The mystery of the aquadeaths
One of the most lucrative pisciculture activities today, shrimp cultivation in India was recently given a devastating body blow by a mysterious lethal virus. Author tracks the beast
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How to be a glutton and bloom with health
How what you tuck into can pull you back from the brink of death
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Can the Grim Reaper wait, please?
A timeless dream: eternal youth, unblemished by illness. The search for the font of immortality has taken a late 20th century turn into what seems like fantasy science. The basis of this search is the belief that if death cannot be staved off forever, hum
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The wilder side of environment
Why are pretty films on wildlife so much more interesting than no holds barred environmental documentaries?
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World's biodiversity needs to be preserved
Biodiversity - the billions of life forms that exist on earth - ranges in size from microscopic be viruses to blue whales that are more than 30 metres long. Conserving biodiversity humankind"s greatest challenge.
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Poverty abounds in bio rich areas
Complex systems of preserving biodiversity, evolved over centuries, have not saved traditional communities living in bio rich areas like India from poverty. Only if India starts patenting its germplasm can it compensate those of its communities which have
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Beware of the developers
In its bid to get out of poverty, the Bihar government has finalised a plan to drain out lakes and convert them to farmlands. But it seems to be unaware of the ecological consequences of such moves.
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TRAMPLED DESTINIES
What happens if conservation is based on half baked knowledge? Ask a person rendered homeless by wildlife managers <br><br> No conservation strategy will succeed in India unless the biomass requirements of the local communities are harmoniously integra
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Forests of global contention
The South"s determined efforts to scuttle the forest convention that the North was adamant on pushing through was a major triumph. A blow-by-blow account of the crucial, often tricky, negotiation
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Disappearing Act
Only special breeding programmes and creation of corridors can save the lion tailed macaque from extinction
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Forest fires a trailblazer
Controlled burning of woodlands can be an effective tool for enriching the land and ecology. <b><i>Dipanjan Ghosh</i></b> looks at the possibilities
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Park in trouble
Proposal for an oil exploration site inside the Kirthar National Park outrages environmentalists in Pakistan
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The awakening of an ill tempered giant
Volcanic activity in the Zambales range, of which Mount Pinatubo is a part, started 7 million years ago and Pinatubo itself has been active for 1.1 million years. Pinatubo last erupted about 400 years ago.
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Conservation: a wider vision
A new method to conserve biodiversity views the problem from the point of view of an entire landscape instead of a single species
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Coating Autonomy With Colonialism
In the year of UNCED, the green movement continued to take tosses in the global context. The perception of the environmental crisis as mainly being a failure of technology and management was only one obstacle. Even more disastrous, UNCED paved the way for
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Virus on prowl
A virus is being used to cull the rabbit population in Australia. But will it affect other animals and spoil the ecosystem?
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Andaman and Nicobar: Beyond India's landmass
Excerpts from <i>Troubled Islands!</i> by Pankaj Sekhsaria
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Himachal Pradesh in trouble over tragopan breeding
the wildlife department of Himachal Pradesh is now in a muddle. Its pheasant-breeding programme lacks experts. The Rs 5-crore Sarahan pheasantry, which saw the world's first-ever successful captive
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Focus may be on NREGA, debt relief for farmers
Chidambaram may try to shift attention from high prices of essentials If everybody, including political parties, is talking about farmers it must be election time. Close to election, it has become more or less a trend for the government of the day to announce sops for the agriculture and rural sectors in its budget proposals. So even while the common man has to swallow the bitter pill of the "inevitable' petrol and diesel hike before the 2008-09 budget, there is a promise of a "populist budget' for farmers and the aam garib aadmi this year. Low growth rate With several States going to the polls this year ahead of the next year's Lok Sabha election, there may be an attempt to shift the attention from the high prices of essential commodities, low growth rate (2.3 per cent in the 10th Plan) in agriculture, the disconnect between a high Gross Domestic Product and the rural sector, with problems of displacement, migration, unemployment, suicides by farmers and impending food crisis. This budget is most likely to convey the last ditch attempt of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to redeem itself from the scars caused in the countryside by farmer suicides and dispossession of rural families on account of Special Economic Zones and other industrialisation projects. Without doubt, the Debt Relief Package for Institutional Loanee Farmers (as reported first in The Hindu) and the expansion of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) Programme will be at the centre of Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's budget proposals. Fertilizer policy Besides, it is expected that he will unveil a rationalised fertilizer policy to encourage balanced use of fertilizers, especially muriates, to revive farm soil. Some succour is also essential for the wives of indebted farmers who committed suicide. There is a growing demand to strengthen the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and to have a Health Insurance Scheme for farm households, as various surveys showed that most the credits in the informal sector were not only farming related but also to meet the requirements of health, celebrations and even life-style. From all accounts, the pilot weather-based crop insurance may be expanded. Fund requirements It is estimated that the total fund requirement for the expansion of the NREGA from the present 330 districts to 600-odd will be about Rs. 16,000 crore. On the other hand, the debt relief, covering an estimated 35 per cent farmers who had availed themselves of bank loans, is estimated at Rs. 40,000 crore in the first year. The Union government will pay off the dues to banks. A Price Stabilisation Fund is also proposed to be set up with contributions from the government, banks and farmers. Well-placed sources hinted that the Finance Minister may cull out unspent funds from social sectors such as rural development, education and health to partially meet the requirement of the Farmers' Debt Relief Package. It is anybody's guess if the Minister will reduce the interest rate on farm loans from the current 7 to 4 per cent as recommended by the National Commission on Farmers. There is also a demand to raise the credit limit under the Kisan Credit Card scheme. There is an expectation that enhanced budgetary support will continue for the flagship rural programmes, including the swarozgar yojana (self-self groups), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Indira Awas Yojana and the Drinking Water Supply programme. The highest increase, however, is expected in the Land Resources Programme under the Integrated Wasteland Management Programme. In the agriculture sector, allocation has to be enhanced for the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to enhance production and productivity and to the National Food Security Mission to increase the output of rice, wheat and pulses. Both schemes are new and yet to take off. Irrigation schemes, horticulture mission and agriculture research will get the customary support, as growth in farm "allied sectors' comes from these areas. The National Rainfed Area Authority is most certainly likely to get financial support. Food subsidy The food subsidy bill is likely to cross the Rs 30,000 crore-mark. This is due to the wide difference between the minimum support prices (MSP) paid to farmers and the central issue price of grains sold through the Public Distribution System, as well as on account of the food grains import bill. The subsidy bill to go up further as the food grain stocks are expected to dwindle by April 1, possibly resulting in more imports. With apprehensions of an avian influenza pandemic, a comprehensive rehabilitation package for the poultry industry and bird flu-affected farmers, as part of a Bio-Security Policy, will be announced in the budget, if not earlier. However, the package may include only such poultry farmers, who get linked to institutional poultry farms and the industry. It remains to be seen how the government's packages will play out for the thousands of those in the informal sector who do not have the income and the collateral to avail themselves of institutional loans. Funds utilisation It is expected that in this last year of the UPA government's regime, the emphasis will be on consolidation, with focus on better implementation, monitoring and utilisation of funds. In particular, the Congress has shown signs of being zealous of taking credit for the central funds made available to States, to reap a harvest during election time. The biggest challenge, however, is making agriculture viable for the 82 per cent small and marginal farmers and bailing them out of the clutches of the informal system of borrowing.
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The trouble with the Trapezmium
A public interest petition in the Supreme Court to shift industries from the Taj Trapezium, based on a report forwarded by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, opens up a Pandora"s box of objections to experts" ways of tackling the