THE Himalayas are warming at a rate higher than the global average. A recent study documents how this has affected cropping patterns and vegetation in the past 10 years. The questionnaire-based study examined changes people observed between the altitudes of 600 metres and 2,200 metres in the Himalayas. Published in …
IT is a neurotoxin that accumulates in marine organisms and can have serious implications on human health. The toxin, monomethylmercury, is of particular concern to people whose traditional diet consists of seafood. But the source of monomethylmercury in oceans has remained uncertain. It was till now suspected that industries were …
IN THE first week of April, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) oversaw an experiment to monitor, minute to minute, the water quality of the river Yamuna. The two-week trial at the water intake point of the Wazirabad water treatment plant in north-east Delhi was conducted by a private firm …
Bhubaneswar Bindhani has not heard of a UNDP Human Development Report Paper, ‘Migration and Human Development’. It is quite likely the authors of the 2009 report did not take note of the fortunes of this resident of Nuagaon village in Odisha’s Nuapada district when they wrote, “migration fosters development of …
The newly launched renewable energy certificate (REC) market has been witnessing a flurry of activity. Governments, regulators and project developers are upbeat, and the first trading day in March 2011 hit the ceiling price. Though the subsequent session was subdued, stakeholders are optimistic that the new market can quicken the …
Google has agreed to amend its map of the Brazillian city of Rio de Janeiro after the country’s media and city officials slammed it for giving prominence to favelas or shantytowns. When viewed in large format, the map pinpoints several of Rio’s more than 600 favelas. It does not label …
In 1998, Kathryn Bolkovac, a US police officer on deputation with the UN’s International Police Task Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina, was put in charge of a project aimed at fighting violence against women. She encountered a battered young woman who was not from the Balkans. She spoke neither English nor Bosnian, …
BBC will broadcast the death of 84-year-old cancer victim, Gerald, in the second episode of its new series Inside the Human Body, on May 12. Presenter Michael Mosley told the Radio Times it was important not to “shy away from talking about death and, when warranted, showing it”. Programme makers …
Staff at a bank in Uttar Pradesh has been blamed for allowing termites to eat their way through banknotes. The insects are believed to have chewed their way through notes worth some Rs 1 crore. “The branch management has been found guilty of laxity due to which the notes were …
A report of Australia’s premier statistical agency has indicated an interesting link between drug and alcohol abuse among aboriginal people and the loss of traditional languages. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ report notes aboriginal people who speak their mother tongue are less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. The report, …
SCIENTIFIC scepticism is healthy. Scientists should always challenge themselves to expand their knowledge. Yet this is not what happens in global warming scepticism. Sceptics criticise any evidence that supports human-induced global warming and yet embrace any argument, blog or study that refutes global warming. This website is sceptical about global …
AT daybreak on March 11, there was a burst of activity at Litchi Lawn, a corner plot on the sprawling campus of the Pusa Institute in Bihar’s Samastipur district. Workers were uprooting the maize growing in a small patch of land close to the office, intent on finishing their work …
How do you propose to deal with conflict of interest in GEAC? Around three months ago a document called Declaration of Independence was prepared. Scientists who are members of GEAC were asked to sign it. The declaration states that a scientist can take decisions independently. If a GEAC member is …
IT is just a 12-member body but the Agricultural Group (AG) of the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE-Ag) must be about the most powerful lobby groups in India. Among the dozen companies are the world’s largest biotech companies— Bayer BioScience, Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto, PHI Seeds—and a clutch of rising …
THE Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, or MoEF, has given final clearance to the POSCO steel project in Odisha. While doing so, it ignored the forest rights claims of people living in the project site in Jagatsinghpur district. The gram sabhas of two of the seven affected villages—Dhinkia and …
POVERTY is becoming hereditary in India, at least for a sizeable population. That is the conclusion derived from a three-decade tracking of poor households in rural India. A survey by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), an international association of researchers and academicians, claims that those who are chronically poor …
IN A tactical shift in position, India agreed to a global consensus to ban endosulfan at the recent Stockholm Convention, but asked for exemptions to continue using the pesticide at home for at least five years. So far India had been resisting the ban on the grounds that scientific evidence …
INDIA’S first pilot project to be recognised under the UN’s mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) could be in the East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya. A watershed project, started jointly by a California-based non-profit and a tribal community in 2005 in the northeastern state aims at checking …
THE national vaccine policy draft, submitted in the Delhi High Court recently, strongly favours inclusion of new vaccines in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). The court had sought the draft from the Centre last year in a case against introduction of new vaccines. It will hear the case next on …
RIGHT to property is a Constitutional right. The Supreme Court said this on April 18 dismissing acquisition of land by the Uttar Pradesh government near Greater Noida. The judgement has stirred a long-standing debate over property—whether the State has the supreme rights or the individual owner. The judgement was in …
