In 2019, the illegal wildlife trade reached staggering levels. Pangolin scales and ivory were being trafficked in massive quantities from Africa to Asia, exposing a network of crime syndicates operating at an industrial scale. The sheer volume of these shipments marked a disturbing milestone, one that revealed the global reach …
latest figures released by the health department of China show that deaths due to air pollution are increasing every year. Nearly 1,000 more people died of respiratory diseases in 1995 than in the early '90s as air pollution worsened in the country. Death figures rose from 5,238 in 1994 to …
China has launched its first ever agricultural survey which involved 230 million rural households in approximately 800,000 villages. The survey, said He Huanyan, an official with the national agricultural survey office, is expected to enable China to obtain an accurate account of the total area of the country's farmland for …
rare species of plants in China came under legal protection recently. The wild plants protection regulations, which had been ratified by the country in September 1996, took effect from January 1 this year. Calestous Juma, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said that this move was an important …
In a recent move, more than 20,000 environmental officials have started a combing operation all over China to inspect factories and close down errant units after the State Council or the cabinet issued an edict in end 1996 to step up environmental protection. Till recently, China has shut down almost …
Having gained much ground in recent months, the country's environmentalists are trying hard to enforce tougher environmental laws. The National Environment Protection Agency (nepa) is planning to stop approvals for new industrial plants that are likely to release high levels of waste. "The government is shifting emphasis from the old …
HUMAN genetic defects are suddenly at a premium. A deal between Genset, a research company based in Paris, and the Chinese government allows the former to wade through scores of genetic samples from Chinese people for the purposes of medical research. What has, however, left geneticists in a quandary is …
After Japan and the us , it is the turn of China. Months of secrecy later, Chinese health officials have confirmed that a certain brand of a common blood product called serum albumin, produced by a military factory, was contaminated with the aids virus. Four months ago, the ministry of …
yamdrok Tso is Tibet's third largest lake, a jewel of turquoise brilliance lying 120 km south of Lhasa at a height of 4,445 m. As a closed lake system, its brackish waters have a mineral content just below the upper boundary of normal freshwater, fed by snow melt and limited …
Joining international efforts for protection of ozone layer, China recently held its first national conference on ozone layer protection. Song Jian, state councillor and minister in charge of the environmental protection commission said, "Although we are a developing country with dual missions of economic development and environmental protection, China has …
saving stitches: India will have the first indigenously-produced bio-adhesives for suture-less surgery. Nectar Laboratories Ltd, based near Hyderabad, is all set to manufacture these adhesives and suppositories for paediatric and geriatric use. These products will be manufactured using technology developed by the Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, a premier …
The nation's space programme seems to be jinxed. The latest in the series of failed launches is the us $128 million-ChinaSat-7 which veered off its course after take off and failed to reach its targeted orbit last month. With this debacle, the Chinese space programme has plunged further into gloom. …
science and technology ( s & t ) reforms in China have neatly dovetailed into a dramatic transformation of the country's economy. A good case in point is the Fugou county in central China's Henan province, once a dusty landscape, where 70 per cent of the land area comprises sand …
Environmental degradation arising out of desertification, deforestation, erosion and climatic changes and poaching is seriously threatening the delicate ecosystem of the riparian areas of Yangtze river. It is China's longest river, flowing from four points located high on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau at over 5,000 metres above sea level. The 5,980-km-long …
china could soon pip us to become the world's largest air polluter, observes a recent report of the Worldwatch Institute, an international environment research group. It has already outstripped us in the consumption of steel, coal, fertilisers and grain and is gaining ground in the production of carbon dioxide. Statistics …
Guangdong is one of the fastest growing economic regions of the country. It is now gearing up to tackle rising pollution levels, especially in the Pearl river delta. Over the next five years, the government is planning to spend up to us $120 billion on pollution control measures. Besides, the …
new research on an ancient Chinese treatment for skin disorders and other maladies, has brought to light the fact that the traditional remedy can actually deal more effectively with virulent forms of acute promyelocytic leukaemia (apl), a rare blood cancer, than was previously thought. Arsenic trioxide, one of the ingredients …
Liuminying, a small village south-west of Beijing, is an environmentalist's dreamland. It has emerged as a world-famous model of a perfect ecological village. The United Nations Environmental Programme (unep) has recognised the farm's leader Zhang Zhanlin as one of the 500 global environment specialists. Recently, journalists from several countries visited …
the last of the Bactrian camels - between 730 to 880 - living in the sparse deserts of Gashun Gobi and Taklimakan along the Sino-Mongolian border, may soon have a sanctuary for themselves. A hairy creature with bald knees, large feet and two small humps, the Camelus bactrianus ferus is …
the Chinese giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), has become a symbol of international efforts at protecting endangered species. There are around a 1,000 of these 10 million-year-old 'living fossils' living in the wild, and about 100 more in 29 zoos and research centres within China. A five-year-project to produce the world's …
the much abused Huai river in China seems to have won a reprieve after a small but increasing number of environmentalists fought against it being used as an outlet to discharge industrial sludge. The environmental protection bureau recently issued an order to shut down all paper mills - numbering a …
