Order of the National Green Tribunal (Southern Zone, Chennai) in the matter of Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake and Bird Conservation Trust Vs State of Karnataka & Others dated 02/05/2025. Pursuant to the tribunal order dated April 24, 2025, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) informed the court that as per …
AN ANCIENT Egyptian practice of divining a woman's pregnancy by treating wheat seeds with her urine, say scientists, could be used as an efficient, economical pregnancy test for cows. The currently available laboratory methods of diagnosing pregnancy in cattle are laborious and expensive (Current Science, Vol 65, No 12). Based …
Tribals in Nagarahole National Park in Karnataka are opposing a state government plan to relocate them within the park, claiming it would adversely affect their way of life. According to the plan, the 6,145 tribals living in 54 settlements spread over the park are to be relocated in a 2,000-ha …
Dental students of Bangalore University can now face the prospect of failure with a broad display of teeth. University authorities reportedly granted grace marks to several Bachelor of Dental Sciences students to enable them to pass the 1992 annual and 1993 supplementary examinations. University sources say more than 150 students …
When the Karnataka government announced substantial reservation of seats for the "backward and the oppressed classes" in the state's panchayats in 1992, it was welcomed by most experts and analysts. They felt grassroots democracy in India would flourish if the weaker sections of society were guaranteed representation. However, when panchayat …
Simultaneous cultivation of several crops , using organic manures and pesticides, can raise productivity, says Karnataka's L Narayana Reddy. CATTLE urine fights pests such as white flies far more effectively than chemicals such as malathion; besides, dung manure doesn't lower paddy productivity, says organic farmer L Narayana Reddy, of Sorhanese …
VEERAPPAN, the legendary sandalwood smuggler, may be nabbed shortly, but putting an end to rampant sandalwood smuggling in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu may prove considerably more difficult. The ban on sandalwood export, in conjunction with anti-people conservation measures, have seen more and more people turn to sandalwood smuggling, with the …
WHAT DISTINGUISHES the Gloria Land (GL) farm of Pondicherry"s Aurobindo Ashram and the farm run by Julie and Vivek Cariappa near Mysore from that of their neighbours, is that a mash of leaves, cattle dung and a carefully chosen mix of crops have displaced inorganic fertilisers and pesticides completely. Yet …
In a significant breakthrough, the Hyderabad-based Directorate of Rice Research has developed five commercially viable, hybrid rice varieties from indigenous species. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) director-general V L Chopra claims this will make India "the second country, after China, to exploit hybrid vigour in order to give a …
AFTER a nearly two-year break, Karnataka's pioneering panchayati raj experiment will continue in December and January, when elections will be held to village, taluka and district bodies under a new panchayati raj act. But in the run-up to the elections, the campaign to oust Karnataka chief minister M Veerappa Moily …
ABOUT 5,000 gram panchayats in Karnataka will go to the polls on December 16 this year. But some proponents of panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) argue that the 1983 framework for the operation of PRIs was far more committed to the ethos of democratic decentralisation than the 1993 act. They argue …
DO PRICES determine increase in use of fertilisers, which are heavily subsidised by the government, in India? Fifty-six-year-old Madhusudan Reddy, who owns 50 ha in Chaganur village in Karnataka's Bellary district, disagrees. "I use the same quantity of fertilisers I did before the government increased their prices two years ago," …
You've been writing about environmental issues for a long time, but your writings are people-oriented. Is this due to your personal background? My personal background is almost horrid. I have been a writer and novelist and written more than 80 dramas. I have tried almost every conceivable medium of self-expression. …
What led to the formation of KER? Kodagu is divided both politically and according to caste and politicians exploit this. We are the smallest district, yet our contribution to Karnataka's kitty is the highest. When Kodagu was merged with Karnataka in 1956, development stopped. Politically, the scene is dismal. The …
Some are lawyers, others are teachers, doctors or businesspersons. Many are retired defence personnel and coffee planters, in addition to being paddy cultivators. This diverse group makes up the Kodagu Ekikarna Ranga (KER), an organisation fighting to preserve and protect the culture and heritage of Karnataka's Kodagu district (formerly known …
Judicial history was made in India when a Bangalore sessions judge accepted DNA fingerprinting as evidence to convict the accused in a murder case. This is the first time the results of this technique have been accepted as valid proof of crime in an Indian court. Since 1989, the Karnataka …
Karnataka: More responsible than men MADHU SARIN IN 1987, more than 14,000 women were elected to mandal panchayats in Karnataka on the basis of a 25 per cent reservation of seats for women. Before the elections, questions were asked about the suitability of women in panchayats. Curiously enough, in many …
THE MAN who moved the Supreme Court in ???? to constitute a tribunal to solve the dispute over the Cauvery waters between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was S Ranganath, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers' Association. Says Ranganath, "A legal solution had to be found. We had no …
THE KARNATAKA Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), which recently destroyed a processing unit of multinational Cargill Seeds, has lent strong support to a broad-based campaign against a plant set up in collaboration with W R Grace & Co of USA to produce a biopesticide from neem seeds. KRRS and several other …
AS THE Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu lurches from one deadlock to another, water resources experts in India are even more disturbed at the prospect of a larger crisis. The "resource hysteria" generated by the Cauvery tangle may just be a precursor to similar "flashpoints" in India, …
