Typical agriculture sectors like animal production and processing, aquaculture and its processing, and fruit and vegetable processing, can be water-intensive and generate complex and sometimes severe pollution. Controlling pollution hinges on knowing its quantity (wastewater and solid waste volume) and characteristics (major pollutants and their concentration range, nature of wastes, …
ENVIRONMENTAL groups in the country took resort to the law after the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) failed to prevent the Orissa government from going ahead with the controversial fishing jetty project at Talchua in the Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary. Recently, in response to a petition by the World …
The Barents Sea recently became the epicentre of a major showdown between Norway and Iceland. In a dramatic assertion of their country's fishing rights in the area, Norwegian coastguard vessels cut free the nets of 4 Icelandic trawlers and fired a warning shot at another off Spitsbergen island. Although the …
OVERTURNING traditional theories on the natural production of methane, a major component of natural gas, a team of US researchers now says that metals such as nickel and vanadium present in the sedimentary rocks where natural gas is formed, facilitate methane formation. Till recently, it was widely believed that methane …
The local fishing community around Chilika continues being terrorised by a mafia bent on silencing popular discontent against the infiltration of outsiders out to mint gold by farming prawn in the lake, Asia's largest brackish water lagoon. The Orissa government has yet to show an inclination to protect the people's …
SCIENTISTS have established beyond doubt the efficacy of inorganic fertilisers in helping mop up oil spills, an idea suggested over 2 decades ago. Although nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers had been shown to encourage, in the laboratory, the action of microorganisms capable of breaking down oil, the technique when applied to …
INTERPOL, the international police body, has declared war against perpetrators of "crime against children". For the first time it has included the issues of child pornography, sex tourism, prostitution and the sale of minors in its international agenda. The organisation aims to "expand the exchange of information", says Anne Kristin …
RUSSIAN archaeologist Yuri A Mochanov of the Russian Academy of Sciences claims that he dug up in Siberia stone tools resembling those found in Africa. They are 3 million years old, suggesting a Russian genesis for Homo erectus (Science, Vol 263, No 5147). Although the tools have been dated at …
"GOING green" has turned out to be a risky proposition for paper producers in Europe, who have invested heavily in a pioneering technology that is totally chlorine free, in a bid to please their environment-conscious customers. Chlorine, normally used as a bleaching agent, is also a heavy polluter, adding toxic …
TWO mathematicians from Dublin's Trinity College have found a new solution to the age-old conundrum of how to pack a given space without wasting it. They have designed an object that has broken a 107-year-old record for the most efficient filler of 3-dimensional space. The problem of finding identical objects, …
Despite the $900 million settlement won by the Alaskan administration after the Exxon oil spill on March 24, 1989, residents of Cordova are still up in arms for a fair court hearing. The Cordova fisherfolk blame the oil spill for a sharp drop in salmon catches over the past two …
NOT ONLY are chubby babies adorable, scientists now say they are less prone during adulthood to disorders such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. Recent studies indicate that the nutritional status of the developing foetus and that of the infant in the early stages of growth have an …
RECONCILING the provision of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and farmers' rights is legally impossible, admits GATT chief Peter Sutherland in a recent article published in the Indian media. Farmers' traditional rights include their rights to use part of their harvest as seeds for the next season …
HOW did humans acquire intelligence? Two competing theories have attracted a lot of attention. One holds that the complex social relations among higher primates provided a key driving force; the other asserts that it was the complexities involved in obtaining food. Recent evidence indicates both pressures may have been equally …
THOUGH floods cannot be wished away, they could soon be whisked away. A group of British computer experts is trying to model river flows so as to predict the best way to control flooding (New Scientist, Vol 141, No 1907). When a river spills over its sides, some of the …
A CHEMICAL used originally to kill bacteria in drinking water is now proving extremely effective as a male contraceptive. S K Guha, who is a professor at the biomedical engineering department at the Indian Institute of Technology and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, both in Delhi, and his …
AN AQUATIC army of American origin has invaded the Black Sea and is wreaking havoc on the fisheries there. Small jellyfish-like, tentacled creatures called ctenophores arrived there in 1982, hiding in the ballast waters of a ship travelling across the Atlantic Ocean. They lay low and reproduced, emerging in full …
CHINA and the US have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enforce the UN ban on drift-net fishing in the North Pacific. The MOU is the first of its kind since the ban came into force on January 1, 1993. China has agreed to allow the US coast guard …
THE BANGLADESH government has said the ecosystem in the southwestern part of the country is threatened by the excessive diversion of water from the Ganga at the Farakka barrage, 19.2 km from its border, writes Mustafa Kamal Majumder in a Panos report. The spokespersons say the flow of the river …
MORE THAN 36 tonnes of highly toxic chemicals are stored even after their date of expiry in the godowns of the Agriculture Inputs Corp at Amlekhgunj, in central Nepal. The Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) says these pesticides were supposed to be burnt in the kiln of the Hetauda …
WITH SUPPORT from the Ethiopian government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are implementing programmes to create environmental awareness among the people to counter deforestation that has reached crisis proportions in the mountainous country. The central Ethiopian highlands, which support more than 78 per cent of the population, have been virtually deforested by …
