Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Nabin Kisan Vs State of Odisha & Others dated 15/05/2025. The matter related to discharge of wastewater by the municipality of Belpahar on the applicants land. The affidavit filed by the District Magistrate, Jharsuguda, May 14, …
rice tec inc, the us seed company that sent shock waves across India by staking patent rights on a particular variety of basmati rice at the us Patent and Trademark Office, will not be able to pull the same trick on Thailand. Thai farmers have pledged to protect Khao Dawk …
Under a unique two-year distance education programme drawn up by the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore, farmers in Karnataka, from June 1 will have an opportunity to enhance their knowledge about farming as well as learn about new farming technology. It is for the first time that any agricultural …
The Punjab government has ordered a probe into a series of suicides by small and marginal farmers and landless workers in Sangrur district of the state. This decision was taken by Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal after a Chandigarh-based human rights group, Movement Against State Repression (MASR), found that …
by being a member of the World Trade Organisation (wto ), India has agreed to provide protection to plant varieties through patents or an effective sui-generis system or by a combination of the two. Trade related intellectual property rights (trips) of the wto do not insist upon the protection of …
Several farmers in Sri Lanka have committed suicides in recent times largely due to crop failures. Most of the cases have been reported in Hettipola, nearly 80 kilometres from Colombo, which has probably highest suicides rates in the world. Most of the areas in Hettipola have been converted into parched …
ginger cultivators in Mizoram are facing rough weather as the state government has backtracked from its promise to buy all cultivated ginger. In 1995, the state government in its bid to promote ginger cultivation, had promised to buy back all ginger if only farmers cultivated it. The government's promise encouraged …
Despite their long history and their prominence in the local diet, potato yields of small Andean farmers are generally low. This is largely due to pest and disease-related losses. Intensified potato production, less reliance on local species and varieties, and the indiscriminate use of pesticides has resulted in a high …
The National Human Rights Com-mission (NHRC) has asked the Andhra Pradesh government to submit a report regarding mass suicides by cotton farmers in the state. Recently, P Pullarao, a resident of Polavaram, Andhra Pradesh, and also an agriculturist, had lodged a complaint to NHRC about suffering of farmers in the …
Is our quest for better food creating aliens hostile and powerful enough to overwhelm the environment? In our desire to create an apple without a wormhole are we about to upset nature's apple cart? These are genetically modified organisms (gmos): a tomato with a chicken's gene that can sit on …
A genetically engineered organism or a transgenic is one in which genes or the hereditary material which determines the characteristics of the organism is transferred from one organism to another through artificial means, either within species or between species. Genetically modified products are those that are obtained as a result …
Rapeseed was given a dose of genes to induce lethal stomach upsets in beetles and other pests feeding upon the leaves and stalks of other plants. The genes were supposed to produced protease inhibitors, proteins which scramble the process of digestion by interfering with enzymes in the intestinal tracts of …
One of the major decisions taken by the Convention on Biological Diversity (cbd), which came into force in 1993,when over a 100 countries ratified the Treaty, was to work out a foolproof biosafety protocol. Even though Chapter 16 of Agenda 21 of the cbd document deals with the 'environmentally sound …
Organic foods are big business in the us. Since 1991, food sales have jumped 20 per cent annually, reaching US $3.4 billion in 1996, projected to grow to $6.5 billion by the year 2000. Land under organic crop cultivation has more than doubled since 1991 and organic dairy sales are …
l European activists, on a destructive binge, destroyed genetically altered crops wherever they could. In August 1997, an experimental crop of oilseed rape, owned by the US-based biotech corporation Monsanto, was destroyed by local residents at Tibs Hall Farm, Kingsbury, UK. The crop was uprooted and mixed with
Should gmos be banned or should caution be exercised in their introduction into the environment? If so, the need of the hour is a strong law to protect countries of the South. The us has already set the precedent by banning transgenic cotton resistant to the pesticide bromoxynil. The us …
To kill a caterpillar a virus was given a scorpion's gene. It was to take on caterpillars that fed on cabbage. The virus escaped beyond the trial area and acquired a taste for other delicacies and happily slaughtered many other non-target species, many on the protected list. To make matters …
on january 12, farmers gathered in large numbers in Multai in Betul district, Madhya Pradesh, demanding compensation for crops damaged by severe rain and hailstorms. Unable to disperse the crowd, the police opened fire without warning, killing 19 and injuring around 500 people. Described as "more gruesome than Jallianwala", the …
