Reply affidavit on behalf of the Central Ground Water Board in the matter of Suo Moto case titled "Haryana 60.48% groundwater over exploited Kurukshetra worst Jhajjar best says" appearing in the Tribune, January 8, 2025. The CGWA report, May 3, 2025 addresses the issue of groundwater exploitation and violation of …
PEGGY Rismiller of the University of Adelaide has unveiled the sexual exploits of the elusive and solitary egg-laying Australian mammal, the spiny anteater or echidna, which might help to successfully breed them in captivity. Rismiller found that during the breeding season, which occurs in winter, 10 or more males form …
LITTLE attention has been paid to the effects of current and emerging trade arrangements, vis-a-vis GATT, on Indian food security issues. A number of related issues have been given more serious pondering: negative impact on the economic status of food producers and processors; minus marks for the state of the …
SPANNING 9 chapters, Tushaar Shah's book focuses on a very specific but vital component of India's agricultural development -- groundwater markets (GWMs) and its effect on the economy, society and environment. The book brings together the author's research on GWMs since 1983 -- based mainly in Gujarat -- though a …
ARE Indian researchers being taken for a ride? A Japanese method propagated as a surefire way to boost crop production and slash input costs and fertiliser use is now in the midst of a controversy. The experiment, which was cleared by the Union agriculture ministry, is now caught in a …
SCIENTISTS have overcome the resistance offered by three species of Indian pulses to conventional genetic engineering techniques, literally at the point of a gun. S C Bhargava of the S K N College of Agriculture in Jobner in Rajasthan and A C Smigocki of the US Department of Agriculture report …
RUSSIAN biologists tracking tigers normally depend on the usual method of looking for pugs in the snow. But Galina Salkina, a Russian researcher who attended the Global Tiger Forum meet, has developed a novel method. She trains dogs to recognise the scat and pugs of tigers. "This method was commonly …
IN THE past two years, for the first time DN suffered a drop in its membership, a trend that is common to other NGOs in Denmark. Today, these NGOs are competing for money and support from the same fraction of the Danish population, which no longer seems to be responsive …
P D BAPNA is the owner of a 20-ha sapota (cheeku or sapodilla plum) orchard in the Dahanu area of Maharashtra. Back in the '60s, like other growers, Bapna used chemical fertilisers. But in 1975, after his plants became weak and prone to disease, "perhaps because of the over-exploitation of …
MANY littoral areas of the Indian Ocean still harbour people who hold firmly on to ancient seafaring practices. Studying these techniques is both a challenge and a fulfilling guide to those probing the past. However, research on seafaring traditions has focussed on areas beyond the Indian Ocean and is influenced …
SMUGGLERS haunting the US-Canada border have scuttled the Canadian government's policy of levying high taxes on tobacco products. Responding to the protests of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council, which claims that the flood of cheap, contraband cigarettes from the US has ruined businesses, Canada's federal government and that of Quebec …
WITH the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the issue of trade and environment is heating up. In mid February, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) invited senior environment ministers, government officer sand heads of the United Nations Conference on and Trade …
CLASSIC movies can now be preserved for generations without fearing loss of print quality. Though movie films are kept in sealed cans to keep dirt out, they are vulnerable to the "vinegar syndrome", a decay caused by traces of acetic acid released by the film as it ages. Researchers at …
Those who took upon themselves the task of opposing the Dunkel proposals for the Uruguay round of talks have done a remarkable job. A motley band of people with little in common -- except their professed dislike for the Dunkel proposals -- have managed to carry the anti-Dunkel stand even …
To the Wopkaimin of central Papua New Guinea, Mount Fubilan is a sacred mountain sitting on top of the land of the dead. To exploration geologists in the 1960s, it was a 2,200-metre peak that could be converted into a profitable copper and gold mining project. In 1981, in the …
FLOODS have ravaged India from times immemorial and people have controlled and turned them into beneficial processes. But today they are seen as catastrophic events that are to be forcefully contained by dams and embankments. This perception has its roots in India's colonial past, according to recent evidence from Orissa. …
IN THE near future, plastic won't be an environmental pejorative. The Japan Corn Starch Co Ltd, in collaboration with US business firm Grand River Technologies of Michigan, will produce a fully biodegradable plastic from corn starch that decomposes readily and can be used as compost for the corn crop (New …
PAKISTANIS are cutting down on eating beef and are moving towards chicken. Although chicken was previously considered a luxury dish, the growth of the poultry industry has led to a major slash in prices, making it affordable for the less wealthy, writes Panos Features. Besides, there are fears that many …
A senior scientist has lambasted the procedure used to identify and release seed varieties to farmers across the country. The director of the Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), S K Sinha, points out in a report to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research that it is the inability of …
HALF THE total energy consumed in India is spent on cooking food, nearly twice the energy consumed by agriculture and industry put together. Energy planners, however, inexplicably and routinely overlook this vast consumption category, and planning priorities are invariably skewed against it. The report of a working group on energy …
SINCE ancient times, we have been aware of several basic ideas of heredity. Plants and animals with superior characteristics were isolated and multiplied. Human mating practices were restricted to exclude incest, as well as matings outside specific defined groups. In the 1970s, genetics received a real fillip with the advent …
