Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Futala Lake’s charm fades amid neglect and poor maintenance appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 25.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Futala Lake’s charm fades amid neglect …
Japan is likely to lift the ban on import of Indian mangoes after India successfully conducted vapour heat treatment to eliminate beetles present in the fruits, said S M Acharya, joint secretary in the ministry of commerce. The Union ministry of environment and forests will launch a five-point programme for …
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 …
Environmental issues never really mattered in Indian realpolitik. Pollution, deforestation and land degradation have always been fringe issues - either by choice, neglect or perhaps, by ignorance of those who mattered. Neither the ruling parties nor the opposition ever put in any effort to make an issue out of the …
You initiated this campaign against the new Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill. Do you think it will succeed? Has it become a political issue? It is a people's campaign. Despite the fact that the opposition against the Bill took off a little late, it has gained momentum in states like Orissa, …
OVER the last 30 years, severe soil degradation has ravaged the state of Gujarat. If this trend continues, as much as 30 per cent of the state's land resources could be completely degraded by the turn of the century, warns a recent report of the Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC). "Increasing …
LAND holdings in the hills of Uttar Pradesh are small and scattered, sometimes several kilometres apart. As a result, rehabilitation of degraded or wasteland in these areas has become a problem. Farmers waste a lot of time going from one field to another, which makes cultivation unprofitable. The result: vast …
IT is time humans learnt to manage their consumption patterns in an equitable manner. Growing inequity in the consumption of the world's resources is becoming one of the most pressing problems of the 20th Century. The United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report released this year attempts to highlight this …
A SATELLITE picture of the Earth, taken at night, would show a steady stream of light along the world's coastlines. Half the world's population - about 3.2 billion people - live and work within 200 kilometres of the coasts, which account for 10 per cent of the Earth's land area. …
BAJWA, a village in Vadodara district of Gujarat, looks no different from the other villages that dot the state. But people here breathe toxins, drink contaminated water and have no agricultural land to be proud of, in productivity terms. Over a period of 30 years, this village and the area …
most of Iraq's farms are in a bad state, says the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation ( fao ). The famous fertile fields of Mesopotamia's have been ruined due to international sanctions and government neglect. A fao 's survey shows that harvests of vegetables and cereals have shrunk by …
the ever-increasing pressure to increase food production to meet current demand requires protection of crops from pests. The use of pesticides is, therefore, inevitable, and constitutes an integral part of modern crop-management practices. It has been estimated that crop damage is as high as 20 per cent where pesticides are …
the Indira Gandhi canal project is an example of what short-sighted planning can do to the environment. More than solving water problems in Rajasthan, it has converted the area it irrigates into a marshy and saline desert. Arable land and habitations have become waterlogged. Villages lie deserted and native flora …
Desert rodents like the Indian gerbil ( Tatera indica) and Meriones are carriers of plague, but are resistant to the disease. Another group of rodents, which includes the house rat ( Rattus rattus ) and the bandicoot ( Bandicota bengalensis ), is highly susceptible to plague, which is transferred by …
The availability of water for irrigation has changed agricultural practices. With new crops, new pests have emerged. Hardly any records are available prior to 1975. Studies carried out between 1975 and 1991 indicate several changes
Sewan grasslands occupy areas with low rainfall. They were spread across Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Barmer districts, but can no longer be seen now. Irrigation became possible with water from the Indira Gandhi Canal, and the grasslands were transformed into agricultural fields. But flood irrigation has also increased soil moisture, threatening …
rangelands are those areas which for reasons of physical limitations like low and erratic precipitation, rough topography, poor drainage and cold temperatures are unsuitable for cultivation. Consequently, these lands are used as pastures. About half ((6,700 million ha) (mha)) the Earth's land surface is covered by the scant vegetation associated …
groundwater depletion and land degradation have become an integral part of irrigated agriculture in India. While the command areas of canals suffer from waterlogging and soil salinity, the increased exploitation of groundwater for irrigation has led to its depletion and damage due to factors like the ingress of sea water. …
The National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning (nbss&lup;), Nagpur, has finally completed its work on detailed soil resource mapping (srm) of all the Indian states. J L Sehgal, director, nbss&lup;, says maps for a few states have been released and rest are ready for publishing. srm basically …
SITA Ram Yadav's woes know no bounds. "They had promised to make the area as fertile as Punjab, but they have reduced my field to a total wasteland," fumes the lanky farmer from Ajahara village, Phulpur, Uttar Pradesh. His ire is directed against Asia's largest fertiliser cooperative, the Indian Farmers …
