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 …
Even though the discovery of the 80 million-year-old dinosaur fossil in the Gobi desert of Mongolia - by fossil-hunters from the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences -shows the animal sitting on its nest of eggs, its original name of Oviraptor or …
HOUSING lower- and middle-class blacks, certain South African townships are seriously threatened by contamination caused by human wastes. With no sewage disposal system, the residents of these poor localities use buckets to excrete and once these are full to the brim, the waste is either dumped into streams or on …
A THREE-YEAR study conducted by the World Wide Fund for Nature-International for the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) reveals that sea birds inhabiting the Midway Islands in the,north Pacific have concentrations of persistant organic pollutants ajhigh as those in the birds found around the shores of the Great Lakes, North America …
A solar-powered water pasteurising device called Solsaver, designed by John Grandinetti, president of Grand Solar Incorporated of Hawaii, USA, may bring an end to people falling prey to water-borne diseases (World Watch, VoJ8, No 5). The Solsaver uses thermal action to move the water which flows through copper tubing into …
Fungi, bacteria and dust accumulation in the ventilation ducts of large office buildings is the main reason for the deterioration of the same. Such buildings can now be nursed back to good health thanks to a treatment offered by Prime Clean, a Swedish company, and the Royal Technical University in …
A new smog-eating automotive technology has been developed by Englehard Corporation of the US. The new automobile coating, designed to destroy ozone and carbon monoxide is now being evaluated by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). If the CARB finds the coating effective, "it could be one of the black …
SERVING these lesser known, 'exotic', deep sea delights, restaurant owners are pocketing a neat sum, while fisherfolk too are receiving a handsome price for their catch. The craze for deep sea cuisine, according to scientists, is beginning to upset the delicate ecosystem of the dark oceanic world which covers more …
A SEEMINGLY nonsensical trait displayed by the moth is that it spends a few hours of its short lifespan guzzling down enormous quantities of water from the one end and throwing it out of the other with great force. According to scientists, this activity - puddling - is a life-saving …
A STUDY conducted by British researchers concluded that with rising mercury levels, temperate farmlands face a potential threat in the form of insecticide-resistant aphids (insects of the Homopteran order, which live on plant juices). The aphid population had till date been kept under check due to winter frost, but when …
METHANE is the second most important contributor to global warming after chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), with a 100-year global warming potential (GWP) of 24.5. And domesticated ruminants (cattle and camels), contribute about 20-25 per cent of global methane production annually. Of this, 85 per cent is added to the atmosphere when the …
A team of British scientists claim to have found a solution to the locust menace- A solitary locust is inactive, while a gregarious one in the company of thousands of others can mean mass destruction. Stephen Simpson and his colleagues at Oxford University discovered that the foam on which locust …
I Sainsbury's Horsham store in Sussex, Britain, goes green by adopting secondary refrigeration for storing both chilled and frozen foods. Ammonia is used as the main refrigerant while the secondary cooling agent is a combination of glycol and silicon oil (Technology Partnership Initiative, issue 7). Each of the nine compressors …
FLANNERY'S prime supposition is that as and when competition with other carnivores and primates increased, hominids turned to new habitats. Such rivalry between different species and the consequent migrations resulting from the same constituted the main driving force of evolution (Natural History, Vol 104, No 12). Fighting it out for …
A FRENCH team of anthropologists have discovered an equine species that was thought to have become extinct a long time back. Spotted in the remote Riwoche region of north-east Tibet, the species was known only through depictions in cave paintings (Time, Vol 146, No 22). The team, led by Michel …
POLLINATION brought about by the wind is a common mode of plant reproduction. Scientists have now found that pollen from commercial fields of transgenic crops spread further than was Previously believed (New, Scientist, Vol 148, No 2003). The list of irritants causing transboundary problems has increased with genetically engineered plants …
THE team analysing the disposal of wastes in landfills is doing pioneering work in that it has not just identified the types of waste being dumped but even segregated the waste, allocating them it) sparate landfills. The waste in these landfills undergoes decomposition by fermentation. The process of decomposition varies …
Butterfly and moth wings do seem to reflect the motto inspiring beauty pageants: 'beauty with a purpose'. The attractively coloured and designed wings make these cold blooded creatures not just beautiful but warm too. Chitin, the material constituting butterfly scales acts as a thermoregulatory mechanism. The air gaps present in …
Scientists from the British Natural Resources Institute and the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute working at Kenya's Rift valley suggest that volcanic carbon dioxide, instead of methyl bromide, could be used to exterminate granary pests (New Scientist, Vol 148, No 2004). Experiments have been conducted on more than 2,000 tonnes of …
THE well-being of any species is dependent on the natural environment it exists in. A recent report on the effect of climate change on human health released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), suggests that the rise in global temperatures could directly or indirectly affect human health (Science …
Ice sheets in western Greenland have become thicker by about two m in the last 10 years. Kenneth jezek and his colleagues from the Ohio State University, contend that each year adds about 15 cm. They feel that continued monitering of the ice sheet would provide insight into the phenomenon …
