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 …
KABAR Tal, a 7,500-ha lake in Begusarai district of north Bihar, is ecologically one of the most important wetlands in the state. The lake hosts 106 species of resident birds and is a nesting ground for 59 species of migratory birds. In addition, the wetland supports a large number of …
IT'S EVENING when you realise you need legal papers drawn up to pull off a major business deal in the morning. But your office has wound up for the day. No matter. Fax the information to your New York affiliate, where the working day is about to begin, and ask …
Two Australian statisticians, Geoff Robinson and John van der Touw, have designed a sports ranking system based on one that ranks bulls according to how much milk their daughters produce. They claim the new system will be used in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and will help overcome limitations of …
WILD BOARS have sparked a discussion on basic Buddhist values among Bhutan's planners and decision makers. The animal is a voracious eater and prolific breeder and has emerged as the most notorious of pests because it manages to dodge traps. However, Buddhism does not permit the killing of wildlife. Wildlife …
NEPAL will use a $3.3 million grant from the Global Environment Facility to conserve the unique ecosystem of the Barun valley on the southern slopes of Mount Everest. The valley lies in the Makalu-Barun National Park and conservation area and is believed to be one of the Himalayan kingdom's richest …
THOUGH Indian farmers have practised sustainable farming for generations, the Union government has only now awakened to the need to promote ecofriendly, organic farming. In early January, the Union government announced an outlay of Rs 26 crore for organic farming during the remaining years of the eighth five-year plan (1992-97). …
ESTIMATES of air pollution in Delhi caused by various sources vary, except in the case of vehicles. K P Nyati of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), says about 70 per cent of the air pollution is caused by vehicles, about 20 per cent by power plants and the rest …
ON DECEMBER16, 1993, South Korean Prime Minister Hwang In-Sung resigned, taking responsibility for the opening up the country's rice market to imports. Soon, the entire cabinet followed suit. The impact of the Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was not restricted to South Korea. Farmers …
VIRTUOSI such as violinists and ballet-dancers have excelled often because of joint hypermobility, also known as joint laxity, which is a range of motion in excess of normal. It was joint hypermobility that enabled Indian cricketer B S Chandrashekhar to bowl his legendary spin and gave the nimble-fingered Niccolo Paganini, …
FROM EXCELLENT vegetable growers to taxi drivers -- that's the transformation the Jyapus of Kathmandu valley are undergoing. The agricultural practices of the Jyapus, a farming community that produces most of the fresh vegetables sold in Kathmandu, exemplifies the benefits of traditional farming methods. Indra Raj Pandey, an official in …
INDIA'S long history of excellence in science and technology is well known. There are several examples of Indian products -- not just textiles and spices -- that other civilisations admired for a long time. In AD 662, Syrian astronomer-monk Severus Sebokht wrote of the knowledge of the Hindus, "...of their …
THE AGREEMENT at the conclusion of the Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has come as a victory of sorts for French farmers, even if it does not spare them the current low agricultural prices. The agreement, signed on December 15 in Geneva after seven …
THE INCREASE in high-risk sexual contacts between homosexual beach boys and tourists in Sri Lanka has worried the government. Though there have been only 22 cases of AIDS to date, the government's chief venereologist, Gamini Jayakuru, estimates as many as 2,500 Sri Lankans are HIV positive, registering a rise of …
Human behaviour may, after all, be the upshot of molecular games. Scientists working with voles -- mouse-like creatures -- found that monogamy and parenting among these animals depended critically on the ebb and flow of certain chemicals in the brain. These hormones -- oxytocin and vasopressin -- are present in …
SEVEN astronauts returned to earth on December 13, 1993, after completing an unusual job: Rectifying a defective mirror on the Hubble space telescope. The $1.6-billion telescope was launched in 1990 with a defective mirror that prevented it from focussing on remote objects of the universe. The astronauts installed 11 new …
With Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands insisting on high recycling targets, an agreement on waste packaging among European Community members seems a distant dream. SMOTHERED by a growing garbage disposal problem, the take-away, throw-away European Community (EC) is trying to reach a consensus on waste packaging regulations. However, Germany, Denmark …
WHEN PETER Sutherland lowered the gavel in Geneva on December 15 to signify the end of the Uruguay round of negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the reaction in India was sharply divided. While an enraged opposition charged the "economic sovereignty of the country had been …
AGRICULTURAL scientists and economists warn farm subsidies are leading to the wasteful use of resources such as land and water. Highlighting the grave consequences of electricity and fertiliser subsidies, they suggest any decision on public funding for agriculture should be based on an environmental cost-benefit analysis for sustainable use of …
A PLAN to reward UK farmers switching to organic methods has been criticised for not recognising those already practising organic farming. Under the five-year scheme, the government will pay British farmers who convert to organic methods $104.16 a hectare initially, reducing this to $37.2 a hectare in the last year. …
SUSPECT diabetes? Get your eyes checked! A US company has developed a technique that uses eyes as a mirror for quickly and painlessly detecting diabetes, instead of the standard blood test for a patient's glucose level. In this technique, a blue light focused on the lens of the eye enables …
