Feature Article

Land-cover changes occurring before 1800 are often ignored in the estimation of CO2 emissions, probably because they are poorly documented in most tropical countries. India appears to be an exception to this rule. It was possible to reconstitute the main stages of the land-cover history for a large region of South India, and therefore to retrace the dynamics of CO2 emissions during nearly 1000 years. It was then possible to demonstrate that 25% of the total emissions occurred before 1800, and are mistakenly considered as more recent emissions.

Our earlier studies reported development of transgenic strawberry for salinity stress and standardization of transformation protocol. In view of the projections of global climate change and their implications on the ability of strawberry to adapt to such changes, we extended our studies to know the possible role of such transgenic plants in contributing to
sustainable strawberry production and also made some basic studies to analyse the behaviour of osmotin (transgene)/in vitro-regenerated transgenic strawberry plants.

The article reviews and summarizes the climate change mitigation and adaptation work undertaken by ICRISAT. The effects of climate change are already being experienced in several parts of the world. Even though the effects of climate change will be felt over all kinds of agricultural production systems, they will be more pronounced in dryland areas

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitous atmospheric constituents of both anthropogenic and natural origin. VOCs are important precursors of tropospheric ozone (O3), and can impact air quality and global climate. Most of primary VOCs and their oxidized products makeup a major fraction of secondary pollutants in urbanized regions. Due to fast reaction rates mainly with the hydroxyl radical (OH), the VOCs control the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere. Measurements of VOCs are important to study the photochemical transformation, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Pakistan is ranked fourth among the top five cotton-producing countries in the world. About 70–80% of the cultivated
area is under Bt cotton in Pakistan. Bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) is the major pest of cotton. It causes 31.73–
36.45% yield losses and these are reduced by heavy pesticide application. There has been a tremendous increase in
the import and use of pesticides. Consequently, about 7.7 billion rupees is spent on pesticides every year. Considering
the total pesticide usage (94,265 metric tonnes in 2007–08), 70% is being used exclusively on cotton.

Controversies related to Indian trawlers crossing into Sri Lankan waters of the Palk Bay have repeatedly been the subject of newspaper headlines in both India and Sri Lanka since 1990. The first aim of this paper is to provide grass-roots insights into the post-war status of the north Sri Lankan fishing population and how their recent recovery has added a new dimension to the Palk Bay conflict. The second purpose is to create a better understanding of the nature of this conflict and to analyse the relevance of existing and proposed governance responses.

Handloom is much more sustainable than common views and standard government policies recognise. Instead of a linear migration out of weaving into other forms of livelihood, weaving communities show a more strategic mobility - flexibly departing from and again returning to weaving, depending on circumstances. This mobility can be traced in weavers' discourses about their vulnerabilities and aspirations.

A huge amount of capital is being invested in multi-specialty hospitals in Maharashtra which take advantage of the Public Charitable Trust Act, 1950 and avail of tax waivers and land concessions. However, the mandatory benefi ts to poor patients in lieu of these waivers are totally ignored. There should be an investigation into this social and economic crime and the loss to the exchequer should be recovered along with penalties imposed on these hospitals.