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. …
Recurrent droughts and floods coupled with mass poverty, chronic unemployment and pervasive malnutrition are the major challenges before India. The Union government usually responds by complaining about truant rains and doles out funds in an arbitrary manner. As an alternative, I propose a nationwide watershed development programme through the statutory …
the future of the Tawa Matsya Sangh (tms), Madhya Pradesh's highly acclaimed federation of fisherfolk cooperatives, is at stake. The Madhya Pradesh (mp) government is contemplating taking over the management of the Hoshangabad-based body. tms comprises local people who were displaced during the construction of a dam on Tawa river. …
The coastal city of Kochi in Kerala might finally have some respite from acute water shortage. And the famous Maharaja's College in Kochi is leading the way. Kerala's largest rainwater harvesting project, with a capacity of 300,000 litres, was inaugurated in the college campus. Two abandoned tanks, earlier used for …
"Is environmental history merely the recording of loss and decline, a narrative about the sinking of the Titanic as it were?' asked Richard Grove at the concluding session of the
Devotees at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, the major shrine for followers of the Sikh religion, will now be able to bathe in purified water. Authorities in Amritsar have appointed an American architectural firm
widespread public protest and media debate has forced the Kerala government to shelve its ambitious project to sell the waters of two major rivers to multinational companies. The project sought to attract global corporate investment in two industrial water supply programmes. It envisaged extraction of 240 million litres of water …
healing power: An Indian research team has been granted the rights to develop the curative potential of jamun (black plum fruit). The team has obtained a US patent on a compound extracted from jamun, which reduces blood sugar levels. The compound will be developed to produce a "herbal therapeutic product …
poor people invariably bear the burden of development. A recent study is another testimony to this fact. It indicates global warming has led to more malaria in East Africa
The Union ministry of water resources has recommended that a satellite be used for mapping all possible information on water sources. The Indian Space Research Organisation (isro) is likely to start work on the satellite, which will provide information about glaciers, aquifers, rivers and other ground and surface water bodies …
president Bush may now be compelled to reconsider his climate change policy. The most comprehensive study conducted in the us about the potential greenhouse impacts details how major water problems could evolve over the next 50 years in the western parts of the country. Many people have heard about the …
Los Angeles lurches from one crisis to another. While this thirsty desert city needs a stable water supply during summer, floods often cause widespread havoc in the winter. Developers have now come up with a novel idea to tide over the water woes. A group of about 20 environmentalists, politicians, …
electioneering in Gujarat is in full swing. Caretaker chief minister Narendra Modi has run away from his vote bhoomi Rajkot. The mainstream media says it is a calculated move. Of course it is! Rajkot is a water crisis-driven city, and district. Modi had promised water. He was elected. Today, Rajkot …
Prodigene Inc, a Texas-based biotechnology company, is at the centre of a row after its soyabean produce was found to be contaminated with genetically engineered corn grown earlier in the same field. The us government has ordered the company to destroy 500,000 bushels of soyabean, estimated to be worth millions …
the Union government appears to have accorded top priority to the scheme for inter-linking of India's rivers. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced in the current parliament session that river networking was "a long-term, permanent solution to the recurring problem of drought'. The proposal also received opposition leader Sonia Gandhi's …
The North American Millers' Association (NAMA) has asked the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to be exempted from a ban on methyl bromide. The chemical is used for fumigation in grain mills. Association members say that the ban would cost the industry more than US $60 million annually. However, scientific …
Water shortage might be threatening agriculture, but it is proving beneficial for the environment in some ways. A study by researchers from Durham-based University of New Hampshire indicates that using less water for paddy cultivation worldwide has reduced methane emissions by around 12 per cent. As a result of water …
the Supreme Court (sc) has asked the Union government to consider linking the country's rivers within 10 years, advancing the government's own deadline. Earlier, the Union ministry of water resources had filed an affidavit stating that this project, which it claimed would control flood and drought conditions, would be completed …
It's a battle for the basics now between Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli infrastructure minister Effie Eitam has ordered a ban on all water drilling by Palestinians in West Bank. He alleges that they are drawing illegally from wells and depleting supplies. But Palestinian water commissioner Fadal Kawash has denounced the …
German pharmaceutical giant Bayer A G has disclosed plans to use data collected by testing pesticides on human beings. The tests, which came in for severe criticism, were conducted by the company in 1998. But Bayer has also announced that it will not be reviving trials on humans, which are …
A man now owns a 23.6 kilometre (km) stretch of a river. He has a monopoly on the supply of water from the Sheonath river in a 19 km radius near the Durg township in Chhattisgarh. This has been made possible by a boot (build-own-operate-transfer) agreement that he has entered …
