Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of In Re: Zudpi Jungle Lands. A batch of applications involved a peculiar issue concerning the situation prevailing in the six districts of eastern Vidarbha region namely Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. The issue pertains to the status of the …
UP To half of the world's biological wealth is threatened with extinction if the current protective measures are not extended to cover more land area. This is the conclusion of a report, Moving Beyond Brundtland, which was commissioned by Greenpeace and released recently in Vancouver, Canada. The report is based …
It is time to do away with myths. Hundreds of Pakistanis who have had kidney transplants are flocking to a playground during weekends to deliver a message to their countrypeople donate your organs to save lives. The event, first of its kind in the country, marked the start of a …
Spyplancs, small enough to fit into a palm, may take off within three years. Microflyers, as they are called, will have a wingspan of about 15 cin and would weigh less than 100 gin. The planes are being developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, US, who …
SCIENTISTS in the US have isolated a gene that controls the biological clock in mice. With this, they have moved closer to understanding the cause of a host of human ailments, 'from jet lag to sleep disorders related to aging, to manic depressive illness. Joseph S Takahashi and colleagues from …
In mid-1984, the National Remote Sensing Agency had published two sets of forest cover data, one for the period 1972-75 and another for the period 1980-82. This data shocked the nation because it revealed that during the span of these seven years, the country had lost 1.3 million hectares of …
Pakistan North West Frontier Province (NWFP) minister for irrigation, Bashir Bilour said in Peshawar recently that the construction of the Kalabagh dam could not be allowed at any cost as it was a potential hazard to four of the most cultivated districts of NWFP. Elaborating, the minister said that the …
Question: What is the cost of the ecosystem services which nature offers us? Answer: A whopping us $16-54 trillion! This figure has been arrived at with the concerted efforts of 13 ecologists, economists and geographers who reported their finding in a recent issue of Nature. Remarked Robert Costanza, an ecological …
to have or not to have a legally binding convention to manage the world's forests has once again taken the centre-stage in global environmental negotiations. The issue of a forest convention, as this proposed legal instrument is known for managing the world's forests, was the most contentious and divisive item …
The UN has urged governments to promote sales of technology to control pollution, in a series of studies commissioned by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). One of the studies underlines the need to spread information about investment opportunities in the environmental field and better enforcement of environmental laws. Another of …
the director general of the Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education (icfre) in Dehra Dun, B N Gupta, recently stressed the need for disseminating correct information on issues related to forest policy. While addressing the International Workshop on Forest Research in Conservation of Natural Forests that began at the …
Scientists from the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Calcutta, have discovered a phenomenon which could lead to a reliable method for predicting earthquakes. They have reported that the rate of production of the natural gas helium from Agni Kundu, the hot water spring in Bakreswar village in West Bengal, could …
the country's first bilateral lung transplant was performed at the Madras Medical Mission (mmm) in Chennai, on April 26. Experts hailed the nine hour long operation as unique and the "first of its kind in Asia". Besides, the 27-year-old Sri Lankan recipient, who has his heart on the right side …
the discovery of a new gene, has led scientists to create a portly breed of mice, with muscles two to three times bigger than those of normal mice. The discovery is of significance as it could help scientists to find treatments for muscular dystrophy or for the gradual muscle wasting …
Sustainable development is the bottomline of a new package by the UN Development programme's (UNDP) Country Cooperation Framework for Bhutan. The US $33 million-package will be used in programmes for sustainable livelihoods, governance and environment between the years 1997 and 2001. Under these programmes, UNDP will focus on management and …
With the help of a grant assistance of US $1.8 million from Finland, the Nepal government will be preparing a complete inventory of Nepalese forest resources under the forest resources information system project. The government has already compiled information on about 40 percent of land area as part of the …
Monitoring the effect of rising carbon dioxide (CO) concentrations and climatic changes on Europe's forests is the aim of a collaborative project across eight European countries and Australia. The project is jointly funded by the Forestry Commission of UK and the European Union under the Environment and Climate Programme 1994-1998. …
The Warao communities in the Orinoco river delta of Venezuela are up in arms against transnational companies involved in oil exploration in three areas of their homelands. At a conference in Tucupita, the capital of Delta Amacuro state, they demanded immediate end to all oil-related activities and an investigation into …
LOOKING, at the images clicked by spacecraft Galileo's closest flyby of Europa on February 20, 1997, scientists say they are confident that the Jovian moon has a thin ice crust covering either liquid water or slush. The tantalising new images put forward the possibility that the slushy concoction of chemicals …
Medical specialists from 75 countries of the world gathered recently, in the city of Marrakesh to participate in the first world congress on maternal mortality with a view to mitigate the phenomenon. Congress spokesperson Badr Tazi told Reuters just before the congress began, "The main objective is to examine in …
Sun-kissed sands and fisherfolk cracking coconuts at the edge of palm-fringed villages - this could very well be another day in Paradise! But the truth is that Madagascar's ecology is just living on the edge. The world's fourth largest island today has as much as 90 per cent of its …
