Improving management practices in grasslands used especially for animal grazing can enhance the capacity of soils as carbon sinks, and help countries reach their climate goals, according to this new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Soils contribute to the achievement of the UN …
The Swiss take pride in their lush landscapes, and Bolly wood buffs know why. The breathtaking alpine pastures of this small mountain country have replaced strife-torn Sri nagar and polluted and overpopulated Ooty as a backdrop for frolicking fantasies as our buxom actresses and burly actors join Heidi in yodeling …
a weed called mimosa is destroying the grasslands of Assam's Kaziranga National Park ( knp ). The weed has covered over 120 hectares of the park's area, thereby, threatening the lives of herbivore animals that feed on the grass. Mimosa devours the existing grass cover of any area. The park …
There are reports of fires in the alpine grasslands of Uttaranchal. The official version is that these fires are the usual controlled burning done by the forest department in the hills to prevent the outbreak of a major fire during the dry months. "This time it has been a dry …
the New Zealand government has decided not to destroy the bee-killing parasite, the varroa mite. According to the country's beekeepers, horticulturists and cropping farmers, the decision would prove to be a death sentence for the country's population of wild bees. The agricultural ministry has informed the government that pest attack …
AS FAR AS the eye can see, it is a mass of horns in a desiccated, semi-arid landscape. The horns emerge sideways from the head, turn up, and then arch back at the tips, as if swept back by the wind. Kankrej, native to northern Gujarat, is quite a regal-looking …
one of south Australia's endangered ecosystems, the western basalt plains grasslands, has found a saviour in John Wamsley, founder and managing director of the wildlife conservation company Earth Sanctuaries. The South Australian environmentalist has bought a 1000-hectare property for US $7.8 million to protect Victoria's wildlife sanctuary at the You …
they are called "prairie remnants" by some people. Forgotten strips of land in the corners of farm fields or the rough of some golf courses. These are the few remaining pockets of the once-vast American prairie. They are left to sustain the diversity of life in what was at one …
environmental degradation and failure of the monsoons has resulted in a famine in places like Kinnakorai and Kundah taluk s (blocks) of the Nilgiris in the Western Ghats. Unfortunately, the reason for this famine is little understood by the people, either due to ignorance or sheer negligence. The Nilgiris are …
The stories of conquest and depredation of alang alang grass and gypsy moth show how serious the unfettered invasion of alien life forms (both zoological and botanical) can become. A native of South Asia, and a valued source of thatch, alang alang grass is a weed whose economic importance is …
Misdirected conservation efforts take their toll on grasslands, and Desmodiums are a case in point. Desmodiums are legumes; they can fix nitrogen directly from the atmosphere into an organic form to be taken up by plants. They enhance protein content of the grass. Of the 450 species of Desmodium forage …
scientists call it Prosopis juliflora . The people of Kutch in Gujarat call it the gando bawal (the mad tree). Brought to India in 1877 by the British, it was introduced in the 1950s and the 1960s in Kutch to check the spread of the Little Rann of Kutch. Now, …
The moist tropical forests of the Western Ghats of India are pockmarked with savanna-grasslands created and managed by local agricultural communities. A sample of such savanna-grasslands with differing growing conditions was studied in terms of peak above-ground biomass, monthly growth and cumulative production under different clipping treatments.
WHEN Meghnaad, brother of King Ravana of Lanka, grievously injured Lakshman, brother of Lord Rama, Hanuman was sent to Gandhamardan Parvat to fetch the Mritasanjeevani Sudha, a life-saving herb. Unable to identify the herb from among the thousands that greened that locale, Hanuman brought the entire hill to the war …
DOWN TO EARTH has been consistently arguing that people"s self-management and control are the best ways to deal with the critical problems facing India, namely, declining productivity and the steady destruction of natural resources such as forests, grasslands, ponds, tanks and wetlands -- problems that result in extreme poverty and …