Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
Philippines joins CNG bandwagon: Yet another country attempting to switch its public transport to compressed natural gas (CNG) mode is Philippines. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has announced that a bus company, will undertake a pilot project by 2003, which will include 100 buses to be fully fuelled by CNG. Devious strategy …
How did you, a historian, get so deeply involved with deforestation issues? The history and culture of Uttaranchal is directly linked with its forests. I was working on the history of deforestation, and realised that the lucrative business of illegal timber trade is the single-largest cause of deforestation. Unless this …
Plants are available in far-away places; women can't collect them. So we don't teach them our medicines. Gania, Medak, Andhra Pradesh Our generation will have to learn cultivation techniques from experience. There is nothing to go by. Chaturbhuj, Dudu, Rajasthan Plants that were available near the house now have to …
Farmers in Raipur division, Dehradun, have been reaping unprecedented profits from their rocky, infertile lands. But it took Vaidya Balendu Prakash, eminent ayurvedic physician and director of the Vaidya Chandra Prakash Cancer Research Foundation, quite a bit of convincing before they agreed to cultivate medicinal plants in place of their …
The beautiful Valley of Flowers, known for its almost miraculous flower diversity and fecundity, is caught in a strange controversy. The point of contention: is the conservation attempt proving to be the problem rather than the solution? In 1982, the valley was notified as a national park, and livestock grazing …
The hills are alive with tradition. One method killsslashes and burnsthe other is healingand sustains. In the northeast hills of India are found medicinal plants that are treasured for their life giving potential. Tribals use these plants to kill pain and treat diseases. On these hillspeople also practice the age-old …
to protect traditional knowledge from getting stolen by bioprospectors, the department of Indian systems of medicine and homoeopathy (ism&h;), Union ministry of health and family welfare and National Institute of Science Communication (a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research organisation), have launched a traditional knowledge digital library (tkdl). It contains …
To harness its vast herbal wealth, Brazil has embarked upon mapping the huge untapped potential of its medicinal plants. An environmental agency of Brazil said it had created the country's first ever database and research centre for medicinal plants. The agency revealed that Brazil has catalogued 300 medicinal plant species, …
• The Supreme Court recently slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on the Union environment ministry for showing laxity in probing the disappearance of huge quantity of hazardous waste oil from major ports. • The Sikkim Forest Department arrested a person on charges of smuggling medicinal plants from Borong recently. …
the Andhra Pradesh Forest Development Corporation (apfdc) has selected nine herbs and plants for large-scale cultivation.The apfdc is carrying out experimental farming on a few of the chosen herbs like safed musli. Says apfdc managing director S K Das, "Since growing of these herbs requires intense crop management and investment, …
The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of tamarind (Tamarindus indicus) ingestion on excretion of fluoride in school children. Original Source
A river tells its story through its geological history and the life that it supports. Much can be revealed to the discerning observer, as in the case of the Indravati river, which traverses the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. The predominantly tribal population here, whose livelihood depends on this river, is …
The first commercial product from seabuckthorn, (Hippophae sp) has been finally launched in India. The fruit of this plant has high nutritive and medicinal value (A bushful of medicine, Down To Earth, Vol 9, No 21, March 31, 2001) and New Delhi-based Compact International Limited has launched Leh Berry, a …
Rare plants and herbs of the Lingshi dungkhag region of Bhutan are indiscriminately being used for preparing traditional medicines by the Thimphu-based Institute of Traditional Medicines Service (ITMS). The rugged alpine terrain of Lingshi dungkhag is blessed with more than 100 different species of rare medicinal plants and herbs. But …
the Indian system of medicines can take a leaf out of the French experience when it comes to marketing their products. Geographically labelling the medicinal plants used in various preparations, which shows their source of origin, would translate into better business. Not only would it put a seal of genuineness …
By LIAN CHAWIIThe Lok Vaniki scheme, introduced in Madhya Pradesh in 1999, aims at empowering the farmers to manage their degraded forestland so as to derive maximum benefits by selling its produce, including timber. The scheme has already brought about a few changes in the law as well. Under Section …
Memories are interactive. As the country debates over the selling of the public sector Bharat Aluminium Company ( balco ) to a private company, memories bring the Gandhamardan hills in western Orissa into national imagination. Fifteen years ago, the Gandhamardan hills, rich in biodiversity and bauxite equally, were the platform …
