Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
The pulp and paper industry is an environmentalist' nightmare. It can easily eat away a nation's forest. It uses huge amounts of equally precious water to
Pakistan has also entered a drought phase, the country's water authority announced recently, citing critically low water levels in the major reservoirs. The Indus River System Authority (IRSA), which allocates water to the provinces, said that the country's water reservoirs at Tarbela, near Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province …
GRP is not a mere rating. It is a tool to push for improvement. A way to leverage change. Thus the rating must reflect the current state of the industrial sector, and point to improvements. So it is that in each rating, the project reviews the entire sector
Various types of allergies, bronchial asthma, diabetes, obesity, chronic fatigue syndrome, cancer, aids and tuberculosis have become almost endemic to our civilisation. Most even today take it for granted that at a certain age, one of these maladies will strike them. Is it possible that building designs
a method that uses roughly only one-hundredth the fresh water customarily needed to grow forage for livestock may leave much more water available for human consumption and industrial use. The method is being tested by 42 wireless sensors being installed in a forage-growing greenhouse built barely a stone's throw from …
researchers from the us-based University of California have found that women eating more vegetables, fruits and other foodstuff rich in proteins have less chances of giving birth to children suffering from leukaemia. Among the fruits and vegetables, carrots, string beans and cantaloupe reduce the risk the most, the researchers point …
function illustration() { var popurl="image/20040930/30-illus.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=450,scrollbars=yes") } Scarcity amidst plenty summarises the water problem ailing hill-stations today. They receive good rainfall but there is no mechanism to collect runoff for later use. Result: water shortage every year. How did the Brits manage it? They cashed on the terrain, and gravity, …
The stinky spectacle of hill-stations getting buried under their own garbage is turning more real. Look down the slopes and you will see mounds of coloured plastic bags, and tourist staples such as empty packets of potato chips and plastic water bottles. All of which is mixed with vegetable waste …
Evam Piljain, an 80-year-old Toda who's spent all her life in Ooty, feels distraught at the sight of her hometown. "I cannot sit in the verandah anymore,' she says. She moves to her drawing room and gazes wistfully at a photograph of Ooty taken in the early part of the …
Planning is non-existent for India's hill-stations, admit hill municipalities. In the absence of a master plan, a free-for-all situation prevails where one constructs wherever one finds free space; if there is lack of space, one can simply add another storey to one's house. There is no tourist plan, which becomes …
Incredible India. The land of mystic splendour. The hidden paradise. These are just three slogans to convince people to turn themselves into tourists and land up, every summer, in droves in hill-stations. Ooty's annual flower show attracts 0.2 million tourists over two days. In addition, it receives over 0.3 million …
function graph() { var popurl="image/20040930/26-graphs.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=300,height=475,scrollbars=yes") } High altitude sickness The Brits made India's hill-stations. Invariably, a responsible officer of the colonial government chanced upon a scene of delirious beauty that completely seduced his senses. Ootacamund or Udagamandalam (Ooty) in the Western Ghats was
In 1997 Thusitha Ranasinghe a young Sri Lankan entrepreneur was looking for ways to expand his family printing business. A casual article about a Kenyan game ranger experimenting with elephant dung to make paper caught his attention, then. "This seemed a good idea and I worked on it,' he says. …
A NATIONAL environment policy is on the anvil. The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has drafted a version and placed it in the public domain for all to review in two months. But the draft has made the civil society sulk. Their grouse: MoEF has become insular. It's …
I never thought I would write in defence of the Indian state. But I am. The de-construction of the notion of public space and the practice of public service is evident and will cripple us enormously. But I am also clear that re-construction will demand considerable innovation. We will be …
Depressed? A sip of water might be just the thing to lift your spirits. In the uk, rivers as well as groundwater reserves are teeming with the antidepressant Prozac, reveals an Environment Agency report. Experts say the drug gets into the rivers and water system via treated sewage water. The …
The European Commission has traversed an important milestone towards emissions trading by approving eight national allocation plans for carbon dioxide emission allowances. While the plans of Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Sweden were cleared without any alterations, those of Austria, Germany and the UK were approved subject to some …
It is rare to hear the wail of a child about to be given an injection at Dharam Prakash's small clinic in Ashok Vihar, Delhi. Reason: in the 30 years that he has been practising, this doctor has rarely used injections, not even in extreme cases. For instance, twelve-year-old Vishakha …
