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, …
THE WORST fears of the people living in the Thar Desert are coming true: Hoppers -- new-born locusts -- that could not be eliminated by pesticides, have formed mature swarms in the westernmost parts of Jaisalmer district. The locusts have now taken wing in search of green food, and havoc …
With the desert locust infesting an area of 30 million sq km in 66 countries and constantly migrating over political boundaries, multilateral contact between countries for locust control is unparalleled. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation is at the hub of efforts to combat the locust -- probably the only …
The Netherlands has three levels of governance -- national, provincial (12 provinces) and municipal (650 municipalities). The national government determines environmental policy and the ministry of environment sets objectives and guidelines for provincial and municipal authorities who draw up their own environmental plans. These are reviewed every two or three …
THOUGH Moeen Qureshi is only interim prime minister of Pakistan, he has dared to challenge the wealthy and influential landowners of the country by imposing a wealth tax on agricultural income. This is something that former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto did not dare to do, fearing a …
The Union government claims it has found a way to protect the interests of Indian farmers in the ongoing Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). For some time now, the Centre has faced the ire of the farmers, who strongly protest the clause in the …
BANGLADESH'S second largest waterbody, Beel Dakatia, once a 31,566-ha tract of flourishing agricultural land and balanced ecology, has been flooded with brackish water for the past decade. A dyke built to contain the 24-km-long and 16-km-wide waterbody, as part of an ambitious coastal embankment project, is to blame for choking …
WHERE do used aeroplane tyres go? Well, at least some of land up in the most unlikely place: the Rajasthan desert. Tyres that once helped giant flying machines to land and take off are being used on camel-carts to transport fodder and water in the desert. The virtual absence of …
THE POPLAR trees that the Bareilly-based match manufacturer, Wimco, persuaded area farmers to plant is causing much heartburn. The farmers allege that Wimco, sensing a wood crisis in the 1970s because of felling restrictions in India and Nepal, tried to get land from the Uttar Pradesh forest department to raise …
ISRAELI potato growers have dug in for a fight to the finish against McDonald's of Big Mac hamburger fame, which is due to open its first outlet in Israel outside Tel Aviv in autumn. McDonald's says it wants to import frozen fries because irrigation has made the wholesale prices of …
THE INDIAN National Congress -- the political party that led the country to independence -- had as its election symbol during the 1950s two bullocks, to symbolise the relationship between animal draught power and Indian farming. But now, under the impact of agricultural modernisation, that relationship is now changing. A …
KHEJRI (Prosopis cineraria) is nature's best gift to the farmers of Rajasthan and Haryana for it not only thrives in drought conditions and in poor soils, but also encourages the growth of crops planted near it if its lateral roots are pruned (Changing Villages, Vol 12, No 1). Scientists at …
THERE are some in India who believe that the Dunkel Draft (DD) would lead to a reduction of subsidies paid by developed countries to their farmers and this would help agricultural produce exports from India and other developing countries. They are the victims of an illusion created by the DD …
WITH ITS long, angular body, supple spine and cleat-like claws, the cheetah can chase down a car, speeding at over 115 km an hour. But its specialised aerodynamics are also precipitating its extinction. Take, for example, Namibia, which has the world's largest cheetah population, but where the species has declined …
With commerce minister Pranah Mukherjee and commerce secretary A V Ganeshan both indicating the government was veering around to the pro-Dunkel point of view, its opponents have become worried. The Karnataka Rajya Ryot Sarigha (KRRS), the most prominent critic of the proposals, said it would try to persuade opposition members …
FOR THE first time in many years, Ethiopian leaders are talking of self-sufficiency in food, buoyed by UN forecasts of a record harvest of 7.7 million tonnes of cereals and pulses this year. Such a crop would reduce the country's need for food aid by 50 per cent. The world …
THERE are indeed some Indian farmers who favour Arthur Dunkel's draft proposals for the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT). Six thousand of them gathered on March 31 outside the Red Fort in Delhi, on the very ground where more than double that number of anti-Dunkel farmers had staged …
FARMERS are exploiting a loophole in the European Community's new common agricultural policy, which grants them crop subsidies to leave their land fallow so as to reduce oilseed production. But many of these fields in UK will shortly turn a greedy yellow as they would have been planted with rape …
THE SEEDS sowed by Arthur Dunkel are beginning to sprout discord. Farmers are split on the merits of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) proposals to patent plants and genes. After initial hostility to the Dunkel draft, some farmers now say it's good for them. First, there was …
On multinationals: Agriculture is the only field where India can assert its sovereignty. Multinationals will fleece Innocent farmers. Plant breeding is the prerogative of farmers and we will not allow privatisation and'com- mercialisation of agricultural research. On whether India should integrate with the world economy: I want a khadi curtain …
On the aim of his agitation: Our broad objective is to accelerate the movement towards a freer economy and an open society. We are against state intervention in agriculture and so-called subsidies because the Indian farmer is taxed, not subsidised. Thus, our rally is not a counterpoise to Tikait's. On …
