Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
conservationists are debating the reintroduction of wolves in forest areas as a means of preserving forests. Rhum, a remote island off the west coast of Scotland, uk , and a national nature reserve, is in the heart of the controversy following a proposal to rehabilitate wolf populations to check the …
Rivers and estuaries in the US have been invaded by innumerable exotic marine creatures, including clams and crabs, that threaten native species. The invading species can multiply to the extent of damaging harbours and waterways if there are no natural enemies in the new environment. Trochammina hadai , a single-celled …
Fish meal sprinkled on a beach polluted by an oil slick helps the bacteria in the sand clean it up. Stephane Lefloch, chemist at the Centre for Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution, Brest, France, says the fish meal rekindles microbes and provides the sustenance and the time …
Afro-American children are more likely to suffer from asthma than their Caucasian counterparts in the US due to greater exposure to environmental pollution. Studies show that 7.2 per cent of Afro-American children are prone to asthma whereas in Caucasian children, the figure is 3 per cent. Asthma in children from …
tetrachloroethene is a prominent groundwater pollutant that is suspected to be a carcinogen. A team of experts on microbiology and environmental engineering from the Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, have isolated Dehalococcoides ethenogenes (also known as strain 195), a bacterial strain that can dechlorinate this toxin into ethene - a …
increase in the use of fertilisers and cultivation of crops that 'fix' atmospheric nitrogen is leading to loss of soil nutrients, rising atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, and increasing acidification of lakes and rivers. Peter M Vitousek and eight ecologists from the Stanford University, California, say that …
the development of a genetically engineered virus as a birth control measure is causing controversy in Australia. The virus has been developed to contain the growing populations of mice and other pests. Some scientists say the contraceptive viruses could prove to be an ecological disaster if non-targeted species are infected …
a method has been developed by a group of Japanese research scientists that uses blue-green algae to remove carbon dioxide from the air and produce large amounts of a type of biodegradable plastic. The findings can go a long way in cutting down the emission of carbon dioxide, the main …
rapeseed oil is being tested by British researchers to lubricate the oil rigs drilling in the North Sea. Developers say the oil would degrade more quickly than the mineral oils in use at present. Alistair Wilkinson and his team at Heriot-Watt University's Institute of Offshore Engineering, Edinburgh, have been testing …
Ecologists have long believed that extinction of native species, besides being caused by destruction of habitat, is also linked to the introduction of new species into their habitat. Ted Case, ecologist at the University of California, San Diego, says that competition between native and introduced species is not responsible for …
Radioactivity from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria, UK, has reached as far as the northern waters of Canada spreading through the Arctic Ocean. Data compiled by the Norwegian research ship CSS Henry Larsen showed that a plume of iodine-129 from the nuclear plant had penetrated beyond Siberia to …
the future of Indian lions and tigers was said to be bleak. Some us scientists had reported extremely low genetic diversity in their populations, that made their conservation difficult. They would meet the same fate as that of the almost extinct African Cheetah, it was being said. But some Indian …
efforts to introduce a birth control pill in elephants have been suspended in South Africa after the normally orderly herds of the pachyderms were thrown into confusion. The new measures for population control in the overcrowded Kruger National Park are being tried out after the controversial culling of elephants was …
the Peruvian Army has embarked on a new defence mission: guarding the vicuna, a woolly animal that is an ancient symbol of Peruvian identity. The scientific name of this distant cousin of the llama is vicugna vicugna . It has been celebrated richly in Peruvian literature and memorialised on the …
the funnel web spider is feared throughout Australia. One of the world's deadliest spiders, its venom can kill humans. But Glenn King, a biochemist, and Merlin Howden, a pharmacologist from the University of Sidney have concluded that the spider could be the means of a pesticide that does not harm …
A study of 1,800 traditional sayings on weather has revealed that they are as useful in predicting the weather as modern-day forecasting methods. The uk -based study found that one in seven of the sayings were highly accurate and as good as the forecast. The saying "Sunshine and shower, rain …
US food scientists have found a way to make biodegradable packaging material from a protein extracted from corn. Researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, turned
Following efforts by the Game Conservancy Trust based at Sussex Downs, farmers in the British countryside have adopted a new method of conserving bird species. A six metre-wide outer strip is left unsprayed with pesticidesin farms. Insects in the protected strip provide larder to birds. The populations of birds like …
Environmental pollution is responsible for a significant share of violent crime and antisocial behaviour, according to an analysis by Roger Masters of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. He says metals in, drinki, disrupt the neuro social, economic and psychological factors cannot fully explain why some counties in the US have only …
Antarctic seabirds are accumulating dangerously high levels of toxic organic chemicals in their bodies, according to Nico van den Brink of the Institute for Forestry and Nature Research in Wageningen, the Netherlands. He says the culprit is pollution produced by industrial plants thousands of kilometres away. He focused in particular …
