrophication is the result of astronomical BOD and other micropollutant levels): Okhla barrage to Chambal confluence; 490 km Segment …
As an environmental activist and writer, I have tried for years to promote nationwide concern about the deteriorating state of our environment. The idea of writing about my own travails as an environmental victim had, however, never crossed my mind. But obviously, I could not have escaped what was and …
ALL the way up at the North Pole, Arctic lakes are teeming with severe cases of pesticide contaminated fish. Dangerous levels of the pesticide toxaphene in the trout and turbot stock in Lake Laberge, in Yukon, Canada, have been reported by a team of Canadian researchers investigating the causes of …
Contaminant levels of pocs have been established in various foods in countries such as India, Thailand and Vietnam. Concentrations of a number of pocs exceed the recommended maximum residue limits set by the World Health Organisation (who) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (fao) for various food items in India. Overall …
