Farmer-breeders are an unsung tribe. In far corners of the world, farmers study the seeds they use, experiment with them, do simple back-crossing to improve yields and taste, and quite often come up with winners. Some farmers are geniuses when it comes to improving their seed and introducing simple but …
The joint committee set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to enquire into the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of the Forest Rights) Act, 2006, came out with its final report in December 2010. The report …
The average human spends three years of his or her life in the toilet. The filthy streets of Europe are thought to be the reason for the sudden popularity, in the 17th century, of high heels. The poet W H Auden allowed his guests only one toilet paper a day. …
The book under review comes in the wake of the launch of the National Solar Mission, which intends to use grid-connected solar power to meet its ambitious target. Till recently, solar energy was considered a roof top option both for power and heat. Integration of solar power into the national …
The US government is spending millions of dollars developing technology to help prodemocracy activists in West Asia, Africa and China. Washington has begun to open up about the projects, which include a “panic button” that lets protesters wipe their mobile phones if they are arrested. State department official Michael Posner …
A boriginal people in Western Australia and the mining giant, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), are involved in a tit for tat for controlling land in the Australian state. The latest salvo in the two-month battle is the use of videos. The mining company wants access to land in Pilbara for …
As night fell on April 14, the lawns of the American Academy in Rome twinkled with candles. They represented an exact replica of the stars that would have been visible on the same day in 1611 when Galileo Galilei first demonstrated his telescope to scholars on a Roman hilltop. Four …
To win the trust of people of Pakistan, USAID is allotting US $20 million to the Lahore-based Rafi Peer theatre group to create an Urdu version of the children’s show Sesame Street. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit which owns Sesame Street, is collaborating with the theatre group. Newsweek Pakistan quoted Imraan …
A rianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer, cofounders of Huffington Post, sold the popular American website to Internet services and media company, AOL, in March for US $315 million, prompting a group of bloggers to file a $105-million lawsuit against Huffington Post and AOL. The suit is led by Jonathan Tasini, …
THE “about us” section of http://mother-earth-journal. com describes it rather modestly as a citizen journalist project in the US. The content on the site can scarcely be called modest. For one, a rather nononsense home page has articles on mercury toxins, a feature on the Gulf of Mexico, a year …
Fear of submergence haunts Kurturu, a village nestled in the Papi hills of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh. In 2005, a band of officials, an unusual sight in this remote village in West Godavari district, visited the place and marked a rock. Then they broke the news about the …
400,000 MAY BE DISPLACED The environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project says 276 villages will be affected; an estimated 177,275 people live in these villages. The Polavaram Project Environmental Impact Appraisal Report of 1985 expected 150,697 people to be displaced in 226 villages. But the population of these villages …
HOW much does a bundle of tendu leaf cost? The question has left the government scratching its head as it prepares to introduce minimum support price (MSP) for minor forest produce (MFP). Once fixed, MSP promises to increase the incomes of forest dwellers as it would take into account the …
IN A landmark amendment to the law governing Maharashtra’s water regulatory system, the state has placed agriculture above industry in priority for allocating water from dams. Before the amendment of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) Act 2005, Maharashtra was the only state in the country to have given …
UNION agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is rooting for endosulfan just before the fifth Conference of Parties (COP) of the Stockholm Convention meets in Geneva in April-end to decide the fate of the pesticide. There seems to be a pattern in Pawar’s resistance to banning endosulfan. Replying to a question in …
WATER resources and planning may shift from the State to the Concurrent List of the Constitution. The Ashok Chawla committee will make this suggestion when it tables its report before the Cabinet in June this year, sources say. The committee was set up in February this year to draw a …
WITHIN six months of its implementation, the Integrated Action Plan (IAP), intended to boost development in Naxalite-affected regions, is heading for a change. At present, the plan is being directed by district-level committees with no public participation. The Planning Commission wants to alter this arrangement by imposing conditions on release …
THE Mizoram State Pollution Control Board has asked the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to suspend exploratory drilling for flouting environmental norms. The state-owned oil giant ONGC started drilling operations at a place about two kilometres from Meidum village in Kolasib district in February though it did not have …
THE Delhi government plans to set up a Waterbodies Authority for proper restoration and maintenance of lakes and wetlands in the city. The proposal to bring all waterbodies under one umbrella came up at a recent review meeting of waterbodies’ restoration work. Currently, lakes and wetlands in Delhi are under …
A group of over 25 scientists, bureaucrats and activists released a statement on April 19, demanding transparency in India’s nuclear power programme. The statement was released a day after a clash between policemen and those protesting the proposed nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra. One person was killed and …
