A Rs 56.89 crore budget for the Environment Department of West Bengal government was passed in the state Assembly today. Placing the budget proposal, state Environment Minister Dr Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar said the budget allocation has been raised three-fold from Rs 18 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 56.89 crore in …
A Rs 56.89 crore budget for the Environment Department of West Bengal government was passed in the state Assembly today. Placing the budget proposal, state Environment Minister Dr Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar said the budget allocation has been raised three-fold from Rs 18 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 56.89 crore in …
Climate change is threatening to impact the bottomline of the organised tea industry in India, with unprecedented high temperatures in Assam and excessive rainfall in Darjeeling impacting the prized crop. Addressing the media here on Monday, A N Singh, Chairman of the Indian Tea Association, said that due to erratic …
Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) is one of the largest carnivores of Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS). This 38.97 km2 sanctuary is known to have 19 villages along its periphery and inside it and incidents of human wildlife conflict in these villages is common. However, information on conflict related to Asiatic …
Cyclone Aila hit West Bengal on May 25 with a fury unprecedented in recent history. It took at least 94 lives, seven of them in Kolkata, and affected over 40 lakh people. More than six lakh houses were destroyed completely or damaged partially. The cyclone originated in the Bay of …
Prize Catch * The Eastern Himalayas and Western Ghats are prime hunting grounds for smugglers of rare Indian butterflies and beetles * They're in demand internationally for private collections, butterfly parks, traditional medicine, and also to be encased into jewellery * Among the sought-after species are: Pale Jezebel, Banded Apollo …
The Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) has mounted efforts to increase the production of organic tea so that the majority of the champagne of teas is organically produced by 2010. Industry sources say that at present about 37 per cent of the total crop grown on the slopes of the eastern …
Kalimpong: Six-hundred-and-forty households in and around Kalimpong have appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to save them from landslides, a threat that looms large in the hills during monsoon. Writing on behalf of the families, Save The Hills, an NGO, regretted that nothing had been done since the end of …
Kurseong, March 23: Some residents of Ambootia Tea Estate, 6km from here, have formed a farmers' club and tied up with Nabard in a bid to solve the unemployment problem that is plaguing the hills. The Ambootia Farmers' Club, formed on February 16, is the first of its kind in …
The Central Zoo Authority of India has adjudged Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling as the best zoo in the country. "This is the first time that the central zoo authority has conducted such a survey and we are happy that ours has been selected as the best one …
The GNLF-controlled Darjeeling municipality has decided to stop supplying drinking water and clearing garbage in the town from tomorrow. In Calcutta, home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said the situation in the hills was "worrisome' but tourists were safe. "Those feeling unsafe would be brought down to the plains,' he added. …
KOLKATA, Feb. 13: School-going children in West Bengal are more prone to get addicted to tobacco products. Thanks to the lack of awareness among people in these parts about the dangers of tobacco use. This was revealed by a voluntary organisation, West Bengal Voluntary Health Association (WBVHA) this afternoon who …
what gives Darjeeling tea its much sought after flavour? A team of scientists is trying to find out just that. Experts at India's Tea Research Association's Tocklai Experimental Station (tes) in Jorhat, Assam, and researchers from Japan's Kyoto University are working to decode the chemistry of the Darjeeling leaf to …
TEA from the Darjeeling hills are among the most celebrated varieties in the country. Combination of geo-environmental and agro-climatic conditions in the region makes production favourable for the tea industry, which has been producing tea for over 150 years now. But the industry is fraught with problems, which are affecting …
Nestled amid the lush hills of Kurseong in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, is a tea estate that has been transformed by organic farming. About two decades ago, the Ambootia tea estate was close to financial ruin: heavy dependence on chemical farming had been its undoing. Today, the 966-hectare estate …
The Darjeeling Zoo plans to release two female red pandas into the Singhalila National Park, which is located in West Bengal, in an attempt to increase the numbers of this endangered animal. Two female pandas were chosen instead of a pair to avoid in-breeding and to introduce new blood among …
Bharat Bhugel mopped his brow at 4.30 am on a chilly day in January 2003. Under the cover of darkness, he and three others had chopped down a huge sal tree inside the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in the foothills of Darjeeling in West Bengal. Bhugel has been carrying out such …
Take some sand in a glass container; fill it with water. Shake the container. The water and sand become a single fluid mass. Now imagine a highly populated town standing on this material. You can't even imagine what will happen when an earthquake strikes . Once you know this, how …
darjeeling tea may soon have its characteristic aroma patented. The Centre for dna Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (cdfd), Hyderabad, is soon starting a project to develop molecular markers, which will distinguish this world famous variety from its cheaper cousins and protect its market value. The Union ministry of commerce has recently …
In 1995, Indian exporters got a rude shock when a consignment of Darjeeling tea was rejected by Germany. The reason for this drastic measure: the tea leaves contained excessive pesticide residue levels. The unsavoury incident left a bitter aftertaste in India, but the fact remains that the tea did contain …
