A new report investigates deforestation and land rights abuse allegations in central and western Africa by companies that supply top European tire makers like Michelin and Continental. The EU is home to the world’s top tire manufacturers, even though it does not produce any natural rubber, and rubber imports are …
The Kerala government filed an affidavit in the high court seeking to extend by three months the court's deadline to evict encroachers in Chengara in South Kerala. Landless people had forcibly occupied a rubber estate there. The court had asked the administration to remove the encroachers without using force. But …
In impoverished Yunnan Province in southwestern China, a confrontation is brewing between economic growth and habitat preservation-and authorities are sending mixed signals about their intentions.
Tripura government is contemplating to utilise unused land across the state to make the state one of the major rubber producing states around the globe. The landlocked state, which has already become the second largest producing state in the country, will emerge as one of the best rubber producing zones …
uncertainty continues in Chengara village in south Kerala's Pathanamthitta district where about 10,000 landless people forcibly settled in a rubber plantation in August 2007. The settlers, mostly dalits and tribal people, say that the government's indifference to their repeated demands for land triggered the current struggle. "Land to landless adivasis …
In Little League dugouts, community parks, professional athletic organizations, and international soccer leagues, on college campuses and neighborhood playgrounds, even in residential yards, the question being asked is "grass or plastic?' The debate is over synthetic turf, used to blanket lawns, park spaces, and athletic fields where children and adults …
an indian study has taken the global search for an alternative to the rubber tree a step closer to reality. A team of researchers from the Pondicherry University claims to have identified a set of key proteins that help guayule
australian scientists have developed a biomaterial more resilient than rubber. Its constituent molecules are naturally found in many insects, such as the fruitfly and flea. The new substance
the strongest acid: The world's strongest acid, at least a million times more potent than concentrated sulphuric acid, has been made in a lab in California. It is also one of the least corrosive. Called carborane acid, is the first
the recent Supreme Court (sc) order revoking the ban on the import of natural rubber under the Advanced Licence Scheme (als) has split the sector down the middle. While it has spelt gloom for over 10 lakh small and marginal rubber growers nationwide, the recent sc directive has been welcomed …
introduced during the 1950s in the Northeast, rubber is proving to be a valuable cash crop for the tribal people who live on shifting cultivation. "The Rubber Board's experience in the Northeast has already proved that tribals pursuing shifting cultivation can be settled by raising rubber plantations,' says development officer …
Rubber plantations in India's northeastern states are now under attack from various diseases such as oidium secondary leaf fall (SLF). The rubber plantation in the region was undertaken by the private sector to control jhum cultivation. A study conducted by the government in Mizoram revealed that the SLF disease was …
The primary industries ministry in Malaysia has come up with a long-term plan to establish mini-estates to grow rubber trees from newly-discovered clones. The new plants will not only produce more latex but also good quality rubber wood. "If this is done, we will be getting an adequate supply of …
scientists have devised various methods to recycle old tyres into new ones. Now Kirk Manfredi, a chemist at the University of Northern Iowa, usa , has developed a technique to produce lemon oil from discarded tyres. He produces limonene, which is the main ingredient in the oil of lemons and …
RECYCLERS turn old cans and bottles into new ones and old newspapers into today's daily. Now it is the turn of waste tyres in the country? Robert Romine, working at Rouse Rubber Industries, Mississippi, us, has introduced an eco-friendly technique for processing old tyres by using microorganisms (Environmental Health Perspectives, …
A company in Kenya is putting old rubber tyres to good use. The use of locally reclaimed rubber is fast catching on in the country. Recycled rubber has not only helped improve environment but also created new job opportunities and reduced imports. The material is reclaimed mainly from abandoned old …
A FUNGUS that virtually eats into every conceivable part of the, rubber tree - Hevea brasiliensis - has finally met its match in an environment-friendly deterrent. Researchers from the Rubber Research Institute, (RRI) in Kottayam, Kerala, have developed a new ecofriendly fungicide from wood extracts of five locally available tree. …
• The 83rd session of the Indian Science Congress was inaugurated in Patiala on January 3. The conference focused on scientific and technological endeavours for achieving "food, economic and health security". • The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, will be investing US $8 million in India …
PROFESSIONAL tennis players gracing the courts at Wimbledon may be rich and famous but they are also unwitting guinea-pigs in a new experiment in which the laws of physics - and especially aerodynamics - are being put to use to bring about certain changes. The past 10 years have seen …
Foreign Companies have taken a sudden interest in Kampuchea's ageing, state-owned rubber plantations. Kampuchean officials are delighted at this development. "Today there is anarchy in the transport of the rubber," says Chhun Sareth, undersecretary of state in the ministry of agriculture. "They have to replant it or it will be …
IF SCIENTISTS at the Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT), at the California State University, Fresno succeed, the millions of scrap tyres that litter the landscape would well be buried underground and serve to conserve water and reduce the need for irrigation, whether in Califbrnia golf courses or grass-lands in Africa …
