The announcement that more cement factories will be set up in the state has unleashed a controversy. Units already operational have not controlled emissions and it is feared more plants will further degrade the environment and adversely affect tourism.
CRITICISING or condemning lopsided developmental priorities and highlighting their consequences is one thing; outright rejection of the very concept of development, science and technology is quite
An Indian government report that criticises and asks for several amendments in the Montreal Protocol is expected to generate heated debate among signatories meeting later this month.
Sugarcane farmers in rural Karnataka are making jaggery using an efficient and smoke free stove designed and promoted by a school headmaster.
Worried by the steady erosion of India"s wealth of genetic diversity, a major expansion project will quadruple storage capacity in the national gene bank
Tissue culture can change the face of agriculture, asserts Ajit Thomas, who heads a firm that has gone in a big way for biotechnology in the cultivation of plants and flowers.
So dependent are the Bhils on trees, deforestation is eroding the very roots of their culture
The gharat, a water wheel used for centuries by the Himalayan people, has now been modified so that it can empower several machines simultaneously. Unfortunately, the government is not making the effort to popularise it.
Gandruk, a small Nepali village on a popular trekking route, will be visited by more than 80,000 tourists before the year ends. But an unusual conservation project makes sure the ecology of the area is protected
IF ONE were to pick a single product to represent the tremendous technological progress in the second half of this century, it would certainly be the computer. In few fields has progress been so
India has failed in the basic work that it needed to do even before going to Rio -- define the pathway of sustainable development for itself
STATE-SPONSORED conservation of natural resources in India has been in existence for many centuries and has been carried out in a variety of ways. Today, the generic term of "protected areas"
Even the lowly cow pat has ownership rules in rural India. But rights over dung, an important source of energy and soil fertilisation, vary from community to community
The balding hills of Jadhera panchayat in Himachal Pradesh are regaining their vegetation, thanks to an unusual village chief
Burgeoning populations notwithstanding, humankind seems in danger of being wiped out. This is the inference one draws from <i>Our Stolen Future</i> , which holds chemical pollutants in the environment responsible for declining sperm counts, increasing bi
THE CONFERENCE has just ratified the Earth Charter, the name of which has been changed to the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development at the behest of developing countries. This puts
Pushed onto reservations and almost forgotten, the indigenous people of the world have finally got onto the international environmental agenda. The UNCED process has at least recognised that the concerns of the First People must be addressed
The public debate between Dutch environment minister Hans Alders and Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment, covering a whole variety of global environmental issues, including the forest convention and the climate convention, turned into
Restrictions on use of natural resources in protected areas are driving the local communities dependent on forest produce for their survival to a state of deprivation. Conservation strategies can be sustainable only when it involves indigenous people in t
The Planning Commission is embarking on a new approach to agriculture planning. But state governments and the finance ministry are reluctant to invest in "untried" concepts.
