In 2023, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded a total of 399 disasters related to natural hazards. These events resulted in 86,473 fatalities and affected 93.1 million people. The economic losses amounted to US$202.7 billion. The 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic was the most catastrophic event …
What are the various methods of managing invasive weeds? The government generally comes to know about invasive weeds 10-15 years after they are introduced. By then, they are already spread over wide areas and their extinction becomes impossible. The only thing that can make a difference is the people's awareness. …
How easy is it to predict the potential of a plant to become invasive in a new habitat? When an alien species, be it a pest or a weed gets into another habitat, there is generally a time lag before it becomes invasive. Its introduction, as such is sudden and …
What are the modes of successful invasiveness? There have been some studies on recruitment of pollinators by lantana. When lantana invades as an invasive species into a native ecosystemit proliferates and increases its density and biomass. Consequently, there is a chance that it usurps the native pollinators from the native …
function alien2() { var popurl="image/20040229/30-illus.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=475,height=450,scrollbars=yes") } "A successful invasion is a rare event,' says Suresh Babu, a researcher at the School of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi. An accepted thumbrule is that only one in 10 introduced species become naturalised, and only one in 10 among the latter actually …
Last year, a cricketing row broke out between New Zealand and India, when a member of the Indian team was fined for carrying soiled shoes. For India, it was cricketing pride at stake. But New Zealand customs authorities were merely following quarantine regulations. The shoes could have carried a possible …
At one point in the epic Mahabharata, the pandavs and kauravs go to warfare school. Amid thick forests, they train hard. Then, the time comes when they must leave. Yudhister, the eldest pandav, gifts the space as guru dakshina to his guru, Dronacharya. In time, there came up a town …
• A girl born in Japan today may live till she is 85, but another born in Sierra Leone can expect to live only 36 years • Despite global gains, in 2002, while life expectancy at birth reached 78 years for developed country women, it fell to less than 46 …
what is poverty? The Planning Commission is set to undertake an exercise to find a quantifiable answer to the question. It has proposed to the Union government to set up an expert group to redefine poverty and, consequently, reassess the percentage of India’s population living below the poverty line. The …
after finding high levels of dioxin-related compounds in breast milk of women living near landfills, a Vadodara-based non-governmental organisation intends to file a public interest litigation (pil) against the Gujarat Pollution Control Board and the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (vmc). Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (pss), the ngo, alleges that people's health is …
The Ministry of of Environment and Forests had been bringing out forest statistics based on the data received from the States/UTs. Efforts have been made in the Ministry in obtaining and compiling the data from the States/UTs on important parameters relating to forestry and wildlife and bringing it out in …
function openfact(){ var popurl="image/20031231/60.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=350,height=450,scrollbars=yes") } Click here to view the graph • The consumption of caloric sweeteners (sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, sorghum) in the world has increased by 74 kilo calories per day since 1962. The increase is more in the lower and the middle-income countries as compared …
an impending shortage of science and engineering (s&e) personnel in the us has forced the country to look inward for talent. The country, which is the biggest beneficiary of brain drain in the post-world war ii era, has recently admitted that
• Developing countries devote more than a third of their budgets on education, healthcare, water and sanitation services, but little is actually spent on the poor • The poor often pay more than the rich for the same goods and travel longer distances to avail basic services • India's richest …
make no mistake, us President George W Bush’s office has conceded that green laws make sound economic sense. Although the White House reiterated what it states in a report released every year, greater significance is being attached to the review conducted this time because it is the most comprehensive ever. …
a new report will help people take informed decisions about investing in the automobile sector. It includes details of how efforts to restrict greenhouse gas emissions will affect the profits of 10 leading automobile companies between 2003 and 2015. Toyota is said to be most prepared to face the emerging …
In Ladakh, the rest of India is referred to as down . Because, at no point in Leh district would you be less than about three kilometres above the mean sea level. This vast barren district is more than 45,000 square kilometre (sq km); it is perhaps India's largest and …
