Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News Item titled "2 killed in blast at illegal cracker unit in Thanjavur appearing in The Hindu dated 19.05.2025". The application is registered suo-motu on the basis of the news item titled 2 killed in blast at illegal cracker unit …
Close on the heels of a Supreme Court directive to relocate Delhi's most polluting industries comes a Gujarat High Court judgement ordering the closure of 70 industries in the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation Vapi industrial estate. Delivered on April 18, the order gave the industries 48 hours to comply. Water …
A new patent dispute - the New York-based Enzo Biochern Inc vs Calgene Inc - is expected to tie the US judiciary into knots. Calgene's technique for genetically altering its Flavr Savr tomatoes (Down To Earth, Vol 3, No 4) has been called into question in a federal court case …
Researchers from the US department of energy's Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) in Richland have developed a new fibreoptic sensor that can immediately detect 2 of the most common radioactive contaminents left over from nuclear power generation and weapons development. The BetaScintTM sensor relies on tiny fibreoptic strands to detect radioactive …
AGONISING biopsies to detect cancer, which bring as much trauma as the following invasive surgery, might become a nightmare of the past if a technology developed by us-based Matritech Inc receives the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The technology works on the basis of at least one …
THE MEF has launched a probe into the granting of environmental clearance to United Phosphorus, an agrochemical company, to import a used chlor-alkali plant. The factory will manufacture chlorine-based pesticides in the chemical industry belt of Vapi in Gujarat. The company imported the plant from Norske Skogindustrier, Norway's largest pulp …
A Supreme Court order issued on April 7 to adopt permanent pollution control measures within 6 months or face closure and pay fines, has targeted 350-odd foundries in West Bengal. Temporary measures will be in place within 2 months. For the foundry owners, who are already floundering under a severe …
GERMAN researchers have developed a tiny reversible pump which allows through just 50 nanolitres of liquid, equivalent to 1/1,000th of a drop of water. The micropump was designed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute based in Munich for Solid State Technology. The pump consists of 4 silicon chips superimposed on …
If a non-nuclear nation is bullied by a nuclear weapon state, global help will be rushed to it, was the assurance of the UN Security Council which - adopted a resolution pledging help for signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, at a meeting, on April 12. Non-aligned nations, claimed that …
Rising above their despair, oppressed and abandoned women have taken to street-theatre, staging shows in the slums of Hyderabad. Under the guidance of Puran Chandra Rao, writer-director of the play Aurat, these women are educating their friends in the slums about the evils of dowry, malnutrition and the benefits of …
THE noose is tightening around the 1 lakh odd industrial units in Delhi. Close on the heels of its closure orders served on 9038 polluting industrial units in the non-conforming areas, the Supreme Court served notices on March 27 to polluting units in Wazirpur and Ashok Vihar industrial estates to …
WHILE world leaders squabbled over global strategies at the climate change summit in Berlin, an ambitious and significant effort was initiated in Tokyo between April 5-7, aimed at achieving a zero emission industrial situation. The founding of the "Zero Emissions Research Initiative" (ZERI) -- proposed earlier this year by the …
Factories in Pakistan's Faisalabad city are spewing one hazardous pollutants, while the water and garbage disposal systems seem to have virtually bid goodbye. Rapid industrialisation has spiralled the number of local industries from 4,533 in 1977 to 34,123 at present. These include environment-unfriendly agricultural implement manufacturing units, soap factories, fertiliser …
The Drug Technical Advisory Board has been asked to ban some vital drugs by the Supreme Court. The order overcomes filed by the Drug Action Forum to remove irrational combinations from the market. Drugs like Baralgan and Eleetral, banned in other countries, art,@; easily available in India. BarWgan, used for …
ALZHEIMER's disease can now be diagnosed much before the accursed. symptoms mature. Gary W Small of the University of California (Los Angeles School of Medicine), Allen D Roses of the Duke University School of Medicine arrived at a new method by ccmparing the results of positron emission tomography - PET …
Peace may yet return to Mexico. Mexican rebels from the troubled southern state of Chiapas have signalled their willingness to bury the hatchet and strike truce with the federal government. The Zapatista National Liberation Army, in a statement dated March 24, appealed for talks on "politiCal, social, cultural and economic …
The Caribbean region has been warned by a dengue fever alert issued by the Pan American Health Organisation. Although dengue fever is endemic to the region, so far the periodic outbreaks have been caused only by dengue viruses of the 1, 2 and 4 strains. However, experts fear the worst …
THIS 2-part video documentary critically examines the donor and government reconstruction programme following the devastating earthquake of September 1993 in the Osmanabad and Latur districts in Maharashtra. In the 1st part, it examines the donor agency-sponsored housing relocation programme and reviews the validity of the decision to relocate the 52 …
ALARMED by the increasing level of environmental pollution in the country, and the failure of existing organisations in tackling the problem, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment has suggested levying pollution tax and shifting polluting smallscale units out of residential areas to industrial sectors. The 42-member committee, headed by Syed …
Alarm bells are ringing furiously in South America as the Pacific Pintail, the ship carrying recycled radioactive waste from the French port of Cherbourg to Japan (Down To Earth, February 28, 1995) approaches Cape Horn. Pushed to the corner by the swelling ranks of protesting nations who refuse to allow …
On March 7, a woman from Cambridgeshire, UK, received a US $339,700 compensation in an out-of-court settlement after a surgeon failed to diagnose that she was suffering from breast cancer. In November 1994, the Cambridgeshire High Court ruled that the doctor had fallen below professional standards in failing to detect …
