Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Akhilesh Kumar Vs State of Uttar Pradesh & Others dated 23/05/2025. The matter related to illegal mining activites carried out by Jai Maa Chandrika Enterprises, Rajendra Nagar, village Kabari, district Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh. The applicant also alleged about illegal sale …
Municipal authorities in Thrissur, Kerala, have been accused of dilly-dallying though a deadly chemical has reportedly flowed into the town's drinking water reservoir, resulting in at least 30 persons being hospitalised for dizziness, headache and stomach disorders. The reservoir became contaminated when a tanker carrying 12,000 litres of concentrated phenyl …
AFTER the tragedy, comes the gold rush. In the three Agra localities where several people died after drinking contaminated municipal water, self-styled social workers have surfaced, looking for a slice of the compensation. These "leaders" have assumed the mantle of "champions of poisoned-water victims" and promise the bereaved families almost …
USE OF additives, irradiation and the threat of pesticide residues and food-borne infections have led to the quality of diet being questioned these days as never before. Factory Farming comes as a comprehensive review of modern livestock farming and its implications, mainly in the context of Europe and North America. …
IN APRIL this year, some US communities found themselves seeking cover from helicopters spraying the pesticide malathion. This is the starting point for an investigation in the BBC series, Nature. The episode, called Medfly Madness, shows the manner in which saving a $18 billion fruit and vegetable industry takes precedence …
TIBETAN emigres accuse China of seeking to build a nuclear reactor near Lhasa, the Tibetan capital; of dumping nuclear waste on the Tibetan plateau, and of setting up sites there for missiles aimed at India. The US-based International Campaign for Tibet adds forced prison labour is being used to build …
ALASKAN Eskimos and American Indians were fed radioactive iodine at the height of the Cold War, but the project leader denies it was to learn how well American soldiers could survive in the Arctic. US Senator Frank H Murkowski has called for a federal investigation, stating, "There was no evidence …
ACCORDING to the department of ocean development there are 40 heavily polluted areas along the Indian coast. Marine pollution problems, though localised, occur off most metropolitan cities and thickly populated coastal towns. Untreated domestic and industrial wastes are a serious problem in Bombay, Vishakhapatnam, Porbandar, Veli near Thiruvananthapuram, Tuticorin Kakinada, …
AS HEAD of the President's task force on national health-care reform in USA, Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of President Bill Clinton, has her job cut out for her. A majority of Americans want quality health care at a lower cost, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll, and they …
HOECHST, the German chemical company, continues to be plagued by accidents with the ninth so far since February 22 (See Down To Earth, April 30, 1993) consisting of toxic fumes that leaked from the main plant near Frankfurt. Neighbourhood residents, facing a danger from spreading fumes were asked to remain …
Though kesari dal (Lathyrus sativus) is a deadly food that can paralyse and kill thousands, it has been rendered safe by a research team from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. Team members used tissue culture techniques to develop a new, low-toxin dal, which is on trials in a …
MARIJUANA and heroin may be frowned on by parents and the police, but they do have a beneficial side for scientists. Recent breakthroughs in understanding how these two addictive drugs act on the brain could result in a non-addictive opiate that will help drug addicts cope better with withdrawal symptoms. …
Eminent immunologist G p Talwar , firing the latest salvo in the bovine somatotropin (BST) controversy, asserts there are no harmful side-effects to the artificial growth hormone whose use can dramatically increase the milk yield of the country's bovine population. Talwar maintains BST can increase milk yield by 20 per …
Argues that excessive fluorides in groundwater are a serious water quality problem in some parts of Sri Lanka. The incidence of dental fluorosis shows a high correlation with the presence of groundwater in certain areas. Tube wells constructed in various rock types have shown different fluoride concentrations, possibly due to …
NORMAL life in the Philippines is often disrupted by nature -- typhoons andoccasionallyvolcanic eruptions. The archipelago of more than 70islands is struck by typhoons several times each yearmainly between June and December. These storms can cause extensive damage and in some yearsup to 25 typhoons hit the country. Volcanoes are …
IN MARCH 1991, Aeta tribals living in Pinatubo region felt a rumbling in the long-dormant volcano. Birds and animals also exhibited showed signs of agitation. Here is an account of what followed: April 2: A hydrothermal explosion shakes the area, forcing columns of steam upto 800 m high from vents …
EIGHTEEN months after the Pinatubo erupted, much of the landscape in the Zambales, Pampanga and Tarlac provinces is blanketed by what looks like slurry, but is in fact volcanic sediment deposited by lahars -- thick, flowing mixtures of volcanic material and water. Lahars carry much more sediment than the muddiest …
THAT SCIENCE and technology (in the broadest sense) have something to do with development is accepted now almost universally. From the discovery of iron to the harnessing of steam, technology has played a major role in determining the level of economic development of any era. This is as true today …
AT LEAST 600 million of the 1.5 billion urban inhabitats in AsiaAfrica and Latin America live in squattersettlements on illegally occupied land or in housingdevelmopment schemes that never received municipalapproval. Their houses fail to meet government buildingstandards and their inhabitants are victims of overcrowdingpoor constructionlack of piped waterrudimentarysanitationinadequate drainage and …
INCREASING awareness about the dangerous side-effects of allopathic treatment and the development of drug resistance is turning many people back to older Indian medical systems such as ayurveda, siddha or unani, which claim to have little or no side-effects. Organisations such as the Lok Swasthya Parampara Samvardhan Samithy are propagating …
