Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
hc cracks whip: Reprimanding the state-level committee over its inability to find zones for stone-crushers, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has ordered the closure of all such units. The owners of the state's stone-crushing units may, however, approach the court for a vacation or modification of the order. Announcing that …
the sale of more than 5,000 hectares (ha) of land in the command areas of northern Karnataka in a span of just three years has made the state government sit up in alarm. It swung into action on June 6 notifying the Karnataka Irrigation (Amendment) Ordinance. The regulation bans the …
Central Uttar Pradesh (up) is quite literally on shaky ground. Land subsidence has been reported from several districts of the region, including Fatehpur, Farrukhabad, Kannauj and Unnao. Alarmingly, the culprit is neither seismic nor mining activity, but excessive groundwater extraction. This despite these districts lying in the Gangetic plain and …
jumbo fighters: Tiny bugs would no longer trouble jumbo jets. If undetected, microbes in aviation fuel harm the planes' instruments and even eat through the wings. They also produce misleading readings in fuel gauges. Now, Cardiff-based ECHA Microbiology has developed an industry-standard test for the pests, which lets non-microbiologists check …
• Aboriginal children living a semi-traditional lifestyle ... were shown to be the critical group for radiation protection purposes • The inhalation of plutonium dust presents the most significant potential health hazard arising from residual contamination of the Maralinga area • If in time the Maralinga Tjarutja were to move …
the Australian government is being bombarded with criticism for deciding to hand back a 3.2 lakh hectare (ha) site to its traditional aboriginal owners despite fresh evidence surfacing that the land is still toxic from nuclear tests conducted 40 years ago. Maralinga, the tract in question, is located in the …
After 20 years If the bombs didn't kill, the land will. Afghanistan's natural resources are all but dead survival is an impossible dream in Afghanistan. Last December, as Afghans looked up to the deceptively beautiful sky for rain, bombs rained from endless streams of b-52 bombers
We are not starting from scratch. Our institutions have been substantially weakened. But they still exist,' says Hedayat Amin-Arsala, minister of finance of Afghanistan Interim Authority. Hidayat's statement has more meaning now when the interim government is struggling hard to convene the Loya Jirga and to chart out his country's …
life ravaged by war and drought has one hope: resilience of a people. "A good monsoon and a bit of peace will bring Afghan's life to normal,' says J Gabriel Campbell of icimod. Take Kohistan district of Kapisa province for example. Just after usa bombarded and damaged water channels in …
death is a seasonal visitor to Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh's largest district and wasteland. It comes just before sowing and after the harvest of groundnut, a cash crop that occupies 91 per cent of land in the district. More than 100 groundnut farmers have committed suicide since the last two years …
when Bhuna Bhil of Pathara village in Dungarpur ran away from the communal carnage in Gujarat, he faced a dilemma: what would he do back in his village? It had already exhausted all his sources of livelihood. Known as the 20th century desert, Dungarpur's 68 per cent population has been …
Poverty in Sarguja district has taken epic proportions. Unlike in the Mahabharat, the descendants of Pandavas and Kauravas have come together to fight a common enemy in Sarguja: poverty. And their fight is as heroic as the Mahabharat. Pandos, the local tribals and descendants of the Pandavas, are fighting for …
Irrigation is a luxury that only a few can afford in Mandla, a water-rich district in Madhya Pradesh. The district receives an annual rainfall of 1,300 mm, which can easily sustain three crops a year. But Mandla residents can barely manage one. The district is surrounded by the mighty Narmada …
While the Union government is bothered about the high cost of storing surplus foodgrain, groundnut farmers in Anantapur commit suicide. Clearly, measures of poverty need changing. Policymakers must now take into account the time spent by women to collect firewood or water. This distance needs to be shortened as this …
Rabindra Nath Mishra, an additional block development officer, is a bit worried. He thought calculating Phulbani's poor, as directed by the Supreme Court, would be easy. The expenditure limit of Rs 250 per month (as the decisive line between poverty and prosperity) seemed a ridiculous amount. But when the final …
the Andhra Pradesh (ap) Water, Land and Tree Act, 2002, meant to clamp down on over exploitation of groundwater, could lead to increased bureaucratisation, fear some experts. To come into force on June 1, 2002, the act is meant to promote water conservation and prevent over-exploitation of water sources in …
the Union government's consultative group on land and water care has launched a land care movement for fostering community-centred food and water security system in nine states. This is a follow up to the land resources management resolution adopted at the International Conference on Land Resources Management held in New …
the Supreme Court has granted four weeks time to the Delhi government to close all polluting and unauthorised industries operating in Delhi's residential areas. The apex court rejected the government's plea to complete this task within five months. Justifying the four weeks time, the apex court said that 18,000 units …
the Union ministry of mines ( mom ) proposal to amend the Fifth Schedule of the Indian constitution could take away the constitutional rights of the tribal communities over lands and other natural resources in the scheduled areas. The amendment
