The Supreme Court (SC), May 1, 2025 made it clear that all applications would have to be made to the court seeking permission to fell trees irrespective of the number of trees to be felled as far as areas located within an aerial distance of 5 kilometers from the Taj …
THE study of Neandertal bones discovered in the Vindija Cave, Croatia, in the '70s has provided important clues about the lives of these hunter-gatherers, who occupied this cave some 50,000 years ago. The first Neandertal fossils were named after Neaderthal or Neander Valley in Germany, where they were discovered in …
A recent study by Fred Spoor, a researcher from University College, London, has given fresh insights illto the lives of Cro-Magllons alld Nealldertals. The study hints at trade alldcultural contacts between some Neandertals and the Cro-Magnons, who ultimately replaced them, Researchers had excavated sophisticated tools and ornaments made from bones …
ENVIRONMENTAL issues often generate considerable heat and public debates. While the traditional focus of these debates have been the role of governments and that of political and commercial vested interests, the role played by scientists and expert committees has seldom been examined seriously. Given the fact that every environmental controversy …
The controversy began in 1973 as a debate over the suitability of setting up the Mathura refinery (MR) about 40 km from Taj Mahal. Successive expert committees have, since then, defeated all efforts to put the MR on the pollution map of Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ). The first Varadarajan Committee …
• NEERI's clean chit, over a decade ago, to the toxic effluents of Zuari Agro Chemicals, Goa, was found to be wrong by the Goa State laboratory. Zuari Agro remained closed following a movement till its effluent quality improved. • NEERI"s reports on the environmental aspects of aquaculture farming (1995) …
A RECENT ruling by the Kerala High Court (HC) directed concerned authorities to protect the prehistoric remains in the Maraiyurvalley in Idukki district from granite quarrying by declaring them as national monuments. It was ruled last November, that quarrying would not be permitted at the site. The, prehistoric tombs - …
TWENTYFOUR more chambers have been unearthed in Egypt's biggest Pharaonic tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor in Southern Egypt. Archaeologists have discovered a total of 91 chambers in the tomb built for a son of Rameses ii. Around 67 funeral chambers were found in last May. In addition …
Images and representations of boulder-size bisons, grizzly bears and wild horses of the American wild west have now been brought together in a sprawling gallery of 4,650 square meters". This entire space of the U5 wildlife art museum is devoted to sculptures) paintings and sketches of American wildlife" The uniqueness …
YET another step has been initiated to save the famous Taj Mabal in Agra from environmental degradation. This time, however, it will also benefit over 50,000 households in the city which will be pro- vided with liquified petroleum gas (LPG) connections' to ease the atmospheric pollution caused partly by their …
The Supreme Court's efforts to improve the environment around the Taj Mahal seem to be blessed. The expert committee formed by the ministry of environment and forests at the Court's bidding recently called for stricter emission standards, reduction in coal/coke consumption by foundries and the use of cleaner fuels and …
LORD Varuna be pleased! May the rains come... Officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) are waiting with bated breath in the revered town of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh. For the 1st time in history they have attempted to restore an ancient rainfed water harvesting system atop the Sanchi …
Sweating it out in daily traffic jams is worth the trouble if that saves Egypt's national treasure and the only surviving wonder of the world - the 4,500-year-old Giza pyramids; Cairo's residents feel. Egypt and the United Nations have agreed to reroute a nearly complete highway which passes within km …
IMAGINE finding out all about Humayun's Tomb -- its history and appearance -- without moving an inch. Thanks to a multimedia software package that includes photographs, graphics and narration, the monument's past can now be recreated at the touch of a button. The software on Humayun's Tomb also carries a …
The Government of India announced its decision in 1973 to set up a 6 million tonne per year Petroleum Oil Refinery at Mathura under the Indian Oil Corporation of India. Some apprehensions were expressed about the possible adverse effects on the historic monuments in the Agra-Mathura region from the gaseous …
Agra's Taj Mahal will soon heave a sigh of relief and breathe clean air, it seems. In the first week of March Satish Sharma, the minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, announced a 10-point strategy to save this pristine white monument to love from the corrosive effects of …
FOR the 18th century colonial explorer, archaeology meant a treasure hunt and for the Orientalist a search for lost civilisations. From the mid-20th century, the chill hand of science laid claim to it. Archaeology became a quest for knowledge about prehistoric peoples and their environment. Today, the key to a …
High on a massive rock, 200 metres above the surrounding plain and 10 km from Colombo, are located the ruins of a magnificent ancient city called Sigiriya. Asia's oldest landscaped gardens flower here. It is an accepted theory that urbanisation could emerge only because of complex environmental, social, economic and …
The Great Pyramids of Giza -- one of the 7 wonders of the world -- are threatened by a Cairo ring road. Anxious to ensure the priceless structures' survival, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has hauled up the Egyptian government for a 3-mile section of an …
All things old carry time's signatures. Just as human faces develop wrinkles and trees annular rings, metallic objets d:rt acquire a bluish green veneer called the patina. Till recently, this time-daubed smear, much valued by connoisseurs and historians, was lost in the restoration process. Now, thanks to a new chemical …
The famed Khajuraho temples in Madhya Pradesh could possibly suffer structural damage due to vibrations caused by aircraft movements in the vicinity. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) appointed a research group in the first week of December, to study the development of cracks in some of the sculptures, ascribed …
