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. …
If the mid-August assault on some officials of the Bihar water resources department, on an inspection tour of the eastern Kosi embankment in Saharsa, is anything to go by, flood control officials in the state face an unenviable future. The attack was triggered by the villagers' perception that embankments were …
How do you see globalisation as a phenomenon, particularly where globalisation will mean only economic integration, and not a political one? Globalisation has a number of dimensions, which are now more or less integrated. Personally, I don't think globalisation has brought about only economic integration. Political integration has also taken …
The relationship between water resources and population growth keeps changing with the adoption of new technologies. Has this been the case with India? Technology cannot increase the water content of the rivers, but it can improve harnessing and conservation techniques and so make more water available for individual consumption. The …
INEXPENSIVE and plentiful Himalayan hydroelectric power remains a dream, with Nepal's total installed capacity standing at only 250 MW. Most Nepalese lack electricity and those linked to the grid suffer periodic power cuts. However, judging by a recent seminar in Kathmandu on Cooperative Development of Himalayan Water Resources, turning the …
"The Raindrop" is about a village near Chandigarh in Haryana. The book tells the story how this village was able to transform itself from a drought prone one to a food exporting one through community efforts and scientific watershed management.
INDIAN scientists rank among the 10 most prolific producers of scientific papers in the world; yet their research is among the least cited in international scientific and technological literature. This dismal finding is contained in a paper published in the Journal of Industrial and Scientific Research (Vol 51, No 2) …
LASER sensors, induction coils set into the macadam, a fast mainframe computer and state-of-the-art traffic control software: that is the kind of hi-tech the Delhi Police are trying to import to smoothen out the Capital's chaotic traffic. The system will reduce fuel consumption, pollution and the number of accidents. And, …
MONEY for sustainable development in the developing countries was the only nut which UNCED could not crack. Two years of intense negotiations concluded in Rio with the South getting very little in hand. The UNCED secretariat had estimated that developing countries would need US $125 billion worth of international assistance …
IF YOU cannot agree to something right away, the UN has a simple solution: call a conference later. That is precisely what the Rio conference did on the vexatious question of straddling fish stocks. These are stocks of fish that migrate into one country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from another's …
THE SUB-CONTINENT, judging by these three reports, went prepared to Rio. In fact, the first report, prepared by a Sri Lankan NGO, chides UNCED for trying to save the earth without even consulting its people. The three reports focus on the major environmental problems of these countries. They draw attention …
THE MINISTRY of environment and forests (MEF) has merged the two separate committees on wetlands and mangroves to constitute a National Committee on Wetlands, Mangroves and Coral Reefs. But if the new committee is to achieve any success in saving these precious ecological resources, it will have to solve the …
A concerted international effort is underway to protect the remains of the ancient city of Moenjodaro from the double menace of a rising water table that is turning the city to dust and the unpredictable ways of the Indus which threatens to flood the site. But the plan may be …
IT is two years since western governments, in a fit of enthusiasm for green issues, proposed a US $1.5 billion "pilot project" to find ways to protect the world's rainforests. Meeting in Houston, Texas, the "Group of Seven" rich industrial nations backed a scheme from Germany's Chancellor Kohl to test …
THOUGH a great deal of fuss has been raised in scientific circles over methane production by rice paddies and cattle in the developing world, which is likely to heat up the earth, the atmospheric chemistry of methane is still a grey area. Scientists-are finding that it is quite possible that …
THE misery caused by this year"s drought was unnecessary. Typical of India"s weather, rainfall in several parts dipped below the normal last year but these fluctuations were small. Yet we failed to deal with the problems caused by this shortfall in rain. It is obvious that as India"s population grows, …
THERE is considerable speculation amongst the anti-Narmada activists as to how the recent clashes between the police and the villagers of Manibell will influence the attitude of the principal financiers of the dam, the World Bank and Japan. Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) did not look happy …
WESTERN governments have touched the panic button because of the recent evidence of ozone depletion over the Arctic and large parts of the high and middle latitudes. The ozone hole is no longer confined to the atmosphere over the South Pole. Temporary depletion of ozone over the northernmost parts of …
The groundwater circulation is limited in Sri Lanka because nine tenth area of the island is underlain by metamorphic hard rocks which are generally very impermeable. Therefore to satisfy the water demand some other possibilities of water resources should be explored before starting a groundwater investigation programme for a given …
The water resources of a Miocene limestone aquifer in northwest Sri Lanka were investigated. The limestone aquifer receives recharge although it is buried beneath a thick sequence of Quaternary deposits of low permeability which cover the whole basin. Hydrochemical and pumping-test data show that this recharge occurs as leakage through …
