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 …
THE WATERS may be calm, but the bridge has been certainly troubled. After 18 months and much controversy the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), approved the 17-km long, 50-feet high skyway, proposed by the Karachi Development Authority (KDA). The Sindh government also has passed the project following the Canadian report. …
* "Brain-stem death" -- a person whose brain stem is permanently damaged can be declared dead. * The Centre and the states have to set up appropriate authorities to implement the Act. * Donors empowered to authorise organ removal in writing. * Failing this, the nearest relative OR the custodian …
US manufacturers are marketing plastic containers that are labelled recyclable but have to be exported on the sly to developing countries for disposal. The environmental group Greenpeace pointed out the American plastics industry thus satisfies its environmentally conscious consumers by presenting a "green" image, while dumping potentially hazardous material in …
When does a person die? When the heart stops beating, when respiration ceases or when the brain is so badly damaged that the person will never recover? Traditionally, cessation of heartbeats has been the guiding criterion for determining the moment of death, largely because it is the easiest to determine. …
Information on the African rainforest elephant, whose survival is threatened, is trickling in now via satellite, thanks to a new technology. Wildlife biologists of the New York Zoological Society have put collars that emit ultra-high-frequency signals on a forest elephant in Korup National Park, Cameroon, and on a savannah elephant …
SCIENTIFIC research in America is under pressure to perform better -- economically. Despite the yield of Nobel prizes, "smart" weapons and electronic consumer goods after the government's $76-billion annual investment in scientific research, the US has been unable to stop countries like Japan from obtaining the commercial gains. Lasers and …
IN EUROPE, a ban on toxic waste movement between countries has led to a hot debate on free trade. Concerned by a legal ruling stating European Community (EC) legislation which bars governments from imposing prohibitions on trans-border passage of merchandise, many states have announced bans specifically relating to wastes. These …
Babu Lala Sharma, Chairperson, Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha 92, United Newspapers, 4 Windsor Place, New Delhi 110 001 G N A Nayar, Chairman, M N Sreedharan Nair, General Convenor, Exhibition Committee, Swadeshi Science Expo - 92 Amba, Pongumoodu, Thiruvananthapuram - 695 011 C N Krishnan Patriotic and Pupil-oriented Science and …
AS MANY as 58 nuclear reactors in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe will be run to near full capacity to meet electricity shortages this winter, despite safety hazards. This follows the countries' failure in getting a firm commitment from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) at …
THE TRAGEDY of Somalia, whose people are starving to death by the hundreds each day, is being worsened by pitiless warlords who have reportedly signed multimillion-dollar contracts with Swiss and Italian firms to use the East African country as a dumping ground for vast quantities of toxic wastes. The UN …
SOME interesting programmes on indigenous science and technology are lined up in the coming months in various parts of the country. The Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha-92, inaugurated in New Delhi on Gandhi Jayanti (Oct 2), will continue till National Science Day, February 28. The objective is to involve voluntary groups, …
THE EARTH Summit was over three months ago, but its decisions may already be coming apart. Africa's victory in securing support for the negotiation of a desertification convention may have been run into the sand, says a Panos Institute report. Even if the next session of the UN General Assembly …
THE EXACT origin of neem is uncertain, but today it is found almost everywhere in the tropical belt. Some say neem is native to the entire Indian subcontinent, but others expand this to dry forest areas throughout south and southeast Asia, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Indian …
IN THIS "throwaway" age the Germans are trying to be difficult. Their stringent waste laws are creating a rift in the European Commission (EC) which wants lower and more flexible standards. Germany has a law, popularly known as the "Topfer Law" -- after Klaus Topfer, Germany's environment minister -- which …
IT IS POSSIBLE today to make a CFC-free domestic refrigerator. Yet, eco-friendly fridges are not found on shop floors. As the 2000 AD, CFC-free, Montreal Protocal deadline approaches, reports from the European Chemical-makers Association show the European Community's (EC) refrigeration sector increased its CFC use by 4 per cent between …
DESIGNER food may drive people crazy, but not quite in the way biotechnology firms would want. A few weeks ago, an unidentified group destroyed a test field of genetically engineered maize in Holland. And, there is growing concern in the USA about the effects of genetically modified food on human …
WHEN the UN threatened to block relief supplies to Somalia unless its troops were deployed there, the warring factions in the drought-stricken, strife-ridden country, after rejecting the idea, capitulated. But even before the 500 UN soldiers arrived, local militia looted a part of the first UN food shipments. Fierce fighting …
1992 (yet to be announced): 1. Compensatory afforestation for plantation along rail, road canal: The revised guidelines would permit the use of protected forest for linear plantation without insisting upon non-forest land for compensatory afforestation. 2. Transmission towers and lines: There will be no need for compensatory afforestation on non-forest …
AND, NOW, it's environmentally conscious fashion designers. Advocating a switch to environmentally friendly cotton with brand names like Green Cotton 2000 and dissuading consumers with posters proclaiming "Danger Cotton", US fashion designers are promoting organically grown cotton in a big way, says Pesticide News (Issue 16, 1992). This has brought …
THE NORTH America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which will bind the USA, Mexico and Canada into a common market, has everyone wondering what the pact will do to the environment of the region. The key concern is that US companies hiding behind less stringent Mexican norms will reduce their own …
