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 …
To Anil Agarwal Editor Down To Earth New Delhi SUBJECT: l The law: the Goa, Daman and Diu Preservation of Trees Act, 1984. l Its aim: restrict felling of trees and reforest barren private lands. l Application and result: Discourages people from planting trees. Makes a larger area barren. Sir, …
$36 : Over the last few years, evidence has solidified that slavery not only exists, but may be widespread in parts of Sudan. On a recent day in Yargut village, there seemed little to dispute that. Seated under trees, were several hundred women and children. They told stories of abduction, …
scientists call it Prosopis juliflora . The people of Kutch in Gujarat call it the gando bawal (the mad tree). Brought to India in 1877 by the British, it was introduced in the 1950s and the 1960s in Kutch to check the spread of the Little Rann of Kutch. Now, …
The primary industries ministry in Malaysia has come up with a long-term plan to establish mini-estates to grow rubber trees from newly-discovered clones. The new plants will not only produce more latex but also good quality rubber wood. "If this is done, we will be getting an adequate supply of …
scientists have found a way to make eucalyptus and other trees grow a little faster. They have identified the key genes which are responsible for the development of wood in trees. They have also developed a new process for the testing of genes in the laboratory. Gerd Bossinger of the …
DUTCH elm disease (DED), a dreaded fungal disease that afflicts elm trees, has had a ghastly record. Spread by bark beetles, DED has wiped out tens of millions of trees around the world. It first appeared in the Netherlands in 1917, from where DED reached the UK through infected elm …
MONEY grows on trees, especially teak trees. This concept made headlines in the early 1990s in India. The idea was to get people to invest in teak trees, which would be harvested in 20 years. The profit that would accrue from the harvested tree would then be shared with the …
IN THE last few years, scientists have come up with a novel method to fight pollution called bioremediation, or using biological means to clean up polluted lands and water bodies. It usually involves plants that have been geneticaily-modified to absorb a certain pollutant. Though still in its infancy, bioremediation can …
A TENTH of the world's known tree species face extinction, according to a recently published global survey called the "World List of Threatened Trees". The three-year survey found that more than 8,750 of the 80,000-100,000 identified tree species are on the brink of extinction. This is mainly due to the …
one area of research that has seen tremendous progress over the last few years is phytoremediation, or the use of certain plants to clean up toxic chemicals and elements. To give us a cleaner world, scientists are unleashing the amazing gene genie on these plants, genetically modifying them to fight …
DOES money grow on trees? The plantation companies' advertising blitz had the investors believe that it really does. But that, as an investigating committee of the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) found out recently, is very far from the truth: a huge gulf exists between the "real" profit figures …
The investigation by the committee revealed several surprises, one of which is that in a few cases, even the state governments approved of these companies' tactics. Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, for instance, liberalised their land ceiling acts in the mid-90s to attract plantation companies. The Madhya Pradesh land ceiling amendments …
deodar defoliator ( Ectropis deodarae ), a forest pest has affected about one lakh cedar trees in Naganalli and Mihani ranges of Theog forest division of Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh ( hp ). An area of 60 hectares (ha) of cedar forests in Naganalli and 40 ha in Mihani had …
a microchip is helping people in Japan to deal with a crime wave that has hit the ancient Japanese art of bonsai. Bonsai is a Japanese practice of cultivating artificially dwarfed plants or small trees. Thieves have been stealing beautiful miniature trees that are very costly and take many years …
setting out on the Kudur-Hulikal road in Karnataka one is greeted by a lush canopy overhead formed by banyan trees on either side of the highway: the handiwork of a unique couple hailing from Hulikal village in Bangalore (rural) district. Thimmakka and her late husband Bikkalu Chikkaiah laboured over these …
The pilferage of teak trees in the reserve forests under Maulvibazar range and shed trees in various tea gardens in Bangladesh has caused ecological imbalance in the region. Though the district administration has filed more than 300 cases against nearly 500 offenders, the efforts to stop the felling of teak-trees …
bioindicators such as trees take note of many changes in the environment and will thus soon become valuable recorders of contamination, very convenient for environmental monitoring, reports D K Pandey et al of the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, Uttar Pradesh. Tree bark remains in the environment for many years. …
• Plants control air pollution by taking in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from the atmosphere and releasing oxygen. A peepal tree with a crown spread of 162 sq km releases 1,712 kg of oxygen and absorbs 2,252 kg of CO 2 per hour.• Trees not only mechanically stop smoke …
DEFORESTATION in Pakistan has increased manifold in recent years. Over-grazing, taking over of forest land for cultivation and the increased demand for timber, have led to an increase in logging operations, which has resulted in the forest cover decreasing from 14 per cent to 5.2 per cent of the total …
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ornl) researchers in the US have theorised that mercury in soil gas is absorbed by plants when the plants ' mercury level is low. But when their mercury level rises and the level present in the air decreases, plants release some of their mercury into the …
