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 …
When the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus was discovered a decade ago, researchers were confident of finding a way to check its growth. Today, about 13 million people have been infected with HIV, but science is still groping in the dark for a cure for AIDS. NEVER underestimate your enemy. But …
RESEARCHERS are unsure of being able to devise a simple series of shots that would give a person lifetime protection against AIDS. To do that, a vaccine will have to ward off all the current HIV strains as well as any future mutants. Vaccines are basically harmless imposters intended to …
In a bid to make pollution control more efficient, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has proposed an all-India environment protection service, which will function as an enforcement agency. CPCB chairperson D K Biswas has also recommended recently that the board structure be replaced with an integrated authority possessing a …
When a team of young French civil servants selected by the Paris-based Foundation Nationale Entreprise et Performance (FNEP) visited India in the second week of November, the media was quick to assume they had come to India with a technology offer. A press release from an apex industry organisation further …
EVER SINCE the Earth Summit last year in Rio de Janeiro, there has been a spate of literature on sustainable development. Suddenly there is money aplenty for seminars, conferences and publications on every aspect of the subject. Suddenly corporations, multilateral agencies and even governments are anxious to fund research or …
COME OCTOBER and people from all over the world pour into Agra, drawn by the beauty and romance of the Taj Mahal. But this year, with the tourists will be a group of experts on pollution and pollution control systems, come to take a look at the industrial pollution that …
WHAT DISTINGUISHES the Gloria Land (GL) farm of Pondicherry"s Aurobindo Ashram and the farm run by Julie and Vivek Cariappa near Mysore from that of their neighbours, is that a mash of leaves, cattle dung and a carefully chosen mix of crops have displaced inorganic fertilisers and pesticides completely. Yet …
THE SANDAL-TREE is found in the comparatively dry regions of peninsular India, especially in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The tree flourishes in cool regions with moderate annual rainfall of about 60-160 cm. The most important sandal-producing districts in Karnataka are Dharwar, Shimoga, Chikmagalur, Tumkur, Hassan, Mercara, Mysore, Bangalore and scattered …
A GROUP of 20 scientists at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune has developed biotechnological tools to study the genetic diversity of rice. Says team leader P K Ranjekar, "We are interested in studying crops of special relevance to India, and so chose to work primarily on rice." In …
THE WORLD'S first certification system for "sustainably produced timber" has been set up. At an early October meeting in Toronto, environmentalists, businesspersons and human rights groups launched the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which will verify claims that wood products and wood pulp come from sustainable forests. Producer countries have treated …
Kanpur -- the second most polluted city on the Ganga after Calcutta -- has come under the microscope during the first phase of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP). However, the city's residents will have to wait for another two years before the river water quality improves because the effluent treatment …
The proposed National Environment Tribunal bill has sparked off a debate in legal, environmental and industrial circles. The bill, expected to be tabled by the government in the forthcoming winter session of Parliament, proposes a national tribunal devoted to environmental matters and the settlement of compensation for accidents. It has, …
RISKING a split with the Conservative government, French President Francois Mitterrand said in an interview with Austrian media, that France and other atomic powers should refrain from breaking the moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. The Conservative government is under strong pressure from its parliamentarians and the defence establishment to reverse …
AS SOON as our nationalist forefathers succeeded in achieving independence, they began looking afresh at good causes to pursue. They believed, rather naively, that industrialisation would raise productivity and standards of living. Since productivity enhancing innovations then originated largely from the machine tools industry, the need to promote this industry …
WEST ASIAN countries have ample funds at their disposal thanks to their oil reserves, but they suffer a lack of adequate manpower. Men from Kerala are among those who have gone to these countries to work on construction sites, in factories and various other labour-intensive activities. While the phenomenon of …
ENVIRONMENT protection need not be a dirty word in business. In fact, instead of being considered a financial loss, it can be turned into a profit making proposition. Industries are beginning to realise that "waste minimisation" can not only help them save money by saving raw material and fuel, but …
FREEING a river from bondage might seem preposterous. But that is exactly what the Ganga Mukti Andolan (GMA) set out to do in 1982 in Bihar's Bhagalpur district by mobilising fisherfolk, peasants and boatpersons against the infamous panidari -- the exclusive rights of zamindars (landowners) to fish and run boats …
RAJPURA, a village adjacent to the Shiv Shankar Chemical Industries Pvt Ltd, a liquor factory in Banka district's Jagadishpur block, is almost ruined. Effluents from the factory have rendered Rajpura's agricultural land, the two drinking water wells and the shallow handpumps useless and a perpetual stench pervades the village. This …
ELECTROPLATING units use highly toxic compounds to produce the shiny "chrome-plated" parts that comprise various gadgets. Nearly all electroplating is done in the unorganised sector by units operating out of small sheds in residential or industrial areas. They do job work for large units, assembling radios and TVs, and in …
A SCIENTIST employed with the Girijan Cooperative Corporation Ltd in Visakhapatnam, Y Durga Prasad, has isolated the world's first biological substance, which can bind with about 18 toxic metals, many of them found in industrial wastes. Significantly, the substance, found in the seeds of a nut (Strychnos potatorum) traditionally used …
