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 …
Vietnamese farmers are going through a bad time due to persistent drizzle that has affected supply of coffee in the province of Dalak. "The weather is now dangerous for the coffee business,' said a trader. He said the drizzle in Dalak had disrupted the drying process. Dalak accounts for 60 …
According to government reports, dengue fever has killed 321 people in Vietnam so far. The figure has risen by more than 50 per cent since 1997. Tran Hung, an official in the ministry of health, said 159,449 people had contracted the disease, and southern province accounts for 80 per cent …
EVEN after 23 years, the Vietnam War continues to invade the lives of the soldiers who waged the war. Only now there is no distinction of race or colour. Both US and Vietnamese soldiers are suffering because of a chemical, Agent Orange, sprayed in Vietnam by the US from 1961 …
THE Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGc)-Videsh Ltd, currently operating in Vietnam, has discovered gas in the offshore area with reserves estimated at three trillion cubic metres which would help trigger a range of activities for Indian companies in the downstream and midstream areas, besides allowing ongc to plough back …
Water supplies in a drought-stricken province in central Vietnam are running out fast, triggering growing fears of health hazards. Quang Tri province has already appealed for emergency aid as it struggles with its worst water crisis in more than a century. Tens of thousands of people are at risk from …
The Rhinoceros sonda'icus annami-ticus, a rare and threatened sub-species of Javan rhinos unique to Vietnam, are facing certain extinc-tion. A recently-conducted census of the animals' footprints suggests that their population in Vietnam is down to the last five . "They can survive for only two or three more years unless …
This tiny Asian nation, still struggling to gain a secure economic foothold, is pressing ahead with its first oil refinery which has already become a centre of controversy. Work on the us $1.2 billion prestige project began recently, despite a fund-shortage and doubts over its viability. The refinery is being …
A. The quick and the dead Human pressure, lack of research and shrinking forests coupled with a thriving international trade in wildlife threatens to turn a zoologist's Garden of Eden into a poacher's paradise on november 25, 1996, Vietnamese Premier Vo Van Kiet issued a dire warning to his audience …
The present century has seen very few discoveries of new mammalian species. Of the four discovered so far, Vietnam itself accounts for three. In the 1990s, two new species of big mammals
With Vietnam slowly opening up to Western scientists in the last decade, numerous organisations have been vying with each other to study the country's flora and fauna. After Ho Chi Minh ousted the French in 1954, Vietnam's leaders closed the country and its forests were effectively locked to outsiders. Even …
Ornamental fish breeding has expanded recently in Hanoi because of rising incomes. Increased incomes and a liberalised foreign trade is also taking a heavy toll of orchids and rhododendrons. Ethnic minorities collect rhododendron plants in large quantities in the high mountains and bring them regularly for sale in the cities, …
The 72 million litres of herbicides sprayed by US forces in Vietnam during the war will continue to plague several generations of post-war populations with a high rate of reproductive abnormalities. Some 40 million litres of Agent Orange were sprayed; the herbicide contained 170 kg of dioxin, which is the …
The threat to deforestation comes from several basic reasons: the nature of the country's economy; its high population growth rate; firewood demand; shifting cultivation and fire damage; economic liberalisation; and, the pressure on the country to earn foreign exchange through biomass exports like wood and rice. The per capita income …
Afforestation : In 1993, a 10-year programme was initiated to regreen the barren lands of Vietnam. But as one diplomat in Hanoi pointed out, the government went about the task of greening the land "in a militaristic manner', and planted eucalyptus and other exotic species over large stretches of the …
what makes Vietnam particularly worthy from a biodiversity point of view is also its very rich base of traditional medicine. This means Vietnam has the potential to make a worthwhile contribution to the global food and health sectors. Says Nguyen Duc Tao of the Vietnam Pharmaceutical Corporation, which is trying …
About 89 per cent of the Vietnamese population consists of lowland Kinhs and the Muong people, who occupy the two agricultural deltas of the Red River and the Mekong river, besides the narrow coastal strip. The remaining 11 per cent consists of ethnic minorities, most of whom live in the …
Vietnam has an Association of Herbal Traditional Doctors with a nationwide membership of about 20,000, which is recognised by the government. But the association is starved of funds. These traditional doctors often offer their services free and are usually very poor. Berit Richter, a Danish activist working in Hanoi, is …
Recently, Bangladesh signed four agreements with Vietnam. The accords were on the formation of a joint commission for economic, cultural, scientific and technical cooperation between the two nations. The two nations also agreed to extend cooperation in the field of agriculture, as both of them have economies that are primarily …
The last battleground of the Vietnam war is still marked by strife. A generation after chasing off the Americans, Vietnam is putting up with what may be called its
