The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
NOVEMBER 28 was the 102nd death anniversary of Jotiba Phule. Though his centenary was not celebrated with the same national fervor as B R Ambedkar's, mass rallies were held to renew the realisation of the importance of Phule as a social radical, especially among the awakening dalit and low-caste masses. …
IN A RECENT article, entitled Decline and Fall of Amphibians in the New Scientist dated June 27, mention is made of the declining population of the common Indian bullfrog, Rana tigerina, attributed primarily to the harvesting of frogs to meet the Western culinary demand for frog-legs. How the New Scientist …
A MAJOR leap in Indian jurisprudence occurred when Chief Justice P N Bhagwati interpreted the Indian Constitution to mean that Indian citizens have a Right to a clean and healthy environment because without this, the expressly stated Right to Life is meaningless. However, little effort has been made to define …
WHAT DO the Gulf War, Greenhouse effect and the Narmada project have in common? They are all related to energy, an issue that took centre stage in the 1970s. The oil crisis of 19 made the West realise it could no longer take for granted the supply of cheap oil, …
Ecological factors • The present alignment passes through densely populated and cultivated coastal land. • The alternative alignment also passes through forest areas. • Trains running at a high speed will have an impact on historic buildings and disturb the peace of the residents. • Vibrations generated will die within …
SINCE THE Konkan Railway Corporation was adamant about going ahead with the project despite protests from environmentalists, Goa Foundation secretary and activist Claude Alvares decided to take the matter to court. In April, shortly before the court adjourned for the summer vacation, he filed a writ petition, but it was …
• Total length of the Konkan railway : 760 km • Cost (at 1991-92 prices) : Rs 1,391 crore • Completion date : October 1994 • Length in Goa : 106 km • Number of bridges proposed : 84 • Total track length in khazan lands : 21.176 km • …
THE GENERAL degradation of Goa's environment is symbolised by the damage being done to its khazan lands, a unique, coastal, estuarine agro-system that plays a crucial role in the state's coastal ecology. Though Goa must import foodgrains to support its 12 lakh population, agriculture is the most important occupation in …
HIS NAME has lent credibility to Goa's environmental and human rights agitations. Matanhy Saldanha, the self-effacing, 42-year-old biology teacher in Panaji's Don Bosco has been involved with these agitations from the early 1980s. In fact, Saldanha's recollections sound like a historical narrative of independent Goa's environmental and human rights activism. …
GEORGE Fernandes may have been looking for a short cut to lasting fame when he announced on July 19, 1990 the setting up of the Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC). To many, the prospect of a railway line along the west coast was the fulfillment of a dream. The idea was …
THE GRANT of fishing rights on Haleji Lake, Pakistan, to a contractor has stirred up a hornet's nest and a group of environmentalists gone to court wanting the award to be invalidated. The group says organised, large-scale fishing in the lake will disturb the large number of migratory water fowl …
The Bedti hydro-electric project in Karnataka is in the midst of another controversy. The project, which was scrapped in the early 1980s following protests from farmers and environmentalists, is being considered by the state afresh. Environmentalists had won the first round when, under immense pressure, the Karnataka Power Corporation (KPQ …
SOME interesting programmes on indigenous science and technology are lined up in the coming months in various parts of the country. The Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha-92, inaugurated in New Delhi on Gandhi Jayanti (Oct 2), will continue till National Science Day, February 28. The objective is to involve voluntary groups, …
Babu Lala Sharma, Chairperson, Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha 92, United Newspapers, 4 Windsor Place, New Delhi 110 001 G N A Nayar, Chairman, M N Sreedharan Nair, General Convenor, Exhibition Committee, Swadeshi Science Expo - 92 Amba, Pongumoodu, Thiruvananthapuram - 695 011 C N Krishnan Patriotic and Pupil-oriented Science and …
JUST a couple of weeks after UNCED, participants from Europe, USA and Japan gathered in Geneva, at the newly-created International Academy of the Environment, to attend a seminar entitled "Beyond the Limits: The Limits to Growth, Sustainable Development and Environment Policy after UNCED". The high point of the seminar was …
THE KONKAN Railway is suffering from a typical attack of the NIMBY syndrome -- a two-decade-old acronym popularised during the movement against nuclear power stations by young people in the West, whose slogan was Not In My Backyard. It has since come to denote what is widely recognised as an …
IN A RECENT speech, Prime Minister Narasimha Ra called upon voluntary agencies to participate actively in the country's rural development programmes and gave a categorical assurance it "is not going to be a sarkari programme." Pointing out the Eighth Plan has allocated Rs 30,000 crore for rural development, which will …
IN 1988 the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) allotted 2.1 ha of land in Nand Nagri in east Delhi to the Mud Village Society (MVS) to build a model colony of environment-friendly mud-houses. However, the project seems to have run into rough weather and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has …
AMIT MITRA A LARGE number of the over 700 mud houses built by the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) at Yelahanka near Bangalore are showing signs of falling apart. This is a major setback to a project that described by V Suresh, a HUDCO director who was then KHB chairman, once …
