Arunachal Pradesh government is on a dam signing spree. The state has signed seven agreements since May 5 when chief minister Jarbom Gamlin assumed office after the then chief minister Dorjee Khandu was killed in an accident. This has raised the eyebrows of human rights and environment groups who have …
With the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill (BRAI) expected to be tabled in Lok Sabha during the monsoon session, there are hectic parleys going outside the Parliament. On one hand the biotech industry with support from government scientists are pitching for the release of Bt brinjal while anti-GM activists …
Guwahati, the sprawling million plus city of north eastern India has grown at the cost of vital wetlands. While the rich legally bought the water-bodies, the poor ‘illegally’ encroached on them. With major storm water basins in the city disappearing, every monsoon, Guwahati reels under flashfloods. The June 22 police …
The government of India has banned the sale of gutkha and other chewing tobacco products across the country. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued new regulations on August 1, prohibiting the use of tobacco and nicotine in any edible product. Health experts and civil society groups …
How much water should flow in Indian rivers? Hydrologists have been discussing minimum river flows for over four decades now. The churning has resulted in the concept of environmental flow, or e-flow. This implies strategically releasing water downstream of dams and reservoirs to protect the services a river provides. Two …
The all-powerful iron ore mining mafia of Karnataka has hurled red dust into the eyes of democratic India with impunity, and for long. Convinced of their invincibility, the Reddy brothers, along with their mentors and cohorts, have ravaged the state’s rich mines. Between April 2006 and July 2010 the state …
Environment comes first, profits later, noted Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia while ordering suspension of all mining operations in Bellary on August 5. Of the 148 mines in Bellary, only one company can mine iron ore, that too in limited quantity. The state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) …
Mining in India is regulated by multiple institutions functioning at multiple levels to provide checks and balances. In Bellary, however, every department and agency supposed to regulate and control mining simply collapsed under the weight of the “loot”. Bellary, therefore, represents a colossal failure of governance. There are seven ministries …
Raping the forest for ephemeral fashions The alleged rape in Brazil of an 18-year-old teacher by Paulinho Paiakan, chief of the Kayapo tribe, may be seen as symbolic of the rape of the Amazon rainforests using as a lure the theory that marketing forest produce is more economically beneficial and …
Why is the pharmaceutical industry taking such a keen interest in the Pesticides Management Bill, 2008, or PMB, which would appear to be as far removed from drugs as chalk from cheese? The Bill, pending in Parliament since 2008, is all set to be debated in the current session with …
“My major work on the farm is just picking the harvest,” says Raghava with a straight face. It takes some time for the fact to sink in that this young farmer is not joking. One begins to believe him only after visiting his coconut plantation in village Mallanayakanahalli in Karnataka’s …
Recent headlines worldwide reported the US government’s use of a fake vaccination programme in Pakistan for counter-terrorism purposes. Whether the story is true or not, the damage is already done once there is the slightest suspicion that a medical activity like a vaccination campaign may have a motive other than …
A recent paper of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Towards an Emission Trading Scheme for Air Pollutants in India, explores the possibility of introducing a permit and trading system for air pollutants from industrial sources. The scheme operates along the lines of the cap-and-trade mechanism for greenhouse …
IN SEPTEMBER last year, China halted shipments of rare earth metals, crucial for the manufacture of everything from guided missiles and hybrid cars to flat-screen televisions and BlackBerry phones, to Japan over a territorial dispute. It also cut down its export quota for rare earth by 72 per cent for …
Most of us detest weeds. They have a tendency to pop up at the wrong place at the wrong time. They have extraordinary genetic pluck that enables them to take astonishing levels of abuse and rough treatment—the harder the better. Plantain likes to be trodden underfoot. Danish scurvy-grass thrives on …
Put simply, entanglement means two things are forever connected no matter the distance between them once they interact. Physicists, of course, explain it with different words and the concept is considerably more complicated than this definition. In 1935 Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen said, “According to the quantum …
WHETHER taken for severe ailments like cancer or used occasionally for minor pains, painkillers have side-effects. It can be anything from lethargy and constipation to kidney or liver dysfunction. This is the reason scientists have lately turned to nature and are exploring traditional medicines in search of a drug with …
INDIA’S ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY, VOLUMES 1 AND 2, Edited by Mahesh Rangarajan and K Sivaramakrishnan, Permanent Black, Rs 1,850 This reader brings together some of the most interesting writings on India’s ecological pasts. Volume 1 has essays that range from prehistoric India to the middle of the 19th century. Volume 2 …
IT’S been a couple of years since scientists proposed that graphene, the new rockstar of the nano-world, is capable of revolutionising the healthcare sector. The one-atom-thick sheet of carbon can be used as an efficient vehicle to deliver drugs precisely to the target tumour or cancer cells. Its intrinsic optical …
The UK-based Macmillan Publishers has been ordered to pay £11.3 million (US $18 million) for “unlawful conduct” related to its education division in East and West Africa. A London court passed the order after UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) began an inquiry last year following a report from the World …
