Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
given their magnitude, the tremors of the earthquake on March 29 that shook Chamoli region in Uttar Pradesh will continue for two more months. This was stated by H N Srivastava, scientist emeritus at the Indian Meteorological Department ( imd ). The quake, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, is …
Rescuers are still trying to find survivors reported missing after the January 25, 1999, earthquake. Having virtually given up hope of finding survivors, rescuers have been forced to follow the stench of death to locate the bodies. "From now on, our mission is to recover corpses,' said a Venezuelan rescuer …
INDIA is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. The earthquake that hit Assam on June 12,1897, had a magnitude of 8.7 on the Richter scale. Known as the Great Assam Earthquake, it is still the highest-intensity tremor ever recorded in the world. It was only more …
NEWS from home: Indian aeronautical scientists and engineers are working on an ambitious project called Micro Air Vehicles (MAY) to produce aircraft that will not be much bigger than the palm of our hand. These "palm-top" planes will be crucial in operations which would require them to fly to spots …
About 70 per cent of forest fires have been estinguished, not just by the rains but because there is nothing left to burn, says Murdiansyah, an official of the East Kalimanthan Environemnt Impact Management Agency, an arm of the environment ministry. The Bukit Suharto National Park, a major tropical forest …
Confused reporting by emergency officials about the extent of danger and inadequate disaster management, brought to light official apathy recently in Mexico City, as the volcano Popocatepetl, spewed a giant cloud of ash over the city. High ranking officials denied that they issued a red alert that the volcano may …
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 …
the ministry of environment and forests (mef), in collaboration with the General Insurance Corporation of India, is planning to establish an Environment Relief Fund to provide relief to victims of any environmental calamity of industrial origin. This was announced on March 19, by Saroj, joint director, mef. Speaking at a …
the accident-prone nuclear industry of Japan received yet another jolt when a fire and explosion hit a nuclear-waste reprocessing plant resulting in a low-level radiation leak. Inadequate action by the government to contain the fire, which was not extinguished properly, led to an explosion 10 hours later at the Tokaimura …
in a grim reminder of the Pasarlapudi blow-out on January 8, 1995 (Down To Earth, Vol 3, No 18), a massive blow-out occurred on February 19, at the Mandapet exploratory oil rig of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ongc) at Pitanivarepalem on the outskirts of Devarapally village in Ravulapalem …
Little has been done about the January 8 Lahore gas leak disaster which had claimed 30 lives and affected thousands. In want of any evaluation of the area by the authorities, deaths kept occurring even some days after the accident. Some NGOs including the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan and …
japan had woken up to the Minamata disease way back in 1956, signalling the beginning of one of the worst pollution cases to have hit it in the post-World War ii era. In 1995, a 40-year-old saga of bureaucratic evasion, corporate high-handedness and judicial foot-dragging finally reached its culmination. The …
When the cyclone slammed into Bangladesh on April 29 earlier this year, the anxiety in many quarters of the world was especially heightened in anticipation of huge fatalities. Exactly to the day 3 years ago, a similar ill wind had left more than 150,000 dead in its wake. It is …
INUNDATION is nothing new for the Dutch. A good part of the Netherlands -- 25 per cent of it actually -- lies below sea level and would have been inundated regularly had the Dutch not taken steps to keep out the sea. Right from medieval times, dykes, dams and canals …
Vilasrao B Salunke, father of the pani panchayat concept in the drought-prone Marathwada region in Maharashtra, has evolved quake-resistant houses in areas affected by the September 30 earthquake. Salunke, convenor of the Pune-based Earthquake Disaster Management Group, advocates ferrocement technology to build new houses on existing foundations of the recently …
AT MIDNIGHT on September 29-30, Gulab Jawalge and his family went to bed, exhausted by the prolonged Ganesh Puja celebrations in their village, Mangrool, in Maharashtra. Less than four hours later, Jawalge found himself trapped in a pile of rubble that his house had become. When he extricated himself half-an-hour …
When disaster struck the Tehri-Garhwal region in Uttar Pradesh last year, several voluntary agencies rushed in to offer rehabilitation services. The most popular form of assistance was to "adopt" disaster-struck villages and build fresh shelters for the homeless. A recent report by the Dehra Dun-based People's Science Institute brings to …
What can be done When Elements that sustain life -- air and water Turn to destroy...? -- Dasarathi, the acknowledged poet laureate of Andhra Pradesh. DASARATHI'S poem was inspired by the fury of the killer cyclone that crossed the Andhra coast at Chirala during the evening of November 19, 1977, …
REMOTE sensing is slowly changing the contours of planning in India. In time, it could do away with conventional methods of data collection involving laborious field studies and replace dusty files in the large cupboards of officialdom with computer tapes, discs and video monitors. Providing such relatively easy access to …
THREE thousand people are feared dead in flash floods caused by heavy rains in northeastern Afghanistan in the first week of September. A nine metre-high tidal wave brought torrents of mud and boulders down three river valleys in the Hindu Kush mountains sweeping away hundreds of houses. Thousands of hectares …
