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 …
india lives in its villages, said the Mahatma. But sadly very few of our political leaders acknowledge this. And while they look the other way, a few committed individuals have sacrificed the good life to strive for a better living for the rural folk using their knowledge base and information. …
It was Henry Ford who invented the assembly line system of manufacturing automobiles and today the car is a victim of its own success. Therefore it is not surprising that Europe is stricken by a crisis, which is the result of the factory-like food production techniques adopted in the Continent …
"A new politics that stands for consumer protection, improved food safety and natural environment friendly agriculture by reversing the age old practice is needed,' said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder while creating a powerful new consumer protection ministry. Renate Kunast, co-chairperson of the Green Party, will head the new ministry. "We …
there is a growing demand for organic cotton in various parts of the world. Grown without the use of synthetic chemical fertilisers and pesticides that conventional cotton cultivation is still dependent upon, organic cotton is gaining wider recognition than ever before. Global production of organic cotton increased from 8,250 tonnes …
twelve journalists, including me, visited Prince Charles' organic farm at Highgrove in Gloucestershire, England as part of training arranged by the the Reuters Foundation for environmental journalists. The 400 hectare estate we were bound for is called
A scientific revolution is brewing. Not in the laboratories of the nation but in a 40-hectare farm in Hiatpur village in Ludhiana district of Punjab. Darshan Singh Tabiba, a farmer with basic elementary education, is the proud owner of the farm. Twenty years ago the farmland lay barren. Today, it …
floods sweep through the village, the land is left uncultivable, the wells get filled with pebbles and mud. Agriculture becomes impossible. A cry of despair and despondency from the unfortunate residents would be a common sequel to this. Not in the villages of the Chaksu Block of Jaipur, Rajasthan. Thanks …
What is organic farming? In organic farming natural materials are used. It lays emphasis on soil fertility and plant health. The idea is, ‘the heal thier the soil (which includes the health of all the soil organisms such as worms and the micro organisms), the healthier the plant’. In this …
agro-scientists in India are a troubled lot these days because there are indications that the soil in some of the most-productive regions of the country is losing its micronutrient content. “However, in India, little attention is paid to the possible health impact of depleting micronutrients in the soil,” laments V …
Can foodgrain production in India be increased further? I see no reason why foodgrain production in the country cannot be increased. To think that only Punjab represents the entire country, is wrong. In many areas foodgrain production can be increased by using increased inputs, like fertilisers. We tend to compare …
makaibari tea estate, three kilometres off Kurseong town in Darjeeling, is probably one of the few tea gardens in the district that can boast of having a greater percentage of land under forest than tea. It is one man's vision that has catapulted the decades-old plantation into a biodiversity-rich environmental …
a combination of high-yielding seed varieties, fertilisers and state-of-art production practices has resulted in an increases in agricultural productivity in India over the last few decades. However, there is growing realisation that over-dependence on chemicals to boost food output has an alarming, and wholly unwelcome, effect: deterioration of soil health. …
a quiet serene house, nestling in a green expanse, surrounded by heavily-laden fruit trees. Nothing new at the outset, for acres of the countryside is sprinkled with such picturesque villages and houses. However, village folk move out of these regularly attracted by the glamour of city life. On the other …
the Chennai-based M S Swaminathan Research Foundation ( mssrf ) has launched the Biovillage project in an effort to help poor rural families of Pondicherry avail knowledge of scien-tific techniques of farming and financial assistance. M S Swaminathan, the chairperson of the foundation says, "We wanted to create a process …
At present, Cuba is reaping the benefits of organic farming. Of central importance is an understanding of natural systems of fertilisation and pest control in place of synthetic chemicals. "In the past three years, Cuba has used only 22 per cent of the pesticides it used in 1989," said Luis …
THE deadly DDT was banned for agricultural use in India in 1992, when it was found that the daily diet of Indians contained 0.27 milli grams (mg) of this pesticide. Recently, India saw the banning of Benzene Hexachloride (BHC), a pesticide which causes turnours, leukemia, liver and kidney damage and …
A LARGE number of tea gardens in Darjeeling have switched over to organic tea. No inorganic fertilisers, pesticides and wcedicides are used. The planters only use bio-compost, biomass-based mulching is being used as fertilisers. Similarly, only neem-based pesticides and weedicides like Neerrigold and Neemazol are used. Organic tea is meant …
green banking has become big business in the Netherlands. Two years ago, politically-correct banking and investment was limited to three small idealistic banks-Triodosbank (originated from the anthroposophic movement which sees human beings in relation to the cosmos), asn Bank (founded by the trade unions) and the Other Investment Fund (founded …
a novel method of managing food waste from school meals has not only generated economic and environmental dividends, but also established a kinship between urban and rural people. The food waste is recycled into compost for use in agricultural fertilisers. The compost is used by farmers in rural areas to …
Organic tea cultivation is fast emerging as an alternate source of income for small and marginal farmers in the Darjeeling hills. The founder of the locally based Specialised Agriculture and Indus trial Consultancy on Tea and veteran tea planter, Harish Mukhia, says that his firm has recently supplied good quality …
