Reply by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in compliance to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order dated January 21, 2024 in the matter of ‘News item titled “Feeling anxious? Toxic air could be to blame” appearing in Times of India dated 10.10.2023’. NGT had directed CPCB to file a …
Present aims to discuss innovative features and systems approach adopted in implementing time bound and technology based developmental projects under the Science and Society Programme of Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi which have resulted in some technology models/packages for rural application and poverty reduction showing potential for …
the Punjab government has introduced reed-bed system ( rbs ), an ecofriendly way of treating sewage with the help of reed plants in Roorki village of Fatehgarh Sahib district. T he system is a specially engineered simulation of a natural wetland ecosystem for the treatment of sewage, sullage and industrial …
Bharatiya Cattle Resource Developmet Foundation ( bcrdf ), a non-governmental organisation has developed an ecofriendly bullock driven tractor ( bdt ) for improvised tilling. The improved yoke design has increased the contact area of yoke with bullocks
a biogas plant uses cattle dung, human excreta and other organic material as raw material. The organic material has to be thoroughly mixed with an equal quantity of water. The amount of water used makes it an unviable proposition for areas with little water to spare. This is one reason …
The villages of Thulo Pokhara and Raje Danda of Nepal's Kavrepalanchok district have become the "world's first villages to be entirely lit by White Light Emitting Diode (WLED) lightning system'. This has been possible by the efforts of Irvine-Halliday of Calgary University, Alberta, Canada. Irvine-Halliday was fascinated by the natural …
In rural India, malaria continues to claim the lives of thousands of people. Vector control using DDT (dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane) has been known to lead to several environmental ill-effects. Now T Bhuvaneswaramma, a resident of Chennai, claims to have developed a mosquito repellent that contains only natural materials and not any …
The Department of Farm Machinery, College of Agricultural Engineering, Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore has developed a power tiller turmeric harvester. The harvester consists of a crescent-shaped blade with three bar-points meant to penetrate the soil. Two oscillating sectors at the rear of the blade have 50 cm long lift …
For the cultivation of the popular button mushrooms, many different types of composts have been used. However, experiments with six types in a completely randomised design at the Horticultural Research Station, Ooty during 1997-1998 have come up with surprising results. The different composts were prepared using the following base materials: …
the crisis over the availability of water for humans has never assumed graver proportions than during present times. It is, therefore, natural for scientists to think of conservation and efficient utilisation. With respect to the flora, obtaining water for a handful of plants does not pose a problem. The dilemma …
the Burkinabe Energy Institute in Burkina Faso in Africa has introduced several models of stoves that will reduce the consumption of wood for domestic purposes. Around 85 per cent people in Burkina Faso use wood as a source of energy in their homes. This has resulted in largescale deforestation and …
purging nut or physic nut ( Jatropha Curcas) is a native to tropical America. It is also found in many parts of Asia and Africa. In Cape Verde Islands, it is cultivated as an oil-yielding seed crop. In Madagascar, where the plant is grown as a support for the vanilla …
water is scarce in Mauritania, one of the countries in Africa which is worst-hit by drought and desertification. Even in areas where water is available, overgrazing by livestock has led to an acute water scarcity. In a bid to provide water to its people, the government of Mauritania has set …
Agricultural scientists at Hydro Agri in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, have developed optical sensors, which when mounted on a tractor, can tell exactly how much fertiliser each square metre of a field needs to achieve higher yields. Some areas in a field produce a better yield than others because the quality of …
Scientists at the Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, have developed a new technology that allows plants to utilise the urea present in fertilisers more efficiently. A substantial part of urea, when added as fertiliser, is lost in the atmosphere. Urea is broken down to ammonia by …
finally, there is some respite for the sheep-raising farmers of San Juan de Jarpa and Yanacancha districts in the upper reaches of the Cunas river in the Peruvian highlands. Distomatosis, a parasitic disease locally known as alicuya, had severely affected the sheep and cattle population, resulting in high mortality rate, …
one is a notorious human pathogen, the other a highly successful pesticide. But just a few mobile dna genes separate them. Lars Andrup of the National Institute of Occupational Health in Copenhagen, Denmark has identified a novel gene-swapping system that enables Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt ) to exchange an unusually …
with about 400 units spread across the country, the sugar industry occupies a prime place in the Indian economy. The byproducts of the industry are bagasse, filter cake (pressmud) and molasses. Together they constitute about 40 per cent of the total weight of crushed cane. Of this, pressmud ( pm …
To meet the power demands of rice mills, a small-scale unit based in Tanuka, Andhra Pradesh has developed a low-cost technology to generate electricity using rice husk. After three years of research, Associated Engineering Works have come up with the rice husk gasifier, which won them the department of scientific …
