Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Jagan Prasad Tehriya Vs State of Uttar Pradesh dated 23/05/2025. The applicant has alleged large-scale illegal felling of green trees within the Agra district, Uttar Pradesh. The application revealed instances of illegal tree felling at Fatehabad, Sadar, Kiraoli and Agra …
India's postal department is going high-tech. In March-April, it will launch pilot projects in Delhi, Madras, Bangalore, Lucknow and Patna to transmit money orders by satellite. Miniature earth stations called Very Small Aperture Terminals will be installed in post offices and linked to a business message network of the department …
COOKING accounts for almost 50 per cent of the huge gulps of energy consumed in the domestic sector. To reduce the pressure on the fast-shrinking reserves of commercial fuels, the ministry for non-conventional energy sources (MNES) launched a subsidy scheme for solar cookers in 1982, making them available at a …
Those who took upon themselves the task of opposing the Dunkel proposals for the Uruguay round of talks have done a remarkable job. A motley band of people with little in common -- except their professed dislike for the Dunkel proposals -- have managed to carry the anti-Dunkel stand even …
Nothing brings more discomfort to modern vice than a scuffing from elderly tradition. Tribal folk performers are now being used by state government-sponsored cultural troupes in rural Andhra Pradesh to campaign against alcoholism. The project was implemented following a statewide ban on the sale of arrack from October 1 last …
THE CHINESE government has been forced to take some drastic measures to assuage the country's long-suffering farmers, who are moving to the cities in droves in search of more money. For one, it has forbidden the construction of new golf courses and horse-racing tracks -- symbols of a "decadent" Western …
THE EXPERIENCE of Kudumbam, a voluntary organisation based in Tamil Nadu's Pudukottai district, shows organic farming is more readily accepted by villagers when propagated by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) than by individual farmers. Kudumbam disseminates knowledge on organic farming through its Tamil monthly, Pasuthalir. With the help of the local …
PASTORALISTS are a vanishing breed the world over. These herders of sheep and cattle have a key role to play in the rehabilitation and sustainable management of fragile ecosystems. India has 34 million pastoralists managing a livestock population of more than 50 million. Apart from producing milk, meat, leather and …
IN MANY agricultural ecosystems, manure is used to provide the nutrients and organic matter needed for soil fertility on cropland. Even where chemical fertilisers are available, organic matter such as that provided by manure is the key to sustainable cropping. Farmers and pastoralists often develop relationships centred around each other's …
VEERAPPAN, the legendary sandalwood smuggler, may be nabbed shortly, but putting an end to rampant sandalwood smuggling in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu may prove considerably more difficult. The ban on sandalwood export, in conjunction with anti-people conservation measures, have seen more and more people turn to sandalwood smuggling, with the …
Sugar mills need to invest only an additional Rs 2.3 crore to generate 1 MW of power, whereas conventional power generation from coal costs Rs 3 crore per MW, reports a task force constituted by the ministry of non-conventional energy sources (MNES). The study has found that India's 400 sugar …
The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has started a 1,300-km yatra (journey) "to bind the valley together" against "destructive development". The yatra is an important step in the NBA's effort to augment the support of the people affected by dozens of dams under the Narmada Valley Development Project, even as negotiations …
AFTER the gut-churning revelations of Let Her Die, a good film on Indian women is a relief. Jhilmili Story, made by K Bikram Singh for the Council for Advancement People's Action & Rural Technology (CAPART), documents the genesis and growth of the Nari Vikas Sangh in Bankura district in West …
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 …
AN INDIAN scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests ordinary tubelights can be used to cheaply disinfect water, especially in rural areas. "It's not as if I have discovered something new," says Ashok Gadgil. "In fact, breweries, bakeries and pharmaceutical laboratories use mercury vapour lamps (such as tubelights) to …
Depredating raids by wild elephants into human settlements have often been reported from Assam. But on August 13, the elephants became victims of a totally unprecedented retaliatory strike: Angry villagers poisoned three adult elephants in the vicinity of the Boronodi wildlife sanctuary in the Bodo-dominated Darrang district. Five other elephants …
A PROSPEROUS belly often signals an impoverished heart. Nowhere is this connection more pronounced than in the characteristic potbellies of Indians, which make them more vulnerable to coronary artery disease (CAD) than any other ethnic group in the world, say researchers. Warns cardiologist K Srinath Reddy of the All India …
• The area being mined has gone up 36.5 times in the past 20 years and as a result, forest cover in the area has declined from 237.8 sq km in 1971 to 127.7 sq km. • In 1971, the entire forest cover of 237.8 sq km was classified as …
IS THE left hand of government truly unaware of what the right hand does? Yes, indeed, villagers of Vasu in Udaipur district would respond. "Otherwise," noted a villager who didn't want to be named, "how else would you explain a junior official issuing a show-cause notice concerning work that was …
IF SHAH Jahan's men were to return today to Makrana, from where the marble for the Taj Mahal was procured, they would have no problem recognising it. Little has changed in the small Aravalli town in Nagore district, which has become synonymous the world over with quality white marble: the …
CONFRONTED with the prohibitive cost of linking remote hill villages to state power grids, the government is pushing small hydro electric schemes as an alternative solution to meet their power needs. So convinced are government experts of the usefulness of these schemes, they have included a total investment of more …
