Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of In Re: Zudpi Jungle Lands. A batch of applications involved a peculiar issue concerning the situation prevailing in the six districts of eastern Vidarbha region namely Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. The issue pertains to the status of the …
SOMALI activist Rakiya Omaar, who helped establish Africa Watch and served as its executive director for four years, has been dismissed for opposing the United Nations military intervention in Somalia. Omaar said she believed the arrival of USA-led troops "without prior consultation with Somalia's underground and with the relief organisations" …
Cubans are embarking on an oil-free future by giving up automobiles for energy-efficient bicycles. Since the withdrawal of Soviet oil supplies in 1990, the number of private autos on the streets of Havana has gone down by almost two-thirds and that of buses reduced to half. The bicycle is fast …
The Japanese passion for golf is on a new course. Since 1987, 20 districts covering 32,000 sq km were earmarked for resort development. The total area covered by the resorts will eventually touch 60,000 sq km -- 16 per cent of the country's land area. A private study asserts the …
THIS RESOURCE guide to environmental action by women's groups and communities in the Asian Pacific region offers an excellent introduction to the issues involved, addressing all readers and not just women. A result of elaborate networking and coordination between women from different countries in the region, the book focusses on …
Arms outstretched on the edge of the cliffs Stand a few trees Ready to fly away with the clouds. They say these deodars once Kissed the Koku nala And embraced the skies so tight That the stars were startled By the village glow-worms every night. Now when the corn touches …
THE TRADITIONALLY smoke-filled Paris bars face an identity crisis: Will the recent ban on indoor smoking clean up their air? The law requiring special sections to be set aside for smokers was enacted after official figures put the number of smoking-related deaths at 54,000 last year in France. However, restaurateurs …
SHOULD a weed that provides income to villagers be eradicated? This is the dilemma forest officials in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh face. The lantana bush spreads like a weed and threatens the growth of trees by competing for soil nutrients. But a poor villager can earn up to Rs …
THE FIRST all-India tiger census in 1972 was designed by then senior research officer Saroj Raj Choudhury and his trainees at the Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun. The method used the hind pugs left by a tiger. No matter how the tiger walks, its hind pugs are usually clear. …
Despite widespread international criticism, Japan has decided to go ahead with shipment of 30 tonnes of reprocessed plutonium from France and Britain over the next two decades to enhance its nuclear energy production. Even before the first cargo of 1.7 tonnes could set out from Cherbourg in France for Yokohama, …
"WE WILL stop all traffic on the Dehra Dun highway if our demands are not met by December 5," roared a crowd of more than 1,000 Gujjars and ban (rope) workers on November 5 at Mohand, 20 km from Dehra Dun, outside the Rajaji National Park (RNP). When the migrant …
Managers of five US companies face fines upto $ 3.75 million each and imprisonment upto 75 years for shipping toxic waste to Australia, Bangladesh and Pakistan in violation of US waste exports law. Three companies from southern USA -- Gaston Copper Recycling Corp, Stoller Chemical Co and Hy-Tex Marketing -- …
Drink Cafedirect. Give Third World producers a fair deal! Christian Aid, along with other UK charity groups, has launched a two-year campaign to encourage "fair trade" with an assault on the European Community's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The plan is to encourage shops to stock "fairly traded" goods, having a …
UNTIL recently, indiscriminate hunting and poaching had threatened the survival of elephants in Africa. But the international ban on ivory trade and increased vigilance against poachers have reduced elephant-killing to an extent that their population is increasing annually by 5 per cent in many African countries. As a result, elephants …
VILLAGERS in Uttara Kannada district are waging a battle against Karnataka Forest Department officials who are allowing contractors to fell trees in the betta lands -- tracts of forests sanctioned to farmers of the region during British rule. The trouble began in March when villagers in Adnalli gheraoed a contractor …
THE BRITISH public is faced with a grim choice: clean versus cheap water. In a recently released document, The Cost of Quality, Ian Byatt, director general of water services, predicted the cost of water in Britain would double by 2005. He questioned the stringent standards for drinking and bathing water …
THINGS could not have turned out more badly in the fight over the fate of the wastelands board. Last fortnight's cabinet notification lays to rest the uncertainty over where the new minister for wasteland will sit. The notification certainly also does another thing: It dug a grave for the entire …
TRAVELLING north through the Brahmaputra valley, you come to a diversion to Tejpur and a three-km bridge, the second spanning the river. On the north bank, a national highway goes all the way to North Khimpur. You pass by tea gardens standing in disciplined rows and you are overwhelmed by …
NUCLEAR energy can be good business. And for the ailing West European nuclear industry, the unsafe nuclear reactors of its eastern neighbours has come as a boon. Siemens AG of Germany has announced that its power-plant division would form a consortium that will undertake rehabilitation of nuclear reactors in Ukraine, …
THE EUROPEAN Community (EC) has decided to seek membership to the International Whaling Commission (IWC). At present, the EC is a member only of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation though seven EC nations are individual members of the IWC. In the wake of this decision, the EC has informed …
FOUR million ha of the Siberian coniferous forest, the taiga, are cut down every year, and it is feared that this may shortly increase as controls on logging disintegrate after the break-up of the former USSR, says a report prepared by Armin Rosencranz and Antony Scott of the Pacific Energy …
