Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News item titled "the last feral horses in India" appearing in Mongabay dated 05.11.2024 dated 16/12/2024. The application was registered suo-motu on the basis of the news item titled "The Last Feral Horses in India" appearing in Mongabay dated November …
Cash-strapped Uttaranchal’s industrial policy, unveiled last month, primarily aims to create an investor-friendly climate. Nothing wrong with drawing up a roadmap for recovery, except that it makes no reference to a symbiosis between economic activity and environmental conservation. The Uttaranchal government has, within a short span, separately announced a slew …
Organic crops contain more healthy compounds than their conventional counterparts, because they are not exposed to pesticides. Work by US-based University of California indicates that organic berries and corn contain up to 58 per cent more polyphenolics
Dhanpao village: Two patches of land adjacent to each other. Wheat is sown on both tracts. But while one yields numerous saplings, the other is barren. The reason: organic manure was used in the lush green field to grow ginger before wheat was planted. Lachiwala village: A mound of organic …
It is ironic that while India ranks third in fertiliser use worldwide, it ranks 14 and 16 respectively in the production of rice and wheat. It is even more ironic that India’s fertiliser policy ensures precisely such a result. Fertiliser use in India is dictated by the larger perceived need …
Agricultural growth in India has always laboured under the burden of producing more. The idea was: grow only foodgrains. That meant: not ecologically adapted cereals such as millets, but rice and wheat. The green revolution programme was single-minded: it came up with hyv (high-yielding variety) seeds for rice and wheat …
A third factor has led to the current debility of soils in India: irrigation. That is to say, water over-use. To feed the rice-wheat mentality, net irrigated area rose from 20.8 million ha in 1950 to 53.5 million ha in 1995-1996. Fed on irrigation, the agricultural area grew from a …
Soils are a very slow renewable resource. To reclaim them requires, above all, a long-term plan. With falling productivity, the realisation has sunk in that soils cannot be blindly mined, and that humans cannot just plough through the ecology they interact with. apply gypsum: Seven lakh ha of land in …
What is soil? Nothing but simple clod, always taken for granted. But dig deeper, and you will find that this simple clod generates complex equations of survival and wealth, equity and polity. It is a big little ecological variable. Its influences remain hidden from us. function openpoptable(){ var popurl="http://dte-new/dte-new/html/20030131_cover2.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=475,height=500, …
organic farming method uses land far more efficiently and with less environmental impact than conventional farming methods, shows a 21-year study. Unlike conventional farming, organic farming uses no synthetic fertilisers or pesticides. Because of this, organic crop yield is little less. The study conducted by scientists from Switzerland-based Research Institute …
OUR diet. How and where does it come from? Its impact on us and the entire ecosystem is of utmost concern to us. John Robbins' previous works have explored this subject in some detail. This book takes his readers a step forward, telling them about genetically modified (GM) foods, mad …
Originally called www.purefood.org, the website is the project of Organic Consumers Association (OCA). This site focuses on safe and sustainable systems of food production and consumption. The site lists various campaigns of the organisation to drive out genetically engineered food off the market. The recent and most prolific campaign is …
The run-up to the budget is curiously silent on the environment front. But then, if the Union budget of last year, or for that matter the ones preceding it, is anything to go by, it is not surprising. The finance minister may once more end up playing to the corporate …
in an attempt to assist organic farmers, the Union government is intending to clamp one per cent tax on chemical fertilisers. Union minister of state for finance Balasaheb Vikhe Patil recently said that the funds collected through the cess would be utilised to help agriculturists cope with the changes in …
KISHAN PAL collects wasps for a living. He feeds them beefliver and chicken to ensure they retain their sting. Farmers make a beeline at Pal's house to buy these tiny cannibals. They are more than willing to pay Rs 500 for each carton of wasps. When let loose on fieldsthese …
a national-level permanent board to monitor the promotion of organic farming in the country has been mooted by a task force on organic farming. According to the recommendations of the task force, the government ought to highlight the sustainability of the concept. Tax incentives for ventures in vermicompost, compost, press …
The Argentine Movement for Organic Production (mapo), a group of 300 organic farmers, has recently filed a complaint against the Agriculture Department demanding that it should stop approving the use of and suspend all past authorisations of Bt corn, modified to resist insects. They are concerned over the potential long-term …
To put it in a nutshell, the factors that have contributed to the lack of development of organic market in India include low awareness about the perils of chemically farmed products, high prices of organic produce, lack of consumer confidence in organic food standards and their erratic supply. Smritee Singh, …
The government's interventions have focused on promoting certified organic production, missing out the challenge of using the organic route to reward traditional, marginal farmers. This misplaced priority seems to be changing. A master plan for the production of organic coffee is almost ready. Formulated by the coffee board, the plan …
