The National Biodiversity Authority has released a new set of rules to manage sharing of benefits generated through the use of biological resources. The Biological Diversity (Access to biological Resources and Knowledge Associated thereto and Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits) Regulation 2025 was approved by the Central government and …
representatives of 180 countries are preparing to discuss the significance of traditional knowledge systems and their role in conservation and use of resources from May 4 to 16 at the Slovak capital of Bratislava. It is expected that the rights of indigenous communities
On his interest in this subject: Since childhood I have been observing trees, insects, birds and animals. I was interested in doing my Ph D and since nature has always fascinated me, I decided to work on the village biodiversity ecosystem. On the advantage he had over other researchers: I …
Sacred groves in India, including the Himalaya, have been affected by population growth and development pressures, but Himachal Pradesh is an exception. Sacred groves, called devta ke jangal (the forests of the gods) in this state, include all types of vegetation
Looking for solutions to a problem that has not even been identified properly is like hunting for the snark. Nobody has seen a snark and no one knows what it looks like. But common sense suggests that some measures could prevent aggravation of the situation. First, there is a need …
On the most barren and denuded mountain in the lower Himalaya in Uttar Pradesh, one can observe a patch of trees at the top and a shrine or a temple. Garhwal and Kumaun
WITH changing values, increase in population, development pressures and apathy the part of government departments - many of which did not give the concept due merit - sacred groves are fast deteriorating. If steps are not taken to stop their decline, these microcosms will disappear from the face of earth, …
" medicinal Plants for Survival" was the theme at the International Conference on Medicinal Plants held in Bangalore from February 16 to 19. The conference was organised by the Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (frlht), a Bangalore-based non-governmental organisation (ngo), and was held at the National Institute …
today, western science is contrasted with superstition and the occult, and scientists with primitive people. Western science is even contrasted with the sciences of ancient Indian and Chinese civilisations as if oriental science existed only in the past; and as if western science has not derived anything from them. Western …
THE relatively new field of ethnoveterinary medicine, which is establishing itself as a serious discipline, has far-reaching implications for the well-being of livestock in the developing world. Ethnoveterinary medicine is the knowledge possessed by non-literate cultures with regard to animal health and disease that is passed on in the form …
THERE is euphoria at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the New Delhi-based government institute, over the decision by the us Patent and Trademark Office (US PTO) to withdraw its patent no 5401504 for the use of turmeric powder as a wound-healing agent on August 13. The move …
The governance systems of India - bequeathed to us by the erstwhile colonial masters which we embraced with great eagerness - are today in a state of deep crisis. The British built bureaucracies to control and manage India's natural resources and to deliver a variety of services like education and …
The latest Western celebrity to seek the East's heating touch is British billionaire and father-in-law of cricket icon lmran Khan, Sir James Goldsmith. The healer is the renowned metal therapist based in Dehra Dun, Uttar Pradesh,'Vaidya Balendu Prakash, who is treating Goldsmith, 64, in Paris for cancer. The cancer, that …
PYROMETALLURGY, or the process of producing iron, was introduced in India around the second millennium BC. The Harappan people were not familiar with iron, although they made artefacts from copper and bronze and jewellery from gold and silver. Production of iron and steel is mentioned in the Rig and the …
on agricultural productivity in India before the imposition of the British system: Sketches and descriptions of tools give us an idea of productivity in agriculture and seed varieties in previous centuries. According to data collected by the British, agriculture productivity was quite high around AD 1800. In the journal Edinburgh …
THE home-made concoction that cured your stomach ache may soon be unavailable. More than 150 of the known species of medicinal plants in India have already become extinct due to unsustainable methods of harvesting and many more face the threat of extinction. The loss is great because in India, even …
Indigenous is the byword in the water harvesting techniques followed in India's northeast. In Meghalaya, an intricate network of bamboo pipes is used to irrigate betel leaf or black pepper crops in rocky areas where no channels can be built, a practice which has been raised to a sublime level. …
A. The quick and the dead Human pressure, lack of research and shrinking forests coupled with a thriving international trade in wildlife threatens to turn a zoologist's Garden of Eden into a poacher's paradise on november 25, 1996, Vietnamese Premier Vo Van Kiet issued a dire warning to his audience …
The present century has seen very few discoveries of new mammalian species. Of the four discovered so far, Vietnam itself accounts for three. In the 1990s, two new species of big mammals
With Vietnam slowly opening up to Western scientists in the last decade, numerous organisations have been vying with each other to study the country's flora and fauna. After Ho Chi Minh ousted the French in 1954, Vietnam's leaders closed the country and its forests were effectively locked to outsiders. Even …
