Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of HC Singla Vs State of Punjab dated 31/10/2022. The matter is related to biological pollution by the Susri insect. This pollution is being caused due to decaying grains, due to negligence in storage arrangements of grains by Food Corporation of …
ACKNOWLEDGED by farmers since time immemorial, the significance of spiders in pest management of crops is all the more being recognised now in view of the ill-effects of chemical pesticides. Following this trend, entomologists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines have recently recorded 7 species of …
A HAU-INCH long parasite that thrives on blood extracted ftom the gut of the host, the hookworm is playing havoc with the health of about 900 million people worldwide, predominantly in the Third World. According to the World Health Organization, the parasite affects 132 million people in Africa, 104 million …
FLYING insects have elastic mechanisms in their wings, which both store and release energy in an attempt to reduce the immense effort required for flight, according to Michael H Dickinson, assistant professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago. Dickinson has designed a sophisticated tabletop flight simulator …
A GHANAIAN research institute says that after 9 years of research, it has identified a bacteria which can control breeding of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Janet Ofori, principal research officer of the Accra-based Institute of Aquatic Biology, says, "We have identified a bacterial strain, Bacillus sphaerius, which has been found to have …
Researchers at the us Agriculture Department claim that pest population in grain stores can be controlled by increasing the population of a tiny insect-eating bug. Lycotcoris Campestris -- the larger pirate bug -- is found in grain stores thriving on the insects that thrive on grain. According to entomologist Thomas …
Zimbabwean farmers, already under severe stress, thanks to a meagre and delayed rainy season, are now pitted against an army with a difference. Their croplands have been invaded by an "army worm" -- a swarm of flying pests. The army worm has spread to many of Zimbabwe's main grain-producing northern …
PETER Smetacek, 30, has a rare collection of butterflies, said to be among the largest in India. He is an authority on Himalayan butterflies. His love affair with butterflies began in his early childhood. Fascinated by the huge collection of the lepidoptera that his father had, Smetacek would roam the …
INSECTS destroy a major part of standing crop, damaging the predominantly agrarian economy of the developing countries. That traditional pesticides are indisputably environmentally detrimental is an established fact. The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), in Nairobi, Kenya, directed by scientists from the developing world was founded in …
Peter Smetacek 5,25 a, Jangpura-b New Delhi 110 014 The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology Post Box 30772 Nairobi, Kenya International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Patancheru 502 324 Andhra Pradesh Andrew Thompson Murdoch University Murdoch, wa 6150 Australia
Do you get crabby when the moon waxes? Don't be surprised: scientists at the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) have discovered that even crabs begin to behave differently under the influence of the moon (Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, Vol 23, No 3). During the new and full moon …
Some bats could well be making the belfries they live in. Jae Choe of Harvard University has recently discovered in Panama a bat (Uroderma bilobatum) that constructs sophisticated wigwams in several leafy tiers (BBC Wildlife, Vol 12, No 9). The bats chewed part of the way through the midrib of …
THE seizure of thousands of butterflies and moths from 2 German nationals at the Delhi airport on August 15 has prompted the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) to frame an order under the Export Trade Control Rules to ban the export of all genetic material. Says R M …
When swarms of locusts flooded Rajasthan last year, Union agriculture minister Balram Jakhar spared no effort to create the impression that he was deploying the best crisis technology available (Down To Earth, Vol II, No 8). Prominent among his plans was the revival of the Directorate of Agricultural Aviation, with …
LEON Baert and Rudy Jocque have found the world's smallest known female spider (Anapistula caecula) in the Ivory Coast's Tai Forest Reserve. The 0.46 mm long female members of this new species easily beat the previous record of 0.59 mm held by the Colombian forest spider Patu digua (BBC Wildlife, …
INDIAN agricultural scientists have virtually given up trying to contain the spread of an American pest that sneaked into India about two years ago. G C Tewari of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), who first studied the pest, now says, "We will have to live with the pest. …
The country's first high-tech butterfly conservatory is being established at Burdwan in West Bengal, as part of an environmental education programme by the National Council of Science Museums (NSCM). The Burdwan Butterfly Centre will have a 3,000 sq m main display glasshouse, without any internal support structures. According to Saroj …
PAKISTAN failed to warn India about the magnitude of locust swarms that flew into Kutch and Rajasthan between July 5 and August 23, complain Indian agriculture ministry officials, according to newspaper reports. Indian officials accuse Pakistani authorities of consciously neglecting the problem, knowing the swarms would soon be blown into …
"IT IS A sad reflection on our society that we shall probably have to wait for another series of massive locust plagues before politicians and financiers will take a serious long-term look at the problem," wrote Professor Chapman, a renowned expert on locust control in the 1970s. The truth of …
Swarms of locusts that descended over Rajasthan about two months ago seem to have played havoc not only with standing crops but with the flow of information as well: there is hardly any assertion about controlling locusts and the extent of damage caused by them that is not contradicted. The …
THE WORST fears of the people living in the Thar Desert are coming true: Hoppers -- new-born locusts -- that could not be eliminated by pesticides, have formed mature swarms in the westernmost parts of Jaisalmer district. The locusts have now taken wing in search of green food, and havoc …
